About Me - A Biography of Sorts

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post a bit about myself. Feel free to ask questions, too.

I am an Ojibwe or Ahnishnaabe artist living in Edmonton, Alberta. Having grown up in northern Manitoba, I gained an appreciation of nature and spent much of my free time drawing and experimenting with various media. In my early adulthood I began to explore painting, and eventually developed my own style of Woodlands artwork. I enjoy the freedom of the abstract style and creating images with sharply contrasting colors or smooth blends. I have also been inspired by Inuit soapstone sculpture and folklore. I'm actually inspired by a lot of stuff, but mostly nature.

Northern Canada inspires much of my work. As a child, my family often went on fishing excursions, woodcutting, and explorations of Canada's pristine wilderness. I self-studied animals in great detail by reading every book I could find at the local library as a child, and have a great love for birds. In recent years and thanks to COVID, I've gotten into hiking and camping with my husband. We really enjoy checking out new places and being in nature instead of just skimming the surface as one often ends up doing when just driving or traveling. I still love traveling though, and seeing new places and learning about the history and culture of the people living there.

I have painted for over 20 years now, and sold artwork to locations across the globe and have participated in various art shows in Alberta and Manitoba. I prefer to sell my art individually so I can enjoy meet the people and hear about what they like about my art, but I enjoy the virtual modes as well.

I live with my husband, Lyndon, and my black cat, Maho, in Edmonton, Alberta.

Life is not a static thing, neither is a blog. Kintsugi project to fix broken pottery

Not sure if you're a regular of this blog, or if you've binge-read a whole bunch of posts. But I've been looking through my old posts and fleshing out the stories within them, and adding updates, photos, and videos that I've created that fit along with the blog page themes.

So, if you have read the blog a long time ago, you might be interested to go re-visit some of the old pages. Think of it like a virtual Easter egg hunt. Except without chocolate.

A few years ago I traveled with my sister to Mexico for a week. We had a great time, and I bought a couple of pottery bowls. Unfortunately when I got home, one of the bowls had shattered into a number of pieces.

Upset, but not deterred, I decided to fix the bowl. I read online about kintsugi, the Japanese method of fixing broken pottery to make it useable again, and creating more of a one of a kind piece than before. The word translates to "golden joinery." I think they use nails to actually fix the pieces together and real gold, but I didn't want to try anything that detailed.

The neat thing about kintsugi is that it sometimes is considered a bit fashionable, and I read about some people/potters that would purposely break their pieces just to fix them and create a unique piece.

So, I bought some good glue, and gold paint. Not real gold paint, and it's probably not food safe, but I used it anyway. I decided I would not put the bowl in the dishwasher and it would be used more as a decoration.

I started by gluing the pieces together, and then adding the paint to finish sealing the pieces and fill in the gaps where the pottery had turned to dust.

Piece by piece, the bowl came back into shape. I was pleased with the final result, as it has a handmade look mixed with the handmade painting. A bit rough, but I wanted it like that.

It's now a cool decoration in the living room, and I use it for chips and other non-liquid foods. The other bowl is still intact, and is one of my favourite bowls for making my morning oatmeal with.

After finishing, I also ended up making another small fix on a small Japanese cup decorated with a cherry blossom that I had inherited from a friend a long time ago. The handle had broken off, and so I glued that back on. It turned out pretty good.

You never know what you can do until you try.

What do you think? Have you used kintsugi to fix a broken item? Would you try to do it, too?

2021...some reminiscing to start it off about Safaris in Tanzania

I imagine most people are hopeful that 2021 will be a better year. I am too. Supposedly the vaccines are on their way, and people in high risk places are getting vaccinated. That's a good thing. I am looking forward to when my turn finally comes around.

Like most people, I haven't been traveling since all the travel restrictions and lock-downs have occurred. I am grateful that the majority of my life hasn't really been affected. We don't really go out that much, but I miss going out for a nice meal once in a while. And I can still get out and go for walks, which is a nice bonus. I also miss being able to travel. We talk about where we're going to go first when we can travel again. After visiting family back in Manitoba, of course. And it'll be a while before I feel comfortable flying on a plane.

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since I was in Tanzania with my sister. We went there to participate in a medical mission in a rural area. It was great. I made sure we got there with a few days extra to go on a safari of some of the popular parks. I also really wanted to visit Ngorongoro Crater, where you can see just about every African animal you would want to see.

I also made a few videos of our tour:

Ngorongoro Crater

My sister and really enjoyed watching a wildebeest giving birth. I couldn't get good footage of it, but it was pretty amazing. Our guide was patient enough to wait until the calf got up on its own feet, ready to face the world.

We also saw three rhinos, which was pretty amazing. And we got caught in a rainstorm. Some of the tracks were pretty muddy, and our driver used his vehicle to help push a stuck vehicle out. The drivers really impressed me with how skilled they are at driving in difficult terrain.

Lake Manyara

We never spotted any of the famous tree-climbing lions, but we saw lots of elephants, giraffe, and baboons.

Tarangire National Park

I remember getting eaten alive by the tsetse flies! Make sure you bring bug spray if you visit. As far as I know the ones here don't carry sleeping sickness. I really enjoyed spotting a Secretary bird striding through the tall grass, looking for snakes to eat. And part of my lunch was stolen by a sneaky monkey! My sister bashed it in the face with her lunch box!

If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend taking a few days to tour the parks. You're pretty much guaranteed to see something neat!

While we were on the medical mission, we also toured the nearby village of Terrat and surrounding areas. Like in much of rural Tanzania and Africa, it's common to see people herding their livestock down the roads. I managed to capture this close encounter with cattle and sheep and goats.

Hope you liked the videos! If you have any questions about what the medical mission was like I would be glad to share more info - leave a comment.

New Blog! A blog about being an Ojibwe artist

So I have started my very first blog. I have been meaning to start one for quite a while, and have wanted to write about my artwork, as well as the things that inspire me in life.

Currently my profession allows me to travel to various areas of Alberta, some places which I would never visit normally, so I would like to share some of my thoughts about these places.

I am an aboriginal artist based in Edmonton, Alberta. I am Ojibwe, and was born in Thompson, Manitoba, so I have a great fondness for northern Canada: boggy places, skinny trees, sunsets, and ravens. I started painting almost 10 years ago now, and enjoy it immensely as it is a good way to relax.

I love the abstract element of the Ojibwe or Woodlands style, as when I painted in a "realistic" manner I found I could never get things absolutely perfect.

I sell my artwork on my website, http://www.ojibwe-art.ca and on Etsy: http://www.taibossigai.etsy.com and the profits from my artwork is donated to various causes that I believe in - mostly The Nature Conservancy and Edmonton Humane Society, but also other organizations too.