bus bbbusss buuuuus bbbb bbusssss

New levels of interaction.
This skytrain goes underground too.

 

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=49.263809,-123.215866 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

Circles close

Evening down town, and I eventually caught up with Annabel for a delicious organic coffee and spelt scone at Genes (Annabel's very good at locating excellent coffee shops, I've found). 

Lovely to hear about the remaining 3 weeks of La Commune after I'd left Banff, and see photos of everyone's work at a subsequent open studios and final group  residency exhibition. Hopefully these connections will continue to grow and paths interweave. 

Yesterday I was talking to other artists, at the IVSA reception, who had met (UK/Canadian connections) at a Banff program a few years ago and continue to collaborate with occasional residency opportunities between continents. The conversations continue.

http://blip.im/g/6w 

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=49.257839,-123.101379 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

So that was one circle closing, and the other was my tradition of Chinese food and trying a new kind of tofu (crispy rolls) to begin a circle new. I remembered arriving in the city (2 weeks and 2 days my stay will have been) and wonder how different my journey here may have been if I hadn't been put off by my heavy bags from going and finding a Chinese restaurant to 'land' when I first got off the greyhound dragon bus, and mounted the sky train.... Nice to close this way this circle, and know that it will open or close many more to come.

 

Leaving the island...

http://blip.im/g/6c

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=49.194122,-123.954498 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

Travelling West

The loop back...

4 days on a bus, an artist's book written, a wizard's book begun,

pages of rhymes and riddles found, some solved, a dozen or more colour grids with texts, photos and sound recordings - and most of all, what I came here for by overland, a chance to

revisit and to refresh, renew, some familiar places, some slept through.

I like the travel by bus.

And several days of green and revitalising open space made up for the couple of 'numb bum' inevitable aches that creep in now and again!

 

No wifi...

Drawback of cabled internet: no wifi for phone. So the traces and tributaries of the journey from Manitoba to Toronto, crossing beautiful Ontario forests and skirting lakes, will have to wait to be uploaded another time.

Probably just as well, as i have another plan for it so this avoids uploading them twice. Also just as well as there's a serious need to spend a few days (or more) catching up on other work that just didn't quite come into the picture when the opportunity for this journey began!

Interactive Routes: East and West

Tracing the journey and revisiting the trace. What are the patterns of space and time that interact during the experience of travel, overland, from the Rockies to Toronto and back again to the West coast?

How might these be documented, traced, interwoven, re-visted, re-presented?

Spaces of Thought: Where Do You Go To When You Go There?

Studio installation taking form:

Light and Dark, first impressions and topsy turvy time!

Banff light on Saturday afternoon

Snow on Sunday morn!

It does feel like a different time zone.

In fact my first impressions on arrival yesterday early afternoon were quite different to when I've travelled to Canada before.

The first time it struck me that I'd travelled all this way to the other side of the earth (almost) and yet it felt so much the same - earth, rocks, trees, and in fact a very young landscape (geology, tree lifespan, farmed and built environment) in comparison with Britain. That was eleven years ago.

The second time, last year, was all about journeys, routes, and people. timelines stretched over space. Visits, meetings and wedding lines stretched over the space of human time.

This time, it strikes me how different the planet must be in so many places all at once. It has been the most beautiful, luscious spring I ever remember this year. And commuting between the West Country, Midlands and Yorkshire Dales I have really ravished enjoying every moment of it unfold. Beltaine used to follow when the May blossom (hawthorn) blossomed. And in the South West it is several weeks ahead of the Dales, yet behind the central London area, and of course it varies with height, wind exposure, direction, incline of land....

Here the spring hasn't really arrived. The winter had just about left, though this morning I look out to powder filled skies and snow falling steadily on the ground! And arriving yesterday I had this real sense of people buzzing from place to place on the surface of the earth like bees (overheard snippets of countries visited near and far). And each place on the earth has its season, is bound within it's sunrise and sunset. Each place holds a rhythm of earthly time, in a way by which we no longer do - as we slip from one dimension into the next. The earth feels small and delicate, specific and finely tuned.

The light here is different. Although the land is very brown and trees still bare, the light rings the edges of the clouds and the patterns seem clearly defined.

I didn't expect to feel that sense of boundedness, yet here enclosed in the mountains, even the water in the swimming pool feels different. Very soft, very fine, but to move through it requires much more consolidated effort than before. The air is pure and free but thinner too. Is it altitude I'm feeling or the properties of this place, the effect of jet-lag and a busy lead-up to my trip, or something more about this journey I'm on?

Reflective time, before the program begins tomorrow. A slight apprehension - what is not yet known. How will they be, these people with whom 3 weeks (and more) will pass? And will the snow continue to obscure the light?

Time slips strangely from one hour to the next. Emails, blogs, photos, clocks, tell different stories of time from, in and to different places. And I slept exhausted after my swim. Only to find unexpected waking time when the fire alarm summoned us from our beds for 2 hours of the night. No good to sleep then. Now it's morning so maybe I'll swim again, sleep again, and see what the time says when....

More about the journey here, and plans and preparations and whispers in the wind over the past 6 months since I first heard about and applied for this program, at the 'Parent' warp and woof: jackiecalderwood.blogspot.com

Colour Grid 1000037

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.09679,-114.043892 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

Things I see here are:

Dry looking brown landscape flat and recovering from winter 
but the clouds' edges are white
and curving patterns clearly defined in sky and land

I notice:

Calgary on the horizon

The colours in this grid are like:

The new landscape I just arrived in

Colour Grid 1000035

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.158676,-0.167609 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

Things I see here are:

Rows of airplane seats, my yellow jumper and lots of people squeezing heir belongings into limited space

I notice:

My peace, excitement, space and White light in between

The colours in this grid are like:

A transition point between here and there, now and then. I'm flying - the airplane will be soon too

Colour Grid 1000033

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.060604,-2.079854 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

Things I see here are:

Dark night reflected in the train window

I notice: The smell of warm rain after a long dry spell, on fresh spring earth

The colours in this grid are like:

Order, sequence contentment: a job well done :)