a visit
July 25, 2010
Drinking my coffee in the rainy coolness of the porch this morning, I sensed movement beneath my chair and looked down to see a streak of pale gray fur. At first I thought it was Cleo, since she’s slender and pale gray as well, but then I caught sight of her in my periphery, crouching at the top of the porch steps, glaring. And look over here at who was cowering under a chair in the corner of our porch!
An adolescent possum, still small enough to seem cute (everything is “cute” so long as it’s small, right?) but already on the verge of ugly with its long, ratty snout and dangerous claws and that horrible pink-skin wiry tail. I’ve seen baby possums, suckling-age, and they’re truly adorable, like mewling wobbling newborn puppies, their faces still flat and womb-crinkled. But that was in Georgia, and possum families aren’t all that common around here.
We never used to have possums in Ontario at all, not until around ten or fifteen years ago. The first ones came across the border from the States clinging to the bottoms of trucks. That sounds like a story you’d tell kids just to pull one over on them, but it’s true. I always used to imagine a great escape, a daring and adventurous young possum from a foreign land setting out from home, rucksack in hand, to make the dangerous trek to a new life in a new country. I’m sure the truth is more likely that they’re up under a truck for whatever reason and surprised there when the engine starts (like kittens who climb into engines for warmth in winter and wind up getting smooshed in fan belts), then cling to whatever they can for dear life until the truck stops moving and the terrified possum drops to the ground and bolts for safety, suddenly finding itself in Canada. Still, a storybook worthy journey, perhaps.
I gently shooed this little lady off while Claire held Cleo at bay (not that Cleo posed much danger; at 20 years old she knows her limits and might not even remember the hunter she once was). Here’s the wee wet thing, scuttling back out into the rain.
Posted by jodi on July 25, 2010 at 9.26am
camp project
July 13, 2010
Our big yearly camping trip takes us to an incredibly nerdy place, one we’ve been going to for so long it feels like a second home. Our idea of camping is pretty luxurious, with sprawling pavilions and real beds and places to hang our clothes and a shower with hot and cold running water that we assemble and disassemble each year. Our fancyass shower setup also provides hot water for dishwashing, which we’ve always done in a couple of plastic bins set on a platform that’s backbreakingly low. This year, as our contribution to camp luxury, Peter and I are building a proper height countertop dishwashing station with double steel sinks, which will drain directly into the sump hole (no more carrying heavy bins of dirty dishwater!).
We started with a set of double sinks (not pictured) purchased at the Habitat for Humanity store, and a nice big piece of plywood.
Our new countertop with a hole cut for the sinks, all sanded and stained a beautiful blue (we’re kind of in love with this blue stain right now and are using it on everything, including our bedroom shelves, a table we recently rebuilt and our wooden tent poles).
With that all ready it’s time for the important work. You might think the important part is the plumbing, or building a frame to support the thing, but that would be silly! That stuff can all be done at camp. The important part is decorating the thing with heraldry. Naturally.
Very Important Heraldry Placement.
Tracing the pheon template.
Painting them purple.
Pheon painted and with a carved outline, ready for clear coat. Oh, and plumbing and all that.
Posted by jodi on July 13, 2010 at 1.51pm
jethro tull at caesar’s windsor
July 1, 2010
June 19, 2010.
Posted by jodi on July 1, 2010 at 10.43pm
the sweater factory
June 17, 2010
11am to 5pm daily, June 14 to 25, 2010
406 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario
as part of Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation, an initiative of Windsor-based arts research collective Broken City Lab.
The Sweater Factory is a trial run for a project I’ve been talking about doing for a while. Old sweaters are unraveled and knit on a machine into a long panel from which pattern pieces will be cut; these pieces will be sewn together on the serger to create new sweaters, which will be given away to visitors at the end of the project.
The first two days were taken up with setting up and getting to know the new knitting machine, which I hadn’t managed to get out of the case and try out before beginning the project (whoops). Now that we’re friends, new fabric is pouring off the thing at a pretty good clip, although the varying weights of the sweaters being recycled makes necessary constant little adjustments to tension. I hope to stop knitting and start sewing by the end of the weekend. Due to the short time frame and the summer heat, I’ll be making sweater vests instead of full sweaters (so far most of the visitors to the project who’ve been really excited about the prospect of a free sweater vest have been artists and various other types of nerd anyway, so striped sweater vests could become our NERD UNIFORM). The last few days will be devoted to hand finishing (ribbing!) and giving vests away.
Posted by jodi on June 17, 2010 at 9.29pm
demolition
May 23, 2010
Yesterday we tore the back porch off our house. The plan was to dismantle it back to just the support framework, then carefully remove the 4×4s that hold up the roof while one of the kids stood just out of getting-crushed range with the cellphone to call 911 in case the supports Peter built last week didn’t hold and the whole thing came crashing down off the house onto our heads. But then at some point while we were recklessly pulling the last few boards off, we realized that in fact the porch was so rotten out that Peter’s supports were already the only things holding the roof up. And they held, and it didn’t fall on our heads! So that was exciting.
Halfway.
No porch!
I thought about putting a DO NOT EXIT sign on the inside of the door, because I’m that paranoid (and this is the door we leave the house from most often). Turns out nobody in the house but me is forgetful enough to accidentally almost walk out that door anyway. Even the cat has figured it out already, and stood at the side door waiting to be let out this morning, instead of the back. As for me, I’m probably going to wind up on my arse out there at some point, because I am a creature of habit.
The porch had a clumsily constructed planter box built into it next to the steps which, as it turns out, was full of good soil all the way down to the ground. And all this time I’d been growing nothing but weeds there! Here’s the little ant farm I found when I pulled the side of the box off:
I filled three buckets and a Rubbermaid tote with good potting soil out of that thing, and there’s still a great heap of excellent topsoil from the very bottom that I left for another day. It’ll be quite useful once I’ve sifted all of our house’s former owner’s cigarette and chocolate bar wrappers out of it. Argh.
The view out the back door this morning, with our old porch piled up against the back fence. Which clearly also needs to come down.
And looking a little to the left of there: notice how different our yard looks from our neighbour’s. I keep telling myself that as long as we’re seen making improvements every year then it’s clearly a work in progress, all of our neighbours will recognize it as such, and we won’t be THOSE SLOBS. Someday we are going to be those slobs with the beautiful property. For real.
Posted by jodi on May 23, 2010 at 9.39am
don’tcha think
May 8, 2010
The only photo I took today at Windsor-Essex Change Camp. Which was a blast, a wealth of great ideas and passionate people AND I may have found a place to direct some of my volunteer energies that has nothing! whatsoever! to do with the arts community. At the end of a long week fraught with conflict in the world of artist-run, it was much welcome to hook up with the people who can get me a place at a different table, being part of a conversation about a community initiative that has long been only a passive interest. Stay tuned.
I’m going to write a post soon (soon, I mean it) about some of my upcoming summer projects both big and small, arty and dorky. Some of them are quite exciting! Others, maybe not. We shall see. But for now, here’s one new little project that Peter and I started this morning with the goal of making the world a better and less irritating place in a subtle but important way:
Removing misuses of the word “irony” from Wikipedia entries.
I created an account (This is not irony) and made my first edit before heading out the door for Change Camp: an entry on the Clash song “Train in Vain” (you might need to click through to the flickr photo and view full size to read it):
Not-irony free:
Definitely an improvement.
If anybody wants to help out with this project, let me know and I’ll send you the password. Because the gods know there’s a lot of not-at-all-ironic stuff going on out there, giving real irony a bad name.
Posted by jodi on May 8, 2010 at 6.04pm
upward
May 5, 2010
Posted by jodi on May 5, 2010 at 8.56pm
all done with the slice and dice
December 18, 2009
I’m only showing half for now, but the other half is basically the same save for a few spots we had to leave unfinished in order to avoid some skin that hasn’t quite finished healing from my spilling boiling water on myself a few weeks ago while draining some lasagna noodles. Trust me, you don’t want to see that anyway, it’s Grody with a capital G.
This piece was designed to commemorate my tubal ligation, with Queen Anne’s lace flowers (an abortifacient) arranged to resemble the altered plumbing in question. Directly across from the little W, a corresponding loop of vine cradles a Q, for the name I always planned to give my daughter (after Miss Quentin Compson); the W is for the long line of ancestors named William that my Granddad used to say had gone unbroken since Hastings.
Giving the ladyparts the snippety-snip was my first time ever in the hospital, and I learned that apparently the sleepy drugs turn me into someone who thinks she’s incredibly funny but is actually some kind of Xander Harris-type schmuck. Upon waking after surgery I was confronted by two people staring down into my face, and the first thing out of my mouth was “are y’all done with the slice and dice?” (answer: yes) followed by “I guess it’s too late to change my mind then, eh” (answer: also yes). To which the nurse said brightly “I can’t believe how wide awake you are!” with a look that said “oh DEAR GOD SHUT UP”, and then I’m pretty sure she slipped me something to shut me up because I went right back to sleep. And woke up in recovery, rubbernecking at the dude on the next gurney over and desperately trying to see around the curtain so that I could catch his eye and give a “hey, we made it!” wave. Then I heard him ask, why is it warm? to which a nurse cheerfully replied, it’s because you peed! And I was glad he couldn’t see that I was awake and listening. And also glad I wasn’t the one who peed.
Posted by jodi on December 18, 2009 at 12.57pm
365.365: celebration time!
December 15, 2009
This is my LAST PHOTO EVER for the 365 days project. I have been over this project for a while now, but had to see it through until the end. And the end is today, y’all! I’ll do a recap later, put up a few of my favourites from the year and talk about my experience with the project and how I think it may relate in some way to the crushing creative block I’ve been trapped under all year. But for now, let me just revel in the done-ness.
More celebration yet to come: tomorrow’s my birthday, and in the morning I’m getting up bright and early and taking the Greyhound bus to London to get a new tattoo on my belly. It’s a special one, commemorating a recent giant life-changing event that I didn’t even mention here because blogs are pretty much over, right? Anyway. I’ll show you my tattoo, at least. For now, here’s the drawing:
Posted by jodi on December 15, 2009 at 9.49pm
ON CROSSING opening reception
November 10, 2009
Courtesy of Peter Zimmerman, here are a couple of photos from On Crossing, my two-person show with Jessica Mills that opened on November 6 at the Windsor Printmaker’s Forum.
It was fantastic having Jessica here, in a my-two-separate-lives-colliding sort of way. I wish I’d had more time to show her the wonders of Windsor, but we did manage to hit a few highlights: Artcite, an assortment of my favourite bars and restaurants, the Lebanese bakeries along Wyandotte Street, and several dilapidated buildings and skanky Walkerville alleys. I think she liked it here.
Posted by jodi on November 10, 2009 at 11.58am
