Holidays - a great excuse for self indulgence

No photos for fear of breaking copyright law... see the links below...

Al and I have had a great day in downtown Calgary. I was so disappointed that we had missed the exhibition Experimental Art and Culture at the Calgary Art Gallery (it finished a couple of days ago - just my luck) but actually this was no bad thing as they were completely closed for exhibition change and we were forced to go to the Glenmore Gallery and Museum - where we were lucky enough to see the Joe Fafard exhibition of sculptures.
We took the (free) audio guide and Aliya listened to every entry - we found the works amusing, disturbing, beautiful, complex and were in awe of the techniques.
We then (had a drink of course) went to the hands on make your own art (ARC discovery room) - Al did a water colour landscape (Fafard was a farm boy) and I had a go at a pastel drawing of a horses head (he loves his horses and cows!) and we watched a video of him discussing his work.
Comment to say with me - 'If you go into your studio and you say to yourself "I don't have any idea of what to do." Then you should leave the studio straight away.' Creativity should be a natural process and not a struggle, it should be a joy that comes from you and isn't forced out of you, then I guess it is pure pleasure.
Of interest might be the upcoming Sew City: a community project for mending and making May 23 & 24th and the Celebrating Quilts May 1 - July, 2009