Hedge Society

And to all a good night...

  

Out the west coast window of Hedge Society Central.

 

Sometimes I hear them...

 

Da Vinci Landscape with Crows
© 2007 Lori Goldberg

I saw this painting at the Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver a few weeks ago. There are a lot of crows where I currently live and I've been trying to look at them differently over the past few months. Less Poe and Milton. Something else. I don't know what yet.  I like how the artist saw crows not as the traditional tricksters but as helpers.

Goldberg has a strong connection to crows. She feels they have helped her both emotionally and technically.

“When my daughter died twelve years ago at 10 months old, I would walk the streets in an altered state, grieving a deep loss and the crows would just be there landing in front of me or dropping stuff at me or swooping down at me.

It was like they knew and they were trying to bring me back from the depths of my pain and make me become more present. It worked.”

source: Grab News: Art Unfolding: featuring Painter Lori Goldberg by Rod Drown

While looking at this painting I had pieces of this poem running in my head. The crows, the painting, and Clifton's words remind me that there are those who may be experiencing the kind of extra heaviness that these long dark days of winter can bring. I hope part of that heaviness could be winged and beautiful.

sorrows
by Lucille Clifton

who would believe them winged

who would believe they could be

beautiful         who would believe

they could fall so in love with mortals

that they would attach themselves

as scars attach and ride the skin

sometimes we hear them in our dreams

rattling their skulls         clicking their bony fingers

envying our crackling hair

our spice filled flesh

they have heard me beseeching

as I whispered into my own

cupped hands       enough not me again

enough       but who can distinguish

one human voice

amid such choruses of   desire

2010 Calendars 11-13: Printable Calendars

Many of our favorite calendars were sold out before we had a chance to blog about them. We'll have to start earlier next year. That's one of the reasons we love printables. If you have a good color printer or a place to get these calendars printed, they are in your hands after clicking on a few buttons. If only pie was this easy. Pie is not easy as pie.

Calendar 11: Irene Nam - free

from a journal by Irene Nam lives in Paris with her husband and two sons. She has made this printable calendar available for free to her readers as a thanks for their support. Hop on over, because there isn't enough hopping in the world, and pick up the PDF file.

 

 


Calendar 12: e.m. papers: Creative Inspiration - $7.00

This clean, modern and typographically bold printable 2010 calendar provides monthly inspiration for the creative mind. Quotes include thoughts from Buckminster Fuller, Brenda Ueland and Ray Bradbury to name a few. Easy on your ink cartridges, and your time, just download and print this letter size calendar. The names of the month change color throughout the calendar.

e.m papers has three other printable calendars available and an assortment of cards, gift certificates, and tags.

 

Calendar 13: littlebrownpen: petit paris: printable mini calendar - $5.00 USD

"Twelve original images of Paris assembled into a petite printable calendar. Print as many as you like, as often as you like, for personal use or gifts."

 

littlebrownpen also has a fun video showing how they created their perpetual paris calendar:

2010 Calendar 10: Sandra Juto

More lamination! To hold in all the goodness that is Sandra Juto's illustrations. One pocket calendar is $4 or get all 8 for $25.

 

2010 Calendar 9: Sub-Studio

Sub-studio: Ooh-la-la the design and ah-ha the lamination from someone who enjoys laminating a lot of things. Holiday Tip: don't try laminating your Christmas leftovers. Not that I tried that. After a lot of eggnog.

For $4 you can choose one of 24 proverbs and a color scheme. For $5 you can create your own saying. Something like "Don't laminate the yams." might work. (via papercrave)

2010 Calendar 8: Athertonlin's Stand Up Straight

The site says it best:

Our 2010 wall calendar, STAND UP STRAIGHT, is almost more storybook than stationery item.

The watercolour illustrations look like they come from a children's book, but the themes are more grown up, such as ennui or getting the hots. Starting with a New Year's resolution — to stand up straight — we follow the six nameless characters through 12 months of letter writing, music mixes, childhood fears, old stereo equipment and perhaps a parallel universe.

 

Athertonlin Stand up Straight
$16.50 USD

This year's calendar measures at 297 mm high x 230 mm wide, printed with vegetable-based inks on heavy matte 100% recycled paper. It is spiral bound and ready to hang. Our London-based printer is a co-operative organization that uses renewable energy.

2010 Calendar 7: Year of the Tiger Kitty

I am not a fan of cats. I'm fairly allergic and I think they know this. A cat that is avoiding everyone else for miles will seek me out for attention. I once had a cat chase me around a dining room table. All in good fun until I am the one scratching my own red and weepy eyes out.

If I did enjoy cats, this would be a good calendar.

 

Year of the Tiger Kitty
$15 USD

16.5 x 24 limited edition, silk screened poster
signed and numbered

2010 Calendar 6: MoonTree Press

I've been paying attention to bridges of all kinds since hearing Wordsworth's Upon Westminster Bridge in a Grade 8 English class. "This City now doth like a garment wear/The beauty of the morning" -  bridges of every kind revealing the possibilities of what could be on the other side waiting for us.

I love the spare lines making the shape of the Brooklyn Bridge - a reminder of a city that is etched in many of our minds whether we have visited or not.

MoonTree Press: Brooklyn Bridge
$20 USD

2010 Calendar 5: Ink and Wit

This calendar has been mentioned in quite a number of places and with good reason. Look how lovely:

 

INK+WIT 2010 LETTERPRESS CALENDAR
No. $42.00

Inspired by my travels this year in Iceland, England, France, and throughout the United States. / limited edition of 150 (numbered) / size: 6w x 11t / 7 prints to frame either as 6x6 or 5x7 / available with white cotton ribbon ready to hang (can also be pinned to a tack board with thumbtacks or tacking pins as seen in images) / concept, design, and illustration by Tara Hogan.

December: Selected Links of the Week

Things We Saw and Read and Heard, Things that Go Bump in the Night:

Friday's Final Word: via Red Clover Literary Studio

Machinarium: Fantastic looking online game with little robots so I'm happy (via @feliciaday)

Video of police interrogating a photographer in London: Scary stuff. Maybe there are other places to visit. (via @spacing)

NFB: Three animated shorts heading to Sundance. Love the pencil drawings in Rains. (via @theNFB)

The Woxy.com Holiday Mixer

McSweeney's: An Open Letter to the Illegal Amphibian Inhabiting our Suburban Pond

Yes, Nice - Blindfolded - a new CD recommended by @88ways

Jillian Tamaki - Illustration for a David Sedaris Piece via @sampaints

Films: An Education, The September Issue