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Features
March 1, 2003
Why is it many seem to think because I report
weather I must therefore love everything about
weather and the seasons, especially winter?
Is it because I have a lot of fun when I'm reporting?
That's true. I do. But fact is...I HATE, LOATHE
and DESPISE winter with every cell of my being!!
(Am I making myself clear?) It is cold, dark,
bleak, hard on your soul, hard on your body,
your bones, and too darn long! Maybe it's my
age. I have a very dim childhood memory of liking
the aftermath of a vicious two or three day
storm. (Yes it is true, we did have storms in
Newfoundland that lasted two or three days.)
I liked the calm and quiet of it. The streets
would actually disappear under a blanket of
virgin snow, people would not stir until they
were absolutely sure it was over. (Why shovel
if you had to shovel again in a few hours?)
That's when I liked to go out. All you could
hear was the arctic wind whistling. I think
I had some sort of snow suit, something the
wet could not penetrate. I'd climb on something
high and imagining myself to be Evil Knievel,
jump into the huge mountains of fresh snow around
our property. Then, like a miner I'd burrow
through them or turn them into snow forts. Yes,
when I was eight or ten I liked winter. Of course,
having school closed frequently by storms didn't
hurt either.
Now, as a full-fledged enemy and 'hater' of
winter I look for ways to avoid the blue funk
it is possible to slip into at this time of
year. For example, I believe bright colors help,
especially tropical yellows, blues, greens,
and reds. My house interior used to be on the
dark side so we brightened it up by lightening
the walls. Recently we had big windows installed
to let in as much light as possible. There's
sunlight practically all day long on the back
of the house so that's what we really concentrated
on opening up. (Uh oh...I'm starting to sound
like one of the Designer Guys aren't I?) Well,
anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that I've
found something that works for me.
Parties and spending pleasant winter evenings
with friends helps as well. Two of my good friends
recently had a 'beat the winter blahs' party.
It was great. They had lots of nice, interesting
people, lots of food, and refreshments. She
also had the house full of fresh flowers. I
thought that was a nice touch. After that I
decided to create a little winter diversion
of my own. I love fine art. Every so often,
when I can afford it, I'll buy a piece to cheer
myself up. I'm focusing these days on very colorful
works. It is part of my plan to surround myself
with anti-winter light and color. I know an
amazing new artist named Jason Jenkins. Not
long ago we decided he would do a food theme
painting of my kitchen. Part of the plan was
to include me working with the food. My idea
was to have lots of colorful ingredients on
the counter top to help create a work that complied
with my new attitude. A few weeks ago we had
the posing session.
Jason and his girlfriend Sera arrived with
camera, tripod, and enough film for a re-make
of War and Peace. After clearing out
my local supermarket's fruit and veg department,
I strategically arranged these ingredients around
my work station. I must say, by the time I was
finished balancing melons and hanging bananas,
my counter top looked like a cover display for
Gourmet or Bon Appetit. The game
plan was simple. I would cook while Jason took
pictures and afterward we'd all sit down to
a nice hot meal accompanied by glasses of warming
Spanish rioja. The shoot went very well with
the exception of one minor glitch. I have performed
under many pressures over the years but I found
having a 35mm Olympus focused and clicking on
my cooking somewhat distracting. At least, that's
the excuse I am sticking to for almost shearing
off the top of my left thumb during a frenzied
demonstration of my not unimpressive knife skills.
I have a very thick wood cutting board that
I place on top of the counter. My favorite chef's
knife is a Henkell I have been using for years.
It balances nicely in my hand and when it's
sharp I can slice or dice an onion so fast it's
like watching Edward Scissorhands in
fast forward. However, on this night when the
cold steel was a hair's distance from the root
end of the onion I was slicing, I broke concentration.
My thumb strayed where it had no business being
and...CHOP!! I very casually excused myself
claiming it was nothing more than a paper cut
and went straight for the first-aid kit in the
bathroom. I was bleeding like the proverbial
stuck pig and Jason was only on his third roll,
only sixty pictures taken! Geez! I tried everything
to quell the bleeding. I even applied the white
styptic pencil I use for shaving nicks. The
problem was, this was no nick. I had unintentionally
removed a piece of my digit.(Ouch!!) Finally,
after applying a thumb band-aid with tourniquet
pressure...the glistening red Niagara stopped.
I returned to the shoot...er kitchen...calm
and collected and resumed my chopping as the
shutter clicked and clacked. (I wonder how Naomi,
Linda, and Elle handle this kind of pressuire?)
This time there was no showing off.
Later we all sat and enjoyed a meal of chicken
and peppers (see recipes section), fresh bread,
and garden salad. It was like a scene from a
Hemingway novel. It was sunshine food served
with wine made from grapes ripened on the hillsides
of Spain in that glorious Spanish sunlight.
The conversation was about art and philosophy
and the meaning of life. In the background the
CD player was cranking out sultry jazz by the
recent Grammy winner for Live in Paris,
Diana Krall, among others. It was a perfect
way to spend a winter evening and forget, for
a brief time anyway, about the howling chilled
winds outside.
I spoke with Jason recently and he told me
the painting is coming along nicely and that,
so far, he's very happy with it. He's also getting
a kick out of the idea of his food painting
displacing a couple of framed Mary Pratt reproductions
that hang in my kitchen. (One features pomegranates,
the other a cantaloupe.) In fact, he's thinking
about calling his piece 'Move Over Mary.' It's
all in fun mind you. He has the greatest respect
for Mary and her work. I do as well. She is
a wonderful painter, one of Canada's best.
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| Eviscerated Chickens, Mary Pratt (courtesy
AGNL) |
Speaking of Mary Pratt...I think it was partly
due to her food paintings that I got turned
on to food and cooking in the first place. I
remember being a neophyte art lover and seeing
many of her early oil paintings at the Art Gallery
of Newfoundland and Labrador in the seventies.
It was high realism. She painted mundane objects
like raw 'oven ready' chickens, cooked herring
on a plate, a table set for breakfast with boiled
eggs in their cups, ready for eating. They were
things we all see and make use of every day,
but somehow she managed to take them to another
plane, to give them an ethereal quality. Her
paintings made food and cooking seem like an
exotic pastime, or, at least to me they did.
You won't be wasting your time if you ever
get an opportunity to actually see some Mary
Pratt originals. In fact, seeing quality art
of any kind is a good thing to do, a real tonic,
especially at this dreary time of the year.
For example, not long ago I visited Jondandy,
a gallery in Toronto owned by my artist friend,
David Goveia. David is one of the most respected
high fashion make-up artists in Canada. He has
worked on models like Naomi Campbell and movie
stars like Cameron Diaz. Several years ago he
felt compelled to start painting and has developed
into as fine a painter as he is make-up artist.
David's Jamaican roots inform his art. His paintings
are incredibly bright and warm. Not surprisingly
he loves to paint his impressions of beautiful
women. His women have big eyes, full lips, and
perfect noses. Their faces are wreathed in colorful
patterns and shapes. His paintings are fanciful
and fun and I defy anybody to come away from
a showing of David's work without feeling their
heart and soul warmed a little. They are a perfect
antidote to winter.
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| An Original Goveia, David Goveia (courtesy
David Goveia) |
Here's another antidote, if you will, to winter.
Plan a vacation in the most tropical place you
can think of. It could be Nassau or Paradise
Island in the Bahamas, Maui, Cancun, the Keys,
or Papeete. Just pick a place and start planning
a trip there. What? You can't afford a trip
to Papeete you say?...Well, neither can I, but
that's not the point! This is the point...Although
an actual trip would be lovely, there is a long-lasting
benefit to be had from just PLANNING such a
trip. There may even be studies to back this
up for all I know. From my experience I can
assure you that doing things like getting a
map and finding Papeete on it, searching for
information about the place in books or on the
net, (http://www.papeete.com),
learning a bit about the culture, the food,
the beaches, and anything else you can think
of will make you feel less deprived, less desperate,
and much more likely to survive this winter
with at least a modicum of your sanity intact!
And here's something else to keep you going...On
Friday, February 2, 2003 our beloved Canadian
groundhog, Wiarton Willie, in the presence of
such luminaries as Miss Canada International,
Lorenza Sammarelli, did NOT see his shadow!
That means, dear friends, we are going to have
an early spring! Yippeee!!
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