January 2013 Photo a Day – Street

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. views of my street, neighbourhood and city during different seasons

It was my first day back to work since the holidays and by the time I got home it was already dark. Consequently I wasn’t able to take new photos for today’s theme. Luckily I have a pretty large file of photos. Some of them were taken from my bedroom window at different times of the year and others from the front door and one from the car window.

Spring

The street below looking through the blossoms of the crab apple tree.

Summer

The CN Tower while driving along the Gardner Expressway.

Pedestrian bridge at the mouth of the Humber River

Autumn

View of the street below through the autumn leaves.

The gravel road we take on our daily walks.

Winter

The view from our front door after our first big snowfall this winter.

Walking the dog. On our way home.

To see more amazing photos following this challenge go to Jeanne’s blog….a nola girl at heart.

January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge – Mine

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. I found this subject particularly challenging

My whole life growing up I heard my mother and father say that what’s mine is yours. When I married, my husband and I had a similar philosophy but I did notice that he (my husband) did have some things that he considered exclusively his. As I got older I realized that if anything happened to my husband I could be in trouble because I owned nothing in my own name. We bought the house together, our cars were in both names, the insurance was in his name, and all the credit cards were in his name. I had no line of credit to speak of and if I needed to get my own car insurance I wouldn’t be insurable because I’ve never had my own.

All that has changed. I have my own line of credit, my own credit cards and my car is in my name. Apart from photographing my credit cards, I wasn’t sure what else I could take pictures of that were exclusively mine. My husband of 37 years? After thinking long and hard I decided to share some of my art with you. It’s what I love to do. I am very much an amateur but my students consider me an artist. Enjoy!

Abstract monoprint 5×7

Opposites Attract – mixed media, on paper, 16 x 20

If you want to take part in this challenge check out Jeanne’s blog….a nola girl at heart.

A Word a Week Photo Challenge – Clouds

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..whether it be cirrus, stratus or cumulus, clouds make great subjects for photographs

For more photos of clouds check out Sue Llewellyn’s blog A Word in Your Ear.

Movement

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….Day 5 of the January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge

Today my husband, sister, brother-in-law and I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the Frida & Diego show. This exhibition features more than 80 works on paper and paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and more than 60 photographs of the couple, whose shared passion for each other and Mexico’s revolutionary culture during the 1920s and 1930s have made them Mexico’s most famous artists.

The exhibition was wonderful but the entire time I was thinking about how to come up with photos that expressed movement. The moment came when we moved on to see the Penny exhibition in the same building.

Evan Penny is a famous Canadian sculptor based in Toronto. His figures are composed of layers of colour pigmented silicone, hair, fabric and resin. They come across not only as realistic but also as highly artificial. He likes to use distortive techniques; often presenting an otherwise life-like portrait bust in skewed proportions or in an odd colour scheme.

One of his pieces is a stretched distorted bust of a girl that literally seems to move across the wall. This is not a camera effect but the actual sculpture.

Evan Penny’s Panagiota: Conversation #2, variation #1, 2008, 274 x 71 x 15 cm
silicone, pigment, hair, aluminum

We took a break between the two exhibitions. I tried to convince my family to give me some action shots. This was the best I could get from my husband, K. He looks like he’s about to fall out of the window to the street below.

K, hamming it up for the camera. Gotta love him!

To join in or follow the January 2013 Photo a Day challenge check out Jeanne’s blog…a nola girl at heart.

Cheers!

The View From Here

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. day 4 of the 2013 January Photo a Day Challenge

Today’s challenge was to take a picture of wherever you happen to be, today. On our daily walk I decided to experiment with the panoramic setting on my new camera. I braved the cold and the wind to get these shots. Unfortunately it was very grey today and the city in the distance is barely noticeable.

Panoramic view of Toronto. This is what I see when I walk to the park 100 feet from my house and face east.

This is the view at the bottom of my street, looking south towards Lake Ontario.

I love looking toward the city. I’ve often thought that I should take pictures every day so that I can document how the view changes with the different seasons and weather conditions. The view at night is stunning.

If you want to take part in the challenge go to Jeanne’s blog…nola girl at heart.

January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge….Heart

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…… I love snow so the theme of ‘heart’ inspired me

It’s been snowing almost daily since Christmas Day. Today on our walk as I was thinking about the theme “heart” I realized that my husband and I met 40 years ago this month. Wow! I tried to etch a heart in the snow but there wasn’t enough contrast so I outlined the heart with my red scarf.

Enough snow fell to cover the windows of the car so before I cleaned them I decided to draw another heart.

I started a new hobby this new year. I’m not sure where I’m going with this but I love the simplicity of it. I bought a die cutter for gift tags and smaller ones to cut fancy shapes into the tags. One of them is a heart. My daughter over at Uschi and Kay uses these simple tags in a lot of her DIY projects and in December she held a workshop on tips for fun ways to wrap gifts.

Die cutter for gift tags and a heart punch.

If you’d like take part in the January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge click on the following link:

Jeanne’s blog…a nola girl at heart. The themes for each day are outlined but you’re free to be creative and interpret the theme any way you like. Have fun!

Cheers!

A Good Start to the New Year

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. I finally got around to continuing with the clean-up and reorganization of my bedroom

In the summer I posted pictures of my messy room and then thoroughly cleaned and reorganized one half of it. It was this half that I took ‘after’ pictures of. I had good intentions of getting to the other half before I returned to work in September but there was always something better or more pressing to do. I also spent a great deal of the summer at the cottage so ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as the saying goes.

The ‘after’ picture back in July.

Unfortunately once I was back at work there really were more pressing things to do, like keeping up with this blog and preparing lessons. As Christmas approached, my room became the dumping ground, once again, when we needed to quickly find a place to put things when guests were coming. My room also became a safe place for gifts and it turns into wrapping central.

As a result, my goal to tidy and reorganize my room was put on the back burner and as a result all the good work I had done in the summer was no longer evident. I had to start all over again.

Hard imagine that it actually got worse than this.

It’s not finished but I am feeling better about my accomplishment so far. The Christmas wrapping paper and ribbon are organized and ready to go back into the basement to be stored until the next festive season, 11 months from now. When shuffling through my stacks of paper I found a Christmas gift that I forgotten to wrap and give to my friend, L, and I found my lost ownership papers for my car. Bonus!

I started to reorganize all my crafting and painting supplies that I know I will use. The challenge will be going through bins of supplies that I haven’t used in years and pack them up and get them out of the house. When I finish here I will be returning to my room to tackle more unfinished business. Maybe I can get in a picture or two of my ‘new space’. Don’t hold your breath.

I’ll bring you up to date tomorrow on my progress.

Cheers!

A Word of the Week Photo Challenge – Glitter

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. tried to stay away from the traditional Christmas ornaments but I caved

It was a beautiful cold, crisp morning this first day of 2013. The sun shone brightly and reflected off the lake and snow causing them to ‘glitter’ and ‘shimmer’ for the camera.

If you want to see more glitter photos check out Word of the Week Photo Challenge – Glitter.