Not as it seems...

Sometimes the world is not as black and white as we'd like it to be...

Even in the clearest moments, I wonder...

"is it black with white stripes or white with black stripes?"

That's where the grey comes in.

Fuzzing things up and creating questions.

A friend commissioned me to make a zebra for her husbands birthday.

At first I thought...sure! No problem!

After I made the initial sculpture I began in on the stripes.

In this case it was white with black stripes.

But as I do with any animal I'm making, I began to research.

Then it became more than just applying the stripes...

No two zebras have the same stripes.

They are like fingerprints.

Similar until you look very close to see that each animal is unique.

Even the pattern on each side of the zebra can be slightly different.

Did you know there are 3 different kinds of Zebras?

Each with a different pattern to their already unique stripes.
There are many theories to why zebras have stripes.
To confuse prey, to confuse flies, to hide in the tall grass.

When my friend came to pick up her gift, she told me the significance of why 

her and her husband like zebras so much...

They met later in life, each with a big suitcase from other lives.

Their melding of lives was not easy at first.

They realized that so much of one persons 'black' was the others 'white'.

Instead of fighting it they saw that together

they were as beautiful as a zebra.

I like that.
Black and white can bring forth the most vibrant of colours , not just grey.

Song for Friday...once upon a time

A long time ago, this song was # 1 the week of January 11th.

I was brand new.

For now I'm 49.95...

Soon to be 50.

Let's see what the next half century brings.

Maybe I'll do a little 'Slow Twist'...

Have a great weekend all!

Book review...

Books, books, books....

I was telling an 8 year old girl the other day about the fact that 

when I was a kid, we didn't have a library in our neighbourhood.

Instead, every 2 weeks my sister and brother and I would ride our

bikes to the parking lot of Loblaws grocery store to find

The Bookmobile.

A rolling library of a truck filled with escape and wonder.

I read voraciously as a child but found it too

much of a chore as a teenager.

It was too much like doing homework.

Not until I became a young adult and lived in places 

without electricity or television, did I rediscover the joys

of reading again.

I find it fascinating that I can go from the 

tombs of Egypt, to the coast of Devon, to the wild west or even

into the future through the words of a book.

Speaking of the wild west...

I've just finished this book...

A very strange and quiet Western about 2 brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters.

Assassins during the mid 1800's in the days of violence and debauchery.

The tender relationship between the two brothers, the unbreakable bond of blood

and their adventures through California / Oregon to do one last

'job' which changes their lives.

I never thought I would like a Western.

I spent months in a cabin with about 20 Louis L'Amour novels

and I thought that was the last of my cowboy book reading days.

Anyway, excellent story telling by a Vancouver Island boy.

 In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
- Mortimer J. Adler