october 5 drawing
October 6, 2011
Here’s the drawing I created during my two hours as a guest on the local CBC radio programme The Bridge. The printing underneath, at least four layers of woodblock in varying shades of green and blue, was already on the page before starting, and a layer of acrylic gesso was rubbed onto the entire page earlier in the day to push those colours into the background a bit before laying down a line drawing on top. The drawing started with a tiny square in the centre and spiraled out to cover most of the page. I really had to scramble to finish this in the two hours.
At the end of the programme the drawing was given away to a listener. Thank you so much to everyone who emailed for a chance to win the piece. I didn’t get to see all of your emails but the host and producer did show me a few of them in which people said some very kind and flattering things about me. So that was lovely! Also good for the ego was the fact that there were a lot more emails from people hoping to win my drawing than there were from people hoping to win tickets to see Crystal Gayle at the casino tonight. I’m thinking about making that my byline for a while: MORE POPULAR THAN CRYSTAL GAYLE. Maybe tomorrow I’ll show you a picture of me from when I used to have waist length hair, if I can find one.
Posted by jodi on October 6, 2011 at 9.42am
the only bad part is it keeps putting the neil young song “human highway” in my head
September 30, 2011
This Saturday I’ll be taking part in a Human Library event presented by the Windsor Public Library as part of Culture Days. A number of people from Windsor’s arts and culture community will act as “books”, which can be signed out by visitors for a 20 minute period. It’s going to be a whole load of nerdy fun, you should come!
Read more about the human library movement here: humanlibrary.org
Read more about Culture Days here: culturedays.ca
Here is Saturday’s Human Library catalogue in full. I’m not going to say “check us out”, that’s too cheesy. I am going to bring my date stamp along, though.
Musical Migrations: The Story of Greg Cox
My musical journey has been one of wide geographical range. As a teenager, I learned to play guitar listening to the great rock n’ roll records that I heard emanating from Detroit, Michigan. Later, I began to trace the roots of that music to the delta blues of Mississippi, learning open tunings and bottleneck slide. Later still, I fell in love with the sound of Kentucky bluegrass and picked up the 5 string banjo, and, after seeing the legendary Bill Monroe in person, added the mandolin to my arsenal. Today, I’m learning the baglama, the folk instrument of Turkey, and the oud, the soul of Arab music. Somewhere along the way, I very naturally fell into teaching and developed a passion for sharing all that I am learning with others.Rashmi Dadwal – Mixed-Media Artist
Rashmi Dadwal was born in Mathura, India. She received her B.Sc. at the University of Agra where she majored in Botany, Zoology and Chemistry. In 1971, Rashmi’s passion for the arts led her to study at the New Delhi Polytechnic for Women where she specialized in textile design. After gradating with distinction, Rashmi taught textile design at her alma mater and went on to also become one of the most famous high-end freelance artists and textile designers in New Delhi, India.
A mother of two girls, Rashmi left behind her well-established enterprise when she immigrated to Windsor in 1999. Feeling the need to continue exploring her creative side, Rashmi immediately turned to stained glass—a curious art form only known to few. The vibrancy, accessibility, and functionality of stained glass became an attractive distraction from her previous career as a textile designer, and what started as a simple and casual exploration of the art form soon transformed into a full-fledged adventure. It was only a matter of time until Rashmi started establishing a name for herself in Windsor, creating elaborate stain glass compositions which were displayed in Windsor and around the world.
With time, Rashmi began to pursue mixed media art, blending and shifting between creative mediums like design, fine arts, stained glass, and sculpture. Her work also increasingly began to take a spiritual stance as a result of an accident which left her with a fractured wrist in 2004. Finding inspiration and healing from religions, cultures, and humanity alike, Rashmi’s new challenge was to fuse her spirituality with discarded objects that might on first meeting have no apparent story. Working with these two elements, Rashmi modestly strives to create pieces that speak to and can be enjoyed, appreciated, and afforded equally by all. Rashmi’s work can be found displayed in various Windsor locations—from galleries, to libraries, hospitals, community centers, and markets. As a result, Rashmi’s unique art pieces and icons have permeated Windsor and today serve as time stamps of over a decade of artistic evolution and progress.Jodi Green – Labour Intensive
Jodi Green is a printmaker, bookbinder and independent knitwear designer whose work is informed by the schedules and rituals of labour and the magnitude of small, repetitive acts. While completing her Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Georgia she explored the relationship between the routines of the factory floor and the routines of daily life by creating and wearing a series of uniforms that evolved and changed over the course of their wearing. Her recent prints and drawings continue to focus on self discipline, repetitive tasks, tallying and time keeping in an effort to place the antiquated and labour intensive processes of woodblock prints and handmade textiles in the context of the manufacturing industry that defines Windsor.Mark Lefebvre – Stilt Guy: the story of a classically trained actor reaching (literally!) for success
Mark earned his BFA degree in Acting from the University of Windsor. Notable stage roles include the title role in the world premiere of “Brebeuf’s Ghost” by Daniel David Moses, Lee in Sam Shepard’s “True West”, Gandalf in “The Hobbit”, and Frank N. Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show”. Mark has worked extensively with choreographer Gina Lori Riley, including a major tour of Canada’s eastern arctic. He had leading roles in two feature films by Otto Buj. He has taught at St. Clair College, the U of W and Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts. For seven years his therapeutic clown doctor alias was Dr. Dan D. Lion with Fools for Health. He also sings with contemporary jazz vocal group Spectrum Chorus under the direction of Ian Smith.
Mark directed “A Touch of Grey” for the 2010 Windsor International Fringe Festival, and his Canada South Performing Arts produced an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s gothic novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, “Tooth of Crime” by Sam Shepard, George F. Walker’s “Zastrozzi”, and “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett as well as a number of edgy, short works in theatre and dance. In 2006 he programmed entertainment for festivals during Detroit’s Superbowl XL, and in 2005 created two sculptures for the international art exhibition CarTunes on Parade.
Never one to stand still, Mark learned to walk on stilts and with partner Kyle Sipkens performs at festivals & events as the Stilt Guys. In 2011 they have travelled to Memphis, Tennessee and to London UK to celebrate Canada Day in front of 70,000 people.
Mark is married to the lovely and talented dancer, singer, actress Susan Doucet, and together they have created three masterpieces named Jacques, Sylvan and Cavelle.Leslie McCurdy – Performing Artist
Recipient of the 2000 Mayor’s Award for “Outstanding Performing Artist” of Windsor, Leslie McCurdy, has been performing for many years in Southwestern Ontario and the Mid-Western United States as an Actor, Dancer/Choreographer, and Singer. Also a teacher, with an honours B.F.A. in dance with teaching certification from the University of Michigan, Leslie served as choreographic and teaching assistant to Judith Jamison of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre during several of her Detroit Residencies, and was slated to go to New York to apprentice with the Ailey Company when she literally tripped, fractured her hip, and fell into acting. Credits include; Mrs. Barker in American Dream; Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill; Risa in Two Trains Running; Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest; Bobbie-Michelle in Last of the Red Hot Lovers; Dorothy in The Wiz; Laura McClellan-Williams in Checkmates; The Acid Queen in Tommy; Fraulein Kost in Cabaret; The Coochie Snoocher in The Vagina Monologues, and appearances in ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7, and several movies, including Ides of March, shot in Detroit MI under the direction of George Clooney. Also a playwright, Leslie has written two one-woman plays that she has performed for fourteen years touring Canada and parts of the United States seven months of the year with over 150 performances annually. The Spirit of Harriet Tubman was a finalist for a Canadian Chalmers Award for Best New Play for Young Audiences and was performed at the 2011 National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina. Her second play Things My Fore-Sisters Saw was filmed for TV and premiered on the Bravo Network in Canada in February 2006. A two-person adaptation of that play entitled Voice of the Fore-Sisters was commissioned by Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal Que. for one of its more successful school tours. She also penned a version of Harriet Tubman’s story for primary students entitled Harriet is My Hero that has quickly come into demand. Leslie finds time for community involvement in Windsor and has created and/or worked with several programs focused on developing opportunities and training for youth in all aspects of theatre performance and production, notably as Artistic Director and Choreographer of a production of The Wiz in a Summer Youth Arts Program that she was instrumental in creating and through Learning Through the Arts Programs in schools. She tries to return to her dance roots, her true love, every chance she gets and is a company member with Grosse Pointe’s Dance Nonce.Mary Ann Mulhern – The Red Dress
Mary Ann Mulhern is a Windsor teacher and poet.
The Red Dress, published by Black Moss Press received national attention in a CBC interview on Tapestry.
Touch the Dead, also published by Black Moss, was short-listed for the Acorn- Plantos award in 2007.
When Angels Weep, published in 2008, was launched at the University of Windsor and short-listed for the Acorn-Plantos award in 2009.
Mulhern’s new book, “Sleeping with Satan,” brings the Salem Witch-hunt into contemporary focus. Sleeping with Satan is published by Black Moss Press.David Pepper
Mr. Pepper was born and raised in Windsor, and returned to his home town in 1989 after more than 25 years in Toronto. He specializes in the design and creation of museum exhibits, such as the detailed scale model of the Jacques Baby house at Windsor’s Community Museum. Over the years he has worked with many museums in Canada and the U.S., not only as an artist but also as a Curator of special exhibits on Japanese art and culture. He has lectured and written articles on this and other subjects. David’s deep interest in Japan dates from his high school days in Windsor. In
1958, he bought an antique samurai sword. This sparked a life-long path of collecting and studying artifacts from Japan, and eventually to open Okame Japanese Antiques which he now runs in Walkerville. As well as dealing in original artifacts, he appraises and restores them. He speaks Japanese, and has traveled to Japan five times. He says he
has lost count of the number of books on Japan in his personal library, but there are at least 1,300. The oldest one was hand-painted in 1788; the newest was printed last year. When David has a chance to create his own art, he likes to work especially, but not exclusively, in wood. His carvings are strongly influenced by folklore, history and Nature. The largest collection of his artwork under one roof is at All Saints’ Anglican Church in City Hall Square.Shane Potvin – Owner, Creative Director: SPOTVIN
Shane is an accomplished art director with over 10 years of design experience in a variety of local and national account situations.
As Creative Director of SPOTVIN, Shane is responsible for creative concepts, art direction, design, and graphic execution on a wide range of client projects spanning all media.
Shane’s industry experience includes a position as senior art director at McGill Multimedia where he developed the overall look and feel for functional and engaging e-learning materials for clients such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and MasterCard. He also held the position of senior art director at Hargreaves Stewart where he created and managed corporate visual graphics. This experience included branding, creative strategy, campaign graphics, website design, and print materials in a wide range of mediums for clients such as City of Windsor, University of Windsor, Windsor Spitfires, ENWIN, Windsor Crossing, Santerra Stonecraft, and LHIN.
With Spotvin, Shane continues to work with many corporate companies and not-for-profits to develop branding and creatively effective campaigns to help raise awareness and help them meet their objectives.
Shane received an honours Graphic Design Diploma at St. Clair College.
Posted by jodi on September 30, 2011 at 11.41am
photo
September 11, 2011
I saw some guys painting over the front of this building the other night. I’m hoping they only stopped because of the rain, and that this state is temporary. Sad that they painted over the kitties.
Posted by jodi on September 11, 2011 at 10.09am
photos
August 24, 2011
While I was away these fabulous new paintings of big kitties appeared on an empty building on Wyandotte Street across from New Yasmeen Bakery. I hope it’s going to be something amazing.
Posted by jodi on August 24, 2011 at 12.46pm
brawlers team draft
August 22, 2011
Venus Di Massacre #7, Hiram Stalkers
On Saturday August 20th the Border City Brawlers, Windsor’s first and only women’s flat track roller derby league, made their official debut in front of a packed house at South Windsor Arena. Two new house league teams, the Hiram Stalkers and the 519ers, were announced to much fanfare, after which the two teams faced off in their first public bout. I was working the bout as a Non Skating Official, keeping track of penalties on the inside white board, so I was only able to snap a few photos during warm ups and before the actual bout began.
Tulkamania #314, 519ers
left to right, the skaters whose faces are visible are: Busta Limbs #705, Hiram Stalkers (seated); Scarlet O’Scary Hairy #CH16, Hiram Stalkers (orange tights); Rebel Hurl #8, 519ers, Billie Helliot #H3ll, Hiram Stalkers (seated in the distance); Mod Broad #5:15, 519ers; Terrortino #D20, Hiram Stalkers.
Drop Dead Alice #99, Hiram Stalkers
The Stalkers trailed the 519ers 25-16 after the first half, but a combination of some crucial penalties for the 519ers and a stellar jamming performance by the Stalkers’ Pain Eyre turned the bout around to a 67-39 win for the Hiram Stalkers.
Pain Eyre #1847, Hiram Stalkers; photo by Sanja Frkovic
Links galore!
my flickr set from before the bout
another flickr set of bout photos, taken by Sanja Frkovic for Our Windsor
Want to be a Border City Brawler? Join us!
Posted by jodi on August 22, 2011 at 5.03pm
border city brawlers draft party and exhibition bout
August 20, 2011
Tonight! The Border City Brawlers, Windsor’s only roller derby league, will debut two new house league teams at a draft party at the South Windsor Arena (2555 Pulford Ave.). Doors are at 6pm, draft at 6:30, BCB’s first home bout at 7:30pm and after party at Faces (College Ave. at California) at 9pm. For more information contact info@bordercitybrawlers.com.
Posted by jodi on August 20, 2011 at 8.04am
border city brawlers benefit party @phog lounge
July 16, 2011
Debb and Paul.
Paulapalooza and Psycho-Spædia Britannica. I love how Peter’s shirt sleeve in the foreground seems to glow from within.
This is my favourite kind of picture from parties. I don’t like to use the flash.
Roller derby zombies! (Foxy Peroxide and Terrortino)
Posted by jodi on July 16, 2011 at 8.49am
don’t read this if you’re eating
July 7, 2011
It’s mayfly season in Windsor. Here is a little video that will give you some idea of what that can be like.
Yup. That’s piles and piles of dead disgusting insects just lying on the ground dying. What you can’t hear in the video is the sound of my shoes crunching over heaps of them to get close enough to the wall to take pictures. Had I looked down in time and realized how bad it was, I never would have gotten so close. The camera shakiness at the end is a result of my realizing that there was one on the camera’s shutter release and, at the same time, one on my shutter finger. And to think just two days ago I freaked out and was completely traumatized when one got inside my sandal. Oh, me of two days ago! You were SO SILLY.
Mayflies spend most of their lives in larval form in the lake, and when they’re ready to spread their genes they leave their home and transform, just like cicadas except that cicadas are beautiful and these things are repulsive. And once they’re out of the lake they don’t even eat; all their energy is spent finding a mate and doing the deed and then they die within twenty-four hours. They die on the sidewalks, on plants, on walls, windows, cars, every possible surface outside where you may wish to walk or sit or place your hand. Here is the outer wall of my physiotherapist’s office, thick with the creepy little assholes.
Wait, is that not creepy enough? Look closer. Note especially their disgustingly thick and shiny bodies that crunch when you brush them off your leg or your car door handle, the long tickly tendrils that brush against your leg and make you think you’ve still got a fly on you hours later, and the weird way in which they all align themselves facing the same direction (okay, that’s actually kind of cool). Also the sail-like wings that catch the wind, causing them not only to flap gently against whatever surface they’re clinging to as they die, but, once dead, to blow across the ground in drifts.
Yes, that’s right. I said DRIFTS. Drifts!
Peter has a story he likes to tell this time of year. It’s a story that came from his mother: when she was a child growing up in Leamington (a town south of here on Lake Erie) the mayflies sometimes got so bad that store owners would go out in the morning and shovel them up like snow. Since moving to Windsor ten years ago I’ve never seen a mayfly season get that bad, although even a light year is gross enough, really. I mean go back and LOOK at those things for fucksake. Eew. Although we don’t live right on the lake, the cold wet spring has been kind to the mayflies and so for the first time ever I’m seeing concentrations of shovel-wielding proportions. Apparently the number of mayflies is a sign of a healthy lake. So that’s a plus.
Above is the last photo I took before retreating in horror. I assure you it in no way conveys just how many mayflies were on me at that moment. They were also all over the back of my skirt and the backs of my bare legs, nestled in all the creases of my bag, crawling down inside the tops of my sneakers, arranging themselves in rows up my arms. Also: IN MY HAIR. I cannot type enough ews and ughs. When I got to the bus stop I asked a guy sitting there, “can I ask you a favour that’s kind of disgusting?”. Because these are my social skills, people. It’s a wonder the whole world isn’t breaking down my door wanting to be my friend, really. Bus Stop Guy responded with a blank but slightly nervous stare. Me, turning my back: “Tell me if there are any mayflies still on my back?”. Him: “Ah, were you over by the Price Chopper?”. Heh.
Posted by jodi on July 7, 2011 at 6.14pm
border city brawlers exhibition bout, june 29 2011
July 1, 2011
On June 29 the Border City Brawlers turned a regular practice night into an exhibition bout in order to give our travel team a chance to bout in front of an audience before making our debut next weekend at the 2 Fresh 2 Furious tournament hosted by Toronto’s GTA Rollergirls. It also gave our referees and non-skating officials some practice running an event in advance of our hotly anticipated open-to-the-public draft party and first house league bout, coming up in early August.
These ladies are my heroes. I can’t wait to pass the minimum skills test so I can get out there on the track and hit them all.
The lighting in the Windsor Armouries is pretty abysmal, so many of the photos (all taken for me by Peter Zimmerman, as I was busy working the door-slash-merchandise table throughout the bout) look like variations on this:
White team jammer Tulkamania #314, black team jammer Mod Broad #5:15 (wearing one of the jerseys I made):
White team jammer Pain Eyre #1847:
Here are a couple more of the jerseys I made. Black team jammer Foxy Peroxide #1313, white team jammer Fearless c-Lo #JD1:
Final scores were (I think) white team 65, black team 50 for the first bout, black team 45 white team 44 for the second.
Posted by jodi on July 1, 2011 at 7.29am
tutu of doom
June 19, 2011
The Brawlers are adorable but also they WILL hit you.
Posted by jodi on June 19, 2011 at 12.15pm
