Policy

I came across an interesting bit of information yesterday. It would be too easy to become angry and hate whomever wrote it. Considering the mess the world is now in perhaps it might be a better plan to examine it carefully and learn from it whatever lessons it has to teach us.

I wonder whether this became the model for what the world would eventually become, so often hopelessly described as a place where the “rich get richer and the poor get poorer”

“The underlying premise of the Report’s recommendations is how to contain the minority through coercive measures. It consists of policy proposals in five areas: demography and national sentiments, political leadership, economy and employment, education, and law enforcement. ”

It was called the Koenig Memoradum.

Welcome, welcome, they say. Welcome to the Holy Land.

Mercy Killing

Mercy Killing

That is what some people and groups call it … “Mercy Killing”.

Confusing is what I’ve always thought. Two words that don’t go together – something out of “1984”. OK OK! I know I am boring when I inject my old mentor George into another conversation.

It seems our modern world engages in an awful lot of killing. Some might even say the world economy depends upon killing.

Then there are the renegades, those who believe in mercy without killing.
There are even some groups that believe in unconditional mercy. AH … But dare to join any such group and be forever branded by haters. No I don’t join groups so I don’t belong to any. I really don’t belong anywhere. I am just one more independent artist hoping for change.

Will it come with an end to killing innocents who are unable to speak for themselves?
Who will speak?

What if an innocent were able to speak? What might she say?Rebecca

Will change finally come come with article 25?
BINGO

Boxes

Was it Steve Jobs who first made us aware that we were living inside of boxes? I’m not sure. But it’s so hard to be sure of anything in this changing world, isn’t it? I guess none of us likes being defined by the boxes to which life consigns us. But hey, that’s life.

Two of the boxes that most define me nowadays are Artist & Senior.

I chose neither of these. The first box is one I was born into and shaped to fit because of the family and society that raised me. The second is the box everyone of us is forced into should they live long enough.

I was advised long ago to shed that artist box and get a real job. I really tried but over and over potential employers discovered that I was only pretending not to be an artist. As I grew older and society began to measure me for my senior box things began to get really uncomfortable.

Being an artist had been difficult enough but until I became a senior I had no idea how it felt to be a true outcast. But I’ve been a lone survivor for a very long time.

Over the past few weeks I’ve made an attempt to contact other survivors like myself, those floating about in their own boxes, trying to find a friendly shore on which to land and build something suitable and worthwhile.

I thought there was a solid shore but I guess that was merely an illusion. So these days I just float, imagining that somewhere out there are other artists, some like myself who have at most 20 or 30 more years of life, perhaps 10 more years of making art. I’m trying not to be sad over this failure. At least I tried.

Invisible

It seems that many people throughout history were intended to be invisible. Those who dared to “stir the pot” were identified … Hmmm dare I say targeted, silenced, and even killed. Not all, however, were made totally invisible.

I wonder how many others were never heard of because nobody was there to document their lives or their stories.

“Socrates and Jesus never wrote any books, for instance, but Plato wrote his Dialogues recalling his memory of what Socrates said and the Gospels recount the life of Jesus many decades after Jesus had gone. “1.

As I read this quothe I had one of those strange Eureka moments. What if … What if … What if …
What if they (Socrates and Jesus) had actually written papers or books or scrolls or whatever else writings might have been called back then?

What do you suppose would have happened to their writings? Do we really believe that the establishment would have wanted any of their writings to survive? Just a thought.

1. Source of quote: https://www.ubiquityuniversity.org/courses/the-great-books/?fbclid=IwAR0XgcqXfdnGWuaaTpMVZ8SRvVySsYc0kTjVmGmT3GhYWbnQQGoOPKKstSM

Harpin’ Without a Harper … With no Harp … The Rock Opera in Progress

2018 July 1

Some folks will be waving red and white flags and celebrating Canada Day. Here I am still waiting for that Irish Harper or maybe an Irish fiddler or piper to help build up interest in Irish sessions at the Doucet-Hennessy House in Bathurst, New Brunswick Canada. I’d invite the piano-player but our piano is sadly out of tune and there are no funds to tune it.

Don’t Forget You’re Irish Art exhibit opens to the public July 3. Drop by Tuesday to Saturday for a cup of tea and a chat at the historic Doucet-Hennessy House in Bathurst, New Brunswick. If you play Celtic or Acadian music or any sort of traditional folk music, we hope to have informal music sessions on Saturdays from 2-4. Bring along your acoustic instrument and join us. Music workshops are in the planning for September.

Maybe we local Artists have finally found our place on Chaleur Bay.

Keep checking in to catch updates on happenings. Hope to have new videos posted soon

Looking back:
2017
January 2
A new day has dawned.
Some might say
A time for change
What was it
That old man said
Be the change?
There is in memory
From long ago
An expression
A French saying
Mette la table
The spelling might
Be not quite right
But hey!
I set my table
The best I can
The best I am able
With good wishes
Peace and joy
Justice for all
As I serve
What I gather
From Mettacentre.org

………………….Horizon……………………………
Times are changing.
2016 is almost over.
The Harper knave
Never arrived

All those years
We waited
In precarity
While all across
This great country
Ad usque ad mare
As some might say
Bad spelling notwithstanding
Even those
Who never took a stand
For or against
We waited
For the Harper
Who never arrived.

Another year has gone by
Quickly so quickly
It is now December 2016

Much has happened
Still
We have no place

Artists and musicians
We struggle
In this place
Asking for little
Besides a safe place
To live and work.
For food they say
You must pay more
No one will tell us
Why that is.

Imagine
What this world would be
Without artists and musicians.
Yes, philosophers too
And others who care …
Nobody asking questions
That need to be asked.

A Study?
Yet another study?
While we languish
These last few years
While they study
Us to death.

Click to access StatusOfTheArtistResearchAndAnalyticalReport.pdf

FEAR

This morning a fellow artist posted a meme about fear.

Hmmm, thinking about this … I think, when it comes to fear, depending upon your stage in life, fear can change …

Imagine a young person just moving out of a loving, secure home facing the exciting world of adulthood and freedom, full of hope. As long as the world treats them well they might live a life without fear.

Imagine that same person later in life, beaten down by the fears that their youthful hopes have become impossible dreams.

Then, imagine that person in older age. Is there really much point in looking forward when those dreams of your youth are no longer realistic. And there is no going back. All we can really do is pass on our experiences and our stories in the hope that we might help someone else along their path. For that we need Intergenerational contact. Otherwise, what is there to live for?

If I were to have a dialogue with a younger artist what could I say about fear?

And if that younger artist were me, if I could reach back in time and talk to myself, what might I say?

So what might I say?

I might tell that younger person to be very, very afraid of things like injustice and greed. I’d probably tell her not to run away from these but to fight back, to not ignore negative messages, hoping things might get better.

I’d tell her to not be afraid to stand up for her own beliefs, especially in the face of bullying. As for abuse or violence or revenge, I’d tell her to walk away from these, not in fear but in gratitude that she is able to recognize and avoid such paths.

Most of all, I’d tell her she needs nobody’s permission to call herself an artist.

Intergenerational

Intergenerational … An interesting buzzword … Got me thinking …
Imagine if it were possible to travel back in time. What would my younger self like to say to the world if she had the knowledge I now have after walking through seven decades of life?

She might start by saying something like this:

“You, who do nothing to keep me safe from predators…
You, who deny me the opportunity for decent education…
You, who are the gatekeepers to all the jobs I might do well…
You, who judge me according to your own standards and biases and culture…
You, who sully my world and reward my oppressors…
You, who would bully and drug me into submission and compliance…”

She might remain steadfast in her own self-affirmation and add something like this:

“I have no need or desire to listen to your schemes or advice…
I reject that your manipulative and superstitious religions hold any sacred truth…
I do not wish to hear any excuses for why I must approve of your personal preferences…
I have no desire to follow your corrupt brand of politics…”

Retro

Or would that be retrospect? No matter … Looking back looking ahead or looking ahead to looking back while I try to downsize, clean up, whatever I think to call it on any particular day.

I keep finding bits and pieces of a past life … To an older person that is a way of saying “I was young once too”

So here I am looking at a pice of art I did in my younger days, possibly early seventies, although I cannot recall. I also have no idea what ever happened to the original. All I have left is a photo I took of the piece.

I was going to post the picture but something doesn’t seem to be working.

So then I look at a picture of an installation I did a few years ago incorporating something I had made around mid seventies. That too, does not appear to be working.

So much for my attempts to use “new” media.

Then again, I bet Facebook will let me post my image.

OK I hear you Gabe. Thanks for the memory jog. It’s not that I can’t do any of that techie stuff. It annoys me th even have to try. Well, I bet I’ve forgotten more of that time-wasting stuff than many people my age have even tried.

image

Artists Centre in Chaleur

A Community Arts Centre in Chaleur may be in the works.

Chaleur Region has been waiting a very long time.

This might have happened many years ago at the old Sacred Heart Convent in Bathurst. Plans were in the works until the Bulldozers came in and POOF the building became a memory and the property a parking lot for the beautiful new City Hall.

Years later we still have no Community Arts Centre in Bathurst, the largest community in the Chaleur Region.

Ahhh but things are beginning to happen, maybe. Facts can be fuzzy at times.

There has been some recent resurgence of interest in getting a community Arts Centre started in Bathurst.

AMDHHA has been working on this idea for at least 10 years so this is nothing new. What is new is that there seems to be yet another organization in the process of forming to bring this hope to fruition. This new agency may be looking at the Maison Doucet Hennessy House as a possible location for this centre. There also has been interest expressed that LaBarque in Green Point Pointe Verte might be a good location.

Several other local and provincial organizations and businesses also appear to be somehow involved in this move to build a community arts centre in Bathurst.

Personally I think it is wonderful that there is so much happening all of a sudden. The one concern I have is that local individual artists might be left out of this picture. For that reason I have begun to raise a series of artist meet ups.

My hope is that other independent artists like myself will be encouraged and permitted to also have a say in any plans to build a community arts centre.

The first meetup planned for May 11 is canceled
It will NOT be held …

We will NOT be meeting …

Since the house has been closed up most of the winter it might still be a bit cool inside so it would be good to dress warm.

We will NOT be meeting with … for artists who want to work in the house this summer, … and see what facilities are being offered.

Although the artist meet-ups will not be taking place at Doucet-Hennessy House I still support the idea that this house could play some part in the future of the artists of Chaleur.

The official name of this organization is AMDHHA Association Doucet Hennessy House Association by the way if you want to do a search. The house is an historic property and the organization has both a website and a Facebook site.

As for the next meet-up in a month’s time , well we had planned to fix a time and date on May 11. … But that one has been canceled.

Any suggestions anyone as to a venue for meet-ups?

I did approach the local Bathurst library with a request for meeting space but that was over a week ago and they have yet to get back to me.

Meanwhile I’ll be searching out other potential free art spaces in the region. If you have any suggestions please let me know Contact maggiequinn@rogers or call 783-7944

If you know of any artists who would like to join us, please invite them along to future meet-ups.

These will be informal get togethers. For anyone who can only spare a half hour that is fine. By just showing up to show support you are helping. If you you want to stay around for an hour or two to discuss future plans and share ideas that is wonderful. No fees, no committees no voting, no hierarchy, let’s try this.

Don’t Forget You’re Irish

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to help me launch this new Irish-Canadian exhibit.

Thank you to Melynda Jarratt who wrote the following press release:

« Don’t Forget You’re Irish » New exhibit at Doucet Hennessy House July 2018

(June 24, 2018) – A new exhibition by Bathurst artist Sharon Olscamp explores the role of memory in recapturing cultural identity through the experiences of an Irish-Canadian family in northern New Brunswick. The exhibit will be on display at the Doucet Hennessy House during the month of July and is free to the public.

Sharon Olscamp is the Artist-in-Residence this summer at the Doucet Hennessy House. She explains her inspiration came from childhood memories of her grandmother, Mrs. Beatrice Hennessy, saying « Don’t forget you’re Irish. »

« At the time I didn’t know what she meant and I didn’t really think of it much all these years until I was asked to create an exhibit as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Doucet Hennessy House, » says Olscamp.

« My art begins with the biological fact of being born into an Irish-Canadian family. A distant Irish past is long lost to most of us except in old stones and books. All I really have left are the words of my grand-mother. I realize now how important her stories were in shaping me and influencing my art. I sketch from old photos while trying to recall details about my particular Irish-Canadian family along a timeline that might offer very different memories for other members of the same family. » she says.

« Don’t Forget You’re Irish » will be open to the public from Tuesday, July 3 to Saturday, July 28, 2018 at the Maison Doucet Hennessy House, 375 St. Peter Avenue, Bathurst, NB.

The artist will be on site, every Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-4 pm, by chance or by appointment.