And Into November

I am thoroughly enjoying the shift that is the end of Autumn, as it transitions to a time of inner creativity. The garden is long put to bed. The yard is cleaned up. The summer screens are out and the windows are washed clean to let the low winter sunshine flood into the rooms. Literally putting away summer and bringing out winter preparations like warmer clothing, extra bedding, scented oils and candles, feels like settling down to stay in and write, cook, brew, bake, paint, and SEW AGAIN! Summer is just way to hot in my sewing room. For a while, it felt like I was never going to sew again.

It has begun! The CREATION portion of my Research and Creation grant is in full swing. Here are some samplings of works in progress.

Northern Bedstraw almost complete

To the Bedstraw piece, I'm adding wild roses and buds within it that were a pale soft pink. I have *beautiful* plans for this that I hope I can pull off in terms of how I dream of this being displayed. At the moment, it's a combination of free motion and hand stitching. It has taken 4 weeks (I don't work on it every day, and I don't sit for 8 hrs when I do stitch, but it has been worked on nearly 7 days a week for a month.)

The next pieces were gessoed woven cotton canvas that I painted a background onto. No, I am not left handed. But - here I am, doing it. So many artists I admire are left handed. I felt left out. So, I began sketching with my left hand this summer to 'conjure the talents of my mentors.'  Oddly, I decided that my left hand art looked more natural than my right handed work, and so I just keep with it. 

All my sketches, drawings and paintings during this grant
are done with my non-dominant hand.

If you go back one blog post, you will see the source photo of this Creeping Juniper crescent I found. I'll be adding threads soon to embellish this and bring a three dimensional texture quality to the plants. My plan is to wrap the completed canvas onto stretcher bars.

Below is a triptych background I painted. Each panel is approximately 12x14 inches. Now I'm stitching the Prairie Sage and Blue Grama Grasses onto it with 12 weight thread.

three backgrounds ready to embellish

I'm so grateful to Wonderfil Thread in Canada for shipping these thick 12 weight threads to me SO quickly. Look how gorgeous they are, sitting on top of the canvas!

drawing Sage with thread, just the beginning...

All the practicing and sketching and continuous line drawing through the summer of the plants over and over was such a good plan. It made this part of the process so much smoother because drawing them out under the needle was already a memory. I could recognize the plants because I grew up with them and have been photographing them for much of my adult life. However, I didn't know how to draw them. I had never inspected them like that before. I hadn't followed all the stages of their life cycles in such detail. 

I knew many, but not all the names, and I knew nothing about the Cree names. I've already made a firm decision not to bother with Latin names at all for the plants that are indigenous to this area.

   again, THANK YOU so much CCA

I haven't taken photos in *forever* but I hear the geese in droves above. It's mid November. The ground is clean still, and the temperatures are so mild: single digits above zero Celcius. I think I will venture out to visit the creeping Juniper one more time. Maybe I will be able to bid farewell to the Sandhill Cranes as they leave.

Have a good weekend,

xo

Monika

Third Season Spectacular!

September! It's been a ride lately, settling people and gardens. The colours are changing and I've been out enjoying fieldwork all over again. This third season provides a whole new pallet and brand new experience.

Horse Tail and Creeping Juniper

I don't think we've had frost, but while the days are warm, the nights are cooling. Reds are popping up!

Rosehips and Raspberry Leaves

I love finding nature growing in circles. I'm working on a whole series of them for a solo show in March 2024! (Saskatoon)

Natural Crescent of Juniper

Isn't that BEAUTIFUL!? I adore it so much. And then as I walk and walk over hills of juniper, more red appeared!

Bearberry

I saw the BIGGEST coyote! I'm used to them being medium sized, thin dogs, but sheesh! This one was well fed and large! (sorry, no photo.) I've come across two large porcupines by the side of the road over the course of a couple days but cannot find anyone interested in the quills. I might just collect some anyway for some Indigenous relatives or colleagues.

And lately, with loads of rain after a spring and summer of drought conditions, we have mushrooms popping up!

Inky Caps 

Look what my son and I did with them!

It's been an artful summer indeed, and the beautiful changes that September and October bring are just beginning. I'm so very grateful.

Have a great day. Enjoy the sunshine and the glorious colours.

~Monika.

The Prairie Continues

Still, when you drive down the highway, things look done and dry. The crops are being harvested. Season is over. It's so early though! But when you inspect the flora... it's thriving.

Bumblebees all over the Goldenrod

They were swarming!! They didn't care I was right in their midst.

This next photo (ok, cheating here) was in my neighbor's yard. Echinacea is a native plant. I'm not sure if this one in particular is a common species, however it was planted into their yard. The bees were swarming it too.

A lot of friends of mine have been posting images of bees just loading up on the flowers, sometimes a half dozen per flower! It's incredible to see.

I headed to the lake and took this photo, which I adore.

I photographed this huge rock earlier to show the new lichen that's developing on it. Now this bouquet is laid across. How perfectly lovely!!  We spend some time in the water at the lake and working on the future studio out there.

Blanket Flower

My research is winding down and my creation is gearing up. I have a couple commissions to do and I've been decluttering all my creative spaces in preparation for fall/winter studio time. It's like nesting, or building a cocoon for winter. I'm totally spring cleaning in preparation for hibernating into my studio time. I feel so good about it. The hot days we will continue to get will provide day trips to jump in the lake and play. They tend to be my favourite lake days. Sometimes I find summer a little too grueling and sluggish. My energy picks up in the fall. The colours change. The air changes. The smells change. The meals change too.

Have a beautiful August, 

~Monika K.

Creating Creeping Juniper

On my first official Fieldwork venture out for this Canada Council project, I snapped a photo of the ground in my favourite colours: orange and green. It was a scene where the orange and the green blend so well together that I sometimes say, "I need that orangy-green colour of thread." If you look on any colour wheel, I suppose it makes no sense. If you look at the prairie in late summer or autumn, you know what I'm talking about.

Creeping Juniper in May, 2023

When I snapped that picture, my first impression was that the bed of Juniper was perhaps sick or dried up. It was spring, so shouldn't it be popping with green? Nonetheless, I adored the composition because of the way it poured forward that the roots were all up on the ground. The vantage point was from lower down a sandy slope with the river behind me, far below.

The second time I went back, I took more intimate photos of the plant.  

Hey there, Bud!

WOW! The young new growth is in fact orange! How beautiful. I had not expected young Juniper to be orange. That changed my mind about the scene, knowing it was a fresh new start, new growth, and fully vibrant.

Up went the new art supplies.

I'm sure I'm not doing this right, but I felt SUPER creative at the time and this was an experiment. Thank you to my friend Suzanne for gifting the paper to my friend Jean who then gifted it to me. 5 ft wide, likely 8 ft up... a few push pins and a bench to stand on.  I figured I would draw this out in the way I prepare for my yarn embroideries - with oil pastel on paper. 

Selfie. A moment of joy.

I don't do selfies, but I was excited to show of the sheer scale of this. There, you can see the first few marks I put on the paper. I think that was the point where I was realizing I need BIGGER pastels. I didn't get very far and the traditional sticks were disappearing fast. Since I have a budget for supplies, and have good paper already, I figured I'd get some good pastels.

I purchased (locally from a brick and mortar shop, 40% off!) some delicious Sennelier Grand "real" oil pastels. 

so GRAND

I bought some singles to top up the colours I felt were missing for me. Let me tell ya!! These work like lipstick. Classroom oil pastels are like colouring with birthday candles. OMG That is literally the difference between artist grade and student grade. They are different materials altogether. You pay for pure pigment and not cheap binder & wax.

This is a little white I'm using.

Oh! I should tell you, I've done most of this with my non dominant hand. In fact, I've done most of my plein air sketches that way as well.

When the muse calls, and when my house is empty and the light is good, I put on a meditative song on loop and draw out the land. There's some Sinead in here more recently (I don't want what I haven't got). I don't remember what I started with, but it's usually a woman's voice.

I'm crouching, working on the Juniper roots now.

Photo of me by my son, Florian. 

I started this months ago. It's done now. The sky in the art turned out perfect in the end! It looks just like my yarn embroideries. However, today is a grey day. I'll get a photo for you as soon as the sun shines. 

~Monika K.

p.s. I thank the women who sang while I worked.

Research Day - WP Fraser Herbarium

Last month, when I met with Ken Van Rees, he told me about OUR herbarium he uses at the University of Saskatchewan. (I mean, of course we would have one. Why hadn't I thought of searching for that?) So I found it online: The W P Fraser Herbarium. There is a virtual visual catalogue of endangered, at risk, and extirpated plants in my province. That's all that's available for online viewing. That's awesome. But I wanted to see more, so I emailed them with questions.

The response I got back was so wonderful. Hugo, the head of the Herbarium invited me to visit. In his absence (summer travels), his assistant Denver graciously set up a time for me to come in with my son to see the space, the plants, the library and collect specific lists.

The library is absolutely massive and global.

Oh! The library. SWOON. There are three shelves the run the entire length of the Herbarium and they are LOADED with all types of reference books imaginable: Water plants. Poisons. Medicines. A series of what looked like 'ancient' encyclopedias entitled Vascular Plants of USSR. Fungi of Boreal Forests. Food Plants. Flora of the Great Plains. Catalogue of New World Grasses. Out of print books in languages from around the world. Brand new publications. A thesis with Cree names for plants in Canada. 

And then there's the specimens. 170,000 I think I was told?

This is before you enter the Herbarium collection.

I'm not sure, but I think those were waiting to be catalogued. I could be wrong. Here I am with Denver as he shows me Herbarium samples in the storage facilities.

I had so many questions. He was so generous with his time and information. He took out some samples for me and explained how they were mounted. He instructed me as to how to handle them properly (always face up, do not flip over like pages of a book).

Photographing samples (my boy photographing me)

Isn't this beautiful!? I love the pattern. Some specimens had three leaves. Some had five. This one had four. They were all the same plant. One was dated from far enough back that it said it was collected from the town of Sutherland, Saskatchewan which is now an area within Saskatoon, east of the University.

W P Fraser Herbarium collection

I asked if I could sit and sketch. "Go right ahead!" (yay!!) So I did. I sketched a few blind contour drawings of this lovely plant with my non-dominant hand. I feel like it's committed to memory now.

Back at home, I checked my email and there was a thank you message from the Herbarium with loads of links to useful PDFs that were specific to my questions. I feel like I hit the jackpot! Denver also let me know of a really amazing website I want to share with you.

iNaturalist.org

WOW - it's amazing. Thank you Denver! As for the Fraser Herbarium, it is not open to the public per se. You simply need to contact them to request a tour or visit.

Happy August Long!

xo Monika K.

Fieldwork - Beach Day!

A friend texted me, "So are you enjoying your summer?"

There was a long pause. 

I had to step back in my mind. Summers are a time for work. Yardwork. Gardening. Production. The children are out of school. We could never afford to travel and I still have never taken a vacation or 'summer holidays'. I'd run my kids to the river or a nearby lake but with three little ones, it was work: packing food and water and juggling a child with aspergers and one kid loves to be in the top of a tree while another loves the water while the other is terrified of bugs. Add to that, I simply cannot tolerate heat.

What was the question? Am I enjoying my summer.

Do I ever, really? I enjoy fall and winter. She was still waiting for my answer. "Have you been taking off to the your cabin? So lucky!" If you know me, I don't answer with small talk. I answer with honest responses. So I replied, "When I work enough to be able to take days off to get out there, we go out there to work on the building." There's still no power, no running water, no walls... lol. A shit tonne of yard work.

It was Thusday. The forecast was 35C. It ended up being 37C. I was booked to work the Youth Drop in at the Art Museum in the afternoon, which was perfect since my rental has only the little air conditioner I bought.

I asked myself, "So Monika? Am I enjoying my summer?" So far, I'm navigating around research and making sure I have clean black socks for my next shift. Let the dog out. Let the dog in. Water the garden. Scoop poop. Weed the garden. What day is it? Did I miss the garbage truck? Pick the beans. Is there enough dirty clothes to do a load of laundry? What will I cook tonight to make sure everyone is fed? I mean, I don't hate my summer. But I'm navigating through. I'm not enjoying. It's just same old, same old. The mail carrier came. Is that a bill or a payment?

Fuck it. I can't wait around for someone to come ask me to play. So I know that my favourite way to enjoy summer is to swim in the river, I did just that. I packed up my camera, blanket, water for me and the dog, put sunscreen on my nose and by 10 am I WAS ENJOYING SUMMER.

South Saskatchewan River, me, summer.

There were other people out there (you can see someone on the island there) and a family back in the other direction. In a few spots, you can walk across at only knee deep. Basically, if you can't see the bottom, you don't go there. The current is fast. Here in this part, there are so many sand bars / islands and contained pools of water, it's really quite a lovely spot. Buddy and I played and swam for a good hour.

I remember taking my kids to the river one evening in the city to cool off. The sun was setting and I was trying to convince my kids it was time to leave. An older woman came to the spot where we were, said hello, and got in. She swam back and forth very slowly a couple times and then got out again. I asked her, "do you come here often?" She told me she gets into the river every day she can. I'll never forget her. I wonder what was holding me back from enjoying a swim all by myself.

Well. I've had enough of that. I'm swimming whenever I can.

I'm not used to having time for me. This is a new thing. Instead of work to be able to play, I'm going to start playing to be able to work. Be curious so I can work. Relax so I can work. Rejuvenate so I can work. Not the other way around. It doesn't work the other way around. 

After some sun, wind, sand, and water, my head was clear, my heart was beating and my spirit was enjoying. Here's some lovelies I captured while out there. More roots!!

I'm standing at the low river's edge, facing the first bank.

If you look behind, you can see a row of trees in the distance in the photo above. Those trees are sitting up on a higher cliff with the face also exposed like this one.

view upstream

The roots from the plants above run all the way down and are exposed at the water level. It's so amazing to see!

Then walking around up on top, I took more photos.

I'm so glad I looked or I would have never noticed these. Blooms? I'll have to go back in a few days to see what becomes of these.

And there were these little wee things also. I thought they were pretty.

a cluster of something (?)

OH! PSA In Canada, there's a program right now that's time sensitive. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is asking for your photos of plant, animal, bird and insect species. You can sign up and upload so that they can get a literal snapshot of the species across the country. Brilliant really. 

BACKYARD BIO BLITZ

I'm doin' it! xo

~Monika K.

Mid Summer

August 1st marks the midpoint between Summer and Fall. In some cultures, it was celebrated at 'First Harvest'. If you ask my beans and zucchini, they'll tell you it's the 4th harvest. Despite the devastating drought, some things are growing and blooming and the bees don't mind at all.

Dandelion in my yard.

My son and I took a drive down Valley Road and the crops looked so dry. I stopped for some roadside pictures and it was unreal how filthy the flowers were from lack of rain as they sit by the dusty grid road. I did manage to photograph over the ditch and into a past-bloom flax field for this shot.

Happy in the dust without much of a drink.

It was so nice to cool off in the river. It was hot out and we jumped right in. The water was nice, and some folks were walking across. It's moving fast but it's shallow. It comes from the Rocky Mountains and runs all the way to the Atlantic via the Hudson Bay in Manitoba. We met some tourists from Berlin, and one asked how far he would go. I joked that it would at least carry him home. lol

Looking back at the river bank, this was an interesting vantage point.

Wolf Willow at the top, layers of earth exposed (mostly sand).

It's interesting how the land wears away in the shape of bricks that are stacked. How does that happen? 

As we walked along in the water, we could see holes where birds lived inside the cliff face.

Look here, this was a great find! This is a new plant I had not seen before, but then again, I haven't gone searching around the water before.

Arrowhead at the edge of the South Saskatchewan River

We didn't see any wild life, but back in the city, we have huge jack rabbits everywhere. Three massive pelicans were sailing in circles over my yard the other day, and our entire neighborhood has Peregrine Falcons training up their young. If you are in Saskatoon, yes, that's the noisy 'screaming' you're hearing all the time. Apparently these birds were once on a watch list for being at risk. Now they have found new life on city rooftops. They hunt pigeons, smaller birds and dragonflies, if you can fathom that one!

Fastest recorded species on the planet when they dive-bomb.

By the end of the day, there was a full moon. That moon was a Super Moon! And as night set in, the lightning began. The thunder rumbled for a long time and then finally, the sky let go and WOW did it ever RAIN.

I guess the flowers got a good rinse after all.

xo

Monika K.

Perennial Parallels pt 2

I haven't come to a decision about my grant project on whether I'll include any plant I come across, or only native plants. I do know that if I chose both, I will identify which are original to prairie and which are not.

Part of me finds the current snapshot of what is growing here to be a good story, and in ways, a good parallel to us. Some plants have always been here. Their roots run deep. They are just made for this place. Some were introduced from other parts of the world. Some are simply not cut out for this climate and can't thrive. There are particular non-native plants which are invasive, destructive, and choke out indigenous plants. Consider that today, we are pulling Indigenous bodies out of the ground from the 'destructive invaders'. The parallels are undeniable to me. And then there are perennials that come from other lands that flourish in this ecoregion and are able to coexist. They now feed the birds, bees and wildlife side by side. Plants and people. Same, same.

Tansy in the Ditch. Naturalized, "Invasive weed"
You see how nothing else can grow with it?

Honestly, the source images I have taken in the past 15 years have been unedited in my landscape art. I have simply been drawn to the general compositions or plays of colours in the foreground (which are the sprays of flora in the ditches).

Me 5 yrs ago, Sweet Clover (naturalized from Europe)

I recall one very key solo exhibition I had in 2018, where someone stopped me twice to scold me for including invasive species. I listened. I let her speak and educate me. She was very passionate. I stood there like a dummy and all I could say was, "I just liked the colours and I wanted to stitch it." lol It's truly the only explanation I had. (I saw it. It was pretty.) I thanked her for the information. I took her pamphlet. I went to speak to other guests at the reception, and she came back again to start it all over. (THAT was difficult.) I didn't want to argue but I did have other guests who wanted to speak with me.

It's a passionate topic. I get it now.

Coincidentally, the plant she was referring to was the thistle currently being pulled at Meewasin. The ironic part is that I misidentified it! It was Purple Prairie Clover en mass, which is an original prairie plant. Remember this one?

Large threadpainting, now a small greeting card

In my ignorance, I stand by my word. I just thought it was pretty. : ) So I made art.

Hmmm. Perhaps THAT is a good parallel there. I caused trouble by not doing my research, and mislabeling something. We all know how social media works around that! I learned my lesson. I'll cross reference everything.

I think in this next body of work, however, I will acknowledge the Parallels. They present important questions, and maybe the parallels will present clues to solutions. How do we stop destroying, how do we protect, and how do we rebuild?

We can learn a lot from the plants.

~Monika K.

(always learning!)

The Power of Prairie

Perennials are magic. I'm learning that more and more. I read about how they are 'built to last'. For this particular region, I see the phrase, 'drought-tolerant' over and over in the descriptions of prairie flora. We have years of wonderful rain and always have our sunshine year round. However, the last two years have definitely been drought years. It is evident by the way the elm trees are overproducing seeds. That yard at the cabin has a couple inches of caked elm seed layered over it.

The prairie grasses in mid July here are not green. They are crunchy and yellow when you walk through it. It LOOKS just like late September. Doesn't it?

July 2023

The grasses are fine. They aren't near-death like a lawn. They have massive root systems below that are alive and well, living all winter long. I assume, like the Elm, the plants are over-producing as well? It sure looks abundant, even though it is not green.

Will you look at this! In this drought, there is colour! Perennial flora xo

Dotted Blazing Star. They were EVERYWHERE.

Dry July, Blazing Stars don't mind.

And the bees were happy.

Next, we (my boy Florian and me) spied red. Once you spot red, you see it everywhere. It was like a spray of bright beads across a long dip in the land.  WOW - it was ripe wild Raspberries!

Wild Raspberries, low to the ground. Ripe!

As dry as it was, there were loads of berries on hundreds and hundreds of foot high bushes like this, but only in the low lying parts. Perhaps that's how they get their moisture, even from morning dew. There was so much fruit, it was unbelievable. The wildlife must love it. (I picked one for my son to taste. He's my wildlife.) xo

Harebells in the breeze

Skeleton Weed in the Wolf Willow

The Wild Roses have been absolutely prolific this year. This isn't a representational picture. We had a very hard downpour lastnight with thunder and lightning (finally!!) and so most of the big beautiful petals were likely pulled off by the raindrops.

More buds blooming in a moment of sun.

There are still so many young plants out on the prairie, just full of little rose buds. We'll have many more coming.

New growth during a drought.

And at the same time, the ones that have already bloomed this year have transformed into beautiful, big fruits!! Look at this!

Rosehips in hand, Licorice in back.

There were so many more flowers: Alfalfa, Blue Lettuce, Goldenrod, and blues and yellows that I can't identify yet. And then we waited for this little dude to land for a photo op.

? Male Celastrina ?

So there you go. This was a good Field Work day. If you were to drive down the grid road, and had glanced to the side and this is what you saw...

... you wouldn't know if was full of all sorts of flowers, raspberries, butterflies, roses and bumblebees. 

 The Prairie is not empty. She is abundant.

 The Prairie is beautiful. If not, then you likely haven't seen her. Like my mom used to say, "If you can't see the beauty, then you're not looking."

 The Prairie is alive. She's thriving. She is perennial.

 The Prairie is vital. She is essential to life on this planet. (This last point is all new to me. I'm learning.)

~Monika

additional point - hey, this is an early morning blog post. It reads like my private journal to myself and if it comes across as preachy, that's not my intention. It's my private poetry at the end, like a heartsong that is sacred to me, and not meant for any other purpose. I am by no means a perfect steward of this planet. Far from it! As a woman, I find parallels. As an artist, I can share portraits of the Prairie's beauty.