The Geordian Knot

As a child George Young wanted to be a neurosurgeon. George is a Vancouver boy living his way up the valley from Aldergrove to Abbotsford. His mother was a commercial artist and he learned a lot about art at a young age. His fiancee was instrumental in getting him into art as a profession. After fourteen years in a secure job as a dispatcher with a waste hauling company he embraced his dreams of being an artist. He works with his art every day, if he's not tattooing he's designing tattoo's or painting with his fiancee Carolyn

George's medium of choice is acrylic on drums, canvas, home decor items and he works at Inkwizzition on South Fraser Way as a tattoo artist. He also likes writing, mostly poetry.

George is inspired by Celtic design, Brian Froud to mention a few. He loves what he does every minute of the day.

In grade 2 George's school did an expo, his class did the Congo, it was a huge multi media event for the kids. Years later George discovered an antique Congo spear in an out of the way shop at Bellis Fair. He now has an extensive African art collection with a focus on Congolese antiquities.

George thinks it's pretty funny that as a kid he was focused on being a neurosurgeon but in his sketch books he was drawing buck skin fringed jackets, motorcycles and gods eye's, and now he's living his childhood sketch books of buck skin jackets and motorcycles.

Quote "Always have a backup plan."

Poem by George Young

Burns once wrote "The best laid plans

Of men aft gang a'glae,"

And the ebb and flow of time and tide

Often interrupts the way.

But, once you realize your fondest wish,

All else falls into place,

In pursuing your dreams you will come to see

You've already won the race.

http://www.geordianknot.com/

Art's Council Christmas Crafts Fair

Twin-key.com beautiful star fish and sea life decorative castings. Doraine and Dave Carlson












The Geordian Knot, George Young

































The best Guitar music Doug Towle


















Prize for the most friendly Booth Shmoolies magnetic book marks by Steph















































Most Elegant Wendy Nickel jewelry



















Jordan Stracker won most Unique Booth, amazing wood sculpture . They all look so real as if they had been tooled out of leather not carved out of wood. The big chilly belongs to the chilly booth next to him.



















I won Most Creative booth I had bags of all sizes and shapes and applications, bath salts, wood bracelets and wooden dragonfly name tag ornaments.

A Message Of Hope

Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May was in Vancouver November 21 for the launch of her and Zoe Caron's new book "Global Warming for Dummies". The book signing was set at the Diane Farris Gallery. The group mingled carefully among the rather large amazing Chihuly glass and reflected at the Mongolian Renaissance paintings by Xue Mo. I know where I am taking my Mother next time she visits.

The goodies were lovingly made by Adriane Carr, Rob Hines and Amanda, (loved the cookies). They also organized the event.

It was so good to see Elizabeth May, all the fellow candidates, and supporters, people I have met over the year, I even met a woman I knew in Smithers years ago. I look forward to our next event. Although it was a grueling two hour drive from Abby to Van.

Climate Crisis is the title May wanted to call her new book in the series for dummies. The book took her two years to write, with the restrictions and format of the Dummy books.
When you open the book you will find
-How human activity is altering Earth's atmosphere
-What could happen when polar ice melts
-Which species could disappear if global warming continues
-Carbon-reduction success stories from around the world
-What the Kyoto Protocol is and what it means
-How the sun, wind, earth, and ocean can all provide clean sources of energy
-You can fight global warming by hopping on a bike or painting your roof white




Ms May signing and answering questions



















Elizabeth May, Karen Durant, Adriane Carr, and Chihuly Glass









Diane Farris Gallery 1590 West Seventh Ave Vancouver

Xue Mo Mongolian Renaissance

Thank you Adriane, Rob, Amanda and Diane for this event, sorry if I left anyone out.
Thank you to anonymous for the photo's of Ms May

Slow Descent Into Abstraction

Friday October 24th The Reach in Abbotsford in collaboration with UFV presented the first in a series of Visiting Artist sessions with a presentation by Pete Smith.

About 15 to 20 of us sat in one of the new studios with Pete and his power point presentation. The first image on the screen was a statement about himself.

"Manufacturing and distributing fine cultural produce since 1975" Steve and I laughed figuring he was born in 1975 and we were correct.

It was interesting seeing the history of his Abstraction. Starting with pillows that he had tied, cut circles and re sewn, and painted with house paint. One piece he painted the address of and Art Gallery on it and stamped it and sent it through the mail. The post office said it was the strangest thing they had ever delivered and the Art gallery said it was the strangest thing they had ever received. He went on to sculpture using packaging for molds and plaster creating Alien Artifacts. If I still had my gallery this would be the month for the Alien Art show, seeing Smith's Alien Artifacts brought back fond memories of passed shows.
These days Pete is using everyday things we take for granted such as scrawls on walls with felt pen, graffiti, tags, a statement of existence or a testament that they were there, packaging, spam in our e-mails, shapes. He loves words, writing and shapes. Using a digital camera he photographs the detritus and puts them on transparencies to be traced into his abstracts. Some of us use photo shop for abstract photographs, but Pete is photo shop. He put together a manual of forms and shapes. You could fallow the evaluation of a shape such as the one that looked like yarn weaving in and around the abstract. In each progression of paintings the shape changed becoming thicker to be almost cylindrical cloud formations like a dream I had recently. Pete stopped using oil paint for acrylic paint because it is plastic like the world today. To further create the plastic image he covered his work with a thick layer of high gloss resin. All his works have titles such as "Usunioni", "Arm your Desire", "Out of this airless sky", Some found words that have no meaning and pirated phrases. After seeing the power point presentation Steve and I had to go to Pete's opening in Vancouver to see his work up close and refrain from touching.

On October 25th was the opening for Pete Smith's show "Proverbs for Paranoids" Its at the "Cristall gallery" the show is on till November 15th the address is 2245 Grandville St. Vancouver, Tuesday to Saturday 10:30am-5:30pm, Sunday 1-5pm. for more information visit www.cristallgallery.com or call 604.730.9611



After Pete's talk we were told he had to get to the bus station in 20 minutes so I snapped off a few hasty shots, if I had photo shop I could do some interesting abstracts with this photo taken at The Reach. Caroline Myny, Hugo Myny, Mary Anne, Pete Smith and Stella Johnson. I like the light play on the faces.

Speeches

I am tiring to put my speeches on this blog but what I am doing is not working. I will be at City Blends today on King and McCallum Rd from 11:00 to 2:00. So I will try again with the speeches after I get back. Maybe I will see you there.
Vote for Tomorrow.

Whistle Stop Tour

On Sunday the 21st one of my team mates Bill and I hopped on a bus for Vancouver to join Elizabeth May in Vancouver for her cross Canada train tour. We traveled with her as far as Mission on the train. At the rally in Vancouver I met a lot of the lower mainland candidates, I told them I would meet them all in Ottawa. About 200 people showed up to cheer May on. My daughter and her husband and some of their friends came. It was so good to see them.
On the train our car was at the front of the train and Elizabeth's cars were at the back of the train. It was a long walk back and every conductor stopped us along the way. May's cars were full of reporters and when we were coming into Mission we all had to walk the long walk of cars to the front so Elizabeth could talk to the 30 people waiting to see and shake her hand. Elizabeth was thrilled along with the supports. I had a great time. A lot of pictures were taken but not with my camera.

Art and Politics

I am going to be very busy till the 14th of October. Canada will be going to the polls on that day. I have been appointed candidate for the Green Party of Canada in Abbotsford BC.
Art and culture are what make up the people of this country. Without art and culture how could we distinguish ourselves and show what our dreams are made of. Without healthy bodies and minds without clean air to breath and clean water to drink, or secure finances, we have no art and no culture.

Faerieworlds

Faerieworlds at the Secret House vineyards in Oregon was like being in another world. On July 31st my friend Anne and I packed up my Smart car for a weekend of camping and festival arts and entertainment. No one believed we could do it, we even amazed ourselves with our abilities to pack the Smart. Not only did we have a tent, mattress, stove, ropes, clips, sleeping bags, all the things you need for camping, we also had the most important fashion statement of the weekend our four pair of wings. I had one pair. We had to leave the cooler out so food was minimal, and I am a minimalist when it comes to food. Being a vegetarian with food allergies makes life interesting in ways we can not imagine so food was all I feared for the adventurous weekend ahead. Quiet camping was miss advertised, don't call it quiet camping if you have a drum circle all night long. The two showers for the whole camp site were built by volunteers out of recycled boards and shower stalls, not meant for the modest. They had two vender's selling food which was handy considering our minimal snacks.
At the festival music played most of the day on the main stage, I think 90% of the festival goers were in costume, it was a photo op all weekend, never ceasing to amaze the senses at the creativity,time and energy put into the costumes. We were also amazed at the number of vender's and how much money we didn't have for all the creations we wanted to buy, not to mention we had no room in the Smart for more stuff. Which was a good thing.



Karen and Anne in the dinning tent or place of shade and rest.



At the edge of the parking lot customers at the chocolate stand "Lulu's Raw Chocolate Alchemy" amazing chocolate. Anne is in the little mirror.


"Arg!" Pirates in the chapel. "Man Overboard"

"Tricky Pixie" Two of the three.




Lots of hola hoops






Mother and her two daughters

Karen with Brian and Wendy Froud. Brian spent most of his time signing autographs and having his photo taken. their son Toby Froud



A shade tent.

The hurdy-gurdy maker and his harpist






There were fairies and woodland creatures of all ages









Karen and the giant, he must have been 12 feet tall. It was most amazing at night seeing him dance among the evening crowed.


Fairies shopping

Tony Snow and my Friends at Summer Camp 1970-71

Every time I heard the name Tony Snow I would wonder could he be the same Tony I was sweet on all those years ago. My sister Jessica heard of his death on the internet and pulled out her albums from Summer camp in 1970 and 1971 and there he was the young Tony Snow standing next to her future husband . The Kumbaya years when we were so young and full of life and love. Tony and I did not go to the same school or church and we did not live in the same community. We saw each other at camp or at conferences and spent a lot of time on the phone. Tony was so tall and I was so short. I remember we went to the Cincinnati Gardens but I don't know why all I remember was I had on a pair of slippery shoes and the side walk was covered in ice and I held tight to Tony's arm for fear of falling. The young Tony I knew briefly was brilliant and I loved his poetry. I was sad to hear of his death and my heart goes out to his family. I am also proud of his accomplishments as a musician and a journalist but I think I would have loved to have had a serious talk to him about his last job.





1970 the barefoot Tony and his cabin mates at C.Y.F. Wilmington Conference Camp Christian















Our Friends 1970
Middle row second from left Scot
bottom row from Left Michael, Chris, Jeff (my future brother-in-law to be and ex brother-in-law to be) standing David







In 1970 I was not able to go to Summer Camp due to Scoliosis. I was spending my second summer flat in bed with a body cast after enduring three surgeries and I don't know how many body casts. I still had another surgery to not look forward to in my future. Spending two years in bed was hard on my friends and family, I wasn't much fun and didn't have much to offer. I had two friends when I emerged from the bed sheets in a walking cast but not able to sit, Rhonda and Vicky stuck by me through those difficult years. The first summer Rhonda was on house arrest one of her conditions was that she could visit with me. She was under arrest for her rebellious ways and I was under confinement for my crooked body. We have kept in touch all these years. The second summer Vicky and her family were kind enough to take me in for a week so my family could have a much needed vacation. It was rare for me to go anywhere. Unfortunately I have not kept in touch with Vicky. I wonder where she is?




Rhonda in 1970. In 1971 she was having her first child and did not go to camp. Rhonda became a nurse and had two boys. In August of 2007 I traveled from my home town of Abbotsford British Columbia to Kentucky to spend eight days with Rhonda and her husband Jim. She found out she had cancer in 2006. A year later I watched her as she became weaker each day. I was so grateful for those last eight days with her, She passed away two weeks after I came home. I miss her, like Tony she was too young to go and had so much more to offer to this world.










Vick in 1971






My sister Jessica (Debbie at the time)1970
























1971: Second row from left Jessica, fourth in Mary Jane, Trudy, bottom row with teddy bear Jan








Myself in 1971.


























Vicki , myself and the rest of the cabin mates in1971






The boys in 1971. Cabin # 26 had the majority of long haired Jesus freaks.
Back row Second from left: Jeff, Tony, Michael, Chris, ?, David, Scott.
Chris was the Senior Officer in 1971 and looked so much like our vision of Jesus that the girls all had a crush on him, or maybe it was just me. As I look at the photo I find it interesting the way he is in the center of the photo, It's been a long time since I have heard from Chris. I didn't keep in touch with Jeff, the brother-in-law but I am sorry I didn't send my regrets when my nephew, Jeff and Jessica's son Ian passed away at the age of 26.

In 1971 we could only dream of our futures. Some of us were able to shape our futures to our desires and some of us have floated freely letting life shape our futures. Now we think about the future of the planet and our children, our thoughts have grown and my teeth hurt when I think too much about the future.