Yesterday was the perfect day for a day trip. Not to toronto, or the beach, or shopping but to the badlands of Ontario. When my children were young we used to call this sort of thing "an explore" and when I was young my father would say, " Let's get in the car and go look for some haunted houses" , which was his way of saying abandoned homesteads. A friend of mine who had a similar tradition in her family called them "magical mystery tours". Usually there is a general point on the map but no specific plans after that. My destination was the badlands.
Perhaps you didn't realize Ontario had badlands. We discovered the Cheltenham Badlands quite by accident of one of these explores many years ago. All week I have been thinking it would be such a lovely place for a photo shoot of some new stones. I love the porch photo studio but sometimes it is nice to take your stones out on location.
Those last two are just a tiny glimpse of the photo-shoot. I am really happy with some of the other pictures that I will show you later in the week. ( and i see doing this much more in the future)
After the badlands I just wandered up and down , weaving through lovely country roads but this caught my eye.
Brick making heavy equipment from Vancouver and Spain. I would so love to have that rusted turquoise piece at my home, or even just a piece of it like that giant wheel.
Okay, back in the car, dreaming about rusted machinery and driving on one of the craziest roads in this area of Ontario, the forks of the credit road with two hairpin turns in close proximity to each other. This road will be closed next week for a few months to be upgraded.
By this time it was well past lunch and I was getting a little hungry and thirsty. I was near the town of Alton when I noticed a sign for the Alton Mill and then saw this.
It is a car lamp. I got out of my car, and explored the art in and out of the beautifully restored Alton Mill. It has a long history first as a woolen mill in the 1800's specializing in fleece lined long underwear. It then became a rubber factory making balloons for Disney and condoms to be shipped overseas for the war. We were discussing this at the dinner table and my husband wondered if they ever got these shipments mixed up. We laughed.
The quilt of possibilities was on display here and I was happy to see roisin ( the other genius besides arounna behind the repeat screen printed fabric line). Hers was one of my favorite squares in the quilt.
Two wonderful pieces by Derek Martin and Floyd Elzinga respectively. I love that giant pine come. It is titled "hope".
More lovely rusty things in the lower level of the mill.
They rent studio space in this building and I they are amazing. I am thinking of doing a workshop here in the fall with Andrea Bird in en-caustics.
This piece is entitled "the vastness". I love it.
Have a wonderful sunday. It will be a rainy day today and that should give me a chance to get some planning done.
xo
m