a peek inside the fishbowl

The girls got up this morning, and as per usual Saturday morning routine they went downstairs and watched PBS while Mark and I caught a few extra winks.

Mark continued to snooze while I went to pick up the fixin’s for his belated birthday breakfast from the Ottawa Bagel Shop: fresh Montreal-style bagels, freshly squeezed OJ, and thick-sliced bacon. Yum.

On the way home I stopped at a yard sale hosted by the nuns at the Maison Jeanne D’arc. (Sidebar: apparently Barry Hobin going to be tearing down this gorgeous historic building and replacing it with lofts, but no one has been able to confirm this for me yet… ugh, it’s so tragic.)

So I was expecting lots of cool old stuff, but soon realized that, duh, nuns don’t actually own much STUFF at all. There were lots of crochet-wrapped clothes hangers, white sheets, and filing cabinets.

I did find one thing, two, in fact … an old-school ruler. I approached the nuns and held them up. How much? They laughed, and one lady suggested I just take them. I insisted on paying. “How about ten cents each,” she asked. I counter-offered and gave her a loonie.

I couldn’t fit all 15 inches under the scanner, so here’s part of it. You must click to embiggen this one.

After breakfast the girls and I checked out a few places along the West End Studio Tour.

This is a self-guided tour of the homes and studios of neighborhood artists – although there were a few who showed their work at other sites. This was our first year attending.

It didn’t take me long to get over the awkward feeling that comes with ringing on doorbells and wandering around someone’s personal space.

You know, there are times, here and there, when I happen to find myself surrounded by gorgeous things … and what happens? My innards turn to jello, I break out in a cold sweat, and become completely verklempt. I think it might be a legitimate medical condition, because Actual Tears of Great Excitement (such a silly thing, but it’s true) were brewing behind my eyeballs as we walked up the driveway of Clare Brennen’s house.

There, hanging over his front door, was a large 3-D fish made of wood/metal and bottle caps.

Here is a rather unjust pic of it :

Clare makes robot-type figures (!) out of found materials (!) and they are very whimsical and clever and slightly twisted (!)… just the way I like my art. I could have plunked myself down and talked to him and poured over his stuff all day.

Here’s one of his creations. I believe this series is called “stickmen”. Again, sorry for the lousy pic. It really doesn’t do it justice.

There are a few more pics, bigger ones too, so please click through the pic to my flickr for the full effect. The one pictured above was one of my faves. It’s called “Postal.” Notice how the body is covered in postage stamps. There’s a little guy inside the bigger one. Hee! I love it!

The girls and I gawked until it was clearly time to move on, and so we did. We covered about eight artists in total. The girls were great. The art was amazing. And oh, the studios! One had French doors leading to a garden. And there was one lady who had a walls of “inspiration” to guide her: photos torn from magazines (ocean creatures and beach scenes, teacups, skirts) and stones, beach glass (as well as beach china & porcelain!), and countless other things lining her shelves and window sills.

After lunch we headed back out, this time the four of us, to buy fresh veggies at the Parkdale Market. (There are more of these on flickr as well.)

What an inspirational day. Tomorrow I’ve pledged to go buy the things I need to finish my found art project. I am so pumped.