Monday Art Group brewing new experiments 

We will be working with Tel-Talk, an intervention project taking place at a telephone booth near you. On June 13th, 2012 we will be decorating a phone booth in the Junction to coincide with the opening of the Tel-Talk exhibit at the Telephone Booth Gallery. Poetry readings are planned alongside the intervention.

The MAG chose a name last night for our installation which is quickly albeit laboriously taking shape:
The Art of Conversation

More details coming soon!

New Research Project

We have started work on a new research project called Women's Stories: Aging, Disability and Homelessness. The Red Wagon Collective has received a small grant to do arts based research in the form of a photo-voice project. We will be working with women from Evangeline and Mainstay Housing to discuss issues of precarious housing. Is a house four walls and a roof, or is it somewhere to live? How does precarious housing affect bodies? How does it impact the aging process? How does aging impact how home is understood? How do bodies fit within the shelter system as they age? What challenges are faced?

We will be involved in a group dialogical and creative process of discussion and production of photographs. We will hopefully end up with a suite of images with text that we can put to use in discussion with housing providers, politicians, community people, and health care practitioners - and anyone else whose interested.

We put out a call to our neighbours for donations of digital camera's (that work) and have received four so far. Thanks Junction folks!

A quilt we all made for a new mother - 

enough

good morning gentle reader. we are thinking about the idea of enough. when we need to say ENOUGH (yes - shout it out), when we need to say it's not enough... How much icing do you want on that cookie? How many cookies do you want? Why is someone else doling things out.... How do they know how hungry I am and what nourishes me... it becomes too arduous. Be thankful for the cookie that has not quite enough icing, and for the coat that does not quite fit...
We say enough.
Last night we sat on the floor surrounded with scraps of crochet and knitting, wilding it all into a surprise for the community.... part of saying enough.... watch out...

Poetry Reading at the Toronto Free Gallery

Last Tuesday some of us 'ladies' went down to the Toronto Free Gallery to hear some poems. It was a benefit for the committee that is organizing the commemoration and demonstration for the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Yes it was very moving and emotional, and also great to hear such strong words. Faith Nolan sang and that did lift us up.

Also, we saw Carol Conde and Karl Beveridge photo exhibit. They tackled the issues of Mexican migrant workers in Ontario, land development, the toxification of water, the economic crash. Inspiring work. We want to make pictures too.

Amazing paintings by M.

We miss here when she's gone.

The Monday Art Group continues to gather and make art. We have more projects brewing, big and small. For now poetry, knitting, drawing, beading, drinking tea and quietly exploring.

We think about food and under nourishment. So we had a feast, it was the holidays after all, but vegetables were on request! And homemade calzones.

Why have all the cooking utensils been thrown away?

Our Banner Project finally complete and installed on the Heinztman street wall of Evangeline (as well as inside).

Febuary 2011.

The Quilt Project installed at the Capitalism and Culture in the Junction exhibit.

installation day - collaborative design is not for the faint of heart

today is the day... that we have been collectively imagining for months now.

imagine the scene. a basement, cool, even cold in summer. round tables with chairs pulled up. tea cups full. and women gazing at a screen upon which is projected a potential banner design.

slow down! says the woman at the computer, who is manipulating the design in photoshop and thinking collaborative design is not for the faint of heart, or the slow of finger. there is excitement as each piece of the banner is created, re-visioned, shifted, added to, re-coloured... until finally everyone in the room says ok, ok, ok. we all agree this works. final notes are taken so that the last design changes can be implemented off site.

this says it all...