World Storytelling Day Themes 2013-2014

The themes for 2013 and 2014 World Storytelling Days have finally been announced! World Storytelling Day is an international celebration of the traditional art of storytelling. Every year, at the spring/autumn equinox, people from around the world gather to tell stories. The stories are told in different languages, in different styles, and a common theme.

Windsor participated in World Storytelling Day for the first time this year when I organised an event at Mackenzie Hall, covered by CBC radio who invited me for an interview with Tony Ducette for the Early Shift. The theme for this year's event was 'Trees' and included mostly traditional stories from many cultures, and a few well-wrought stories by Hans Christian Andersen.

The themes for the next two World Storytelling days are: Fortune and Fate (2013), and Monsters and Dragons (2014).

Sketch of the Day: Classic Light

Good models are so hard to find. I sometimes end up using the same reference for different studies. I simply don't have the resources to take my own reference pictures. The light in this reference was too lovely to pass up. I am really enjoying how the two types of coloured pencils complement each other: the soft core Prismacolor, and Verithins. A friend of mine commented that I was 'painting with pencils.' I think there's a lot to be said for that analogy. I think of the soft cores almost in the same way that I do the larger brushes I use for portraits to mass in shapes before moving to the smaller brushes to refine details.I'm not sure if I like working with the Moleskine paper. It has a cream colour, and an almost manila file folder quality to it.

36th Annual SketchCrawl

April 21st was the 35th Annual International SketchCrawl. SketchCrawl is often described as a 'drawing marathon,' but it's really a good excuse to get out and make some art in the open air. Usually, small groups get together with their sketchbooks and easels, but going solo is just as good. Windsor first participated in the world-wide event in 2010 through the efforts of the Windsor-Essex County Plein-Air Society.

The date has just been announced for the 36th Annual International SketchCrawl: Saturday, July 14th, 2012! If you'd like to participate with a group, or have your sketches featured on Windsoriana post a comment below or visit the Sketchcrawl forum.

By Elizabeth Gaye MacDonald, at Dieppe Gardens during the 35th Annual International SketchCrawl

Call for Artists: “SEEING IS BELIEVING”

“SEEING IS BELIEVING”
A non-juried Art Exhibit on the issue of Homophobia
MAY 14 - 18, 2012

WINDSOR PRIDE COMMUNITY CENTRE
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MAY 9, 2012.

This project aims to show new perspectives on homophobia. Homophobia is a negative attitude or feeling, an aversion towards gays and lesbians or towards homosexuality in general. It is also the rejection of people considered gay or lesbian and of all things associated with them, for example, gender non-conformity.

ELIGIBILITY
• All work must have a theme on the issue of Homophobia
• All media and styles accepted
• No size restrictions
• No limit on number of entries
• All artworks must be originals and not copies, derivatives or artworks based in any way on other copyrighted or published paintings, photographs or other artists works. They must be entirely executed by the applicant.
• Windsor Pride Community reserves the right in its sole discretion to decline any works it feels does not meet the above criteria or its is obscene or offensive in nature

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
The Artist(s) must adhere to the call for submission schedule
The Artist(s) must apply labels provided to all artwork submitted
The Artist(s) waives received an exhibition fee for hanging the works
The Artist(s) grants Windsor Pride the right to use of the images of artworks for publicity, promotion of event, reference and educational purposes
The Artist(s) is responsible for delivery and pick up of artworks
Packaging for shipping will be the responsibility of the artist
The exhibiting Artist(s) is responsible for insuring their work while in transit and on exhibition.

2D ARTWORKS OR WALL HANGINGS
All artwork must be wired and ready for hanging with a finished display or a frame. (i.e. paintings on canvas must have some form of hanging devise)

3D ARTWORKS OR SCULPTURE
All artwork MUST be secure and self supported

For submission form and further details, click here.

Press Release: Exhibition Tour of Land Marks: Contemporary Photographs from the AGW Collection by Professor William Starling

Exhibition Tour of
Land Marks: Contemporary Photographs from the AGW Collection by Professor William Starling

Sunday, May 6, 1 pm

Second Floor, Art Gallery of Windsor 

The Art Gallery of Windsor, SB Contemporary and Dodolab are pleased to announce the impending visit of the eminently knowledgeable Professor William Starling to the city of Windsor. A direct descendant of the small colony of European Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris) introduced by eccentric drug manufacturer Eugene Schieffelin to New York City's Central Park in 1890 and 1891, Prof. Starling has been discretely visiting Windsor over the past two years to study and converse with the vast local flock of his species. While studying the starling community around Windsor's Ambassador Bridge, the situation on the adjacent Indian Road with its long line of boarded up and empty houses came to his attention. Professor Starling will offer a tour of Land Marks: Contemporary Photographs from the AGW Collection from his unique interspecies perspective, where he adaptation to changing environments and the phenomenon of "invasive species" and habitat loss (his areas of expertise).

Art Gallery of Windsor401 Riverside Drive West
www.agw.ca

Review: Contes du Détroit

A treasury is the term for this book. Contes du Détroit (Tales of Detroit) is a collection of fairy tales and folk tales told for generations by the French community of Essex County, and their neighbours on the American side of the Detroit River. The tales were gathered in 1938 by Joseph Médard Carrière. Carrière was a scholar of Franco-Ontarian language and culture. His transcripts of oral storytelling are published here for the first time, edited by Marcel Bénéteau and Donald Deschênes. The book won the Prix Mnémo in 2006. However, there is some question concerning his sources of these tales; 25 years after he collected his stories, he claimed Joseph Groulx of Tecumseh as his source. It is a claim which his daughter denied at the time. It is unlikely that the question will ever be resolved.

The book has a broad appeal; being the first edition of these stories, they are published with critical apparata, and can be read and enjoyed for their charm. There is a conversational, casual quality to the stories which truly evokes the oral storytelling tradition of another time. For readers unfamiliar with the local French dialect, there is a glossary of archaic and regional words which pepper the stories. Among the unfamiliar stories, there are also version of traditional classics but told with a local twist.

For a taste of the collection, here is the shortest story from Contes du Détroit:

Tinette et Ses Roulettes

Une fois, j'étais après jouer avec Tinette.
Tinette m'a volé mes roulettes. J'ai dit: «Tinette, donne-moi mes roulettes!»
Tinette dit: «Je te donnerai pas tes roulettes sans que tu me donnes une croûte de pain.» 
J'ai été à maman. J'ai dit: «Maman, donne-moi une croûte de pain.»
Maman dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas une croûte de pain sans que j'aie les clés.»
J'ai été à papa, je lui ai dit: «Papa, donne-moi les clés.»
Papa il dit: «Non, tu auras pas les cles sans que j'aie de l'huile d'ours.»
J'ai été à l'ours pis j'ai dit: «L'ours, donne-moi de l'huile.»
L'ours dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas d'huile sans que j'aie une cuisse de veau.»
J'ai été au veau, j'ai dit: «Veau, donne-moi une cuisse.»
Le veau il dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas une cuisse sans que j'aie du lait.»
J'ai été à la vache pis j'ai dit: «Vache, donne-moi du lait.»
La vache elle dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas de lait sans que j'aie du foin.»
J'ai été à la fourche, j'ai dit: «Fourche, donne-moi du foin.»
La fourche dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas du foin sans que j'aie du lard.»
J'ai été à la truie, j'ai dit: «Truie, donne-moi du lard.»
La truie elle dit: «Non, je te donnerai pas du lard sans que j'aie des glands.»
 J'ai été au chêne. J'ai dit: «Chêne, donne-moi des glands.»
Le chêne il dit:  «Non, je te donnerai pas des glands sans que j'aie du vent.»

J'ai venté le chêne, le chêne m'a glanté; j'ai glanté la truie, la truie m'a larré; j'ai larré la fourche, la fourche m'a fouiné; j'ai fouiné la vache, la vache m'a laité; j'ai laité le veau, le veau m'a cuissé; j'ai cuissé l'ours, l'ours m'a huilé; j'ai huilé papa, papa m'a cleté; j'ai cleté maman, maman m'a croûté; j'ai croûté Tinette, Tinette m'a rendu mes roulettes.

Contes du Détroit is available from Amazon.ca, and the University of Windsor Bookstore. You can also read three of the tales from the collection at the Virtual Museum of Canada.

Last Day for Canada Writes Poetry Contest

Deadline to submit: May 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET

This prize is awarded once a year to the best original, unpublished, poem or poetry collection submitted to the competition. All Canadians can participate.

The competition is blind. A jury composed of well-known and respected Canadian authors will select a 1st place winner and 4 runners-up.

The First Prize winner will receive $6,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and will have his/her poetry published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and on the Canada Writes website. He or she will also be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre's Leighton Artists' Colony (details about the residency here), and will be interviewed on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers.

The 4 runners-up will each receive $1,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and their stories will be published on the Canada Writes website.

Submissions to the poetry category must be between 400 and 600 words.

A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry.

Submit your entry electronically by visiting the CBC Canada Writes here.