Halifax to Miami

The trees and flowering bushes tell the tale far better than the crowded roads and junk business signs. Florida still has most of its magic, especially when the snow flies elsewhere.

I discovered the amazing contemporary ALT Hotel at the Halifax airport and spent a night in compact comfort. The hotel is arty, Scandinavian in its streamlined functional furnishings and quirky. There are swinging seats in the lobby and several conversation rooms around the deli-type food court, I Macs to use in the common area. Clever lighting surrounds a luxurious bed filled with big fat pillows and comforter in pure white. There are NO drawers, but one under the bed, several benches and shelves and 2 hooks. Don't travel with excess there or you will be stumbling over your suitcases in the night. Eco-friendly and streamlined is the new class.

Before I left on this trip I fell and crunched my foot. It is not responding well to miles of airport walking and hours of sitting. I ask for wheelchairs when I can to get to the gates. Growing old is not for the clumsy.

I am now near the Miami airport in an ok motel with a kitchen. There is plenty of green all around and some lagoons. The bus goes to the grocery store and if I can walk I am going to take a taxi to Best Buy (Saturday before Christmas crowds!) to find a new power cord for my laptop and look at baby video drones for my friends in Chile who make art movies. Imagine flying a little plastic bug over the Pacific Ocean shore and photographing it from above! Hopefully, the cat won't eat it before we get it going and the wind won't take it away. Photos to follow...carry on!

Moving into the Warm

    As 2015 is coming to the height of the dark season in Canada, I prepare to travel south of the Equator. Winter turns to Summer! The human world seems a fair bit mad and staying clear of negatives takes determination. I plan to turn off the media hype and concentrate on relaxing in the land of earthquakes, volcanoes, Spanish communication and family fun. Yea! I'll be in touch. Love, Ann

     

Winter in Chile

2015 brings me to another adventure: Chile!I saw vineyards, the Pacific and the Andes.Met friendly people and had an art show.

Moving southward again!

I am ready to take a new journey adventure this winter. I'll see family and friends along the way from Nova Scotia to Missouri to Florida to Chile and back to Nova Scotia in the spring! I'm driving my bright blue sapphire hatchback and plan to enjoy every day as it comes. From the north Atlantic to the Ozarks to the south Atlantic and Pacific and back again! My happiest of all things to do. Southern hemisphere, here I come! Cheers!

Seasons' Light: Contemporary Poems and Images by Nova Scotians

An Anthology Created in Celebration of the Arts

96 pages, softcover book
Publisher: A. Hart Press, Halifax, NS.
$20 retail

Poets: Laszlo Szantor, Jeanne Aisthorpe-Smith, Steve Anderson, Susan Geddes, Barbara Harsanyi, Sandra Barry, Michael Seary, Joanne Light, Norm Sabowitz.

Artists: Ed Porter, Jeanne Aisthorpe-Smith, F. Scott MacLeod, Ann Hart, Nicholas Johnson, Taiya Barss, Sally Rose-Minard, Claudia Gahlinger, Sally Warren, Carol Kennedy.

This book is a collection of 9 poets' work with an image from one artist to introduce each poet's section. It has been created to celebrate, encourage, and support active participation in the Arts in Nova Scotia.

Seasons' Light is the first publication for most of these poems and the first time in print for many of the contributors.

Publisher: Ann Hart, Book and cover design by Phillip Augusta, Cover photo by Carol Kennedy.

More art and adventures

October, 2009
Pleasant Bay, NS

Last winter I lived in central Florida. I painted and explored. I'm making little videos of my discoveries.

Cedar Key

Bamboo Gardens

\

Key West

Micanopy

I have a show at the UU Church in Halifax, NS until early Nov. 2009. I have begun doing oil portraits in the last 2 years. It is fun and challenging. So far, I'm intrigued and working toward improving!

Heart Songs opens in November 2008

Five Women artists from Cape Breton will present current work in a new showing of Heart Songs in Gallery II at Cape Breton University in Sydney, NS November 2 through December 15, 2008.

Taiya Barss, Ann Hart, Deanie Cox, Claudia Gahlinger, and Carol Kennedy work in paint, clay, wool, photography. They are long time friends based in Cape Breton who have been working artists for many years. Last year Ann Hart had a 35 year retrospective for her 65th birthday celebration. She invited her four friends to join her in having a visual arts exhibition at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts in Inverness, Cape Breton.

The first Hart Songs proved to be so popular that the women have created a second Heart Songs show for Sydney. Ms. Hart lives in Pleasant Bay and practices Oriental brush painting and water color. She has recently begun experimenting with oil portraits.

" I have always been inspired with traditional fine arts," she says, "and the ancient simplicity and delicacy of the brush and ink techniques of China and Japan are beautiful and deeply meaningful to me. Now I'm studying Chinese Calligraphy which is a whole new world of excellence. My watercolors join an eastern flair and western environment in color landscapes."

Taiya Barss is an oil and mixed media painter. Her work is well known and respected by collectors and artists alike. She lives in Halifax and has a rural retreat in Aberdeen, Cape Breton. Her intricate work has numerous images of natural images overlaid in myriad colors. " My paintings represent fragments of nature. I was trained as a printmaker and my paintings have carried over the layering technique." Dragon flies, salamanders, crows, frogs all live harmoniously in her deep designs.

Carol Kennedy was a fashion photographer in Toronto before she moved to St. Ann's Cape Breton with her sculptor husband Gordon. She does photographic coloring by hand, produces portraits of families and of artists for music CD covers, invents visual dream worlds on the computer, has a Ph D in science, co-operates Iron Art Studio on the Cabot Trail and mounts frequent art exhibitions of her work.

" For me a photograph is like a story which stimulates the imagination and draws one's mind into a place filled with expectation and excitement. After years of living close to the forests and highlands I attempt to illustrate my personal myths and legends" Carol explains.

Claudia Gahlinger is an organic farmer, writer and wool hooking artist. She lives in the Aspy Bay area of Cape Breton, one of the most beautiful places on the island. Her small designs are worked in wool, in the tradition of French Cheticamp hooking. However, her use of scores of subtle colors gives an added depth and complexity to her visions of the land, sea and cloudscapes of her neighborhood. "The majority of my wools are hand dyed, some from plant materials collected locally. Each small tapestry is hooked from over thirty shades of wool, creating a watercolor-like effect."

Deanie Cox is the musician, potter, midwife, blacksmith of the group. Her raku spirit masks and porcelain "body pots" reflect her humor, irony, respect, organic impressions of animals and mankind. She lives in St. Ann's Bay, Cape Breton with Otis Tomas, string instrument maker. She built a barn, hosts friends from everywhere, plays music gigs, writes songs and has perfected the art of raku, a Japanese open air pottery firing technique. " My intent when making animal spirit masks is to pay homage to my deep love and respect for the animal kingdom and the wisdom they offer us." Deanie's masks and pottery can be found at Shape Shift Pottery in North River, CB.

Opening reception for Heart Songs is Sunday, November 2, 2008, from 2 until 4 pm. A closing party will be held to celebrate the holiday season and to offer additional art for sale of work not in the show. The closing will be Saturday, December 13 at 2 pm to 5 pm.