Ages ago...

in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, near Fort McLeod in Alberta, Canada, the Blackfoot First Nations practised an effective way of hunting large numbers of buffalo at one time.

In short: herds of grazing buffalo were lured and directed into a stampede, using cairns and human decoys, which led the animals to a steep rock formation, the

Buffalo Jump.

After their fall, the legs of the buffalo were broken and they could not move forward anymore, thus enabling the hunters to kill them with their spears. Each and every part of the killed animals was used by the Blackfoot: the hide, the bones, the bone marrow, the organs.

Now this may seem very cruel today, but imagine those people living without any other source of food, imagine the harsh winters in the open plains, the need of warmth and shelter, there were no horses at that time either, just the buffalo, the people and their spears.

And, there were so many buffalo at that time, so history tells, that the green foothills looked completely brown by them.

Buffalo are hardly seen in nature nowadays, but this dramatic decrease only happened after the Europeans crossed the Atlantic and discovered the West of Canada, after they organized many huge hunting parties.

However, during the time of the Buffalo Jump the number of buffalo was kept rather constant

We visited the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump during our recent trip and I was quite impressed.

Close to the rock formation itself, there is a splendid interpretive center, where you can learn and see about those ancient times, the Blackfoot people, their way of life

Year round there are activities in and around the centre, like this Drumming & Dancing

the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Is it a blanket, a quilt?
I like the bold design and colours

Archeologists must have seen something like this
when they discovered the Buffalo Jump

This trip made me, once again, very much aware of the richdom of our times, the food choices we can make, the luxury of our homes and transport.

In 1981 the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was established as a Unesco World Heritage site.

In more subtle colours...

click image for details!

Until today my attempt to work in less vibrant, more subtle colours seems to

be working all right, it is not as difficult as I anticipated!

Whether you, my blog visitor, like it, that's quite another thing, since I did not get any comment

on my last posts, I'm in total doubt about that...

But: this blogging is for a good deal about my development as an artist, and as such

it helps me, especially when I reread my posts, which I sometimes do. Trying to get this development clear is important for me.

In the meantime I am following a 10 days online workshop offered by Shelley Klammer. I found this free workshop about "Freeing Deeper Creativity" and decided to give it a try. Shelley compares the inward images we see just before falling asleep or having just awaked with a spontaneous collage. So far I have been making about five very quickly done paper collages, just using two images from an old magazine and some words. There are hardly directions given, one simply (for me it is not simple at all) has to listen what this collage tells.

Today I had to collage about what I did not like, which is rather tricky, as I always look at pictures for their beauty, their wonderful colours, the balancing together. But I did it, this collage is built from things I despise: two men, father and son, of an important family (they are from a line of antiquedealers, at least they think they are important, one even met Queen Juliana of the Netherlands the words in Dutch say! So what, I then think). Well, all in all this picture of these men reminds me of the Calvinistic mood that reigned in Holland in my youth and can still be found in certain regions, the attitude against people from far away, looking for a better future, the not spoken of, but always present Old Boys Networks: things I obviously hate and have buried deep inside me. Just working with this picture brings it all back, so one could say my deeper creativity is there, and it has started to get out of every nook and cranny of my soul.

We'll see where this will lead to!

Out of consideration with the two men, I will not post this collage here, but I wanted to write about this, for I consider it as much part of my development as an artist as working in more subtle colours.

See ya!!

Lake Louise

Still speechless, such beauty...

Lake Louise, 8:00 pm, two weeks ago

Banff National Park

Alberta, Canada

Yesterday's collage

(you can click the image for more details)

was made of these pictures:

we witnessed this gorgeous sunset near a place called

Head-smashed-in Buffalo Thunder

in Ft.McLeod, Alberta, Canada

It is a very special place, of which I will write a separate post one of these days
Yesterday's digital collage started with this sunset picture,

then I added

this drawing.

It is situated in the interpretive center that is part of this Unesco World Heritage site

The first result was too dull, there did'not 'happen' enough for me,

so I added this guy

which in fact was an ugly wooden statue at the entrance

of a roadside visitor center where we had coffee. When seeing it, I was immediately

intrigued by his barb of nails, seeing possibilities for use in my collages.

As I wrote yesterday, I try to make my digital collages in more subtle colours for some time. I am a selftaught PS-er, far from experienced, and by setting this goal I hope to expand my knowledge bit by bit.

One thing I''m wondering: did you like my explanation of how I compose collages?

I would love to hear from you, I really do...

Enjoy your day!

It feels so good

to be home again, to be able to use my own computer, the internet and

ps!

I started making some new digital collages, all using pictures I made during our recent trip.

Working in more subtle tones is a goal I have set, the collage below is a first attempt. Not sure how long I can follow this, because something inside of me always needs the more vibrant colours, maybe it is influenced by this Caribbean environment...

However, I do like this one, it could be a colour scheme for my winter clothes, should I be living in a more harsh climate, hah!

Tomorrow I will show the original pictures it is composed of, together with a story of one of our daytrips in Canada, so stay tuned...

Welcome back!!

May I introduce you to my daughter Laura?

Today one year ago she left the Netherlands for a year of backpacking in Australia. You can read some more in this post. The backpacking adventure came to an early stop because she got ill and eventually had to have a major surgery, of which she fortunately recovered well. Due to visits to doctors and recovering, she has been living in Cairns for the biggest part of her stay in Australia, where she made friends quite easily and has been enjoying the incredible beauty of the Great Barrier Reef as much as she could.

And now, today, she is returning to Holland!

And just like last year when she left, I dread the fact that I can not be there to welcome her back. This is, again, one of these moments that I hate to live so far apart from my children...

But hey, I live on Sint Maarten, which still is a DUTCH island after all, so from this overseas part of Holland I say to you, my sweet Laura,

WELCOME BACK IN HOLLAND

!!!!

We hope you can settle down again without any trouble, and we know that your many Dutch friends will certainly do whatever they can to assist you if need be.

After 9 weeks

we are back on our island, in our house, in the Caribbean!!

My head is full of impressions, of inner pictures of beauty we have seen on our way, of such nice people we have met. The impressions and memories will quickly fade, I know that, but hey: the pictures and music will easily bring them back, at least that's how it works with me.

So for a few days I have to spend some extra attention to our house (this really is a euphemism) and then I start the job of organizing all pictures on my computer, that will take a considerable amount of time too.

But most important:

we are back again, safe and sound!

In the meantime I leave you with this digital collage that I made some time ago. It is composed of pictures of my collage and paintwork. Regular readers of my blog might recognize some familiar ingredients, just click on it to see more details.

You all have a wonderful day!