Ashkenazai Synogague

This synagogue is located in Karakoy, Istanbul. It's well-hidden, but if you look up between the right buildings, you'll see it.

Collaged block print, 2010

Naramata Peacocks

Naramata has three peacocks. No one knows where they came from, or who brought them, only that they showed up one day in 2008 and have made Naramata their home ever since. 

They didn't arrive without controversy, the village has been divided since their arrival, some people love them and others... well, don't love them. Whatever side of the fence you're on, it has to be agreed that they are beautiful, especially when they display their tail feathers.

One peacock makes the few blocks around our house his territory, so I run into this guy on a daily basis, (in fact just this morning, he was on our front deck and roof) and we have several of his tail feathers that he's left in the back lane or in our yard.

Last week, on the way home from a community breakfast, I took the above three pictures. It's spring, and although there are no peahens around to mate with, our guy was out in full force; prancing and dancing in a back alley for those who came across him. 

When I got down low to take his photo, he strutted towards me in an aggressive manner and shook his tail feathers, it was quite intimidating! 

So I made a lino cut of him, this is actually just a proof and I have yet to make proper prints of him. I printed this on paper I brought back from Thailand.

Block Print: The Train Dock

The Train Dock in the 1980's

When I was a kid, we lived right across the road from the train dock in Naramata. In fact, the house we lived in was actually a barn, floated down from Kelowna on a barge and unloaded off the dock. From there it was  dragged across the street and placed on a vacant lot. But that is another story....

I was warned by my mother never to set foot on the dock without an adult present; a rule I broke early and often. The train dock beckoned little kids like me to crawl all over it's sticky creosote beams.

 As teenagers, the boys would dive off the towers into the cold waters of Okanagan Lake while the girls suntanned on the deck. Honestly, it was never a great place to swim - the creosote beams created a smelly oily film on the surface of the water and our bathing suits would easily be stained with dark brown tar. But it was a great place to meet and hang out. I have fond after-school memories of  eating ice cream sandwiches with my best friend, our bikes dumped unceremoniously in the nearby gravel.

Then, one day in 2002, news spread that the Train Dock was gone. It was deemed unsafe and disappeared so quickly, many Naramatians were surprised and shocked at the speed of it's demolition.

The Train Dock in 2010

Today, the dock has been preserved, but the landmark towers are gone. Where there were once weeds and gravel, there is grass and a manicured path. I wasn't able to find any pictures of the old dock on the web. The one old picture here is a photograph of a photograph hanging on the wall at the Naramata Museum.

And so, this is the train dock the way I remember it when I was 12 years old. This print was composed from a few old photographs and a lot of memories.

 "The Train Dock" 

Hand-painted block print

Limited edition of 12

My sister will have these prints for sale at the Christmas Faire held at the Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa, along with her paintings. More on that soon!

Commercial Break: Talismania!!

The sisters are working on a new project!

Mel and I recently took a trip to the Topkapi Palace and spent a lot of time looking at the talismanic healing shirts made by holy men and worn by the Sultan. Inscribed with Quranic verse, the “healing shirts” were believed to be able to cure disease and protect the wearer from evil and harm. The Ottoman sultans believed their shirts would protect them like armor, and often wore them into battle. Since there wasn't any blood on them, they may have actually worked!

From Topkapi Palace (A must-see in Istanbul!)

Modern day talismanic scarves made with love in Istanbul: maroon 'peace' in five languages,

purple and red Turkish flower scarves designed and printed in our living room.

After leaving the Topkapi palace, we grabbed a coffee and talked about the shirts, our eyes rested on two women at the next table. One was wearing a Turkish evil eye bracelet, the other, a funky scarf that is the height of fashion in Istanbul these days. The inspirational discussion began, and before we knew it, we were embarking on our mission of creating good luck-infused and fashionable (and practical) lucky charms: The talismanic scarf!

Off to a good start!

Combining all of these good luck symbols and the idea of the inscriptions of the healing shirts, we came up with funky talismanic scarves - block-printed in Turkish inspired designs. Some have Rumi quotes, and all have their own evil eye hand sewn into the corner.

The evil eye army. We feel the power radiating off these little jewels, I swear.

The project has just begun, we are up to our elbows in carving block prints, printing scarves with fabric paint and sewing the evil eyes in a prominent place of protection. We'll post more pictures here as we go, but we wanted to share this special project with you before Christmas, as these work-of art-scarves are perfect for sending in the post.

The block Mel carved reversed in the mirror so you can read it:

"When I am with you we stay up all night. When we are apart I cannot sleep. Praise these two insomnias and the difference between them." `Rumi

"We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust." ~Rumi

The scarves will be sold in Istanbul in our Sultanahmet living room or at your place of convenience until the end of November,(at 25 lira each) and we'll be in Canada after that, at the Naramata Craft Faire on December 6th, and during a side trip to Vancouver and Victoria just before Christmas. (25 CDN including taxes.)

Contact me or Mel for details!

We really hope you enjoy wearing them as much as we enjoy making them!

Rene and Melanie

The Process

I love Ortakoy. For me, it's where the Bosphorus meets Istanbul. There's something intimate and secret about the place. Every odd Thursday night you can find me there with a group of revelers from "The Sublime Portal", other times I'll be there on a Saturday wandering its little streets, and all streets lead to this mosque.

The architect was Armenian, and a Turkish friend pointed out that seagulls never land on this mosque. I've watched, and he's right.

Google "Ortakoy mosque", and you'll see this mosque and bridge captured over and over - in every type of weather and every season, in every media.

No matter. I also wanted to do something with this mosque beyond photographing it, so I dug up the above photo that I took last summer.

And I drew this.

Ugh and ick. Not happy. Not only did I mess up several of the details on the mosque, it didn't convey how I felt about the place at all. So I threw it in the bookshelf. Where it sat for months and months, until Mel fished it out last week and said, "I think you should really do something with this".

She was right. So I thought about why I felt this try was so unsuccessful, and decided I wanted the space to be more cozy, like the area itself. So I turned the next paper on its side, and after lots of trail and error, I drew this.

This was better! I fixed several of the details on the mosque I'd messed up on the first one and then distorted it slightly and simplified it a lot.

The next step was to decide on, and colour in, all the black parts with a soft graphite pencil, and then transfer the mirror image onto lino. Then I carved it up. As is tradition, I also carved up part of my finger as well. I would have shown this as part of the process, but it's pretty nasty looking.

I usually change a lot of things in this step, depending on how many times I slip and mess up. I added some details to the boats and made a last minute decision to keep the dome all black. I also made a major, (in my eyes) blunder, but we're not going to talk about that.

Ok, so I'm not one of those printers who pulls off the first few prints and labels them artist's proofs. I'm just too picky for that. This is the very first print. It's now at the bottom of the rubbish bin. As you can see, this is just for me to check out how things are looking so far, hence the torn out paper from a sketchbook and sloppy printing.

This one wasn't too bad. I often leave bits undone, so I can look at the whole picture after the first print and decide which direction to go. I decided to straighten and neaten some lines, take out some bits that were getting accidentally inked, and leave the rest as it was.

Then I made a mess. Yes, I like to work on the floor for this part.

Nearing completion! I have to do more printing later tonight. The ink is just drying far too quickly in this heat for me to pull nice prints. The prints in the morning were much better.

And done! Ortakoy mosque, fresh off the roller!

Flower Inspiration!

Since I've been surrounded by flowers over the past month, I've done this lino cut in celebration of all the blooms. It's called "Flower Mandala", and is quite small compared to the other big ones I've done in the past. I've hand-coloured them and plan to include them in the upcoming "Prints, Paintings and Pizza" show Mel and I are having at our friends Pizza place this month.

A Sister Collaboration!

Many, many, many years ago, (more than 10!) my incredibly talented sister carved this design for her book making business in Victoria. This summer when I was home, I picked through the old stamps and brought back a few of the Islamic and Christmas -ish ones to play with.

I sat down one night with all my block printing supplies and printed up a heap of these in gold, turquoise black and red. Signing them R&M was the icing on the cake! I think they'll look awesome in frames.

Pomegranates and Tulips

I actually found some lino cutting supplies in an art store a few weeks back, so I purchased, came home and messed around with it a bit.

Here's my lino sitting in the sun getting warm so I can make a few changes after the first proof.

The paper is wrong, it has a really heavy tooth to it so it doesn't print clearly, (in Turkey, if Canson didn't make it - it doesn't exist!). But it's just a proof to see how it looks. That it turned out square was a total surprise to me, although I should have seen it coming.

I've since found and purchased some smooth cream Canson and plan to give printing another go soon. I'd like to print it in another colour besides black but, unfortunately the store only carries black white and blue block printing ink, so I think I might be limited to a steely grey-blue colour.

Looking at it here now makes me think it might look pretty good printed on a pillow cover. What do you think?