[i] LoveLife

Warm, fuzzy and awesome.

If you want to know what my visit to Churchill, Manitoba looks like when the highlights play on my heart's reel; it's summed up by this video. I am about to book a return to soak up more of this incredibly awesome place.

So good. (I have it on repeat!)
(ADDED: that great tune is by DEAD HORSE BEATS.)

*Yesterday I was hoping to get photos, but I didn't get ANY. I popped in to speak for a Grade 1 class in the inner city AND THEY WERE SO INCREDIBLE. They were excited and in awe of the polar bear stuff I brought them. ESPECIALLY the life-sized drawing we hung on the wall. We drew ringed seals to feed him and my heart grew three sizes. As a thank you I bought them all passes to the zoo to meet Hudson the polar bear cub hoping that businesses might do the same. I know that zoo's are often met with conflicting emotions, but without a zoo influence in my life I would NEVER, NEVER been inspired like I am now.

I want to share that feeling.

Today: painting. I'm still chuckling in my head over some of the funny lines from my date with Dan to see a funny comedian named Matt Falk who stood in valiantly for Rob Schneider (whose plane was rerouted because of snow). Matt, you nailed it.

LAUGHTER IS ALSO SO awesome.

Catch ya next year February. GO!

International Polar Bear Day.

Today: I'm celebrating the awesomeness of polar bears by popping in to an inner city class of Grade 1 students. We're going to have a polar bear LOVE-IN. We will be looking at a few of my paintings, talking about what makes polar bears awesome, browsing through some amazing photographs, and comparing our size with the life-sized drawing I'm bringing in. Oh, we will also be painting enough ringed seals to keep an army (ooops, I mean a celebration) of polar bears very, very happy.

I feel pretty charmed to be able to share my passion for the bears today. And to (hopefully) inspire a little bit of love for an amazingly charismatic, clever and resilient animal. Very cool.

OH. And in honour of the bears - could you turn your thermostats down a couple of degrees (if you're experiencing cold temps) or up a couple of degrees (if you're in more of a tropical location). Reducing our carbon footprint is the first step in making sure they keep theirs. (Thanks, thanks, thanks.)

(P.S - that's my studio buddy named Pearl and she's a gem.)

GO!

Harold.

Luck was on my side last Friday and I DID finish the bear I call Harold. I really like this photo of us. I wanted to show the scale of the painting so that his magnitude could be felt. Three feet by three feet is not that big (by my standards anymore), but Harold fills it like a boss. What you can't see in the sort-of blurry photo is that Harold is a little beat up. He's an old bear and he's tired. He's snuggled into the rocks of the Hudson Bay like only a polar bear can. He's peaceful. And weathered.

I started this painting in October just before I went to Churchill. I left it for a long time and when I picked up again - it took me in a completely different direction. And it didn't come easy. Maybe that's why I like him so much. He was a hard-fought battle. He's also got a soft spot in my heart because a week ago when I named him Harold and put him back on my easel - I got an email from a real person named Harold. Harold had seen the Wild Obsession show on Animal Planet and wanted to reach out to me. And Harold was the zoo keeper for Debbie the old polar bear that had passed away at our zoo. THE Debbie. The one that stole my heart and started my fascination with polar bears. The real Harold did not disappoint.. He's a fantasticly weathered old guy with big, peaceful heart.

The Universe does its thing so well.

**TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL. This is a debate that rages on in our home. And by rages I mean there are certain pieces that I'm simply not ready to part with. And those are the ones that people generally want. Sometimes I just need a couple of months to feel ready to sell. And sometimes I am never ready. I am an emotional painter... I do not deny it. In Dan's opinion everything MUST GO! The faster the better. I get that. I have bills to pay and if I want to buy canvas and paint - I need to sell things. But, I have sold things hastily in the past and still feel the pain of regret. I don't always want to sell things...

Today: Harold has a potential buyer who is coming to visit him... and I am having a hard time with it. And so we will see how the day pans out.

GO!

Progress + other bits.

Here are a couple of peeks at the bear I call Harold. He's not done, but if luck is on my side, I will finish him this afternoon. Nothing feels better than signing a painting on a Friday afternoon.

If you have been following on Instagram (@kalbarteski) I've been posting progress shots (the right hand side bar column). And this guy has been a doozy of a struggle. You might not recognize him. I started him mid October. They used footage of me painting him in the Animal Planet documentary Wild Obsession. Honestly, I lost my groove by trying to force a colour palette that wasn't really my bag and after a thousand layers of paint LO AND BEHOLD - here I am in my favourite zone. This painting is 3 feet square. Harold is almost life sized. I predict I have couple hours to go before I'm happy enough to let the poor guy sleep.

The polar bear art show is on the books for the END of May. I will have more details soon and I am super excited to be getting a little help from a real-live event planner so that I can focus my expertise on what I do best.

UNRELATED OTHER BITS:

• I'm working on a presentation with the theme: PLAY. I'm feeling stuck. I don't usually crowd source, but I'm overlooking something obvious. I MUST BE. What do you think of when you think of the word PLAY and me?
• - The ColorMeRad 5km run is coming to Winnipeg. It looks fantastic. I'm not a runner, but I'm signed up to go play in the colourful madness BECAUSE THAT LOOKS FREAKIN' FUN. And who can't use a little more fun? (My team is called ilovelife if you want to run with us!)

Today: paint, errands, wine, movies. In that order. Awesome!

GO!

Be awesome like a boss.

If you haven't taken three minutes to watch this message from the Kid President - you really need to. So good. I know it's been all over the internet, but that's because it's AWESOME. Especially where he says: "WE SHOULD MAKE EVERY DAY BETTER FOR EACHOTHER."

And of course when he says, BE AWESOME LIKE A BOSS.

*

Today: I have nothing scheduled but painting. I spent a good part of yesterday collecting information and resting my hands. And that info (and rest) is really going to help me out today. Along with the coffee.

GO!

Dare to...

It was a polar bear kind of day. I made, what I feel is, pretty good progress on my painting. I got a great package in the mail (see the Instagram feed), and I asked for HELP AND RECEIVED IT. I have been leaving myself little notes like a very psychotic being that say "HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IT?". All over the place. This week, would not be a good week to have an open studio because it looks a lot like I probably need a mental health checkup.

That's okay. It's part of my process.

Today: I feel like Harold (the grisly old polar bear painting) and I are finding a compromise so I will carry on with that. AND I have been brewing coffee in a French press and loving it.

GO!

Lessons in reduction.

"Doing less" is a phrase that most makes me think of my one (AND ONLY) snowboarding lesson. The instructor said I was going to have to "lean downhill". And that seemed like CRAZY TALK to a prairie girl who is awfully happy on flat land.

But it worked. You lean downhill and the mechanics take over and the edges happen like they are supposed to. Kind of like the "DO LESS" motto. It's hard to agree with your brain that "doing less" is not the same as saying "I can't do it". Like "leaning downhill" is not agreeing to high speed mountain death.

Today: I'm going to delegate some things so that I can concentrate on the bear I call Harold. I kind of feel like he's the guardian of my creative spirit right now... and by guardian - I probably mean more like a gargoyle. I CAN'T GET PAST HIM - and I can't figure it out. I can't make him do what I want and I WANT TO. And I know that I can. I'm going to hit this one until I win.

Back to it. GO!

You say tomato, I say awesomely-colourful.

I have been doing piles of reading about polar bears. I have been studying photographs of bears and their landscapes. Not all of which are a thousand feet deep with snow. I have been getting a little frustrated by the number of people that describe the Tundra as a colourless place. Truly. LOOK. This is a photo of the Hudson Bay October 2012 when I was there. It is one of the things that stands out the MOST about that beautiful Northern community. It was incredibly colourful. Deceptively colourful. Sometimes the palette was subdued and sometimes it was electrifyingly obvious (like in this shot).

I have been spending time painting polar bears and although they are very WHITE bears... the colours of the landscapes are always apparent in their fur and shadows. It's one of those quietly beautiful truths...

Today: is technically a holiday here, but I am painting. I've been wrestling with a big bear and every time I make progress he humbles me in a big way. My fingers are crossed (and medicated) and I'm settling in for a long day of enjoyable struggle.

GO!

Yes, yes, yes.

GO!

Love to you.

 
I love LOVE. And I know that Valentine's Day gets a little skewed in terms of commercialisms and relationship statuses and all that weird jazz. But, at the end of the day IT'S ABOUT LOVE. Love each other. Love the earth. Love life. Love family, friends, whatever and whomever. Love polar bears for goodness sake. I don't think it's all that bad to have a day that celebrates LOVE. And truly - some of us never see the LOVE IN THE EVERY DAY... even with a bunch of sugary sweets to remind us.

I feel an overwhelming love for so many things.

I love.

Today: I will be loving as much and as many things as I can. FOR SURE, there are pink cupcakes on the menu and a couple of adventures on the books. I think I'm going to wear pink, too. Just to keep it real. ;)

GO LOVE!