Elizabeth McClung: from porn starlette to drummer? Moss Street Part I

Any day you start with brushing your teeth and end up as the front page of a sex porn mag is an interesting day (oh joy, another reason for my parents to be proud of me!). Aaron Williamson from 15mm Films contacted me about using a picture of me with a squirrel to advertise a new film. I said ‘no problem’ as any picture can be reproduced of mine or me, this is anarchy incorporated around here. Of course, I thought it was going to be the one of the squirrels head buried into my crotch. But they wanted this one.
Well with that kind of motivation and due to the result of the medication for my thyroid actually allowing me to sit upright again. I will be attempting to blog daily except on weekends and anything I declare a holiday (like ‘Beth Sleeping Holiday’). Yes, that’s right, daily. And try to reply to every comment as I have been with the last few posts. Please feel free to lavish me with manga. No, that’s not ‘in exchange’ or anything as the writing here is free, I just really, really like manga. And as much as they send me emails I don’t think I have won the: Irish Lottery, Brazil Lottery, BBC Lottery, and the sole selected money holder for Princess Amuta for 1.4 million. So instead I’m feeling like writing. Let’s roll…

On Sunday, I did the two hour get up thing, with showering and getting ready thing to go (I have so many of 1 earring, where did the others go?). Then Linda, Cheryl, Indy (the power wheelchair) and I went to see and talk to artists at the Moss Street Paint In. This is where the entire Moss Street (so called because it is a freaking mountain side) in closed off to artists for several hours. (Why yes, that is a genuine bamboo umbrella which Geisha’s use in dancing which is shading me. And yes, only available in Kyoto from a store that only sells to Geisha and Meiko’s, no phone, no internet order, and doing that for 140 years. The owner was not keen to sell to me; but I crip carded her into it!).

At the top of Moss street I saw Richard Hunt, the famous carver and uncle of Jason Hunt. I was going to say I 'ran into' but with INDY, my wheelchair, that is more like, 'ran over' so I have to change the phrase. Richard is a very famous artist (he did the Queen's Baton) whose grandfather was one of a few handful of original carvers left on the west coast. Those four or five carvers were employed by the Royal Museum to make replicas of the art the museum held, so that the masks and carvings could be preserved. But they also went around to all the different villages to teach the youth carving again. Because the Potlatch, an important ceremony with many different dancers (and masks to go with them) was banned as 'heathen' by Christians, the west coast culture was almost lost. Richard's Grandfather promised there would always be 'a Hunt' (himself or one of his family) at the museum, and when he died that was Richard, his apprentice. The Grandfather could carve in Haida, Salish and all the west coast styles but Richard could now focus on the Kwagulth style. When talking to Jason Hunt later it turned out he did five years carving in the carving shed of the museum as well before they shut it down. Richard said that now that the carving was recognized as a genuine art form, he was no longer needed there and now has his own gallery or does commission work. He makes mostly bears and eagles. Lots of eagles, which is what he is carving here, after he saw on a program that it was the emblem of his village at Fort Rupert.

I asked why he did the bear, and did he do the bear dance? He said yes, and did the bear dance in his chair. It was a ‘transformation’ dance where you are a human (normal arm swing) then you turn and (his arms lumbered) you are the bear among the animals, you turn again and you are a human again. Jason explain that mean it was a dance where you wear a ‘transformation mask’ where there are two masks, one inside the other, and as you turn, the one inside is revealed (the bear) then hidden again. I asked Richard if Jason was here and said how I knew him and he said he didn’t know if he was here today but to say hi to Jason if I saw him.

That was not to be the only interesting exchange, like talking to a German painter because I guessed the inspiration of his clouds (the Michelangelo in the Vatican) in his painting about how he met and talked to Salvador Dali when they sold paintings in spain in the 70’s. But that is for tomorrow! For now we go down Moss Street, which is named because it seems they carved it right out of a friggin cliff, it is steep and gets steeper, as you can see, I am reclined back in my chair but I look like I am upright.

Of course, being Victoria, with five different types of recumbent bicycles, two types of wheelchair or handcycles, and so much cycling, it was hard to tell if this was just transportation or art. It was a restored (or original) bicycle that had been adapted with a two-cylinder engine. How did that work exactly? I don’t know but Cheryl was very interested.

We continued down and found a flat spot where a group of four, two drummers and two dancers were starting a performance. A crowd quickly gathered making pictures difficult, but I bought this camera so I could take pictures around corners, so I kept at it. The drummers had given out shakers to kids and some of them were in sound making heaven.
The drummers playing teach drumming around Victoria and the one I talked to has over 100 drums and plays on everything from goat skin drums to a donkey’s jawbone. They are holding a free class in August which I might attend. They said that having neuropathy is no problem and there are lap drums. Odd, since when I was at orchestra camp (and without neuropathy), I was enlisted as drummer for one of Glass's’ compositions which required 30+ percussionists. It was found that not only could I NOT do the wrist roll needed for drumming but even after I was demoted to ‘clack sticks’ I did not have the needed skills: the ability to count to four. In my defence, I would clack and the page would read, “84 bar rest” so I am going, “1…2…3…53, 1…2…3….fifty..um was that fifty four or fifty three?” So by the time I am suppose to clack again, I am about two bars ahead or behind. That thing about even a broken clock getting it right twice a day does not apply to me and ‘clack sticks’. So we will see. Meanwhile, back on Moss Street, these two drummers are really beating it out in a hot sunny day, making the rhythms.
And the rhythms were making people sway, people tap their feet, making some people dance, and some children dance with wild abandon with a smile that says, “And I REALLY don’t get in trouble for this??”

Well that is all for now except that I did run into Jason Hunt, who was showing his latest carving commission. It is a table top which will later be covered with glass. I said the ‘hi’ from his uncle and he explained a phrase his uncle used, when I had asked if all his brothers were in carving (I should have asked about the sisters!), and he said yes ‘except for one who couldn’t stand the sight of his own blood’. Now in MY family, that would mean, in the way I was sent off as a three year old and a six year old being told, “Remember, you bear the family name” that the person had turned their back on the family tradition – meaning they hated their blood and blood ties. No, it turns out that he hated the sight of blood. In carving apparently getting a chisel in your hand or finger is just an occupational hazard, as is the blood, particularly when you start. This brother couldn’t stand the sight of blood and quit. So for any self-harmers, you might want to take up detailed carving.

Jason also said that Linda’s Birthday surprise is almost ready and that he has a disc of photo’s so I will be able to show the work in progress. The reason he didn’t send me any photos as he worked is that he wanted it all to be a surprise. Once I get the finished product and the disc I will blog about that. Thank you to everyone who contributed to her Birthday commission – it is definitely a gift from the ‘family’ of Screw Bronze and not just me.

As a teaser for tomorrow, here is the picture of an artist I met, who has some VERY interesting art. This one called, “wheatfield” kept drawing me back (those shadowy figures, so 80's horror, I am not sure I would want it over my bed at night), enough that I asked how much it was. It had sold...just that afternoon. Linda behind me sighed in relief. Apparently I am only allowed ONE large buying of art I can’t really afford each year.

We returned home where after a nap, we did postcard until 5:00 am. Here are the postcards at stage 2, I am still working on doing the stickers on all of them and then the writing. But these are four of the 38 we did in those 24 hours. I keep putting pictures of postcards up because I just think they are beautiful, each one.

Moss Street Part II tomorrow!