Silo Heart Banner, 2019

2019 Silo Heart Banner.

While 2019 marked our ninth year here, it is technically our tenth season of operation and, thus, this is our tenth banner. During our usual brainstorming session, I joked that we should do the heart banner from 2010...

2010 Heart Banner.

...but it seemed weird to repeat a design no matter how much we loved it...and we DO very much love that design; it's become sort of our "third logo" (after the oval and circle logos) and the graphic of our silo with a heart banner (below) has shown up on various Small Pond projects (both real and imaginary)...

Silo logo.

...so then I suggested, jokingly, that the logo of the silo with a heart banner should be on the tenth banner. We laughed. And then decided that it was just crazy enough to work both as a humourous and and appropriate approach. But I can guarantee that our 20th and 30th banners won't be an ever-decreasing heart-silo fractal.

Gridded.

After the successes we had using tape and spray paint for the Triskelion, the Don't Give Up, and the Snowy Owl banners, Krista and I used the same technique for this year's banner. This time, though, the grid was more carefully plotted and tighter overall, giving us a more accurate graphic than last year's Snowy Owl (I take the blame for any proportional weirdness on that one).

Taped and Drawn.

We decided to enlarge the heart for greater visibility and impact, and I free-handed it.

Spraying the silo.

Krista once again took care of the painting duties in the workshop.

Spraying the heart.

Old puppets and lanterns monitor the progress.

Removing the tape.

Next to the raising of the banner itself, this is probably the most exciting part: seeing the design revealed for the first time.

As usual, the best shots of the banner are obtained as the sun goes down.

Snowy Owl Silo Banner, 2018

Snowy Owl Silo Banner, 2018.

Krista and I like birds, and over the past eight years we've identified over two dozen species that visit and/or hang around at Small Pond (we have a few bird books and a decent pair of binoculars). Sadly, owls aren't among that group. So why an owl, then? There are a number of different owl species that visit and/or hang around Prince Edward County, and the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory does a regular banding of them, so, somehow we got inspired by that (and our great admiration for owls, of course) and we decided to "put a bird on it" one more time (we previously put a pileated woodpecker on the Silo, thanks to Leanne Shea Rhem).

Preliminary sketches (with saw-whet owl).

The design was originally going to be a close-up of a saw-whet owl's face done in a very stylized, but still recognizable, way. After playing around with a few designs I came upon a different, more minimal, composition featuring the shape of the bird and a contrasting background colour. The face of a saw-whet owl is almost unbearably cute and it would have been nice to see one at that scale, but we decided a snowy owl would better suit the new, simpler design.

Refined sketch (with minimalism).

I wanted the bird at rest (so as not to be mistaken for this album cover) and I wanted it looking at us, rather than in profile. I settled on an almost-full-frontal-but-kind-of-three-quarters view, tweaking the shape a bit to be more curvy, but still properly owl-like.

Near-final composition (with crescent moon).

Clearly, the top left quadrant of the design was sorely empty and adding the moon was the logical remedy. That crescent moon went through a phase change to full and now is a bolder design element. Also, full moons on clear nights around here are so bright that you can set up your favourite comfy chair outside and read by the light of the moon, so it's nice to sorta pay tribute to that, as well.

The spots on the owl's wing tips transformed into little hearts (they already kind of looked like hearts, and our first banner featured a big, red heart, so that was a playful little design choice). And there's nine of 'em to mark this, Small Pond's ninth, season.

Blank Canvas (with tape measure).

Krista once again sewed the sheets together and made channels on two sides for the ropes to go through. Last year's banner lasted well up until the last wind and ice storm (mid-April, 2018!), and that was our longest-lasting banner yet (true to its message, it didn't give up –it was killed!). Krista's made some sturdy banners before, but something tells me she's getting better at it every year.

Poor man's grid (with optimism).

I was then charged with the daunting task of drawing the final, refined design on the very large banner surface. We measured out a loose grid (marked at the intersections with masking tape) and I did my best to get the proportions right. I would have done better if we marked off more grid points.

Pencilled owl (with paper moon).

My pencil lines appear faint, here, but they (and the paper moon template) were enough for Krista to then use as a masking guide to protect the owl from the spray painted background. Rather than sewing coloured fabrics for the designs, Krista has been masking off and then spray painting the banners since the Triskelion in 2016. The rattle can colours hold up exceptionally well in the sunlight, the rain, and even the ice and snow.

Panorama (with bike).

We raised the banner, kicking off another season of Small Pond Arts shenanigans, in our traditional Silobration style, with friends, food, kids running around, and a hearty game of Kubb.

Twilight (without vampires).

Just after sunset, while the human eye can still see in the dim light, the banner looks like it's illuminated from within. This isn't a very good photo of that effect, but the stark white of the owl and the moon, contrasted against the dark blue banner background and darkening environment is quite a striking sight. Come by and check it out!

Twilight (with Moon and Venus).

One week after its raising, our snowy owl is already courting the full moon.

Bonus sunset shots:

Spring Sprang

Our eighth spring at Small Pond Arts has come and gone. It was the rainiest spring we've experienced since moving here in 2010; while many people on our island experienced flooding, we are high up on a hill and lucky that the worst outcome has been having to mow the grass every five minutes! 

We kicked off the season with our annual banner-raising silobration.

Photo: Melanie Dailey

The symbol on this year's banner is a hobo sign; from the 1880's to WWII, hoboes placed markings on fences, posts, sidewalks, etc, to aid their fellow travellers in finding help or steering them clear of trouble. We found this symbol especially poignant - a message of encouragement from one person to another.

We have been overrun with rabbits this spring; we easily spot a dozen bunnies a day, with lots of adorable babies running around. This cuteness just doesn't get old!

We also had a very special visitor pass through: a snapping turtle moseyed across the lawn one day.

We've had a few artists in residence so far, and the busy season is upon us with some 20+ more artists passing through in the next two months.

Montreal artist Stéfanie Meunier works mostly in digital formats, but spent two weeks at Small Pond working analog with sketching and painting, and enjoying bunnies appearing at her feet while working outside the art barn.

We made an outing to Little Bluff Conservation Area to check out this wall of drift wood that the high waters had pushed onshore. Normally it's only pebbles on this beach, so this was quite an unusual site!

We held our second annual Cardboard Camp getting ready for Skeleton Park Arts Festival. It was totally fun and an inspiration to be working alongside such talented artists.

L to R: Chrissy Poitras, Nella Casson, Kevin Merritt, Holly Gilmour, Krista Dalby

This year our theme was Boxtopiaville. We created an urban environment with all the necessities, like a cat cafe...

... A bike shop, with a nod to our cardboard sponsor, Bloomfield Bicycle Company...

...And a Wheel of Fate that was eagerly spun by many.

Artist: Kevin Merritt

I also had the pleasure of working with Aleks Bragoszewska of Bird Bone Theatre to help animate the Porch Jazz Parade.

And furthermore in cardboard news, I received an honourable mention at Art in the County for my sculpture, Corrugated Cohen. Sweet!

Corrugated Cohen by Krista Dalby

Now it's time to eat our Wheaties as we launch into full-on summer mode. If you're in the area, come for a visit!

Season 7 Silobration

The May long weekend marks the official start of a new season of Small Pond Arts and our festive adventures, and each year we kick it off with a party which we're now calling our "Silobration." Everyone is invited to partake in potluck delights, games, and of course, the main event: the raising of the new silo banner.

Helping hands.

As usual, two people work inside the silo, hoisting the banner by pulling the ropes, while a crew outside makes sure nothing gets tangled and that the banner reaches the desired height. I've always been on the inside, so I'm one of the last people at the party that gets to see the new banner, but I enjoy climbing out of the silo and running around the foliage to get my first look.

Triskelion.

Krista's banner idea this year was an ancient design called a triskelion, first used in Malta (4400-3600 BC) which has many different (and some contradictory) meanings and symbolism, and has been adopted by many cultures all over the world, and designs vary greatly. For our purpose as a banner design, the meaning Krista chose to focus on is the three arms symbolizing the past, present, and future (which is how the Ingush people of Russia use it).

Of course, I have been familiar with two particular uses of triskelions for most of my life:

a 45-RPM record adapter...

...and a not-so-great episode of Star Trek.

I'll wager fifteen quatloos that nobody is surprised by this admission.

But speaking of television, and invoking the past, I took the design for ABC's Sunday Night Movie and adapted it as a fun graphic for our Season 7 launch.

And speaking of adapting 1970s-era graphics, I recently created a series of 77 "trading cards" based on the hugely successful Topps series of Star Wars cards. These only exist digitally on our blog (and have no "backs"), but feel free to print them out...if you dare. They're a fun way to look back on our previous six seasons and many amazing people are featured.

The wide shot.

After a pretty cool start to the spring, we were happy to have perfect weather for this year's Silobration: not hot, but not chilly; slightly breezy, but not windy; not cloudy; and barely buggy. Just looking at this picture makes me feel warm and serene.

Cookies!

Among the tasty potluck offerings were these delicious cookies made by Karlyn Madrid of Karlyn's Cookies. There were also two varieties of boozy root beer, which required much taste-testing to reveal which was superior.

Party time.

People came from far and wide to enjoy the festivities, share some great food, and play some kubb (not pictured). It was, as always, a banner day.

A new friend.

Meanwhile, we've noticed a new species of bird hanging around our back field. It's possible we've had Eastern Meadowlarks for a while, because their song is familiar (but with so many mimics, who can be sure?), but this is the first year we've actually spotted one. They're about the size of a robin and so deeply, beautifully yellow on their front side. We've spotted this one in the back for a few weeks, now, likely nesting in the grass nearby, but getting a good photo is tricky.

Beautiful brief blossoms.

The magnolia tree that Elizabeth and Tom planted as part of their wedding ceremony held at Small Pond last September came into full bloom just a few weeks before our Silobration...

So pink!

...as did these perennial tulips at the side of our house...

So fragrant!

...but our lilacs were right on schedule, ensuring the weekend was not only pretty, but permeating the landscape with one of my favourite aromas. If only they lasted all summer...

Standing by...

Having looked at the past via my weird 1970s tributes and the recently-bloomed flowers, the present via a new silo banner and the enjoyment of friends and wildlife hanging around Small Pond, we now look to the future and the bounty in store that will come from our garden for us to share and enjoy in the coming months...

Mere babies...for now.

...and then there are the recently-planted sunflowers which will grow tall, strong, and golden, attracting a nice variety of birds and bugs...and my camera lens.