Working up a storm!
Talk about a promising busy month!
Work
For starters, I am booked 2 days this month to go into schools and teach about Aboriginal Culture and Aboriginal Art. They are whole day endeavors that include story telling, and I get to teach grades 1, 2, 4, and 6.
For the really little kiddies, we will be making button blankets as part of the art endeavor- I will be making “craft bags” that will contain the basic materials, so the kids get to design their own blanket, glue, cut, and enjoy.
The grade 4s get a template design and create an animal or image in an aboriginal style.
The grade 6s will also do like the grade 4s, but we will go in depth with the various styles in North America, and I’ll also bring some cultural artifacts for them to analyze.
It’s going to be whole day events, so I’ll be bussing it out to various places.
Also, I was booked for a 4 week course in Aboriginal Culture and Art at Dodem Kanonhsa! In the month of July and again in August, I will be passing a weekly course about a certain Aboriginal culture, the influences and mechanisms of their art, and the participates will create an image based on the style that we will deal with! I will be covering: Anishinabe, North West Pacific, Ainu, and Aztec.
This course is open and available to all the community- both Aboriginal and non aboriginal! It will be on Thursdays, between 1-3 pm. I do not believe that signing up will be a requirement, but they will inform me ahead of time if it needs to be.
Anyone wanting to attend can contact me to notify me! The location is in the Dodem facility at St. Clair ave, downtown Toronto (the Governmental building).
Those who miss the July course, there might be one starting in August as well.
Aikido
This past weekend we had a Seminar at out Dojo with a very prestigious Zen-Aikido Master from Japan. Shimamoto Sensei really renewed our outlooks on some of the basic concepts of Aikido, and capitalized on an aspect that most in the West don’t: the Energy. We had to be attacked with blindfolds on so that we could sense the energy of the attack before it came. It was VERY enlightening (and very Jedi-like).
I bought one of Shimamoto’s shirts… he made a wonderful calligraphy of Zen, and they printed them on shirts. Of course I got one and all the dojo was sporting the shirts for our Zen meditation with him... we were like a giant fanclub!
My sempais, my Senseis and I are all still bubbling over the seminar. It was far too much fun, and Shimamoto sensei is a natural stand-up comedian when he taught. Even thought he only spoke Japanese, we TOTALLY could get his jokes. It was a ridiculously awesome time.
I have begun to realize and grow aware of my own improvements in my Aikido. I still suck like a leech, but I am getting some concepts- like being relaxed even when performing an attack, my front rolling is MUCH better, and I have lost nearly all my apprehension when doing a new move, or being flipped. I just take it as it comes and put so much faith into my sparring partner... and it pays off!
Anthrocon
I’m working up a storm for Anthrocon. I don’t want to overdo my stock, as this will be my first time in attendance, and I don’t know the crowd, if I’ll have a table for all or any of the days, but I want to come generously prepared. I already have met a few bumps in the road, but they were countered with a few lovely “coincidences” that make life easy. So I think- and hope- to be well stocked and done by the end of next week. If I can hit that goal, I will be VERY pleased!
Now, it’s off to cast more mini-masks for the event! I hope you guys are doing well.
Edit:
No sooner did I post this then they called me form the NCC.. looks like I'm booked this Friday to go teaching at another school as well! Oh yah baby! XD
Work
For starters, I am booked 2 days this month to go into schools and teach about Aboriginal Culture and Aboriginal Art. They are whole day endeavors that include story telling, and I get to teach grades 1, 2, 4, and 6.
For the really little kiddies, we will be making button blankets as part of the art endeavor- I will be making “craft bags” that will contain the basic materials, so the kids get to design their own blanket, glue, cut, and enjoy.
The grade 4s get a template design and create an animal or image in an aboriginal style.
The grade 6s will also do like the grade 4s, but we will go in depth with the various styles in North America, and I’ll also bring some cultural artifacts for them to analyze.
It’s going to be whole day events, so I’ll be bussing it out to various places.
Also, I was booked for a 4 week course in Aboriginal Culture and Art at Dodem Kanonhsa! In the month of July and again in August, I will be passing a weekly course about a certain Aboriginal culture, the influences and mechanisms of their art, and the participates will create an image based on the style that we will deal with! I will be covering: Anishinabe, North West Pacific, Ainu, and Aztec.
This course is open and available to all the community- both Aboriginal and non aboriginal! It will be on Thursdays, between 1-3 pm. I do not believe that signing up will be a requirement, but they will inform me ahead of time if it needs to be.
Anyone wanting to attend can contact me to notify me! The location is in the Dodem facility at St. Clair ave, downtown Toronto (the Governmental building).
Those who miss the July course, there might be one starting in August as well.
Aikido
This past weekend we had a Seminar at out Dojo with a very prestigious Zen-Aikido Master from Japan. Shimamoto Sensei really renewed our outlooks on some of the basic concepts of Aikido, and capitalized on an aspect that most in the West don’t: the Energy. We had to be attacked with blindfolds on so that we could sense the energy of the attack before it came. It was VERY enlightening (and very Jedi-like).
I bought one of Shimamoto’s shirts… he made a wonderful calligraphy of Zen, and they printed them on shirts. Of course I got one and all the dojo was sporting the shirts for our Zen meditation with him... we were like a giant fanclub!
My sempais, my Senseis and I are all still bubbling over the seminar. It was far too much fun, and Shimamoto sensei is a natural stand-up comedian when he taught. Even thought he only spoke Japanese, we TOTALLY could get his jokes. It was a ridiculously awesome time.
I have begun to realize and grow aware of my own improvements in my Aikido. I still suck like a leech, but I am getting some concepts- like being relaxed even when performing an attack, my front rolling is MUCH better, and I have lost nearly all my apprehension when doing a new move, or being flipped. I just take it as it comes and put so much faith into my sparring partner... and it pays off!
Anthrocon
I’m working up a storm for Anthrocon. I don’t want to overdo my stock, as this will be my first time in attendance, and I don’t know the crowd, if I’ll have a table for all or any of the days, but I want to come generously prepared. I already have met a few bumps in the road, but they were countered with a few lovely “coincidences” that make life easy. So I think- and hope- to be well stocked and done by the end of next week. If I can hit that goal, I will be VERY pleased!
Now, it’s off to cast more mini-masks for the event! I hope you guys are doing well.
Edit:
No sooner did I post this then they called me form the NCC.. looks like I'm booked this Friday to go teaching at another school as well! Oh yah baby! XD