and that's GOOD as Martha used to say before she became a criminal

Well as all very small publishing empires can attest to life may not always be a feather. Well as a mini pubEMPIRE working from a mini outfit with balls and boldness, like many others i'm sure, bookshandmade.com gets printer or publishing problems. With the GD ROBERTS book of HUMAN ANIMAL stories we had lots. Partially from the HP printer partially from the word program on the iMAC - too much learning too too much for weary minds.

Bought a while back a very fast duplex printer from HP hooked up extended ink carts and away we went publishing hundreds of books over several years more or less successfully - put it on several sites and things went ok ( one doesn't make any big or sometime any bucks at all from this type of venture ) then the boom lowered and the last few months it started - no blue or very little blue..

Tried several means to get it going again but the printheads are probably plugged on the blue and regardless of how many times i clean them it's remained very weak and after a few pages peter's out to purple....

so off to Staples bought a new version of the printer, waiting for the ext-ink carts and soon all will be well again for a few years and that's GOOD

SIR CHARLES GD ROBERTS book of animal stories - HUMAN ANIMALS

Things take time - ROBERTS book done draft hard copy today HUMAN ANIMALS thinking feeling like humans

Been working away on the ROBERTS' book selecting a few of his animal stories that will best represent his huge outpouring of such content. Few Cdn writers can equal his vast contribution to Canada's literary history. This book called HUMAN ANIMALS focussed on his animal stories. He and Ernest Thompson SETON originated stories that treat animals with brains and feelings not unlike ours. Since Roberts was raised in the vast, wild Tantramar marsh of N.B. he aquired a studied and deep knowledge of animal life which he drew upon to write his stories which became enormously popular during his lifetime. As a boy i read most of these stories and many linger in some memory cells so to return to them was a pleasure ... i had forgotten how well written they were, how philosophic and honest they were. Roberts sees nature as it is rather than as many armchair humans imagine it to be.

Heaven help me go from Mac OS to older version of W7 and get me images correct and duplex a copy draft to peruse

spent a lotta hours yesterday when i tried to get my HP 8000 duplex printer to duplex on me Mac word project tried everything and just had to give up after a few hours 'cause i'm not the only one on line many are having same problem so decided to put my design/writing on Sir Charles GD ROBERTS book back to my Toshiba W7 and without any problems ran off the first 'hard copy' of the draft version of HUMAN ANIMALS (title of book on Roberts' stories ) on cheap paper to get a sense of my design look and not really all that satisfied with it ... decided to design a 8.5x11 landscape format for the book using HELENE's odd and amazing ( no i will not use the word 'awesome' sooo totally a fake word and brutally used flippantly like 'love' ) illustrations making Roberts animal reality stories into a 'alice in wonderland' type of 'look'

sir Charles GD ROBERTS - the HUMAN ANIMALS project - book and doc.

HELENE LACELLE's illustration of the crying oxen creates a totally modern 'look' to the hundred year old animal stories of GD ROBERTS, a NB born and raised writer who 'created' the animal story wherein he treates so called 'wild beasts' as humans i.e. they think and feel and react as we human animals do - along with E.T. SETON he was the first in the world to do so and as a result became world famous for these stories - his first collection of anmal stories sold 80,000 copies in N.A. which considering it was about 100 years ago this was fantastic.

HELENE LACELLE's amazing images augment this book full of ROBERTS' animal stories

an example of the amazing illustrations that will embellish and modernize ROBERTS' well-written and introspective animal stories that treat animals like we human animals as equals ... almost - certainly he gives them minds, imaginations, thoughts, feelings and importance. Whereas LACELLE's images put them into an Alice in Wonderland' imaginative area of modernity; thus, combining the old and the new... a wonderous thing as Martha might say?

workingCOVER for book on a colleciton of Sir Charles GD ROBERTS' animal stories - the father of them all ( along with Ernest Thompson SETON they humanized animals )

This project was started last year when we travelled documenting his birthplace in Douglas NB to the Tantramar Marsh where his father a clergyman home schooled him and where he infused his life with nature in the surrounding marshlands and his mind with his classical studies - both created in him an amazing sense of how human animals are how spiritual nature can be to Fredericton where he lived on George Street while attending UNB and where his poetic nature and determination would soon make him the 'Father of Canadian Literature' but his animal stories placed him in such popularity among his audience that he became known as the creator of the 'human animal' - animals that are not barbaric but sensitive surviving and thinking like we humans and striving to understand the world in which they lived ...

Working title for Sir Charles GD Roberts book is THE HUMAN ANIMALS

so on location working away on the ROBERTS project which intends to become a documentary and a book - the book which is comprised of selections from his 'animal stories' with illustrations by HELENE LACELLE is well on the way and soon to be published - ROBERTS is known now only as 'the father of CDN poetry' but also the author who created the 'animal story' where the animals have human-like characteristics - they think, feel and act often like we do... they are not dumb creatures or at least no dumber than we are.. He was born in Douglas, NB and raised in Westcock, NB where his father was rector of St Mary's church located in the heart of the famous Tantramar Marsh. It's from his early days living in and around this marsh that Roberts picked up his love and understanding of nature.

Sandy Hill's ONE&ONLY Craft Fair - 2013

Not only are we 'bookmakers' but for the past seven years, my partner Peter Evanchuck and I have been hosting/producing a very popular craft show in Sandy Hill, called the ONE & ONLY. Peter prepares a FREE ALL-DAY Buffet for 1000 people while I do the rest. So on Nov.17,  with the support of ACTION SANDY HILL and lots of volunteers from ASH, the show was once more a huge success. (For one thing, a lot of Ottawa U students got to fill their tummies )!!!

Check out our ONE&ONLY blog and see what you missed ! And don't forget to click on the 2013 PHOTO tab!

Sir Charles GD Roberts - The Early Years - Sackville, New Brunswick

For writer Peter Evanchuck, next stop on his search of Sir Charles GD Roberts is Westcock, NB. where he spent the first 12 years of his life. St Anne's Anglican Church, the oldest Anglican Church in Canada built in 1817, where Charles' father was rector. Peter in the Tantramar Marshes in Sackville, New Brunswick.

 TANTRAMAR is from the french TINTAMARRE which means ( to the uniligual like me ) - which means 'racket' - the noise of the birds that used to settle here on their way south back then thousands ... grass to the front of me, grass to the back of me  to the right of me grass to the left of me but i strode on and on and got wet feet ... very marshy martha ...

ROBERT's spent his formative years here gathering animals stories, feeling the poetic textures/spirit of the marshlands and woods ... very unique place - his father an Anglican Pastor home schooled Roberts in Greek, Latin, math, sciences and literature - voracious reader Robert's was .... his father's basic phiiosophy was 'figure it out for urself' which GD did ... Not only THE FATHER OF CDN POETRY but also THE CREATOR OF THE ANIMAL STORY.  HIS FIRST BOOK sold overe 80,000 copies !!

In search of Sir Charles GD Roberts - The Father of Canadian Poetry - Douglas, New Bruswick

FilmMaker/Writer Peter Evanchuck on location in Douglas, New Brunswick researching the birthplace of Canadian poet Sir Charles GD Roberts.

FilmMaker PETER EVANCHUCK and homeless poet ROBERT THOMAS PAYNE go to TIFF - TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

ROB  showed up at CMPA (Canadian Media Production Association) AWARDS gave him T shirts, postcards, posters and 30 books to promote the docs and for him to sell and make moola... he was drunk saddened by LARROW's death but all cleaned up and looking great .. we downed a few free beers  ... ahhhh me dear movie buddies

Augustus Larrow, Graffiti Alley, Toronto 2012

the POETRY of PAYNE - Documentary Trailer

THE POETRY OF PAYNE - movie poster -

In making docs, I do not believe in wandering into a scene/story/subject without having gone through it myself for a reasonably long period of time; otherwise, one can be fooled into making something 'not real'. An example of that is my recent project, now 'in the can' called THE POETRY OF PAYNE which traces the life of Robert Payne over a period of a couple of winters. I've known ROB for over a decade and have had a long term friendship with him. He's been an actor in my previous fiction films as well as in my theatre pieces. In other words, I've known him through thick and thin, ups and downs so he can't pretend some things that he's not - for all of us who really have experienced our subject, the truth is not only 'out there' but 'in there' i.e. in the doc.

Another problem when making a doc on a homeless person; how do you find him or her? Well I’ve managed and volunteered in various soup kitchens in Toronto so know the scene and the people in that scene. This enables me to wander through it asking the right questions to find ROB. Each time I travel to Toronto to shoot I have to 'search him out' since he does have regular digs called 'the cocoon' a blued tarped 'home sweet' in an alley south of Queen West but he sleeps/rests at very irregular times so I search him out knowing the places he eats and rests which usually proves fruitful but sometimes it takes a day or so to connect with him.

This type of doc also requires the filmmaker to camp out to do what they now call 'urban camping' so to 'get the shot' one wanders through the night and day searching not only for the subject but also for the shot .... one becomes homeless; albeit for a short period of time a few days or a week rather than the 4 years that ROB"s been on the street.

If you want to get old fast go on the streets one year equals ten... ok I'm off to find ROB; he didn't show up where he said he was going to be....

Peter Evanchuck

Helene Lacelle at CHINATOWN REMIXED 2013

What a perfect day for a street party in Chinatown. Lots of happy people with maps in hand seeking their next stop, a hair salon, a Vietnamese subshop, a restaurant or even a foodmarket, the art was everywhere.
Here are some of the highlights - there is so much more to see - so get on your bike and come on down to Chinatown. Big thank you to Don and his dedicated volunteers! Show runs until June 18!

CHINATOWN REMIXED 2013 VIDEO on Youtube   
CHINATOW REMIXED website

Visitors enjoying Helene's work at Kowloons Market

Helene Lacelle with art at Kowloons Market in Chinatown, Somerset at Arthur.

One-of-a-kind Ottawa arts festival Chinatown Remixed launches its fifth annual outdoor street celebration from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.  Taking place along Somerset Street West between Bay and Preston streets, the 2013 festival includes visual and performance art, live music, workshops, and food from local vendors and restaurant owners including Kichesippi Beer Co., ZenKitchen, Kowloon Market, Aline’s Hair Salon, The Daily Grind Café, Raw Sugar Café, and others. The month-long festival runs until June 18, and a special vernissage day after-party will be held at the Shanghai Restaurant from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on May 18.

Group Show Gallery 101 - cREATE tHIS rEVOLUTION

The Idle No More movement is about Indigenous rights, the immediacy of social media and sharing “a vision of bringing together all people to ensure we create ways of protecting Mother Earth, her lands, waters and people,” (From the INM Web site).
At Gallery 101, we have been greatly inspired and moved by the Idle No More movement. Artist run centres began because artists needed spaces where they could question the status quo artistically, politically, socially, and culturally. 30 years later, we must ask ourselves have we become another in a long line of artistic institutions? How can we become more accessible and vibrant? One answer from Gallery 101 is the “flash mob art show”, Create This Revolution.
Eighteen artists have been selected by our jury panel: Howard Adler; Jaime Koebel, Laura Margita and Heather Wiggs.

artist statement: Helene Lacelle

Since the ban of sale and use of cosmetic pesticides  came into effect in Ottawa in 2009, the number of migratory songbirds returning to the area has gone into sharp incline. 

Adored for their golden color, graceful flight and enchanting song, the Goldfinch has returned to my backyard and in my heart. Right-on Ottawa!

• Howard Adler
• Marc Adornato
• Pansee Atta
• Priti Cox
• Alan Harrington
• Kaylene Kelly
• Helene Lacelle
• Emmanuel Laflamme
• Juliana McDonald
• Rehab Nazzal
• Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen
• Ben Powless
• Mana Rouholamini
• Svetlana Swinimer
• Jeffrey Thomas
• Laura Leah Traverse
• Lori Victor
• Adam Void

Message from PETER EVANCHUCK for MOTION MAGAZINE

Hear film maker and MOTION MAGAZINE editor/publisher Peter Evanchuck talk about his ground breaking 70's film/theater/tv MOTION MAGAZINE.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

2012 - Sandy Hill's ONE & ONLY SALE HIGHLIGHTS ! ! !

Host/Organizer Helene Lacelle, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Host/CHEF Peter Evanchuck

Again our kitchen 'DREAM TEAM' made all our buffet dreams come true! Big Big thank you to Francois Bregha, Marc Lacelle, Dallas Fletcher and HOST/CHEF Peter Evanchuck!!! No tummies were left empty!!

Sisters Samira & Magida El-Kassis selling vintage findings and their photography

Michelle Potter helping choose the perfect accessory for visiting guests at this year's Sandy Hill's ONE & ONLY Arts+Crafts Sale held Nov.18, 2012

To view Sandy Hill's ONE & ONLY Arts+Crafts SALE highlights  CLICK HERE

Sandy Hill's ONE & ONLY Arts+Crafts SALE Nov.18, 2012

Hosts Helene Lacelle + Peter Evanchuck get ready for the ONE & ONLY

It's that time of year again when super creative Helene Lacelle and Peter Evanchuck host their anuual ONE& ONLY ARTS AND CRAFT FAIR. Come and join us for fabuloous affordable arts and crafts and of course Peter's yummy gourmet ALL DAY FREE BUFFET!

WHERE: 250 Somerset St. East, Ottawa
WHEN: Nov.18, 2012 -10am to 4PM

Evanchuck & Lacelle - St-John Telegraph Article

HELENE LACELLE at M&T Deli in Fredericton

Come and see me create a large mosaic landscape with vintage china, bones, glass stones, buttons, plastic flowers and old jewelry, LIVE in M&T Deli's window in downtown Fredericton, July 18 - 21.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!

Peter Evanchuck and Helene Lacelle, curators of GOOP Gallery and makers of books from bookHANDmade wish all of our Canadian friends a big Happy Birthday!

Helene Lacelle at The New Arts Festival

Helene Lacelle at her booth in the Glebe's TNAF, photo by Renee Savoie.

peaberry designs has posted a new item, 'The New Art Festival'

I am such a huge fan of the New Art Festival and a little rain wasn't going to
stop me from checking it out.  It got pretty brutal at times and I felt pretty
bad for the artists having to deal with that all weekend.  They must have been
chilled to the bone.  It was..............to read more from peabody designs

Big thank you to Renee Savoie of Peaberry Designs to mention my art in her blog.

HELENE LACELLE in group show at CUBE GALLERY

We run for cover, for office and sometimes for our lives. We could be in it for the long run, have a run of luck or run ourselves ragged. And by the way, is that a run in your stocking?  

Run, don't walk to the Cube Gallery, to be part of Ottawa's biggest running weekend May 25th. This will be a group show celebrating, showcasing and wondering why we love to run.

Featuring this mob of 24 artists/athletes:
Alison Smith-Welsh, Adrian Baker, Batya Cavens, Bina Mirza, Catharine Clarke, Choleena DiTullio, Dave Andrews, Norman Takeuchi, Simon Whitfield, Dave Cooper, Harry Nowell, Helene Lacelle, Keith Bell, Judy Slack, Karole Marois, Katrin Smith, Margaret Chwialkowska, Russell Yuristy, Peter Monet
MaryAnn Camps, Karin Rabuka, Reid McLachlan, Richard Austin, Tony Clark

Cube Gallery
1285 Wellington St. W.  Ottawa, K1Y 3A8    
613 728 1750   Cubegallery.ca
Tues-Fri 10:30 – 6pm  Sat.-Sun 11-5pm
Open late the First Thursday of every month

ROAD KILL COOKBOOK

I know it's been a while since we last posted but we've busy working on our artwork and documentary videos, none the less Peter has found the time to put the final touches on his hillarious  RECIPES and stunning/sad photographs for  
THE ROADKILL COOKBOOK.  
Stay Tuned