In celebration of Seniors Month in Calgary, Southwood Library is displaying art from a variety of senior artists in the community. Gail Yates, Raymond Nelson, and a group of Carewest clients have graciously donated to represent Our Community Culture.

Voices choir will be performing on June 11^th at 4:00 to uplift us with their songs. Come check it all out this June at Southwood Library!

Gail Yates

In between bouncing her grandchildren and keeping up with her busy schedule, Gail began taking art lessons two years ago and fell in love with painting with watercolours and acrylics. Since then, her brushes have seldom been dry for long. Inspired solely from her imagination, Gail has created over one hundred vibrant pieces in a variety of styles. She enjoys trying new ideas with her art and is admired for her matching of unique colours.

Gail has a full gallery available online on facebook through Gail Mills-Yates, and can be reached at

403-238-4210.

Raymond Nelson

Raymond Nelson enjoys experimenting with a variety of methods and materials. For his first piece, “Two Warriors”, Raymond said, “I began to draw my lines and it just came out!” He prefers including purple, in honor of his wife, and shares his passion with friends and neighbors, inspiring others to create.

Carewest

Carewest operates from 12 locations, which includes ten sites and 1,400 beds aimed at helping people live more independent lives. Care is available to adults of all ages and includes long-term care, rehabilitation and recovery services, and community programs and services.

At Carewest Garrison Green, there is a small group of avid painters who get together once a week to paint mostly plants and animals using acrylics.

Learn4Life (formerly called Ed2go) is a new online learning resource with courses that are free with your Calgary Public Library card. The online courses start once per month and run for six weeks. All reference materials, assignments, interactive student discussions, quizzes and exams are available online. There are a wide variety of courses including accounting, computer applications, digital photography, personal development, web design, writing and publishing. To see a list of all the courses they offer, click on E-library and then under Recommended Resources click on the Learn4Life link. Next select a subject area, then a sub-heading and then select a course. Here you will find the course description, syllabus and course requirements.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
----Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Gerald Garcia

Born under the tropical sun of the Philippines, Gerald immigrated to Canada as a young boy with his family and adapted to the culture and changing seasons. He took inspiration from nature, movies, television, literature, poetry and comic books. Art exploration began at an early age, starting with many doodles in school work books. A formal education followed at the Alberta collage of Art and design, where he majored in Visual Communication. He continues his education, creating illustration and work for comic books, using traditional and new media.

I take influence from many things, first from exploring the natural world, music, cinema and books.

The plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare, and authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti, Jane Yolen, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, planted seeds of imagination that continue to bear fruit. I explore new images, line by line and page by page dictated by brush and ink.

Join Gerald in the branch on Saturday May 18th at 11:00am where he will demonstrate his ink techniques.

Kristen Powell

"In Memory of a Book" Installation

I present these books in memory of their life cycle. Through the imagination of an author they began. Forged from trees that had a life of their own, the words came to life on paper. At the library they sat and many read their stories. Whether loved too much or not enough, they were discarded. I transformed them again to share another message. As I punched out leaves from the pages, I was reminded of their origin. I mourn the loss of these books because I have not enjoyed them myself. They can no longer be read entirely, but experience ephemerally through my installation. Eventually these books will return to the land and the cycle of inspiration, to physical object, to viewer will continue.

Kristen Powell is a born and raised Calgarian artist with over four years of experience working in a variety of media and specializing in sculpture. She graduated from the University of Calgary with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Studies. She has a passion for sculpting with wood, plaster and digital methods such as CNC. She also enjoys creating in acrylic and gauche. Currently her work explores how people communicate and connect with each other and their environment. She is inspired by nature, the contrast between the natural and urban, brain psychology and physiology and human communication. These themes are evident in both her 2d and sculptural work. Her artistic influences include Gustav Klimt, Louise Bourgeois and Damien Hirst. She has exhibited her work in both solo and group shows and recently had her work acquired by the Alberta Children’s Hospital in their permanent collection. Kristen aspires to be an art teacher in the near future to inspire and shape the artists of the future.

Favourite books:

-Anything by Jodi Picoult

--The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder.

My favourite book of 2013…so far!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Recently retired, Harold Fry receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn't heard from in twenty years. Queenie is in a hospice and has written to Harold to say goodbye. He leaves his bitter wife, Maureen, to her chores, for an intended quick jaunt to the mailbox to post a letter in reply. With nothing but the clothes on his back, no cell phone or rain gear, Harold begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. As each day dawns Harold convinces himself that the only way Queenie will live is if he delivers the letter in person. Along the way strangers stir up memories--of his marriage, which was once full of promise and now is tense and uncomfortable, and of his shortcomings as a husband and father.

Ironically, his wife, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Will Harold and Maureen be able to find a way to come together again? What will happen when Harold reaches Queenie?

I really enjoyed this book for its sweet, sometimes sad, quirky characters. It was very reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Spot of Bother both by Mark Haddon.

Try it—I think you’ll like it!

Submitted by Maureen

I have always loved the story of King Arthur so when I discovered Jack Whyte’s books in his series the Arthurian Saga I knew I had to read them. Jack Whyte is an excellent story teller, when I read his books I can visualize the surroundings that the story transports us. I have read many of his books and always finish with much anticipation of reading another one.

This is a tale of Uther Pendragon, future father of King Arthur, son of King Uric, and cousin of Merlyn. As a boy Uther had two homes, the civilized town of his mother’s people Camulod where he often spent time visiting his grandparents, and Tir Manha the harsh home of his father’s. His mother thought that her people and their ways would be a good influence of her hotheaded son. Uther favoured his time at Camulod, because of the cleanliness of it, the disciplined soldiers especially the cavalry, and the cheerfulness of the people. These feelings often made him feel disloyal to his own people of whom he will one day lead. Follow the tale of Uther from boy to man, a rather different version in which Jack Whyte tells beautifully.

You must check out Jack Whyte’s website, www.jackwhyte.com, if you like historical fiction.

Written by Linda

Do you need ideas for spring?

Come into Southwood Library and check out our displays :

Spring Changes Everything!

and

Spring Is in the Air

You will find a plethora of books on gardening, getting fit, renovation, and much more.

Some time ago, the library broadened its selection of DVDs to include television series. I started with a few titles that were not included in my cable package. After enjoying the selections, I decided to give up my cable and use DVDs from our collections. I have enjoyed so many television series including my most recent pick, Justified. On the surface it seems to be the perfect tale of good and evil but you soon find an interesting play on how the characters are able to accept their actions as necessary and yes, Justified. Both US Marshall Raylan Givens played by Tim Olyphant, and Walton Goggins’ character Boyd Crowder develop an intriguing and complex relationship, crossing lines real and imaginary.

Written by Michele

Creative Kids….I spent an hour with ten very talented young people.

Together we explored dots, squiggles, doodles

and colours to make these wonderful pieces of art.

Interested in exploring your creative side?

Sue Bleiweiss’ book Sketchbook Challenge and her website sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.ca offer all kinds of interesting methods of getting the juices flowing.

Written by Michele

A Meeting of Spirituality and Theoretical Physics

When I heard that Neil Turok from Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics would be delivering one of the CBC Massey Lectures in Calgary, I thought, ‘what an opportunity’. I realized that I would be extremely challenged and headed up to the U of C anyway. His lecture, no, his talk, was free-flowing and exciting and at times, personal.

He spoke of how our understanding of the world is affected by the knowledge revealed with each new technology. Sometimes we find ourselves in a significant paradigm shift which leads to different ways of relating, organizing and being. I don’t know how much I didn’t understand so maybe I should check out his book, The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos.

One day I found Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life by Judy Cannato at Southwood Library. I will confess that I haven’t read it from cover to cover but I feel a strong relationship between these two books.

As we come to know that all life is connected, that we are all part of one, our relationship to one another and all that is, is transformed, leading us to find a healthy, harmonious way to be in the world.

~Reviews by Gerri