Creative Exploration Part One: "ABC" Isles of Netherlands Antilles

We’re back from our memorable 3 week voyage of Creative Exploration from Florida to Victoria. First port of call out of Ft. Lauderdale was Bonaire, one of the “ABC” isles in the Netherlands Antilles.  They are: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao.   But actually, from a geographical point of view, they are either “BCA” or from the other direction “ACB” islands.   In Bonaire, we visited the volcanic formations of this island that is covered with Aloe cacti.

We came across this amusing sign in Bonaire

Next up:  Curacao, and its capital of Willemstad, with its amazing moving pedestrian bridge that lets tugboats and other boats go through. One button is pushed to close the bridge for pedestrians, the other button is pushed to move the bridge diagonally. Imagine this:  it moves the whole bridge sideways.  Curacao is famous of course for its orange liqueur and Willemstad for its pastel-coloured houses.  We were there 2006, but now we’ve visited all 3 islands.

Henri on the pedestrian bridge that moves sideways, Willemstad, Curacao

Last of the three islands was Aruba.  We visited a “Flutterby” sanctuary where dozens and dozens of tropical Mariposas, Papillons, fluttered around us in a lush garden. 

 Their amazing life cycle from egg, larvae, caterpillar, pupa, crysallis to the wondrous flutterers, was there for all to see. 

Next installment: Panama Canal, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Henri van Bentum 

Ahoy - if you've been wondering the "no-show" lately on our blog, it's not because we have nothing to submit.  Au contraire.  We've just returned from a memorable Creative Exploration voyage including the ABC islands in the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao), Panama Canal transit, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chiapas, Hualtulco and had the pleasure of stepping off the ship right at our doorstep in Victoria.  A ten-minute walk from ship to home.  Signing off for now, Henri   

Kudos from a Wanderer

Although from time to time we receive kudos about the blog, this one we felt like sharing, because it’s from someone who has ‘walked’ the soil and encountered the cultures of at least 100 nations.  He also resided in Ethiopia.  When we say ‘walked’, we mean other than by foot, he used for transport any mode or means available.  Here is his comment on the blog:

“A few words about your Blogspot.  Now that I'm putting out some trifling comments (a blog or something or other), could mention the obvious light-years difference (yours/mine).  And what a difference a blog makes.  My autobiographical ramble is hardly comparable to steady quality, choice of subjects, colouring and design, you've been creating quite awhile.  Think it would be state-of-the-art.  Astute talent, inspiration, as well as experience and choice subject matter, I judge second to none.  I would wonder whether yours would be a contender if there had been an academy award, for blogs.”

Thought we’d share this sizeable ‘feather in our cap’.  However without the assistance of Natasha, our ‘cyberengineer’, there would be no blog.  I write all the text, she posts it and together we select the illustrations and images.

Henri van Bentum

A rap - Pelicans flying from Victoria to California, in "Economy"

Pelicans at Wild ARC in Victoria, photo Darren Stone, Victoria Times Colonist

Pelicans in Victoria, you say?

Yes, a dozen or so

'chose' this winter to stay

Another warning

of global warming?

Three wound up in Sick Bay

cared for by the human family

After mucho bureaucracy

and lots of paperwork ado

They returned by air, “economy”

to be released in Malibu

Pelicans in Victoria, you say?

Si, si, Adios! Ole! Ole!

Here are their friends in Malibu

 

Henri van Bentum

Rebirth of the Camas

My boyhood was in the countryside of the Lowlands.  Everything in Nature is natural, without mask or cover-up.   In a sense it could be a plus, compared to growing up in a city. At age five I had a small garden.  Also a pair of rabbits, Flemish giants they called them.  White, with red eyes. They too were my sole responsibility, feeding, clean-up, etc.  

Ladybug on Carrot Leaf

My favourite vegetable in the garden was carrots, because the ladybugs seemed to prefer wandering over those green curly leaves. Although father had a potato-growing area, mine was too small for potatoes. We used to play Cowboys & Indians because we’d seen those Hollywood movies in a primitive ‘theatre’ nearby.   

I always was an “Indian” because it allowed me to be more creative and paint my face, stick feathers in my hair, and yield a tomahawk (made from carton).  Where is all this leading, you may ask?  Well, I’ll tell you. We live right at the shore of Juan de Fuca Strait here in James Bay, Victoria.  A fairly good-sized stretch of wild grass separates the sea from our road and houses.  Each June, that ‘grass’ blooms with the blue-violet blossoms of the Camas.   

Camas field across the street from where we live

The fields at one time were cultivated by the Songhees First Nations. The Camas bulbs were a staple food, something like a potato.  With care and know-how, they steamed the bulbs to the correct moment, reading for consuming.  Now, after many years there is a revival and interest in the Camas plant.  Under the supervision of a First Nations Camas expert, Royal Roads University has began an enterprise of cultivating the Camas.  There is also a program at Camosun College. 

Cooked Camas Bulbs

Reaction to this initiative has been enthusiastic, especially among teenagers, who now are helping in planting the bulbs. They hope the first harvest of this First Nation “potato” will be next year. See what I mean where all the introduction was going?  (By the way, all Camas with cream-coloured flowers are a no-no.  They’re poison.  Just so you know). 

In the old days:  First Nations Elder sorting Camas bulbs

Henri van Bentum

Art Walk, Radiolarians, Diatoms and Coccolithophores

Victoria and Gulf Islands have a good number of artists, also here in James Bay, our village neighbourhood.  There is an “Art Walk” which allows us to visit the art of the creative human family, right in their studios or sanctum sanctorum.   

Kispiox Village, BC, 1929 by Emily Carr (same year I was born)

 

Of course, Victoria, being home to Canadian icon Emily Carr, has many followers who express themselves by rendering landscapes. At any rate, 95% of the art is done in a representational, figurative manner.  Myself, I have no studio, and spend more time writing nowadays than painting, other than playing Billiards, my new ‘hobby’. (Zen/Russian/Snooker and regular billiards.)  

Our latest form of recreational exercise

Of course curiosity wins over ignoring, which makes us go and experience those “Art Walks”. Artists are very sensitive and if you criticize it should always be positive.  Not easy.  But that way you leave their quarters / abode unharmed. Sometimes I cannot help saying, “Have you ever heard of photography?”, indicating how some painters try to outdo Nature and reality.  If there is indeed an urge to express oneself realistically, why not look into the beauty and splendour of the unseen realm?  Not in order to copy, but to get that feeling and insight there is another “real” world out there.

Coccolithophores

 For inspiration, take for instance Coccoliths, Diatoms or Radiolarians – all dwelling in the vast oceans. The realm of Neptune and mermaids. These are blueprints of new artforms, for painters, sculptors, or even architects. The realms revealed by the micro and electron-microscopic world are often awesome in colour and design.  A whole new world opens up, by just ‘looking’ at this phenomenal phenomena.

Radiolarians

A picture says more than . . . So here are some examples and maybe let you pause and wonder about such beauty, which indeed words cannot describe.  Don’t you agree?  Hoppy Easter.

Diatoms

Henri van Bentum

Hang Onto Your Hat - Rap

Now here is a real hoot

while walking in Beacon Hill Park

It was at dusk, not yet dark

down sweeps an owl

For an act most foul

He snatched my hat

How about that?

Henri with his drawing of an owl, Toronto, 1962

Maybe an ancestor?

Henri van Bentum