Meet-and-Greet for the New Members

Yesterday was Members' Day for WASM and a chance to be introduced to this year's new members and for them to get to know old members. After Tania Shamy's fascinating art historical talk on Porcelain and Diplomacy (that will be another blog post), new members came forward to tell something about themselves, President Leslie Cohen presented each new member with a gift bag from David's Teas, and then all enjoyed coffee and irresitible sweets prepared by Hospitality Chair Shirley Cohen. Always an enjoyable event!

(You can see the photo below in a larger version by clicking on it.)

President Leslie Cohen

 

Shirley Cohen, on the right, preparing the table

 

Photos - Judith Pickard

Lynda Schneider Granatstein: Paintings of the Chez Doris Calendar and Recent Work

Lynda Schneider Granatstein was introduced by her daughter, Tamara, and then proceeded to  astound us with her beautiful artworks and an amazing succession of inspirational happenings: being allowed to go backstage at Place des Arts to gather material for a series on ballet dancers, winning a contest to receive free floral arrangements for a year and then producing artwork from them and turning these into a calendar to benefit “Chez Doris”, and then being chosen for the  artists-in-residence program at the Banff Centre, where her only obligation was to produce artwork. Outcome: a lot of hard work and a lot of great work produced!

Tamara introducing her mother, Lynda Schneider Granatstein

Lynda Schneider Granatstein

Lynda's father's plant in her sunroom

Work done at Banff Centre

Work in progress at Lynda's Banff Centre studio

Lynda in her Banff Centre studio

Calendar for Chez Doris

from the calendar

text and photos: Jackie Rae Wloski

Sheila Caplan: Finding My Way with Clay

Terrific lecture today by Montreal potter Sheila Caplan. In a personal and immediate way, she talked about the path her life took, leading her into a lifelong love of working with clay. Her first enchantment with the mysterious transformation of a lump of earth into something beautiful and useful is very much alive today, as is her fascination with all the permutations and possibilities inherent in the medium. Clay type, glazes, fire temperatures, type of firing...the interplay of so many factors bring to each new project a fresh approach. Shelia showed slides of her work and set out a display of her gorgeous pottery.

Sheila Caplan setting out some of her pottery.

Annette Wolfstein-Joseph pre-lecture with Sheila

Tickets are already of sale for our holiday luncheon.

Last minute technical adjustments with Dave Carmichael.

Annette thanking Sheila Caplan for a delightful hour.

Sheila Caplan and Sharron Gallagher.

Photos and text: Judith Pickard

And some photos by Jackie Wloski from the slides Sheila showed of her work:

Nathalie Cooke: Cooks of Note

Nathalie Cooke entertained and informed us with some of the history of cookbooks and their authors and other food related tidbits, from about 1850 to the 1960s or so. And it wasn’t always about the recipes; how to manage a household and helping female immigrants adapt to their new life here were some of the first themes.

Nathalie Cooke is not a cook but a historian. Her book, “What’s to Eat?" was sold out, or she would have brought some for us to look at! So we will have to go and hunt up the new edition!

Annette Wolfstein-Joseph introducing speaker Nathalie Cooke

Nathalie Cooke

Photos and text: Jackie Wloski