What We DoRecently we've both been involved in launching a new federally incorporated not-for-profit environmental organization: Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy (Canada) Inc. / Écologistes Pour l'Énergie Nucléaire (Canada) Inc.
After learning about writing in his previous life -- co-authoring such exotica as Analytical Auditing, and Dollar-Unit Sampling, and authoring The External Audit (not about stethoscopes) he went on over 20 years ago to spend much of his time (apart from the since-abandoned vegetable garden) writing poetry, short stories, opera libretti, etc. until his attention turned more recently to composing music. His one (yes, only one -- to date) book of poetry, Sky Falling Sunny Tomorrow, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in 1989. And there's been a smattering of stuff sprinkled around the Canadian litmags. Much of Rod's poetry is available in the RodMer Poetry Room.
Back to TopRod has written several dozen short stories. Some have been published in Canadian litmags. Indeed, his very first acceptance came for a short story ("The Final Win") which appeared in the Spring/85 issue of The Antigonish Review . I mention this for budding writers discouraged by rejections. I read somewhere that you should not start to worry seriously until after you've received fifty consecutive rejections. I was up to thirty-five by the time "The Final Win" (prophetically named?) became my first acceptance. I have not pulled my short stories together into one published volume (as yet). Most of Rod's short stories are available in the RodMer Short Story Room.
Back to TopRod is a late beginner at composing. He has goofed around on the piano all his life -- beginning over half a century ago with lessons from Edmund Cohu at Trinity College School in Port Hope, ON. He took up composing in 1994 after discovering how well MIDI synthesizers give one the ability to hear one's mistakes immediately during the composing process (without having to wait for a live performance to reveal all the embarrassing flaws). His Sonata for Organ and Brass was performed at Trinity United Church in Cobourg, ON in August 1996 by Ian Morton, Bob Reid, Neil Hunter, Don Dawson, Ron Parker, and Keith Stahley. His cello & piano duet For Barbara was performed at the Proctor House in Brighton, ON in July 1996 by Janko Marjanovic and Rod Anderson. His flute and guitar duets Minor Suite and Wood Thrush and his piano solos Keeping On and For Ellen were performed at the Art Gallery of Northumberland in February 1998 by Fred Cory, Ed Hoad, and Rod Anderson. His choral piece The Darkened Voice was performed at Trinity United Church in Cobourg in April 2004 by the Oriana Singers. Some of these and other pieces have also been performed at various house concerts here in SwallowHill (with performers Cecilia Ignatief, Janko Marjanovic, Tyne Bonebakker, Fred Cory, Julian Nelson, Merike Lugus, and Rod Anderson). Over thirty pieces are currently listed on the Rod's Music section of the website, six of which include mp3 files from live performances.
Back to TopI think I had one of the earliest personal computers in Toronto (back in the early 1970s -- a very user-hostile beast plagued with intermittent hardware failures and running off programs I recorded on an audio cassette -- primitive, eh?). I moved up to an Apple II and later an Apple IIe, which I used for years until friends ridiculed this as a museum piece. For a while I had a Macintosh IIfx -- heavy beast to lug around when giving computer-based presentations across the country (as I did for a few years). Today I have a 400 MHz Mac G4 with 80 GB and 20 GB internal drives and a 60 GB external drive -- a far cry from the audio cassette storage of the early 1970s!
Back to TopRod succeeded in posing as a chartered accountant for 30 years or so with the excellent firm of Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young). And no one ever discovered.
For those of you suffering from imposter syndrome, take heart. There's hope: when in doubt, mumble -- or gaze into space and hope that silence will be mistaken for wisdom.
Later I did the occasional bit of consulting work for my old firm (when they could tolerate me) and a little consulting for the Auditor General of Canada and later the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Actually, I have always enjoyed all this stuff (really). Friends would say when I left the business world to write, 'You must be glad to be rid of all that boring stuff adding up figures'. Well, of course, comrades in the accounting world know that adding up figures is left to other folks (because we're not very good at it and other stuff is more exciting). No -- each year was a challenging one and completely different from the year before. I had a great time and I hope all my former partners continue to be happy, healthy, and (in tough and very competitive economic times) financially successful.
Back to TopMerike has been painting all her life. Working mostly in oil and acrylic, she has had shows in Toronto, Stratford, Los Angeles, Vienna, Cobourg, Colborne, and Port Hope. And she has done a great deal of commissioned work (mostly family portraits). For years she exhibited at the Estée Gallery on Davenport in Toronto. Later, after Estée retired, she had a show at the Galerie Beaux Arts (then on Avenue Road). Her paintings may be found in the Merike Lugus Art Gallery on the Web. Her most recent painting show was at the Art Gallery of Northumberland's Upstairs Gallery in Port Hope in early 2005.
Back to TopAlthough Merike has painted all her life, she took up sculpture more recently (around 1994). (Yet more recently (2005) she has returned to painting once again.)
In sculpture Merike has worked in plaster, bronze, steel, winterstone, and fibreglass. It is a very energy-consuming process -- much more physically exhausting than painting. She used to come in at the end of a day having filed away for eight hours on some sculpture and collapse on a sofa to the puzzlement of our then dogs, Mady and Zeph, who thought she should be out running and jumping with them. Her sculptures may be found in the Merike Lugus Art Gallery on the Web. Her most recent sculpture show was at the Colborne Art Gallery in 2001.
Back to TopMerike has been less public with her poetry than with her painting. Nonetheless, four of her poems were published in the excellent (though now defunct) litmag Poetry Toronto. Her book of poetry Ophelia After Centures of Trying was published by watershedBook (Toronto: 1998). Many of her poems are available in the RodMer Poetry Room.
Back to TopMerike has written a number of articles and short stories as well. She wrote the lead article "Portrait of the Artist as Woman" in the spring/79 issue of City Woman -- a magazine that is also now defunct. Most of Merike's short stories are available in the RodMer Short Story Room.
Back to TopMerike recently completed her first novel, Leaving Lake Surrender -- currently in search of a publisher. She is in process of starting her second.
Back to TopGardening exerts a fatal attraction for Merike. Year by year more of our none acres is converted to flower beds (though I think we still have a few decades to go). At her daughter Valerie's wedding in the summer of 1994 she had 2,000 tulips in bloom (by arranging for an unusually cold spring that warmed up just in time for the day of the garden wedding). During the winter months she pours over flower and seed catalogues. In the early spring, packages start arriving. By late spring and summer the garden is full of acidanthera, veronica spicata, monarda, filipendula, valerian, astrantia, achillea, eryngium, malva moschata, alchemilla mollis, liatris, centaurea, heuchera, pulmonaria, cimicifuga, artemisia, lychnis coronaria -- as well as names that even Rod knows: roses, hollyhocks, delphinium, cone flower, shasta daisies, geraniums, asters, thyme . . .
A brief glimpse of part of Merike's garden can be seen in the image at the left (clicking on it will display a larger image). More views of thegarden can be seen in the "Where We Live" section. Gardening is surely an ancient and modern art as much as any of the other art forms. Indeed, Monet painted in order to get the cash to pay his six gardners at Giverny. So far we lack the six gardeners -- but we do have the space.
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