The Kite Museum.com

Cerf-Volant au Ruban Rose

30 ans d’amitié avec Louise, pour se terminer bien péniblement par un cancer du sein. La création de ce cerf-volant est pour moi un hommage aux femmes qui mène ce combat mais aussi ma façon de montrer à Louise à quel point je l’ai admirée pour s’être battue durant 11 ans contre cette maladie.

Et quelle meilleure façon que d'envoyer un cerf-volant rose dans le ciel pour inviter Louise à venir jouer avec moi, juste pour une fois de plus !

Christine McGee, www.lcvs.ca

The Pink Ribbon Kite

30 years of friendship with Louise, ending painfully because of breast cancer. The creation of this kite is for me a tribute to women who are combating a breast cancer but it is also my way of showing Louise how much I've admired her for having fought for 11 years against this disease.

And what better way than sending a pink kite into the sky to invite Louise to come play with me for just one more time!
Christine McGee, www.lcvs.ca
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Jacques Létourneau
I met Jacques and his wonderful wife Francine, in 2007 and immediately fell in love with his
work. So I gave him complete creative control and commissioned him to make me a kite which told the story of his life in the eastern part of Quebec -the Gaspe region. He created a six-part kite, and here is his story ...

Today, retired from teaching, my favorite pastime is painting kites.
I studied arts in Montreal and I have been teaching it for thirty-four years in La Pocatiere.
I have met Francine at the same school and she also taught arts at the Polyvalente in La Pocatiere.
We have a daughter who also teaches arts, she took our place, At home it’s a mania, we always talk about school and arts.
I was born in the Gaspesia area and Francine is from Montreal.
I love to paint pictures that remind me where I come from and my childhood.
The Gaspesia area is where the many lighthouses stand on cape and defy the sea.
Guide during nights and bad weather, it’s through their lighting that I see all those pictures of my youth.
It reminds me all those shellfish that I use to play with on the beach.
It reminds me all those fishing boats that we could hear coming in with their Acadia motor (put,put,put) even before we could see them.
It reminds me all those fishes that fishermen were bringing back from the open sea.
It reminds me the « Rocher percé « that attracts so many tourists in the area during summertime.
It reminds me those northern gannet that are unique to « ile Bonaventure »
That lighting illuminates the sea world and by its smell, its uses, and its legends it makes people so close to the sea and sensible to the nature.
Which sailor never heard about the legend of that gosh vessel told by ancestors, a vessel appearing into a ball of fire announcing a storm.
The Gaspesia area represents for me a place where all those souvenirs are deeply fixed in my mind

Skye Morrison’s “Red/Orange #2) 2000
This Rokkaku is made from 100% hand-woven cotton “pulp” at the Ghandi Ashram paper mill in Ahmedabad, India. The tine red kite embedded in the paper is from Japan – made in 1994 and saved for the trip to India.
The bamboo structure was gifted to me by Masaki Modegi in 1989 – from a 150 year old building somewhere in Tokyo.
This is one of a series of ten kites commissioned by the Quinte Ontario Arts Council for their Millennium exhibition. It flies well in a stiff wind.
All materials (even the glue of rice paste) are handmade.
Gift to The Kite Museum,
Love,
Skye

In this case, it is the storm before the calm - ha! I wish my friend Yves could be there to share its development as he and Anne were the first to blaze the trail. More soon ...

July 1, 2008 - And now WE ARE OPEN and we shall grow. We have 112 kites on display so far. This weekend we shall work on our signage and add about another dozen or so kites, along with some more A/V, and activities for the kids.\

The Smithsonian we are not. This is a voluntary museum, we receive no taxpayers’ dollars, so what you see is the contribution of people freely given, who do our best to fit this vision into our daily lives with the expressed desire to share fun and learning!

These next two months of summer shall be spent getting it all settled in, listening to visitors, and fine tuning.

Ray Bethell video mesmerizes everyone The "WAR ROOM" including very rare Russian Gibson system

150, 120, 100, 90 and Adler German Steiffs and Thom Shanken 1800's rep and rare barn door Man on the moon
French L'Aigloplan bird on top

July 7 - Spent weekend on island trying out different presentations, put together 3 display cases and almost got a table together for the Ray Bethell display but were missing a bolt - and on an island it takes at least a day to go over and back to get anything like that. Enjoyed an airplane/antique plane breakfast fly in on the island Sunday morning. Talking about doing a kite fest and plane fly-in next summer on Pelee to celebrate the Wright Brothers from Ohio.

Aug 9 - Peleefest - We gave away hundreds of kites at the Pelee Island's "Peleefest" weekend. We were so busy we didn't have much time to take pictures, but here are a few...