Georgie Donais
Georgie Donais is one
busy girl
Quick Links
About
Music
Based out of Toronto, Canada, I busy myself with earthen building, homeschooling my two children, playing music, doing aerial silks, designing for print, bookkeeping, gardening and knitting. My family and I are spending some time in rural Ontario as on-site staff at a retreat centre, where I am gearing up to do some more earthen building.
Based out of Toronto, Canada, I busy myself with earthen building, homeschooling my two children, playing music, doing aerial silks, designing for print, bookkeeping, gardening and knitting.
My family and I are spending some time in rural Ontario as on-site staff at a retreat centre, where I am gearing up to do some more earthen building.
Design
Building
* more links
across the top
of the page
busygirl
making
Music Notes
Click
here
My earliest recollection of singing is standing barefoot on the plywood floor, in front of the big stereo console, imitating every nuance and inflection of Diana Ross and the Supremes as recorded on their Greatest Hits four record set.
next
Choirs and bands and gigs and tours and writing eventually ensued, as did years of quiet while my attention focused elsewhere.
Highlights:
* Playing in a band with a group of talented, enter-taining, and honourable men
* Recording an album of old favourites with my mother-in-law
* Singing, dancing and choreographing to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
* Leading my own band
* Singing backup for all kinds of projects, and getting to sing the words, "Why did you have to fuck somebody else?"
*Singing in choirs and sometimes directing them
* Enjoying an incredible writing partnership with my uncle
What's Next:
* I'm currently doing some recording on my own
* I'm playing the occasional gig with friends
* I may finally be learning how to pay guitar, in spite of myself
close
Body Modifications
Piercings:
Nose - left side
Lip - centre
Nipples - both horizontal
Tattoos:
Upper right arm -
black tribal stylised wings
Lower back -
large outline scroll
Look in the book for some history and highlights!
Recent activities:
Special Guest of The Beaver Valley Ramblers, Donabie's in Flesherton, ON
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 8pm
listen here
Songs:
Choral Untitled: G. Donais, 2009
Sorry: G. Donais/B. Donais, 1996
Blue Skies: Berlin/Emerson, 1927
Foolish Heart: Washington/Young, 1949
Garrison Creek: G. Donais/B. Donais, 1996
close book
Bookkeeping
for artists and
Someone's life as described through numbers can be a telling and elegant expression. It is simply that, however: an expression. In the same way that a person's art, or children, or work history tells a part of the story of who they are, so too do numbers. Sometimes, we labour under the misunderstanding that those numbers are life, or are at least the most valid or important expression of it. This can do immeasurable violence to the people caught up in this fiction, whether it be an individual, a city department (I'm looking at you,Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation),or a whole country.What matters is that lives are lived with depth, richness and compassion, and not proscribed and pinched to fit neatly onto a statement of profit and loss.
Someone's life as described through numbers can be a telling and elegant expression. It is simply that, however: an expression. In the same way that a person's art, or children, or work history tells a part of the story of who they are, so too do numbers.
Sometimes, we labour under the misunderstanding that those numbers are life, or are at least the most valid or important expression of it. This can do immeasurable violence to the people caught up in this fiction, whether it be an individual, a city department (I'm looking at you,Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation),or a whole country.
What matters is that lives are lived with depth, richness and compassion, and not proscribed and pinched to fit neatly onto a statement of profit and loss.
small business
Got some books
you want kept?
Click here to
contact me
Dance
click to
see my
2009 silks
performance
I received a BFA from York University and was involved in the independent dance scene for a while back in the last century. Recently, I have taken up aerial silks, giving me a chance to dance again, this time in the air. It has also afforded me some rather nice triceps.
selected
Media Coverage
and awards
Awards
Hometown Hero Finalist, 2008
Green Toronto
Award of Excellence, 2007
Clean & Beautiful Award, 2006
Juno-nominatedalbumOui!, Gregg LeRock, 2009: Vocalist
Included in LuminaTO's Milles Femmes project, 2008
Owen Sound Sun Times, January 25, 2010"Family shrinking their earthly footprint"Featured in the Green Pages across Canada in the 2010 Yellow Pages phone book, as a Hometown Hero :)The Globe and Mail, August 3, 2007"A dream home made of mud"Natural Life, July/August 2007Feature interviewRadio Free School, 2007"Cob Building in Dufferin Grove Park" interviewLife Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier , 2009"Learning is Child's Work"Gadzooks! February 16, 2006"This is Georgie Donais..."Canada Innovates: Sustainable Building, 2006L'Express, September 2007Dufferin Grove: un parc aux tendances «vertes»NOW magazine, September 2006"Park's new poop-and-scoop"PUBLISHED IN:CobWeb, Spring 2010Cover storyGreenTOpia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto, 2007
Owen Sound Sun Times, January 25, 2010
"Family shrinking their earthly footprint"
Featured in the Green Pages across Canada in the 2010 Yellow Pages phone book, as a Hometown Hero :)
The Globe and Mail, August 3, 2007
"A dream home made of mud"
Natural Life, July/August 2007
Feature interview
Radio Free School, 2007
"Cob Building in Dufferin Grove Park" interview
Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier , 2009
"Learning is Child's Work"
Gadzooks! February 16, 2006
"This is Georgie Donais..."
Canada Innovates: Sustainable Building, 2006
L'Express, September 2007
Dufferin Grove: un parc aux tendances «vertes»
NOW magazine, September 2006
"Park's new poop-and-scoop"
PUBLISHED IN:
CobWeb, Spring 2010
Cover story
GreenTOpia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto, 2007
Cool stuff
with earth and
I cannot remember the exact moment when I first learned about cob. I do know that when I came across a description of a building material composed of sand, straw and clay, all my senses took notice.I can still feel the sense of anticipation, of being about to quench a deep thirst, as I began to contemplate the possibilities of cob in my life. That thirst was a desire to build, and was something that had been only partially quenched in all those years of helping my dad build our house, or of doing sewing projects on my own.As I realized the malleability of cob, I understood then that I had been missing the ability to sculpt and mold, to shape, consider, and shape again, until the creation felt right. I also understood the subversive nature of using the very dirt beneath my feet to build, leaving me beholden to no one for my shelter besides the earth herself. Only a generation before, those in my family had been intimately connected to the earth, digging in the dirt to grow their food, and living in houses made of sod. I could feel the re-enlivening of my connection to my immediate history and to my history as a human being. This sense continues to grow.Read the rest of this story here.
I cannot remember the exact moment when I first learned about cob. I do know that when I came across a description of a building material composed of sand, straw and clay, all my senses took notice.
I can still feel the sense of anticipation, of being about to quench a deep thirst, as I began to contemplate the possibilities of cob in my life. That thirst was a desire to build, and was something that had been only partially quenched in all those years of helping my dad build our house, or of doing sewing projects on my own.
As I realized the malleability of cob, I understood then that I had been missing the ability to sculpt and mold, to shape, consider, and shape again, until the creation felt right. I also understood the subversive nature of using the very dirt beneath my feet to build, leaving me beholden to no one for my shelter besides the earth herself. Only a generation before, those in my family had been intimately connected to the earth, digging in the dirt to grow their food, and living in houses made of sod. I could feel the re-enlivening of my connection to my immediate history and to my history as a human being. This sense continues to grow.
Read the rest of this story here.
other natural
materials
Top to bottom:
* Cob oven in my
back yard
* Cob wall in
Dufferin Grove
Park, Toronto
* Earthen
plaster in
Maryland
click to go
natural
building
blog
to my
portfolio
I design for
print, as well
I had a lot of fun in my years as designer of Canada's national dance magazine, The Dance Current, from which I recently retired. I also design posters, calendars, advertising and the occasional blog. I'm interested in exploring more publication design, and am looking forward to trying my hand at an entire book design one of these days.
as blogs and
a few websites
Life Learning
My husband and I wanted to foster an environment where children's autonomy was allowed and supported, where lots of time for free, unstructured play was provided, and where we could cultivate an unhurried pace in our lives. These values seemed most compatible with homeschooling, particularly forms known as "unschooling" or "life learning". For us, life learning means playdates, reading to each other, trips to the Science Centre, zoo and museum, sleeping in, staying up late, grocery shopping, cooking, traveling, watching movies, the list goes on. We both work from home, me part time and my husband full time, so we both have the opportunity to be involved in the children's lives. It's not always easy and it's rarely perfect, but it works for us for now.
life learning
read my
pretty cool
kids!
CHAO!!
