Commissioned Work: Paper Anniversary

October 16, 20127 Comments

I’ve been holding back recently on sharing a few commissioned projects, because I’ve had to wait on clients making them public first. This particular paper cut piece was commissioned by a dear friend as a secret anniversary gift to his wife. Since the gift is now in her hands, I can share it with you.

Paper being the traditional theme for gifts given in celebration of a first wedding anniversary, I was the perfect person to come up with a unique token of affection. My starting point was to create something from paper and take inspiration from the family Coat of Arms the couple had created for their wedding last year.

I chose to create an abstract composition with layers and textures of paper, and minimal colour. The shield with intertwined letters (representing both their last names) was taken directly from the Coat of Arms. I used a print out of this as the template to cut out the letters, which I then backed with black card stock to help the S and T stand out boldly against the white.

The background is a three-dimensional design freehand cut from a single sheet of card stock and backed with black paper. The crest is attached to float on top. The foreground part of the work is also one sheet of white card stock, but for this one I drew out the leaves before cutting. I almost never pre-draw a paper cut design but in this instance I needed to plan it out first and then cut.

Once each piece of the composition was completed I mounted them into a wood cradle panel painted with a light wash of white acrylic paint, and it was ready to hang in its new home.

Happy Anniversary to my dear friends James and Monique. May there be many happy years to come…

Growing A Yarn Tree

July 10, 2012

Over the weekend I completed my fourth yarn tree mural, this time on a wall in the home of friends Lee and Sachi. It’s a beautiful location (as you’ll see in the photos at the end of this post) right by a large window. The addition of the tree really feels as if nature has been fully incorporated into the room.

As with the previous yarn trees, this one is made from clear push pins and sock yarn. I shot a few photos as I made progress with the mural, so you can get the sense of how it came together.

None of this was pre-planned or drawn out, but I did use a few tree illustrations as reference to guide me as I worked. I think of this as freehand drawing with thread.

The finished yarn tree (as pictured below) has two long branches and one shorter branch. I added this smaller branch a few hours after I finished the initial work because I felt it was needed to fill out the space, and make the composition less symmetrical.

As you can see, the yarn tree fits perfectly into the setting of the room. At the moment the branches have been left bare while Lee and Sachi decide whether or not they want to add leaves, and what type. We were all leaning towards Japanese Maple leaves, but I’m unsure where to source artificial ones.

I really enjoy the process of making these yarn trees, though walls don’t present themselves very often to host a mural made of yarn. I would love the opportunity to make more of these and I am open to creating commissioned pieces if you have a wall available.

Paper Inspiration: Mikito Ozeki Cutting Paper

March 7, 20121 Comment

I just had to share this video of Mikito Ozeki working on a paper cut design in his studio. It’s fascinating to watch at how quickly he works and by the end most of the paper has been cut away.

I want to know where he got his very sharp knife. I need one of those.

Seattle Art Road Trip

February 21, 20122 Comments

I went on a road trip to Seattle last Thursday with two friends who are also artists. The whole thing came about because the previous week I’d mentioned to said friends a show I wanted to see in Seattle, Morgan Brig at Patricia Rovzar Gallery. The next thing I knew we were going on an road trip to see art, including the Gauguin show at the SAM, and any other shows that took our fancy.

It was a fun day with Robi and Val. Besides the galleries we visited there were also stops at two local art supply shops, and one of my favorite book shops in the world, Elliot Bay Book Company. They’ve relocated to Capital Hill since the last time I visited and it seemed like the whole neighbourhood was blocks of interesting shops and restaurants.

Below are photos of some of the things I came across in Seattle that inspired me.

Do Ho Suh’s “Some/One, 2001”, Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

African Masks, Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

Morgan Brig at Patricia Rovzar Gallery in Seattle

Morgan Brig, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

Don Charles at Patricia Rovzar Gallery in Seattle

Don Charles, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

Robin & John Gumaelius at Patricia Rovzar Gallery in Seattle

Robin & John Gumaelius, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

I love it when a plan spontaneously erupts out of nowhere – especially when it involves art.

The Sketchbook Project 2012

January 12, 2012

I was very excited to finally receive my package from The Sketchbook Project yesterday. I can’t wait to get started on this because I have so many ideas.

If you’ve never heard of The Sketchbook Project, it’s a collaborative series of art books created by 5000 artists from around the world. Each person signs up to receive a blank sketchbook, which they fill with whatever they choose in any medium, and then send it back to the organizers. The collected works becomes a travelling show, and eventually a printed catalogue.

If you’re interested in participating, the deadline for sign-up is tomorrow.

Yarn Tree Commission: KidSafe Writers’ Room

November 8, 2011

Another yarn tree has taken shape in the city of Vancouver, this time on the walls of the KidSafe Writers’ Room located in Queen Alexandra Elementary School.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by the program co-ordinator, Sarah Maitland, and asked if she could commission me to create a yarn tree for the room. After visiting the location in person I decided it would work better to create groupings of branches around the room rather than a full tree. It would be far too tempting and easy for the kids to take apart the pushpins and yarn so I placed them all out of reach. There are three groups of branches in the room, and each has a mix of red and green leaves.

I worked on the project while perched atop a ladder as well as the cabinets the branches are placed above. Adding the leaves to the ones located above the sink (pictured above) was the trickiest part. I had one foot on the ladder and one foot on the cabinet in a very unsafe position, but it was the only way I could reach high enough to tuck the leaves into the yarn. (Don’t try this at home kids….)

I’m really glad at how this project turned out, and it was fun to work on another yarn tree. Thank you to Nadia Baker for sharing my work and sending the commission my way.

Please read more about the KidSafe Writers’ Room. It’s a project that offers tutoring help and literacy programming to at-risk students in Vancouver, and they’re always looking for volunteers and donations to support the program.

Altered Books: Owl of the Arctic

October 18, 2011

The Snowy Owl marks the end of the owl series of altered books I’ve been working on (at least until I can find more to use). This is the largest owl of the five, and probably the most intimidating with that glare of hers.

The composition for this one is pretty spare, and I’m struggling with whether to leave it as is or add a little “something”. From what I can tell these types of owls don’t perch in trees, and their environment isn’t very colourful. I decided to share it even though it feels unfinished.

I divided the book into four sections and folded these in alternating directions. I refolded some of the page ends to suggest a rocky (icy?) environment for the owl, and added silver and blue paper as the end pages.

My next step is to frame this one along with the other four. All of these will be on display and available for sale during the Eastside Culture Crawl in November.

Materials used: used book, decorative paper, paper owl, cardboard, white glue, and gel medium.

Altered Books: The Less He Spoke The More He Heard

October 5, 2011

When I first began creating altered books I would go to great lengths to come up with these wordy titles. I haven’t really been doing that lately but for this one I decided to go back to my former way of coming up with a title, which is asking google. In this case I looked up “quotes with owls”.

This is a Long-Eared Owl, and though its ear tufts aren’t actually ears I like the idea that it’s a good listener.

The book was very fun to fold and I love the way the bottom and top sections swirl around one another. With all of these owl books I’ve been folding pages a second or third time after the initial sectioning and folding. It can be a tedious process to crease a three hundred page book and this is how I keep things interesting. It also has resulted in more sculptural work.

For the Long-Eared Owl I returned to making leaves using a paper punch and printed paper to create the suggestion of a tree. I also selected very dramatic Asian-inspired black paper with a gold pattern as the end pages.

There is one more owl altered book to unveil, so stay tuned.

Materials used: book, fancy paper, paper punch, paper owl, cardboard, and white glue.

Altered Books: An Uncommon Owl

October 4, 2011

We now return to your irregularly scheduled update about altered books with owls.

I completed this one two weeks ago, at the same time as a book with a Long-Eared Owl which I will share later this week. This is a Barn Owl and she is the most elegant of all the owls I worked with in this series. It’s wonderful how different each bird has been from one another, and it’s ensured they are each pretty unique altered books.

I kept things very simple with the composition of this one. I added fancy end-pages with a leaf design in gold which works well with the elegant figure of the Barn Owl. I stayed away from leaves and trees for this book and decided to add a tangle of red thread around the bird’s feet. I was originally trying to create a thread nest but then realized this type of owl doesn’t make them. Nest or not, the thread stayed because it anchors the bird in the book.

I did yet another new way of folding with this one, a mix of two different kinds. It was intended as a horizontal piece but then I decided it worked better as a vertical, and also to mix things up with these.

The owl series is complete and I will be debuting them all in person at the Eastside Culture Crawl in November.

Materials used: book, fancy paper, red thread, paper owl, cardboard, and white glue.

Altered Books: The Dovecote

September 23, 2011

I really loved this one as I worked on it and then when I finished I didn’t like it anymore. Now that I’ve had a few days to step away and look at it again with fresh eyes, I like it again. I think I was struggling with the lack of colour.

With this one completed now there are four of these books with trees/birds/doorways. I keep thinking about these as the “Birdhouse series” because the trees with doorways are homes for birds.

The small white birds are a set of wood buttons I picked up at Button Button last year. I’d forgotten about them until last week when I was looking for something to work with. I have a few more of these that are in flight, and then four black crow buttons as well.

I realized after finishing this one I don’t enjoy working on this series of books as much as I do the owls. The process isn’t as creative because I’m using a lot of the same elements and ways of making them. I think this may be why I stopped working on this series when I first started it last year.

I’m sure I can find a way to make the process more interesting…

Materials used: book, bird buttons, inkjet print of my photo, resistors, rubber stamp and ink, white glue, and gel medium.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: art