Lawstravaganza: Selling my art on the lawn

Weekly moleskin collage - Birds & music

Hey remember waaaay back at the beginning of July when I wrote about getting a career boost and my vow to work on the business of art? Well I’ve been keeping this vow and despite the summer distractions and unbearable heat of the last week I’ve actually managed to cross a few things off my art to do list. (The non-art to do list is another matter…)

One of these crossed off items was for me to create a series of postcards based on collages from my moleskin sketchbooks. I’ve been wanting to create postcards of some sort for YEARS, and now I have. I saw the final proof from the printer today and they should be done by the end of the week. Just in time for my art sale.

Weekly moleskine collage

Coming this Sunday August 9th I’ll be selling my mixed media collages, metal prints, and postcard sets on the streets of Vancouver. Our friends Ross and Kay are hosting the Lawnstravaganza on the front lawn of their building and I decided to join in the fun and take advantage of a free venue conveniently located near my house. It’s my “think outside the venue” or perhaps “DIY venue” way of getting my stuff out there. Come on by the stoop if you just happen to be in the South Granville neighbourhood. I hear there will be monkeys for sale, and hotdogs too.

Lawstravaganza
1325 West 10th Avenue
noon to 5pm
(Facebook event info)

More Mixed Media Collage on Etsy

Here’s a few more of my recent mixed media collage pieces that I’ve listed for sale on Etsy.

Mixed Media Collage - On wings we fly
On Wings we Fly, 10″ x 10″
Mixed Media Collage: gel medium transfer, inkjet print, rubber stamp, acrylic paint, and watercolour

This work is listed for sale on Etsy with further detail photos.

Mixed Media Collage - Octopus
Octopus, 10″ x 10″
Mixed Media Collage: gel medium, inkjet print, paper, rubber stamp, book pages, acrylic paint, ink, and watercolour

This work is listed for sale on Etsy with further detail photos.

Mixed Media Collage - Ginko Leaves
Ginko Leaves, 10″ x 10″
Mixed Media Collage: gel medium, paper, Japanese paper, rubber stamp, book pages, ginko leaves, acrylic paint, ink, and watercolour.

This work is listed for sale on Etsy with further detail photos.

Mixed Media Collage on Etsy

As mentioned many times on the blog, I’ve been exploring mixed media collage techniques with the goal of creating one piece a week in a moleskin sketchbook. I managed to keep this up for about a year and a half and learned a lot in the process. Earlier this spring I decided the sketchbook format was too limited so I switched to using cradle frames (wooden panels) as the base for my collage work. These are some of the pieces I have finished so far.

Mixed Media collage - Little Birds
Little Birds, 10″ x 10″
Mixed media collage, using Japanese paper, sheet music, book pages, rubber stamps, watercolours, gel medium, and a magnolia leaf skeleton.

This work is listed on Etsy with further detail photos.

Mixed Media collage - Black Birds
Black Birds, 8″ x 8″
Mixed media collage, using Japanese paper, paper, book pages, gel medium transfer, acrylic paint, and rubber stamps.

This work is listed on Etsy with further detail photos.

With this new work I decided to implement a new pricing system based on price per square inch. My pricing technique in the past has been random and often resulted in under selling. Going forward t will be nice to have a proper system as reference. This simple idea was inspired by information I’ve been learning in the Professional Visual Arts Career Management workshop I’ve been taking the last two weeks with Chris Tyrell. It’s been the right kick in the pants I’ve needed for awhile to get on track with taking my art career seriously.

Artfest 2009

Artfest collage

On Wednesday morning I’m leaving for an artist retreat taking place at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington. The event, Artfest 2009, is something I’ve been looking forward to since I first registered back in September. I’ll be taking a series of workshops over the course of my time there. I’m really excited about learning new techniques, getting inspired, and meeting other creative people. I’ll be taking a camera or three with me, along with my journal and sketchbook. I haven’t quite decided on the whether or not I’ll bring my laptop yet, because sometimes it’s nice to take a break from regular internet access.

One of the things participants needed to do in preparation for the event was create an artwork around the theme of "Sea Monsters, mostly of the eight-legged variety." There will be a group show of everyone’s work created for the event, and it should be interesting to see the variety of ways the theme has been interpreted. I decided to create the collage piece (featured above) using an illustration of an octopus I found and other elements of undersea life I had in my collection of ephemera. I don’t think it’s my best work but I am satisfied with it, and I was glad to work outside the limitations of my usual collage sketchbook.

Art Night

Weekly Moleskin Collage - January 28, 2009

For the last couple of years I’ve been organizing an evening to provide friends with the opportunity to work on creative projects. I started doing it because I kept hearing so many people express a wish for more time to [insert neglected project here] and felt this way myself. I think this is because the things we most often want to do tend to go by the wayside when life is busy. The idea for the event evolved out of the concept of a stitch n’ bitch and has become known as “Art Night”. It happens about every two to six weeks depending on schedules and interest. The projects people bring to work on range from things like knitting, crocheting, drawing, painting, collaging, and more recently, cooking and baking. Food is always a big part of the evening, and so is conversation.

We’ve recently begun to work on group projects on these evenings, which is something I’ve had in mind for ages. A few weeks ago James and Monique hosted the evening and came up with the idea of creating a mixed tape of songs based around the theme of a “great silence”. Each person brought a song and all were played throughout the evening. At the same time Kirsti and Darren brought along a box of old plastic letters and a digital camera set up for everyone to take turns shooting stills for a stop motion film. It made for a fun evening and I really loved how both projects had everyone’s creative juices flowing.

Weekly moleskin collage - March 11, 2009

For our most recent Art Night I asked everyone to bring twenty photos taken while traveling. Each person took a turn showing their photos and telling the story behind each one. It was an idea inspired by something Boris wanted to do and I thought it needed to happen. It was lovely to see the photos, hear the stories, and contrast and compare what each person chose to share about their travel experiences.

I’m sharing all of this because maybe it will inspire other people to have an Art Night of their own, and get even more people breaking out neglected hobbies and projects. There can never be enough creativity going on in the world, and the same goes for sources of inspiration and collaboration. Just make sure you have good food.

Weekly Moleskin Collage – February 18, 2009

Weekly Moleskin collage - February 18, 2009

This is a collage that almost doesn’t look like a collage. Last week I wanted to make something really busy, crazy and colourful. I went through some of the old magazines I have tucked under my couch (for just such a purpose) and tore out anything colourful and patterned. It was fun to layer these together and create this crazy eye-blasting composition. The bit of text I included, “the only constant is change”, is from a book of slogan stickers given to me by Zak. It seemed appropriate to the collage and the state of things last week.

P.S. A thanks again to Lloyd Budd for upgrading WordPress on my site while we hung out at Northern Voice last weekend. We did a trade, and my part was to show him how to use his Rebel XTi. I don’t do this very often and a lot of camera stuff is just second nature now, so it’s always interesting for me to try and explain things like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I think it rocked his world just like his upgrade of WordPress rocked mine.

Weekly Moleskin Collage – January 7, 2009

Weekly moleskin collage - January 7, 2009

I’m a bit behind on scanning and uploading my weekly collages, as I seem to be on quite a few things. As you can see this one is from the beginning of January. I’m very happy with how this turned out, and I absolutely love the paper in the background.

What’s new? What have you been up too?

Weekly moleskin collage

In the last few days I’ve been asked twice, “What’s new?”, and both times I’ve floundered for an answer. I realize this has always been a question that makes me fumble because I’m rather literal when it comes to words. I feel like I actually have to have something exciting and new to tell when this question is asked and at that same instant my mind goes completely blank. I tend to have a similar reaction to the question, “What have you been up to?” I think what throws me is how general these questions are and I’m never sure what specific information is required. It’s funny how my brain works.

Here are five good things that are “new”:
1. One of my shots has been accepted into a group show of toy camera photography at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco. The show starts at the end of February.
2. My photograph taken inside an abandoned house last summer will be published in the next issue of Light Leaks Magazine.
3. I bought a new laptop recently and the speed in which files open in photoshop is nothing short of AMAZING!
4. I organized my first group photo walk in a very long time and it went well enough to inspire me to want to do it more frequently. I’ve missed it.
5. Along with many of my favorite flickr contacts I received an invitation from Getty Images to *sign up and submit my work.

(* A future post will be devoted to some thoughts on this.)

Testing to Create

One of the things I made today

I love this piece. It actually started out as a test to see how a particular Japanese paper (I don’t know the name of) looked layered over the gel medium transfer I’d done of one of my tree photos on wood. I did a test of each colour of paper – green, blue, and an off-white – and suddenly it was becoming a composition rather than just a “test piece” for collaging techniques. The leaf skeleton, splashes of watercolour, bird stamp, and coating of gel medium were further additions to make it complete.

On another note, I’ve been having doubts about making Christmas presents versus buying them. My thoughts are whether handmade presents are less valuable, or maybe less valued, than something store bought, and is it cheaping out to do things myself. I know this isn’t true, and I love it when friends gift me items made with their own hands, but not everyone appreciates a handmade item. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.