Inspiration: Working With Foodtree

July 19, 20116 Comments

Last week I was away on a three day retreat on Saltspring Island with the team I work with at Foodtree. It was an amazing, inspiring, and transformative experience and I really wanted to acknowledge this by writing about it here.

As you may know I was working full time as an artist for more than a year and in March I decided it was time to look for a part time job to support myself. I wrote a blog post about what I was looking for, put it out into the world through social media channels, and back came an opportunity to work with Foodtree.

Foodtree is an internet startup based out of Gastown in Vancouver. The basic concept of what we do is connect people with where their food comes from through web and mobile applications. Our goal is complete transparency in the food system, and our company motto is, “Know More. Eat Better.” The company was founded by Anthony Nicalo and Derek Shanahan, two awesome people who want to make a difference in the world and it all starts with food.

I’ve been working with Foodtree on a part-time basis since mid-April with the title of “Community Techknowledgartist” and responsibilities of supporting Derek as Community Manager. After the initial thrill and excitement about the job wore off I began struggling with what I was doing there and felt unsure about what I had to offer the company.

You see, Anthony is the kind of team leader/employer who gives you a role but leaves it up to you to define it, and that’s not an easy thing to do. There is no time for hand holding in a startup because it’s a fast paced environment, and it’s the responsibility of every person there to move the mission forward. You’re no longer an “employee” but a member of a team. I’ve never ever worked in an environment where I felt so empowered to perform the function I was hired to do. Or at least now I do after our retreat on Saltspring Island.

The retreat came just at the right time after a crazy couple of months of rebranding the company, refining the company’s mission, launching an iphone app, and new people joining Foodtree. I think we all left for Saltspring feeling uncertain about what we were in for, and came back from a very memorable experience that helped bring us closer together.

We spent the three days at Foxglove Farm with a group of facilitators who helped guide us through the process of clarifying the mission and developing our team. It was the first opportunity I’ve had to really get to know everyone and I couldn’t be more impressed by the intelligent, articulate, and amazing group of people I get to work with at Foodtree. The experience taught me that I belong there and that I do have many strengths/skills/ideas to offer our organization. This makes me happy.

The retreat was a huge investment of time, energy, and money by Anthony and Derek in the group of people they’ve brought together.

I’ve never experienced that level of investment from an employer. It demonstrates how much our team leaders value and regard the individual members of our group, and the importance of the role each plays in moving forward with our mission at Foodtree.

I’m very grateful to both Anthony and Derek for including me in the further development of Foodtree. It definitely feels like being a part of something special.

My Weekend In Photos

July 4, 2011

The photos only hint at the awesomeness of my Canada Day weekend.

Yuuki visits the breakfast table.

Field strawberries and a horse on Westham Island.

Beautiful skies in Steveston.

Poppies on a side street off Commercial Drive.

Garlic at the Kitsilano Farmers Market.

A view of the water in New Brighton Park Pool.

I hope you had a good weekend too.

Beautiful Things At The Vancouver Farmers Markets

June 8, 2011

One of the things I do at my part-time job with Foodtree is take photos at the farmers markets. We’re really trying to promote local producers and connect people with where their food comes from. I use the photos to add to the Foodtree database, but also for things like blog posts. I thought I’d share some of the photos here as well.

There are so many beautiful (and yummy) things at the farmers markets. I’m so glad the season is now open.

Snuggle Fish

June 2, 20111 Comment

I bring you the cutest goldfish EVAH!!! That is all.

Shopping on The Drive

May 23, 2011

Late last week Boris and I went food shopping in the Santa Barbara Market in preparation for the long weekend. It’s not a place we normally go but it’s one of the few markets opened a bit later in the evening.

There was beautiful light pouring in through a window as I waited for Boris near the deli counter at the back of the store.

And as we waited in line to pay I realized the guy in front of us had a small boa constrictor coiled around his arm. He said her name was Sketch and she liked being worn as a bracelet. I gave the snake a stroke and then went back to packing up our groceries.

Such is life in East Van – snakes in a grocery store….

Secret Stairway Under the Burrard Bridge

April 26, 20112 Comments

Thanks to an interesting project by Josh Hite and Scott Billings I had the opportunity to visit the secret stairway under the Burrard Bridge last week. It’s been abandoned since the 1930s, and when I visited I could understand why. I imagine it would be a creepy place at night because it certainly was during the day.

The guy in this photo turned out to be an upstairs neighbour from my building who I never see. It was hilarious to run into him in such a random place. He and his girlfriend were helping out as actors during the filming.

Secret Stairway under Burrard Bridge - old graffiti

The metal column going down the centre of the staircase was set temporarily for their project of filming the interior of the stairway in a helical movement. I didn’t see much of the filming because they were still setting up but I was really impressed by how much equipment they brought all the way to the bottom of the stairs. The only way in is from the top of the bridge because the city bricked up the bottom entrance ages ago.

Secret Stairway under Burrard Bridge, window

There was plenty of ancient graffiti covering the stairs and walls, which indicates people have been able to sneak in there in the past. I wonder if the Department of Eternal Art is still around….?

The whole experience gave me a killer case of vertigo but it was an amazing opportunity to get into this space which is normally restricted from public access.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

April 22, 2011

Working on the Fairy Tale series has unexpectedly led me to making paper cut work. It’s become more of a focus (or rather obsession) since I made the wolf for the Little Red Riding Hood book. The books I’ve been working on for the last two weeks are the Three Little Pigs with each pig in their own house-shaped book. I wanted to make a Big Bad Wolf to go with them and envisioned this as a large paper cut to flow around the books.

This is what I came up with and I love it.

I foolishly cut it from paper that was too flimsy and it curled in a very unhelpful way. I had to back the whole thing with a thicker paper and then recut the shape. I decided to paint the whole thing to make it more dramatic, using black and white acrylic paint. I’m relieved that part went so well because painting, like drawing, is not my strongest artistic skill.

Five Good Things from the Weekend

March 21, 2011

1. Walking outside in the sunshine enjoying a gorgeous spring day hand-in-hand with B.
2. Visiting the cherry blossoms in McSpadden Park – some of the first flowering trees I’ve seen in our neighbourhood.
3. Walking 5km of the seawall that runs along the perimeter of Stanley Park. So many beautiful things to see, including a hawk, eagles, the ocean, and a heron.
4. Devouring a delicious lunch at Legendary Noodle. I haven’t been there in ages, and already crave another visit just thinking about what we ate.
5. Watching a really good movie (Adjustment Bureau) that reminded me how grateful I am for the things I have.

Beautiful Work From My First Altered Book Workshop

February 21, 20115 Comments

I was ridiculously nervous and anxious in the week leading up to teaching my first altered book workshop, but things could not have gone better with the class. There were six people in attendance, which was the perfect amount to allow everyone to spread out in the space.

I started the class with a quick slide show of my altered books and also introduced spectacular work by other artists, like Brian Dettmer and Su Blackwell for inspiration. Because the workshop was only three and a half hours long I chose to focus on folded page techniques because there are many different ways people could take things, and it doesn’t involve waiting for glue to dry.

Everyone got right down to business after my demo and I wandered around the room answering questions and giving guidance as needed. I loved seeing all the different books people brought to work with and the ideas they came up with to experiment. I ended up also showing people how to make the paper flowers I used in my Container Art installation and these were incorporated into some of the book projects.

By the end of class everyone had at least one completed book they could take home and work on further, some of which are pictured below.

Altered books are something I am very excited about and it felt easy to share that passion with other people and make the work accessible. I did some learning of my own in the class, which is what I was hoping for. Some lessons I can apply to my own artwork and others will go towards tweaking how I teach the class. Overall it was an enjoyable experience stepping into the role of teacher and for the next workshop I will be less nervous about the whole thing.