Artist: Ruth Asawa

April 20, 20102 Comments

A friend is in San Francisco this week, and last night her tweet about Alamo Square had me revisiting my photos on Flickr taken in SF on a trip there a few years ago. The trip down memory lane reminded me of these shots taken in the deYoung Museum of three sculptures by Ruth Asawa.

She’s a San Francisco based artist best known for her sculptures created by crocheting or tying wire. The work is delicate and beautiful, and captures organic forms that remind me of micro-organisms or seedpods. Ruth is also a painter and has numerous large scale public art installations located around San Francisco.

I’m really glad to have this reminder of her because it’s very much in line with the more craft oriented work I’m interested in at the moment. It’s also the perfect inspiration for a thread-based piece I keep wanting to experiment with.

Visit Ruth Asawa’s website for more information about her work.

Finding & Collecting Inspiration

March 10, 20101 Comment

I’m always on the look out for inspiration to keep my creativity fueled and fired up. I collect things like postcards, art show flyers, clippings from magazines, cards people have given me, photos and other bits of ephemera. As shown in the above photo I keep some of the things on display pinned to the bulletin board facing my desk. I love having something interesting to look at while I work on the computer.

These days the internet has become my main source of inspiration. It’s the quickest and easiest way to do research for my work or randomly come across the work of other talented artists through Twitter, Flickr, or blogs. Thanks to Boris’ introduction to Posterous I’ve started gathering together all the bits and pieces I find on the internet that inspire me instead of leaving them forgotten in google reader or filed away in email. Take a look at my posterous page to see what I’ve collected so far.

Some of the artists featured on my bulletin board:
A print by Theo Ellesworth
Two invites for shows by Soizick Meister
A flyer for Cecilia Z. Miguez
Postcards by Anahata Katkin

Please leave me a comment if there is an artist or blog you find inspiring.

Good Things from 2009

January 6, 20101 Comment

It’s easy to focus on the negative and decide a whole year was bad, and this seems to be the general attitude about poor old 2009. It was a year that was on the rough side, but it was also one that had many wonderful things. Boris and I felt it was one of those in-between times that builds a foundation for other years.

I decided to do a list of good things and see how many items I could come up with. Here goes in no particular order, good things from 2009:

1. Discovering the art of altering old books and taking a huge step forward with my collage work.

2. Concluding the 52 weeks self portrait series that I started in 2008.

3. Moving out of my cold and dark apartment in Kits and moving in with Boris.
4. Bringing a regular yoga practice back into my life thanks to the forty day yoga challenge.
5. Going on walks with Anne on Bowen, and getting to see new trails I hadn’t walked before.

6. Canoeing and a picnic in Widgeon Creek.

7. Going to Jericho park and throwing the frisbee around with Boris.
8. Working on a portrait series inspired by my self portraits.

9. Swimming in the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever.
10. Writing regularly in my paper-based journal.
11. Learning how to make mozzarella cheese.
12. Attending Artfest in Port Townsend.

11. Eating Dungeness Crab caught by James.
12. Riding Anne’s scooter around the North Shore with Boris on my birthday.

13. Visiting the Bug Museum in Victoria.
14. Snowshoeing on Cypress with the Mann Family.

15. Cycling around the city to see the cherry blossoms.

16. Rescuing a baby crow from the streets of Gastown and putting it into Kirsti’s care.

17. A surprise visit from my friend Tonia.
18. Heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market.

19. A July weekend on Saltspring Island with friends.

20. Hanging out with Kathy in Vancouver, and sharing Bowen Island with her at last.
21. Turning some of my collages into postcards.

22. Acquiring two cute little goldfish.

23. The return of Ruby Dog’s Arthouse in a new location.
24. Spending quality time with Kai during her brief visit to Vancouver.
25. Eating many delicious meals made with delicious deliciousness.

(I started this thinking I wouldn’t be able to come up with much, and I’ve surprised myself by realizing I can think of more.)

Creative Excellence Takes Time

December 23, 2009

The wise words of Ira Glass on why creative excellence takes time. I found listening to this very gratifying, especially the part about self-directed projects and deadlines to work towards, because it’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years with fruitful results. I’m producing the best work of my life (so far) and I’m working hard at it. I am occasionally tough on myself because I feel like it’s taken me a forever to get to where I currently am as an artist. But there would’ve been no other way to get here because all good things take time and hard work. (And hard work takes time too.)

Burn for no reason, like a lantern in daylight

December 2, 20092 Comments

From the Free Will Astrology Newsletter:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I burn for no reason, like a lantern in daylight,” writes poet Joseph Lease. I think that’s a succinct formulation of one of your central issues, Leo. Burning for no reason, like a lantern in the daylight, can be the cause of either failure or success for you, depending on subtle differences of emphasis. This is how it can be failure: When you’re mindlessly and wastefully burning through your prodigious reserves of fuel without any concern for the benefits it may provide you and others. This is how it can be success: When you are exuberant and self- disciplined in shining your light and radiating your warmth just because it feels so good and so right and so healthy, and without any thought about whether it’s “useful” to anyone.

How’s that for a kick-ass weekly horoscope…?

Ten Wonderful Things From the Weekend

November 16, 20091 Comment

1. Taking the train to Seattle and enjoying the beautiful view from the window. I saw about a million different bird species flying, gliding, or bobbing in the water as we went past.
2. A relaxing Friday afternoon spent in the Turkish Baths at the Banya 5 Spa in Seattle.
3. A long long afternoon nap in our hotel room with a beautiful view of the city and a giant king-sized bed. (Thanks for the amazing dealio Priceline.)
4. Visiting the Elliot Bay Book Company and managing to keep the book buying under control.
5. Trader Joe’s candied ginger and lemon verbena soap.
6. Amazing inspiring art at Patricia Rozvar Gallery and Gallery I|M|A in Seattle.
7. The lovely and funny wedding of Dave and Lauren.
8. Dancing the night away with Boris, and in high heels no less.
9. Ending the wedding evening with a huge Near-Death Ray gun battle between Boris, Mark and me. (We had to test out the wedding favors somehow!)
10. Hanging out with Mark and Andrea in Seattle for some quality eating and shopping.

Vancouver Art: The Sultry World and The Red Thread

November 4, 20091 Comment

I have two shows for you featuring the colour red. One is past and the other is upcoming.

Centre A Gallery was hosting Norico Sunayama’s live installation of A Sultry World for only two days last week, so I made sure I got myself down there to see it. The idea is relatively simple, a live model is seated high on a chair wearing a giant red dress that covers the floor of the gallery. Audience members are invited to crawl under the skirt and make their way to a sitting area directly under the model. It’s a very intimate experience and it reminded me of the blanket forts kids like to make. From the outside the installation is stunning with the red fabric covering the floor, and the way the dress transforms into different shapes when people crawl underneath. I’m very glad I went to see this because I found it a very inspiring piece.

soizick_meister
I love Soizick Meister’s paintings. They are everything I aspire my photographs to be; imaginative and real with the twist of the magical. Her work has had an influence on some of the photos (here & here) I took during the 52 weeks series. I saw her last show at Jacana Gallery in August 2008, and now she is having another show there, opening this Saturday and on-going until November 22. It’s called The Red Thread, and the imagery is based upon an old Chinese proverb about an invisible thread that connects those that are destined to meet. I am loving what I can see in the online gallery and can’t wait to see this work in person.

Collecting Materials

October 29, 20093 Comments

My interest in collage and altered books has compelled me to become a scavenger. When I am wandering around outside I am always on the lookout for interesting bits of natural materials, like the above acorn caps I found the other day as I walked back to work after an errand. I pick up things like this because there is something about them that attracts me, like the shapes, even if I have no idea how I can use them in future work.

These are some of the many feathers I’ve collected or been given and I’ve started keeping them all together in box. The feathers in the photo above are a mix from peahens, chickens and crows. I have lots of lovebird feathers as well as ones from a cockatoo.

Leaf skeletons are another natural item I’m always on the look out for, but they aren’t easy to find since Vancouver’s wet climate typically causes leaves to rot away. In the spring I came across layers of magnolia leaf skeletons under a bush in Stanley Park and I’ve used a few of them in my work, but I haven’t come across any more since then. Anne gave me the small box of holly leaf skeletons pictured here, and they are absolutely lovely.

Hopefully my collecting won’t get too out of control as time goes on, but it’s pretty typical of collage makers to have HUGE stashes of stuff. I guess the theory is that you can never have too much material to work with.

The Return of the Red Umbrella

October 21, 20093 Comments

Five Wonderful Things:
1. Picking up my red umbrella from The Umbrella Shop on Broadway where I’d taken it for repair, and finding out they fixed it for FREE. (Buy an umbrella there because they are awesome!)
2. Getting starting on altered book number five.
3. Creating a button design to submit for the upcoming One Hot Inch Action show.
4. The amazing power of alone time to re-energize and pull my attitude about life out of the toilet.
5. The little Chickadees and House Finches that come to visit my fourth floor birdfeeder.

Change the way you tell the story

October 6, 20093 Comments

From Free Will Astrology:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Change your password. Take a different way home. Ask a question you’ve never asked. Dream up a new nickname for yourself. Choose a new lucky number. Change the way you tell the story about an important event in your past. Make it a little more difficult for people to have you pegged. Eat a type of food you’ve never tried. Do the research necessary to discover why one of your opinions may be wrong. Add a new step to your grooming ritual. Feel appreciation for a person whose charms you’ve become numb to. Surprise yourself at least once a day.

Probably good things to keep in mind for everyone. Change is good, and sometimes it can be as simple as changing your attitude or trying to change your perspective. It’s not always big changes that are needed.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: Inspiration