In a rare turn of events Boris and I took the day off mid-week and got ourselves out of town. We decided to drive to Squamish to do some exploring, as neither of us have been there in years. We stopped at Shannon Falls along the way, visited the estuary trail for a walk, then lunch at Fergies, and a longish hike through Alice Lake Provincial Park.
We had perfect weather before the rain returned the next day.
I took last week off from work and my residency and spent a few days on Bowen Island with Boris and his family. It has been unrelentingly hot the last few weeks, and it was good to spent time walking in the forest, splashing in the ocean, napping in a cool place, and reading.
The view into Howe Sounds as the ferry departs from Horseshoe Bay.
A magnificent Banded Alder Borer beetle that caught a ride on Anne’s car.
Boris on the Secret Log which is surrounded by lush green water plants this time of year.
A hazy morning view across to the North Shore mountains from the Lagoon and other beautiful pictures can be found on this website here.
My friend Kim was driving down to Seattle for the day on Saturday and I decided to tag along with Boris and do a bit of gallery hopping. While she was signing books at Urban Craft Uprising, we wandered around Pioneer Square visiting my favourite galleries.
Below are detail photos of sculptural work by June Sekiguchi at Art Exchange. The rest of the work in the show was pretty fabulous, but I was riveted by Sekiguchi’s work because the layers of intricate shapes are something I badly want to explore with my own work.
June Sekiguchi
June Sekiguchi
June Sekiguchi
Roq la Rue was our next stop to see the fantastical work of Stacey Rozich. She works in watercolours, and my favourite pieces were the small series of layered scenes in shadowbox frames, one of which is pictured here.
Stacey Rozich
I had just encountered the work of Rachel Denny through an Instagram post by the Jealous Curator earlier in the week and had no idea she was showing in Seattle until we were walking past Foster White gallery. The head of the red bull hanging in the front window drew us inside, and I was giddy with delight to see more of her work.
Rachel Denny
Rachel Denny
Rachel Denny
The final show of our brief art tour was a visit to Flatcolor Gallery to see work by Timothy Karpinski. Again, I’d had no idea he had a show in Seattle at the time until I happened upon an invite for his exhibition when we stopped at Zeitgeist for a short break. I’d like to buy all of his work, but the abstract composition of colourful leaves most of all.
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
We also visited Greg Kucera gallery, Method Gallery, Pottery Northwest, and had a wander through Urban Craft Uprising. It was all together a very inspiring and memorable day. I love a good art-themed road trip!
A few scenes on and around Bowen Island from the previous few days. Rain had been forecast for the long weekend, but we mostly had poofy clouds and blue skies.
The rain was saving itself for today, and I’ve been enjoying the return to sweaters, long pants, and boots. I love the fall season.
My friend Christina and I decided to go on a day trip to Seattle last Thursday, using the Sketchbook Project Tour as our excuse. It turned out to be a day filled with art and inspiration, and the Sketchbook Project was the least exciting thing we experienced.
There were three shows I really wanted to see while we were in town, all at the usual galleries I like to visit in Seattle. Our first stop was to see the latest work by Morgan Brig at Patricia Rovzar Gallery. I really admire her new figurative pieces, but there was a series of her ships there as well.
Visit the Patricia Rovzar Gallery website to view more work in the show.
We visited Greg Kucera Gallery on 2nd Avenue and saw mind blowing kinetic sculpture by John Buck, and textile work by Marie Watt.
Watch this video of John Buck’s kinetic sculpture, Cat’s Cradle, in motion.
A beautiful textile piece by Marie Watt made from old blankets.
Our last gallery stop for the day was Roq la Rue to see more amazing kinetic sculpture, this time by Casey Curran. Visit his website to see these pieces in motion. Each has a crank for the viewer to gently move the handmade mechanics of the sculpture, and make wings flap and flowers bloom. They are difficult to photograph and way more compelling in person.
It was a terrific crazy-busy day of art, and I’m so glad we decided to do this. I love road trips, but there’s something pretty special about going on a trip to see art with a fellow artist. The best part is that we both came back inspired to get back into our own studios.
Boris and I did a quick trip to Seattle over the weekend. We went down to hear our friend Lee Lefever speak at the Seattle chapter of Creative Mornings, and to visit friends.
We spent a bit of time on Friday wandering the streets and visiting a few galleries. I was so thrilled to see the work of Andy Kehoe in person at Roq la Rue gallery. He works in layers of resin and paint, which gives the work depth and detail, but unfortunately this doesn’t come through in photographs. I’ve admired his work online for years, but they are so much better in person.
Detail of Twilight Rendevous by Andy Kehoe
Detail of Valley of the Ghoul by Andy Kehoe
Detail of Invoking The Heart of The Wild by Andy Kehoe
We also did a quick trip to the Bellevue Arts Museum to see Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami. It was an extra inspiring bonus to see exhibitions of work by Kathy Venter and Dan Webb.
Figurative sculpture by Kathy Venter, an artist based on Salt Spring Island.
Surreal wood carved sculpture by Dan Webb.
Folding Paper was a terrific survey of origami work from artists and designers around the world. There were many pieces of traditional work, but my favourites were the pleated fold-style of sculptural origami, as well as some of the modular work.
The origami show continues until September, but the exhibitions by Kathy Venter and Dann Webb ended this past weekend. It’s worth the visit to the museum because they always have wonderful craft-based shows that we don’t have the exhibition space for in Vancouver.
Another highlight of my visit to Toronto was seeing how dramatically the street art scene has grown. There was interesting graffiti to be seen everywhere, and I got in the habit of peering down every alley I passed while walking around. Chances were good I would see something I liked.
There are large concentrations of street art in Graffiti Alley, which runs parallel to Queen from about Spadina to Portland, as well as throughout Kensington Market. But everywhere I walked, no matter the neighbourhood, I found something. These are some of the highlights.
Located on Collage east of Spadina
Located behind The Green Room on Bloor Street
Located on Dundas Street West
Located in an alley on Bloor Street in the Annex
Alley off of Queen Street West
McCaul Street near OCAD.
A small part of a huge mural on the side of Sanko on Queen Street West
An alley off of Queen near Dufferin Street
Kensington Market
Graffiti Alley
Graffiti Alley
View the full set of my graffiti photos on Flickr.
I would dearly love to see the Vancouver street art scene grow and thrive on a similar scale. I wonder what needs to be done to make it happen…?
On the weekend I caught up on uploading to Flickr the rest of my photos from my trip to Toronto in March, most of which is graffiti. Reviewing the photos reminded me of our brunch at Patria Restaurant on King Street with friends of Boris on our last weekend in town. I chose the restaurant simply because I wanted to see the incredible cross-stitch installation in person. Thank goodness the food was as amazing as the interior design.
The cross-stitch wall is done on a metal screen overlaying the background image directly on the wall. The effect is stunning and the scale of this is impressive.
The installation is a collaboration between Commute Home, artist Laura Carwardine, and Marlo Onilla of Biography Design. Watch the video below to see how they pulled this huge project together.
Making of Patria Restaurant Cross Stitch Art Installation from Henry Salonen on Vimeo.
Many years ago I worked as a photographer part-time at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. It was an amazing opportunity to be hands-on with a very special collection of objects, and be exposed to a huge variety of beautiful things from all over the world. I was part of their early efforts to document and digitize the permanent collection, which at the time was around 10,000 objects.
The experience really broadened my knowledge of what the word “textile” means, and inspired me to explore different media beyond photography. Of course a visit to the Textile Museum was a must do while I’m in Toronto, and I was thrilled to see a collection of kimonos and obis on display.
As you can see, I took many photos while I was there. The details of the kimonos are intricate and delicate. It’s an amazing display of wearable art.
There’s a mix of embroidery, shibori, and painted details on all of these beautiful things. It’s an amazing amount of work that goes into each piece.
It was a very inspiring visit, and I was glad to connect with a place that was such a privilege to work at when I lived in Toronto.
While in Toronto I’ve been venturing out to galleries every day this week, despite whatever terrible thing the weather throws our way. On Tuesday I wandered the hallways of 401 Richmond while a storm raged away outside, and yesterday I visited The Power Plant and Harbourfront Center. All are favourite places from my previous life in Toronto, so it was pleasing to see how they’ve evolved over the last ten years.
The highlight of yesterday was coming across multiple paper sculptures in Studious, a show in the Harbourfront Gallery featuring a variety of craft-based work.
Black Cloud is a massive installation of black paper and rubber or wire tubing (I’m not sure which) created by Amanda McCavour. It is magnificent, huge, and extremely inspiring to my paper-loving self. The photos don’t really do it justice, but I had to share it.
Across the gallery are three paper works by Lizz Aston. They are hand cut work, and made from dyed kozo paper. It’s hard to tell from the photos but these pieces are large and float a couple inches away from the wall. Again I found this work the exact thing that stimulates ideas in my own brain. It’s the kind of scale I hope to finally achieve in my own work this year.
Read more about the Studious show here.