The speaker series I am curating at Hot Art Wet City gallery kicked off last Tuesday evening with a talk by Kim Werker. It was a terrific talk centered around the value of failure and imperfection which led to an interesting discussion afterwards.
Lucky for those who missed it, Chris filmed the whole thing and you can watch it here:
The series, now titled Hot Talks, continues on June 25th with Bruce Alcock. More details about it, and to grab tickets, on the Hot Art Wet City web site.
Last week I attended an artist talk by Barbara Cole at Bau-xi Gallery, and it has left me with a whole jumble of different thoughts. I’m hoping I can sort out at least a few points here.
Barbara Cole is a fine art photographer I have admired since my days in Toronto. She creates dream-like imagery of the female form, and over the last ten or so years has been focused on underwater photography.
In her artist talk she took the audience all the way back to the beginnings of her career, and how through luck and circumstances she ended up as fashion editor for the Toronto Sun. Cole told this hilarious story of her very first assignment with the Sun, which was to cover Fashion Week in Paris. An unfortunate miscommunication left her without proper access to any of the shows, so at twenty years old she had to come up with a solution and boldly make her way, or risk not meeting deadlines and failing.
What I loved most about Barbara Cole’s talk was her willingness to admit most of the time she didn’t know what she was doing. Few people will admit to this publicly because it puts them in a vulnerable place, but really most of us don’t know what we’re doing more than half of the time. I wish more people would make this statement so we can all be okay with it. It’s not a bad thing to not know what you’re doing because this is an opportunity for learning. Cole’s solution to her lack of knowledge was exactly this: she simply taught herself what she needed to know.
Much of what was said by Barbara Cole was a good reminder of the value of learning by doing. She has done it for her entire career and it has served her well. As a self-taught artist I sometimes feel insecure about my abilities, as if they are less valid than someone who has an MFA or BFA in fine art. But then I realize even the most educated of artists needs to buckle down and go beyond what they’ve learned in school in order to fully evolve as an artist. I skipped art school (which would not have been a good fit for me) and went straight to the in-studio professional development phase of my artistic career. My work has matured by leaps and bounds over the last few years because of this dedication.
I admired Cole’s work before the talk, but now I think highly of her as a woman. She’s in her fifties, but comes across as a much younger person. She’s had a long and distinguished career, continues to create inspiring work, and explores new aspects of her fascination with underwater photography. Barbara Cole comes across as someone content with her life, relaxed with who she is.
It was refreshing to be in the presence of a confident woman. And perhaps it is this most of all I walked away with from the talk. The idea of not just the artistic career I aspire to, but the type of woman I want to be as I get older.
As part of a commitment to myself around contributing back and helping to build the arts community, I’ve recently taken on the role of organizer for a new speaker series at Hot Art Wet City. It’s a new gallery space on Main Street run by Chris Bentzen, the creator of CARDED!, Hot One Inch Action, and an on-going video interview series (which inspired the name of the gallery) sharing the work of Vancouver creatives. I admire what Chris does as a self-made curator building distinctive events, and I want to see the gallery thrive.
Show & Tell is intended to become a regular event at HAWC, with a different speaker each month. The series will feature enthusiastic amateurs to veteran professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds sharing and discussing something they’re passionate about.
The series kicks off with our first speaker, writer/editor/crafter extraordinaire, Kim Werker, on May 21st at 7pm:
Sometimes It Ain’t Pretty: How the Painful Parts of Creativity Can Be Our Strongest Assets
No amount of you-can-do-it cheerleading can prepare us for the inevitable pitfalls inherent to creative exploration. We’re going to struggle, we’re going to stumble, we’re going to fall flat on our face. The thing is, everyone does. So rather than avoiding failure at all costs, I say we allow – or even force – ourselves to dig deep into it for a while. From an intimate understanding of our relationship with failure we can become stronger, more flexible, less afraid, and more adventurous.
Boris and I visited the Graduation Show at Emily Carr University yesterday morning. I spent most of my visit looking at the visual art section, while Boris checked out design.
There was a very broad selection of work on display both in terms of medium and quality but I found a few gems to inspire me.
From Ashes, by Helsa Ahmadi.
(Detail of a larger work)
Chronology Manifested, by Heather Lippold
Dead Already, by Mac Hasselfield
Grus Americana #2, by Natasha Broad
(Detail of a larger work)
Islah & Her Mother, by Carolyn Lakowski
(Detail of a larger work)
Fine Lines, by Elizabeth Jacob
(Detail photo of a larger work)
Intersecting Space, by Pierce Jordan
(Detail photo of a larger work)
I never went to art school so it’s interesting for me to visit and see the results of four years (?) of art education. I still think self-taught is the way to go, but I’m probably biased…
A few weekends ago Boris and I were in Steveston with friends to go on a Sea lion watching tour. We arrived a bit early and so our group stopped into the lovely Roccanini Coffee Roasters for coffee, tea, and delicious treats. Right outside the cafe is this pretty impressive piece of public art designed by my friend, Carlyn Yandle.
Located at the intersection of at No. 1 Road and Moncton Street in Steveston, this is the first scramble-style crosswalk in BC. Carlyn’s design, “was an attempt to weave together the history of the Japanese net-makers and the modern-day marine flavour of this corner of the Lower Mainland using a simple, enduring motif.” I think the results are very striking.
I would love to see municipalities commission more work like this, where the art is integrated fully into the cityscape. I think Canadian cities too often underestimate the importance of public art, but maybe this is in the process of changing.
On Monday I went on an artist road trip with friends, Val Arntzen and M.A. Tateishi, to do a studio visit with Siobhan Humston in Harrison Hot Springs. Siobhan has been doing a residency at the Ranger Station Gallery since September 2012, and is in the last few months of preparing for her upcoming show at the gallery.
All the photos were taken as Siobhan was touring us around her studio space upstairs from the Ranger Station Gallery. She’s been working on a series of large mixed media paintings on paper and a few smaller paintings on wood panel, all of which are stunning. The subject matter is inspired by some of her recent struggles, and mixes imagery of the natural world and man-made items.
It was a wonderful visit, full of food, good conversation, and beautiful weather. I think all four of us came away feeling very inspired and wanting to get down to work in our own studios.
Siobhan’s show opens at the beginning of June. I’m really looking forward to seeing it.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception for Ruminations of Order at Cityscape Gallery in North Vancouver. This is a group show featuring the work of four artists exploring pattern and repetition, among other things. It’s a really fantastic show, but the work that stood out most strongly for me were two installations made from paper by Rosemary Burden.
Working with volumes of antique books she has meticulously created a staggering amount of paper butterflies using a paper punch. The overall impact of this mass of paper gives the viewer a sense of wonder. It’s really something to see.
Both installations include the original book cover, which is a really nice touch. I would love to create a paper installation on a similar scale someday.
There is an artist talk happening this Saturday March 23rd, and the show continues on until April 13th. Read more about Ruminations of Order on the gallery website.
Last week I had the pleasure of seeing a wonderful performance of The Icebook, a miniature theatre show made of paper and light. This live theatre show was created by Davy and Kristin McGuire, and presented by Boca Del Lupo as part of their micro-performance series on Granville Island.
The set is a small pop-up book of paper cutouts combined with incredible lighting and video projection. Watch the video below to get a taste of the show.
Yesterday I did a bit of gallery hopping around town with a friend, something I very badly needed to do. One of our stops was to visit Grunt Gallery, which is currently showing work by Cal Lane. She creates an illustrative style of cut metal sculptures using reclaimed industrial materials.
I was so taken with the installation, Gutter Snipes, that I forgot to photograph the other pieces in the gallery. The work is cut paper translated into metal on a grand scale. Something I hope to eventually achieve.
The installation is lit from the inside and amazing shadows are cast on the wall above. It is large enough to walk through.
Gutter Snipes I is on display at Grunt Gallery until March 23rd, 2013. I highly recommend you go see it.
Have a mentioned before that 2012 has been a record year for commissions? Boy has it ever, and this is the last of them.
This is a yarn-based mural I created in the offices of Pencilneck Software in Vancouver. I used the process and materials of creating a yarn tree as the jumping off point and took it in a whole other direction.
I’d been in conversation with Steve Tannock, owner of Pencilneck Software, for a couple of months about creating custom artwork for their new space. He liked the idea of the yarn tree, but did not want a tree. I eventually settled on the design of repeating triangles because this is the basic structure that makes up a yarn tree.
I used a level and ruler to try to keep the triangles as straight and as in line as I could while moving up and down across the wall. The coloured pieces are cut from rolls of vinyl with adhesive on the back, a material very similar to a wall decal. I used a mix of different shades of blue, and threw in some red and yellow too.
The finished mural has brightened up an otherwise neutral space, and gives people something to look at other than white walls or computers. The day after I completed work, Steve told me people kept finding excuses to come into his office and stare at it. This is positive feedback enough for me.
