The Container Art Show at the PNE

This week I’ve spent every day onsite at the PNE working on my installation for the Container Art show. I wasn’t expecting to be there so much but I had a few technical difficulties with the hanging on Monday and then I’ve been back a few times to tweak different things. Everything else I needed to do has gone by the wayside this week because nothing is more important than getting this show exactly right before the PNE opens.

It’s been a great experience so far and the staff at the PNE have been supportive and helpful. I’ve met some of the other artists also showing at Container Art and it’s wonderful to see the different types of work and how each person has chosen to make use of their shipping container gallery space. I don’t have photos yet of anyone else’s work because everyone is still in the process of installing.

The Container Art Show

The Container Art Show-2

This is what the Container Art Gallery space looks like from the outside, to give you an idea of what to look for. It’s big and hard to miss. There will be video projections and light displays on the outside during the evening hours of the PNE. On the inside there will be art, including paintings, altered books, and wild installations I’m not sure how to describe. You’ll just have to go and see it for yourselves.

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge-4

In my container the twenty-five encyclopedias float along the side and back walls, and the multitude of paper flowers I was working on last week hang from the ceiling. The final touch was to add a few arrangements of driftwood, pine cones, sticks, rocks and wildflowers along the bottom wall and corners. These were a last minute addition I decided was needed because the space along the lower part of the walls looked stark and empty.

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge-7

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge-3

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge-2

The work will be on display for the two week run of the PNE and access to the Container Art show is included with the price of admission. Check it out if you get the chance and please do social share about the show on twitter, facebook, flickr, etc.

Container Art- Forgotten Knowledge-9

Paper Flowers

Paper Flowers

Earlier this week I decided the installation I’ve been putting together for Container Art needed “something more”, and so I started making paper flowers. These are made from five pieces of paper and then attached together with glue. I have made about fifty of them using pages cut from one of the left over encyclopedia volumes. You’ll have to wait and see what I’m going to do with them as part of the display.

Paper Flowers

Paper Flowers

The paper flower design is taken from Playing With Books by Jason Thompson, which I purchased from RubyDog’s Art House.

[A big thank you to Ariane for coming over earlier this week to hang out and help me make a few of the flowers.]

Forgotten Knowledge: The Completed Set

I finished the last book in the Forgotten Knowledge series last Friday morning and felt a mix of relief, satisfaction and sadness at finally getting them all done. I arranged them on the dinning room table in a circle to take a look at them for the first time as a set. They look amazing.

Forgotten Knowledge, the completed set of 25

Forgotten Knowledge, the completed set of 25

While there are about a million ways for these to be displayed, for the purposes of the Container Art space they will be hung on the wall fully open. I hope you can drop by the PNE and visit the show. More photos to come once this work is installed.

Good News: Container Art & The Eastside Culture Crawl

The last few weeks I’ve been stressing over the mail because two important items I’d sent off in June were taking a REALLY long time to show up at their intended destination. I hate things like this because there is absolutely nothing I can do about lost mail. One of these items was a cheque covering my registration fee in the East Side Culture crawl and it’s failure to reach the organizers in a timely fashion meant having to pay an additional fifty dollars. The increased cost had me reconsidering taking part in this event because money is tight right now. But much to my relief the cheque finally arrived after a two week trip around Vancouver. Apparently part of the mailing address contact information on the Crawl’s web site was incorrect, and many notes on the envelope later my cheque found itself at the correct address. Phew!

On the very same day the cheque arrived I had another piece of good news I’d been waiting for. I received an email from the organizers of the Container Art show letting me know I’d been chosen as one of the twelve participating artists. What is the Container Art show you might ask? It’s a bit of a traveling art show which uses empty shipping containers as the venue for artists to create site specific work in a variety of mediums. There have been Container Art shows in Rome, New York, Jerusalem, Milano, etc., and this is the second year this will be done on site at the PNE grounds.

Forgotten Knowledge

Forgotten Knowledge-2

The project I am putting together for this show is book based. As mentioned in my monthly newsletter, and a previous blog post, I’ll be working with twenty-five volumes of a set of encyclopedias and combining these with found objects. At the moment I only have five of the twenty-five completed and about a month left until the date of installation, but I am so excited to be in this show. It’s an incredible opportunity for me and it’s been just the right motivation I needed to try something on a larger scale than my previous work.

Stay tuned as I work my way through to the end of this project, and please do come and see it at the PNE in August.

Finding Inspiration At RubyDog’s Art House

RubyDog's Art House

RubyDog’s Art House is my favorite place to buy supplies and find inspiration for the collage work I create. I’ve been going there for the last couple of years and I always find something unique and inspiring to take home. The shop is owned by Leanne Bishop and it’s always fun to chat with her while I browse through the store.

RubyDog's Art House
RubyDog's Art House-2
When I dropped by a yesterday to pick up a new book about collage I decided to take a few photos and show people some of the interesting things you can find in the shop. There is an excellent selection of books on collage, book making, painting, and more. I think I’ve bought most of my art books from RubyDog’s because she seems to be the only one in Vancouver to carry as many books about altering books.

RubyDog's Art House-4
This is Ruby the dog, who can often be found napping peacefully in the corner, and is the namesake of the shop. He’s taking a nap after a healthy eating session from the new dog feeder, he is so spoiled with all this love.

RubyDog's Art House-8
There are plenty of interesting little things to look at all through the store.

RubyDog's Art House-3

I’ve used these some of these tiny bottles in one of my altered books (that now belongs to someone else).
RubyDog's Art House-5

RubyDog's Art House-6

I have some of these clarinet pieces in my possession and that have not yet made their way into a collage. Leanne has a HUGE collection of letterpress pieces for collaging or collecting.

RubyDog's Art House-7

There’s really no end to the variety of things you can find at RubyDog’s Art House, from vintage ephemera to billiard balls. Please check out the shop and help support a wonderful local business.
RubyDog's Art House-9

RubyDog's Art House-10

RubyDog’s Art House
623 Kingsway
(Kingsway near Fraser Street)
Vancouver BC V5T 3K5

Kirsten Chursinoff: Low Tide

Kirsten Chursinoff has been working hard over the last few months to create new work for her upcoming show, Low Tide. As mentioned in a previous blog post, she’s a fibre artist who creates colourful scenes of nature using quilting and embroidering techniques. Her current work explores the theme of marine life found along the West Coast of BC.

From Kirsten’s press release:
With ‘Low Tide’ I’ve focused on the marine creatures found along the coast of British Columbia, especially at low tide, but also plunging a little deeper into our emerald sea – exploring the illustrative qualities of embroidery and art quilting.

The show opens Thursday June 17th from 6 to 8pm, at the Crafthouse Gallery on Granville Island. Kirsten will also be doing an artist talk on June 22nd at 7pm, with details below on how to RSVP to attend.

Kirsten Chursinoff: Low Tide
Craft Council Gallery, Crafthouse
1386 Cartwright St.
Granville Island, Vancouver.
June 17 to July 25, 2010 Open 10-6 daily
Artist Talk: Tues. June 22, 7pm, RSVP for artist talk to kirsten (at) chursinoff (dot) com

A Visit to the Rennie Collection

It probably says a lot about me that I’d never heard of Bob Rennie the “condo king” before visiting the new gallery showing his art collection. Along with his reputation as a top name in Vancouver real estate, he’s also a passionate collector of contemporary art and is the owner of the third largest private art collection in Canada. The newly renovated Wing Sang building, located on Pender Street in Chinatown, houses the aforementioned gallery owned by Rennie. I visited the other week to view it’s second ever show.


(An example of Richard Jackson’s work. Not from the show).

The current exhibition is a retrospective of the collected works of Richard Jackson. He’s a contemporary artist working with painting and sculpture, and is very much influenced by his background as an engineer. He’s all about the concept of what he creates rather than the content and uses multiple canvases and thick layers of paint to create wildly colourful abstract installations across the walls. Many of his pieces involve a huge amount of paint and were created on site in the gallery. I was really impressed with the show not just for the quality of the work but because of how well the show was put together. It’s rare to see an art show in Vancouver as tightly curated and as polished at this one was.

Even if contemporary art is not your thing, the architecture alone is worth a visit. The Wing Sang building is one of the oldest in Chinatown and they’ve done an extraordinary job of restoring it while maintaining some of the original details. My favorite spot was the rooftop garden with its excellent view of the city. The space is half covered in aged metal beams as a patio, and half in a lush lawn with two permanently installed sculptures from the collection. There were also red poppies blooming in planters placed around the edges of the roof and a blue sky overhead to complete the picture of a lovely oasis hidden from the city. I could’ve stayed up there for hours enjoying the sun.

To go on a guided tour of the Rennie Collection you need to reserve a space on their website. The tours are free and take place three times a day on Tuesday and Thursdays with a maximum of fifteen people at a time. I highly recommend you do it.

The Weekend Roundup of Artsy Goodness

Just within reach

I’ll be out of town this weekend, which I’m really excited about but it means missing out on a whole bunch of interesting things going on in town.

Make It! The Handmade Revolution: A shopping extravaganza of handmade items by local designers and artisans. Boris and I went to this last year and saw many beautiful things for sale. It runs all weekend long at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive.

Got Craft?: this is Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair that only happens twice a year. I’ve managed to miss it every time. It’s happening on Sunday from 10 to 5pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, also on Commercial Drive.

Art Walk: This is part of Artists in Our Midst, the studio and gallery tour that focuses on artists living in the west side of Vancouver. The Art Walk takes place Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6 pm and includes 31 venues with 52 artists.

Free Comic Day: Yes, that’s right. May 1st is FREE COMIC DAY where you can get comics from your favorite store for FREE. I like the word FREE.

Emily Carr 2010 Grad Show: A huge showcase of the work of over 300 graduate and undergraduate students in visual arts, media arts and design. The opening reception is May 1st from 7 to 11pm, and the show runs until May 16th.

I think there may be EVEN more events going on this weekend, but I suspect that’s enough to keep everyone busy. Let me know if you get any comics.

Grunt Gallery: Signs of Change by Nicole Dextras

My friend Nicole Dextras is an amazing multidisciplinary artist with a focus on photography and ephemeral art. She has a solo show opening at Grunt Gallery next week.

From the press release:

Signs of Change brings Dextras’ body of work in ice typography together through photographic prints and off-site installations. The photographs will depict ice installations of the past five years, including large ice text pieces in Dawson City, Yukon and North Bay, Ontario. The off-site component will feature ice text placed in the Vancouver land/cityscape on a weekly basis. Each word will be made of ice and allowed to melt in-situ. The artist will be with the work, to record the melting process and to engage with the public.

You are invited to come and visit the installation and chat with the artist during each install. Dates and times will be posted on the Grunt Gallery Facebook page and Nicole Dextras’ Flickr page. See links below.

Grunt Gallery
#116 – 350 East 2nd Ave
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V5T 4R8
T: 604.875.9516
F: 604.877.0073
Tuesday to Saturday
Noon – 5 pm

Twitter/Art + Social Media

Week 48 - Floating away

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on my blog as yet that I am in the midst of a grand experiment. At the beginning of January I quit my job with the intention of concentrating full time on my art. Many weeks later I am now going into my seventh week of doing so. It’s been a thrilling, exciting, stressful, productive, and satisfying couple of weeks.

An important part of my grand experiment has been to get my work out into the world, build an audience and make it known I have work for sale. Social media tools, specifically Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and this blog have played a huge role in this, and I’m not really sure how I would’ve accomplished what I have without them. The internet has drastically changed my art practice over the past five or so years I’ve been using these tools, and I can easily say they have become an integral part of my process. Having an audience to share with and an easy means to do so has kept me motivated to constantly create new work. The sharing goes both ways as well because as I’m sharing with the world they are sharing back in the form of feedback, encouragement, inspiring interactions, thoughtful blog posts, and artwork that blows my mind and goads me onward to create.

And now to the point of my blog post. I am taking part in a group show at Diane Farris Gallery that explores the connection between artists and social media. When I’d first read the call for artists put out by the gallery I was initially put off by the 50% commission they take if the work is sold. But I reconsidered for two reasons: 1. I have two shows in public spaces at the moment and I want to compare these to showing in a gallery, and 2. I am interested in the connection between artists and social media.

The show opens on April 1st and runs until the end of the month. I am excited to be taking part and am curious to see the work of my fellow participating artists and how they use social media in their artistic practice.

Twitter/Art + Social Media
Exhibition: April 1 – May 1, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 1, 6 – 8 pm
Diane Farris Gallery
1590 W. 7th Avenue
Vancouver BC V6J 1S2