It’s always a thrill for me to introduce another talented, well-spoken, and knowledgeable friend to the audience of the Hot Talks speaker series. This month features a talk by Miranda Lievers, a photographer, entrepreneur, crafter, mom, and a zillion other things.

The Art of Pinterest-Perfect:
A talk on learning by doing, and never assuming that you can’t

In a world where we’re inundated with Pinterest-perfect snapshots of seemingly impeccably executed culinary adventures, craft projects, and even home renovations, it’s enough to assume that everyone else has got this already and that you should probably just stay in bed. Not often perfect (but usually close enough), the “sure why not?” approach can lead to a funny story, a new skill, and the courage to say yes again.

Read the full description here.

The latest Hot Talk happens on August 21st at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Miranda Lievers
Hot Art Wet City
Date: August 21st, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street (at 6th Ave), Vancouver

I am so pleased to have Chris Tyrell Loranger as the next speaker at Hot Talks. I consider him a mentor as well as a friend, and he’s been an incredible creative force in Vancouver arts and culture for almost forty years.

So you want to be an artist, with dreams of playing in a studio all day making art? It’s an idealized vision, but the reality of working as a professional artist is that society fails to support and sustain the arts and artists on many fronts. The education system fails us, because creativity is not recognized as a core academic value; the arts are considered an educational option. And working professional artists are statistically destined to be poor and untrained.

Join us as Chris Tyrell Loranger shares his ideas around making changes to the arts in Vancouver and beyond.

Read the full description here.

The latest Hot Talk happens on June 24th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Chris Tyrell Loranger
Hot Art Wet City
Date: June 24th, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street (at 6th Ave), Vancouver

The upcoming speakers at Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City in April are two of the interesting people who live in my East Van building, Billy Marchenski and Alison Denham. We know each other in passing, and this was my excuse to hear more about they do as dancers, performers, and choreographers.

Alison Denham and Billy Marchenski present choreography and slideshow excerpts from their piece Slowpoke, a performance inspired by their experiences visiting the Chornobyl Exclusion zone in the Fall of 2011. Slowpoke starts off as a pilgrimage to rediscover lost roots and turns into an analysis of ideas of authenticity and human beings’ relationship to the eternal in everyday life.

Read the full description here.

Join us for this latest Hot Talk on April 24th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Billy Marchenski & Alison Denham
Hot Art Wet City
Date: April 24th, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street (at 6th Ave), Vancouver

Our next speaker at Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City is Julien Thomas, a Social Artist and Facilitator based in Vancouver.

His recent initiatives include Park-a-Park, Vancouver’s first mobile park, and the Commercial Drive Parklet which was successfully funded through Kickstarter in late 2013. Julien pursues his passion by creating spaces that forge new connections and radically engage participants.

Confessions of an Urban Interventionist

We find ourselves in a concrete reality of streets, curbs, and sidewalks that guide our daily path. Despite this hard situation, we do have a choice: What if we decided to step off the curb and chart new directions? What actually compels us to walk the straight and narrow?

Read the full description here.

Join us for the latest Hot Talk on March 27th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Julien Thomas
Hot Art Wet City
Date: March 27th, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street (at 6th Ave), Vancouver

Our first Hot Talks speaker of 2014 at Hot Art Wet City is Johnathon Vaughn Strebly. He is a designer, photographer, and community builder involved as a volunteer in Creative Mornings and is the current president of the GDCBC. Johnathon will be speaking finding inspiration with Lego.

Creative Blocks & Coloured Bricks

LEGO as a muse? Seriously? How could a designer, or any creative professional, possibly find inspiration from a simple plastic toy brick? But did you know this is one of the best boys Lego ideas for anyone planning to streamline their child’s career straight into engineer or architect? Creative Blocks & Coloured Bricks will feature a blatant disregard to traditional creative process tactics and focus on playful techniques for smoothing out the speed bumps of creative blocks.

Read the full description of Johnathon’s talk here.

Join us for the latest Hot Talk on January 23rd at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Johnathon Vaughn Strebly
Hot Art Wet City
Date: January 23rd, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver