Category: Vancouver

Hot Talks @Hot Art Wet City with Eagranie Yuh

The featured speaker for our November Hot Talk at Hot Art Wet City is Eagranie Yuh. She is a writer, editor, and master of all things chocolate with a new book coming out next year from Chronicle Books. Eagranie will be speaking about simple and effective ways to improve your writing.

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How To Write Gooder

You may be the most talented creative in the world, but if you can’t communicate what you do, why it matters and why you’re awesome, you’re hooped.

In this talk, you’ll learn simple ways to whip your writing into shape and tell compelling stories – without selling your soul.

Read the full description of Eagranie’s talk here.

Join us for the latest Hot Talk on Tuesday November 26th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Eagranie Yuh
Hot Art Wet City
Date: November 26th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Earnest Ice Cream

For our October Hot Talks session we have two speakers for the price of one. Ben Ernst and Erica Bernardi are the founders and co-owners of Earnest Ice Cream, and they will be sharing the story behind the start up of their small business.

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Small Business as a Platform for Change: Adventures of an Ice Cream Startup

Ben and Erica are co-owners of Earnest Ice Cream, creating small batch artisanal ice cream for Vancouverites. Earnest Ice Cream started in June 2012, with the two of them peddling their frozen treats to farmers markets throughout the city. The business has now grown to a scoop shop on Fraser, nine employees, and wholesale accounts throughout the city.

Read the full description of Ben and Erica’s talk here.

Come Join us for the latest Hot Talk on Tuesday October 29th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Earnest Ice Cream
Hot Art Wet City
Date: October 29th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Vivienne McMaster

Our September speaker for Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City is Vivienne McMaster. She is a Vancouver photographer specializing in self portraits, and is a facilitator of a series of online courses helping people tap into self-love and self-reflection through photography.

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Self Portraiture…More Than Just Selfies

I’m so looking forward to speaking with you about the transformative and healing possibilities of self-portraiture, sharing some of my story of finding my way back to myself through the art of self-portraiture.

Read the full description of Vivienne’s talk here.

Come listen to Vivienne speak on Tuesday September 24th at 7pm. Get your tickets through eventbrite soon because they usually sell out.

Hot Talks: Vivienne McMaster
Hot Art Wet City
Date: September 24th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Mark Busse

Our August speaker for Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City gallery is the lovely and opinionated, Mark Busse. He’s one of the principles of Industrial Brand, and is the community organizer behind events such as Creative Mornings, Likemind Vancouver, and Interesting Vancouver.

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CREATIVITY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT:
How engaging in creative leadership saved my career and life

Complaining about shit sometimes seems like a Vancouver pastime. I know I do it too. But I also try to invest my time, energy and creativity in as many causes as I can. And despite a fear of public speaking or being found out as a fraud, I force myself to say yes to nearly every scary opportunity that comes my way — like giving this Hot Talk for instance.

(Read the full talk description here).

Come hear Mark speak on August 29th at 7pm. Get your tickets online through eventbrite, and do it soon because they will sell out.

Hot Talks: Mark Busse
Hot Art Wet City
Date: August 29th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

A Visit to the Laser Cutter Cafe

For awhile now I’ve been contemplating the idea of translating my paper cut work into other materials through laser cutting. I wasn’t really sure how to go about this, or even where to do it, that is until I heard about the Laser Cutter Cafe.

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The cafe is located in the Chinatown Experiment pop-up space on Columbia Street in Chinatown. It’s there temporarily until the beginning of August, and the purpose is to expose people to the mind-blowing experience of using a laser cutter. I dropped by on Wednesday afternoon for a one-on-one Basic Usage Tutorial (at a cost of $25), which is a thorough run-through on safety, and how to use the hardware and software of the machine.

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The laser cutter can do anything from engraving a material to cutting out complicated shapes. As part of the tutorial I was allow to create a quick design and then watch as the laser cutter rendered this onto a scrap piece of mat board.

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Here you can see the design on screen, and in the video below you can watch as the cutter embosses it into the material. It was fascinating.

A close up of the two different versions of the same design. The cutter can work with a wide range of materials such as paper, acrylic, wood veneer, felt, cork, etc, as long as it is a 1/4″ thick or less. The maximum size that can fit into the cutter is 20″ x 12″ because that is the size of the bed.

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Now that I’ve tried out a laser cutter I have a good idea of what I can do with it, and how it can enhance my current body of work. I’ll definitely be back at the Laser Cutter Cafe soon.

Dream Boats

Dream Boats is the beautiful new children’s book illustrated by Kirsti Anne Wakelin and written by Dan Bar-el. I’ve been following the progress of the development of this book for the last few years, and can hardly wait to get my hands on a copy. The illustrations are lush, finely detailed, and filled with imagery to stimulate the imagination.

Take a look for yourself, and I’m sure you’ll agree.

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A description of Dream Boats from the Simply Read web site:

Where do children go when they close their eyes to sleep?
They step onto their dreamboats and sail toward adventure.
From Maiqui in the Andes floating through the constellations, to Aljuu paddling along the shores of Haida Gwaii with Eagle, Orca and Black Bear, to Ivan sailing into St. Petersburg, then sneaking between the bony legs of Baba Yaga, stories and memories lead them on.
Dream Boats takes readers into the dreams of children around the world, dreams that are filled with family and legends, culture and love.

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There are so many lovely details to this book. From the end pages filled with instructions on how to fold your own paper boat, to the flying fish swooping off the credits page, and the beautifully designed barcode on the back of the book.

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Dream Boats has its official launch next Thursday June 13th at Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature & Art in Vancouver. Dan and Kirsti will be in attendance, and copies of the books will be available for purchase.

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All photos courtesy of Kirsti Wakelin

Hot Talks: Sometimes It Ain’t Pretty by Kim Werker

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:

Kim Werker speaking at Hot Art Wet City (May 21, 2013) from bentzen on Vimeo.

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.

Hot Art Wet City: Show & Tell Speaker Series

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.

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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.

Free tickets and more details on the Hot Art Wet City website. I hope you’ll join us…

Show & Tell
Hot Art Wet City
Date: May 21st, 2013
Time: Doors at 6:30pm, talk at 7pm
Location: 2206 Main Street @ sixth avenue

Inside an Art School

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.

Emily Carr Grad Show
From Ashes, by Helsa Ahmadi.
(Detail of a larger work)

Emily Carr Grad Show

Chronology Manifested, by Heather Lippold

Emily Carr Grad Show

Dead Already, by Mac Hasselfield

Emily Carr Grad Show
Grus Americana #2, by Natasha Broad
(Detail of a larger work)

Emily Carr Grad Show
Islah & Her Mother, by Carolyn Lakowski
(Detail of a larger work)

Emily Carr Grad Show
Fine Lines, by Elizabeth Jacob
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Emily Carr Grad Show
Intersecting Space, by Pierce Jordan
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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…