Becoming a Paper Engineer

May 10, 20101 Comment

Last week I began exploring the idea of creating books with pop-ups and movable parts. I was inspired by an artist call for submissions and decided to use this as an excuse to push even further the creative possibilities of my altered books. My first step was to go to Chapters and start looking at pop-up books in the children’s section to get a feel for how these things are constructed. I was really blown away by some of the books I found. [1][2][3]

I ended up purchasing Paper Engineering and Pop-ups for Dummies because it seemed to be an excellent resource for the kind of information I was looking for. None of the sample projects involve incorporating the techniques into existing books but they will help develop my own ideas.

So far I’ve been experimenting using the projects in the book as a jumping off point, and I’m trying to focus on learning the technique rather than trying to produce a finished product. The above two photos are of two pop-up cards I created using cardstock. I came up with my own design rather than following the instructions because I really didn’t want to make a pop-up card with hearts. I kept things simple though and made sure not to worry about what I was making. It’s important to “let go” when experimenting.

This airplane card is my first attempt at creating a pull mechanism, and again I was modifying the idea to suit my own purposes while learning the technique. It’s fascinating learning how to create a mechanism out of paper because it is way more complex on the inside than the simple movement of pulling the tab on the outside would imply.

This 3-D paper pop-up of a lotus flower is a design I came across online as a video demonstration. It looks really beautiful and complicated, but it’s actually very simple and made from a single piece of paper.

Next up, exploring more techniques and translating what I learn into creating an altered book with found objects and moving parts.

Polaroid Week 2010

May 6, 20103 Comments

Looking every which way

Wooden Toys

Shadow people on the way to dinner

Tulips

School bus 11
I’m down to my last pack of expired polaroid. I have three shots left and I really want to make ’em count. Wish me luck in finding three fabulous things to photograph and then it’s bye bye polaroid film.

A Weekend Away on Galiano Island

May 5, 20102 Comments

Boris and I were in need of a short getaway from the city and after exploring our options we settled on a weekend trip to Galiano. I’ve always wanted to visit Galiano Island but it’s taken me almost six years of living in Vancouver before I could get around to going. We took transit to the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen on Friday morning and caught the 10am ferry direct to the island. Boris’ friend Christian Nally met us on the other side, with a welcoming smile and a car he would end up lending us for the weekend.

Our first stop was lunch at the Flying Black Dog, a small food caravan serving freshly made delicious food which we sat in the sunshine to devour. Christian suggested a hike up Mount Galiano as our next activity, since the weather was good and we had time to kill before checking into the B&B. So off we went through mossy cedar forest along overgrown trails that wound up and up to the very top with a magnificent view of the surrounding Gulf Islands. We saw many birds up there, small ones in the trees and large ravens and an eagle riding the wind above. Not far from the bottom of the trail is the original cemetery with gravestones dating back to the mid-eighteen hundreds. The cemetery has a lovely view out over the water and not far off was a small island covered in a colony of seals basking in the late afternoon sun.

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed in, Sands of Morning Beach, was a lovely spot to wake up to. The front of the house looks out onto Morning Beach and the morning light shining on the water was just stunning. The owners of the B & B have multiple feeders set up in the trees to feed a multitude of birds so the view is also filled with non-stop bird watching. I saw at least five or six hummingbirds zooming around at high speed, plus goldfinches, crows, sparrows, juncos, chickadees, and many more I’m not sure what to identify as. On the inside of the house there is a pet Senegal Parrot named Mango, and two energetic small dogs named Howie and Pogo.

Saturday we spent our day driving around the island exploring whatever we came across. Galiano Island Books is one stop in town I highly recommend. They have an excellent selection of books, and one very demanding cat that commands customers for attention with a loud yowl. My favorite part of the day was having a picnic in sunny Spotlight Cove, with me exploring the tide pools looking for tiny crab while Boris sat on a log reading a book.

I also enjoyed our stop at Stone World, a fantastic Bodega Ridge landscape of standing stones and ritually decorated rocks created by stone carver Steve Ocsko. His wife Barbara gave us a tour of the indoor studio explaining the evolution of Steve’s carving work, which led to a fascinating and inspiring conversation about geology, art, and using the internet. Along with the stone sculptures the studio had many lovely found natural objects, such as a wasp’s nest, a hummingbird nest, the largest barnacle shell I’ve ever seen, and much more. It was a fascinating visit and Boris and I really hit it off with Barbara. Stone World seems to have an odd reputation with locals, or at least that’s the impression I have from talking to people. Lots of people know of it but have strange ideas because of the standing stones, and so they haven’t visited themselves. Our friends were surprised when we told them about our visit and what we found there (nothing weird, that is).

Our hosts for the weekend, Christian and Martine, invited us for dinner with friends at their place on Saturday evening. It was a cozy time spent laughing, talking, eating and playing games. Martine runs a catering business on Galiano and as you can imagine, she makes delicious food. Part of the meal was a dish of lentils cooked with bacon, which is something I’d be happy to revisit again since I love both lentils and bacon. Boris was hijacked by Lili, Martine’s six year old daughter, shortly after our arrival and she had him bouncing around on the rebounder trampoline which was fun to watch.

Our final day on Galiano was a rainy one, but we went out exploring anyway. A walk around Morning Beach with Howie the dog revealed interesting formations in the sandstone and a large water-carved cave to take shelter in when the rain came down hard. There were tiny gardens of succulent plants on the top of large boulders which were very colourful and beautiful. Our last stop before departing the island was a drive on Bodega Beach Road which led to a hike down a slug covered trail and then to a view overlooking the Strait of Georgia with rainy Vancouver across the way.

It was a lovely weekend away, and much needed for Boris and I. We managed to cover a lot of ground on our short trip, but I’d be happy to go again and see more.

Between Imagination and Attainment Lies Longing

May 3, 2010

This is my friend Nicole Dextras, a skilled and talented artist in her own right. I consider her one of my mentors and I really wanted to include her in my portrait series. Like most photographers, she’s not a fan of having her picture taken so I’m really glad she agreed to sit for me.

It was Nicole’s suggestion to pose with the Camellia bush in her yard and the late morning light I found myself working with at the time was perfect. We started out with Nicole posed in front of the bush but I didn’t want the flowers to just be a backdrop, so we tucked her into the leaves. The portrait was so much stronger once she became part of the bush and she looks very at home in there.

Between Imagination and Attainment Lies Longing

The title is a play on a quote by Kahlil Gibran – “There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing”.

The Weekend Roundup of Artsy Goodness

April 29, 2010

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.

Altered Book: King of the Beasts

April 27, 20104 Comments

I’ve had a love of lions since I was a kid because I was born under the astrological sign of Leo. I have also always wanted one as a pet because taking a lion for a walk would be so cool, at least until it decided to eat someone, or someone’s dog, or me. I have a whole list of inappropriate pets but for now I’m maintaining things at one small bird and two small fish. But I digress…

I think the significance of lions as my birth sign made it difficult to settle on just the right setting for this wooden lion in an altered book. I tried to make him a home in about three or four of the previous books but nothing felt right. I ended up doing a bit of internet research on lions to help inspire me but the reality of the situation for these creatures in the wild is quite depressing. They once ranged all over parts of Europe, Asia, India and all of Africa and now have mostly been wiped out in the wild.

More of my research led me to the rich symbolism of lions. They are often called “King of the Jungle”, but this is a misnomer since they don’t live in jungles at all but prefer to dwell in savannah grasslands and semi-arid plains. In ancient cultures the lion is considered a solar animal symbol (Leo is a sun sign) but lions are actually nocturnal. I took all of these bits of information and tried to incorporate them into the imagery of the book.

The rolled pages with brown leaves stamped on them became the grassy plains and also reference the jungle, while the stylized wood pieces (from a musical instrument) are the palace of the king of beasts. The two tarot cards were a lucky find so that I could include both the sun and the moon in the book. The crown on the lion’s head was the finishing touch that I added as an afterthought but it gives it the right bit of whimsy and ties things together.

Materials used: book, tarot cards, wooden toy lion, wooden musical instrument parts, Japanese paper, rubber stamp and ink, and gel medium.

On Butterfly Wings

April 26, 20103 Comments

I really should do a better job of blogging the portraits I’ve been shooting because when I write about them weeks later I’m never sure what to say. I’m so much better about this with the altered books.

This particular portrait session was very exciting because it presented the opportunity to work with Petrina as a model, and with Shai as a hair stylist. I’ve never worked with a stylist on a shoot before and Shai did a wonderful job styling Petrina’s hair and wrangling the butterflies.

I’ve wanted to do a portrait with butterflies for awhile, and since there was no way I could get real ones I settled for brightly painted fake butterflies. Dressew was my source for butterfly fakery. They have a have a whole section of them in the basement along one of the back corners, which was a pleasant surprise for me to discover.

Altered Book: Living Well, Sip by Sip

April 22, 20102 Comments

First off the basic idea of this book, the style of folding the pages, was completely inspired by a wonderful altered book by Sharon McCartney. I liked the shape created by folding the pages in half lengthwise and tucking each one into the book. I also loved the idea of creating a niche within folded pages to contain an object instead of ones glued together flat as I’ve done in the past.

This work started out as a home for a wooden lion, and then was briefly destined to be a home for a wooden kangaroo. Neither seemed quite right so I brought out the stack of teacups to play with. These little teacups have been waiting in the wings for awhile to make their way into a book. I wanted them to be stacked irregularly, and with this book I managed to pull it off. Only the cups at the top and the bottom of the stack are attached to the book, the rest float freely and can twirl and twist in place. (See the video at the bottom of this blog post for a demo.)

I was thinking about the idea of “tea time” as I worked on this, so I chose a few small gears from my collection of watch parts to decorate the end pages along the side. There are also two small spoons to tie into the tea theme. I bought these from RubyDog’s Art House as part of a tiny cutlery set, and the spoons are my favorite.

To demonstrate the moving part in this altered book I shot this quick video using my laptop’s built in camera. You’ll need to turn the sound up on your computer because it’s a bit quiet.

Materials used: book, card stock, watch gears, metal spoon, ceramic teacups, rubber stamp & ink, metallic paper decorations, and gel medium.

Artist: Ruth Asawa

April 20, 20102 Comments

A friend is in San Francisco this week, and last night her tweet about Alamo Square had me revisiting my photos on Flickr taken in SF on a trip there a few years ago. The trip down memory lane reminded me of these shots taken in the deYoung Museum of three sculptures by Ruth Asawa.

She’s a San Francisco based artist best known for her sculptures created by crocheting or tying wire. The work is delicate and beautiful, and captures organic forms that remind me of micro-organisms or seedpods. Ruth is also a painter and has numerous large scale public art installations located around San Francisco.

I’m really glad to have this reminder of her because it’s very much in line with the more craft oriented work I’m interested in at the moment. It’s also the perfect inspiration for a thread-based piece I keep wanting to experiment with.

Visit Ruth Asawa’s website for more information about her work.

Blossoming

April 16, 2010

This portrait features the lovely Casey. She came over to my home studio a few weeks back and did a great job of pretending there was a cherry tree in her hand. As I’ve mentioned before, the shoots I do often require lots of pretending on the part of the model, which can be hilarious. It definitely was in this case. At least it keeps things fun.

As I was working on the post-processing for this I started wishing there was something more in her hand for the tree to rest in. I briefly considered having Boris pose with a pile of dirt in his hand so I could add it into this shot (sans his hands). I decided I didn’t want to go that far with adding elements in photoshop, as it ends up being a ridiculous amount of work and the shot doesn’t REALLY need it. I’m sure Boris was relieved….

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life