Life is an Art

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Week 21 - Life is an art
Week 21 – Life is an Art. From the 52 Weeks self portrait series.

Good things from the weekend:
– a delicious meal that came in many small bowls, followed by a very tasty dessert – all made by Zak.
– Saturday brunch at the Sandbar on Granville Island
– the fastest trip through Ikea ever, which yielded excellent results
– a well-timed phone call from Hendrik that led to a fun Sunday afternoon
– the glorious weather on Sunday afternoon
– homemade sky high pizza made by Boris. So-called because it was stacked with toppings.
– having a clearer mind after a few weeks of too much stress and anxiety

Weekly and Monthly

Weekly and monthly

Travis recently blogged about setting goals, and it was a post I’d really intended on writing a response to…ages ago. It didn’t get done, obviously because I didn’t make a point to do it and now those thoughts inspired by his post are gone.

(Sigh)

What I can say is this: over the last few months I have been asked by quite a few people about whether I am working on a new show or will be having a new show soon, and the answer is no. It’s not for lack of wanting one, or even a lack of opportunity, and it definitely is goal of great importance to me. Its just that for most of this year my energy has been focused on other things, like starting a new job, getting used to a very different schedule as a result of said job, and also making time for a new relationship. And at this point of the year these things are no longer so new and I am feeling like I can refocus my energy back into my art and set some larger goals.

All this time though I’ve had small goals that I work on every week with the purpose of keeping me producing new work and experimenting. I create a collage in my moleskin sketchbook every week, and as the weeks have flown by my sketchbook is almost full and I am more than ready to move onto something new and larger. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about collage in the process and am happy to have a bulging sketchbook to show for my efforts. I’m hoping to take what I’ve learned from the process and put it towards the goal of producing a new experimental (for me) body of work. And then…there will be a show!

Angel & Devil

Angel & Devil

Good things from the weekend:
1. Beautiful dahlias from the Kitsilano Farmers Market.
2. Walks and talks to and from Jericho Beach.
3. Fresh made egg pancakes with sugar and lemon.
4. Laughing over my seat adjustment antics in the truck with Hendrik.
5. A long leisurely Sunday afternoon.

Plum Cake

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Plum cake
Recipe for Plum Cake from Anne Mann.

Good things
– sending off my registration form for an artist retreat, Artfest, in 2009
– meeting my weekly artistic goals of collaging and self portrait shooting
– an exhilarating yet terrifying ride on a scooter around Bowen Island
– having a mutually inspiring talk with an artist on Bowen who also works with collage and photography
– working on a shot I hope will get accepted into a group show later this fall in Portland

Not-so-good things
– continuing to procrastinate over a few too many things related to my personal work
– feeling the distance between myself and friends I thought were close ones
– not quite being able to get over the negative interpretations
– feeling really out of shape
– worrying about money (which is like the stupidest thing in the world…)

Act courageously in your own best interests

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Week 17 - Fresh flowers
Week 17 – Fresh Flowers, from the 52 weeks self portrait series.

From the Free Will Astrology newsletter…

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Resilience is a quality that allows you to rise above setbacks and find resources in unexpected places. It’s a willful instinct to seek the higher ground and a bigger vision. It’s intensely practical, because it shushes the nagging voices in your head that make negative interpretations of your experience, thereby allowing you to act courageously in your own best interests. This is Resilience Week for you, Leo. Call on your dormant reserves.

Mask in the Window

Mask

On Sunday afternoon I checked out the Comicon and Zinefair at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was an event taking place in conjunction with Krazy, the comic/manga/anime focused show that’s been at the VAG for the last few months (go see it if you haven’t yet.) It was a good little comicon, spread over three floors but in very small and cramped rooms. There were plenty of local artists selling their comics or zines and showing off their stuff, as well as vendors with more mainstream publications.

I bought two items I’d been wanting for quite some time: Volume Two of comic anthology series Flight, and Milk Teeth, a book of illustrations by Julie Morstad. I really love her work. Her illustrations are all delicate pen and ink drawn lines with subtle colour palettes, and intricately detailed subject matter of childhood with a dark twist. She has an upcoming solo show at Atelier Gallery in September, and I recommend you check it out.

The Story of Red

Week 19 - More poppies
Week 18 – More Poppies. From the 52 weeks self portrait series.

From the inside cover of Boris’ little red pocket notebook:

Red is one of the few colours – along with white and black – found in every language known to humankind. Red is the colour of fire, the colour of blood, the colour of life.

Red can be found in the oldest artworks on Earth, the Stone Age cave paintings of Southern France. Cave-dwellers mined red ochre and crushed it to create a pigment that has not lost its lustre in 30,000 years.

Derived from the ancient Sanskrit word for blood, “rhudira”, red was believed to prevent evil and disease. Warriors painted their axes red. Scottish farmers tied red string around the necks of their oxen. Ancient Egyptians immersed themselves in vats of red.

In Asia, red is the colour of luck and prosperity. Chinese brides wear red. Hindu women put red bindis on their foreheads. Red is the first colour noticed by babies, the favorite colour of children, the most popular colour on national flags.

Red is the colour of passion and love. A zest for life. A craving for excess. It is no myth that red is exciting. Just looking at red will increase the blood pressure, stimulate adrenaline and speed up the pulse. See what happens when you think in red.

Red is my favorite colour. 🙂

Green Words: Nicole Dextras at Van Dusen Gardens

My good friend Nicole Dextras has been the artist in residence at VanDusen Gardens over the summer. Starting this weekend she will be presenting the installations created on site. Instead of having a traditional exhibition opening Nicole has opted to lead people on tours of her installations throughout the garden at select dates (Listed below).

Nicole creates her work from natural material such as leaves, twigs, thorns, grasses, flowers, etc., often with a focus on text. For the work in the garden she has created a pair of thrones to represent the King and Queen of Versailles, installed a rangoli made of leaves on the lake, grown a large scale version of the word culture from grass seed, and more. The tours begin this Sunday.

Green Words, growing the language
Sunday August 24 at 2 pm
Tuesday August 26 at 2 pm
Thursday August 28 at 7 pm

5251 Oak Street
at the corner of 37th Ave, between Oak & Granville Streets
Hours: August 10am – 9pm
September 10am – 7pm

(Nicole has a set of work in progress photos on flickr.)