Paper Succulents

February 1, 2016

Last week in the studio I spend time on making tiny succulents. I bought new paper to work with and made a few in green. A day later while looking through Instagram I suddenly realized how “on trend” succulents are at the moment, especially paper ones. Ugh.

Now I’m not sure where to go with this. I don’t want to be part of a trend, but maybe I am getting sidetracked anyway. I set out wanting to explore organic plant-like shapes and forms, but not create literal versions of anything specific.

But I do love how succulents look when there is a huge cluster of them. Oh the repetition!

Giraffes and Magnolias in Mount Pleasant

January 25, 2016

This beautiful new mural recently made an appearance in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. It’s the work of Ilya Viryachev, a concept artist and animator in Vancouver.

The mural is HUGE, stretching down an alley running south just off of 8th Avenue near Main Street. It’s bright, beautiful, and full of magnolias, birds, and giraffes peeking out of the foliage.

I want more murals like this, because I am greedy for high quality street art.

Prototypes and Sketches in Paper

January 22, 2016

On my days working in the studio this week I’ve continued to work on a variety of paper prototypes. I’m trying to explore different forms, and how to shape them. I am impatient to finish something, so I decided to play around with some of them in a shadow box frame to get a sense of how to bring them all together. These are some of the sketches I made.

They’re ending up more pretty and flowery than I’d intended, but it’s still early days. There are some rounded three dimensional shapes I have no idea how to make so far, and I feel this is the key to making pieces for this series. I hope I can figure it out.

The Art of Tidying Up

January 20, 20162 Comments

For months I have been itching to tackle the staggeringly large project of purging my apartment, and Christmas finally put me over the edge. There’s something about this time of year when there is this sudden influx of stuff into my home that makes me want to reorganize and purge.

I got to it last weekend starting with the metal trunk we use as a coffee table in the living room that is full of random art supplies. There were ridiculous things in there, like a wall calendar from the year 2000 which I had apparently brought with me from Ontario when I moved here in 2004. Nutso! When I eventually made my way into the kitchen drawers I found all sorts of useless things including an object one uses to core a pineapple (I have a multi-purpose tool called Boris for that), and three extra vegetable peelers I didn’t even know were in there.

The only area I wasn’t able to get into on the weekend was my studio. By the time I’d gone through almost everywhere else in the apartment it was late afternoon on Sunday, and I knew the studio needed an entire day dedicated to it in order to properly sort it out. It needs it badly too, because my studio has become far too cluttered to keep tidy, and it effects how I think and work in there.

Other people I know have done the same thing recently, so it must be something about this time or year. A need to have less stuff in a time of excess, and a desire to make room for new things (not materials things) in the coming year.

A Three Dimensional Sketchbook

January 18, 2016

I wanted to share this image because I love the way it looks. This is the view I enjoy of the table in my studio and I add to it as I create more prototypes. These pieces are sketches to work through ideas so it’s entirely appropriate for them to sit atop a sketchbook.

I am ready to move on from the brainstorming phase and begin making finished pieces.

Teaching Workshops & Sharing Knowledge

January 13, 2016

I’m not sure why, but when it comes to scheduling workshops every year I struggle to get it done. For months I’ve been procrastinating putting together a number of workshop descriptions, and also reaching out to potential venues. It’s driving me crazy, but it made me realize it’s one of the areas where I am blocked and I want to figure out why.

I like teaching, and the more techniques I learn, the more knowledge I have to share with others. There are way more places in Vancouver that offer workshops then there used to be, which means more opportunities for teachers. It’s also one of the many ways I can make money from my art. It’s win win really.

I think part of the block is a reluctance to share all of my knowledge because I am self-taught. I have earned what I know through many hours of work, and it seems weird to hand this off to students I barely know. Shouldn’t they have to earn it too? And the answer is yes! They’re starting with me to guide them but they still have to put the time in to become good.

It could be I am blocked because of all the work involved with putting together a teaching plan, especially when developing a new one from scratch. To date I’ve mostly taught altered book workshops, but I’m working out how to teach paper cutting, as well as a class on braided rugs.

If you’re interested, stay tuned over here…

Encountering a Wonderous Installation of Paper

January 11, 20163 Comments

I had a wonderful busy weekend hanging out with artists, visiting galleries and studios, seeing art, and talking with artists over good food. It all started with a visit to the Museum of Anthropology to see (In)visible: The Spiritual World of Taiwan Through Contemporary Art.

As soon as we walked in my friends and I were all completely smitten with the Water Fairies Reproduction Project, which is the gorgeous installation pictured here created by Chiu Yu-Wen. It envelops the main hallway of the exhibition space beginning at the entrance of the show. It is made of a gauzy draped fabric and thousands of pieces of cut paper

We spent a long time looking at this piece from many angles, and enjoying the calm and peaceful atmosphere you experience while walking through it.

I am inspired by this piece because I aspire to make paper based installations on this scale. It also feels like a rare opportunity to come across work like this in Vancouver, because most exhibitions spaces don’t have the space or mandate to display installations on this scale or type.

(In)visible: The Spiritual World of Taiwan Through Contemporary Art continues at the Museum of Anthropology until April 3, 2016.

Expanding the Paper Repertoire

January 8, 2016

Over the Christmas break I was determined to spend time in the studio exploring ideas for a new series of work in the new year. I did not manage to get in there at all because Boris and I ended up being out of town most of the time. I did take materials with me, again with this determination to work, but I never quite got around to it. I actually find it incredibly difficult to work outside of my studio because most other places are not ideal for laborious paper cutting.

When the first Monday of January rolled around I finally got to work, and the pieces pictured here are some of the “sketches” I put together. I’m trying to stay away from focusing on finished work because what I really need to do is play, explore, and work through ideas. It feels like I am evolving how I work with paper.

The pieces I have in my head are three dimensional and made from multiple pieces of paper. I’ll share more as they come together and evolve further. I like what I see in these early stages.

Frost On Things

January 6, 2016

It was super cold (for the West Coast) between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and the amazing thick frost returned. I am fascinated with it because the frost does interesting things depending on the shape and surface of the objects it’s forming upon.

Braided Rug Number Three

January 4, 2016

Why yes, I did make another braided rug before the end of last year. My sister Kathy loves my previously made braided rugs and hinted about how it would make a great handmade gift, and so I decided to make one as a Christmas present for her.

I think I started this in early November and finished on the 1st of December, with plenty of time to get it into the mail. I used a few of the leftover balls of t-shirt yarn from previous projects, but had to make a bunch of new ones out of shirts sourced at Value Village.

When I started making braided rugs in the summer I never thought I’d make three of them, and still be jonesing to make more.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life