Succulent Paper Succulents

February 12, 2016

I’ve had this arrangement of tiny paper succulents sitting in my studio for about a week and a half waiting for me to make a decision about what to do next. I was feeling tentative and uncertain about how to attach them, and even if I should bother. Is this something I want to explore further or is it a distraction from doing other work? Is this “real” art? What is my real artwork, and do I really want to go off on yet another side tangent changing the type of work I do yet again?

It’s a lot of questions for a cluster of tiny succulents to bring up, but that’s what happens sometimes. I’m feeling uncertain about a lot of things around my artwork, and it’s not just about succulents.

Anyway…I adore the cute little things. They are all under 1.5″ high, anywhere from 1.5″ to 2″ across, and made from Canson Mi-teintes 98lb paper. The cluster is glued directly to acid-free white mat board, and framed in a 9″ x 9″ white shadowbox frame.

Looking at them makes me happy in the same way I feel about seeing real succulent plants. Maybe this is the most important part, and why I am going to make more.

Seattle Art Road Trip

February 8, 20162 Comments

I went on a day trip to Seattle last week with a group of friends to go gallery hopping. We managed to fit a lot in during the short amount of time we were in the city. I did not take as many photos as I wish I had, so there is a lot of terrific inspiring art I can’t share. The ones I did photograph showcase a very random selection of things.

Gift City: A Project by Keller Easterling at Henry Art Gallery

Franz Erhard Walther: The Body Draws at Henry Art Gallery

Trimpin at Winston Wachter Fine Art

Gala Bent at G. Gibson Gallery

There’s A Story Here by Sean Johnson at Greg Kucera Gallery

Complex by Evan Blackwell at Foster White Gallery

Don Fritz at Gallery IMA

It was a terrific trip with a fun group of friends. I was happy to visit a few new-to-me galleries, that I will definitely revisit the next time I am in Seattle.

Braided Rug Workshop at Studio 126

February 5, 2016

I love making braided rugs so much that I decided to teach a workshop on the subject. In this two part class I will be showing participants how to make yarn from t-shirts, and then how to bring it all together is rug form.

The class is presented by Studio 126 in Chinatown on Saturday March 19th, 10am to 3pm. Visit their website for further details and to register.

Braided Rug Workshop
Date: Saturday March 19th, 2016
Time: 10am to 3pm
Cost: $125.00
Location: Studio 126, 126 East Pender Street

Projects in the Long Term

February 3, 20162 Comments

At an artist networking event I attended on the weekend I was reminded of a piece of work by Germaine Koh I encountered years ago called, Knitwork. It’s an on-going project she’s been doing since 1992 where she unravels used garments and then re-knits the yarn into one long continuous object.

I’m attracted to this idea of working on a project that grows over time. I’ve been thinking about my flowerbursts as something I want to keep working on and adding to over the long-term, and see where it could end up in two years, or even ten. To date there are about 180 of them, in three different colours. What if there were 500 of them?!

In some ways the flowerburst installation is like working on a quilt, or making a blanket from crocheted granny squares, because it’s also made up of small pieces that combine to become something larger. I like finding these similarities to textiles in my work, though the major difference is the installation doesn’t ever need to be finished and it doesn’t have a functional purpose.

I should look around for other artist projects that are long term in this way. It’s not something I’d seriously considered previously with my own work because I so often work towards a deadline or end goal.

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…

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life