The Delicate Art of Frost

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It’s been cold in Vancouver and last week the most magnificent frost formations began to appear over everything first thing in the morning. I’ve been photographing it like crazy, because the frost has a different effect depending on the shape of the object on which it forms.

These photos were taken in my neighbourhood and on Bowen Island.

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The final photo was taken in the meadow on Bowen, which is one of the few open areas in the forest. There was a thick layer of frost covering the ground like snow. It was so beautiful.

An Advent Calendar Of Our Very Own

Just in time for December I got my act together and achieved a long held desire to have an lovely advent calendar for Boris and I. As a child my mom would put up an advent calendar strung with chocolate treats for my sister and I to countdown our way to Christmas. It was made by one of my aunts and featured cross-stitched elves on it with plastic rings to attach the treats.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

I bought this Christmas-tree-with-drawers version at DeSerres a few weeks ago and decided I would customize it with my own designs. It comes in plain wood, is pretty roughly made, and needs a fair amount of sanding before you paint.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

I painted with red acrylic, and gave the entire piece one coat with two coats of paint on the front of the drawers and the outside of the tree. I asked Boris to help do some of the painting so things would go faster. I drew on each drawer with metallic silver gel pen, and made each drawing unique. This was the part I found most challenging and fun. It’s awkward to draw on such a small surface, but I loved coming up with twenty-four different designs.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

Boris and I each need to select twenty-four tiny treats to put into the drawers for one another. I think this is going to be the best part.

On Taking a Year Off From Exhibiting at Culture Crawl

Last year at the end of Culture Crawl weekend I made the decision to take 2015 as a year off from exhibiting. I’d been taking part for five years in a row, and with the extension of the event from three to four days, I felt it was time to take a step back and experience things from the perspective of a visitor.

I exhibit from our apartment for the Crawl, which means storing half of our furniture in a back room and transforming the living and dining room area into more of a gallery. It’s fine to live this way temporarily but the addition of the fourth day felt like an unbearable disruption to our lives. I worried about missing out on this opportunity to exhibit and sell a bit of work, but in all the years I’ve participated I have never made enough to cover the amount of time and work that goes into doing the Crawl.

Laser cut commission - detail

This past weekend it was exhilarating to wander the streets for four days visiting other artists’ studio during the Crawl. I went out every single day, and covered a whole lot of ground. I did not make it everywhere, but I did make it to all the locations I’d hoped to see, and visited with many friends. I had the experience a few times where an artist I was meeting for the first time knew who I was and gushed over my work. I had this feeling of wonder and excitement about getting to experience this event from the other side. It reminded me of going door-to-door trick or treating as a kid, but there was nothing but treats for the eyes and soul.

Over the past few months I’ve been struggling with focusing on creating new work and planning for future goals in my art career. After this weekend I feel recharged, inspired, and have a renewed sense of purpose. Thank goodness I took this time for me because it was absolutely the right decision.

My intension going forward with Culture Crawl is to no longer exhibit from our apartment, and there is a possibility I may not exhibit at all. I’m going to think about my options and let you know in time for next year.

A Short List of Eastside Culture Crawl Artists You Should Visit

I think I already mentioned how thrilled I am to do the Culture Crawl this year, and not exhibit. I feel like I have so much more free time than usual this fall. I am SUPER EXCITED to visit friends in their studios, and discover new artists I haven’t met before.

These are some of the artists I am going to visit when the Crawl kicks off on Thursday evening, and I think you should too.

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M.A. Tateishi in Studio 280, Mergatroid Building.

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Simone Richmond in Onion Studio.

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Westerly Handmade Shoes in 1000 Parker Street Studios

4. barratt
Propellor Design at 1120 East Georgia Street.

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Christina Norberg in the Mergatroid Building.

Eastside Culture Crawl begins Thursday November 19th and ends Sunday November 22nd. Visit the website to plan your route.

Day Trip to Squamish

In a rare turn of events Boris and I took the day off mid-week and got ourselves out of town. We decided to drive to Squamish to do some exploring, as neither of us have been there in years. We stopped at Shannon Falls along the way, visited the estuary trail for a walk, then lunch at Fergies, and a longish hike through Alice Lake Provincial Park.

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Squamish Estuary

Mushrooms

Turkey Tail Mushrooms

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We had perfect weather before the rain returned the next day.

Fall Colours

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Even on those rainy days, when it’s pouring outside and I know I’m going to get drenched, I drag myself out for a walk. It’s worth it to see all of the colourful leaves, which seem even brighter on a dull day.

Aspiring to Create Lovely Sashiko Stitching

I attended my second ever artist workshop and demonstration at Opus Downtown yesterday afternoon. This time I learned about Sashiko stitching from Heather Young of The Craft Lab. Sashiko is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching from Japan, that is traditionally used to repair worn or torn parts of clothing. It often takes the form of white cotton thread stitched patterns on indigo cloth.

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The photos above are of some of the samples of work Heather brought in to share with the class. I had a lovely time stitching into an old piece of indigo dyed cotton from a workshop I did a few years ago. I need to buy proper sashiko thread and needles before I can continue my explorations with this technique.

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I have a few pieces of clothing that could use decorative repairs like this and be good as new again.

Crawl Artist’s Speak

I’m excited about our Hot Talks event tomorrow evening at Hot Art Wet City. After weeks of preparation the date is finally here. I may be as nervous as some of our speakers, but we’re all going to be okay.

Promo-collage-Hottalks

This is a collage I created to promote the event on Instagram, using images from all of the speakers. See you tomorrow evening if you happen to have a ticket.

Rabbit Mask From Wintercroft

Last week I shared the Raven mask I made from paper using a template purchased from Wintercroft. I also made this rabbit mask for Boris to wear to an event we attended on Halloween.

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The rabbit mask was a bit of a collaborative process between Boris and me. He cut the pieces and I took over from there. I drew the designs using silver gel pen before scoring the folds and putting it together. I loved doing the drawings on this one.

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I didn’t get around to doing an elaborate photo shoot of us wearing the masks, but here we are for a quick photo with the shower curtain as the background. The masks brought out the crazy eyes in both of us.