Over the course of this week I’ve been adding a whole bunch of new inventory to my Etsy shop.
Those metallic gel pen drawings combined with paper cut work are now in the shop under a brand new section of Drawings.
These two small altered book pieces recently came back into my possession, and they are marked down along with all the altered books in my shop.
I will no longer show any of my old altered book work and would really love to find them all a “forever home”.
These are two small drawings recently created on cards for friends. I had the impulse to make instead of buy cards, and though my original intention was to cut a design I settled upon drawing.
I will make a few more and give them out as Christmas cards. Maybe you will be one of the lucky recipients.
Part two is for sharing the remaining three TerraSkin paper cuts exploring circles. Part one can be found here.
The series of six explores circles in new ways for me, as well as allowed me to work with TerraSkin paper more extensively. It feels slippery and light but is super easy to cut because there is no resistance to the knife. Each piece is 9″ x 11″, and each circle is about 7.25″ in diameter.
I backed these in black for the purposes of the photos but these will actually be displayed without a backing paper and unframed.
This work will be on display as part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival in January 2015 along with other designers and artists as a window display called, Vancouver Outside The Box. More details available on the website.
I’m going to share this small series of paper cuts in two parts because it feels like too many images for a single blog post. I shared in November about creating a paper cut using TerraSkin paper, which is made from stone rather than plant fibres. Over the last week and a half I created five more to meet a deadline for an upcoming exhibition.
The series of six explores circles in new ways for me, as well as allowed me to work with TerraSkin paper more extensively. It feels slippery and light but is super easy to cut because there is no resistance to the knife. Each piece is 9″ x 11″, and each circle is about 7.25″ in diameter.
I backed these in black for the purposes of the photos but these will actually be displayed without a backing paper and unframed.
This work will be on display as part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival in January 2015 along with other designers and artists as a window display called, Vancouver Outside The Box. More details available on the website.
I’ve had a few small commissions to work on for clients who ordered things during Culture Crawl. One of these is this small three dimensional paper cut for a good friend. She liked one of the pieces I had on display but wanted something similar in yellow rather than black.
The piece is small, only 5″ x 5″ from yellow card stock and backed with a lighter yellow in the framed version (which is too subtle to see in the photos). It resembles wheat blowing in the breeze rather than a wing as these pieces sometimes do. I’m inspired to do more work like this but on a larger scale going forward.
My friend Kim was driving down to Seattle for the day on Saturday and I decided to tag along with Boris and do a bit of gallery hopping. While she was signing books at Urban Craft Uprising, we wandered around Pioneer Square visiting my favourite galleries.
Below are detail photos of sculptural work by June Sekiguchi at Art Exchange. The rest of the work in the show was pretty fabulous, but I was riveted by Sekiguchi’s work because the layers of intricate shapes are something I badly want to explore with my own work.
June Sekiguchi
June Sekiguchi
June Sekiguchi
Roq la Rue was our next stop to see the fantastical work of Stacey Rozich. She works in watercolours, and my favourite pieces were the small series of layered scenes in shadowbox frames, one of which is pictured here.
Stacey Rozich
I had just encountered the work of Rachel Denny through an Instagram post by the Jealous Curator earlier in the week and had no idea she was showing in Seattle until we were walking past Foster White gallery. The head of the red bull hanging in the front window drew us inside, and I was giddy with delight to see more of her work.
Rachel Denny
Rachel Denny
Rachel Denny
The final show of our brief art tour was a visit to Flatcolor Gallery to see work by Timothy Karpinski. Again, I’d had no idea he had a show in Seattle at the time until I happened upon an invite for his exhibition when we stopped at Zeitgeist for a short break. I’d like to buy all of his work, but the abstract composition of colourful leaves most of all.
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
Timothy Karpinski
We also visited Greg Kucera gallery, Method Gallery, Pottery Northwest, and had a wander through Urban Craft Uprising. It was all together a very inspiring and memorable day. I love a good art-themed road trip!
These are two recent commissioned pieces I created for clients over the last few weeks. This is the second paper cut letter C I’ve been requested to make, and the first Z (that’s zed not zee).
This is one of the offerings I have available on Etsy as a made to order item. The client chooses the letter and colours, and I do the cutting.
My November self portrait is one of those that barely squeaked under the end of month deadline. I was so caught up in preparing for the Culture Crawl all month that I didn’t have time to spare for this project. I wanted to set it aside finally but my need to complete things saw me through.
I kept it very simple and used a visit to VanDusen Garden as an opportunity to shoot it outside. It was a cold wintery day with snow on the ground, but this spot in the garden was clear and had beautiful afternoon sun falling upon it. I sat for a moment catching the sun, and took a few photos (with Boris’ assistance) before moving on.
On a visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery last week with my friend Mary Anne Tateishi, I was thrilled to see this installation by Ai Wei Wei. It is made up of hundreds of antique wooden stools, stacked from floor to ceiling in a chaos of straight legs and circular seats.
It was impressive to see in person and get the chance to walk through. This took some special tools and dedications, for more info, visit bestroutertablepicks.com. This installation is the best thing to see at the VAG by far. It’s part of an exhibition on contemporary Chinese art that continues until April 6th, 2015.
My friend Jasna of Dear Human has asked me to participate in a small project with a group of Vancouver artists and designers happening in Toronto early next year. The one requirement is for the work to be small and compact, so I’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to experiment with a new paper.
TerraSkin is a fiberless paper made from a combination of mineral powder and a small quantity of non-toxic resin. The paper has a slight gritty feel to one side, but the surface is smooth and easy to work with. It is also said to be water-resistant (not that I’ve tested this out). When cutting the paper there is no resistance to my blade because there aren’t any fibres to catch the edge upon.
The piece pictured here is the first of the small series of work I’m planning to create with this paper. It’s a lovely surface to work with, but I found myself working at a slower pace because it felt too easy for the blade to slip through this smooth paper and make a mistake.
I haven’t tested it out yet, but I’ve read TerraSkin is lovely to work with for printing and paints. I’m curious to test out my acrylic inks on the paper, and I’ll share more once I do so.