The weather was sunny, beautiful and cold during the week we were on Bowen Island for Christmas. I walked in the forest every day, and took many photos.
Walking the city streets every day seems pretty dull compared to walking in the forest on Bowen.
One Self Portrait a Month: Red Portrait
I had big plans for my December self portrait of an elaborate set involving paper wings and creative photoshop manipulations. But when it came time to shoot something I chose to keep it simple and just get her done.
I decided this final portrait needed to be red, which is my favourite colour, and I put on my best red hat, a giant red and black winter scarf, and found red fabric for the background.
I’m so glad to be done with this series. Working on it felt tedious. I’ve come to realize I don’t enjoy shooting self portraits the way I did in the past, and I’m okay with that.
2014: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos
I enjoy looking back through the year end review blog posts from previous years because it reminds me of things I’d forgotten about. I think all of the posts are filled with photos of nature and artwork, and this year is no exception.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
May 2015 be a good one for us all!
All The Best For The Season
May all your holiday dreams come true. Relax and enjoy time with your family and friends, and I’ll see you in the new year.
Mega Etsy Shop Update
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”.
Leaving Drawn Circles Incomplete
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.
Exploring TerraSkin Paper And Circles Part 2
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.
Exploring TerraSkin Paper and Circles
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.
Paper Cut Commission in 3D
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.
Scenes From An Art Road Trip to Seattle
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!