Work in Progress: Cut Paper Double Triangles

Progress on my upcoming show this fall has been going extremely well. Yesterday I lay out all of the pieces I’ve created so far to take a look at how they will hang together, and I was surprised to realized I’ve completed so many.

Work in progress paper cut design
Work in progress paper cut design

I finished this double triangle piece late last week. Looking at it yesterday I decided it needs a little more “something” to the overall composition because it feels unfinished to me and a bit boring. I played around with different papers behind the design as I was working on this.

Work in progress paper cut design
Work in progress paper cut design

Work in progress paper cut design
Work in progress paper cut design

The finished piece is made with Strathmore Drawing paper, and is 14″ x 17″ in size.

Work in progress paper cut design
Work in progress paper cut design

Language As Sculpture

On Saturday I popped by Equinox Gallery on a whim to see their latest shows. At the time I didn’t realize it was the last day of shows by Marie Khouri and Dempsey Bob, so I’m very glad I managed such terrific timing because the work was too good to miss.

I didn’t take photos of the work by Dempsey Bob, but it was stunning hand carved work. Each piece was highly detailed and glowed with the life of the wood it was carved from.

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Marie Khouri’s work was an interactive installation of flowing white forms for the viewer to touch and sit upon. The work is based on the Farsi language and spells out words in large scale. I walked around the room to study the arrangement from every angle because it felt like a piece of work that should be seen while moving around rather than standing still.

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I feel this has been a good year for strong art shows in Vancouver so far. It makes me happy to see arts and culture do a bit of thriving.

Cleverness in Colour

I dropped into Back Gallery Project last week to check out Ben Skinner‘s show, Colouring Outside And Reading Between. It is art that is both playful, and very clever. The artist plays with words used within the work, and does interesting things with very simple materials.

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These are a series of sculptures using words repeated twice in the English language. It’s pretty funny to realize how many there are. My favourite is Beep Beep.

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Why yes, these are hundreds of pencil crayons sorted by colour and arranged in a spectrum. This thing is fascinating to view as you walk around it.



Colouring Outside and Reading Between ends this weekend. Visit Back Gallery Project at 602 E Hastings Street at Princess to see it.

Long Weekend Landscapes

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We were on Bowen Island for a few days visiting Boris’ family over the long weekend. The forecast said it would rain all weekend but it turned out to be pretty darn nice. I swear I take the exact same collection of photos every time I am on Bowen.

One Self Portrait A Month: Cutting Away

This is the sixth photo in my series of one self portrait a month in 2014. I am so happy to be half-way through the project, even though it also means we’ve reached the middle of the year.

I shot this portrait quickly and did not spend much time on a pose or expression because I was banking on hiding any flaws with paper cutting. My process was to shoot it with the iPhone, clean it up in Photoshop, print in out on regular 8.5″ x 11″ paper, cut a design by hand, and then re-photograph it.

Cutting Away

The top one is an early version, which I thought was finished at the time. The more I looked at it, the more it felt unfinished, so I worked on it some more and kept cutting.

Cutting Away (version 2)

Neither version feels perfect, but it was an experiment. I’ve had this idea in mind for ages, to combine portraits (or self portraits) with my paper cutting. Next time I need to do it differently, and better.

Tiny Paper Cut Details

I’ve been working on a papercraft commission with ReThink Communications for the last week and a half. The finished pieces are intricate set pieces made from paper, and they look incredible. This work was shot by a photographer yesterday and will be part of an ad campaign coming out later this summer. I can’t yet share the finished work, so I thought I’d hint at things to come with a few two tiny details.

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Tiny Maple Leaf

The project has been terrific to work on, and has given me ideas to use towards my own work. It even has me rethinking the type of paper I typically use.

Join us for Art & Craft Social in June

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The monthly Art & Craft Social at Hot Art Wet City is happening this Wednesday June 25th at 7:30pm. My co-host Kim Werker and I invite you to bring a small creative project to the gallery, make a donation, and hang out with us.

It was oodles of fun when we kicked things off in May, with a diverse group of people and their projects in attendance. If you can’t make it this time, Art & Craft show is an on-going event on the last Wednesday of every month at Hot Art Wet City.

Art & Craft Social
Hot Art Wet City
Date: Wednesday June 25th, 2014
Time: 7:30pm to 10:30pm
Location: 2206 Main Street at 6th Avenue

Work in Progress: Triangle Shaped Cut Paper

I was inspired by the concentric circles piece to explore other shapes within shapes. I really want to do squares within squares, but first I worked with a triangle.

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I decided from the start to focus on creating clean outer edges and corners because it makes the design stronger. I went with two triangles rather than three but I think it would look more interesting if there was a third shape surrounding these two.

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The finished piece is 14″ x 17″, cut from a piece of archival white drawing paper. I backed it with both blue and red paper for a quick photo, and to compare the two colours. I think the blue is actually stronger and more striking in this case.

Inspiring Art in Seattle and Bellevue

Boris and I did a quick trip to Seattle over the weekend. We went down to hear our friend Lee Lefever speak at the Seattle chapter of Creative Mornings, and to visit friends.

We spent a bit of time on Friday wandering the streets and visiting a few galleries. I was so thrilled to see the work of Andy Kehoe in person at Roq la Rue gallery. He works in layers of resin and paint, which gives the work depth and detail, but unfortunately this doesn’t come through in photographs. I’ve admired his work online for years, but they are so much better in person.

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Detail of Twilight Rendevous by Andy Kehoe

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Detail of Valley of the Ghoul by Andy Kehoe

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Detail of Invoking The Heart of The Wild by Andy Kehoe

We also did a quick trip to the Bellevue Arts Museum to see Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami. It was an extra inspiring bonus to see exhibitions of work by Kathy Venter and Dan Webb.

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Figurative sculpture by Kathy Venter, an artist based on Salt Spring Island.

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Surreal wood carved sculpture by Dan Webb.

Folding Paper was a terrific survey of origami work from artists and designers around the world. There were many pieces of traditional work, but my favourites were the pleated fold-style of sculptural origami, as well as some of the modular work.

Seattle art

Seattle art

Seattle art

The origami show continues until September, but the exhibitions by Kathy Venter and Dann Webb ended this past weekend. It’s worth the visit to the museum because they always have wonderful craft-based shows that we don’t have the exhibition space for in Vancouver.

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City: Chris Tyrell Loranger

I am so pleased to have Chris Tyrell Loranger as the next speaker at Hot Talks. I consider him a mentor as well as a friend, and he’s been an incredible creative force in Vancouver arts and culture for almost forty years.

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So you want to be an artist, with dreams of playing in a studio all day making art? It’s an idealized vision, but the reality of working as a professional artist is that society fails to support and sustain the arts and artists on many fronts. The education system fails us, because creativity is not recognized as a core academic value; the arts are considered an educational option. And working professional artists are statistically destined to be poor and untrained.

Join us as Chris Tyrell Loranger shares his ideas around making changes to the arts in Vancouver and beyond.

Read the full description here.

The latest Hot Talk happens on June 24th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Chris Tyrell Loranger
Hot Art Wet City
Date: June 24th, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street (at 6th Ave), Vancouver