Late Night Art 29

May 15, 20142 Comments

I’ve been invited to take part as an artist-in-residence at the next evening of Late Night Art. The event is a dinner and art party encouraging guests to meet new friends while getting creative and enjoying good food.

Through experimental art making, fresh local food, and gratuitous beats, Late Nite Art brings the community together in a fun social art experience to share conversation, art, food and drinks. A host, a chef, and a select group of artists, combine forces to create an intimate socially conducive environment and produce an engaging and highly entertaining night.

The fun-filled evening starts with dinner. Guests share a carefully curated charcuterie board with a friend, but get this; it must be a friend they just met. Through sharing food, guests quickly make new friends, opening them up for the explorative art party that follows. Eight long-tables are covered with drawing paper and art supplies straight out of grade school. Each artist in residence leads a group through the hands-on experience as creativity spills from the heart and mind and is left on the table for everyone to share.

For this special edition evening there are seven artists-in-residence, Jamie Smith, Rachael Ashe, Zack Embree, Rup Sidhu, David McLeish, Sarah Clement, Sean Karemaker. Each artist will be the facilitator, leading intimate groups through an evening of experimental art making.

Tickets are available through eventbrite.

Late Night Art 29
Date: May 31st, 2014
Time: 7:30pm to 10pm
Location: Gesamtkunstwerk, 1460 Howe Street

Art & Craft Social at Hot Art Wet City

May 12, 2014

On Tuesday May 27th I am launching a new event at Hot Art Wet City as a bit of an experiment. I’ve often hosted artist evenings at my home, where people bring art/craft projects to work on in the company of others. I was curious to see whether this has appeal on a larger scale, and would be an event to attract visitors to the gallery.

Think of the Art & Craft Social at Hot Art Wet City as a stitch n’ bitch, crafternoon, and art jam all rolled into one. HAWC provides the chairs, tables, and space, and participants bring a small creative project to work on.

The event is an opportunity to bring together a cross-section of makers, crafters, artists, designers (and all those other titles creative people give themselves), to knit, sew, collage, draw, or paint while they socialize and share. Entry is by donation, and the money goes towards supporting Hot Art Wet City.

The lovely Kim Werker is my co-host for this event. Between the two of us, we’ll ensure people are engaged, meet new people, and have an enjoyable time. Everyone is welcome.

Art & Craft Social
Hot Art Wet City
Date: Tuesday May 27th, 2014
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: 2206 Main Street (at 6th)

Highlights From the ECUAD 2014 Graduation Exhibition

May 9, 2014

Boris and I visited the Emily Carr grad show last weekend, and I wanted to share some of the work I really liked and felt inspired by. It’s a very random selection, and I also missed photographing a few favourite things, but you get the idea.

Sculptor’s Sketchbook by Angela Smailes

King of Panthera by Fiona Tang

Illustrations by Jori van der Linde

Pandora by Pandora Young

Love Seat by Wesley Horsfall

Embroidered illustration by Kelly Baker

Illustration by Sabrina Ting Yu Hsu

Paper cut sculpture by Alison Woodward

East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Eden Cooke

Where are the hydrangeas? by Justin Ng

The graduation exhibition continues on through May 18th, so get yourself there and check it out.

Work in Progress: Circle Shaped Cut Paper

May 7, 2014

The two small circle shaped paper cut pieces I shared last week led to work on a larger one. I need to create new work for an upcoming show in the fall, and I want these to be larger than previous pieces.

I’ve been working with tyvek a bit lately (on something I haven’t yet shared on the blog) and it felt weird to be cutting paper. The texture felt rougher after the smooth and easy cutting tyvek.

The full size of this work is 14″ x 17″ archival drawing paper. The paper cut design is about 11.5″ in diameter.

I like this same idea at the larger size because the shapes and lines have become even more intricate. I can’t wait to get working on another one but perhaps end in a different overall form.

These are photos I took as I worked on this and shared on Instagram. Follow along there for daily updates of what I’m working on.

Recipes: Rhubarb Meringue Cake

May 5, 20141 Comment

The rhubarb meringue cake is my favourite recipe for rhubarb when it comes into season. This is a Mann family recipe that comes from Boris’ mom, Anne Mann. The ingredients are simple and the taste is usually tart more than sweet to highlight the rhubarb rather than disguise it as one does with strawberry rhubarb pie.

Anne has shared photos with me of the original recipe hand written in German by her mother. She was kind enough to translate this into English.

Rhubarb Meringue Cake:

Batter:

80g Butter
80g Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
160 g Flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Rind of 1 Lemon (grated)
small amount of milk
750 g Rhubarb, peeled and cut into 2 cm lengths (cut very thick stalks in half lengthwise)

Beat the butter until soft then add the sugar and egg yolks. Beat everything until it’s nice and creamy then add the grated rind of one lemon. Blend in the flour and baking powder with just enough milk to make the batter drop off the spoon.

Meringue:

3 Egg Whites
200 g Icing Sugar
Juice of 1 Lemon

Combine ingredients and beat until they form into stiff peaks.

Assembly:
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Spread the dough on a greased and floured round springform 9″ baking pan. Add the cut rhubarb pieces on top and then bake for 40 minutes. When the timer goes spread the meringue on top of rhubarb and return to the oven. Bake for another 10 minutes until the meringue is lightly browned on top.

I made my first cake of the season yesterday and it is DELICIOUS. I declare rhubarb season officially open!

Etsy Shop Update: Paper Cut Circles

April 30, 2014

I was recently feeling my output of completed artwork has slowed down, mostly because I am focused on larger projects that will take a long time to complete. So last week I decided to put the big projects aside and do a few small quick pieces.

I wanted to take the idea I’d explored with the heart paper cuts of creating my freehand designs within a set final shape. I chose a circle, and used a compass to draw an outline on the page. I created one white version backed with black paper, and one black version backed with white paper.

Listing for this on Etsy »

Listing for this on Etsy »

Both pieces are made from 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock and hinged to a contrasting piece of paper for framing. I’ve made them available for purchase through my Etsy shop.

Published in Paper Play

April 28, 2014

I’m pretty thrilled to share that two of my paper cut vessels are amongst the amazing selection of work included in a new book of paper art. Paper Play is edited and published by Sandu Cultural Media.

Normally I would recommend buying it from a small independent book store, but we’re running out of those in Vancouver. You can of course always find it on Amazon.

Art on the Streets of Toronto

April 25, 20142 Comments

Another highlight of my visit to Toronto was seeing how dramatically the street art scene has grown. There was interesting graffiti to be seen everywhere, and I got in the habit of peering down every alley I passed while walking around. Chances were good I would see something I liked.

There are large concentrations of street art in Graffiti Alley, which runs parallel to Queen from about Spadina to Portland, as well as throughout Kensington Market. But everywhere I walked, no matter the neighbourhood, I found something. These are some of the highlights.

Located on Collage east of Spadina

Located behind The Green Room on Bloor Street

Located on Dundas Street West

Located in an alley on Bloor Street in the Annex

Alley off of Queen Street West

McCaul Street near OCAD.

A small part of a huge mural on the side of Sanko on Queen Street West

An alley off of Queen near Dufferin Street

Kensington Market

Graffiti Alley

View the full set of my graffiti photos on Flickr.

I would dearly love to see the Vancouver street art scene grow and thrive on a similar scale. I wonder what needs to be done to make it happen…?

Speaking and Sharing at Sparkfly Vancouver

April 22, 2014

On Thursday May 8th, I will be speaking at the next edition of Sparkfly along with Vivienne McMaster, and Denna Erickson.

Sparkfly is a series of evenings featuring diverse women in Vancouver sharing their creative journeys. It is a place where women can share, inspire and create. It is a small and intimate gathering creating a warm and safe space for the speakers and audience to reveal their experiences, ideas and dreams.

As part of the evenings activities, Vivienne and I will be collaborating on a fun exercise with participants. I hope you can join us.

Tickets cost $17.00 and are available for purchase through Eventbrite »

Cross-Stitch Installation at Patria Restaurant in Toronto

April 21, 20141 Comment

On the weekend I caught up on uploading to Flickr the rest of my photos from my trip to Toronto in March, most of which is graffiti. Reviewing the photos reminded me of our brunch at Patria Restaurant on King Street with friends of Boris on our last weekend in town. I chose the restaurant simply because I wanted to see the incredible cross-stitch installation in person. Thank goodness the food was as amazing as the interior design.

The cross-stitch wall is done on a metal screen overlaying the background image directly on the wall. The effect is stunning and the scale of this is impressive.

The installation is a collaboration between Commute Home, artist Laura Carwardine, and Marlo Onilla of Biography Design. Watch the video below to see how they pulled this huge project together.

Making of Patria Restaurant Cross Stitch Art Installation from Henry Salonen on Vimeo.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life