One Self Portrait A Month: Arranging Constellations

February 26, 20142 Comments

It wasn’t my intention to leave this until the end of the month again, but for the previous few weeks I’d been coming up dry on ideas and enthusiasm for the project of shooting one self portrait a month. I didn’t spend much time shooting this because I felt impatient about getting it done. And yet I love what I came up with, and not just because the drawing is dazzling.

The drawings are groupings of triangles which remind me of maple leaves in some ways and a constellation of stars in others. I love the process of doodling these because it is soothing, simple, and meditative but creates a complicated end result. I’m not sure whether combining my image with the drawing makes this more or less so.

The Power of Making

February 24, 2014

My partner Boris is a far superior cook than I, mostly because he has a passion for the activity whereas my passion for food lies more with the eating of it. Over the five or so years we’ve lived together I’ve steadily handed off the bulk of food preparation to his care, and been very glad of it. I enjoy his good cooking, while he enjoys a clean home and clothes.

This past December I came to the realization that I found the activities of cooking or baking to be extremely stressful. The reason why is because I did these things so rarely I was out of practice and had lost my confidence in working with food.

I am surrounded by people who are excellent chefs, and I am lucky to share many good meals made by friends, so I suddenly felt pretty shameful about the sad level my food skills had sunk to.

Immediately I made the decision to turn things around. I have been cooking and baking much more often over the past two months, including trying recipes for things I’ve always wanted to make but hadn’t previously tried. (I’m looking at you Lemon Loaf and Okonomiyaki).

The situation had me reflecting upon the empowering nature of making things by hand. I should never be afraid to try something new, or have the expectation for perfection. I understand this intimately when it comes to art and craft processes, but it also applies to working with food. Thank goodness for the Christmas baking epiphany because now I am empowered to enjoy the creation of food as much as I love the consumption of it.

Work in Progress: Flight Pattern / Taking Flight

February 20, 20141 Comment

For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to fast track the production of a paper installation made up of a ridiculous amount of individual pieces of paper. I’ve been using the digital cutter to do most of the cutting for me, but it hasn’t been a smooth process because the machine has a tendency towards paper butchery at random intervals. It’s a moody little beast, but to be fair, I have asked it to cut a couple hundred (or so) pieces of paper over the last few weeks.

My final count, for now, is about six hundred paper wings in white, silver, beige, and black paper. It should work out to about sixty clusters of these wings, which will hopefully fill up the space nicely where these will hang. There is a lot of guess work going on here because I’ve only seen photos and videos of the space these are destined for.

Yesterday I took one of the black wings and used it as a surface to doodle a meditative drawing. I love the way this looks and it made me wish I could so this with all them. But I’m not that crazy…

Wearing Hearts on the Street

February 18, 2014

My friend Vivienne has an uncanny ability to find hearts and messages of love around our neighbourhood of Commercial Drive, and she often shares these on Instagram. It got me thinking about leaving more hearts for her to find, which in turn led to an idea for a collaboration we could do together.

I created a couple of heart stencils, three by hand and one using the digital cutter, and bought two cans of spray paint. I was curious to see how well my elaborate heart paper cut work would translate when painted on the sidewalk. We wanted to do this in time for Valentine’s Day, and bring a little more love into the world.

Vivienne and I went out twice last week and added hearts to parts of Strathcona and The Drive. Some of these have already washed away in the rain, because that’s how it goes with street art. It’s not meant to be permanent and the work is at the mercy of the elements. I think a few of the hearts will stick around for awhile, and at some point I hope we’ll go out again and add more.

We decided to title the project #HeartingTheNeighbourhood. If you come across our hearts around town please share them on Instagram and use the tag so we can see.

I hope you had a happy heart day.

Artists to Follow on Instagram

February 13, 2014

Instagram is my daily source of both motivation and inspiration. I try to share at least one photo there every day as part of my creative routine, and I really enjoy seeing what other artists, all over the world, are working on too.

This is a short list of some of my favourite artists that I follow on Instagram. Click the links to view their work and follow them on Instagram.

swoonhq: The official account of street artist Swoon. She shares installations and street art, and it is amazing.

travislouis: Travis Louie is an illustrator who creates fantastical portraits of monsters and mythical creatures.

artistcrystalwagner: Crystal Wagner shares paper-based installations, drawings, and sculptural artwork.

qta3: Surreal collage by a Japanese art director who doesn’t use his real name.

osatosh: Beautiful and delicate illustrations by Satoshi OTA.

How about you? Do you have favourite artists you follow on Instagram?

Cut Paper Sculpture: Cube

February 11, 2014

I have a few undocumented paper sculptures that pre-date this one, but because this cube is small I can do it more quickly than the others. These are photos I lit with a desk lamp and photographed with my iPhone. Simple. Quick. Done

The cube is a work in progress for a larger series of small paper sculptures I want to make for an upcoming show. I see them as a collection of paper cut objects, piled one on top of another, and casting interesting shadows.

This first one is a prototype that turned out a bit wonky because my measurements were a bit off. I used a digital cutter to create the form and cut the design by hand. I think these are the first paper cut sculptures I’ve made with black paper instead of white, and am curious to see how they work as a grouping of pieces.

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Valerie and Arnt Arntzen

February 6, 2014

I’m excited to welcome Valerie and Arnt Arntzen as the featured speakers for Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City in February. They are a creative married couple of working artists, and have been part of the Vancouver art scene in significant ways for the last twenty years.

Valerie and Arnt Arntzen are a couple who have been together for 35 years and have worked in the creative field since the early 80s. They are both mad collectors of found objects: from helicopter wings to bedsprings. Collaborating is an essential part of their relationship as husband and wife as well as artists.

Read the full description of their talk.

Join us for the latest Hot Talk on February 27th at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Valerie & Arnt Arntzen
Hot Art Wet City
Date: February 27th, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

Meditative Drawing

February 4, 20142 Comments

On Friday afternoon I found myself doodling with a silver gel pen on card stock, not with any purpose in mind or end goal. I wanted to keep my hands moving while my mind wandered and I worked through something completely unrelated in my head. It was soothing to move the pen across the page making a grouping of curved lines, and then eventually straight lines interconnected into clusters of triangles. (None of which is pictured here).

I’ve drawn like this before in my sketchbook but the silver gel pen on black paper makes it something fascinating and special. The initial drawing I did on Friday led to a whole lot more over the weekend, because when I like something I am obsessive about it. I’ve completed four of these on 8.5″ x 11″ paper.

The drawings are a meditative process on par with the paper cutting work I love to do. My mind becomes a calm blank if I allow it to, and I don’t see any further than the next line or cut. It feels as good as the smooth glide of the gel pen across the page.

One Self Portrait a Month: Leftover Pieces

January 30, 2014

Just in the nick of time, with a few days to spare, I managed to shoot the first self portrait in a new series. As mentioned in a previous blog post, I’d been thinking about taking one self portrait a month for the next year. A simpler version of 52 Weeks of self portraits, but with the same level of creativity.

I knew if I could talk myself into doing one within the month of January then the project would be a go. Mission accomplished, and the project is rolling.

When I started this shoot I had a different idea in mind to use the paper scraps, and of course it evolved. These are all cut away from finished paper cut work, and have been collected together in a baggie I keep stashed in my studio. The pile of paper and my face were shot separately and made into one through the magic of Photoshop.

Going forward with the series I’m going to attempt to incorporate my paper work into each self portrait. It’s a good way to bring photography and paper together at last.

Paper Cut Work: Black Hearted and Shattered

January 27, 2014

A friend suggested making paper cut hearts using black paper instead of red, and it led the designs in a completely different direction than the previous ones. I used triangles as the repeating shape within the form of a heart.

The first version has randomly cut triangles. I cut these freehand without a ruler or drawing anything other than the outline of the heart and lines to centre things on the page.

Cut paper heart made of triangles on Etsy »

With the second design I decided to go with a more structured pattern of triangles working from a centre point within the heart. I drew lines radiating from the centre point and used a ruler to guide me as I cut. The end result makes the heart seem shattered. Take from that what you will…

Abstract cut paper heart on Etsy »

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life