A New Self Portrait Project (I Hope)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been considering what my new projects will be for this year, and I realized I would like to do something with self portraits again. I can’t stand the idea of taking a self portrait a day, and I don’t want to redo 52 weeks of self portraits, but I want the project to have a specific timeline in the same way. I had a self portrait project epiphany one day as I was coming back from a walk, and realized I should shoot one a month.

Hand and eye coordination

It’s the perfect amount of minimal commitment, and gives me plenty of time to work on idea. But now I need to move this idea from the thinking to doing phase.

I’ll only be fully committed to the project once I shoot the first photo. I seem to be procrastinating getting around to it, which is why I decided to write about it here. Nothing like a public statement of commitment to get one motivated…I hope.

Valentine Cut Paper Hearts

I’m a little obsessed at the moment with cutting these heart-shaped pieces. I’ve found myself working on a few ideas in my head, which is always the sign of an obsession.

Heart paper cut work-7

I completed two different designs earlier this week. The first is a piece with two hearts, one large, and one small. I drew the heart outlines first and then created the form from an interesting mishmash of different shapes. This is cut from an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red card stock, with the larger heart measuring at 5.25″ x 4.25″, while the smaller heart is 3″ x 2.75″

Heart paper cut work-9

Heart paper cut work-6

The finished piece is listed on Etsy, and is available for purchase.

Heart paper cut work-3

This is my favourite of the hearts I’ve made so far. I decided to create the work from the repeating crescent shape I often use in my work, and the results were amazing. It makes for a mesmerizing design that plays with the eye (just what you want from a heart).

Heart paper cut work

Heart paper cut work

This piece is also available in my Etsy shop, with more to come…

Heart Shaped Paper Cut Work

Earlier this week I was feeling uninspired and not really sure what I wanted to do next with my paper cutting work. At the same time an upcoming project unexpectedly went on hold so I decided to take the time to play and explore ideas for Valentine paper cut pieces. This is something I mean to do every year but I never make time for it. I don’t have any special feelings about Valentine’s day, but I do love the colour red.

Heart paper cut work-4

Heart paper cut work

I’ve had this idea of a paper cut heart in my head and it felt so good to get it out. I drew the outline and freehand cut the design with an xacto knife. The heart is roughly 4.5″ x 6″ on an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of card stock paper.

Heart paper cut work-2

Heart paper cut work-3

Heart paper cut work

Making time to play with a simple side project, and to work with coloured paper rather than white, was just the thing I needed to get inspired.

The paper cut heart is listed in my Etsy Shop as an unframed original. I plan to create a few variations of more hearts as I have time.

Love: Cut Paper Typography

With Valentine’s day coming up I thought it was finally time to create a cut paper typography version of the word love. I’ve had a few requests for this word to be cut, and it’s the perfect fit for the design and red paper. The previous words were Art, Make, and Create.

Love- Paper Cut Typography-4

Love- Paper Cut Typography-2

While the letters were traced from existing typography the design was cut freehand from red card stock. The finished size is 8.5″ x 11″.

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Love- Paper Cut Typography

I have listed this in my Etsy shop as an unframed original. I’ll have a few more Valentine themed pieces to share soon.

Creative Mornings Vancouver: Making By Hand

It’s been a month since I did my talk at Creative Mornings in December, and I’m only now getting around to sharing the video recording. The audio is a little quiet so be sure to turn up your volume.

I am very happy with my delivery of the talk because I put a lot of preparation into it, and it paid off. I felt relaxed and confident on stage, and said everything I wanted to say. The audience was engaged and attentive during the talk, and I’ve had great feedback on the whole thing. I spoke for about thirty minutes but it went by in no time for me.

I have a few more posts to write related to the talk, including one about the process I went through to develop the whole thing. In the beginning I had no idea where to start in putting it together but luckily I had many friends who are experienced speakers to ask for advice. It’ll be helpful to others to share what I learned from the whole experience.

Typo: Typographic Art at Hot Art Wet City

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Beyond the utilitarian use of letterforms, typography can be beautiful art. This show features typographic-based works from Bennett Slater, Scott Sueme, and Frazer Adams, plus guest artists Ben Knight, James Knight, Erin Gibbs, Brandon Cotter, Ali Bruce, and Rachael Ashe.

Typo: Typographic Art
Hot Art Wet City
Dates: January 9-25, 2014
Opening reception Friday January 10 from 7pm
Location: 2206 Main Street at 6th Avenue

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Johnathon Vaughn Strebly

Our first Hot Talks speaker of 2014 at Hot Art Wet City is Johnathon Vaughn Strebly. He is a designer, photographer, and community builder involved as a volunteer in Creative Mornings and is the current president of the GDCBC. Johnathon will be speaking finding inspiration with Lego.

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Creative Blocks & Coloured Bricks

LEGO as a muse? Seriously? How could a designer, or any creative professional, possibly find inspiration from a simple plastic toy brick? But did you know this is one of the best boys Lego ideas for anyone planning to streamline their child’s career straight into engineer or architect? Creative Blocks & Coloured Bricks will feature a blatant disregard to traditional creative process tactics and focus on playful techniques for smoothing out the speed bumps of creative blocks.

Read the full description of Johnathon’s talk here.

Join us for the latest Hot Talk on January 23rd at 7pm. Tickets are by donation and are available for purchase through Eventbrite.

Hot Talks: Johnathon Vaughn Strebly
Hot Art Wet City
Date: January 23rd, 2014
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

2013: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos

As in previous years, I thought I’d put together a blog post of twelve photos pulled from my archive on Flickr, one for each month of the year. I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had a variety of photos to choose from even though I haven’t been uploading much to flickr.

The selection is a good mix of paper art and nature photos.


January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December

All the best in 2014. May it be a creative year for all.

Christmas Scenes From Bowen Island

I fell off the blogging bandwagon a few weeks back when I came down with the flu. It wiped me out for two weeks and I still wasn’t feeling myself over Christmas. I’ve been pretty consistent about blogging regularly for the past few years, so it bothers me a bit I won’t be meeting my monthly goal of eight posts. Ah well, it can’t be helped.

Boris and I spent last week on Bowen Island for Christmas with his family. I went out walking every day and took many photos of the peaceful scenes.

I hope your Christmas was very merry.