Cut, Fold, Shred at Florida Craftsmen Gallery

If you happen to be in St. Petersburg Florida in the next while, I have a few pieces in “Cut, Fold, Shred” at Florida Craftsmen Gallery. The show opens tomorrow evening and runs until October 19th, 2013.

Florida Craftsmen presents a showcase of paper art from beautiful carved, folded, cut out paper objects and realistic 3D paper sculptures to altered books.

Roam through “Falling Leaves”, an installation created by members of the community using decorative papers created by Jackie Peters Cully.

Invitation to Cut, Fold, Shred

Participating Artists: Rachael Ashe, Marsha Bard, Lucrezia Bieler, Sarah Butz, Jeff Henriquez, Cindy Mason, Dennis Meloy, Mark Noll, Aida Sheets, Michael Velliquette, and Elise Wehle.

September 6th – October 19, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, September 6th, 5:30-8:30pm
Location: 501 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, Florida

Drawing As Meditation

Earlier this year (which feels like eons ago) I bought a small sketchbook with the intention of getting into drawing again. I’d intended to do it at least once a day but quickly discovered I didn’t really have the time to dedicate to it regularly. Last week I took a break (one where I just allowed myself free time to do whatever I wanted) and managed to pick things up again.

I think of these as doodles rather than drawings, mostly because they are not “for” anything other than the process of creation. They suit my obsessive nature as an artist, and I think of them as meditative drawings. I was curious to discover this is actually a thing.

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doodle

It is very calming to draw without intention. I often start with a very loud mind and slowly it will quiet the more I draw. I have the same experience when I cut paper.

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photo 2 (1)

These are just a few of the doodles I created last week. I’m hoping to maintain doing these types of drawings as part of my practice going forward.

Paper Inspiration: Artists Exploring Three Dimensions in Paper

I’m taking a bit of a break this week, and since I haven’t yet had the chance to document some recent works of my own I’ve decided to share a few interesting pieces by other artists. The theme to my selection is paper sculpture.

Valeria Burgoa creates large installation work from tea bags. She has more lovely work on Flickr.

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ETAPA II

Sarah Bridgland creates intricate three dimensional assemblages from vintage papers. View more work on her website.

Matemaatika by Sarah Bridgland

Etiquettes Adhesives by Sarah Bridgland

Joell Baxter creates large scale woven sculptures from screen printed paper. Visit his website to view more of his work.

Untitled (Rolled) by Joell Baxter

Untitled (Rolled) by Joell Baxter

Reclining Figure by Joell Baxter

Reclining Figure by Joell Baxter

For more inspiring work in paper, check out my Paper Inspiration board on Pinterest.

The Great Thank You Giveaway

As a thank you to those who support my art and follow my progress on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr, I’ve decided to do a giveaway contest. I’ve put together a collection of some of the small items I sell on Etsy, and all you have to do to win it is leave a comment on this blog post.

contest-swag

The prize package includes:

A 5″ x 7″ portfolio of recent paper cut work.
Snapfish book
Snapfish book-2

Two postcard sets; one of the Imaginary Girl series, and one of the Collage postcards.
Postcards!!!!!!
Imaginary Girl postcards

One 6″ x 6″ bird collage made from recycled paper.
Mixed media collage

If you’d like to win, please leave a comment and include your email address. That’s all you have to do.

The contest closes on Monday August 25th at 10am. I will do a random draw to choose the winner from amongst the comments. Good luck!

The Seeds of Sewing

Over the summer months I’ve gotten into sewing, purely out of a desire to spruce up our apartment. I’ve had a few little projects in mind for ages but until recently I didn’t have my own sewing machine.

For home improvement project number one I wanted to make new slip covers for the throw pillows that came with our couch. I’ve always disliked the fabric, but rather than buying new pillows I decided to sew covers and choose a fabric to add more colour to the room. Dressew was my source for the bold yellow fabric I came away with.

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Slip covers for the throw pillows on our couch

I sewed them without a pattern but found some ideas online to use as reference. Anne advised and assisted me with the sewing as it’s been a really long time since I’ve used a sewing machine. We finished them in about an hour and a half.

The slip covers were the gateway project that led me to buying a sewing machine of my own, because I knew I wanted to make more things. I went with the tiny and inexpensive SY sewing machine from Ikea because I’d read a review that recommended it as a good starter machine.

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And the next thing I knew I was sewing curtains for the bedroom, once again using fabric sourced from Dressew. As with the pillow cases I did not use a pattern. I kept things simple with minimal detail, and sewed together the patterned fabric with a white backing to block out light. My hanging solution was to purchase curtain rings to clip to the top and not have to fuss about with something more complicated.

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Bedroom curtains

I still have so much to learn about sewing, but at least I am learning as I go. I have another project in mind, still sticking with simple straight lines, but eventually I hope to tackle making my own clothes.

Artist Trades in Paper

A few times a year I arrange to trade work with other artists. It goes something like this: they like my artwork, and I like their artwork and so we work out a deal and make an exchange of work.

My most recent trade is with origami artist, Joseph Wu. Over the last few years he’s very generously given me a few pieces, including the two lovebirds he made in memorial to Yuuki, and the lunar new year water dragon pictured below.

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Untitled

It was only after I commissioned Joseph to create an origami portrait of my friend’s dog for his fortieth birthday that we agreed to do an exchange for one of my paper cut pieces.

I took a short video on Instagram as I was working on the paper cut piece:

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The finished size is 10″ x 10″, and is made up of two separate sections cut from a single piece of paper. The tricky part was mounting these into the cradle frame without destroying the work because there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver.

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Untitled

It’s a lovely continuation of my Wind and Water paper cut series. Now I just need to get it into Joseph’s hands.

Circles and Animals: Koi

Not all animals seem to lend themselves to this series but koi certainly do. This is the fifth piece in the on-going Circles and Animals series, and I’ve yet to decide upon the next animal to include.

(Previous Circles and Animals: Fox, snail, owl, crow)

Circles and Animals- Koi

Circles and Animals- Koi-3

Unlike the other ones in the series I’ve included two creatures instead of one in the same piece. It made more sense to me in terms of composition. The Koi is 12″ x 12″ and is made with two pieces of archival drawing paper within a wood cradle panel.

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Circles and Animals- Koi-2

I will have time to return to making more pieces in this series later this week. Let me know if you have a suggestion for the next animal.

Circles and Animals: The Fox

The Fox is the fourth piece in the Circles and Animals series. (Previous work in the series: snail, owl, crow). He’s a bit more wolfy looking than I’d intended, with a touch of coyote. Call this animal what you will, but I’m sticking with fox.

Circles and Animals- The Fox-4

Circles and Animals- The Fox-2

As with others in this series, this is cut from two pieces of archival white drawing paper and mounted within a cradle panel. The challenge as I continue to work on this series is to make each one unique while using the same circle cut layering technique.

Circles and Animals- The Fox-3

Circles and Animals- The Fox

I finished two of these last week, and will share the second one in another blog post. In case you’re wondering, these are for sale, so please do inquire.

Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City with Mark Busse

Our August speaker for Hot Talks @ Hot Art Wet City gallery is the lovely and opinionated, Mark Busse. He’s one of the principles of Industrial Brand, and is the community organizer behind events such as Creative Mornings, Likemind Vancouver, and Interesting Vancouver.

hotartwetcity-logo

CREATIVITY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT:
How engaging in creative leadership saved my career and life

Complaining about shit sometimes seems like a Vancouver pastime. I know I do it too. But I also try to invest my time, energy and creativity in as many causes as I can. And despite a fear of public speaking or being found out as a fraud, I force myself to say yes to nearly every scary opportunity that comes my way — like giving this Hot Talk for instance.

(Read the full talk description here).

Come hear Mark speak on August 29th at 7pm. Get your tickets online through eventbrite, and do it soon because they will sell out.

Hot Talks: Mark Busse
Hot Art Wet City
Date: August 29th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver

Circles and Animals: The Crow

The Crow is the third in my Circles and Animals paper cut series. I finished him last Tuesday and by the next day it was purchased by someone who follows me on Instagram. It makes my head spin a bit when things find a home so quickly.

Circles and Animals- The Crow

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It was a no-brainer to include a crow in this series because they are a fascinating bird (one of my favourites), and also an unofficial symbol of East Vancouver. I chose to keep the details minimal in the bird because a crow’s black body is a silhouette by default.

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Circles and Animals- The Crow-2

At some point soon I may make these available as prints and products on Society6. I would love a crow pillow, or maybe even a laptop cover. In the meantime the series has continued. I finished two more animals earlier this week, which you can see a preview of on Instagram.