Bringing Forgotten Skills Back to Life

February 7, 2013

As a youngster my initial explorations into art were through drawing and painting. I’d actually reached a point in my teens where I had pretty decent drawing skills (though I’ve never been particularly good with paints), which I mostly seemed to use for drawing dragons, horses, and unicorns. (Every horse is just one horn away from becoming a unicorn). Over time I’ve lost those skills from lack of use and only recently have I been considering ways to develop them again.

Last week I took steps to get started on this and bought a small sketchbook, two drawing pens, and a pencil, then gave myself permission to start drawing again. This was inspired by a review of my sketchbook from high school and seeing some of the work I was able to do back then. Unicorns and dragons aside, it was a pleasant reminder of the repetitive pattern-style drawing I’ve always done that is echoed in my current paper cutting work. I’d never made this connection before.

The drawings I’ve made so far are more like doodles but I’m enjoying the process of creating them. As you can see, a few have made their way into the self portraits I’ve been shooting for Be Your Own Beloved to great effect. I love that I can bring these two different media together and how these are shaping up as a series. It feels so good to have new ideas flowing.

Be Your Own Beloved

February 4, 2013

For the month of February I’m enrolled in an e-course called, Be Your Own Beloved, which is facilitated by Vivienne McMaster. It is a twenty-eight day challenge to cultivate self-reflection and compassion for oneself through self portraiture.

I’ve been wanting to take one of Vivienne’s courses for awhile. I felt this one was particularly well timed as I’ve been harshing on myself for continued poor health and my frustrations around that. Here’s hoping I will learn to be kinder to myself in the process.

These are two of the self portraits I’ve created so far and I’m happy with them. It’s been challenging to find the time and creative energy to do this. My photography skills are rusty from lack of use, as is the part of my brain formerly in charge of visualizing ideas for portraits and self-portraits.

I like the idea of combining self-portraits with drawings as I did yesterday. It would be interesting if I can come up with a whole series of them over the course of the twenty-eight days.

Paper Cut Work: Radiating Outwards

January 30, 2013

My first forays back into the studio have found me feeling uninspired and stuck. I know the best way around this is to just sit down, get to work, and focus on getting my hands moving rather than on the results. This often works very well with me because I am a process driven artist and I created in a spontaneous manner anyway.

I grabbed my knife and a piece of paper, made some quick decisions about what I wanted to do, and then began cutting.

I’ve used this leaf shape many times before, but this time I wanted to work smaller and closer together, and end up with an overall form that wasn’t round. Working in a radial naturally lends itself a circular form but I wanted to see how it could work in a more squared composition.

I cut the design until it was about eight inches in diameter and then began working it into a square. It looked beautiful at that point but I decided to keep pursuing the idea. It went through a phase where I thought I’d ruined it but pushed on and came through to the end where I’ve achieved the squarish form (I was never going for a perfect square).

I don’t think I will work this small as a general rule, even though it was interesting to try it out, because it doesn’t read well overall.

Even though this took many hours and xacto blades to create, I consider it a sketch resulting from an exercise and not finished work. It did the trick though, because I find myself INSPIRED!

Excuse My Whinging…

January 28, 2013

It’s Monday morning the start of a new week and along with it the hopes of finally getting 2013 off the ground. All of January has been a washout because I’ve been down with a stomach bug off and on for weeks. Just when I think it’s gone away and I’m well enough to get back to work, it flares up again. It’s been an incredibly frustrating experience, and I don’t trust it will last when I do feel better.

I’m normally a very motivated and disciplined person, and I have no trouble getting inspired to create new work. But this illness has left me drained and I’m struggling to find my way back to where I was a month and a half ago. My impulse is to be really hard on myself, when really it’s just going to take time to get back to normal.

The upside to all of this is it’s reminded me to appreciate my health, and take better care of it from now on.

And now I’m going to go cut some paper and get inspired…

A Visit to Harrison Hot Springs

January 22, 2013

Over the weekend Boris and I rented a car and drove to Harrison Hot Springs to visit our friend Siobhan. She is the artist in residence until September at the Ranger Station Art Gallery. It was a beautiful but cold weekend in Harrison while the rest of the Greater Vancouver area continued to be shrouded in fog.

It’s a one and a half hour drive to Harrison, and we took the scenic route. For about half the drive there was nothing to see but hints of landscape and trees through the fog, and then somewhere around Agassiz the sun busted through and there were stunning views of mountains and valleys laid before us.

We stayed with Siobhan at the Rangers Station, and spent a lovely low key day hanging out, going for walks, sharing food and stories, and even fit in a cat-induced nap. I was still feeing ill while we where there but I was so happy get away from our apartment, and to be outside in fresh air and nature. It recharged me.

I think my favorite times are those spent with friends over some sort of food in our private homes. It’s good for the friendship and somehow centering for the individuals.

Inspiration and Recovery

January 18, 20132 Comments

The first few weeks of 2013 have been one of the most frustratingly unproductive time periods of my life (to date) all because I can’t seem to get over this flu bug. It’s been all over the news this past week that the current flu virus is the worst in years (or maybe ever). I definitely agree.

The best cure for it is drinking plenty of fluids and rest, but I’ve grown tired of resting, and think longingly of all the projects I haven’t had the energy or focus to get working on. I’m frustrated with this situation, but there isn’t really anything I can do, except take care of myself.

Until I return to normal levels of productivity, here are a few things I’ve found inspiring:

These amazing stained glass windows made from laser cut paper by Eric Standley

Paper Tesselations by Kota Hiratsuka

An article called, “Playing Video Games on Hard“, which is more an approach to life than it is about video games.

I could always use more inspiration, so if there’s something blowing your mind at the moment, please share.

Sketchbook Project 2013

January 14, 2013

I came very close to not finishing my work for the Sketchbook Project 2013, because I’ve been sick off and on for the past month and my concentration has been almost nil. I chose to completely ignore any theme and experimented with an idea I’ve had in mind for awhile.

Using a plastic template of circles, ovals, triangles, squares, and octagons that I created from sheets I got at cutmyplastic.co.uk. I went through the entire sketchbook and drew repeating shapes covering each page to create patterns. I tried something different with each two page spread, sometimes using the same shape in different sizes, and other times combining a mix of different shapes.

When all the drawing was completed, I went back through with an xacto knife and spontaneously cut different designs and compostions from the paper. Not all of these were successful but I decided to just let it be and not get hung up on results.

I love some of the pages, and strongly dislike others, but overall I’m happy to send it off for inclusion in the Brooklyn Art Library.

Paper Cut Work: The White Rabbit and The Cheshire Cat

January 9, 2013

In December I shared two paper cut pieces featuring the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, which I’d created for an upcoming exhibition in Victoria. Both ended up selling within a week of completion (yay!) and so I needed to make something else to meet the commitment for the show.

I decided to make two new pieces, one to revisit the white rabbit and the other inspired by the Cheshire cat.

When I began working on the Cheshire Cat I had just seen “My Neighbour Totoro” the previous evening. I decided the character of the Catbus with it’s HUGE grin made for the perfect face to use for this. I chose to cut leaf shapes to suggest the tree where Alice first encounters the Cheshire Cat in the story.

I drew the leaf pattern before cutting, which is not my usual thing for creating a paper cut. The top and bottom layers are cut from single sheets of paper and mounted into the wood cradle panel. The cat face is also a separate piece of paper.

For the white rabbit I decided to do a variation on the one I’d created originally. I really wanted it included in the show but wasn’t interested in reproducing the exact same work. I cut two layers of circles rather than three, and placed the white rabbit more centrally.

I didn’t like this one as much as the first but it’s grown on me. There is something about having three layers of circles that has more impact and interest. I’m going to explore this idea further in future work I think.

Both pieces can be seen next month in Curiouser, at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective in Victoria.

Artist Reception – Vancity Commission

January 7, 2013

As mentioned previously, I will be hosting an artist reception along with four other artists to showcase work commissioned for Vancity Credit Union last year. Original art work created by Robi Smith, Christina Norberg, Jasna Sokolovic, Noel O’Connell (and me) is on permanent display at the South Burnaby Branch located at 5064 Kingsway.

Join us for the artist reception on Saturday January 12th, 2013, 1pm to 3pm, in the Community Stage Room. All of the artists will be present.

Artist Reception – Vancity Commissions
Date: Saturday January 12th, 2013
Time: 1pm to 3pm
Location:South Burnaby Vancity Branch, 5064 Kingsway

2012: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos

January 2, 20132 Comments

I went through and chose one photo from each month of 2012. It was definitely the year of cutting paper, and creating commissions. Both were surprising new directions for me, and I hope they continue on into 2013.

The saddest part of pulling together these photos was the reminder that Yuuki is gone.