Taking Form in Paper

October 11, 2012

I am very pleased with how well my show at Port Moody Arts Centre came together within the Cabinet of Curiosity when I installed it last week. I’d been struggling a bit with envisioning how my selection of folded altered books, paper cut work, three dimensional paper constructs, and more, were going to hang together. But it works rather well. Unfortunately I have yet to take proper photos of the whole installation to share with you.

What I do have to share are the two snap shots I took during the opening. This loopy paper form is constructed from strips of topographic maps rolled, folded, and taped together into one long strip. I decided to make it the day before we installed the show because I wanted to include one more three dimensional piece.

I was inspired by a tutorial I found on a craft blog because I am always looking for fresh ideas of working with paper. I feel like I still have a staggering amount to learn.

Ten Good Things From the Weekend

October 9, 2012

I used to write blog posts rounding up ten good things from the past week or weekend, but I somehow lost the habit of it. Thanksgiving is an appropriate time to remind myself of all the things I have to be grateful for, so I thought I’d share ten good things from the weekend.

1. Having a long conversation with my sister and Bogey over Facetime.

2. Catching up with my friend Hendrik on Friday evening and having a delicious meal together at Sardine Can on Water Street. It was SO GOOD!

3. Enjoying a much needed day off on Friday. I spent most of it wandering the city, enjoying the sunshine.

4. Shopping at the Trout Lake Farmers market on Saturday morning and running into friends.

5. Meeting Mark and Andrea’s new puppy Pepper. He’s a cutie.

6. Walking most of the Stanley Park seawall on Sunday morning with Boris, and enjoying the fresh ocean breezes.

7. Enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving meal hosted at James and Monique’s place. I contributed a rhubarb meringue cake to the meal.

8. Spending a quiet Saturday evening at home, and starting to make a paper-based Halloween costume for Boris.

9. Making Trinidad-style roti for the second time, and having it turn out brilliantly.

10. Enjoying a full weekend that was all about sharing good food with great friends.

Port Moody Art Centre, Cabinet of Curiosity Series: Cut Fold Repeat

October 3, 2012

Cut. Fold. Repeat. These are words that pretty accurately describe my process but they’re also the title of a small show I’m having at the Port Moody Arts Centre in October. As part of the Cabinet of Curiosity series, I have created an installation within the Plum Gallery Display Case of paper cut designs, work-in-progress pieces, and sculpture made from paper.

In my approach to putting together this show I wanted to create an installation combining a variety of recent works-in-progress. Some are explorations of materials, and others of process, but each express my interest in the repetition of shape and form. The idea is to create a large-scale three-dimensional visual sketchbook.

Please join me for the opening of the show on Thursday October 4th, 6pm to 8pm.

Cut Fold Repeat: Works with Paper
Port Moody Arts Centre
Opening night: October 4th, 6 to 8pm
Dates: October 4th to November 10th, 2012
Location: 2425 St. John’s Street, Port Moody
Web site: http://www.pomoarts.ca/

Interview With Hot Art Wet City

October 1, 20122 Comments

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to be interviewed by Chris Bentzen for his video series, Hot Art Wet City. It’s a thrill to be a part of this project because this on-going series has featured an incredible selection of people in the Vancouver creative community.

Speaking on camera isn’t something that comes naturally to me, but Chris did a good job of helping me relax. The portion of content featured in the video is but a small part of a longer conversation we had, and focuses on some of the process of creating work.

Interview with Vancouver artist Rachael Ashe from bentzen on Vimeo.

Watch and enjoy. I would love to hear your feedback on this.

Paper Cut Work: The Universe is Intricate

September 25, 2012

One of the presents I received for my birthday earlier this year was a lovely white tea cup given to me by Anne. It came in a small wooden box with a hinged lid, and I was attracted to this as much as to the gift it held inside. I knew right away I wanted to use it somehow in my art.

My initial idea was to create a small abstract universe from cut paper inside this box, but as I began working it out I couldn’t manage to achieve what I’d been envisioning in my head. And so it evolved into what you see pictured here.

Front and top view.

Interior view.

Back and side view.

The box is decorated with some of the cut paper pieces I’d originally created to intertwine inside the box but instead became striking details for the outside. There are two 4.25″ square paper cuts layered a few inches apart in the interior, with the sides painted white to help them stand out. I gave the exterior of the box a light wood stain because I felt the whole thing should have minimal colour.

I shared a work-in-progress photo of this on my Facebook page last week and was intrigued by the various ways people chose to interpret it. Rather than explain my ideas behind this (because it’s intended to fit a certain theme), I’d love to hear your thoughts about the work. I find it fascinating to learn what other people see.

The Mesmerizing Drawing Machine of Sarah Gee

September 21, 2012

My friend Sarah Gee (who I featured in an artist interview back in April) recently released a video sharing the process behind the making of her concentric drawings. It is absolutely riveting to watch as she works.

In the words of Sarah Gee: Making these takes a huge amount of concentration, and a fair amount of determination. The spin is very fast (see the remote control in my left hand: I continually change the rotational speed according to the pressure on the nib), a steady hand is crucial, and layer after layer of colour is applied very deliberately. Considering the simplicity of the primal form, there is a great amount of variety in the finished drawings: some detailed and edgy, some foggy and mysterious.

You can view more of these drawings on her website. Sarah also has a show coming up at Gundrun Tasting Room in Steveston, which you should attend.

Upcoming Events: The Word On The Street

September 20, 2012

The Word On The Street is Canada’s National Book and Magazine Festival that happens every September in six cities across the country.

I’ve been attending this event for years, and have fond memories of wandering Queen Street in Toronto with my mom as we rummaged through the tables of books that took over the street for the day. For a bookworm like me it was a dream come true, especially when bargains are involved.

This year I will be sharing my work at The Word on the Street as an exhibitor. Look for me in the Alice MacKay Room as part of Word Under the Street, where you can also find zines, alternative comics, and book artists. I’ll be the one transforming unwanted books into sculptural artwork.

The Word On The Street
Date: Sunday September 30th, 2012
Time: 11am to 5pm
Location: Library Square, 350 West Georgia Street

Commissioned Work: Creating a Blog Header for KimWerker.com

September 17, 20121 Comment

I am very happy to finally get the chance to reveal this beautiful paper cut design I was commissioned to create at the end of the summer.

As you can clearly read in the hand cut letters within the composition, this was a custom piece created for Kim Werker. She was in the process of redesigning her website and wanted something unique and handmade to use as the new header. I also helped her with a few other visual parts of her re-design, and moved her over to InMotion Hosting to speed up her website overall. Kim is a writer, editor, creative thinker, and crafter and felt a paper cut piece would be the perfect thing to incorporate into the new site design.

We discussed a few ideas but Kim’s only requirements were for something with minimal colour, and for book pages to somehow be the background of the piece.

My first step was to choose a font to work with, one that wasn’t too intricate or delicate to cut out by hand, and would read well within the busy design. We both agreed on Hoefler, so I created the text in photoshop and printed it out to use as a template to guide my cutting. I do this by placing the printed text on top of the black card stock and carefully cutting through both.

With the text completed I moved onto the rest of the design, all of which I created through freehand cutting. I did a bit of practice work both in my sketchbook and on a separate piece of black card stock before I worked on the final piece. I wanted to work with different shapes rather than a single repeating shape as usual, and needed to get a feel for it first. I cut for hours and came away with a very delicate intricate finished design.

For the background paper I cut down scraps of book pages left over from an altered book project and collaged these together. I wanted the text to flow in all directions and become a detail rather than a feature. The final step was to bring the paper cut and the collage together, and remove the extra card stock.

I am very pleased with how beautifully this paper cut design came together, and it looks absolutely stunning as the header on Kim’s new website.

New Work At Bird On A Wire Creations

September 12, 2012

If you love the paper cut collages I’ve been making recently, you can now find four of them at Bird on a Wire Creations on Main Street.

Paper Cut Designs | 8″x 8″ on wood panel

Paper Cut Designs | 6″x 6″ on wood panel

Go check them out. The work is even more dazzling in person.

Bird on a Wire Creations
2535 Main Street @ East Broadway

Work-In-Progress: Working in White

September 11, 20121 Comment

At this time of year I typically start planning for the Eastside Culture Crawl because I like giving visitors to my studio something new to look at. For the previous two years I chose to create a series of altered books to present at the Crawl, but this year it’s going to be paper cut work.

I decided to work with white paper for this series because I wanted minimal colour for what’s turning out to be very intricate designs. I’m building on the way I was working when I created this paper cut piece earlier this year but cutting closer together. It’s amazing what can happen with the repetition of a single simple shape.

Pictured here are work in progress photos of two of the five pieces I’ve created so far for this series. Each is based upon using the same crescent shape but the overall form and movement within evolves slightly differently.

I haven’t yet decided whether these will be backed with white or black paper once they’re framed, but I think they’ll be striking either way.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life