In all the busy-ness that I had going on last week I forgot to share news about being featured in Vancouver Is Awesome’s series The Proof.
It’s a great series of interviews where each person shares projects they’re working on, and a glimpse into their lives. I had fun putting mine together – especially when it came to choosing the photos to include with the interview.
You can read the whole thing on Vancouver Is Awesome.
I’m feeling completely exhausted after the very full weekend of hosting people in my home for the Eastside Culture Crawl. I need to recharge my batteries after talking with so many people, and then I will write something to reflect upon this year’s experience.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos of a doe and her fawn, taken on Bowen Island a few weekends ago.
Just in time for the Eastside Culture Crawl and Got Craft, I have a new set of postcards available for sale. I selected six images from the Imaginary Girl series of portraits I felt went well together as a small set and threw in one of my self portraits. It’s wonderful to see more of the images from this series in print.
There were more Imaginary Girl portraits I wanted to have as postcards but many of the photos didn’t crop well into the required dimensions, and it would’ve meant quite a bit of reworking to make them fit.
The set of six postcards will be available for sale at my studio next weekend during the Eastside Culture Crawl, and then at Got Craft on Sunday December 4th. I’ll also be listing them in my Etsy shop soon.
Another yarn tree has taken shape in the city of Vancouver, this time on the walls of the KidSafe Writers’ Room located in Queen Alexandra Elementary School.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by the program co-ordinator, Sarah Maitland, and asked if she could commission me to create a yarn tree for the room. After visiting the location in person I decided it would work better to create groupings of branches around the room rather than a full tree. It would be far too tempting and easy for the kids to take apart the pushpins and yarn so I placed them all out of reach. There are three groups of branches in the room, and each has a mix of red and green leaves.
I worked on the project while perched atop a ladder as well as the cabinets the branches are placed above. Adding the leaves to the ones located above the sink (pictured above) was the trickiest part. I had one foot on the ladder and one foot on the cabinet in a very unsafe position, but it was the only way I could reach high enough to tuck the leaves into the yarn. (Don’t try this at home kids….)
I’m really glad at how this project turned out, and it was fun to work on another yarn tree. Thank you to Nadia Baker for sharing my work and sending the commission my way.
Please read more about the KidSafe Writers’ Room. It’s a project that offers tutoring help and literacy programming to at-risk students in Vancouver, and they’re always looking for volunteers and donations to support the program.
Discover Paper is a wonderful blog I first came across on Twitter, that is dedicated to finding and sharing paper inspiration. I was recently contacted by Donnaville Herrick, who runs the blog, and asked to do an interview by email.
The interview was just published today and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. I’m happy with what I’ve written, and Donnaville wrote many lovely comments about my work.
A few weeks ago I helped make paper flowers as decorations for a friend’s wedding. It was something I’d wanted to try after flipping through a copy of Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts at a bookstore. The initial flower making session with friends led me to working on an installation of paper flowers in my apartment to share during the Eastside Culture Crawl.
The flowers are made from colourful tissue paper and masking tape, with cloth covered wire as the stems. They’re a mix of torture and enjoyment to make because it’s not easy wrapping thin paper around a tiny wire and ending up with it in the resemblance of a flower.
At the moment I have less than thirty flowers completed, and hope to make twice that many. I’m really hoping this installation idea is going to look as magical in person as it does in my head. It’ll definitely give visitors a pleasant blast of colour when they stop by during the Culture Crawl.
And if you’re wondering, all the flowers will be available for purchase – in case you want to take the magic home with you.
As a change of pace I thought I’d share a few of the new additions to my personal library, none of which will end up as altered books.
Paper-Craft 2 is a fantastic book full of an amazing variety of projects, designs, illustrations, art installations, fashion and more – all made from paper. It’s inspiring but also a bit intimidating to browse through this book because of the high calibre of the work included. But the collection makes it clear there is no limit to what a creative person can do with paper.
Masters Book Arts is part of Lark Crafts excellent masters series of books. I also have the collage edition in my library. It mainly focuses on handmade books and showcases the wide variety of forms a book can take, and they often don’t look like the traditional form of a book.
The Repurposed Library is written by book artist, Lisa Occhipinti, and it focuses on transforming books into home decor items. There are projects for lamps, chandeliers, vases, bracelets, wreaths, and more – all made from old books. My favorite project is the book bursts, which are deconstructed books transformed into circular wall sculptures.
All of these books were purchased at Oscar’s Art Books in Vancouver. (Support your local independent book store!)
It’s that time of year again, when artists living and working in East Vancouver open their doors to the public for the Eastside Culture Crawl.
The event is just under a month away but I thought I’ve give a heads up that I will be a participating artist again this year. I am really looking forward to it, especially since my preparations are coming together nicely.
Dates: Friday, November 18th to Sunday, November 20th, 2011
Time: Fri 5pm to 10pm | Sat & Sun 11am to 6pm
Location: 1660 East Georgia Street or D06 on the Culture Crawl map.
If you haven’t gotten your hands on a program guide yet you can preview it online.
I’ll share more about the work I’m presenting during the Crawl in an upcoming blog post. I hope to see you at my studio in November.
The Snowy Owl marks the end of the owl series of altered books I’ve been working on (at least until I can find more to use). This is the largest owl of the five, and probably the most intimidating with that glare of hers.
The composition for this one is pretty spare, and I’m struggling with whether to leave it as is or add a little “something”. From what I can tell these types of owls don’t perch in trees, and their environment isn’t very colourful. I decided to share it even though it feels unfinished.
I divided the book into four sections and folded these in alternating directions. I refolded some of the page ends to suggest a rocky (icy?) environment for the owl, and added silver and blue paper as the end pages.
My next step is to frame this one along with the other four. All of these will be on display and available for sale during the Eastside Culture Crawl in November.
Materials used: used book, decorative paper, paper owl, cardboard, white glue, and gel medium.
Boris and I took a few days of vacation to enjoy a four day stay at Yellow Point Lodge. It’s a small rustic resort on Vancouver Island, just outside of Ladysmith. It is a beautiful scenic area of BC.
Boris enjoys the view.
A different type of deer than what we see on Bowen Island.
Anne left us a stash of chocolates when she visited Yellow Point the week before, and we had to find it.
Spectacular sunrise.
The pool by the ocean.
A murder of crows flies overhead.
These last three photos were taken using a pinhole camera app, while some of the others were processed using Instagram. These photos make me nostalgic of the ocean, they make me want to get on the best paddle board for beginners and get back on the “horse”.
It was a relaxing vacation, and I’m glad I finally got the chance to visit Yellow Point Lodge. It’s not an easy place to get a booking.