Day 14: What to do at the end of a busy weekend
Day 15: Red shoes
Day 17: While the city burned
These are my favorite self portraits from last week. Today I shared number twenty-two which will bring me one portrait closer to the end of this project, which is good because I’m running out of steam.
This coming weekend, June 25th & 26th, I am excited to be taking part in the premier of Maker Faire in Vancouver.
Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is a two-day celebration of making and creating. It’s an all-ages family festival promoting the ethos of DIY on a large scale. I will be on site for the full weekend demonstrating and sharing how to make altered books, and paper cut work.
Due to limitations of space and time at the Faire, I will not be teaching a full workshop but if you bring an old book with you I’d be happy to work one-on-one to demonstrate the techniques I use in creating altered books.
From the Maker Faire web site:
Maker culture grew out of the DIY movement and is based on the principle that ordinary people, given access to knowledge, skills and technology, can and will create extraordinary things. A maker can be any person or group who invents, designs, and/or builds objects or information systems with the goal of learning, teaching, inspiring or improving the state of the world.
Vancouver Mini Maker Faire will take you through an inspiring, energetic and captivating range of exhibits, including workshops, performances, displays, and a speaker series. Some of the features include pyrotechnics, kinetic sculptures, interactive musical installations, and 3d printers that can print themselves. Interaction booths stationed throughout will centre around education: teaching people how to complete a circuit, spin wool, or smoke bacon!
Vancouver Maker Faire
Dates: Saturday June 25th & Sunday June 26th
Hours: 10 am to 5 pm both days
Location: 555 Great Northern Way
Vancouver BC V5T 1E2
Google Map
Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance through eventbrite »
Day 9: Lovely bones
Day 10: Shadows on the wall
Today I will be shooting a self portrait for day fifteen. Time sure flies and here I am already half-way through this thirty day project. Maybe next month I will do a second thirty day project of shooting a portrait a day for a month…
Last night was the opening of the Fairy Tales ReMixed exhibition at Seymour Art Gallery, and we had a really good turn out for the evening. I took at few photos in the gallery shortly before people began to arrive. I’m really pleased with how well all the work hangs together. It’s a really good show.
The exhibition is only one week long, so your last chance to see it is this Sunday June 12th. Come by and meet the artists, watch a puppet show, and have your face painted.
One of the things I do at my part-time job with Foodtree is take photos at the farmers markets. We’re really trying to promote local producers and connect people with where their food comes from. I use the photos to add to the Foodtree database, but also for things like blog posts. I thought I’d share some of the photos here as well.
There are so many beautiful (and yummy) things at the farmers markets. I’m so glad the season is now open.
The previous couple of weeks I’d been getting myself into a very unhappy state of mind. I haven’t been feeling good about myself with many doubts and insecurities eating away at my self-confidence. I’ve also been in a rut creatively since I finished working on the fairy tale altered books. For me, self-confidence and creativity go hand-in-hand.
I think I’m a lot burnt out after a very intense year with too much stress and not enough vacation, and then I started a new part-time job. And while the new part time job is terrific and challenging, it means art and creativity get much less time than I’d like to dedicate to them.
To give myself something good to focus my energy into I decided I needed to get the creative juices flowing and begin a small project. I’ve chosen to do one self portrait a day for the next month. I started shooting a week ago today and I’m already at day 8 of the series.
Day 1: Losing My Head
Day 2: A Moment In The Sun
Day 4: It’s Raining
Click through to flickr to view the rest of the series so far.
Some of the photos have been more creative than others, but it all depends on how much time I have available each day. I’m really enjoying working on this series so far.
I was at Seymour Art Gallery this morning to drop off my work and meet with the other artists. It’s really wonderful to see everyone’s work together after months of working away on our own.
I took a few photos after everyone unwrapped their work. This is one of those rare occasions where I don’t have to hang the show myself and can leave it in the hands of the gallery.
I’m excited to see everything hanging together on the gallery walls tomorrow.
I bring you the cutest goldfish EVAH!!! That is all.
Memory is a funny thing. As I began to write this blog post I suddenly remembered a song from my childhood about Thumbelina sung by Danny Kay. I haven’t thought about it in ages, and it certainly didn’t occur to me while I was working on this book.
The Thumbelina book is the fifth and final fairy tale altered book I have made for the show at Seymour Gallery. I was inspired by the imagery of a tiny figure in a flower and wanted to make something three-dimensional from paper. The figure inside the flower pictured here, is a photograph of my friend Siobhan curled up and pretending to rest.
In the story of Thumbelina there are many animals she encounters on her adventures, and I chose to reference only two of these. A mouse gives her shelter in her time of need, and she rescues the swallow who eventually rescues her in return. I cut the swallow from an old bird field guide, and made the mouse as an original paper cut painted with brown acrylic paint.
The leaves were also hand-cut from paper and added to fill out the composition. I’m not one hundred percent happy with this book but I am out of time to make it better. The part I really want to do over is the flower because it’s rather clunky, but once it was glued in there was no going back. I think it’s a case of liking pieces of this composition more than the whole thing.
There is one week to go before the show opens at Seymour Art Gallery. Details here in case you missed it.
Materials used: book, green card stock, pink card stock, paper bird, tissue paper, acrylic paint, white glue, and gel medium.
In June the Seymour Art Gallery is hosting a month long arts festival, which kicks off with a group art show on the theme of Fairy Tales ReMixed.
I am one of the four participating artists in the exhibition, and I will be premiering the fairy tale altered books I’ve been working on for the last few months. The show is only one week long, but there are two opportunities to visit the gallery and meet the artists during that time.
Artists:
Cynthia Nugent, paintings & automata, Robi Smith, drawings & paintings, Kirsti Wakelin, illustration, and Rachael Ashe, altered books & collage.
Opening Reception:
Date: Tuesday June 7, 7 – 9 pm
Meet the artists, enjoy a ‘remixed’ fairytale reading, and eat your way through a magical fairytale-inspired food display.
Afternoon Celebration:
Date: Sunday June 12, 1–4 pm
We invite you to come dressed as a fairytale character to meet the artists and hear them speak about their work. Nika Vaughan, an artist specializing in face painting, will be on hand to help transform you into your favourite fairytale character or animal. Puppeteers Sandy Buck and Chad Hershler will also be at the gallery to perform their version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Birthday of the Infanta”.
Fairy Tales ReMixed
Date: June 7th to 12th, 2011
Seymour Art Gallery
4360 Gallant Avenue
North Vancouver BC
In the heart of Deep Cove.
There is an event page on Facebook if you would like to RSVP »