Paper Lanterns

July 11, 2010

It felt difficult to return to the portraits after a month long break, but I love these shots of Krista and the paper lanterns. They make me happy because they’re so wonderful and colourful.

I decided to experiment with processing the series in different ways and played around with a set of Photoshop actions I found on the internet. I’ve never really used Actions before because they lend themselves more to batch processing and I don’t really do much of that. I still had to do a considerable amount of tweaking.

I added a texture to the final shot I worked on last week. In some ways it suits the photo but I think the texture isn’t subtle enough and distracts from the shot. I may redo this one a bit.

This is the twenty-third portrait in the Imaginary Girl series. My original goal was the create twenty-five of them but I may keep going past that number.

Interview With Ukrainian Book Blog, Chytomo

July 6, 2010

A few months ago I was contacted by Ira and Oksana, two people in the Ukraine who write a book blog called Chytomo. They did an interview with me by email about my altered book works and this was translated into Ukrainian. It just recently went live on Chytomo so I thought I’d post the original English version here for people to read.

Chytomo: Can you tell us something about your first experience of altered book creation? Why did you begin to transform already published books?

RA: I started thinking about using books to create artwork in 2007, when I saw the work of Timothy Karpinski in Portland. He had painted his illustration onto the pages of old books, and I loved the idea. I was inspired and decided to apply the idea using photos, as my work at the time was primarily photography. This led to experimentation using inkjet image transfer paper to print my photographs within the pages of books. But the image transfer process didn’t mix well with the aged and brittle paper of book pages, so I left this idea on hold until I felt I had the right tools to create work in the way I envisioned.

In late 2007 I began to work in mixed media collage and spent the next two years developing a feel for techniques. My primary medium has always been film photography but as I worked more with a digital format I craved the satisfaction of creating work “hands-on”. In September 2009 I came across a wonderful book called, “New Directions in Altered Books” and suddenly my long neglected desire to work with books was reignited. It opened up a whole new world of artistic possibilities for me, and creating collage in three dimensions.

Chytomo: I haven’t noticed you to use the term “artbook”. I am right? Іs it because of another meaning of your artworks? what means “altered book”? (maybe, I have difficulties with translation? is it your own definition?)

RA: I use the term “altered book” because I take existing books and alter them to create my artwork, rather than making the book itself. It’s not my own definition.

Chytomo: The material for your artworks are the old books. And what the source of inspiration?

RA: There are two different ways I approach creating an altered book. Sometimes I want to experiment with a particular way of altering the book, for example a way of folding the pages or cutting into the book. Another source of inspiration are the objects or materials I have on hand. In the case of the few books I’ve created using wooden toy animals i was very much inspired to create an appropriate home for them.

Chytomo: And why such kind of material? Do you think the traditional kinds of materials have a limited abilities of expression? It seemed to have more social sense?

RA: I tend to use whatever I can find, either in stores or coming across items while wandering around outside. I am self-taught in these techniques so I don’t have any pre-conceived ideas of how I should be doing this or what materials I should be using. I think with collage pretty much anything can be used as a material.

Chytomo: What are the prefered techniques in this artwork?

RA: Because I’ve only been making altered books for about ten months I don’t yet have a preferred technique for how to approach making them. I try to experiment as much as possible because there are so many different things I can do to books.

Chytomo: How much does it take to create such kind of book and how many books had been already created?

RA: It takes me somewhere between 8 to 10 hours to create an altered book. The time varies depending upon what I’m trying to make. I have made nineteen altered books to date.

Chytomo: Is there any connection between the book content and further artwork?

RA: The content of the books I’ve chosen so far have nothing to do with the compositions I create within their pages. I try not to pay too much attention to what the book is about.

Chytomo: Do you have some favourite authors to work with?

RA: Not for making the altered books, but I do for reading. 🙂

Chytomo: Do you use only old books? Is it because the modern literature can’t inspire?

RA: Most of the books are old but this is more because older books were made with a stitched binding. Modern books are more often put together with a glued binding and this limits what I can do with the book because it’s more fragile.

Chytomo: Do you like to read? What are your favourite books?

RA: I do love to read. Some of my favorite books that I’ve read recently are, “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, and “The Gargoyle”.

Chytomo: Is it your main job? Or it is just something like hobby?

RA: At the moment I am concentrating full-time on working as an artist. I was working for a web design company here in Vancouver, but decided to take a break from working for someone else to concentrate on my art.

Chytomo: What the average price of your altered book? Is it possible to order it from Ukraine? In what way?

RA: Some of the altered books are available online in my etsy shop. The average price is $500 USD.

Chytomo: Can you name anybody, who creates such kind of books and has a big “artbook name”?

RA: There are quite a few artists I’ve come across since I’ve started doing this who also work with books:
Brian Dettmer’s book autopsies, Georgia Russell slashes and cuts books, and Su Blackwell creates lovely dioramas in books.

Chytomo: Can you say something about Ukrainian books or artbooks?

RA: I’m not familiar with any Ukranian books or artbooks, but I’ve always admired Ukranian pattern design.

Many thanks to Ira and Oksana for interviewing me. I would love to do more interviews like this by email or in person, because it’s good practice for talking about my work. (This is a hint to let me know if you think of any such opportunities.)

The “What The Hell Am I Doing” Crisis

July 4, 20102 Comments

I attended the opening of Eco Madness at Gallery Gachet on Friday evening and I must say, the experience really put me into a tailspin about where I’m going and what I should be doing with my work in future. I put a lot of effort into writing up a proposal to submit for the show and also running around to get the work printed and framed. It didn’t feel worth it once I took a look at the rest of the show, not because the rest of the work wasn’t good, but because there was such a wide range of styles and mediums that it didn’t really work together. It was especially disappointing to discover the positioning of my work on a wall that is in a hidden corner and hard to view.

I had a crisis later in the evening wondering what the hell I am doing, why I’m doing it, and should I even keep bothering. The answer to the last question is YES YES YES because this is something I love to do and I’m doing it because it makes me happy. Maybe I’ll just avoid group shows in future because too often I don’t get enough out of them other than something to put on my resume, and I already have enough of those.

Below is part of the submission I put together for Eco Madness. I had proposed four of the Imaginary Girl nature themed portraits and two were accepted into the show. At the very least it was an interesting exercise in writing down thoughts I’ve had around some of these portraits. The image below is a mock up of how I wanted to hang the grouping of four images.

Artist Statement:
My nature themed photos are a small grouping of images within a larger portrait series of women titled, “Imaginary Girl”. My intent when using natural settings is to convey a strong connection between the human subject and the environment. It is as if they are woodland creatures peering between the leaves that frame them. The women are fully integrated into the natural setting rather than merely using it as a backdrop. The idea is that nature is a place of nurture for human beings as it is for every other living creature. It is a place to slow down and clear one’s head, to recharge and become centered, and to take shelter.

I know I am made from this earth,
as my mother’s hands were made from this earth,
as her dream came from this earth and all that I know, I know in this earth…
and I long to tell you,
you who are earth too,
and listen as we speak to each other of what we know:
the light is in us.

~ Susan Griffin

Altered Book: Forgotten Knowledge

June 30, 20102 Comments

For the past two weeks I’ve been working on a proposal to do a large scale project of altered books. I’ve never done something like this before so it’s been quite a challenge to figure out the best way to approach working with multiple books in a series. Normally I make my altered books as one-of-a-kind pieces and can spend as much as ten hours on each one. For this project I’ve had to simplify how I work with them, come up with a common theme, and develop a process I can apply to making each one.

My plan is to take twenty-five volumes of a set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias and insert natural objects into a niche custom cut from the pages of each book. The book pictured here is the second one I’ve completed, and as you can see the shape I had to cut was fairly complicated. The objects I chose to work with in this piece are two seal vertebrae scavenged for me from Pebbly Beach, Bowen Island, by Anne. The bones are very beautiful and I like their odd shapes protruding from the pages like two gargoyle faces.

I was over on Bowen last weekend and spent most of a walk along the beach and forest collecting things to use for this project. I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to come up with twenty-five different items but I came home with piles of stuff to work with.

Pictured here are crab bits, drift wood, oyster mushrooms, a pine cone, lichen, seaweed, and bones from a deer. (I had to scrounge through decaying remains to collect those, which is not for everyone).

I’ll reveal more about this project in coming weeks. For now I’m counting down as I work my way through the twenty-five volumes. As of today there are twenty-two more to go.

Wonderland

June 28, 2010

I shot this portrait of Stephanie at the beginning of June and as of the beginning of July it will be in a group show at Gallery Gachet along with the portrait I took of Jess. (How’s that for putting new work to work.) This was taken on Granville Island with the giant leaves of a Gunera plant as the backdrop, and Alice in Wonderland as the inspiration.

June has not been a productive month for working on the portrait series because I’ve had other projects I’ve needed to concentrate on. There are numerous artists calls with summer deadlines coming up and it’ll mean more shows in the future if my work gets accepted. (Fingers crossed!)

The Red Balloons

June 24, 2010

I have used balloons once before in a photo shoot, with Siobhan in the studio back in November. I decided I wanted to use balloons again as a prop, this time with Eagranie as the model and with balloons of a different colour. Oh how I do love red!

From this shoot I learned that photographing balloons outside when it’s windy is like trying to photograph an uncooperative monkey that can’t stay still. Other than the tricky breezes, the weather was perfect with a lovely blue sky and fluffy clouds as a backdrop. I count these portraits among my favorites of the whole series (so far).

Vintage Glamour

June 22, 2010

These are a few of the shots I took of Lauren a few weeks ago, when she came over for a portrait session in the old apartment. We had a lot of fun using the pocket doors as a backdrop and Lauren was terrific in front of the camera.

Kirsten Chursinoff: Low Tide

June 14, 2010

Kirsten Chursinoff has been working hard over the last few months to create new work for her upcoming show, Low Tide. As mentioned in a previous blog post, she’s a fibre artist who creates colourful scenes of nature using quilting and embroidering techniques. Her current work explores the theme of marine life found along the West Coast of BC.

From Kirsten’s press release:
With ‘Low Tide’ I’ve focused on the marine creatures found along the coast of British Columbia, especially at low tide, but also plunging a little deeper into our emerald sea – exploring the illustrative qualities of embroidery and art quilting.

The show opens Thursday June 17th from 6 to 8pm, at the Crafthouse Gallery on Granville Island. Kirsten will also be doing an artist talk on June 22nd at 7pm, with details below on how to RSVP to attend.

Kirsten Chursinoff: Low Tide
Craft Council Gallery, Crafthouse
1386 Cartwright St.
Granville Island, Vancouver.
June 17 to July 25, 2010 Open 10-6 daily
Artist Talk: Tues. June 22, 7pm, RSVP for artist talk to kirsten (at) chursinoff (dot) com

A Visit to the Rennie Collection

June 13, 2010

It probably says a lot about me that I’d never heard of Bob Rennie the “condo king” before visiting the new gallery showing his art collection. Along with his reputation as a top name in Vancouver real estate, he’s also a passionate collector of contemporary art and is the owner of the third largest private art collection in Canada. The newly renovated Wing Sang building, located on Pender Street in Chinatown, houses the aforementioned gallery owned by Rennie. I visited the other week to view it’s second ever show.

(An example of Richard Jackson’s work. Not from the show).

The current exhibition is a retrospective of the collected works of Richard Jackson. He’s a contemporary artist working with painting and sculpture, and is very much influenced by his background as an engineer. He’s all about the concept of what he creates rather than the content and uses multiple canvases and thick layers of paint to create wildly colourful abstract installations across the walls. Many of his pieces involve a huge amount of paint and were created on site in the gallery. I was really impressed with the show not just for the quality of the work but because of how well the show was put together. It’s rare to see an art show in Vancouver as tightly curated and as polished at this one was.

Even if contemporary art is not your thing, the architecture alone is worth a visit. The Wing Sang building is one of the oldest in Chinatown and they’ve done an extraordinary job of restoring it while maintaining some of the original details. My favorite spot was the rooftop garden with its excellent view of the city. The space is half covered in aged metal beams as a patio, and half in a lush lawn with two permanently installed sculptures from the collection. There were also red poppies blooming in planters placed around the edges of the roof and a blue sky overhead to complete the picture of a lovely oasis hidden from the city. I could’ve stayed up there for hours enjoying the sun.

To go on a guided tour of the Rennie Collection you need to reserve a space on their website. The tours are free and take place three times a day on Tuesday and Thursdays with a maximum of fifteen people at a time. I highly recommend you do it.

Altered Book: Without the Heart, There Can be no Understanding Between the Hand and the Mind

June 8, 20101 Comment

Our move from the old apartment to the new one has been pretty time consuming over the last few weeks but as of today I am settling into my new studio space. I always find it hard to get back on track with creative projects after a move but I had to recover quickly this time because of an artist call deadline yesterday. There is a book show in the UK I wanted to take part in and it meant creating new work to fit the theme of their show and getting it done by Sunday evening.

This old book wasn’t great to work with because the spine was a bit broken and the pages are yellowed and brittle. I went with it anyway because it was the perfect size for what I wanted to do and don’t have a lot of other small books on hand at the moment. I ended up redoing a lot of work on this book, like folding and unfolding all of the pages because it didn’t work with what I wanted to do. I also had the whole thing complete with arms attached when I decided it needed “something more” and pulled it all apart again to add the cover image.

At first I could not get my head around how to cut an arched niche into the open book pages because I usually do this when the book is closed and flat. It worked out rather well though and is just the right detail to house the apple. I chose to do this as a three dimensional standing piece to try something different. I also wanted the arms to be on the outside of the book and didn’t think their placement would work well in a hanging piece.

The vine “tattoo” on the wooden arms was added by very carefully using a rubber stamp. It’s not easy trying to print a design on a rounded surface without mucking up the design, but I did it. The red thread was the final detail I added because I again felt it needed ‘something more” to tie the whole composition together.

Materials used: book, inkjet print of photo, gel medium, plastic apple, wooden puppet arms, red thread, rubber stamp and ink, and pins.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life