sneak peak of upcoming solo exhibition

In July I’m proud to be exhibiting my 4th juried solo show at Columbia Valley Art Council’s Pynelogs Gallery in Invermere, British Columbia. In 2008 & 2009 I had the great opportunity of working there for two seasons as the summer student under the gallery manager Jami. Last summer in 2010, I worked as a waitress at the Pynelogs cafe aka The Scotty Burger while I was also working part-time on my art practice out of my studio space at Blackstar Studios and Gallery. Because of all of these above affiliations with Pynelogs, the fact that the valley is my second-home, and that tons of my family & close friends live there year round, it is always an honor to visit and exhibit in this historic and cultural setting, nestled right next to the most beautiful lake in BC. This will be my second exhibit since graduating with my BFA, but my first with no pieces from my studies at ACAD. So this time around, I feel like I have even more freedom with my imagery, my creative approach and my aesthetic. No distracting professors, no comparing to peers, no weekly deadlines… just my own pure, individual, creative bliss. I am titling my new upcoming collection of works framed feathers,  friendly faces and found fiction. Just a little bit of alliteration… that’s how I like to roll. This new creative freedom has been so exciting and so I wanted to give you a couple sneak peaks of one of the 3 elements of my show: framed feathers. This will be a large installation piece, hung salon style, and essentially pays homage to my new found loves of both bird watching and thrift shopping. So far I have found and collected close to a dozen wooden or gold frames (completely classic kitsch) which will be housing my original mixed media works of birds who have found a special place in my heart this year. These are the first two pieces I have finished. They are both ink drawings,  one of over 20 owls on a delicate rice paper and the other is of a burrowing owl on wood panel (both of which were featured in my recently produced owl zine who? hoo!). I’ve also got two painted wood panels and a graphite drawing that are currently in the works to fill more of those found frames. I am also busy producing pieces for the friendly faces and found fiction portions of my show which feature more etching, screenprint, altered books and large scale graphite drawings. With lots more to make there will be lots more to share, but what do you think so far of my framed feathers piece/concept?

out n’ about trout

A couple weeks ago I came across this set of wallpaper decals while perusing the local thrift shop. The package was only 25 cents and it was just such classic kitch that I couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t until I was walking home that I realized the potential this quarter-priced gem had for a really fabulous, international, collaborative art project.Inspired by the ever-creative Rhya Tamasauskas, who has sent me on two everyday adventures, the small felt heart and the secret fort, I created an art adventure for her and I and 23 other lucky mail art friends to embark upon. I hope they like the project! My apologies to those participating who still haven’t received their trout envelope yet but 8/24 have arrived so it’s time to publish this post. WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!The idea is for participants to use the trout as a tool to inject something natural back into a man-made and urbanized space, so that the power of nature and animals can again be a part of the lives of those roaming within the urban landscape. As I mentioned above, the trout are wallpaper decals, so they are already coated with a glue that just needs to be moistened with a damp sponge. After that they can be applied to any smooth surface. For the placement of my trout I had first considered a building that was in rough shape, practically falling apart, but there wasn’t a secure surface to apply him to, so i continued walking down the alley… and there it was: a steel blue/grey dumpster, just like the color of a cold, ice freshly melted, spring lake. I figured this was the spot. He looks amazingly at home there for some reason, and hasn’t moved one bit since I plastered him up there last week… I was wondering if he’d survive a few rainy days we’ve recently had and he seems just fine. Now, every time I drive down that alley to pick John up from work, I glance over to see my trout swimming on the cold blue steel, and I can’t help but smile! I hope it’s making others do the same when they pass by. I invited 24 other people to participate on this adventure. I mailed them their own trout decal, a project explanation and an example polaroid of my dumpster trout. I hope to share their results with you via my blog, or a link to theirs as I have asked them to document or share their adventure. Stay tuned for updates, or bookmark this page… I will link each artist’s results as they come in. 

Participants and the cities their trouts have swam to:

Russelle Adams – Portland, OR, USA

Michelle Ashton – London, UK

Justice Bicycle – Calgary, AB, Canada

Johnny Dimas –  Austin, TX, USA

Beverly Ealdama – Chino, CA, Canada

Ezerd  -New York, USA

Marissa Falco – Boston, MA, USA

Jessica Gowling – 100 Mile House, BC, Canada

Harriet Gray – Apley, Telford, UK

Marcus Jackson – Yellowknife, NT, Canada

Michelle Lasalvia – Vancouver, BC, Canada

Mariana Lobao – London, UK

Jessica Mack – Canteburry, Australia

Jaime Madelenna – Toronto, ON, Canada

Alison Martin – Calgary, AB, Canada

Ella Masters – London, UK

Nick Ooysten – Invermere, BC, Canada

Crystal Plett – Montreal, QC, Canada

Valeria Poropat – Rome, Italy

Jeannine Saylor – Sooke, BC, Canada

Anika Starmer – Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Rhya Tamasauskas – Toronto, ON, Canada

Chantal Vincent – Australia

Luke Waller – Apley, Telford, UK

Jules Young – Dawlish, Devon, UK

my slick studio

As you know I recently got accepted to Vancouver’s One of a Kind Show and Sale and so I’ve been busy busy busy in my studio lately! I had to take some photographs of it for my OOAK application to give the jury a sense of my workspace… so I thought I’d share them here, in case you were also curious about where the magic happens day in and day out… Recently I submitted some artwork for a few call outs from one of my favorite publishing companies, Uppercase Gallery. They publish the most gorgeous magazine, make paper goods and unique bound publications (my favorite of which is the Shatner Show, proudly displayed on my bookshelf). One of the calls was titled “Mess is More.” In contrast the extremely clean shots posted above (a rare sight in my workspace), or the polished and almost sterile looking studio shots featured in most design magazines, Uppercase was instead encouraging artists and creatives to submit images of their messy, out of order studio spaces – the more piles and creative clutter in your workspace, the better!!! I was amidst a flurry of mail art making and book binding, so I snapped the above shot to send in as my submission. I have no idea if they’ll use this image of my studio… there has definitely been far messier days in there, but alas no documentation of it. If it doesn’t make the cut, it’s still a good exercise to try and get my work out there, however if I am accepted, it will be a big line on the CV and it will put a big smile on my face.