6/2/2019 0 Comments Time to Catch Up
able to come and presented this artwork there. I ahve mentioned on this webpage how important Artspace was and continues to be to me. It gave me a place in the community, introduced me to some of the mose creative and inspiring co-teachers and students and was my home away from home for many years.
On the personal front my eldest small person is leaving elementary school this year, I've stepped up to carry on the school memory book project and I am longing for some personal art making time in the few clear days in my schedule. My Facebook and Instagram pages are good places to catch up on what I'm up to daily and weekly. I post student work there before I add it here and I like to share links to art related pages and other fun or inspiring memes. I also will share sketchbook pages on Instagram when my creative time is limited to what happens on those pages. please follow, like and share when you are there.
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5/5/2019 0 Comments Ramping upI feel like all I do here is tell you how busy I am.
If it wasn't for the fact that I am very busy I'd feel bad about it. If I wasn't very happy doing what I'm doing I wouldnt be quite so busy either. When I start a post with "It's been another busy week/month/last few days" it has indeed been very busy. Right now I'm working on a somewhat secret project with some peers, I'm gearing up for two new classes that will start mid-month, psyching myself up for a food, wine and painting night this week and getting ready to get working on my small folk's memory book for school. Also my Mother in Law is coming for a visit, we're planning a trip in the summer to attend another nephew's wedding and I've jsut finished applying for a residenciy program that, if I get it will be a year long creative rollercoaster that will inform my art practice and provide a school of creative young minds an opportunity to explore their school curriculum in a deeper way. I am looking forward to some down time sometime soon..... Who am I kidding; any future down time will fill up with other worthwhile and arty activities. 5/1/2019 0 Comments The thing about an open mindis that someone always comes along and tries to fill it up. That's on of my favourite Terry Pratchettisms. Most of the time I like to be the person filling up my mind. I do a lot of commuting and have gotten into a few habits that are really worthwhile. I make an effort while I'm traveling to not jut have my phone put and my head down eyes on a screen. Sometimes I succumb but more and more I'm getting to be in the moment. Since I travel the same routes I challenge myself to look beyond what I've seen over and over and look for new things to notice. Sometimes it's as simple as looking at the opposite side of the street, or glancing down a sidestreet. Sometimes it's paying attention to the murder of 200 crows traveling as a group in the opposite direction, the bald eagle riding the thermals or the peron who is jaywalking between Abbot and Granville. Sometimes it's knowing that on this street I always look at this shop as we drive past, today I'll look past that towards the next one. It is an exercise in breaking monotany and also keeping my eyes fresh. When I was taking photography at University I had a theory that shooting in film combined with darkroom printing enhanced a photographers ability to see the world differently. That the hours spent in darkness with only negative images creating the light to see by, changed they way we look at the world. The camera lens focuses in on our surroundings in a different way, and the combination of the two; framing the world within the viewfinder of a camera after intensive periods of sensory deprivation within the labs allowed us to see more succinctly, to notice how the light is creating a mood, how the shadow cast by the swingset creates a dynamic shape on the reflection in the puddle, how a gleam in the eye of a friend can convey their personality. We come out of the darkness and see. The game of looking past what I see everyday, looking with fresh eyes from a new perspective is a different take on that idea, as an artist I want to always be looking at the world from a new perspective, to make myself think a little before I make assumptions, to ask questions to become better. Better as a person, better as a creator and better as an art teacher. Another way I am working towards that goal is to listen to new ideas about creating, about thought processes and thinking from a wide variety of people who know a lot about these subjects. I've been listening to Podcasts a lot over the last few months on my commutes. It helps to keep my eyes up and on my surroundings while giving my brain something to digest. I find it funny how many of the same ideas keep popping up from cast to cast, ideas around creating, ideas about thinking and thought and ideas about sharing ideas. similar themes pop up. These are the things that strike a chord and urge me on. Iam in the act of hunting inspiration. What I really need to do is get class sample pieces done; this coming Saturday I start Preschool printmaking and parent and tot classes. I have my class descriptions for summer camp sitting by ready for lesson plans and from there I'll be writing out supply lists and pricing out the supplies, adding a few dream items and paring the list down before heading out to the art supply stores to either bsut the budget and pare down or bulk up the budget. Thankfully printmaking requires lots of paper and adding extra can take care of the overage. My one issue is that I'm teaching the same class in two separate weeks and one week is shorter than the other. The lesson plan for each week needs to be different because certain lessons take longer (two days spread over the course of the week) so the first week will be much different from the second week. Lists upon lists upon lists.
My not so very small ones but smaller than some ones have finished their egg hunt and are currently engaged in a race to see who will be bouncing off the walls first and I'm gearing up to the cookery portion of the day and thinking about what I will do once all the things are sitting in ovens baking roasting and melting 4/14/2019 0 Comments What duck?my favourite author has a minor character in a handful of his books called the Duck Man. He walks around with a duck on his head that no one talks about because when they do say something like "what is going on with the duck on your head?" he looks a them seriously and replies, "What duck?" The subject gets dropped and the characters move on to the matter at hand. my duck is called Down Time. Even when I have it, it's like it is really not there at all. They say that if you want something done you should ask a busy person to do it. I know I work best when I'm a busy person. It's the momentum; once the schedule is full there's no time to waste and adding one more extra little thing is easier to do. Then, before you know it the dryer has been the go to place to find non matching socks and the food shopping hasn't been done properly for weeks and you've got 8 packages of large shell pasta because the other grocery shopping person in the house keeps buying it but no other pasta types just shells.... the key is keeping up the momentum but balancing out the other stuff. The alternative for me is to lose the momentum entirely and be at a loss for what to do. I sometimes think that the secret to keeping the balance is to become so busy that even if you say no to one or two things the crest is still there and you can still be riding a wave. I'm at about that spot now but the laundry is still behind and we're going to be eating shell pasta in tomatoe sauce again this week for dinner one night. Half of my lesson plans and supply lists are done for Spring and Summer. All of my spring term classes programed with the Shadbolt Centre are done, Summer programing and workshops I'm being offered as we go are next up. The lastest addition which will be added to the lessons and workshops page as soon as I can get to it, is a pARTy@PdA event at Place des Art called Palette-eat,paint-create! on May 10th. for now you can lick this link to see details and buy tickets. Today is all about administrative catch up. I should really be more on top of it but the call of clean laundry, socks and underwear keeps getting inthe way until there's nothing for it but to hunkerdown between wash and drying cycles declaring folded clothes will have to wait. After that I really need to update the student gallery and then there's the....... After finishing Spring Break Camps and starting the planning sessions for spring term classes and summer camps (if you click the link back there you can see some behind the scenes details of my lesson plan method. I have my notebook and notations, my pages pinned with inspitarion, and the lessons I want to try teaching and the lessons I've taught before that I repeat, retweak and rebuild. I'm 2/3rds of hte way through my Shadbolt planning session and then it's on ot Summer camps. Summer camp planning also involves a massive art material purchase especially for weeks one and two when I'm teaching 50 minute printmaking lessons. Printmaking takes a lot of paper, a lot of tools, and materials and ink. I'm hoping to pick up a second press to help stream line the printing process. I'm also hoping to try out some kitchen lithography with the camps this summer. purchasing materials for these summer camps within my budget is daunting and sometimes frustrating; but not in the way you might think. I can put together a shopping list, calculate how much to spend on each item and then hit the store only to find that they don't have the item I put on my list but they do have something similar that is either a little less or a little more or sometimes even a lot less and I have to do maths in my head and on my phone's calculator and then I am often left with a surplus in my budget that I have to use up. Having bought all the tools you wanted to pick up for a class and then finding out you have $70 more to spend is a harrowing experience. Where do you splurge? what little extra do you go for? If you are a creative person, or a crafty person or someone with an exacting hobby with lots of components you know that part of the joy of the process is supply hunting. My co-parental unit, otherwise known as the spousal component to the family or husband is an electronics nerd. He builds guitar pedals as a hobby. His workspace has sprawled from one corner to more of an L shaped space that also fills some of our off site storage space. he has boxes, shelves and drawers and drawers of electronic bits and pieces, mother boards, wire, transisters.... he's got a lot of stuff. Artists and crafters have shelves, cupboards, bins, drawers boxes, files and closets filled with paints, brushes, papers, scraps, tools..... we all tend to collect a lot of stuff for the things we love to do. when you're buying not for yourself but for a class this process is done strategically. It's fun and nervwracking and coming from a recent penny pinching period stressfilled. My instinct is to cut costs and then I have to spend more. Like anything it's a process I'll get the hang of it, and will probably have a system in place by the time fall rolls around. 3/31/2019 0 Comments Deep Breath, Then Dive Right In
My mom likes to joke about how I would try to contain my excitement for the holidays so much that I would inevitably get very sick. It's not a very funny joke. Being sick is neither humourus or fun. I spent last week and the weekend with a bad cough, sinus head ache and fever of 101.4F ( my electric thermomenter only tells me farenheight I can't figure out how to switch it Celsius) This week has been shaking off the tail end of that and Spring Break Camp. Spring Break Camp at Place Des Arts in Coquitlam is a new experience for me. Previously camps for me ran in the morning with two one hour and fifteen minute sessions, I'd clean up and have the rest of the day. This week I taught three fifty minute lessons to 36 students and one three hour lesson to twelve older students. It was a daily whitrlwind of great art, getting to know new young artist friends and watching daily improvements by my older students in their drawing skills. All with post viral larengitis. I'm excited to do it all over again in July. I will be updating my class options at Place Des Arts this weekend with links ot registration. I am told that camp registration fills up fast. I'll be teaching the first four weeks of camp there. My class titles are Print Making Projects, Deep Space Drawing and Painting, Mixed Media Circus and Mixed Media Masterpieces. 2/27/2019 0 Comments Where does the time go?So far this term of teaching has been like a rollercoaster, lots of controlled elevations at first followed by a freefall on a track with twists and turns and speed! the speed, these last weeks have flown by in an almost blur. In just a few short weeks school will let out for Spring Break and then it's a new beginning.
I have been neglecting this site because I've been so busy. I am hoping to sit down soon and update teh classes I have coming up and events I have upcoming. Particularily for Spring programs and Summer Camps. At the moment Spring Break camps booked in Coquitlam at Place Des Arts and I have two classes scheduled for Spring term through the Shadbolt Centre in one of the Community centres, They are both 4 week programs on Saturday afternoons. Summer camp is also booked for me in Coquitlam. I'll be teaching a selection of classes for Place Des Arts summer camp programming. I am continuing on with my new mantra and rolling with the flow. The plan is to keep the momentum rolling into next fall. I love what I do so much and it's a privilge to get to do it in so many ways. 2/2/2019 0 Comments What if you can?Words and thoughts have power. Tell yourself you can't do something and what happens? it doesn't get done. Tell yourself you're going to try something and you make that first step towards doing. You may fail miserably but at least you tried, and if you try again you might fail less and learn as you go. You might even decide that what you tried isn't for you (your original vision doesn't quite fit with the actual step by step requiremnets for the technique, you find absolutely no joy in the experience, The amount of effort, money or energy isn't balanced out or exceeded at the end. What you get either way is the experience. and that in itself is worth giving something a try. One of my in class pet peeves is when I hear a student say, "I can't" even before they've started. I think maybe it's because negatve self talk is so easy to fall into and I work so hard to replace it in myself. In any case I make that moment a teaching moment in my classrooom studio. "I can't" must always be turned into "I can try". I even make some groups repeat it after me out loud. "Eye Cant-rye". I recently read somewhere; (and if I can track it down I'll properly attribute) What if, instead of telling ourselves, "that's not going to work" it's too hard, you can't do that" we said, "what if that works?" What if you can? What if we try it anyway?" I work mostly with younger people in the classroom studio. I see this negative self talk often. It usually starts out as self depricating, not wanting to boast or seem too full of themselves. Sometimes it's coming from a place of anxiety and the desire to be perfect. Sometimes it's spoken with true belief; and that's heart breaking. Every time I hear it during a lesson or a workshop I put effort into turning that thought process around. Sometimes I fail, sometimes it clicks and sometimes it turns into a mantra during the lesson that may seem like it's not being taken seriously by the participants. When it hits mantra mode though; I usually smile and let it go. Why? When a group of kids is tossing out the word "try" and the phrase "I can try" and repeating it, there's a little magic happening there. It may start off as a joke but the repetition entrenches that idea. That's magic. Off my soap box now. Given my last post here's an update. The JET Program Art lessons I'm teaching are going well, I'm learning to adjust plans and pare them down to basics so that all the participants from the lowest skill level to the highest skill level have good engagment. Exploring Art at Muckabout on Fridays has continued. I have an added a new student to the roster who is looking to get better at drawing human figures. Both students on Friday are already very good artists it's interesting to teach in a mentorship role. Last week and this coming week I was privileged to be a visiting artisti in a small school in West Vancouver. I'm working with a group of kindergarten students who have been duing a unit on art and arhitecture. I have introduced them to the art of James Rizzi and we are building a city street out of recycled materials using Rizzi's Happy House as our inspiration. The first day was so busy that i didn't get a chance to photograph any of the creations, this week I'll rectify that and can't wait to share what they create with me. I began teaching through the Shadbolt Centre in their Community Arts Program this week. I'm teaching an afterschool program at a school in Burnaby and will start a senior program this week. my facebook page and instagram feed will be featuring some of the work done in all of my classes as they happen or as soon as I can upload them there. I'll update the gallery here on a monthly schedule. |
Peanut
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