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1/13/2018 0 Comments January 13th, 2018In addition to the Winter Term Classes I'm still teaching at Artspace I've got a few other workshops on the horizon at the moment. You can see them in the Calendar section. First on the dock is the Bookbinding class I'm doing this coming Thursday. There are still spaces available but the deadline for registration (so that I can ensure enough supplies and materials are available for each participant) is this coming Thursday registration is CA$40.00 at Muckabout.ca I've been creating sample practice books in anticiaption of the workshop and as part of my artist residency. Next Weekend I am also offering a workshop on one of the most alluring of the elements of art: Colour. We'll create colour wheels and charts while learning about all aspects of colour. I'll be prepping charts and paper for that this week as well. 12/31/2017 0 Comments December 31st, 2017What a year. We're heading into new territory that looks suspiciously familiar. Just like every new year. I have resolutions and I am resolved that they may change. My main resolution is to be better in the coming year. A better artist, a better teacher, a better maker, a better mom, a better feminist, a better ally, a better environmentalist, a better neighbour, a better contributor to this blog. Not that I feel like I've not been good enough. It is more along the lines of moving forward, improving and learning. In case you've missed it I've started a new blog on this page in addition to this one. While this blog chronicals the lessons and my art instruction with a smattering of my own personal art making the new blog will be specifically for documenting the book making art practice and the way that it progresses and transforms through the year. The title: The Highest Form of Hope, references a quote about art made by the artist Gerhard Richter. It also defines succinctly how I feel headed into this new art practice venture. I am hopeful about where this journey will take me; how it might both stay the course and transform along the way. I hope you take the time to stop by to see how things are progressing, and comment and share if you see something you like. Our winter break has been full of family time. We spent the 25th with extended family, took in the in theatre screening of the Doctor Who Christmas Special (to say goodbye to the 12th Doctor and to welcome the 13th) and rode the ferry to Nanaimo to visit dear family friends in their new home. We look forward to a week of art making at Artspace and Muckabout Gift Gallery with more opportunity to see friends and family and enough food to last at least a week and a half with left overs. I wish you and yours much joy this holiday season. I hope that your celebrations were full of love and warmth. The last year was not an easy one for many people; I wish you a new year full of your own brand of being better, whatever it may be for you and your loved ones. HAPPY 2018! 11/8/2017 0 Comments From Top to Bottom and backTo follow up from my last post; every year around this time I take some time to reflect on the previous year and to look forward to what I want in the coming year. I've got my goal; creating a body of art work for exhibition. Setting the goal is easy. Execution on the other hand is daunting and involves a lot of work. As an art teacher I dabble a lot. I have a large tool box filled with art techniques and skills that I require so that I can pass those tools on to my students. They are handy to have for my own practice as well. I can approach a problem and reach a solution by using more than one direction. It's brilliant to use those skills and gratifying (it's one of the reasons that momentum art and creativity is so important in education). The down side (and I don't like to admit that there is a downside) is that all those skills and techniques can create a bit of creators block. I have a degree in Fine Art. I majored in photography but I am not a photographer. I have a background in Printmaking but I'm not a printmaker. I love to draw and paint but I am not a painter or an illustrator. I enjoy creating collage works and assemblage works but I am not a mixed media or sculptural artist. Contrary to all of those statements I am all of those things as well. I am an artist. I make art with photography, paint, assemblage, paper, pen, pencil and a few other media as well. I am an artist. I make art. So if I am an artist and I make art I must also have a voice. Something to say; to share with my audience. Just like with writing we require some guidelines, some learning, some limitations and some specifics. the one thing I didn't list above is that I love to make books. Over the course of the last year about half of my personal practice has revolved around journalling and bookmaking. While I was in art school I made my first book as a final project for a printmaking class. I had never made a book before. I had no knowledge of how to make a book beyond the single book offered in the college library and the final project did have some great intaglio prints on it's pages it was cumbersome and didn't open properly or lay flat. In my first year at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design I took a bookmaking course with Author Celia King. It was a revelation. The class covered the basics of a number of book making styles and I created a number of great little art books. I loved making books. Loved it. it's been a part of my practice for some time and I often boundaries the notes for that class when creating. As much as I love it I've never made it the prime focus of my practice. It's a personality quirk of sorts. I will circle around the things I like on the edge for a time before fully revisit. Even though I have a passion for bookmaking, but bookmaking hasn't been a focus for my practice. I will be creating in an artist in residency program in the new year where the goal will be to create a body of art books for exhibition sometime n 2018 or 2019. It's a pretty daunting goal for me and when the idea presented itself I knew I had to jump at it; that I could do it but now how I would do it. Five years ago I would have backed away and delayed. Five years ago I didn't have some of the tools I currently tote around in my artist's toolbox; didn't have the organizational skills or the time to commit. In five years I've gained a little more time and have planned and executed hundreds of classes and workshops. Sitting down to plan how to meet my goal within a committing program is still daunting but totally doable and I have an idea of how to break things down in order to succeed. None of these steps are set in stone but they are a good place to start. 1. I will create a zine a week on any topic spending no more than 20 to 30 minutes on the creation during the scheduled studio time used for my residency. I will create a small run for free distribution. 2. I will practice making different book types, creating blank journal prototypes for finished art book works. 3. I will create collections of themed artworks in various media to be bound into final residency works. These will be exhibited in a gallery setting to be announced in the future. 4. I will teach 2 book making classes free to the public and 1 more intensive class that will have a registration fee. 5. I will spend three dedicated studio hours per week focused on the above goals as well as any extra time I find available. 6. I will document the progress and process of my work My residency program begins in the new year but I'll begin the steps listed above before then to get the learning going and keep it moving. Planning a project like this often requires that you start the project with the end in mind. I know what I need to accomplish. I have the steps down to get there. I also have a support system in the form of my peers and family to help keep me on track. 11/4/2017 0 Comments Moving Right AlongWe're just flying right on through to the end of the year aren't we? Heading into November I'm starting to consider what my art practice might start to look like. With my heavy teaching load becoming lighter, the balance in my personal life is shifting and things are realigning. Rather than let things settle into new organic flow, I'm continuing to stir the pot. It's not a comfortable place to sit; with all that change. Letting things stagnate would be much less comfortable, so I'm letting things stay uncomfortable with the goal of creating a new comfort zone. I spend so much of my work time focused on the lessons I'm teaching, the classes and workshops I'm planning and updating the skills I require to teach all of those things that my own work becomes less focused. With less focus I'm scattered; not sure where I want my focus to be and in an endless loop of dabbling. Getting ready for the LRAH last september and the art exhibit I'm participating in this December has put a spotlight on my need to find my voice as an artist. I'm lucky that I have a serendipitous community of like minded creators in my day to day life. I say serendipitous because these people through one random instance or another have fallen into my social circle and inform my thinking, my creativity and my desire to create. Daily and weekly conversations with these artists and creative people has been a lifeline as well as a navigational tool. I'm taking some time to map out my goals and the direction I'm headed in order to arrive at my destination. Now that I've thouroughly mixed my metaphors it's time to look at what I've been up to this last week. Halloween was a huge success in the costume department. The smallest of my small ones has requested that we keep her wings attached to her dress so she can be a quail in daily life. The Raven costume was elegant and mysterious and I'm happy with how they both reacted and enjoyed their costumes. My students were very much focused on the holiday last week epsecially my painting and drawing students who all came to the class even though there were hoards of trick or treaters streaming past the window at Artspace. They managed to finish off the previous weeks project and we'll be starting something new and exciting next week. My independant students are nearing the completion of weeks long projects and I think looking for new inspiration. I'll be working on finding that for them in the coming days so that we can move on and keep them engaged in their art making. I've been head down and planning for workshops and classes in the new year and I hve a series of lessons I'm quite excited about. They can be taken as a series or as a single workshop. Updates to the claendar with further details and dates will be made soon. Mailing List Members receive updates and news first each month along with special deals and offers. You can sign up on the Home page . |
Peanut
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