March 10, 2012 in Nature, Photoworks
a break in the unspring-like monsoon-like Novemberish rain
an opportunity to take some macro photos of the hellebore
still not bright enough to capture sharper images
so this 2009 scan remains my favourite
which shall make a birthday card for a dear flower-loving friend in Denmark?
March 6, 2012 in Human, Nature, Photoworks
The last of the group of the hand-with-objects images originally created for qarrtsiluni’s worship issue.
The others in the series:
the artist’s hand with ammonite
the artist’s hand with kelp
the artist’s hand with stones
the artist’s hand with physalis
Related images (not for qarrtsiluni):
the artist’s hand with pen
the artist’s hand with heart
Added March 10th: While looking for something else in my archives, I found these photos of peace lily flowers in early to late stages of life.
March 3, 2012 in Being an Artist, Printmaking
Half of my studio table is covered with a pile of proofs from various prints as I never like to throw anything away. Today I played with some pieces of prints on paper layered with printed film. I rather like these two. I think of them as sketches that perhaps will see a new life in new work one day, as is or combined with other images and colours in larger works.
February 29, 2012 in Human, Nature, Photoworks
the artist’s hand with ammonite
Another of the hand-with-objects images originally created for qarrtsiluni’s worship issue.
The others in the series:
the artist’s hand with kelp
the artist’s hand with stones
the artist’s hand with physalis
artist’s hand with pen, part of the series but not in qarrtsiluni
Added March 4th: I happened across another hand-with-object I had forgotten from two years ago. For this grouping I think I shall call it artist’s hand with heart.
February 27, 2012 in Art Exhibitions, Canada and BC, Other artists
On Saturday, we went with friends to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see a couple of the exhibitions, one historical and one contemporary. We enjoyed both very much.
Lights Out! Canadian painting from the 1960’s
As the country celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1967, modernist painting was strong in all regions of the country, but debates between the merits of figuration and abstraction were abundant. The important centres of activity, such as Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, London, Regina and Vancouver, each contributed to the national dialogue in a distinct fashion. (VAG)
This was very interesting for us for we were all young adults in our university years during that decade. A large board at the beginning of the exhibition displayed the dramatic political and cultural events that occurred in each year of that decade had us reminiscing quite a while. Where were you when President Kennedy was shot, or when the first man landed on the moon? It was especially wonderful for me revisit these works and to be transported back to art school days where we studied them, and were influenced by them, and whose styles we experimented with. One of them in fact, Kenneth Lochhead was one of our professors. (I wrote about his passing here).
No photos are allowed in the gallery, so I wish I could have found more images online to share here, just the above from the VAG site. Here is one review.
The second exhibition: Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture
Skeena Reece Raven: On the Colonial Fleet, 2010 photo: Sebastian Kriete (Captured from the cover of Glance, VAG members’ newletter issue 28)
Beat Nation reflects a generation of artists who juxtapose urban youth culture with Aboriginal identity in entirely innovative and unexpected ways. Using hip hop and other forms of popular culture, artists create surprising new cultural hybrids–in painting, sculpture, installation, performance and video–that reflect the changing demographics of Aboriginal people today.(VAG)
We found this one very exciting and impressive. It is wonderful to see so many (27) young urban First Nations artists from around North America taking their traditional forms into new contemporary ways of expression. Many are very well educated, even teaching in universities. Brian Jungen, whose international career took off after a major solo exhibition at the VAG six years ago (and I had written about), was naturally well represented with his Nike masks.
Please visit the VAG site and these links for more:
• Ariane c design Many good photos here
• A review at Vancouver Sun and one image and video
• Review at the Georgia
• The Beat, Aboriginal Art on Canada’s Pacific Coast is a interesting new-to-me newsletter that I’m going to follow.
Added March 14th: An excellent review of Lights Out! Canadian painting from the 1960’s by Robin Laurence in the Straight.
February 24, 2012 in Human, Nature, Photoworks
the artist’s hand with kelp
Another from the small series of scans of my hand with various objects which were originally created for qarrtsiluni’s worship issue.
Here are the others I’ve posted should you have missed them, with more to come later:
the artist’s hand with stones
the artist’s hand with physalis
artist’s hand with pen, part of the series but not in qarrtsiluni
February 22, 2012 in Being an Artist, Canada and BC
Brilliant sunshine streaming in through windows
Blinding reflections off water
A mood lifter after days of cold stormy rainy
Visit to the dentist for cleaning and checkup
This view as reward, for it never bores
Now to the garden I go…
A reminder: our Institute Printmakers’ exhibition at CityScape is still up, until Thursday, February 2nd. If you live in the area and have not seen it, please do visit. Here are a few photos from the opening.
February 18, 2012 in Human, Nature, Photoworks
the artist’s hand with stones
Last fall I created a series of scans of my hand with various objects for qarrtsiluni’s worship issue. To my great pleasure, all five images were published but when I wrote about it here, I posted only one of the images, the artist’s hand with physalis. Now I’m thinking I should make a home here for the others, featuring them one at a time over the next while.
Related images:
artist’s hand with pen
bones, stones and fossils
an early scan of a physalis, minus the hand
February 14, 2012 in Culture, Current Events
Happy Friendship Day, or as the Finns say: Hauskaa Ystävänpäivää, dear readers!
Or if you prefer, Happy Valentine’s
And here is a heartwarming and exceptionally well-done video which I hope you will enjoy as much as I have: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Added Feb.28th: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore has won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film! Congratulations to Moonbot Studios! (and I didn’t even know it was a nominee)
February 12, 2012 in Blogging
I wonder how many bloggers go back over their archives and get lost rereading old posts? I’ve been doing that a lot since the blog redesign went up for I’ve had to check for certain funky things going on, such as with the formatting of the text. Of course, I end up reading everything, quite self-absorbed creature that I seem to be! With eight years of archives, I’ve only touched on a fraction, and it’s distracting me from ‘real’ work. They are a mixed bag with a few little treasures for me personally, rather like delving into old diaries and photo albums.
One of these is the above photo of my five-year-old self previously published here. It’s probably the best picture of me in my longish life, I think, so I’ve decided to place it here in honour of my birthday yesterday. As I get older, birthdays do seem to trigger some revisiting of the past, of remembering family and friends now gone or with whom we have lost touch. And feeling blessed by those who are still near and dear to us.