CREATIVE KIDS CAMP
Soon after Spark Box opened its doors we began receiving inquiries about hosting a children’s art camp during the summer. However, the thought of a bunch of paint-covered kids running around our small studio space was enough to keep us up at night. When we expressed our dilemma, our supportive community stepped forward to provide us with a camp location! Mia Lane, and her daughter Becky Lane, offered to host the camp on an amazing wooded property by Fish Lake. During the week of August 16 – 20, 8 kids from all over the world came to print, paint, draw and sculpt in the woods.
Not only did we have a great location, we also got great help. Becky Lane, a local designer, helped Chrissy Poitras plan, organize and run the camp. While the kids had fun creating their art, they were also taught and inspired by the art history each of their projects was drawn from. The campers learnt about the impressionists while painting en plein air, the earth art movement in the 1960s by creating sculptures out of natural materials, and the history of street art when making their own graphic text pieces, to name a few.
By the end of the camp the kids had created an impressive array of remarkable art works, installed their own exhibition in the woods, titled and priced their work, and made personalized invitation for their family and friends. They had a great turn out and some even sold some work!
DUDES FROM CALGARY
Last week two young guys from Calgary dropped into the studio in the afternoon. We gave them the tour and gave them our little Spark Box speech. We soon found out that both boys were in high school and interested in the arts. We chatted for awhile and then they headed out for the day. Oddly, a few hours later they came back up to the studio to get some more information about our workshops. We happened to be in the middle of teaching silkscreen and the process seemed to interest them. We gave them information about silkscreen and our workshops and they went off to find out if was something they could include in their vacation budget 
The next week they were back with their dad and ready to set up a date to come in for a two day workshop. In the end each of them left with four prints and a t-shirt!
BETH FREY
Beth Frey has an interesting way of looking at story telling and the creation of visual narratives. During her spring stay at Spark Box Studio this multidisciplinary artist created a number of highly detailed works on paper.
To some Beth’s work may appear to be quirky illustrations full of humorous characters in exotic environments, however, coming from a performance and video art background it is not surprising that Beth’s core concept is the history of story telling.
The drawings she made while at Spark Box were for a show in Toronto at the Gladstone. The curator had given the artists a short story of a young boy who was traveling through an enchanted forest being tricked by several squirrels along his journey. Beth’s visual interpretations of this story were soft in palette but complex in imagery. The piece ended up being a triptych full of elements that walked the viewer through the narrative of the fairy tale.
For more information on Beth, including upcoming exhibits please visit her website www.bethfrey.com
CHARACTER OF THE DAY
DAY 11
DAY 10
DAY 9
DAY 8
DAY 7
DAY 6
DAY 5
DAY 4
DAY 3
DAY 2
DAY 1
We have had illustrator Niall Eccles working at the studio since we opened and have always enjoyed watching him work on his projects. Recently he has made the experience all the better with his daily characters.
I have always wanted to be disciplined enough to commit to a drawing a day … but alas it just isn’t in the cards for me. However, it is a practice I should adopt and we should all take a page from Niall’s book and try to create something everyday.
As a way of honoring Niall’s “Character of the Day” we will be posting them to our website daily!
These little drawings will be for sale at the studio if one of them catches your eye and you just have to have it!
DON MAYNARD
In mid-winter of 2010 we had the pleasure of hosting Kingston-based artist Don Maynard at our residency. Maynard has explored a variety of mediums over his career, spanning from drawing to multi-media installation, the latter being very impressive and mesmerizing. During his time at Spark Box Studio Maynard developed a mock-up for a sculpture commissioned by the City of Ottawa Archives. The sculpture is a floating house, which appears to hover 20 feet above the ground, and is held down by six stainless steel ropes lashed over the roofline—“ropes” that actually serve as a giant support structure from which the house hangs. Maynard remarked when asked why he decided to do a residency “Sometimes you have to get away from your own studio to get something done”, making Spark Box Studio a great location to prepare the scale model for the sculpture.
We couldn’t have been happier to have him working in our studio and to later feature him in the first issue of Square2 and exhibit his work at the launch on the upper floor of Books and Company.
To learn more about Don Maynard pick up a copy of Square2 Magazine!
SWOON
With an upcoming day workshop in relief printing (July 29) and the screening of the Bansky film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” at the Regent tonight it seemed appropriate to do a short blog about a pretty amazing relief printermaker /street artist in NYC. Her name is Caledonia Dance Curry or better known as Swoon and she has taked the art world by storm with her wheatpaste drawings, large scale installations and fleet of make-shift pirate ships that made sailed down the Mississippi River and crashed the 2009 Venice for the Biennale.
I first found out about Swoon through The Run Up interview series. Her interview was really inspiring because not only is she amazing and talented but you can really feel the passion she has for what she is doing. I think that Swoon is one street artist that illustrates the power of taking art to the streets and making art an experience for everyone to enjoy.
On top of everything else her relief work is absolutely stunning. Each piece is a highly labored portrait of someone she saw in a park, met on the streets or has known for years. These relief prints are detailed, captivating and remarkably well executed!
SALON PRIZE
Just wanted to give Kingston artists a heads up about the Salon Prize Juried exhibition. Sounds like a great opportunity to get your work seen in Kingston. Below are the details and a link to the website.
About Salon Prize
The birth of The Salon Prize came from Cleah Bunting’s overwhelming desire to help out other artists in their own working lives. The prize was originally done in association with The Kingston School of Art–however due to the demands of the growing contest–the competition out grew the school.
Cleah’s intentions with the competition is to provide not only prizes, but also opportunities for artists to showcase their work. This prize is about the image presented to us (judges)…meaning we are not concerned with current artwork/styles, the artists reputation, nor where they stand in the community. As a show–we are looking for images that evoke and capture our audience–that are not only acts of brilliance but will also encourage creative growth amongst many of the artists whom visit the show.
I believe strongly in Kingston’s creative community–and with pleasure feel it necessary to show my respect to other artists by allowing them a voice through this project. This contest is all about “What is best for the image……”
I would like to thank Kingston’s community support for allowing this prize to thrive well into it’s second year–for we could not have done it without you.
And we wish every entrant the best success!!
“Happy Painting”–Ted Seth Jacobs.
Prizes
The Salon Prize is proud to support the Fine Arts Community by offering the following
prizes to contest participants.
1st Place – $1000!
2nd Place -500!
3rd Place – $100 Wallacks Gift Card!
This year we will also be featuring a $100 door prize just for the fun of it!
For more information and entry form go to www.salonprize.com
TEEN SUMMER ART SHOW
Attention all talented Prince Edward County teens the Picton Public Library will be hosting their annual “Teen Art Show” on July 10th. All teens (13-19) are invited to submit artwork to any branch of the County of Prince Edward Public Library for display in the Teen Room at the Picton Branch. This year, the show is being judged by talented local illustrator Niall Eccles.
They accept art in any media – collage, photography, painting, sculpture, whatever you’re into They’ll display it (as long as it’s suitable for display in a public building).
For more information, stop by the library, e-mail teenroom@peclibrary.org or facebook “teen room”.
RESIDENT: MIRANDA BOUCHARD
From Sault Ste. Marie, Miranda Bouchard, came to stay with us for a week under our residency award program. It has been wonderful getting to know Miranda on both an artistic level and personal level. She graduated from the university of Guelph and is now working full time in a marketing / communications position for a gallery in Sault Ste. Marie. As with many of our residents we get the opportunity to exchange and share our experiences of being emerging artists. Quite often the hardships of being freshly graduated, financially hindered, limited in space, and underemployed are met with sympathy. It may sound terrible but it is nice to meet others who are similar situations, especially in times of strained economical circumstances. Consistently what we gain and learn from our conversations with residents is that their resolve, determination, drive and ambition keep them positive, alive, moving forward towards accomplishing their artistic goals despite all the troubles young artists face.
Miranda was working with old found photographs and negatives from the early to mid 20th century. She was taking stacking images together to form interwoven new pictures from which she would translate into drawings. Here is a bit from her artist statement: “My works begin with technologically-mediated subjects: images captured by digital recording devices or from scanned, re-captured and manipulated photographs. The process of technological filtration – that is, the passage of an image through cameras, computers, printers, scanners and photocopiers – changes the source as it blurs, obscures, flattens, collapses, pixelizes and distorts it, creating a new image, offering a changed way of seeing something familiar.”
Check out www.mirandabouchard.com for more images of Miranda’s work, her full artist statement and CV.
ART:21 VIDEOS
Here is an amazing documentary series on artists that PBS has produced. We remember first watching these videos in art class and we are excited that they’re now available online as full length videos. These videos focus on contemporary American visual artists. Strongly recommend spending a few hours checking out this series. The videos are just under an hour long and generally each one will focus on a few different themes, such as identity, memory, power and humor.
Check out www.pbs.org/art21/, enjoy some amazing documentaries.
ETCHING WITH DEVON
Here are the images from the most recent private etching workshop. Devon took a three part etching workshop from Chrissy where she learnt how to do ‘hard-ground’ and ‘soft-ground’ etchings and the basic chemistry behind the process. Here are images of Devon inking up one of the plates she produced using the ‘hard-ground’ method.
SQUARE2 LAUNCH PARTY
Join us for a night on the town! We will bring Prince Edward County’s newest arts & culture magazine to life June 10th starting at the Regent Theatre at 6 PM.
Performance art, poetry readings, live music and visual art will be occurring throughout down town Picton.
Participating locations include:
Spark Box Studio
Purchase a numbered limited launch edition of Square2 that night!
Event will be free of charge.
Sponsored by Angeline’s Inn and Restaurant
RSVP: info@sparkboxstudio.com
RESIDENT: MISHI
We realize it has been some time since we updated the blog about our recent residents, of which we have had a few over the past months. The first since the last post was Toronto-based artist Agnieszka “Mishi” Foltyn. 22-year-old Mishi is a graduate of Concordia and one of the last to visit of our 2009 fall/winter award winners. Kyle and I were both in love with her confident figurative work and her grimy drawings of boots. With a big personality and a lot of spirit Mishi feverishly worked on a number of large-scale drawings during her time at the studio.
On one occasion she was bombarded by a group of interested Loyalist College students. We were holding an etching workshop for the Art & Design Foundations at the studio and students couldn’t help be sneak into the her studio space to see what she was up to. Being the open-minded individual she is Mishi had no issues answering questions and allowing the students to take a look at her works in progress.
Mishi’s work can be seen or purchased at Gallery 133 and Art Interiors.
LETTERPRESS AND TYPOGRAPHY
In the mid-15th century the printing press was invented and with this piece of machinery came the first rapid production of mass-produced books in history . It is not uncommon now for someone to either have a relative or know someone that has worked with type and a letterpress. Type is used in the printing industry to describe individual lead letters (a key component in letterpress printing). In this form of printmaking hundreds of individual characters are arranged, making up the final printed book, newspaper, essay, etc. Between each printing the characters would be washed and a whole new set would be arranged for the next page.
In the past two weeks I’ve met nearly half a dozen of people who had actually hand-set type at one point. Emerging from this labour heavy printing process came the automated printing press. These mechanized machines further increased productivity by introducing plate printing techniques apposed to hand-set type. They have become more complex over the years and are still in use at commercial printers.
I highly suggest taking a tour of a commercial print studio, you’ll probably find a few old and wild looking machines. Generations today will likely not get to experience lead type used for an off-set printing press or a clunky typewriter. Unfortunately, like many things today I feel the inkjet version of type just isn’t as fascinating as the original handmade, hand-set, hand-inked, hand-printed quality of letterpress.
We’re proud to announce the most recent addition to the facilities at Spark Box Studio a 1928, 3″ x 5″, letterpress and three font sets. Set the font yourself, mix your own ink, hand-print every piece and feel the power of type.
HIGHSCHOOL TALK AT MOIRA
We had the opportunity to spend a day at Moira Secondary School giving presentations to art classes. Our presentations cover a brief overview of who we are and what programs / facilities Spark Box Studio offers. We offer our assistance to any individual who is thinking about perusing art school through portfolio reviews, mentorship, and volunteer opportunities. We close each session by asking the class to gather around to discuss the work in our studio portfolio.
MOLD MAKING
During the month of March, Tim Synder owner of the Galloping Goat hosted a mold making workshop at Spark Box Studio. Participants learned how to cast a mold from a clay object. Tim has quite the background in mold making. He has spent considerable time making dinosaur molds for various museums around the world. There are many different mold casting processes, for this workshop Tim used a two part silicone for making the mold and a white resin plastic for casting the objects from the mold.
The process begins with sculpting a 3 dimensional objects from clay. During the the first class everyone was given a brick of clay to sculpt. The next class the students built little walls around their objects and poured a two part silicone mixture that harden over 24 hours. This mixture is what will create the mold. The final class session was spent cracking open the molds and casting the objects. The group poured a resin mixture into their molds that hardens quickly and when the mold is pulled apart the final object pops out. The mold can then be reused many times to cast the object over and over.
FILL IN THE SPACES
Spark Box Co-owner, Chrissy Poitras, recently set up her solo exhibition at the Artel in Kingston. Drawing from various accidental marks found in her surroundings Chrissy has created paintings and drawings that are installed on the first floor of the collaborative art space. The show will be open until April 30th with the Open Reception being held on April 17th from 6 – 9 pm. The Artel is located at 205 Sydenham Street and the hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11-4 pm.
SHADOW CABINET
This week Spark Box Studio hosted an etching workshop for a group of gentlemen. The workshop started in the late morning and finished in the mid afternoon. Seventeen individuals came to the workshop, 9 participated and the others watched. The morning was spent transferring images and drawing into the hard-ground covered copper plate. While the men ate lunch at Currah’s restaurant Chrissy and Kyle etched their plates and got ready for an afternoon of printing. When they came back from lunch Kyle demonstrated how to ink a plate, clean the plate, and print he plate. Soon enough it was gloves on and the men were inking their plates. It struck us that we probably should have mentioned to the men to wear or bring some old clothes they did not mind getting ink on, as the men came dressed up and were looking quite dapper. Luckily no one got ink on themselves and everyone who participated had a chance to print the plate they had created and left with at least 2 hand printed images. We had a great time running the event and the gentlemen had a fantastic time as well.
SILKSCREEN BIRTHDAY PARTY
Friends of ours from Montreal and Kingston came down to the studio for a day to have a silkscreen birthday party. They spent the day learning about silkscreen, drawing their images, and printing small editions. It was a great day of exciting printing, and the prints turned out fantastic. Birthday parties aren’t just at Chuck-E-Cheese anymore, at Spark Box Studio your birthday party could be focused around making art.
PINHOLE CAMERAS
We are excited to announce that our recently developed and constructed pinhole cameras work and are producing photographs. Erin Topping (Kyle’s sister) who is studying photography at Georgian College, visited the studio for four days for the purpose of helping to develop and test the prototype pinhole cameras for an upcoming pinhole camera workshop offered at the studio.
The concept of a pinhole camera is quite simple. It is a camera with no lens and a very small aperture, a pinhole sized aperture to be specific. The pinhole is poked into one side of a light proof box or container and a shutter is made out of electrical tape. In the darkroom photo-paper or film is inserted into the camera. The typical exposures range from 4 seconds to an hour.
The cameras Erin and Kyle developed produce negative images because the cameras house photography paper rather than film. A negative image means that the colours are inverted, blacks are white and whites are black. The next camera to be developed will be one from a tin container that will house actual 35mm film, which will produce positive images when the film is used in the darkroom enlarger.
In April Spark Box Studio will be running a pinhole camera workshop if you’re interested in trying this exciting medium.
Pinhole Camera Workshop
In this exciting workshop participants will create their own pinhole camera. As a group we will go out and capture images of country landscapes which will be developed in black and white at the studio by participants. Everyone will bring home several mysterious black and white photographs.
April 9, 16 & 23 :
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
$90 a person, max 6 people
materials included
You my sign up for this workshop online here: Workshop Sign up
RESIDENT: MANUELA JARRY
Quebec artist, Manuela Jarry came to the residency for two weeks. Her stay with us was super productive. Working as an artist full time she certainly knew how to get her self motivated. By the time we got into the studio each day she had already been working for several hours. Emerging artists should take note- dedication, drive and ambition are what it takes to make it as an artist. Also, creating deadlines and holding yourself accountable for making those deadlines.
While staying with us she had the opportunity to further investigate print making by producing a small black and white lino-cut and etching. She produced some very sweet prints and we were really pleased to see such good results.
By trade Manuela is a painter working for a decorative arts firm. She has had several of her decorative pieces published, however, she is moving her focus to create a body of work that better represents herself as an artist. Her time at the studio was spent developing a new body of work that she plans to show to galleries. It was exciting to see an artist turning a new page and being seriously committed to their process.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Manuela and hope to see her again in the future.
SHANE WILLIAMS
Our high school volunteer program is running smoothly and we are so thankful for our volunteers. One of our volunteers, Shane Williams has been working at the studio for a few months now doing everything from sweeping and cleaning to assisting with workshops and helping run the studio. As part of our volunteer program we teach students about our business and the art practices the studio offers. Shane has been working on a small hard ground etching for a few weeks now and finally got to print the edition.
ALBERT COLLEGE TEACHERS SILKSCREEN
Several teachers from Albert College, located in Belleville, arranged for a workshop and a visit to Spark Box Studio in order to learn about silkscreen techniques and specifically how to print onto t-shirts. Three teachers came down and spend the afternoon printing t-shirts for a fundraiser the students were organizing. It was fantastic to have them come down and do some printing, we could not believe how much fun these teachers had screen printing t-shirts.
RESIDENT: SOFI QUIRNO
Our first international artist in residence was Sofi Quirno from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Prior to her arriving we corresponded through email. Often artists ask questions about the residency, about us, the living situations, etc. In one email we were discussing the weather in Canada. Sofi, having never been to Canada, had read about Ontario’s -20 c and was rather concerned about how cold Canada actually was. We responded that January is quite cold and though the thermometer reads -20, the wind chill can make it -35. She prepared accordingly and brought a huge jacket, leggings, and snow pants. Strangely the entire time she was here it was mild and unseasonably warm for January and it stayed this way until the day after she left. She said that she was happy about not experiencing true Canadian winter.
It was a pleasure getting to know Sofi during her three weeks with us. In Argentina Sofi works as a galley assistant at a successful contemporary art galley. Naturally the three of us talked quite extensively about the similarities between the gallery Sofi works art and the gallery Chrissy had been working at. The conclusion we reached was that working at a gallery is hard work! In addition to art discussions we spent a lot of time talking about cultural similarities and differences.
It was really nice to hear about Sofi’s experience being an artist in Buenos Aires. Her art practice is supported by her peers who encourage each other to continue to grow and produce work. She told us that every month the group gets together and critiques one individual’s work and tries to offer guidance and constructive thoughts. We thought that this was a wonderful idea and has got the two of us thinking about how to incorporate something like this group critique into our own practices.
Sofi’s time at Spark Box Studio was spent exploring, developing, and working on a new series based on her experiences during her time in Canada. She worked in the studio, laboring over huge paintings for hours at a time. Generally this lasted until she’d crawl out from the studio and express that her knees hurt.
We also had the opportunity to introduce her to silkscreen as a plausible medium for her work. Upon watching her draw and paint for the first few days it became clear that her style would naturally transfer into silkscreen. We had a fantastic time showing her how silkscreen works and she really did enjoy her self and produced a small stack of prints.
You can visit Sofi’s blog at http://sofiquirno.blogspot.com.
