Hip One Hop One, Acrylic on Canvas

Time to travel back to the early days at Spark Box to reflect on resident Susan Gardiner Bourlier. In 2009 Susan attended the residency as one of our Emerging Artist Award Winners. She had completed her studies as an architect but after working in the field for a short time realized that it wasn’t for her. Her passion was painting and so she quit her job and set out to work full time as an artist. This was when we met Susan. We could seriously relate to her drive and passion for the arts.

Command Break, Acrylic on Canvas

To give you a little glimpse into Susan’s personality I have posted this write-up found on her website:

“These are the words on a button that I found while living abroad in Barcelona.

 They resonated instantly, prompting me to spend the single euro required to acquire the souvenir. In the years since, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the button and the meaning of its words (or so I thought):

confusion is clarity

 Having spent a great deal of my life in a state of confusion, I think I found this reassuring – but also, and more importantly, true. Although it is one of many, small and inconspicuous, not particularly beautiful, and has no value as defined by the standards of our society, this small object has become a sort of talisman for me. It reminds me to trust my instincts, because they have never failed to steer me in the right direction. Even, or perhaps even more appropriately, when I found out that the line is not a philosophical revelation, but a humorous Spanish phrase, more accurately translated as:

this confusion is very clear

 A small, but significant difference.“

Push One Pull Two, Acrylic on Canvas

Push One Pull One, Acrylic on Canvas

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Katie Bruce (right image taken by Katie)

This week was filled with work but also play. Residents Katie and Jane continued their pieces from last week. Katie brought in a new colour to her embroidery pieces which really highlight the embossed areas found in our old wood floors. Jane started a new print inspired by the many cat pictures she has up in her studio and also finished her prints from last week with glitter and sequins.

Jane Wiseheart

Kyle and I ran a private silkscreen workshop which went really well and we are happy to have two new open studio members at Spark Box because of it! We also met with Kristy from Pathways to Independence in Trenton and are going to be hosting a workshop with a group their later this month.

Cooking at From the Farm

This week also brought a lot of cooking and great food. My mother, sister, grandmother and I went to a cooking workshop at From the Farm where we learned the art of cooking Italian food. We made a four course meal during the four hour. We started with an artichoke dip, followed by handmade ravioli, the main course brought pesto wrapped pork with roasted fennel and arugula salad and finally an upside down apply cake. Amazing!

A Weekend Away

In addition to the cooking, printing and workshops of this week Kyle and I spent a lot of time outside. We went away for two days this past weekend to a friends cottage on the Kawartha Lakes. It was a great little break and a nice weekend with friends we don’t see very often.  We also starting working in the garden which is hard work but extremely rewarding.

Our Garden

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The Lotus Eaters

Recent Queen’s University graduate Pansee Atta attended the Spark Box Residency this past February to work on a number of paintings.

Pansee’s work stems from her upbringing: “Having lived in 13 residences in 6 cities in 3 countries in 22 years, I have never had the privilege of calling one place home, or one tradition my own. Nevertheless, the internal conflict between my hybrid Egyptian upbringing and my Canadian influence has been a primary focus of my art.”

Catharsis

While staying with us she started several paper works for her New Gods series. This “series involves reworking mythologies to find archetypes that cross cultural boundaries. Linking culturally-specific images from different contexts that serve similar purposes for their respective communities.”

Totem 2

Totem

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Katie Bruce taking an embossment of our floor

This week was packed full and left Kyle and I feeling a bit under the weather.

The week started with us happily welcoming our new residents Katie Bruce and Jane Wiseheart.

Katie Bruce joins us from Alberta and will be working on her delicate modified embossment pieces. This week she took an embossment of our living room floor and has started the embroidery element.

Jane Wiseheart, from Boston, drew out the stencils for her first silkscreen piece. If you think this part looks great wait until you see it with glitter! That’s right she “glitterfies” each work.

Intern Nick Taylor working on our new promo material

We also started working with our new graphic design intern Nick Taylor. Nick is a student at St. Lawrence College, he will be working with us for the next couple of weeks. This week he started putting together a new series of promotional material for our workshops, curio shop and open studio.

We got up to a number of other things this week like saying farewell to former Oeno Gallery staff member Ivan Tanzer who is off to work at the Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal and hanging some of our new work at Angeline’s Inn for their photo shoot with Toronto Life.

As I mentioned before all of this activity left us both feeling a bit under the weather but I found some links that made me want to drink a big glass of OJ and get working:

-This awesome design magazine Udo Mag.

-Nell Casson’s inspiration for the mural painting for the outside of the studio– Steve Powers.

-My Pinterest Board for Green Spaces (I have also been working in the yard a lot recently … can’t wait to plant our garden)!

-This hilarious and awesome tumblr site by magazine editor Ann Friedman (found on Cup of Jo).

I hope this week is productive and fun!

-Chrissy

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Fox Drop by Kristy Lynn

Cosmic Honey, Books Series, Kristy Lynn

Last week was Kristy Lynn’s final week with us.  She decided to add a little printmaking to the mix and finished two editions in silkscreen. Her prints turned out great (you can see them at the studio in our Curio Shop). We were really impressed the the number of pieces she completed while at the studio. While I was going through the updates she made to her website I noticed the image above, a page from her notebook, which made me feel so happy about the our home and studio.

Woodcut by Genna Kusch and Tamara Sponder

Woodcut by Genna Kusch and Tamara Sponder

Genna and Tamara, both friends from Queen’s, came down to work on a number of projects for the week. They had started a woodcut at the studio two years ago and finally completed it, they also began an installation project which I am curating with them and finally Tamara worked on a series of etching for her Littlest Print Exchange submission.

Workshop with Trenton High School

Workshop with Trenton High School

Near the end of the week we hosted the second half of the Trenton High School Etching Workshop. During this half the students came to the studio to print their etched copper plates. We taught them about the etching process, the inking process and how to use the intaglio press. They each had the chance to work with two different colours and chine-colle. All the students left with at least 6 – 8 prints. We were contacted afterwards by the teacher with a biggest thank you email and an invitation to be the keynote speakers at the school Art Awards (so nice).

To top it all off we got some time in on my nieces new trampoline when Kyle and I (plus two of the residents) went to her third birthday party.

Links for this week:

- I am hoping to get as good as these kids on the trampoline.

- I want to write a convincing letter to Printeresting so we can get a free can of their Gamblin Ink.

- This post made me pretty excited about planting a garden this year.

- I really love the paintings of Jules De Balincourt!

What a great week!

-Chrissy

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We are always using  books as reference here at the studio. They are great resources for workshops, inspiration and trouble-shooting. Here are three of our favourite printmaking books.

The Printmaking Bible

This book lives up to its title covering intaglio, screen print, relief print, monoprint and chine-colle. It is packed full of step-by-step guides, 1,000′s of full colour images and tool/material lists. Sadly, it focuses on traditional (toxic) materials, most of which we don’t use in our studio. We still use this book during workshops to give students a quick guide to what they will be learning. What I love most about this book is the example images. They use contemporary artists to illustrate the processes and all of the images are in full colour.

Print Liberation

This is a really fun book about screen printing. It covers both DIY printing and commercial printing. There is a fun little history section that I love using in workshops. They also included pre-made stencils which not only work as great examples but can be used by someone trying screen print for the first time.

Print Workshop

This is a more recent addition to our resource library. Like the Printmaking Bible this book is packed full of different techniques ranging from relief printing to solar fabric printing, however, unlike the Printmaking Bible this book is all about DIY culture. This book simplifies the processes, highlights the beauty of imperfections found in handmade prints and creates a fun, DIY atmosphere around each process. This approach makes this the ideal book for kids workshops and workshops we don’t host in our studio.

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Works in Progress by Kristy Lynn

Works in Progress by Sylvia Chan

This has been such a fun week. The weather was amazing and I felt inspired and productive. Early in the week we picked up our two new residents Kristy Lynn and Sylvia Chan. Both have been amazingly productive over the week resulting in a studio full of new paintings.

Works in Progress, New Linocut Prints by Kyle Topping

Kyle and I have both been putting a lot of focus on creating our own work. It’s amazing how challenging it can be to get into the studio. Kyle printed his vintage camera series early in the week (they will be going up on Etsy shortly) and began a new series of reductive linocut vintage trailers. I have been working on a new series of bags inspired by my trip around North America in 2008 (finally putting those pictures to use)!

Last week we also went to City of Craft in Toronto. It was so nice to head out of Picton for a day in the city. Ever since meeting Jen Anisef, creator of Toronto Craft Alert and former organizer for City of Craft, Kyle and I have all become interested in participating in sale.  When I found out there was a spring sale I was set on heading to Toronto to check it out. It was a rainy day but a nice afternoon of visiting some of my favorite regional makers:

*Kid Icarus who had these awesome 3D posters of flying Canadian Geese.

*Raymond E. Biesinger who had funky large scale geographic prints of different cities.

*JP King and Kirsten McCrea who had many great prints, postcards and little books of poetry.

* Lines by Davis who had his kitty cat printed bags and textiles, plus these new wax canvas bags (which I loved!).

*Bookhou who had their collection of clean and simply designed textiles (the large pouches are my favorite).

*Field Guided who had a selection of lovely silk scarves along with tote bags and prints.

Hope you had a great week too!

If you like these Ontario artisans perhaps others will too:

Haunted

Vanitas 2

Israel painter Nava Astrachan stayed with us in February, 2012. Nava made the decision to re-visit etching during her residency stay and combined production with private workshops. The traditional imagery used in Nava’s work was perfect for etching. Her attention to detail and commitment to drawing resulted in rich prints. During her two weeks Nava completed three different plates, each with multiple etchings and aquatint. My favorite of the group was of a Russian ballet dancer because of its tight composition and range of tones.

Modern Dance Group

Pregnant (clothed)

 

Pregnant Girls

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Last week Kyle and I started getting to work on new items for our Etsy Shop and Spark Box Curio Shop. Kyle printed several more of our Printing Press prints, inspired by our very own 1854 lithography Press (kindly loaned to us by printmaker Otis Tamasauskas).

Kyle also got to work on a new series of prints based on vintage cameras. He had carved a really great linocut print for this series last year but has since been working on four images which will be screen printed. I am also putting together a new series of bags which will combine my love for pattern with my interest in quilting!

Along with making some new printed goods we attended the Loyalist College Art & Design Foundations annual year end exhibition. It was such a pleasure to see the work of our students put up on display. I still can’t believe our first year of teaching is almost over.

Speaking of teaching we also gave the first of two workshops in etching to one of the Trenton High School art classes last week. In this workshop we gave the class a demo into the wax application process, plate preparation and image making process. We love doing these high school workshops. We gather all the students around a desk with prints from our members and ourselves laid out on the table. Students get a chance to look at actual work, touch actual plates and really engage with the process. Can’t wait to have them at the studio on the 27th.  If you ever want to learn about any of the processes we offer at the studio please feel free to contact us (chrissy@sparkboxstudio.com).

On Saturday we attended the opening of The Baxter Building, one of Prince Edward County’s newest creative centres. The space is still in its planning phase but based on Saturdays attendance the community is in full support. The opening included live entertainment, a display about the buildings history, renovation plans and an inspiration board where community members could put forth their ideas for how the space could be used.

Last week also included some pretty great online art finds:

• Tony Orrico’s performance drawings
• Awesome new art publication from Little Paper Planes
• My new Behance page with my watercolour work posted (shameless plug)
• A great resource for contemporary Toronto painters 

Hope this week is as great as last week!

-Chrissy

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How to re-stretch mesh onto an aluminum frame:

1. First, take the broken screen and cut a ‘plus’ sign into the mesh. I found that this gave me a good starting point to ripping the mesh off. When I tried using a X cut from corner to corner, it left a lot of remaining screen debris towards the corners. Rip the mesh along one edge towards the corner, then rip the other edge towards the same corner, now rip the corner section off. Repeat this for all the edges.

2. You may see that there are bits of mesh still remaining glued down near the corner, try to remove what you can by picking at it and hopefully you can pull it off. I found that using a utility knife helped in removing the last bits. Don’t worry too much if there is some remaining, when we grind the frame it’ll come off.

3. If you can, go outside and set-up a work table. You will be grinding aluminum and thus creating dust, so doing this process inside the studio was a big ‘no go’. You will need several tools. A metal grinder with a grinding disk, palm sander with 80-120 grid sand paper, particle respirator (not a dust mask, a real respirator, protect your lungs), gloves, clamps, and safety goggles.

4. I clamped the screen down to the table, and begun lightly grinding the frame. The idea is to remove all the glue off the frame and at the same time give the frame tooth to accept a new layer of glue. When you’re grinding the frame you’ll want to be careful not to spend too much time in one spot otherwise you may grind a pit into the frame, and that’s not good.

5. Afterward I used the palm sander to quickly run around the whole frame, this cleaned up some (not all) ink stains, hardened emulsions, or weird glue deposits from tape. When finished rub the frame clean with a rag.

6. Set-up a large station inside, I had to push to a couple desks together. I recommend that you avoid using the floor as a work surface, the mesh is oddly charged with static electricity and will pick up all the dirt off the floor. The stretcher we bought came disassembled in 8 pieces and was really easy to build following the manufacturers instruction.

7. Once the system is set-up and the frame in place, coat the frame with a layer of glue. We purchased the glue from the same company that sold us the stretcher, it is clearly an extremely strong contact cement. I recommend that you open a window and wear a vapor rated respirator mask.

8. It takes 8-10 minutes for the glue to become ‘dry to the touch’. At this point lock into the stretcher your desired new mesh. Crank all the clamps down onto the mesh and begin stretching each side a little bit at a time. You can buy a tension meter which will tell you exactly what tension of the screen is or I compared the tension to another commercially stretched screen we had in the studio.

9. When you’re happy with the tension cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the interior of the frame and place it on the screen. Now apply a second layer of glue to the frame. The cardboard prevents any stringy bits of glue from falling onto the middle of the screen. Like I mentioned earlier the screen has a lot of static electricity and so it tends to attract the stingy glue. Once done let the frame sit for 25 minutes.

10. When you loosen all the clamps and remove your newly stretched frame cut off the excess screen mesh. Finally, use metal foil tape (purchased from a hardware store in the duct working aisle ) to cover the glued side of the screen. That’s it, finished.

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