LAST WEEK AT SPARK BOX
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We had to say good-bye to Kirsten McCrea and J.P. King at the end of last week. The two left to begin their new life in Toronto. They are already off to a great start with a presentation at the Come Up To My Room “Let’s Talk” conference. Last Friday J.P. spoke to the C.U.T.M.R. crowd about his Free Paper Press project (see the video above to find out more about this really cool project).
Luckily, before they headed off we got to have one great event at the house with them. Last Wednesday we hosted a collage party inspired by all the great work J.P. was making while at the studio. To our surprise people were excited about created collaborative collages and we had a great turn out. I plan to scan all the collages that were made and create a collage party pdf book.
With all this going on Kyle and I still managed to finish all of our work and set-up for the upcoming exhibition at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery, which opens this Thursday from 6:00 – 7:30 PM.
Sarah Burwash received some amazing press on two great art websites – the Jealous Curator and Art Hound. She was also kind enough to give Spark Box a really sweet shout-out on both, here is a little bit of what she had to say about her stay so far (taken from the Jealous Curator post):
… it is so blissful to be in a big old house surrounded by corn and hay feilds, it is peaceful and relaxing, and also productive and inspiring. The sun has been out often and the fields are dusted with snow. Chrissy and Kyle who run Spark Box are amazing hosts, light hearted and ambitious pair, they make you feel very comfortable and welcomed and go out of there way for you. I have a large studio space to work, and there is a great library of books from art books, to wild flower books, to old life magazines.
Genna Kusch and Carl Wiens both used the open studio to continue to work on personal projects. Carl worked on a new silkscreen piece from his Swimmer Series (my favourite) and Genna continued working on her woodblock insect pieces (as seen above).
**I would like to thank Genna Kusch for the images she supplied of the Collage Party **
If you enjoy this work let other people know by sharing it:
PREFIX MAGAZINE
Picked up a copy of Prefix magazine last night at Chapters and found Spark Box in the Opportunities section. I knew that we might be mentioned but didn’t know it actually happened so that was a nice surprise. Prefix Photo is an engaging magazine, based out of Toronto. It is dedicated to contemporary photography and related arts. Characterized by innovative design and outstanding production values, Prefix Photo consists primarily of portfolio and essay sections, providing a complement of intelligent texts and breath-taking visuals. These features are accompanied by newsbriefs which provide information and opportunities for professional photographers, including new technological developments. Each issue of Prefix Photo presents the work of Canadian photographers, both emerging and established, alongside that of their international counterparts.
CRAFT MONTH AT SPARK BOX
It has been a busy month here with all the holiday sales over the past two weeks. Nell and I were making new items inspired by the galaxy for this holiday season, including cards, bags, pins, housewares and toys. Now that the sales are over it is time to reflect on all the great people we met while running around from sale to sale. The first sale was the OCAD Book Arts Fair in Toronto. It was a great Saturday and we met a number of really nice people. Our booth was right beside Jeffrey Macklin owner of Jackson Creek Press in Peterborough. Jeffrey’s printed work is so much fun and all made with by hand with a genuine old-school letterpress.
We did some great trades at this sale with Alex Froese and Tiny Press and met some really awesome crafters like the two ladies behind Good Plant.
On the Sunday we participated in the Fat Goose sale in Kingston. This is another fantastic event and always a good night. It is so nice to spend time with some of our favorite Kingston artisans like Vincent Perez of Everlovin Press (featured in Square2), Julian Berry of Ironclad Graphics and Brandy Olley of Salvage Designs. It was also a great place to meet new people like Jeff Woodrow of Joy T-Shirt. Joy T-Shirt is a really interesting idea, Jeff creates graphic t-shirts that are inspired by a real people. The shirt has a drawing of a real person printed on it and the idea is that when you wear your shirt you are encouraged to think about that person and how your everyday actions can affect others and the world we live in.
Last weekend we were part of the Busy Hands sale in Picton. Like Fat Goose it’s always a great time to re-connect with local crafters and say “hi” to people we haven’t seen in awhile. I got a chance to meet a few new people at this sale as well like Kathyrn Orok and Mags Kandis. It has been a fun two weeks but I am excited to spend a weekend at home and in the studio. If you missed the sales and are curious about what we have been up to please feel free to stop by and visit us.
PREPARING FOR WINTER
The “joys” of owning your own house …
We have been spending a lot of time lately getting our new place ready for the winter months. Summer was hectic for us and we put a number of projects on hold. Now that things have slowed down we are trying to get these projects finished. A number of these tasks are outdoor projects and we want to make sure everything is sealed up, winterized and ready before the snow falls.
We love our new studio but sadly the tin roof hadn’t been cared for over the past few years and so we had to spend a few days putting in new screws to prevent leaks and to keep out the country critters. We bought a new shed for storage, as we turned all of our outdoor storage into studio space. And, with the help of Alex Fida and Kyle Lane, we finally have boards and battens up on the exterior walls of the studios!
The past year of renovations has taught us a number of valuable lessons, here are a few:
1. A strong support group is important when attempting to complete a major project. We were lucky to have great friends and family by our side the whole way through. Without their hard work, heart-to-hearts, comforting shoulders and helpful advice there is no way we would have been able to get through this project.
2. The art of compromise. We were warned before starting the work on the house that many of our hopes and desires would change or become impossible and that renovations are filled with unexpected twists and turns. Even with this knowledge we were unprepared for the number of changes, modifications and compromises we had to make during the project. Luckily, we listened and trusted each others opinions making these changes less stressful and resulting in a pretty great space.
3. I think it goes without saying that any project you undertake requires a great deal of patience. Home renovation is no different. Becoming aware that every project takes longer than you wanted and that nothing is ever as easy as it sounds is extremely important when taking on a renovation project.
SPARK BOX SHOP
We have been working hard on putting together the merchandise section of the studio. As some of your will remember the “sale” area of the last space was crowed in a hallway, not the most convenient place to look at printed goods. We decided we wanted to make one full wall of the new studio dedicated to printed goods that were for sale. This would include materials from our craft sales, Square2 Magazine and personal art work. Like most projects it took a lot longer than we anticipated to get it together the way we wanted … but it finally feels close to finished.
We have also been updating our Etsy shop with new products and recently put up a table on the Poppytalk Handmade Online Market. So, if you are looking for a handmade gift for the upcoming holiday season please make sure to pop in. We are open year round Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6 PM (Thursday we are closed).
A LITTLE BIT OF PRESS
I know this is late coming, but this past April Spark Box Studio was featured in Ellegirl Korea. I am still not sure how the editor heard about us but in mid-March I received an email asking if we would be interested in being interviewed for their Pop Girl section. The editor was putting together a few pages surrounding artist collectives and she thought we would be a great feature. Of course we were thrilled and agreed instantly. We had local photographer Michael Grills take some shots of us, the studio and some of the awesome people that have helped make this place possible.
It took awhile for the magazine to finally arrive on our doorstep but when it did we were happy to find out that we were the first page of the feature. Sadly, not knowing any Korean, I am not sure what parts of the interview were used but the page looks great (they even included Square2!).
THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING
It has been a long road from house purchase to move-in ready, but we finally did it. In case you don’t know Kyle and I recently moved our studio and residency from two rental properties in Picton to our purchased farm house just outside of Picton.
When we first started planning the idea for Spark Box we had envisioned a place where artist could fall out of bed and into their studio. Sadly, having just graduated we were not the ideal clients for a mortgage. So, instead, we rented a house and a studio space which is where Spark Box has been for the past year and a half (all the while searching for the perfect place we could buy).
Finally, last August, we found the house we had been searching for, an old farm house with a large outbuilding. The house and outbuilding were in rough shape and needed a lot of attention. Over the past nine months Kyle and I have been slaving away trying to make this little place our new home. It wasn’t easy and most times it wasn’t much fun but we now have a beautiful place to call home and a great new space for Spark Box.
We still have some unfinished projects (we have been informed that we will never really be done) but we would be happy to have visitors starting this weekend June 24th. The new address is 885 County Rd. 5.
REFLECTING ON PAST RESIDENTS: HANNA HUR
photo taken from May Truong
Last summer we had Toronto artist Hanna Hur stay with us for a week. Hanna and I became great friends in the short period of time that she was here and I had the pleasure of interviewing her for the April issue of Square2 Magazine. Hanna’s work ranges from drawing to photography and she deals with a multitude of different topics. She has worked on several projects with her twin sister Laurie Kang and recently she has been developing many drawings based on themes of self-identity and her departure from the Christian faith.
What’s next for Hanna Hur? She is off to Berlin in May where she will be mentoring with artist Candice Breitz.
COUNTY RADIO SHOW
Kyle and I were lucky enough to have been interviewed by the County Radio Show, a feature on the newest County website Horntrip Magazine. The magazine focuses the local food and wine industry but the County Radio Show speaks to many different Prince Edward County entrepreneurs. Janet Davies was kind enough to think of us for there most recent podcast. Listen to it here and be sure to check out the Horntrip site to find out about all the other great things going on in this area!
RESIDENT: KATIE BOND PRETTI
In my fourth year at Queen’s I began to concentrate on abstract painting. My professor Jan Winton actively encouraged this and was always showing me different artists for inspiration. When artist Kim Dorland came Queen’s to give a guest lecture Jan made sure that I booked a meeting with him. I took her advice and signed up for a private studio visit. Kim was very nice to speak with, giving me positive feedback and good advice for moving forward. During our chat he told me about some Toronto artists working in abstract painting. One of these artists was a young girl named Katie Pretti.
That same day I went online and searched the artists Kim had mentioned and was pleasantly surprised to find such great work being made just 2.5 hours away from me. I particularly liked the work by this Katie Pretti. I added her website to my favorites and often checked back to see what she was up to.
Then I graduated, moved back to Prince Edward County and started Spark Box Studio. After a few months of running the studio we launched our Emerging Artist Residency Award. One day I opened my email and saw a very familiar name. Katie Pretti. I was shocked. Why was Katie Pretti writing me?
It turned out she heard about the residency and was interested in applying for the award. Of course there was no hesitation, I offered her a space right away. I was so excited to have a young artist that I looked up to coming to my little studio.
Katie came to Spark Box in mid-April. She worked on a serious of plexi-glass engravings as well as a few etchings. We talked about school, getting our masters and showing work in commercial galleries. Katie has done quite well for herself in Toronto. She has been showing with LE Gallery for several years and just recently installed an exhibition with them called “The Vanitas”. This show is comprised of a series of 10 large-scale painting that explore the themes of death, emptiness, disenchantment, and the brevity of life.
It was a great experience having Katie at the studio.
HANDMADE MARKETPLACE
SQUARE2 ISSUE TWO
The Square2 team is thrilled to announce the release of their second issue. With more local artists, as well as some great outside talent, issue two is packed with great artists, writers, playwrights and musicians. We have gone up in pages and are happy to say we will be one of the first Eastern Ontario magazines to create an iPad version!
The fall issue of Square2 will be launched at Sly-Fi Chapel in Trenton in conjunction with Emily Fennell’s “Thank You” concert on September 25th. The evening will be filled with good music and interesting reads. Everyone that attends the event will be given a special edition copy of the magazine with a CD from Emily Fennell. Be sure to contact info@square2magazine.com for ticket information (there will be limited seating). We hope you will come out for the launch of our second issue!
Follow us on twitter and facebook to find out more information about the event and future issues.
Check out our website www.square2magazine.com
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
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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!
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.
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.
LETS WORK TOGETHER
My first biz blog is going to be something that we at Spark Box find to be the most important in the small business world – collaboration! Where would Kyle and I be without all the support and hard work given to us by people in this community? Having access to a motivated and helpful group of friends and community members can really make a small business survive. I know this seems like a totally obvious remark but it is seriously one of the biggest components to being successful.
We Need Each Other
The art scene is a small one and so it is pretty easy to get connected and support one another within it. Being a collaborative art studio we know all to well the importance of working with others. Its vital for us to have local artists use the space. So in order to make that happen we need to listen and act on suggestions made by our clients and potential clients. Collaboration for a business has to be good for both participants. That is why we also try to support our studio members outside of the studio space. Kyle and I recently attended an opening of one of our Open Studio members, Mia Lane. Mia currently has a show up at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville and we felt it was important that we attend. The show was great and there several other local artists there supporting Mia and her
Learn From One Another
Being an active blogger I have noticed that the arts/crafts world online are all about sharing information, contributing ideas, supporting other artists and their projects and cheering each other on. Bloggers especially love sharing their stories. These stories are a great way to hear about what they are doing but also to learn about small business trouble shooting. You are also supporting their projects by reading and contributing to their site. How great is that? Learn and give back at the same time! Collaboration can be that simple. Support can be that easy.
Etsy (an online arts and crafts market) is a great example of how amazing the arts community can be. Even though everyone on the site is trying to sell their own goods, and create their own client base many seem to want to help each other out. There are TONS of posts from other sellers giving helpful hints and tips on how to get your own shop open, running and successful. I love this about the arts community. We are so eager to give each other a leg up.
Don’t Drag Me Down
We have heard from a few of our residents that in art school professors tend to give little information about promoting your art and getting it seen. Some feel this is a fear of the market getting saturated or that the older generation wants to keep their fame and glory instead of letting new artists move up the ranks. I hope that we can help change this part of the “fine art scene”. The indie crafters are doing it… why shouldn’t the “fine arters”? This is why this part of the website is so important to us. We hope that we can share things we have learned from others, how we got to where we are and what we would never do again. Thinking that your business is all about you and believing that you don’t need anyone else is a HUGE mistake.
Looking for more fun business information check out our emerging artist website here
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.
BIZ BLOG
At Spark Box Studio we not only want to provide a great space where artists can produce work but we also want to provide those artists with a little business savvy. We feel that most people using the studio get a chance to chat with us about the business of art (although this doesn’t always happen in the most organized fashion, as we often find ourselves complaining about the ins and outs of the art world over dinner and a bottle of wine). Granted we haven’t had a whole lot of experience however the two of us we have been on a major learning curve since opening the studio and trying to get our own art into shows.
Recently Chrissy has been scouring the web and reading A LOT of great business blogs for crafters, designers and artists. She has signed up for everyones newsletter and has been getting some great ideas. As well we have both been reading up on grant writing, show application procedures, starting your own non-profit and the list goes on. We feel it would be unfair to keep all this great information to ourselves… so along with our emerging artist guide we are now planning to add a weekly (or what we hope will be weekly) business blog to our site.
If you think the information you find through these blogs or our emerging artist site are good, worth your time and full of handy information you can show us through filling out the survey linked to each post. This survey will not only show us your support and give us a reason to keep working at this part of the studio, it will aid in us staying alive as it helps fulfill our grant!
Looking for more fun business information check out our emerging artist website here.
ETCHING WITH LOYALIST COLLEGE
This week we held an etching workshop for the Art Fundamentals class at Loyalist college. Last week we visited the class and discussed the principles of hard-ground etching; how the process works, how to draw into a plate, what things to avoid etc. A copper plate is coated with a thin ground, traditionally wax or at Spark Box we use an acrylic ground. Using a sharp needle the ground is scraped into and the underlaying copper is exposed. You draw your image into the ground and when finished the plate is submerged into an etchant. The etchant will begin to corrode any exposed copper and leave V shaped trenches in the copper plate that later will hold the ink. In addition to talking about etching, we left each student a coated copper plate and a few tools. A week later the class was to visit our studio to print their copper plates.
The students plates arrived a few days before the students were to come so that we could have ample time to etch and prepare the plates for printing. On a Tuesday morning Into our studio marches 20 students along with Robert Kranendonk (their professor). Organizing the large group of students into a cohesive group was not difficult, they were all eager to learn the next steps on the process and we gladly proceeded to demonstrate them. We showed the students the steps of plate preparation and moved on into how the ink the plate and how to print the plate.
Quite quickly students were inking up their plates and getting into the line up for the press. Everyone managed to ink up and print their plate several times. The students really did enjoy themselves and were all quite pleased with being able to produce an etching. By the end of the session everyone’s hands were covered in black ink and surprisingly only a few students got printing ink on their faces.
Photos shot by Kelly Taylor.
