RESIDENCY AWARD
Beginning your career as an emerging artist can be tough, which is why Spark Box Studio is offering FREE RESIDENCIES to fine art students and emerging artists. This residency opportunity is a unique way for young and emerging artists to cultivate new ideas, access a rich library of arts resources, learn about career-building opportunities, and develop an understanding of the art world from a business perspective.
Six emerging artists will receive a one-week (7 days) residency at our Open Studio in Prince Edward County. The selected applicants will be given a private studio space and given access to the Spark Box Studio equipment and resources, as well, winners will be provided with living accommodations for their weeklong stay. They will also have access to career guidance from owners Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping, along with, local community members.
The winter residency award runs from January 9, 2012 to March 31, 2011. Please be advised that the award is for 7 consecutive days.
Applying for the Residency Award gives artists the opportunity to practice an essential business skill in the art world: the application process.
APPLY NOW (DEADLINE NOVEMBER 1, 2011) CLICK HERE>>
THE LITTLEST PRINT EXCHANGE
Sometimes, when you don’t have time to create a whole body of work, it is fun to participate in a collaborative project. That is why this past summer I applied to be part of the Littlest Print Exchange. The Littlest Print Exchange is an annual juried trade of tiny art prints. Fifty artists are each invited to submit an edition of 50 prints and in turn receive a complete portfolio of 50 prints from all 50 contributing artists.
To my luck I was picked to be one of the 50 printmakers involved. So in early October I got to work making my 50 3″ x 3″ etchings to send off to Illinois. Why did Christopher Clark start the Littlest Print Exchange? He says that ”in truth, the Littlest Print Exchange is a chance to defy the notion that bigger is better, to prove that good things really do come in small packages, and to build connections between artists working around the globe.”
Being the owner of a print studio I encourage any opportunity to see the work of other printmakers and to connect with them. Because of this I was really excited and happy when I say the little package sitting in our mail box from Chris. I am also happy to announce that all of you can see these great prints as well. We will have the Mini Print Show up at Spark Box Studio until the end of the month.
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ONLINE FINDS: BOOOOOOOM
Image from the Booooooom website
If you don’t already read this blog then you have been missing out! Booooooom is by far the BEST art blog I have seen and it is coming out of Canada! Created by artist Jeff Hamada Booooooom started as a fun project meant to build a network of fun creative people and it is now one of the largest blogs on the internet. Booooooom features art, design, film, music, photos and more … you can seriously spend hours looking at really amazing work. Plus many of the artists are emerging.
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
MEET CAITLIN DEN BOER
Shorty after our grand opening Caitlin den Boer approached us to discuss renting one of the studio spaces and we are happy to announce she has moved in and is working in the studio on a regular basis. Caitlin is the owner of Adelita Rose Photography.
With over three years experience photographing weddings, Catilin has developed a great eye through the lens and operates a successful business. Visit her site, read her blog, check out her photos at Adelita Rose Photography.
DARK ROOM DONATION
Spark Box Studio would like to extend a thank you to Peter Gershom Allen who donated several boxes of well needed darkroom supplies. We met Peter at the second Creative Minds forum on July 14 2009, after we had spoke about our project. Standing next to the rather tall giant Peter we felt a little dwarfed. Peter told us about how he was a professional photographer in his youth and how his career led him to specialize in aerial photography. Peter offered us some of his ‘ancient‘ technology and we gratefully accepted. Upon inspecting the several dusty boxes we found two analog timers, a digital timer, a color enlarger, film canisters, photo paper bags, dark room lights, plastic trays, tongs, and an assortment of miscellaneous, unidentifiable objects; The kind you scratch your head at. With Peter’s donation Spark Box Studio moves another step closer to having a extensive dark room setup.
