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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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:

In September 2011 we hosted Philadelphia printmaker Josh Dannin at the residency. He stayed with us for a month and worked on two relief print pieces. Josh’s work “has evolved to feature a series of relief prints that comment on social and political turmoil. Much of [his] work touches on contemporary political gridlock and the absurdity of such a thing. In the form of dictator-like portraits, satirical caricatures, and bold text, [he] references the turbulent times of today. Citing words made famous by dystopian writers such as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, [he] is intrigued by how the themes these authors address increasingly parallel modern society. What originated as fiction has, in certain aspects, become reality.”

"Granny Smith", Linocut, 2011

“Not My Cup of Tea” and “Granny Smith” were the final pieces done by Josh at the studio. These works reflect some of his recent work which has  “…grown increasingly fascinated by the topic of evolution, and where it falls in political discourse. The close relationship between humans and chimpanzees is one that is confirmed by science yet remains debated among ideologies. The clash of Darwinism and Creationism, among other absurd political arguments, will act as a platform for future projects, in which he intends to experiment with print-based installation works.”

"Banana Republican", Woodcut, 2011

"Theory Of...", Linocut, 2011

Josh was a great resident and has remained a really good friend. Two weeks ago we had the chance to see the BFT Wolfbat project he worked on in New Orleans while we were down attending the Southern Graphics Conference (to read about that project click here >>). We hope to have Josh back to work in the studio again soon and wish him good luck with his MFA program he recently was accepted to.

"Wolfbat Box Car", Bill Fick, Carter Eggleston, and Josh Dannin, 2012

Wolfbat Box Car", Bill Fick, Carter Eggleston, and Josh Dannin, 2012

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Last week I went on the road to New Orleans for the South Graphics Conference. This was the first time attending this conference, actually this was the first conference Spark Box Studio has ever attended, needless to say I was pretty excited. Sadly, since we had residents booked in I had to make this trip alone, which meant a lot of long days and lonely travelling. Lucky for me tons of like-minded printers attend this event every year so the loneliness was short lived.

The trip began early Thursday with a 4 am drive to the Toronto airport. With just one minor hang-up with customs, I was quickly jet-setting to Louisiana. I arrived early afternoon, dropped my publisher booth stuff off and headed to my accommodations (which I found on Air BnB). The rest of Thursday was made up of searching for groceries and relaxing on the roof top of the loft I was staying in.

Friday was day one of the conference. Spark Box had a booth in the publishers fair so I left early to set-up my table. I took a walk through the beautiful, yet very smelly, French Quarter to the Sheraton Hotel where the conference was being held. I was the first publisher to arrive … which made me feel like a silly eager Canadian. But my eager attitude paid off leading me to meet so many nice people and share information to them about our studio and residency. Because of that minor customs hiccup I wasn’t allowed to sell any prints … but I did get to speak about them and the great printmakers who created them. I was set-up near the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program and got to met Chris Dunnett and Phil Sanders. I now hope that I will get some time to go to NYC and check out their space.

I left the publisher fair early that day to attend one of the demonstrations being held at Tulane University. The demonstration was being done by our university print professor Otis Tamasauskas. The drive to the demo was longer than I thought so I only caught the tail-end but made plans to go out with Otis later in the evening. We met up at the hotel and together with Gravity Press owner Brandon Graving we went to the evenings art walk. My camera died by this point so I didn’t get any pictures but the night was great. We stopped at the Community Print Shop, the exhibit at the Healing Center and Deborah Cornell and Barbara Putnam’s exhibit at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Saturday was another early morning walk to the hotel in order to re-set-up the publishers table (they moved us for day two). I decided the smell of the French Quarter at 7AM was a bit too much so instead I walked along the river. Day two of the publisher fair was held in conjunction with the portfolio sessions.  It was a great day. I split my time standing at the table and walking around looking at all the amazing and talented printed works. Splitting time between the table and other events was a challenge since I was by myself but next year Kyle will attend as well and we will have more time to go to the lectures and demos.

Past resident Josh Dannin came by the booth just as I was packing up and we headed to the Wolfbat Railroad event that he had been participated in over the week. The BFT Wolfbat Railroad was another printmaking project going on at the same time as the Southern Graphics Conference but not in conjunction with it. Wolfbat Studios (Dennis McNett) & Woodcut Funhouse (Sean Starwars) teamed up with Vans Custom Culture to host a three day customization event that was 100% free and open to the public. As the organizers explained it “The event included the construction of a wooden train consisting of 1 steam engine & 20 box cars. Artist, educators, and college students from across the U.S. tricked out their boxcar with screen prints, woodcut prints, flags, paper mache structures, and what ever else they can come up with. Each artist or team worked with at least 2 local high school and/or middle school kids.”

Saturday evening was the culmination of this three day event and was celebrated by taking the train on parade through the Marigny/Bywater area. After the parade there was a party with a great brass band and tons of dancing printmakers. It was a great time and a wonderful way to end the weekends events.

Sunday was my last day in New Orleans and I spent most of the day hanging out with Josh. We did a ton of tourist like things – walk through the French Quarter market, check out all the great street performers, eat beignets at Cafe du Monde and walk around Bourbon Street. After Josh headed back to Philadelphia I went to the botanical gardens with my accommodations host Andrea and then out to dinner.

It was a great trip and I am happy that we decided to participate in the events this year. We are definitely going next year in Milwaukee.

-Chrissy

The power of getting out of your personal studio.

During the summer of 2010 we accepted our very first artist couple. This was not something we had considered when planning the residency, in fact, we were surprised when Glynis Wilson-Boultbee and Paul Boultbee’s application came to us. After thinking it over we decided that it might be fun to have a duo working in the space. In fact, this might be the way Kyle and I would approach a residency. It turned out to be a great decision. Glynis and Paul came to the studio from Alberta, Canada. While staying with us Glynis worked on a variety of writing projects while Paul worked on pieces in preparation for an exhibition held this past December.

The great thing about Paul and Glynis was that they really found a way to enjoy the area and incorporate it into their work. Paul had originally planned to work on a completely different series but changed his mind after becoming inspired by the Glenwood Cemetery built in 1873. With its 62-acre property of rolling hills, mature trees and winding dirt roads it is hard not to be inspired by its beauty. This is something I really love seeing with visiting artists. It is pretty incredible how much a place can effect your work.

By changing your environment you can sometimes end up created something completely new.

For me this is exactly why we decided to start a residency program. We wanted artists to experience a new space and have that new space effect their work. Paul’s work is a great example of that.

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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 **

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It has been a productive week here at Spark Box. With three residents and Kyle and I using the studio there has been so much work being created. After having a couple months with no residents at all it feels so nice to have an energized studio space.

Kyle and I continued to work on different projects in the studio including etchings, silk screens and watercolour monoprints (one of my new favorite processes!). I finally got a new website put up for my personal work which can be found at chrissypoitras.com.

J.P. King has been making some awesome collage pieces, including some sculptural collages. These pieces inspired our upcoming Collage Party happening this coming Wednesday the 25th (find details by clicking HERE). Kirsten McCrea started working on some great paintings but has also been making these intricate patterned works, which I really want to see as wallpaper.

Sarah Burwash has been painting up a storm in the outside studio. It’s so fun sharing studio space with her and chatting about the stories behind each one of her paintings. We have also been listening to a lot of Radiolab … always filled with endless discoveries.

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As per usual I am trying to stay on top of the blog. I am realizing that I may not be as good at multitasking as I would like to have myself think. With the upcoming exhibition at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery I have been trying to go back and forth between the studio and Spark Box admin, which is proving to be difficult.

Anyway, onto the post about residency award winner Sarah Ammons, who was awarded time to work on a series of etchings a few years back. At the time Sarah was in the middle of her BFA at Queen’s University. We love encouraging artists in their undergrad to participate in the residency program as it is an ideal way to meet artists and build new connections.

We were quite excited about having Sarah work in etching since prior to her stay we hadn’t had many printmakers participate in the residency program. Sarah’s etchings were manly based on portraits and in her words were a “reflection on her outlook towards life”. During her stay she completed a number of medium sized works and had the opportunity to learn our non-toxic process.

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.