Liz Kauffman finished her week-long residency stay with us last week. I really loved the watercolour pieces she finished while here.
Launa Bacon also finished her week-long residency with us. Each day she created an installation here on the property. I only got an image of the one piece but she will be sending more and I can’t wait!
Melanie Taylor and Nell Casson were at the studio this week working on their upcoming exhibition. It looks like it is going to be a really interesting exhibit. They are working with print, textiles, wood, and painting. Mel is focusing on hand-painted signs found around Prince Edward County and Nell is working on sculptural wood pieces.
What Else Is Going On?
We now have our workshops for the winter listed online. If you are interested in coming out head over to our workshop page and take a look.
We are also excited to host a few other events in the upcoming months.
- On January 24th we are hosting a Knit Night. Come out to our place at 7:00 PM with yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, embroidery, or really anything small project (yarn-based or otherwise) to work on. Snacks and a movie will be provided.
- In February we are planning to host a potluck. Come fight the winter blues with a blue Hawaiian potluck. Date TBA.
What’s New In the Curio Shop?
A few new postcards are in the shop. Also we have new hours Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 12-6 pm.
Well Happy New Year everyone, we are so excited to start 2013. With a few weeks of relaxation under our belts Kyle and I are ready to get back to running the shop and hosting residents.
Who’s Here?
Cold Fusion, TERRA-BYTE 3.0, Los Angeles, County Arboretum & Botanical Garden 2008
We are happy to be hosting California-based artist Launa Bacon this week. She will be working on site-specific installation pieces during her stay. I will be sure to keep you posted on these pieces in case you are interested in stopping by to have a look.
Schroon Mountains after Thomas Cole, 1833, watercolor on Yupo 21” x 29"
We are also excited to be hosting Maryland-based artist Elizabeth Kauffman. While here Elizabeth will be working on a number of paintings and pastel works.
What Else is Happening?
We are taking on new Open Studio members for 2013. If you are interested please send us an email (chrissy(at)sparkboxstudio.com).
Our Emerging Artist Award is coming close to its application deadline so if you are an Ontario artist between the ages of 19-29 years be sure to check out this great opportunity.
We are preparing our upcoming workshops for the winter. We are thinking of a few new ideas but are always interested in hearing what you would like to have us offer. Feel free to send us an email (chrissy(at)sparkboxstudio.com) letting us know what you would like to learn at the studio.
Links This Week:
-I have no idea if this works, but if it does it would be awesome: Paper Clay Tutorial.
-Unclutterer. Here’s to another year of hoping I become more organized!
Along with finishing her collage works Shelley has been busy in the print shop working on a two colour reductive linocut piece and several small silkscreens.
Part of Emma's Studio Space
Drawings in Process by Emma
Large Drawing by Emma
Emma has been working on some amazingly detailed black and white drawings. She is also prepping for a small embossing.
What Have We Been Doing?
Getting work done for the holiday sales. Last week was Fat Goose in Kingston, such a great sale. This week we have the Book Arts Fair in Toronto and the following weekend is Busy Handsin Picton.
With all the craft sale preparations there is a lot of great new items in the shop. If you can’t make it out to the sales but still want to buy local handmade items for friends and family check out our Etsy shop or come visit us at 885 County Rd. 5.
Emily Crawford, a recent graduate from the Western University‘s Fine Art Program, stayed with us for one week at the end of October. During her stay she expanded on a project entitled Lore, which she had been working on during her final year at Western. Using garments given to her from her grandmother Emily created a number of medium scale drypoints using plexiglass.
Print in Progress by Madelaine Lyons Cooper
Drawing by Madelaine Lyons Cooper
Madelaine Lyons Cooper, Toronto-based artist and OCAD graduate, worked on a number of watercolour monoprints at the studio during that last week of October. These pieces are going to become part of a larger installation based on the idea of haunting.
Sara St. Onge, Toronto-based filmmaker attending the residency for two weeks to work on her second feature length film script. During her stay the group of us had the pleasure of getting a sneak preview of Sara’s first feature length film MOLLY MAXWELL. Sara’s films completely suit my aesthetics and humour.
What Have We Been Up To?
We helped out Festival Players by being the models for their upcoming promotional material. Our inspiration was 1930s + Bonnie and Clyde, so fun.
We stopped in to visit the new Kid Icarus space, which was great! Definitely check it out if you haven’t already. Owned by Michael Viglione and Bianca Bickmore this shop is not only a store filled with beautiful handmade stationary, textiles, toys, posters and more it is also a functioning silkscreen studio. Michael and Bianca are working on putting together silkscreen workshops which sound like they are going to be perfect for people looking to learn about this versatile printmaking process.
This Weeks Links:
-Enjoying these neon sign sculptures by Olivia Steele.
-This post made me wish I would have checked out the Textile Museum in Toronto while I was there last.
The month before we moved to the new house we had Julie Gemuend stay with us. Julie is a photographer working in Toronto who came to the studio as one of our residency award winners to work on a new photographic series, as well as her thesis project.
These works all came out of her residency stay and address many of the themes she had been preoccupied with including identity, anxiety, self-transformation, the tension between hiding and revealing, opening and closing, and the many selves that exist between our most public and private moments.
What a fun week! We made paper lanterns, checked out some of the local art studios and participated in a craft event.
Kyle and Mile starting their paper lantern
Nella working on our Jellyfish Lantern
In preparation for an upcoming Lantern Festival Kyle and I attended a paper lantern workshop at Small Pond Arts earlier in the week. Ourselves, along with five others, were instructed by studio owners Krista and Mile on how to make lanterns using bamboo, tissue paper and a candle. Nell Casson and I built a medium sized jellyfish lantern, while Kyle and Mile joined forces and started building a huge fish lantern.
Everyone with their Lanterns
Later in the week I took the three residents around to a couple of the studios on the PEC Studio Tour. The rainy weather left us only seeing a few studios around Wellington and Bloomfield. The best parts of this trip were stopping into one of my favorite pottery studio in Wellington and a visit to the Oeno Gallery.
A few works by Wellington Pottery
Olivia, Linda and I with the Shayne Dark piece at Oeno Gallery
During the weekend Kyle and I set-up a craft sale table outside Mobius on the main street of Picton. Although it was rainy, windy and cold we still had fun handing out on the main street, visiting with people and selling our goods.
On Saturday afternoon I left our craft table early so I could attended Porchfest in Belleville, where my two friends Laura Todd and Sean Bokenkamp were playing their first show as Caesar Shift.
Sean and Laura Playing at Porchfest
My weekend closed with a short trip to the Kaleidoscope craft sale held at Fields on West Lake. I enjoyed the booth set-up of Michelle Morrissey’s Drifter Studios, the presentation really suited the nature of the work.
Michelle Morrissey's Booth
Links This Week:
-Getting ready for Christmas season and thinking about putting together a free kids card making event … may get some inspiration from here.
I know, I know once again we disappear for two weeks. The last two weeks have been great though! Our last week of August brought two residents for a week-long stay each. Toronto based artist Zora Anaya came to work on a series of paintings in which she experimented with resin. These bright coloured, abstract landscapes really took shape with the application of resin. Multidisciplinary artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher was testing out silkscreen as a potential medium for an upcoming project. She also completed a number of line drawing prints similar to those seen in her Porabolas works.
Our new handmade drying rack.
Kyle and I took some time during the week to work on a few projects we had been wanting to complete/start. A big project was building a proper drying rack for the print studio. A traditional metal drying rack won’t work in our studio space, so Kyle made a custom drying rack. This is just the beginning of the changes to come in the print studio.
Vicki's tasting table.
Vanessa getting ready to taste a tomato at Vicki's.
We also did some custom printing during the week for Vicki’s Veggies, a local organic vegetable farm. They needed their logo printed onto handmade bags for their annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting Event. We also attended the event on the Saturday and brought our resident Vanessa with us. It was great to be outside, see a number of friendly faces and taste over a 100 different tomatoes. Our week ended with a super cute farm wedding for our friends Katie and Dave.
Katie and Dave ... so cute!
I love this caption on Olivia's studio wall.
September began with two new residents, Olivia Cusack and Alea Drain. Olivia drove all the way to the County from Nova Scotia and will be with us for the month of September. During her stay she will be moving between painting and drawing.
A sweet little piece by Alea.
Alea was with us for the week as one of our Fall Residency Award Winners. She took the time at the studio to re-inspire herself and to test out a few new ideas. We received a lovely email from her just after she left which said: “I wanted that spark (no pun intended) again! That’s what this week gave me. I can’t express how great it’s been for me to be able to focus in such an amazing environment, and your words of encouragement …” The works started during her stay were successful and she is excited to continue to work on this series at her studio in Toronto.
Resident Tess Anne Sarbutt continues her exploration of painting through a series of small works. I love the colour palette she has chosen to use for these portraits.
Got to ride the carousel with my niece at the fair.
Fall is like spring, a good time of year to tidy around the house and get ready for the next season … winter. So, last week was spent cleaning up around our home, preparing for winter and getting ready for the new school year at Loyalist. It was also the weekend of the Picton Fair, which I attended with my two nieces (so cute) and the wedding of our two good friends Mel and Dari (remember the posters we made for their invitations … they were such a hit!).
Mel and Dari during the ceremony ... so beautiful!
We are excited to be back teaching this week and can’t wait to meet our newest resident Linda Cunningham who will be arriving to the studio.
If the week before wasn’t crazy enough this past week we hosted our week-long day camp. This year we invited teacher, past camp counselor and open studio member Genna Kusch to help us build an awesome day camp. Genna and I filled each day with serious art making, drama games and cute animal breaks (i.e. watching a couple YouTube videos about kittens/bunnies/owls). The girls who participated in the camp couldn’t have been more focused and serious about each and every project. They created pinhole cameras, Andy Warhol inspired silkscreen portraits, natural dyes for tie-dying and an edition of four relief prints (just to name a few projects).
Kids Camp: Creating tote bags and photographs with Inkodye
Kids Camp: Nature Walk/Draw your Senses
Kids Camp: Experiment with New Materials
While Genna and I ran the camp resident Jon Irving worked on finishing his last print before his two week stay with us came to an end. The last print was my favorite and I will try to get a good image of it for the post about his stay here. Tess Anne Sarbutt continued to experiment with water-based oil paints and began to find a way to make them behave more like the oil paints she is used to. And Kyle completed a series of four, two-colour, linocut prints (see below).
Tess painting outside in our front yard.
Mid-week Kyle and I paid a visit to our friend Hri Neil’s store Mobius where some of our work can be found. The store is a great mix of vintage collectables, art, handmade furniture and fashion. I loved the vibe and pretty much all of the vintage furniture he has for sale. If you want to stop in the shop is located on Main Street, Picton, just behind Chesterfields Cafe.
Outside Hri's Store
Our booth at the festival
Kyle's new work at the sale
On the weekend Kyle and I traveled to Peterborough for the Peterborough Folk Festivalwhere we had a vendors booth. It was a beautiful day to be outside and we meet so many new people.
Links this week include work we loved at the sale this weekend:
A great piece by Jeffrey Macklin of Jackson Creek Press
-Lora Georgiou’spottery is adorable. I love the drawings she has done of the bikes, hot air balloons and bees. We hope she might come and print here in the future.
Super sweet necklace by Fierce Deer
-The Fierce Deer had such an awesome booth set-up I really had a hard time walking away … could have spent hours looking at all the great things.
Cute cell phone bag by Kathryn Orok
-Our friend Kathryn Orok was there with her retro inspired textiles.
These longboards were so beautifully crafted.
-Finally, the people in the booth next to us, Blacklock Longboards, were selling these wicked handmade long boards.
Wow August you are flying by … and I apparently can’t keep up. Two weeks ago we started the week with a house full of people. The bride and groom from the week prior, plus three friends from Scotland, got rained out of a camping trip in Algonquin Park, so they said with us for a few days. On top of that we had two residents with us (a former classmate from Queen’s and her partner who is a writer). During those three days we made art, ate amazing food and played a lot of board games.
Works in progress by Jon Irving
Mid-week we welcomed new resident Jon Irving, a printmaker from New York. I met Jon while attending the Southern Graphics Conference in New Orleans this year. Jon plans to work on woodblock printing combined with chine-colle and silkscreen while here. During this past week he carved two blocks and nearly completed one print. His work is unique and playful.
Morgan working on some prints (image by Genna Kusch)
Work in progress by Morgan
Chris working in the studio
Our other printmaking resident, Morgan Wedderspoon, spent the week experimenting with a few new print processes. She wanted a change from lithography, a process that requires a studio, to something that will allow her to prep the bulk of the work at home before going to the studio to print. She started with plexi-glass dry points and they are looking awesome. Writer Chris Gusen focused on a short story project, finding spaces both inside and outside the house to write. It was really nice to see him lounging outside writing away in a notebook.
Our table at Zine Dream
At the end of the week Kyle and I headed off to Toronto for the Zine Dream sale. Zine Dream is always fun and great place for us to catch up with past residents or meet residents that will be staying with us in the fall. After the sale we went out for dinner with residents Morgan and Chris (sadly they were only staying with us for a week) and past residents Kirsten and JP.
Last week was the week of workshops. We held a large family etching workshop, a private two person etching workshop and a weekend workshop for a group women. They all turned out great and it was so nice to have people etching at the studio.
Mid-week we also welcomed new resident Tess Sarbutt who will be working with water-based oil paints while she is here. Jon continued to work on his woodcut pieces and I really love the amount of white space he leaves in his work.
Links this week include a lot of fun ideas for creating art with kids (since we were planning for kids camp):
-Totally love the looks of this place in Vancouver: Collage Collage
I know we haven’t been online in over a week but we seriously have a good excuse. Our good friends Genna and Alex recently got married and both Kyle and I were part of the wedding party. This wedding was unlike any other and the result was amazing and beautiful. Before wedding week though we had a great photography workshop with a young girl named Abby, welcomed two new residents, Morgan Wedderspoon and Chris Gusen, and said goodbye to Subaita Khan.
Abby Taking Photos during her Photography Workshop
The start of the week included two back-to-back, day-long, photography workshops with Abby. Day one involved learning the basics about the digital camera and heading out to take images of different locations around Picton. We started our photo shoot at the studio, then moved onto the skate park for action shots, then to the yacht club and finally we went to birdhouse city. Day two included a Photoshop demo, some experimenting with Inkodye and finally darkroom work resulting in a number of black and white prints. It was a great workshop and Abby’s focus and attention to detail paid off in some really great images.
Sewing the Bunting for the Wedding Tents
The rest of the week was devoted to the wedding. Genna and Alex’s wedding was almost 100% DIY and it took an army of close friends to pull the whole thing together. As a group we made and put-up decorations, planned and set-up tents, tables, the bar and lawn game areas, arranged and rehearsed the ceremony, created signage and built a pretty awesome photo booth.
The Guest Book Area
The Wedding Party Singing, image taken by Lindsey Van De Keere
On top of all that the wedding party was also the main entertainment for the evening, singing and preforming 10 songs for the guests. It was pretty amazing to see a group of relative strangers come together to create a magnificent event for two people they all really care about.
But now the wedding is over and it is back to life at the studio … obviously I am excited to be back printing and hanging out with Rico but I must say it was pretty fun being in a band for a week.
Here are a few links, including some places I would love to vacation to:
-I really want to stay at El Cosmico in Marfa Texas.
-Was just shown this site and can’t wait to spend some time checking it out: Thanks, Textbooks.
-In my anticipation for winter I have been looking at knitting patterns and I really like these leggings.
Last week seemed to be 90% devoted to planning and prepping for workshops. Hayden, Kyle and I spent the early part of the week getting everything ready for the Inkodye workshop which was held over the weekend. We made samples, put together material packages and planned the run through for each day. Once that was all set we moved onto planning the private workshop with 13 yr. old Abby, which involved making sure all of the black and white darkroom materials were in working order. During our testing Hayden and I realized that either the paper had aged or the developer had gone bad, so we called up local photographer Graham Davies who, luckily, saved the day by allowing us to take a look at the paper in his darkroom. Kyle and Hayden also started printing a second camera linocut which has a pretty amazing two colour blend. Can’t wait to see it with the key block printed!
An eye Glynis had put on her wall, along with a photograph she took while adventuring
A few of Paul's small painted works
This week we also said farewell to Paul and Glynis. Their two week stay here flew by, but they left expected about where their new projects were going to take them. Subaita planned for a weekend trip to Ottawa where she will take images of the Parliament buildings to use as subject matter during her final week at the studio.
Subaita working on textured backgrounds in her studio
Everyone outside during the workshop watching their Inkodye projects change in the sun, image by Genna Kusch
Genna's table decorations drying after a heavy application of gold spray paint, image by Genna Kusch
At the end of the week we got to see all our workshop in full effect with our four participants experimenting with the Inkodye on both wood and fabric. The workshop was a lot of fun and the group was a pleasure to work with. An added bonus to the workshop was that we finally got to meet an online friend Annie Jaeger who runs the website Trout in Plaid.
The weekend was also filled with a bunch of DIY wedding projects from friend and open studio member Genna Kusch who is getting married this Friday. Congrats Genna and Alex!
I love when artists propose really specific and interesting projects for their residency stay. Multidisciplinary artist and curator Maggie Flynn was definitely one of those artists. Maggie stayed with us last summer for a week and during that time she complete a number of soft ground etchings which were later used to produce a video called “The Line is Breaking Up”. This work was centred around research she had been doing about language learning and translation. She couldn’t have come to the studio at a more perfect time since we had a resident visiting from Aruba, another from China, plus a German and Bulgarian printmaker working at the studio.
The process that Maggie took was to begin with one phrase (the line is breaking up) and ask for this phrase to be translated into another language. She had each of the participants hand write their translation which was then transferred into the soft ground and etched into copper. Each translation was printed onto a scroll which is what you see in the video. Maggie re-translated each translation into English and asked the next participant to translate that version (sort of like the childhood game Telephone). To make the process even more interesting Maggie only used one small piece of copper, rubbing out the translation before it with a burnisher before applying new soft ground and etching the next translation.
Detail of The Line is Breaking Up
Maggie holding her finished piece
Please feel free to share the work of Maggie Flynn with others:
Image of Glynis' table with bits and pieces of collage elements
Some collage inspiration on Glynis' studio wall
Where to begin with the weeks events? Paul and Glynis have been busy in the studio painting, writing and working with collage. Both are preparing to different classes they are participating in upon their return to Alberta. Paul has been painting small works and experimenting with texture and materials and Glynis has been working with collage and editing a group of short stories.
A few of Paul's experimental paintings
Kyle, Hayden and myself have been printing t-shirts, working on personal projects (which include new coin purses and vintage camera relief prints) and creating samples for our upcoming Inkodye workshop.
Hayden helping Kyle print the camera image
Kyle and I put focus onto producing more work for our shop. Kyle finally finished a linocut print he had been working on for awhile now and I started sewing coin purses, which I have been wanting to do for some time now.
New relief print by Kyle
New change purse by Chrissy
On top of all this we also taught a private lesson to a soon to be open studio member and delivered printed work to our friend Hri’s new shop in town on the main street.
A row of small etchings from a workshop done with Loyalist College, image by Kelly Taylor
Yesterday I wrote about starting your own arts business and while writing that I started remembering all the considerations Kyle and I had when we first began planning what our space would be like. One of the big topics was the toxicity of printmaking and how we were going to deal with it.
We both love etching and we knew we wanted to have this processes available at the studio. We started to research what was needed and quickly realized that the traditional methods were both expensive and hazardous. Although we had learned etching the traditional way, we made the choice to make our studio as “non-toxic” or as safe as we could (the reason for the quotation marks is because I realize no form of printmaking is completely non-toxic). Today I wanted to do a post on our use of acrylic resist etching.
Group of students inking up their copper plates, image by Kelly Taylor
Our Experiences with Acrylic Resist Etching
In case you are unfamiliar with etching, traditionally, with hard ground etching one would use an oil based wax for their ground. This wax would melted onto a copper plate using a hot plate and a roller. When the wax hardened the artist would take metal etching tool to draw their image into the wax and then etch the plate in an etching solution. The wax acts as a barrier between the copper and the etching solution causing only the drawn area to become etched. The concern with this method lies both in fumes associated with the melted wax and nitric acid etching solution and with the removal of the ground after etching, which requires the use of solvents. There are differing opinions on how toxic this process is but Kyle and I felt that it would be best if we tried a different approach. During our research we came across the website nontoxicprint.com, which is filled with amazing information. It was here that we first found out about acrylic resist etching and the Edinburgh Etching Solution.
Kyle and I had a pretty open mind when moving into this process. We knew that, like with many printmaking processes, there would be bumps and hurtles along the way. We understood that not every experiment would work out and that we would have to learn from experience before finding the best recipe for us and our studio.
Kyle painting on the acrylic resist
The major different with acrylic resist etching is that the ground is acrylic (we use Future Floor Wax) instead of the traditional oil based wax ground. In addition, the acrylic resist is a liquid ground and the traditional wax ground is a solid wax ball. Kyle and I did many tests and found that starting with a light sanding of the copper, followed by a diligent de-greasing (we use Comet) and completed with two coats of the acrylic ground works best. Sometimes we would pour on the acrylic wax and other times we paint it on with a foam brush. Both methods work but when poured on you are less likely to see accidental lines in your final etched piece. We also add a bit of India Ink to our wax to create a darker tone. If you are used to smoking your plate, which was never something we did in school, you can add a layer of black gouache after you have coated your plate twice with the ground and it has had time to dry.
Drawing into the twice coated copper plate
The etching solution used in method is called an Edinburgh Etch. It is made with ferric chloride and citric acid, a much safer alternative to nitric acid. We have been using our tank for the past three years and the etching time is almost the same as the day we made it. It takes about 20 min to get a nice deep etch (you can shorten this time with different ratios of water to ferric).
What We Love About This Process
1. We have no solvents in our studio.
2. Our etching solution gives off no toxic vapors and will not lead to violent reactions if spilled.
3. Clean up is easy and safe. Our ground is cleaned with water and baking soda, our etching solution is diluted with sodium carbonate (washing soda) and water and our inks are cleaned with vegetable oil and vinegar.
4. We never worry about dissolving your lungs or accidentally creating toxic gases like we would with nitric acid.
5. After comparing both processes we notice little difference in the final product, but we notice a big difference in the state (and smell) of our studio.
If you found this post interesting or helpful please share it with others:
Everyone painting outside ... then it got too hot.
What a great week, a bit too hot, but otherwise nice. We are happy to welcome our new intern, Hayden Maynard, to our studio. Hayden will be working with us until the end of July. This week we had him helping us with our signs. We finally put a sign up at the end of the driveway and put a bit more work into the mural on the outside of the building. The heat is really not helping with the completion of this task however. Thanks to Cecilia from Sandbanks Vacation for sending us images of everyone outside painting.
detail of Subatia's still life set-up
Two of Subaita's still life studies
Subaita started working on some still life painting and some plein air studies (I love when people paint the house). We are excited to have Paul and Glynisback at the studio again. They came to stay with us two years ago and have returned for the last two weeks of July.
Plein air painting by Subaita
Our Inkodye arrived during the week and we are seriously looking forward to hosting the workshop at the end of the month. There is still one spot open if you are interested in joining the class.
Kyle and I Kayaking
Rico enjoying the bay
Kyle and I needed a break from the heat so we went kayaking in Cressy one night. Neither of us had been kayaking before but it wasn’t too hard and we both managed to stay in the boats (which I think was a pretty great accomplishment). Rico was very excited to run through the water and relax by the bay.
Here are this weeks links:
-This helpful postabout food photography (which can easily be used for art).
This week felt relaxing in comparison to the past few. We had time to catch up on a lot of things and get our studio back in order. We reinstalled all the framed work in the Curio Shop and added new work to the Etsy Shop. We are happy to finally have Kyle’s new Vintage Cameras and Trailers in the store. We also put up Nella’s new Animals in Aviators which are pretty funky.
Detail of a work by Jen
Studio view of Subaita's Space
Residents Jen and Subaita worked on their projects. Jen was finishing the last few pieces she wanted to complete before the end of her time here and Subaita continued to work on paintings involving the female form. Recently the two had found a local life drawing model who has been coming to the studio for private figure drawing sessions, which has worked out well. On Saturday we said farewell to Jen as her two months here had ended. She really found a side of her practice she hadn’t expected and found an interesting focus with her figurative pieces. We wish her the best of luck in the exhibitions she has recently entire with these new pieces.
Kyle painting the letters on the outside of the Studio
Kyle painting our new studio sign
Kyle and I started to complete the mural and other bits of signage for the studio. Such an important part of any business yet one that often gets rushed or left until the last minute. We are hoping to have it all complete in the following week.
Past Resident Amanda McCavour at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
Detail of Amanda McCavour's Installation
The weekend meant back to Toronto for Kyle and I. We had a bachelor and bachelorette party to attend, plus it was the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. We had a great evening partying with our good friends Genna and Alex on Saturday night and an equally great time meeting new artists and visiting with former residents at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
Wall Installation of Textile Art by Shuyu Lu
Lee Richmond with her Collage Works
Ceramics by Janet Macpherson
Upcoming Resident Sabrina Scott in her booth
Artists We loved at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition:
We have had a lot of painters come through the door here at Spark Box but when I saw Sylvia Chan painting with egg tempera I felt like we really had a painter in our studio. Sylvia was one of our winter 2012 residency award winners. During her residency stay she worked on four landscape paintings which are part of a series in which she has been looking at “how easily objects can be removed and taken away from an environment; yet at the same time remain in the minds of people through experience.”
Oil Painting, 2011
Oil Painting, 2011
Oil Painting, 2011
I loved the broken down environments found in Sylvia’s work and her call back to traditional oil painting. Here is how she describes her work:
“The passage of the seasons, the cycle of birth, growth, reproduction, age, death, decay and rebirth and the imagined reflection of the human moods and emotions in the aspect of human natural forms. My paintings derive from my involvement with taking photographs from life and in looking at artwork done in the 18th -19th century mostly at the romantic era. I am interested in creating physical landscapes that embodies human experiences and using it as a way in representing the transitions or tragedies in human life.”
Well as I bet you can assume the last week was bit busy and resulted in absolutely no posts on the blog (which goes against all the “how-to be an awesome blogger” sites I read on a regular basis). I am going to catch you up though, not to worry. Over the past two weeks we have had a lot of fun at Spark Box and have also been enjoying the amazing summer weather.
The Drive into the Grange Winery
Subaita and Jen at the Lavender Farm
To give the residents a much needed studio break we took them on a little County tour which included a stop at the Lavender Farms, two wineries (Closson Chase and The Grange) and the Oeno Gallery. As usual it was great to get out of the studio, hand out some promotional material and show off the area to our residents.
In other resident news we had the chance to share the studio with printmaker Ryan Laidman again as he finished up some of his etchings. And Subaita and Jen continued to work on their paper works and also did some life drawing together with a local model.
Work in Progress, Ryan Laidman, Etching
Work in Progress, Ryan Laidman, Etching
June 18 – 23 was occupied by preparing for the Skeleton Park Music Festival, which we were participating in as vendors. Kyle, Nell and I finished the last bits of new work and made plans for the table set-up. Just before the weeks end we got a lovely visit from Kyle’s mother, her partner Ron and their new puppy Mr. Magoo (so cute!). After they left Saturday morning Kyle and I headed off to Kingston for the music festival which proved to be a great day and a successful summer sale.
Mr. Magoo
Part of our Booth at the Skeleton Park Music Festival
Tuesday, of the following week, brought us to Toronto for a speaking engagement for our former granting agency. We were asked to speak on a panel of “best practices” for the Youth Entrepreneurship Partnership at their public forum. It was nice to meet the people that helped us get started and supported our crazy artist residency idea from the beginning. After the forum I met up with former resident Kirsten McCrea and we toured around Toronto visiting some of my favorite places (401 Richmond Building and Kensington Market), making sure to stop in at Kid Icarus and Good Egg. After Toronto we helped Kyle’s brother move from Barrie, Ontario to Whitby, Ontario.
Me with my work at Art in the County
Our Booth outside of Kelly's on Canada Day
Finally, our week ended with seeing our work in this years Art in the County Exhibition (sadly we only have one image because they were not allowing any to be taken during the event …) and setting up a small booth outside of Kelly’s for Canada Day. Whew … I am looking forward to a week of sitting in front of the computer and catching up on emails.
Being that I wasn’t online much recently, here are some links to great places I didn’t get to go to in Toronto last week:
I love the way summer gives you that extra bit of energy that you need to get out and say “hello” to the people in your community. We spent the beginning of the week driving around the County handing out information on our summer workshops and curio shop, it was a nice chance to visit and see what everyone has been up to over the winter.
Subaita working in her studio
New Figure Studies by Jen
Detail of Rhiana's Painting
While we were running around our residents were busy working in the studios. Subaita started working on a number of experimental paper works, Jen continued to explore her expressive figurative works and Rhiana completed her two large oil paintings. Read the post Rhiana made about her stay with us here >>
A few Images from the Awards Night at Trenton High School
On Thursday Kyle and I were invited to be the Keynote speakers at the Trenton High School Art Awards. It was a fun night filled with singing, dancing and watching a group of creative teens be appreciated for their hard work.
Outside the Blizzmax Gallery the night of the Opening
My work in the show (sorry for the image quality)
The week ended with a great Abstract Art Exhibition opening at Blizzmax gallery on Saturday night. The show looked amazing and I felt real happy to be a part of a fun P.E.C. art exhibit. There was a good turn out and I had a very nice evening catching up and talking to people about the new watercolour paintings.
A few things that have caught my eye online last week include:
Details in Death, Woodcut Reduction, 16 x 18, 2007
Venice Pigeons, Woodcut Reduction, 24 x 18, 2008
Going back to 2010 we are going to look at past resident Amanda Chan. Amanda was one of our Emerging Artist Award Winners and came to the studio to work on wood relief prints. Relief prints are printing process where information is carved out of a sheet of wood and ink is rolled onto the surface. The carved area remains the colour of the paper where the raised area becomes the colour of the ink. Amanda did not work with relief print in the traditional way while at the studio. Instead of carving her imagery out of the square or rectangular sheet of wood she would cut the wood into different shapes, which she would then ink individually and print it onto the paper in layers.
Portrait No. 2: Discovery of Incandescent Light, Chine Colle & Woodcut reduction, 36 x 44, 2009-10
The work done at the studio was part of a series of work that explored portraiture. She was interested in ways she could capture the a person without detail or line. She was interested in how she visualized a memory of a person, in her words: “… when I do this I see color and light, but no line. To me the lines of a face have melted away into a blur because to know a person is to see them in many if not all different aspects, poses and motions of their features. My intention is to continue the creation of transformational featureless portraits, containing light, which will speak of memory and life.”
Last week left Kyle and I feeling super organized and enthusiastic. We started the week with the final workshop at Pathways to Independence. This workshop allowed each participant to print their copper etching. It was a fantastic afternoon. Each participant printed an edition of four and had a chance to try inking the plate, using the press and chine-colle.
Work in Progress by Rhiana
Jen getting ready to start painting outside
Jen Painting by the Fields
Our two residents have been painting like crazy this week. Rhiana is focusing on two large black and white oil paintings and Jen has been moving between plein air painting and figure drawing (rather figure painting). They both have been seriously committed to their studio time which is always very inspiring.
Finished Wedding Invites for Mel Larkin
Nell and I Painting the Studio
Kyle, Mel and I finished the last layer on Mel’s wedding invitations. They turned out really well! Mid-week brought Nell Casson to the house and she and I started painting the outside mural on the studio (can’t wait to see it completed)! We also went to the Loyalist Convocation near the end of the week to be there for our students who graduated from the Art & Design Foundations Program.
Kyle and I in our Gowns for Graduation
It was great to be there to see everyone graduate. I never went to my graduation, instead I left for a three month road trip across the US and Canada, but there is something really special about the experience and I was happy to be there to celebrate the day with our students.
Some of Our Students and the Awesome Shoes they Wore
During the weekend Kyle and I were pulled away from the studio for my cousins wedding in Kingston, Ontario. It was such a great day spent with family. Plus there was the added bonus of the location, Kingston is one of my favorite places to visit.
A Few Pics from the Wedding
Finally, the rest of the weekend was spent welcoming our newest residency Subaita Khan, who is visiting us from Karachi, Pakistan, and putting the final touches on my work for the Abstract Exhibition opening this Saturday at 7 pm at Blizzmax Gallery. Hope I will see some of you there!
All this activity has left me longing for some serious relaxation, which brings me to this weeks links:
-My desire to have a hammock is getting pretty intense. I would love to have one like this, or like this or perhaps even this!
-Going here to check out Netflix movie recommendations (and hope to find them on the Canadian version).
I recently signed up for the Oh My! Handmade Goodness Newsletter and I loved today’s email. The focus of the email was “Earning Street Cred” and it was filled with great advice. As I was reading through the list of 23 tips I started thinking about the Promoting Yourself section of the Emerging Artist Guide. These are the five new points I think you should consider when promoting yourself and your artwork:
1. Get an email signature.
It sounds a bit lame and corporate but it is a really nice way to direct people to your website, Facebook page, Twitter, whatever via email. Oh My! Handmade Goodness recommended Wisestamp. In the past I have just made a simple version through my Gmail account but I am defiantly going to try this option.
2. Get a fun business card.
Check out websites like Moo for interesting design ideas. Or perhaps consider making stickers or pins! An interesting business card is going to make you stand out.
I don’t know how many times we have had artists apply to the residency who don’t yet have websites. Not that this effects whether we accept them or not, but it does make it more difficult. I like being able to see what an artist is like, how they work, how often they show and how much they create, a blog makes this easy for me find out. It is definitely something that makes the decision to accept someone that much easier.
4. Go to events.
During the time that we were renovating we were unable to attend as many events and this directly effected the foot traffic at the studio. When you attend events you meet new people and you remind the people you know of what you are doing. Being involved with your local art community is one of the best ways to promote yourself and your work.
5. Get on social media.
I know it takes up time and it feels a bit odd sometimes plugging your work to friends and family but it really is an easy and effective way to stay connected. I love going onto Facebook or Twitter and seeing what our residents are up to. It gives me a space to connect with them on a platform that I am using everyday.
If you have seen success with a type of self-promotion please feel free to comment below.
If you would like to share this post with others please do:
Sarah Burwash was an amazing resident we had staying with us in earlier in 2012. I feel in love with her work as soon as I opened the first image in her application. From her playful illustrations to her more serious narrative paintings, each work Sarah did while staying with us was beautifully done.
Feather Illustration, Watercolour, 2012
Branch Illustration, Watercolour, 2012
Sarah is a graduate of the University of British Columbia Okanagan with a BFA in drawing and printmaking and she currently lives and works in Halifax. What I enjoyed most about Sarah’s work was her subtle and romantic colour palette and stories about strong Canadian women she used as inspiration for the paintings done during her residency. In her own words her work:
“… is guided by my desire to give voice to dormant and disguised histories, depicting people and places from another time through open-ended narrative drawings. I draw upon my personal history, literature, old newspapers, myths and tales told first hand. My interest lies in how history and the contemporary moment collide, and how this might be portrayed through human interactions, social behavior and relationships to the land, nature, family and community. My work seeks the threads that connect the past and present, weaving imagery that urges people to wander through the drawings, discovering more upon each view and unfolding questions about the foundations on which our communities are built.”
This week was seriously busy. We had open studio members printing at the studio, major printing projects for our friends wedding, an offsite etching workshop and two sad farewells to our awesome residents.
Work by Katie Bruce
Katie Bruce Working in the Studio
Residents Katie Bruce and Jane Wiseheart headed back home this week. They both finished up their last few projects and were back off to Alberta and Massachusetts. They were great residents and we are going to miss having them around. Jen Mykolushyn and I worked out a plan for a graphic novel project she has been working on the last few weeks. And we welcomed our newest resident Rhiana Sneyd to the studio on the weekend. Rhiana will be working on a number of large scale oil paintings while staying with us.
Photo of Jane's Studio
One of the patches Jane had made for her friends band
The studio was packed full of activity this week, starting with an off-site etching workshop with Pathways to Independence. The workshop with the group of six went very well. All of the participants worked on a copper plate drawing which we took back to the studio to etch. Some participants drew scenery and others chose to draw patterns or figures. It was a great mix of ideas and each of them enjoyed the process.
Images from our workshop with Pathways to Independence
Open Studio member Lis Gare worked in the studio during the start of the week, adding her final layer to a series of prints for the Oeno Gallery. The end of the week brought some late-night printing with friend Mel Larkin.
The group printing wedding invitations
This week I have been pretty obsessed with food blogs … perhaps it is because when I get this busy I find little time to make amazing meals. Here are some of the websites I have been drooling over:
