Carl Wiens’ silkscreen pieces are near completion with just one last layer. Can’t wait to see them all finished! Looking forward to seeing some more people working in the Open Studio including Nicole Armour. If you haven’t seen Nicole’s handmade books you really should take a look, they are beautiful! She also has a very insightful blog about books, movies, music and friendship called The We of Me.

We are excited to start another month and invite new people into our home and studio. On Wednesday we picked up our newest resident coming to us from Israel and staying for two weeks. Nava Astrachan will be working on three etchings during her stay. (image below taken from HERE).

On Thursday Kyle and I got to see all of our work up at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery and share the moment with our friends and family. The evening was a success and we were so happy to see friendly faces out for an evening in Belleville to support us and our work.

The end of this week finds the end of Sarah Burwash’s residency with us. It has been great having Sarah at the studio. I love her work and will be sad to see her go. I mean just look at this map she made of the area … awesome!

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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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Our upcoming workshop is a great place to start learning about printmaking if you have never tried it before.

WEEKEND MONOTYPE WORKSHOP

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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This introductory course requires no previous experience with printmaking. Students will begin the lesson with fresh copper plates and learn how to transform them into a small edition of prints. This workshop will teach students a non-toxic form of etching and will include hard ground techniques, aquatinting and soft ground techniques. By the end of the course students will have an understanding of the basic principles of printmaking including the above etching processes along with working with printing inks and using a traditional etching press.

A past winner from the summer 2011 residency award was painter and textile artist Alison Thompson. Her stay at Spark Box ranged from working on her paintings, to discussing the cross-section of art and craft, to embroidery our vintage chair, to exploring the Prince Edward County scenery.

It was such a joy to have her at the studio, her positive energy filled the house. Her work perfectly reflected her personality – bright, cheerful, vintage and fun. The work produced at the studio expressed her interest in the world of craft and her passion for the world of art. Her embroidery work filled the desire to work with traditional women’s needle craft and her watercolour paintings of quilt patterns addressed her pursuit of the fine arts.

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.

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).