clickables

OK...now that Lynne has unravelled the mystery of making my photos clickable, I feel compelled to re-post my ink drawings so that you can see them full size in more detail. Please click away! Here they are, mounted for cards:

cast paper fragments

My cast paper fragments eventually dried and when I pulled them I was able to see which were successful and which were not. These are the ones I like. I'll make multiples of these and experiment with different designs as well. Stay with me as I progress with these. Lynne has helped me to figure out how to make all my images clickable so now you can click on each for a full view. Warning: these images are huge! They look better this size.

collections

A few weeks ago I came across an amazing post on the blog of Sculptress that got me thinking about my own tendency to be a collector of things. I started photographing my collections and then set them aside until I was inspired by Kathy's collection of beach finds to share my own. Here are some of my collections, each with a story and a place:

These are pebbles I gathered on a beach at the Baltic Sea near Łeba (pronounced weba) in May 2008 while visiting Poland with Jerzy. This was our happiest memory of the trip...walking along the windswept shore near the shifting dunes, picking up stones.

These are ptarmigan feathers that I gathered in Tasiujaq while doing a contract in Nunavik (Eastern Arctic in Northern Quebec) in May 2007. The hotel where I was staying was just on the outskirts of the small town of 277 people. The manager called my attention to the ptarmigan on the tundra outside, and as we were admiring them, a hunter drove up in his truck, pulled out a rifle, shot the lot, and loaded them up into his truck. The Inuit people live from the land and hunting is a way of life there. Afterwards, I wandered out to see if there was any evidence of the ptarmigan and I gathered these soft feathers.

Three vertebrae from an unknown animal found grouped together while on a canoe trip on the North Channel of Lake Huron. The Georgian Bay area is one of the most beautiful places in the world (I'm biased because I grew up in that area) and inspired many of the landscape paintings of the Group of Seven. If you click on this link, the painting you will see is The Bay of Islands by Franklin Carmichael and that's close to where I found these vertebrae.

These are wild cucumber pods collected in my backyard. I have a whole basket of them. I removed their prickly outer skins because I had a plan for the inner skeletons but never realized that plan. Some day...

These are pieces of shale that I collected in the Eastern Townships of Quebec while waiting on the side of the road for CAA (Canadian Auto Association) to come and tow away my beloved Toyota Tercel which had broken down. Sadly, that was its last journey.

My Jerzy is a gardener. He grows and nurtures things. If he finds a seed, he plants it. These are the thorns of tangerine trees planted by Jerzy at his old office. He planted a few trees in pots while he worked there as an electrical engineer and now he only does contracts for them and goes in once a week (I think primarily to tend to the plants!). He feels that the tangerine trees are his responsibility so he removes the thorns for public safety :) and brings them to me.

These are beech seed pods collected on a lovely walk in the Sudeten Mountains area in the Czech Republic, close to Jerzy's sister's place in Poland. She lives right on the border in a town called Paczkow. It's a beautiful region and we did many lovely walks through hills, forests and fields.

Snail shells collected on the shores of Lake Kagawong at our family cottage. This is on Manitoulin Island where I grew up and where my parents still live. A most beautiful place.

After I returned from Nunavik, in a kind of romantic, nostalgic gesture, I dug out the stones that were stuck in the bottom of my hiking boots and saved them as a record of where I had walked and journeyed. And now I do it still, as a kind of ritual. I have no idea where these particular stones came from but they are a marker of my feet's travels...

tool tuesday: scribe?

I was thrilled when Kathy Van Kleeck from Washington State sent in her submission for "tool tuesday" because not only is her tool's story a fascinating one, but I had the opportunity to see her beautiful work in PMC (precious metal clay) and to discover her great blog, waking up. She is now on my sidebar. Visit her blog and check out her post of July 29, 2008 for a peek at more of her tools and her wonderful workspace. Here's what she had to say about her treasured tool!

This is by far my favorite tool. I'm a PMC artist and have been for over 10 years. This tool - I'm not even sure what to call it, maybe a scribe? - was included in the original PMC tool kit that was sold by Rio Grande. That would be either late 1997 or early 1998. It's a wonderfully versatile and seriously basic design and, quite obviously, was hand-made. It gets into teeny cracks and crevices and smoothes and burnishes and scribes and gouges. It has a wonderful weight and feel. For years I wondered about its origins. Rio Grande just doesn't sell tools like this. The original tool kit was a bit of a hodge-podge. PMC was a brand new medium - nobody really knew what people would need or want to use. Through the years I've taught workshops praying that no one would steal my treasured tool. It was always stated early on in the class - "see this tool? It goes missing and there's going to be trouble!" Finally, last year I decided to track down my tool's origins. For some reason I was talking to the head PMC person at Rio and after trying to describe it, asked her if she'd ever seen another tool like mine. She was fairly new to PMC and had no idea, but why not contact Tim McCreight who was the original head PMC dude and liaison between the manufacturer and the distributor. I sort of know Tim - I did my certification workshop with him back in 2000 and I've emailed him several times with technical questions. So, I emailed him with the image attached and got a quick response.

Turns out my beloved scribe was made by one of his students back in '97 as a small money making project. Tim suggested the fellow forge out about 150 of these scribes to be included in the first tool kit. It's forged from a steel welding rod with adhesive gauze wrapped around it. The original gauze disintegrated years ago and it's wrapped with the second generation which is now in need of replacement. I don't teach workshops any longer, so I know my tool is safe. The current gauze is pretty much gobbed up with PMC and stretched out and fraying - but the tool itself is unchanged, beloved and held close.

Thanks so much Kathy! Bloggers...keep those tools coming!

hudson street fair

The street fair was a great success. Despite forecasts of rain, the weather held out until about 90 minutes before official closing time. The streets were full of people and the artist demonstrators at Mouche Studio Gallery were kept very busy sharing our techniques. There was a music festival going on as well and we were close enough to one of the stages to hear some great music. A fun day!

Hudson is a town of about 5000 people so our two main streets are not that big. This is one of them, blocked off for the street fair.

Me at my booth demonstrating my cast paper techniques. Got a bit of a sunburn!

Melissa and her mosaics. Is that a nipper in her hand?

Joanna with her funky safety glasses and her trusty torch forming a glass bead.

not in the cards

Thanks for all the encouragement for finishing (and starting) my cards but perhaps cards are not in the cards for now. Yesterday almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. My cast paper fragments that I cast on Thursday night were not dry (except the two pictured above) and are still not dry this morning even though I've had heat and fans working all night. When I realized that I could not work with cast paper yesterday, I tried making some ink drawings with some new inks that I have. As I mentioned before, I'm not very experienced at drawing or painting except in an intuitive way, so I just experimented and had fun with them. I enjoyed making them but made very few. I realize now that these will not be very cost effective, selling them as cards. It takes too much time and people will not pay much for a card. It's a lot of work and energy for a few dollars. I may be better off framing them as small ink works. Here's the dilemma (that most artists face)...I could go into mass production and make some very cute and quick cards that would sell well but would not be "me". Or I could stick with my style and my vision, take the time needed, charge what I think is fair, and those who like the work will buy it, even though the work may not be a big seller. Yup, that's what I will do. So no cards today! But I will do my cast paper demonstration today so I'd better go and get set up! Below are my ink drawings.

vulnerable fragments

Now that I have exposed my vulnerability by showing you my very dull shoes, I will reveal another flaw. I am a procrastinator extraordinaire, cursed with the terrible affliction of not being able to make art unless I have some sort of outside commitment like a show. One of my great joys is making art but I can't seem to do it without a looming deadline. I'm sure it has something to do with fear of failure, fear of success, frozen by perfectionism, or some other common human neurosis. Anyway, the bottom line is that I do well with a nice tight deadline. And today I've got one. This weekend Hudson is having their annual street fair and some of the artists at Mouche Studio Gallery will be doing demonstrations in their media. I will have a table showing my process of cast paper and perhaps some sewing on paper. So I thought it might be a good idea to make some cards to sell. I was hoping to go into full production mode this week and produce some cards but for three days I was struggling with a migraine. So yesterday I headed into my studio and made a start. And I'll be there again today. What gets done gets done. Pictured above are a few fragments of some old work (acrylics and collage)that I will incorporate into some cards. Tomorrow I will post some of the cards that I plan to make today. Wish me luck!

inspired by red shoes

I wasn't sure what to post today until I was inspired by uschi's post. It's all about life as art and seeing the things that surround you in a different light. She talks about viewing your home as if it belonged to someone else and suggested imagining what the people who live there must be like. She photographed her own wonderful shoes. I believe that you can tell a lot about a person from the shoes they wear. So I took a look at mine through new eyes. Rather uninspiring I must say. Those of you with fashionable shoes will probably be horrified. I'm not really a shoe person and comparatively I probably own very few. I don't think I've actually purchased any new shoes for at least 5 years now. I have specially-made orthotics that only fit into certain kinds of shoes, which does limit me. High heels are out! As a matter of fact, even low heels are out. Mostly because I prefer flats. Very practical, me. As evidenced by my shoe collection.

Here is every single pair of shoes that I own, including some that I no longer wear but can't bear to part with. All size 7.

tool tuesday: tile nippers

It's Tuesday again and that means tools! In my last post, the colourful and cheerful mosaic work of Melissa Davidson was featured and now we get to meet the tool that literally shapes these beautiful pieces. Her nippers! Here is what she had to say about her favourite tool:

When I’m in my mosaic studio, my nippers are an extension of my right hand. They shape the glass or ceramic tile to the size I need. Some people use double wheeled nippers but I like my trusty side biters, as some call them.

Thanks Melissa! Bloggers...keep those tool submissions coming!

tam tam jam

Every Sunday since 1979, people have been meeting at the foot of Mount Royal in Montreal to participate in the Tam Tam Jam. Drummers gather and play together in various drum circles while others participate in their own ways: dancing, juggling, acrobatics, hacky-sack and all kinds of other weird and wonderful antics. I used to go on a regular basis in the late 80's when I lived in the neighbourhood. This Sunday I went with my sister Maureen and her partner, Becky, who are visiting from Nova Scotia. It was a wonderful afternoon. We found a shady spot and just hung out with the hundreds of people who were gathered there. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon, people-watching while listening to the rhythmic beat of the drums.

mouche studio gallery

Friday was vernissage evening at Mouche Mosaics! Behold the yummy food we were privileged to try. I am one of about eight artists who exhibit and sell their work at Mouche Studio Gallery here in Hudson. It's an intimate and lovely space promoting the work of local artisans. It's run by Melissa Davidson who does mosaic workshops and mosaic commissions and Anne Brisson who creates papier mache sculpture, drawings, and functional art. Here are some photos of their work:

Two of Anne's "works in progress"... although I love them in their raw form.

This piece just sold!

And this "cat creature" is waiting for a home.

Melissa's mosaic mouche (fly in French)!

...and more of Melissa's stuff. Watch for her favourite tool on an upcoming "tool tuesday". Can you guess what it may be?

In addition to Anne and Melissa, there were four other artisans at the vernissage. Here are some peeks at their work:

Joanna's work

Camilla's work

Yoshiko's work

And mine!

multiples

Jo's last post got me thinking about repetition in nature and multiples in general. This is a metal piece I found laying on the road many years ago while I was attending art school. For some reason it interested me and I asked a friend to make multiples of it in the jewellery studio. I wasn't sure what I would do with these pieces and eventually I created a kind of bouquet from the 13 new pieces that had been made. For the past 12 years they have been displayed individually, each "flower" with its group of "stems" side by side, stapled onto my wall. A strange decoration indeed, but pleasing to me. But now I have taken them down and brought them together to be photographed in a bouquet. I like the bunchiness of them.

marché aux puces

I've lived in this area for about 12 years now, and until recently, I'd never heard of the Lachute flea market (marché aux puces in French). A few weeks ago, two people on two separate occasions, told me about it, and since then I keep hearing about it. So I decided I would go with my friend Tina, an art school buddy who lives in Ottawa. We don't see each other very often but when we met up a few weeks ago and I realized what a flea market fan she was, I knew we had to go! It was about a 90-minute drive for her and a 60-minute drive for me. The flea market was huge! There was a great fiddler playing in the snack bar area and even a few people dancing to his music. There was a guy selling amazing sausages (which we sampled later). There was another guy demonstrating his "magic sponge". There was everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to the usual made-in-china stuff to antiques to just junk. We spent most of our time at the "just junk" stands. Tons of fun going through bins of old rusty things! I couldn't resist taking a photo of all these shiny scissors! And here is what we bought:

This is Tina rummaging for old brass rings. I think she plans to make earrings out of them. And check out the impressive tool collection that she is amassing! She bought the giant drill bits just for their wonderful shape, the hacksaw to use, and the gyprock saws for their handles.

And here are my treasures! A collection of rusty doorknob plates (I plan to make some mini-assemblages with them eventually), a collection of tiny lightbulbs (not sure why I am attracted to these but I will find a use for them), copper seal rings (probably will incorporate these into some jewellery pieces) and a beautiful (antique?) object used for weaving. I was told it was over 100 years old, but who knows... I will rely on blog-readers to tell me its proper name. I got all these treasures for a grand total of $12.00. Hope to visit again...