January 25th, 2012
On the weekend I attended the first in a series of monthly studio visits organized by the Eastside Culture Crawl. Hugh Kearney hosted our small group in his cosy Railtown studio and his colourful work was the perfect counterpoint to the dreary weather outside.
My friend Val and I were the first to arrive, and Hugh treated us to genmaicha in beautiful handmade mugs while we waited for the rest of our group.
Hugh Kearney is a mixed media painter creating very colourful landscapes, abstract work, and sculpture from found objects. I really enjoyed his talk because he spoke at length about the evolution of his art career and how this affected his process over time.
He mostly works on paper and is heavily influenced by his environment, both natural and handmade. He’s also a musician, as evidenced by the guitars and amps placed around the studio.
These intimate studio visits are a great opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the many artists in Vancouver. The series will continue once a month until June, so stay tuned to the Eastside Culture Crawl facebook page and website for details of these upcoming events.
January 24th, 2012
I started working on my Sketchbook Project at the end of last week and things have been going very well. I decided I wanted to experiment and keep things loose with this and so far it’s working wonderfully well.
I’ve chosen to do a mix of paper cuts and collage on alternating pages, exploring the theme of Thread and Surface (one of the ten you have to choose for the Project). The paper cut pages will overlay the collage pages and create an additional layer. I’ve been concentrating on the paper cut designs first and have been creating them free hand with an xacto knife. These are three of the seven I’ve completed so far.
I’ve been choosing a different shape to focus on for each one and just letting the design flow from there. It’s an addictive process to work with – creating designs from cutting paper – and all sorts of additional ideas have grown out of it.
I’ll share more as the project progresses. I can’t wait to get started on the collage pieces next.
January 24th, 2012
In February I will be sharing my book altering techniques as a guest teacher at Blim. The workshop is a short introduction to making altered books, with a focus on paper folding.
To get an idea of some of the work you can make in this class, check out the set on Flickr of work made by students from previous workshops.
For further details and to register for the class, please visit the Blim website.
Altered Book Workshop at Blim
Date: Saturday, February 25th, 2012
Time: 2 to 5pm
Cost: $74.80 ($65 + tax + $2 service charge)
Location: 115 Pender St. E, Vancouver
