Canvas to the Imagination

I’m always on the look out for inspiration to keep my creativity fueled and fired up. I collect things like postcards, art show flyers, clippings from magazines, cards people have given me, photos and other bits of ephemera. As shown in the above photo I keep some of the things on display pinned to the bulletin board facing my desk. I love having something interesting to look at while I work on the computer.

These days the internet has become my main source of inspiration. It’s the quickest and easiest way to do research for my work or randomly come across the work of other talented artists through Twitter, Flickr, or blogs. Thanks to Boris’ introduction to Posterous I’ve started gathering together all the bits and pieces I find on the internet that inspire me instead of leaving them forgotten in google reader or filed away in email. Take a look at my posterous page to see what I’ve collected so far.

Some of the artists featured on my bulletin board:
A print by Theo Ellesworth
Two invites for shows by Soizick Meister
A flyer for Cecilia Z. Miguez
Postcards by Anahata Katkin

Please leave me a comment if there is an artist or blog you find inspiring.

I was very excited when Opus Framing and Art recently announced their new digital canvas printing service. I’d been considering canvas printing for some of my recent photographic work so their timing couldn’t have been better. I selected two files from the portrait series and took them in to Opus to test out their print services. As you can see by the photos they did a fantastic job.

The colours and level of detail in the prints are really fantastic and the texture of the canvas plays nicely with the illustrative qualities of my work. Opus stretches the canvas in-house with a choice between 3/4″ or 1-1/2″ stretcher bars and four different styles of folding the corners. I went with the larger stretchers because it makes the finished print more substantial and I can hang it without a frame. I am really thrilled with these two prints and it’s only a matter of time before I have the rest of my portrait series printed on canvas as well.

I can’t say enough good things about the staff at the downtown location of Opus (which is the only location to offer this service) who are very knowledgeable and helpful. They were really great about answering my questions, and I was shown samples of digital files of varying quality printed on the canvas to give me an idea of how things would look. They also have their monitors calibrated to the printer for perfect colour accuracy. It took a week for my files to be printed and stretched, and they gave me a call when everything was ready. It’s a great service with even better results – especially when you start with high quality files.

As a side note, I had been planning to use Kickstarter to create a campaign to fund the cost of producing the canvas prints of my portrait series. I want to put together a show of this work but not beggar myself in the process. This morning as I started looking into it I discovered I need a US bank account and address because Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments Business accounts to receive funds and this is part of their policy. Now I’ll either have to figure out a way to make it work for me or come up with some other means to raise money to fund my art. Any suggestions?

This is one of those pieces where I began without a plan and just followed wherever the book wanted to go. I wanted to create another folded page book using the same fold pattern as I did in a previous work but I had no idea where I would go from there. I tend to select objects and materials to inspire the direction of the work, but this time I didn’t do that.

This is a book of four hundred and thirty pages which means I folded about two hundred pieces of paper. When I finished folding I played around with the paper further and eventually decided to roll the pages underneath one another. I added colour and pattern using a rubber stamp, first in yellow and then in green. I actually had the whole thing close to completion when I decided the yellow wasn’t strong enough colour over the text. I had to go back, unroll all the pages, rubber stamp them, and then roll them again. The butterflies were the final element and their bright colours are the perfect compliment to the crazy folded background.

Materials used: book, rubber stamp and ink, paper butterflies, and lots of glue.

In an unexpected turn of events I now have two art shows up at the same time, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

A few weeks ago I had an email from the Granville Island Cultural Society wanting to confirm the load in date of my show at Waterfront Theatre. I was taken aback because when last I’d been in touch with them regarding this particular show it was supposed to be rescheduled for another time because nothing was booked in the theatre space. To give a bit of backstory, I’d applied and been accepted in early 2009 to show my work at Waterfront Theatre in 2010 from the beginning of March to mid-April. When I’d followed up in September of last year to start preparing for the show I was told the theatre wasn’t yet booked for the time period of my show which meant no one would be in the space to see my work. I was disappointed but I decided to reschedule for another time rather than having a show in a space no one would be visiting.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and colour me surprised (and pleased!) because the show is still on afterall. The timing couldn’t be better because I am now a full time artist and getting more work out into the world is a good thing.

Luckily I’ve had a very productive period of art work creation over the last few years and I had a show on hand that was ready to go in the very short amount of time I had to prepare. In my application for Waterfront Theatre I had proposed to show the metal prints because at the time it was the most consistent body of work I had. Even though I had originally intended to create new work for this show I’m not disappointed. I’ve always wanted to show the large scale metal prints again and not just have them gathering dust in storage.

I’ll be having an artist reception towards the end of March, and will post details here once the date is confirmed. Boris has a few photos up of the work hanging in Waterfront Theatre.

Trees I have Dreamed
March 1st to April 11th, 2010
Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island
1412 Cartwright Street
Vancouver BC

For the month of March my altered books will be hanging on the walls of local starup tech company Bootup Labs, located in the newly renovated Flack Block on the edge of Gastown. I kind of miss having them around our apartment but it’s nice not to have them covering every single surface and hanging on most of the walls. (Yes I want a studio.)

On the evening of Wednesday March 3rd from 6:30pm to 9pm, I’ll be holding an artist reception to showcase the altered books. I invite you to come on by to see the work and say hi. There is a Facebook event page if you’d like to RSVP.

As a side note, half of the books have already been sold, which is very exciting news. Two of the books have been purchased by AdHack and will be awarded as prizes in their Olympic Ad photo competition which ends tomorrow.

Little Stories: Transforming the Book, artist reception
Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 – 6:30 to 9pm
Location: Bootup Labs offices
The Flack Block
Suite 200 – 163 West Hastings Street at Cambie
Vancouver BC