August 31st, 2009
1. Time to myself at last!
2. Down time at last!
3. Quality time with my cute boy at last!
4. Asking for an adventure on Sunday and getting an excellent breakfast at the Twisted Fork (found by chance) followed by fun times at the PNE.
5. The return of my freshly repaired Contax film camera in just four days.
6. Shooting the first roll of 220 film in my holga. Fingers crossed everything turns out great.
7. Awesome summer weather.
8. Getting started on two large scale long-term projects that have nothing to do with art per se and everything to do with getting digitally organized and backed up.
9. Dropping into Xoxolat on Burrard for the first time ever and leaving with some of the most delicious chocolate I’ve recently tasted.
10. Feeling relaxed and recharged. FTW.
August 30th, 2009
I feel as if the summer of 2009 has been a very satisfying one as far as finally accomplishing some of the things I’ve been meaning to do for years… The collage post cards were one of those things I’d been thinking about forever, and publishing a Blurb book was another. Finally both are a reality, and it feels pretty damn good.
Because I plan to have a show of the 52 Weeks self portrait series I decided I would produce a self published book using Blurb as part of the process. It felt like the first step in narrowing down the selection from the 52 images (which is too much for a show), and also figuring out whether it could actually work as a show at all. I really struggled with that last part because I experimented quite a lot with different styles and techniques over the course of the series and felt it wasn’t very coherent as a show. Showing the work to a new group of people helped me see it more clearly and convinced me I wasn’t crazy about showing the 52 Weeks photos in a gallery.
The blurb book features only a small selection of the 52 Weeks photos. I chose what I felt are the best and most creative work, while trying to keep in mind how these will work together/compliment one another both in book form and hanging on walls. The 12″ x 12″ copy I ordered this week will work nicely as a one-off portfolio of this body of work that I hope to shop around while looking for a space to show. If you have any suggestions for places that could work in the Vancouver area, please let me know.
The 52 Weeks book can be purchased online through blurb.com. The size is 7″ x 7″ and comes in softcover or hardcover with dust jacket. Click the blurb badge below to see a sneak preview or purchase it on blurb.
A Year of Self Por…
By Rachael Ashe
Other Blurb books I thought were cool:
Masque de Gaz | Geoffrey Nicholson
The Devil’s in the Details | Laura McCabe
BenoitP | Benoit Paille
August 26th, 2009
One of the many bits of terrific information I learned in my “Artist Survival Skills” course with Chris Tyrell was about creating a vertical inventory of my work. This means creating a variety of work with different price points that allow me to cater to more than one audience. The idea behind this is to make the most of what I do by taking work that is time consuming to produce and therefore expense for people to buy and reproducing it in a way that is more affordable. A great example given of this was reproducing artwork as greeting cards.
I am a bit of a stationery junkie and write snail mail letters regularly so it was a no-brainer for me to turn my artwork into postcards. I selected five of the collages created in my moleskin sketchbooks, scanned them, tweaked and cleaned them up in photoshop, and created a postcard backside image to compliment the front. My friend Kirsti helped me put together the final print files and then off everything went to the printers. I used Minuteman Press in Vancouver, and I’m pretty happy with the quality reproduction of my work. (They also produced my new business cards and the labels I’m using to package up the postcards.)
The postcards are available for purchase through my Etsy shop as a set of five. Get ‘em while they’re hot.
August 25th, 2009
While in Seattle last weekend for a conference I came across the extraordinary work of artist, Morgan Brig. My friends and I were wandering back to our hotel along Second Avenue when her work caught our attention in the window of Patricia Rovzar Gallery. We were immediately drawn in to take a closer look.
Her wall sculptures are like collage in three dimensions, made with copper and enamel instead of paper and mixed media. They are magical, colourful pieces that incorporate texture, symbols, icons, and bits of text with the theme of “personal circus” running throughout. The titles of each piece, such as “She Said, I Too, Am of Wonder” or “Her Inner Child Was a Show to Behold” are as striking as the pieces themselves and compliment them beautifully. Brig’s work reminds me a lot of the crazy and colourful collage work of Teesha Moore sprung to life in 3-D.
My friends and I were blown away by her work and left wishing we had the money to buy one of her pieces to take home. Though if it were possible for me to purchase one I’m not sure I’d be able to decide which I liked best because they are all so amazing. The online photos of the work don’t quite do justice to how striking they are in person. This was easily the best art show I’ve seen in a very long time.
(Photos used with permission of Patricia Rovzar Gallery)
August 7th, 2009
My mom has always been one of those people who clips things out of the newspaper to either keep (like recipes) or share with my sister and me. It’s a habit we find both endearing and irritating because sometimes there are a LOT of clippings awaiting our inspection, and we aren’t necessarily interested in the same things she is. Despite the fact that I now live on the other side of the country my mom still saves and sends large collections of newspaper clippings whenever a package or letter is headed my way.
When I showed the latest bunch to Boris he said they are her, “Google Reader shared items.” I thought this was a pretty accurate (and funny) way to describe them and it also gave me the idea to further share the articles she’d sent me. For your reading pleasure, here are links to a few of the clippings from my mom:
Hershey the Mystery Duck
Warm Fuzzy Tale of a Good Swimaritan
How to Make Room on your cellphone
(It was too tedious to locate online all of the articles she sent, and the Toronto Star archives is apparently very limited.)
