January 12th, 2012
I was very excited to finally receive my package from The Sketchbook Project yesterday. I can’t wait to get started on this because I have so many ideas.
If you’ve never heard of The Sketchbook Project, it’s a collaborative series of art books created by 5000 artists from around the world. Each person signs up to receive a blank sketchbook, which they fill with whatever they choose in any medium, and then send it back to the organizers. The collected works becomes a travelling show, and eventually a printed catalogue.
If you’re interested in participating, the deadline for sign-up is tomorrow.
November 8th, 2011
Another yarn tree has taken shape in the city of Vancouver, this time on the walls of the KidSafe Writers’ Room located in Queen Alexandra Elementary School.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by the program co-ordinator, Sarah Maitland, and asked if she could commission me to create a yarn tree for the room. After visiting the location in person I decided it would work better to create groupings of branches around the room rather than a full tree. It would be far too tempting and easy for the kids to take apart the pushpins and yarn so I placed them all out of reach. There are three groups of branches in the room, and each has a mix of red and green leaves.
I worked on the project while perched atop a ladder as well as the cabinets the branches are placed above. Adding the leaves to the ones located above the sink (pictured above) was the trickiest part. I had one foot on the ladder and one foot on the cabinet in a very unsafe position, but it was the only way I could reach high enough to tuck the leaves into the yarn. (Don’t try this at home kids….)
I’m really glad at how this project turned out, and it was fun to work on another yarn tree. Thank you to Nadia Baker for sharing my work and sending the commission my way.
Please read more about the KidSafe Writers’ Room. It’s a project that offers tutoring help and literacy programming to at-risk students in Vancouver, and they’re always looking for volunteers and donations to support the program.
October 18th, 2011
The Snowy Owl marks the end of the owl series of altered books I’ve been working on (at least until I can find more to use). This is the largest owl of the five, and probably the most intimidating with that glare of hers.
The composition for this one is pretty spare, and I’m struggling with whether to leave it as is or add a little “something”. From what I can tell these types of owls don’t perch in trees, and their environment isn’t very colourful. I decided to share it even though it feels unfinished.
I divided the book into four sections and folded these in alternating directions. I refolded some of the page ends to suggest a rocky (icy?) environment for the owl, and added silver and blue paper as the end pages.
My next step is to frame this one along with the other four. All of these will be on display and available for sale during the Eastside Culture Crawl in November.
Materials used: used book, decorative paper, paper owl, cardboard, white glue, and gel medium.
