Canvas to the Imagination

So far 2012 is shaping up to be the year of turning thinking into doing. You know how it is, there are all these intentions and ideas in your head, and you never quite get around to them. For me this is completely focused around art, and all the things I’ve been thinking about for ages and not getting around to are ones that could contribute to my development as an artist.

In the past month there are three of these intentions I’ve taken off my list and transformed into reality. The first was to begin hosting an evening of art making with a small group of fellow artists. It was a terrific evening of good conversation, productivity, and sharing of art – exactly what I’d hoped for. I can hardly wait for the next Artist evening…

The second intention/idea I was happy to finally get around to was to launch my very own artist interview series. This was an item I’d written down on a list of goals for last year. It was the series of Food Advocate profile interviews I started for the Foodtree blog that got me going. I was impressed by the level of information people were willing to share about food that encouraged me to finally bring this idea to life and reach out to artists. You can read the first interview here.

This week marked the beginnings of getting started on a third goal that has been languishing away on a to do list, which is to establish a mentor relationship with a more experienced artist. Until recently I wasn’t really sure who to approach about this, especially knowing there isn’t another artist doing work similar to mine in Vancouver. But I realized this wasn’t a detail I should get hung up on, and came up with someone I wanted to reach out to. Yesterday I met with M.A.Tateishi, a mixed media artist I admire, and we discussed this idea of having her become my mentor. It was a really good conversation, and I look forward to her input and guidance as we trial this relationship over the next three months.

It feels very satisfying to get these long held thoughts into a forward motion. Now I just need to keep up the momentum…

One photo chosen from each month of 2011 – excluding ones of artwork. Doing this made me realise how little I’ve been using Flickr this year, and how much I use Instagram. I’ve also come to rely on my iPhone as a primary camera rather than my DSLR.

It was a year filled with lovely moments, which these photos only hint at.

Here’s to a good year in 2012!

I’m in pre-Christmas chill out mode, and so was catching up on blog reading when I came across this video. These large-scale pop-up sculptures are really incredible.

Perhaps I need to revisit paper engineering in the new year.