It’s a great reminder to follow your own path, and to remember to enjoy the journey.

The Bowen trip was fun because we invited a pile of friends to stay with us, which led to much good food and plenty of laughter. The star of the weekend was Bosco the dog (pictured below) because he charmed and entertained everyone.

We had a few good days of almost summer weather, and then the rain came. I don’t think anyone really minded, because it was a good excuse to stay inside, read a book, play games, and cook.

Here’s to a promising summer full of excellent weekend adventures with friends.

I feel invigorated, inspired, and excited after visiting the 2012 Sketchbook Project travelling show. It was here in Vancouver for only two days with limited hours at W2 Media Cafe. I made a point to visit both days and see as many sketchbooks as I could, which worked out to about twenty-five or so of the thousands of sketchbooks people have access to during the tour. It’s the work I saw within that small sampling of books that has me so excited, as well as the concept of such a large-scale collaborative project becoming a lending library full of art.

I really admire the set up of the travelling show. Each visitor is required to sign up for a library card before they can access the collection. Then away you go, selecting sketchbooks based upon theme, location, or random draw. The librarian pulls two books at a time for each patron to pour over, and it can be a mixed bag of amazing to so-so work depending upon the skill of each artist.

I took photos of some of my favourites, which you can see here. It was fascinating to see all the different ways people used the exact same little sketchbook. I am definitely inspired to get to work on the 2013 Sketchbook Project, even though it’s not due until the end of the year.

Valerie Arntzen, Vancouver BC, Canada

Kelly Leigh Miller, Louisville KY, USA

Emily Horton, Tyler TX, USA

Rachel Ramm, Dublin OH, USA

Rolando Del Real, Granda Hills CA, USA

Melia Ramirez & Sandra G, Valle des las Palmas, Mexico

Brenna Darroch, Fairfax VA, USA

Andie Wolf, Toronto ON, Canada

Lucy Howard, Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sketchbook Project, it’s a collaborative art project organized by Arthouse Co-op, a group based in Brooklyn, NY. People from all over the world sign up to receive a plain brown 5″ x 7″ book and what they can do within those pages is completely open. The final works are contributed back to the Brooklyn Art Library where they become part of the collection, which people can access both online and in person.

I’ve mentioned it previously because I took part in the Limited Edition project earlier this year. The 2013 Sketchbook Project is now open, and I highly recommend you take part. It’s been a HUGE source of inspiration for much of the work I’ve been doing so far this year.

A full set of my photos from the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival can be viewed as a slideshow on Flickr.

When we drove up to our first stop (a farm with giant fields of yellow and red tulips) my mind was a bit blown even though I knew what to expect. It’s one thing to see pictures, and quite another to have such intense colours shining back at you and stretching on into the horizon.

What you can’t see here are all the other people hanging about wandering through the flowers. I managed to make it look as if we had the place to ourselves.

I have more photos to upload and will be adding them to this set on Flickr.

I snap an endless amount of photos of the beautiful flowering trees found everywhere in our city at this time of year. I cannot get enough of them, their beauty is always a magical sight to see.

Book Art: Iconic Sculpture and Installations Made From Books
by Paul Sloman
Amazon listing

1000 Artists’ Books
by Sandra Salamony, and Peter & Donna Thomas
Amazon listing.

I may have some of my work published in 1000 Artists Books. I’m still waiting to hear if it made the final cut. Either way, it will be a welcome addition to my collection of art books.

I went with smaller cuts to create a more intricate design. The image below is the one I created in my sketchbook

I took the same design and began working on a grey piece of paper that proved to be ridiculously hard on the hands to work with. It’s a thicker stock than I’ve worked with previously and it wore through numerous blades and exhausted my fingers. I’d originally intended to cut the whole piece of paper, but I’m going to leave it as it is and move on to something else.

This is the final design with seven flowers. I’m thinking about cutting away most of the rest of the paper so there is just a thin outline of grey around the main design. Hopefully my fingers can withstand it.

Next up: going even larger (but with thinner paper)…

I just had to share this video of Mikito Ozeki working on a paper cut design in his studio. It’s fascinating to watch at how quickly he works and by the end most of the paper has been cut away.

I want to know where he got his very sharp knife. I need one of those.

I’ve been enjoying Chris’ interviews because it’s exposing me to Vancouver artists I’m not familiar with. Check out more of the videos on the Hot One Inch Action website.

It was a fun day with Robi and Val. Besides the galleries we visited there were also stops at two local art supply shops, and one of my favorite book shops in the world, Elliot Bay Book Company. They’ve relocated to Capital Hill since the last time I visited and it seemed like the whole neighbourhood was blocks of interesting shops and restaurants.

Below are photos of some of the things I came across in Seattle that inspired me.

Do Ho Suh’s “Some/One, 2001″, Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

African Masks, Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

Morgan Brig, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

Don Charles, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

Robin & John Gumaelius, Patricia Rovzar Gallery

I love it when a plan spontaneously erupts out of nowhere – especially when it involves art.

Tell us about yourself:
Today, in the third month of my 46th year, I find myself an instrument-maker engaging community with interactive entertainment by way of performances with a small orchestra dominated by hand-made wooden horns.

But that is more about what I do than who I am. Properly described, I should be seen as the archetypal class-clown determined to escape a long cycle of disappointing corporate employment by creating his own much happier, if less fiscally responsible niche.

How long have you been an artist and how did you become one?
I can think of two starting points separated by several decades. Initially, in 1970′s Kitchener, Ontario, an artist was a person who could draw or paint (or even both!). In grade three I won great accolades from my peers upon completing my Weasel Project (yes, a project about weasels) on account of two very believable illustrations (pencil and guache) of weasels. This conference of status was an impetus for me to apply myself further in the hopes of gaining more praise and social standing from my classmates, an impulse I feel to this day.

Somewhere along the line, I determined to make a career out of my art skills, and promptly sold out to the advertizing industry as an illustrator/designer/prostitute-for-hire, a ten year career that feeds the satire in my performances to this day.

My epiphany came in 1995, in a windowless cubicle, in a Fundamentalist-Christian-owned advertizing agency, in an industrial park in deep Etobicoke, where 75 of us worked mostly for a KFC account. I was using my hard-won skills to render technical drawings for the 64 page deep-fry equipment user’s manual, a task my art director sold to me as ‘a soul-sucking job from hell, but with plenty of billable hours’. That horrible job was finally impetus enough to quit, move to Vancouver and take a chance on my own, self directed work.

Do you work full time or part time as an artist? If part-time, what do you do to support yourself?
I used to be a ‘full time’ artist. My first ten years or so in Vancouver, I made ends meet by selling paintings real cheap-like out of a pizza restaurant in Gastown. But the desperation as a semi-obscure Canadian artist is no trip to the playground. Lately I have two, four-hour-a-week jobs: one cleaning my building on Sundays, and the other as the gardener for a lovely co-op near Granville Island. Both jobs pay $100 each time. Combined with the occasional caricature gig entertaining at conferences or municipal events (yes I am still at least partly a corporate whore), and workshops through community centres, my habits are being supported.

Sticks harvested from the Empress Tree

What are some of your favourite materials to work with?
Currently, my favourite material is wood from the Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) on account of it’s habit of growing long, straight, hollow* sticks very suitable for horn making.

*mostly hollow

Tell us a bit about the process you go through to create your work:
First there’s the pollarding of the Empress tree, a heavy pruning that leaves only about four feet of trunk remaining. This causes it to sprout new branches which grow very fast and often straight up. At the end of the winter, they can be harvested and cured on the porch, out of the sunlight. Once they’re dry, they can be chopped and glued into appropriate horn-shaped configurations.

Another process worth mentioning is composing music and rehearsing with my band, an enterprise I would liken to herding wet cats with a broom, only the wet cats all have opinions and never answer their e-mails.

Where do you find inspiration for your work, and what keeps you motivated?
I think of my work as a voice in the wilderness crying out against corporatism and religious dogma. What keeps me motivated is the certainty that, at least here in Canada, the ecologically-minded secular socialists are losing the fight at the cost of human rights, freedoms and the future of our drinking water.

Plus, the band is getting tighter as we practice. We’ve had some really good sets, lately.

Legion of the Flying Monkeys in performance

Is there a favourite project or piece of artwork you’ve created? Tell us about it:
Tough to pick favourites. But this is a recording from a set we played at Raw Canvas (a restaurant) with pictures from the Means of Production Garden in Mount Pleasant, wherein I am heavily involved.

Tell us about other artists who have inspired you:
I have the great fortune of knowing Ken Clarke, a master sculptor in Gastown who has played a large mentorship role with me over the years. Ken is known for large cast faces and figures he produces in series, but I know his more private stone work that is more Zen and abstract.

Other than art, what are you particularly excited about right now?
There’s a new lunch place on Cambie street called Meat & Bread selling roast pork sandwiches. It’s not easy to convince my pesco-vegetarian wife that this is something I really need. But it does have me particularly excited right about now.

What are some of the biggest challenges you feel artists face today?
In Canada an artist must overcome the inherent social standing of ‘Canadian Artist’ which is only one step removed from ‘homeless person’ or ‘pan-handler’ in the minds of the average citizen. In this milieu, a hopeful creative-type can spend far too much effort seeking to achieve legitimacy when what they really need is to find their peers and get on with the task of making art.

What is special about the arts community where you live? What’s one thing you would change?
I live in the Core Artists’ Co-op in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver’s only actual Artists’ Co-operative. The larger community here in Gastown is very affirming and often feels like Sesame Street for its friendliness and camaraderie, despite being in the midst of rampant, street level human suffering.

If I could change one thing, I would end the war on drugs. Not very realistic I suppose but it sounds much better than telling you about the people I’d like to kick out of my co-op (the violence-threatening alcoholic, the delusional, violence-threatening homophobic, or the non-participant rich kid who illegally sublets to strangers and doesn’t submit his taxes).

Where can people find you both online and offline:
Online: davidgowman.wordpress.com

Offline: Walk down to Main and Alexander Street. One half block East, stand on the North side and yell, ‘Hey, Fire-Maaaaaaaaann!.’
That should work.

Last night we went to see the film, Pina, which is about the life and work of German choreographer Pina Bausch. It’s a beautiful film to watch, very intense in some ways, with interesting staging and eye-catching imagery. Watch the trailer below to get an idea of what I mean.

I found the film very inspiring, and I think it was just the thing to get me thinking again about shooting creative portraits.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

I was pleased to come across the finished short film of the story, because I’d thought it was just an iPad app. It’s a beautifully done animated film about the curative power of story. Be sure to watch it full screen.

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…

I’m pleased to be kicking off this series of artist interviews with assemblage artist (and good friend), Valerie Arntzen. I hope you find her as inspiring as I do.

Valerie in her studio (Photo by Wendy D)

Tell us about yourself:
For starters I am female and going to be sixty this year. I love those milestone birthdays as they kind of knock on your door of memories and aspirations. You take stock of where you have been and where you are going. I have been a worker all my life from draftsperson, treeplanter to buyer in the film industry and artist. My life started in Toronto, Ontario but when I was 19 I moved to Vancouver. I am married to an artist, Arnt Arntzen who is a designer/builder of modern furniture. He makes every piece himself. We both collect things but his found objects are large. He is also my technical director when I need a problem solved. We have been together for 33 years.

How long have you been an artist and how did you become one?
I have been a self taught artist for over 20 years. My first show was in 1990 and since then I have tried to be in at least one show a year while I did my money job in theatre and film.

I like to work and use my hands and head. My mother says I was always working on at least two things at the same time. As a kid I received a brownie camera (which I still have) as an Xmas present and took photos and created photo albums. I still carry a camera and take a lot of photos which I often use in my pieces. I started my art career as a painter of found objects in which I would do these crazy patterns all over vases, furniture and other objects.

I am now an assemblage artist. Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects.

Do you work full time or part time as an artist? If part-time, what do you do to support yourself?
Retirement from my money job happened about 8 years ago and I have been a full time artist since then. I was also a founding director of the Eastside Culture Crawl and the executive director for 11 years. Retirement from that position happened 2 years ago. The amount of money I have been earning from my art practice has been going up every year. I would not have been able to support myself on those earnings in the past but now my studio is paid for and my husband works full time in his art practice and is very successful.

Record History by Valerie Arntzen

Record History (detail) by Valerie Arntzen

What are some of your favorite materials to work with?
I LOVE JUNK! Being an assemblage artist is a fun job. I get to collect, re-use, recycle and give new life to discarded objects, wood and metal. The found objects I collect can vary from a souvenir Statue of Liberty from New York to a complete set of sun dried animal vertebrae found on the beach in Mexico. I collect when I am out for a walk or traveling different parts of the world.

Tell us a bit about the process you go through to create your work:
I almost always have my camera with me. I use my photos in lots of different ways: in my assemblages, cover them with bees wax, collage them or make books. My files of photographs are categorized under themes such as fences, rust, texture, chairs.

My studio is a visual feast piled high with labeled boxes and drawers stuffed chock o’ block on shelves holding my collections of junk and treasures. Getting out my treasures and creating an assemblage in a favorite box takes me back to a memory of a special trip, person or event. I like to work in series mostly due to the fact that I collect in multiples but I also find my thought process needs more than one piece to be complete. One assemblage piece seems to complete the other.

Shamans Closet by Valerie Arntzen

Shamans Closet (detail) by Valerie Arntzen

Where do you find inspiration for your work, and what keeps you motivated?
My travels definitely inspire me. I collect stories, treasures and photos from my trips. I can start a piece with a found object, box or photo and then it just develops from there. I think I have about 10 years of assemblages worth of stuff in my studio. If I think I have artist block I try to challenge and inspire myself by taking a class, collaborating with another artist, attending art shows, artist talks or going through my library of art books. My biggest motivation at the moment is moving to Amsterdam later this year for six months. I have a show in October there and will be making the art locally as well.

Is there a favorite project or piece of artwork you’ve created? Tell us about it:
One of my favourite pieces I have made is called “Bullets to Buddhas”. It started with a printer spacer box that a friend gave me from his old building in North Vancouver. The spacer box was used to store pieces of wood that you would put between the laid out type (yes one letter at a time!) to create space around each article. I filled the box with bullets I had made by a props person in the film industry and small metal Buddhas I bought at a temple supply store. On the back I carved text from the bible Isaiah 2:4 that talks about turning your swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. My thoughts behind the piece, is that thousands of years later we are still using weapons (bullets) and they should be turned into something peaceful (metal Buddhas). Peace not War!

Bullets to Buddha by Valerie Arntzen

Bullets to Buddha (detail) by Val Arntzen

Tell us about other artists who have inspired you:
I look at Joseph Cornell‘s work a lot. He was an American self taught artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. I love Frida Khalo‘s story and work…against all odds and lots of pain she stayed true to herself as an artist.

Artists that are alive and I admire, show with and talk with are Ken Gerberick (Vancouver) and Bill Thomson (Burnaby). They are both assemblage artists and they both paint as well.

Other than art, what are you particularly excited about right now?
I guess my trip to Europe is what I am most excited about as it won’t all be about art. My husband and I will be learning so much about living in another culture as we usually only travel to places, and not spend so much time there. There will be lots of new adventures and new people in our lives.

What are some of the biggest challenges you feel artists face today?
I am one of the lucky ones who has a studio that I own. Studio space is disappearing or getting too expensive. It is affecting all types of artists from every medium. For those who go the gallery route we are also losing our galleries as they close up for various reasons.

What is special about the arts community where you live? What’s one thing you would change?
I live in a part of Vancouver that has always housed and supported artists. Translation: rent was cheap and places are in the area of mixed use – industrial and residential. Our community supports each other by collaborating, sharing, coming to each others shows. The artists here give back to our community whether it is through teaching children, helping raise money for a project or just generally making our neighbourhood beautiful with their art.

Our biggest hurdle is rentals that are reasonable whether it is a studio, home or live/work studio. As people purchase and renovate and save the old houses the extra space becomes too expensive for artists to rent. We are also getting too many cars in this neighbourhood as more people move here.

Where can people find you both online and offline:
I have an open studio date on the First Saturday of the month. The next ones are February 4th and March 3rd.

Website: www.valeriearntzen.com
Blog: valeriesarttalk.blogspot.com
Contact: 604-817-9130 or valeriearntzen@gmail.com

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.

Boris and spent a week on Bowen Island over the Christmas holidays, as we’ve done for the past few years. It was a very rainy Christmas but I still managed to get out for a walk each day. This is the same view of the North Shore mountains taken about twenty-four hours apart. It’s one of my favorite views on Bowen.

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

These photos are from two weeks ago when Vancouver had a few days of frost on the ground. I love the look of frost on leaves and grass, the way every detail is outlined and highlighted.

Here are a few ideas that I’ve found so far:

Zipper8Lighting on Etsy

nellianna on Etsy

TetraBox Light by Ed Chew

This last one comes with a step-by-step how-to, and is made from reclaimed TetraBox packages. I really like the idea of making a new chandelier from recycled materials.

So I thought I’d try something new and share some of the things that inspire me right here:

Illustrations by Dorian Mocan

Altered envelopes by Kristiina Lahde

Thread and canvas paintings by Nava Lubelski

May the inspiration weave it’s way into a new series of work…

The flowers are made from colourful tissue paper and masking tape, with cloth covered wire as the stems. They’re a mix of torture and enjoyment to make because it’s not easy wrapping thin paper around a tiny wire and ending up with it in the resemblance of a flower.

At the moment I have less than thirty flowers completed, and hope to make twice that many. I’m really hoping this installation idea is going to look as magical in person as it does in my head. It’ll definitely give visitors a pleasant blast of colour when they stop by during the Culture Crawl.

And if you’re wondering, all the flowers will be available for purchase – in case you want to take the magic home with you.

Paper-Craft 2: Design and Art With Paper

Paper-Craft 2 is a fantastic book full of an amazing variety of projects, designs, illustrations, art installations, fashion and more – all made from paper. It’s inspiring but also a bit intimidating to browse through this book because of the high calibre of the work included. But the collection makes it clear there is no limit to what a creative person can do with paper.

Masters Book Arts

Masters Book Arts is part of Lark Crafts excellent masters series of books. I also have the collage edition in my library. It mainly focuses on handmade books and showcases the wide variety of forms a book can take, and they often don’t look like the traditional form of a book.

The Repurposed Library

The Repurposed Library is written by book artist, Lisa Occhipinti, and it focuses on transforming books into home decor items. There are projects for lamps, chandeliers, vases, bracelets, wreaths, and more – all made from old books. My favorite project is the book bursts, which are deconstructed books transformed into circular wall sculptures.

All of these books were purchased at Oscar’s Art Books in Vancouver. (Support your local independent book store!)

This is a selection of the many photos I’ve shared through Instagram over the last few months. I generally strive for sharing interesting and beautiful things – sometimes art, often graffiti, and mostly nature. The app reminds me of the early days of Flickr when sharing photos with a community felt really exciting and inspiring.

Papers

Antiquarian Books

Late Winter Sunny Day

Big Lou’s Butcher Shop

Boris

Vintage Dress

Cherry Blossoms

If you’re on Instagram, come and find me. My username is simply Rachael Ashe. I’d love to share photos with you.