I’ve chosen to do a mix of paper cuts and collage on alternating pages, exploring the theme of Thread and Surface (one of the ten you have to choose for the Project). The paper cut pages will overlay the collage pages and create an additional layer. I’ve been concentrating on the paper cut designs first and have been creating them free hand with an xacto knife. These are three of the seven I’ve completed so far.

I’ve been choosing a different shape to focus on for each one and just letting the design flow from there. It’s an addictive process to work with – creating designs from cutting paper – and all sorts of additional ideas have grown out of it.

I’ll share more as the project progresses. I can’t wait to get started on the collage pieces next.

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.

The Foodtree office is nicknamed “the treehouse” so of course I wanted to make a tree. I’d been thinking about making more trees from cardboard, but then came across this tutorial about how to make a tree wall mural from yarn and pushpins.

I bought my supplies of sock yarn from Dressew and pushpins from Yoko Yaya and dove right into making the tree. I’m doing it without having first drawing an outline. It feels like I’m drawing it with the yarn as I go along. It’s been amazing and fascinating to see the tree slowly take shape in the corner of the room.

Once the tree is completed I’m hoping to attach red leaves to the string branches, and then voilà(!) the Treehouse will have a tree.

I’ll share more photos once the tree is complete. I’m considering making one of these at home in our livingroom…

Day 15: Red shoes

Day 17: While the city burned

These are my favorite self portraits from last week. Today I shared number twenty-two which will bring me one portrait closer to the end of this project, which is good because I’m running out of steam.

Day 10: Shadows on the wall

Today I will be shooting a self portrait for day fifteen. Time sure flies and here I am already half-way through this thirty day project. Maybe next month I will do a second thirty day project of shooting a portrait a day for a month…

I think I’m a lot burnt out after a very intense year with too much stress and not enough vacation, and then I started a new part-time job. And while the new part time job is terrific and challenging, it means art and creativity get much less time than I’d like to dedicate to them.

To give myself something good to focus my energy into I decided I needed to get the creative juices flowing and begin a small project. I’ve chosen to do one self portrait a day for the next month. I started shooting a week ago today and I’m already at day 8 of the series.

Day 1: Losing My Head

Day 2: A Moment In The Sun

Day 4: It’s Raining

Click through to flickr to view the rest of the series so far.

Some of the photos have been more creative than others, but it all depends on how much time I have available each day. I’m really enjoying working on this series so far.

The Thumbelina book is the fifth and final fairy tale altered book I have made for the show at Seymour Gallery. I was inspired by the imagery of a tiny figure in a flower and wanted to make something three-dimensional from paper. The figure inside the flower pictured here, is a photograph of my friend Siobhan curled up and pretending to rest.

In the story of Thumbelina there are many animals she encounters on her adventures, and I chose to reference only two of these. A mouse gives her shelter in her time of need, and she rescues the swallow who eventually rescues her in return. I cut the swallow from an old bird field guide, and made the mouse as an original paper cut painted with brown acrylic paint.

The leaves were also hand-cut from paper and added to fill out the composition. I’m not one hundred percent happy with this book but I am out of time to make it better. The part I really want to do over is the flower because it’s rather clunky, but once it was glued in there was no going back. I think it’s a case of liking pieces of this composition more than the whole thing.

There is one week to go before the show opens at Seymour Art Gallery. Details here in case you missed it.

Materials used: book, green card stock, pink card stock, paper bird, tissue paper, acrylic paint, white glue, and gel medium.

I’ve always loved the line from “Sing a Song of Sixpence” about the “four and twenty black birds baked in a pie” and wanted to attempt to recreate this as an altered book. I thought, “how hard can it be to make a book look like a pie?” Apparently, it’s kind of hard.

This is the second book I folded to use because the first one didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. I did some cutting after the folding that ended up looking more like a mushroom than a pie, and it was then I gave up on that detail of the rhyme. Four and twenty crows flying out of a book is pretty awesome all on its own, thank you very much.

I sourced the bird outlines from google images to make three templates to trace onto black card stock. I then cut out twenty four black birds from the paper using an xacto knife. It was fun to have a small pile of crows on my desk before they were attached to the pages using glue. Yet again I could not resist incorporating paper cut work into an altered book, because I am a little bit obsessed with the process.

The only splash of colour to this is provided by the patterned paper I added as end pages, and I’m really glad to have it there.

Materials used: book, black card stock, scrapbook paper, glue, and gel medium.

I cut through the cover and then removed pages to about half-way through the book. I actually cut a smaller opening inside the larger one to create a “shelf” of pages for the inner level of paper cut leaves to rest upon. The book cutting was probably the simplest part of making the whole book and the least amount of cutting effort.

Creating the wolf for the Little Red Riding Hood book started a new obsession with the art of the paper cut, so with this book I chose to incorporate more of this type of work. I like this idea because instead of trying to find something to use, I’m making it myself.

The leaves took a REALLY long time to make because I first had to draw it all out and then go back and carefully cut everything piece by piece. I did the lower level of leaves as one piece and the upper level as four separate pieces to maximize the cardstock I had on hand. I don’t do much drawing but leaves are one of the few things I am aces at.

The delicate little red and white roses are also made with paper and were a very lucky find at Michael’s art store. I wouldn’t normally go there for supplies but I really wanted roses for this book. I’m very grateful they not only had the two colours I needed in one package but they’re also exactly what I was hoping to find.

The bear paper cut is made from a black patterned cardstock to suggest the enchantment he is under. I used a photo of a bear I found in google images as my template for the outline and I freehand cut all the details to create the facial features, and fur. I’m really happy with how well the bear turned out.

As with the Little Red Riding Hood book the two figures are cut from photo prints, and come from the same photo shoot I did with Monique and Siobhan to kick off this series. They and the paper bear are resting on top of carefully placed wooden sudoku tiles to raise them from the background and create depth.

I’ve already started and almost finished the third in this series, which actually consists of three books. I have yet to finalize the last two stories I’ll be interpreting so let me know if you have a favorite fairy tale you’d like to see as an altered book.

Materials used: book, recycled wrapping paper, mulberry paper roses, cardstock, sudoku tiles, photographs, glue, and gel medium.

As mentioned previously, I was hoping to combine photography and altered books in this work so the first step was photographing models as fairy tale characters. This led to a hilarious shoot with friends Monique and Siobhan playing pretend and wearing costumes. I made some of these images into paper prints to figure out sizing, which amused me because I realized I’d made friends into paper dolls. With the size figured out, and poses selected, I had a set of photo prints made and this is what you’re seeing as the Red Riding Hood figure in this book.

I should mention those are real tree branches standing in for a full sized forest of trees. I gathered these along the ground from a nearby park, cleansed them of dirt and applied a coat of gel medium to each.

I used a large encyclopedia volume as the canvas for this altered book, and decided to cut the niche about half way through the thickness of the pages. I used two crumpled up pages from the book to create the ground for Red Riding Hood to stroll upon.

The flowers were added for colour, and I made them using a paper punch. The leaves were actually the last detail I came up with. I felt the forest looked too bare and decided to make leaves using another paper punch and recycled wrapping paper. It’s the right bit of whimsy and warmth even if there is a big scary wolf out to get the little miss.

When I started this I wasn’t going to include the wolf, but then as things came together I realized he had to be in there. I decided to create him as a paper cut figure and went searching through google images for reference I could use to create an outline because my drawing skills aren’t very good. I printed out this wolf to use as my template. I traced it onto a piece of black paper then modified and added details by cutting freehand.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well this worked out because it’s not a technique I’ve worked with much before. It’s inspired me to try and incorporate paper cutting into the rest of the Fairy Tales books.

I’m really excited by this series because it’s allowing me to try new things and push boundaries with my artwork. I’ve already selected the next few Fairy Tales and will be starting another altered book this week.

Materials used: book, Japanese paper, recycled wrapping paper, photograph, paper punch, tree branches, straight pins, book pages, glue, and gel medium.

I’m not sure what purpose is served by the round cement pool I found in one of the garden plots, but I’m guessing it’s a reflecting pool. I’m really glad I found it because it’s a great location. I shot this scene specifically with photo manipulation in mind. I wanted to create something magical and try a slightly different way of processing the image. Along the way I managed to create something that nicely references Alice in Wonderland, which was something Sam and I had talked about ages ago and I’d forgotten.

The final two shots were taken in a different part of the community garden. There wasn’t much else growing at the time because it’s been too cold, but this forsythia bush was happily putting forth it’s first flowers.

At the moment I don’t have anything specific in mind, but I can hardly wait to do another shoot with someone.

The subject of this portrait is Sam. She recently got married in Vegas and the vintage dress, faux fur shrug, shoes, and crinoline, make up most of the fantastic outfit she wore.

We did this shoot outside on a very cold day and I was really concerned about Sam freezing to death while she posed. Lucky for us the weather was saving the really harsh cold and wind until after we were done, and we just had a long-suffering walk back to my place.

This part of the photo shoot was done against the magnificent pink walls of La Casa Gelato on Venables. We were walking past and I decided to do some “warm up” shots here, because when your model is wearing a pink dress, why not add more pink? The rest of the shoot was at a more subdued location and those photos have a completely different feel. I’ll be sharing them in a separate blog post.

I really found this shoot very invigorating to do. I’d been feeling insecure about my photographic work because I haven’t been doing much of it lately. Now I feel inspired again and hope to continue doing more fun and exciting portraiture in the coming months.

What I came away with from the shoot is so much better than what I’d had in mind. Leah led the way on this one, and most of the shots I love the most are the ones that aren’t posed. She waded around in the water with very little direction from me, and I captured what I could with the camera.

This is the twenty-fourth portrait in the series, and I’m considering moving onto something else after the twenty-fifth. I want to continue working on portraiture in some way, either as a weekly goal or maybe a series featuring men instead of women. I’ve been working on the Imaginary Girl series for a full year now and it’s time to switch things up.

It’s been a great experience so far and the staff at the PNE have been supportive and helpful. I’ve met some of the other artists also showing at Container Art and it’s wonderful to see the different types of work and how each person has chosen to make use of their shipping container gallery space. I don’t have photos yet of anyone else’s work because everyone is still in the process of installing.

This is what the Container Art Gallery space looks like from the outside, to give you an idea of what to look for. It’s big and hard to miss. There will be video projections and light displays on the outside during the evening hours of the PNE. On the inside there will be art, including paintings, altered books, and wild installations I’m not sure how to describe. You’ll just have to go and see it for yourselves.

In my container the twenty-five encyclopedias float along the side and back walls, and the multitude of paper flowers I was working on last week hang from the ceiling. The final touch was to add a few arrangements of driftwood, pine cones, sticks, rocks and wildflowers along the bottom wall and corners. These were a last minute addition I decided was needed because the space along the lower part of the walls looked stark and empty.

The work will be on display for the two week run of the PNE and access to the Container Art show is included with the price of admission. Check it out if you get the chance and please do social share about the show on twitter, facebook, flickr, etc.

Earlier this week I decided the installation I’ve been putting together for Container Art needed “something more”, and so I started making paper flowers. These are made from five pieces of paper and then attached together with glue. I have made about fifty of them using pages cut from one of the left over encyclopedia volumes. You’ll have to wait and see what I’m going to do with them as part of the display.

The paper flower design is taken from Playing With Books by Jason Thompson, which I purchased from RubyDog’s Art House.

[A big thank you to Ariane for coming over earlier this week to hang out and help me make a few of the flowers.]

I was away on Quadra Island with Boris’ family last week which was a vacation but it also meant a long break from working on this project. Monday I resumed cutting up encyclopedias and as of today I have twenty-one of the twenty-five books completed. I love it when hard work pays off and things go smoothly. When all the books are done I can get started on some of the other ideas I have in mind to pull together for the installation. I have about two weeks left before this gets installed in the Container. I’m excited.

The books featured in these photos contain seaweed, deer vertebrae, some form of fungus, chamomile, acorn caps, and drift wood. I had to rehydrate the seaweed in order to work with it because it was too dry and brittle to put in a book after sitting in my studio for weeks. I was amazed at how well it revived. It will dry out again over time, as will the chamomile flowers, but I’m okay with that.

Previous posts about this project (which will be on display in the Container Art show at the PNE): [1] [2] [3]

This week I’ve been working away at the individual altered books that will be assembled into the installation for the Container Art show. I set a goal to complete ten of these by the end of this week and as of yesterday afternoon I finished number eight. I’m very pleased with how this project is slowly coming together. Once all the books are finished I need to do further planning on how these will be displayed. My idea has evolved a bit since I wrote up the proposal over a month ago.

It felt difficult to return to the portraits after a month long break, but I love these shots of Krista and the paper lanterns. They make me happy because they’re so wonderful and colourful.

I decided to experiment with processing the series in different ways and played around with a set of Photoshop actions I found on the internet. I’ve never really used Actions before because they lend themselves more to batch processing and I don’t really do much of that. I still had to do a considerable amount of tweaking.

I added a texture to the final shot I worked on last week. In some ways it suits the photo but I think the texture isn’t subtle enough and distracts from the shot. I may redo this one a bit.

This is the twenty-third portrait in the Imaginary Girl series. My original goal was the create twenty-five of them but I may keep going past that number.

I shot this portrait of Stephanie at the beginning of June and as of the beginning of July it will be in a group show at Gallery Gachet along with the portrait I took of Jess. (How’s that for putting new work to work.) This was taken on Granville Island with the giant leaves of a Gunera plant as the backdrop, and Alice in Wonderland as the inspiration.

June has not been a productive month for working on the portrait series because I’ve had other projects I’ve needed to concentrate on. There are numerous artists calls with summer deadlines coming up and it’ll mean more shows in the future if my work gets accepted. (Fingers crossed!)

I have used balloons once before in a photo shoot, with Siobhan in the studio back in November. I decided I wanted to use balloons again as a prop, this time with Eagranie as the model and with balloons of a different colour. Oh how I do love red!

From this shoot I learned that photographing balloons outside when it’s windy is like trying to photograph an uncooperative monkey that can’t stay still. Other than the tricky breezes, the weather was perfect with a lovely blue sky and fluffy clouds as a backdrop. I count these portraits among my favorites of the whole series (so far).

These are a few of the shots I took of Lauren a few weeks ago, when she came over for a portrait session in the old apartment. We had a lot of fun using the pocket doors as a backdrop and Lauren was terrific in front of the camera.

I first met Kirsten Chursinoff at Northern Voice a few years ago, when she came up to chat with me between sessions. She recognized me from Flickr and as we talked I realized I’d seen her textile work a few years before at The Secret Garden Tea Company.

This portrait session was very much inspired by the colourful fibre art Kirsten creates with fabrics and threads. She provided all of the objects I worked with and she brought over a large variety of things to choose from. She was also very patient as I placed layer upon layer of thread over her arms and upper body. I wanted these photos to be similar to the portrait of my sister. I was interested in exploring the theme of fibre arts further and feel there are many interesting ways to use thread as a prop.

The final shot is a composite pulled together from two photos. I created the set using spools of thread and a cute pincushion Kirsten brought over, and then had her pose separately holding the giant scissors made by Peter Kiss. It all came together nicely in photoshop – after a few hours of hard work that is.

Sometimes I don’t have a clear idea of how I want to photograph the person I’ve asked to pose for one of my portraits. This was the case with Kristi, though I did know I wanted to use a natural setting.

My original idea was to use her garden as the setting, but it was too early in the year for the garden to have much growth. I decided to improvise and scouted around for a location near her home just before the shoot. The ivy was located at the front of her house and proved to be the perfect setting for the portrait. The vines were thick enough to crawl into and I disentangled a few and layered them over her body.

I like the smaller series of nature portraits that is slowly taking shape within the larger body of work.

Nature is a way for me to recharge, clear my head, and become centred, but the influence of good people around me can do this too.

This is my friend Nicole Dextras, a skilled and talented artist in her own right. I consider her one of my mentors and I really wanted to include her in my portrait series. Like most photographers, she’s not a fan of having her picture taken so I’m really glad she agreed to sit for me.

It was Nicole’s suggestion to pose with the Camellia bush in her yard and the late morning light I found myself working with at the time was perfect. We started out with Nicole posed in front of the bush but I didn’t want the flowers to just be a backdrop, so we tucked her into the leaves. The portrait was so much stronger once she became part of the bush and she looks very at home in there.

The title is a play on a quote by Kahlil Gibran – “There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing”.