June 10th, 2013
The Hot Talks series continues in June at Hot Art Wet City with our latest speaker, Bruce Alcock. In his professional life Bruce is the Creative Director of Global Mechanic, as well as an award winning film maker and animator with a passion for music and fine art.
I’m intrigued by the description of Bruce’s talk (below), and think it builds very nicely upon the themes explored by our first speaker in the series, Kim Werker. (Listen to her talk online if you missed it previously).
Your Self Out There:
Walking the spectrum from bullshit to truth in the creative life
From waiting tables to making art to advertising Coca-cola, Bruce Alcock looks over the last 25 years to examine who he is when he’s at home, or at a meeting table, or managing staff, or standing up and talking to a group of people in a gallery. Is client interaction performance, or are you simply who you are? In this age of digital self-representation, does your private identity change to sync with your public identity? The Onion’s headline “I am a Brand, Pathetic Man Says” points to empty self-representation, but any time you put yourself out there, you’re creating a persona that reflects your assumptions about the people you’re talking to, or working for, or just passing time with. From small talk (excruciating) to work talk (boring?) to letting out your inner beast, or weenie, or feather boa, what’s real and what’s not, what works, and what can you live with?
Bruce’s talk happens on June 25th at 7pm. Get your tickets online through Eventbrite. I hope you’ll join us.
Hot Talks: Bruce Alcock
Hot Art Wet City
Date: June 25th, 2013
Time: Doors 6:30, talk 7pm
Address: 2206 Main Street, Vancouver
June 6th, 2013
Dream Boats is the beautiful new children’s book illustrated by Kirsti Anne Wakelin and written by Dan Bar-el. I’ve been following the progress of the development of this book for the last few years, and can hardly wait to get my hands on a copy. The illustrations are lush, finely detailed, and filled with imagery to stimulate the imagination.
Take a look for yourself, and I’m sure you’ll agree.
A description of Dream Boats from the Simply Read web site:
Where do children go when they close their eyes to sleep?
They step onto their dreamboats and sail toward adventure.
From Maiqui in the Andes floating through the constellations, to Aljuu paddling along the shores of Haida Gwaii with Eagle, Orca and Black Bear, to Ivan sailing into St. Petersburg, then sneaking between the bony legs of Baba Yaga, stories and memories lead them on.
Dream Boats takes readers into the dreams of children around the world, dreams that are filled with family and legends, culture and love.
There are so many lovely details to this book. From the end pages filled with instructions on how to fold your own paper boat, to the flying fish swooping off the credits page, and the beautifully designed barcode on the back of the book.
Dream Boats has its official launch next Thursday June 13th at Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature & Art in Vancouver. Dan and Kirsti will be in attendance, and copies of the books will be available for purchase.
All photos courtesy of Kirsti Wakelin
May 28th, 2013
Ironclad Art is a competition put on by the City of Vancouver challenging people to come up with new manhole cover designs. As of the deadline in mid-April they received over one thousand submissions, all of which you can view online. Last week I was pleased to learn my work was selected as one of the top twenty-five finalists. Woot!
I chose to create one of my intricate paper cut designs (pictured here), and I would dearly love to see this immortalized in metal. Even if it isn’t chosen as the finalist, it’s still pretty cool to make the shortlist.
As part of the competition there is a People’s Choice award. Please help me out and vote for my design. Winners of Ironclad Art will be announced this Saturday June 1st. I can hardly wait.
