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

My friend Val and I were the first to arrive, and Hugh treated us to genmaicha in beautiful handmade mugs while we waited for the rest of our group.

Hugh Kearney is a mixed media painter creating very colourful landscapes, abstract work, and sculpture from found objects. I really enjoyed his talk because he spoke at length about the evolution of his art career and how this affected his process over time.

He mostly works on paper and is heavily influenced by his environment, both natural and handmade. He’s also a musician, as evidenced by the guitars and amps placed around the studio.

These intimate studio visits are a great opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the many artists in Vancouver. The series will continue once a month until June, so stay tuned to the Eastside Culture Crawl facebook page and website for details of these upcoming events.

To clear out some of this older work I’ve decided to continue with the inventory clearance sale I held during First Saturday a few weeks ago. Come find a great deal on one of my metal prints, or maybe an altered book is more your style.

Here are a few of the items I am selling:

Altered Books

In The Shade of The Cherry Blossoms – $300 (regularly $450)

Circle Away & Return – $300 (regularly $550)

Metal Prints

Magnolias 24″ x 12″ Metal Print – $150 (regularly $300)

Red Leaves Above 24″ x 24″ Metal Print – $300 (regularly $500)

Please note: the altered books included in the sale are ones I consider one-off experiments. Most of the altered books are regular price, but are also available for viewing.

The work can be viewed at my East Vancouver studio by appointment. Contact me by Email: rkashe (at) gmail (dot) com or by Phone: 604.787.9237 if there is something you’d like to see.

Making It! explores the professional experiences of various artists through interview and panel discussions. The book examines business practices that have significantly contributed to the development of visual artists’ careers. Chris will deliver a short presentation and be on hand to sign copies of his book and answer questions.

I am one of the artists he interviewed for the book, and I feel honoured to have been included. I met with Chris twice last year, once as part of a panel of artists, and then again for a one-on-one interview. It’s great to see all of his hard work come together in print form. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time: 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Location: Opus Granville Island
1360 Johnston Street, Vancouver BC

The latest of these murals is on a large stretch of wall behind Britannia High School along the McLean Drive bike route, between Parker and William Street. It depicts a flock of crows in flight, with decorative details of ferns, beetles, and other native flora and fauna. It’s a radical transformation from drab concrete wall to one with so much colour and life. I love it.

The mural is a community project lead by artist Richard Tetrault, and is painted by an team of volunteer students and residents from the area. It was still in progress when I came across it last week.

For more photos of the mural please visit Richard Tetrault’s web site.

I’ll be sharing more about this event as we get closer to the date, but for now check out my Meet Your Maker profile on the Vancouver Maker Faire blog.

The presentation was hilarious because of Felice’s deadpan commentary, but it was also inspiring to hear about how much Booklyn does to nurture and promote their artists. Book arts is alive and well in Brooklyn, and some day I must visit their collection.

Check out the Brooklyn web site to view more of their amazing artist books.

The project was put together by Erin Sinclair and Jason Uglanica, two East Van locals who love their neighbourhood and wanted to organize a community project. They did a really fantastic job of selecting work to include and curating the flow of one photo to the next. The book beautifully captures what life it like in Vancouver’s eclectic east side.

You can purchase the book online through Cargoh.com.

The guy in this photo turned out to be an upstairs neighbour from my building who I never see. It was hilarious to run into him in such a random place. He and his girlfriend were helping out as actors during the filming.

The metal column going down the centre of the staircase was set temporarily for their project of filming the interior of the stairway in a helical movement. I didn’t see much of the filming because they were still setting up but I was really impressed by how much equipment they brought all the way to the bottom of the stairs. The only way in is from the top of the bridge because the city bricked up the bottom entrance ages ago.

There was plenty of ancient graffiti covering the stairs and walls, which indicates people have been able to sneak in there in the past. I wonder if the Department of Eternal Art is still around….?

The whole experience gave me a killer case of vertigo but it was an amazing opportunity to get into this space which is normally restricted from public access.

For more information about Konstantin Dimopoulos’ Blue Trees visit the Vancouver Biennale web site.

Bird on a Wire is a relatively new retail store located on Main Street near Broadway, and it carries nothing but beautiful handmade items by local artists and crafts people. If you haven’t been to the store, it’s a warm welcoming space run by Karen Unger-Strickland. She’s very interested in supporting local artists in what they do, as well as building community around her space. I felt it was a good fit for my work, and I’m confident I’ve put the altered books in good hands.

Bird on a Wire Creations
2535 Main Street
Vancouver, BC – V5T 3E5

Fall store hours:
Monday to Friday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Sunday Closed (for now)
Stat Holidays 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

AMP Studio, featuring Valerie Arntzen, is having a sale of assemblage work and photography. She’ll be selling older work at very reasonable prices, so drop by this Saturday Feb 5, between noon to 5pm, and you may get yourself a deal on artwork.

AMP Studio
800 Keefer Street
Vancouver, BC
604-817-9130 for more info

Val will be hosting this as an ongoing event on the first Saturday of the month, from February until June. So if you can’t make it this weekend, there are more opportunities coming up.

Paul Wong has put together a site-specific installation/performance work in room 103 of the Waldorf Hotel. The room is covered floor to ceiling, windows, furniture, bathroom and all, in bedsheets collected for charities by an activist named Karen.

Karen is back at The Hotel from her most-recent goodwill missions around the globe. Karen will be back at it collecting and recycling the hotel sheets and linens and repurposing them for worthy causes. A well-meaning activist, Karen has contributed our used bedding to numerous charities in Vancouver and around the world, including the homeless, the destitute in the Downtown Eastside and Surrey, and to victims of natural disasters in Haiti and Pakistan.

Boris and I visited the site on Friday before (delicious) dinner downstairs at Nuba. I’d been curious to see this installation but after seeing it in person I’m not really sure how I feel about it.

I liked the aesthetics of the installation, with every surface of the room taken over by the sheets it became this wonderful cocooned space away from the noise of the rest of the hotel. The part I didn’t like was the video projection on the back wall showing the character of Karen going about her work and talking with visitors from what I guess was a previous performance. I felt it took away from the experience to watch her secondhand instead of interacting with Karen in person. But I guess it’s not possible for her to be on site all the time.

Go see it for yourself if you get the chance. Karen’s Room is open 5 to 9 pm, seven days a week, and will be on site at the Waldorf Hotel until Feb. 11, 2011.

Toque
Friday December 3rd, 6 to 9pm
Saturday December 4th, 11 to 4pm
The Western Front, 303 East 8th Avenue

Own Your Own Strathcona
Saturday December 4th, 11am-6pm
Chapel Arts, 304 Dunlevy Avenue

Got Craft?
Sunday December 5th, 10 to 5pm
Royal Canadian Legion, 2205 Commercial Drive at E 6th Avenue

Shiny Fuzzy Muddy Eleven
Saturday December 11, 11am to 9pm
Sunday December 12, 11am to 7pm
Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street

Craftshows can be dangerous because I often find more things I want to buy for myself than gift to others. But it’s more fun than shopping in a mall and with prettier things to buy.

I thought I’d highlight some of the other artists I would go visit if I could. Some of these recommendations are people I’ve visited in previous years and love their work, and others are artists I’ve had the pleasure of meeting since becoming a member of The Crawl. Every single one of them creates amazing work.

Siobhan Humston. Painting & mixed media.
Alley Pad Studio – back lane entrance, 1774 East Hastings Street

Robi Smith, Blue Lantern Studio. Painting & mixed media collage.
1218 East Pender Street, just east of Clark Drive.

Lincoln Heller, Fiveleft Leather. Beautiful handmade leather goods.
The Mergatroid Building, 1177 parker street

(I SERIOUSLY covet this clutch).

Valerie Arntzen. Mixed media & Photography
Paneficio Studios, 800 Keefer Street

Kiku Hawkes. Photography & textiles.
Quattro Pose, 733 Keefer Street

(I’ve always loved this photograph).

Wendy D. Photography
The ARC, Suite 711 – 1701 Powell Street

Jeina Morosoff. Glass & sculpture
William Clark Studios, 1310 William Street at Clark Drive.

And so many more….

I am showing a selection of ten portraits from the Imaginary Girl series, and am excited to finally have more of this work in print. If you would like to attend the opening on Friday November 5th please RSVP on facebook. I would love to see you there, especially if you happen to be a subject of one of the portraits.

Two Women
–> Opening: November 5th, 6 to 8pm
Dates: November 4th to December 15th, 2010.
Firehall Arts Centre
280 East Cordova Street
Vancouver BC V6A 1L3
Viewing Hours: Wed – Sat, 1 to 5pm

Artists frequently get approached to donate their work to charity silent auctions, which means instead of getting money for your valuable inventory, you get a tax receipt. These do not pay bills and I’m sure most artists have plenty to write off as it is.

The Vancouver Timeraiser has a different approach to working both with charities and with artists. Instead of asking the artists to give their work away for free they purchase the work (up to $800!) and use it as a draw to earn volunteer hours for non-profits. They also do a terrific job of promoting the work of the artists right along with the Timeraiser event itself.

I had a really great experience with Timeraiser. They were organized and kept me informed every step of the way – when they needed my work, when the cheque would be available, inclusion in the day of the event, etc. My favorite bit was receiving and signing the contract because it was done online with a digital signature, and I received a copy immediately. It was also written in “human” rather than lawyer speak.

It was fun attending the Timeraiser event and watching as the bidding on my piece made its way to the maximum bid. Almost all of the artwork went really fast. I’m not sure who ended up winning mine but I hope the person loves it as much as I do. The work (pictured above) was the very first altered book I created. I felt a little sad seeing it go.

More than four hundred people attended the Vancouver Timeraiser, and an amazing 6,830 volunteer hours were raised. It makes me feel good that my work contributed to the success of the evening, and I would definitely take part again next year.

Earlier this week Boris and I were lucky enough to see Arcade Fire play at the Pacific Coliseum, which is on the grounds of the PNE. We sat in a private box with a great view of the concert, and also enjoyed catered food. It was the closing party for the Container Art show, and all of the artists with their favorite +1 were in attendance. It was an awesome way to conclude the whole experience.

Container Art was a paid gig which included a generous artist fee, a materials fee, an exhibitors ID for unlimited access to the PNE grounds, and four free passes to share with others. There was also a HUGE amount of exposure because the PNE draws a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people. The Arcade Fire concert was just icing on the cake.

Is this a typical experience for emerging artists? Not at all. But it demonstrates the potential for businesses to work with artists, promote their work, and compensate them appropriately for it. It’s the kind of situation I would like to see more of because our government certainly isn’t supporting the arts, so why not big and small business?

I am very grateful to Peter Male and Caryn Garder at the PNE, as well as Valerie Artzen, for the opportunity to be a part of Container Art.

From Shangri-La to Shangri-La, by Ken Lum.
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery offisite space at the Shangri-La
Details on the VAG web site.

Meeting, by Wang Shugang.
This is one of eight such sculptures placed in a circle, facing inwards.
Location: Cardero Park, Coal Harbour
Details on the Vancouver Biennale web site.

We, by Jaume Plensa.
This is a small scale version of the sculpture in the Biennale.
Location: Sunset Beach Park
Details on the Vancouver Biennale web site.

Ceramic Forms, by Yee Soo-Kyung.
Location: Cardero Park, Coal Harbour
Details on the Vancouver Biennale web site

Having my work on display at the PNE for the last few weeks has been an interesting experience with having art in a public space. There was so much destruction to my show after opening weekend of the PNE that I was ready to pack things in and take it down. Thousands of people went through the container and a large number of those were handling my work carelessly and breaking things. I had to remove three of the books after that first weekend because the objects were gone, and I had to do repairs to many others with partial damage. I was flabbergasted that people would be so disrespectful and careless.

It’s disheartening to watch so much of my hard work of the last few months get wiped out in a shorter time than it took me to make it all. At this point I’ve resigned myself to only being able to salvage some of this work for future use. It’s become a “sacrificial” art work for the sake of sharing my work with a larger audience of people.

On that note, Free Will Astrology had a very appropriate horoscope for me today:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Clash was a leftwing punk band that launched its career in 1976. With its dissident lyrics and experimental music, it aspired to make an impact on political attitudes. But then one of its songs, “Rock the Casbah,” got so popular that college fraternity parties were playing it as feel-good dance music. That peeved the Clash’s lead singer Joe Strummer, born under the sign of Leo. He didn’t want his revolutionary anthems to be used as vulgar entertainment by bourgeois kids. I sympathize with his purity, but I don’t advocate that approach for you. For now, relinquish control of your offerings. Let people use them the way they want to.

I wanted to share it not to show off a new purchase but rather to highlight the designer who made it and give her some “google juice”. She doesn’t have a website or any internet presence to speak of and I think that’s a shame because she makes really lovely bags. Luckily what I can point you to is her next appearance, at the Britannia Centre’s Handmade Market this Sunday. Maybe you’ll find a cute new handbag too.

If you’re interested in a bag made by Amrita Designs, please contact Aya by email: amritadesigns (at) hotmail (dot) com.

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.]

While there are about a million ways for these to be displayed, for the purposes of the Container Art space they will be hung on the wall fully open. I hope you can drop by the PNE and visit the show. More photos to come once this work is installed.

On the very same day the cheque arrived I had another piece of good news I’d been waiting for. I received an email from the organizers of the Container Art show letting me know I’d been chosen as one of the twelve participating artists. What is the Container Art show you might ask? It’s a bit of a traveling art show which uses empty shipping containers as the venue for artists to create site specific work in a variety of mediums. There have been Container Art shows in Rome, New York, Jerusalem, Milano, etc., and this is the second year this will be done on site at the PNE grounds.

The project I am putting together for this show is book based. As mentioned in my monthly newsletter, and a previous blog post, I’ll be working with twenty-five volumes of a set of encyclopedias and combining these with found objects. At the moment I only have five of the twenty-five completed and about a month left until the date of installation, but I am so excited to be in this show. It’s an incredible opportunity for me and it’s been just the right motivation I needed to try something on a larger scale than my previous work.

Stay tuned as I work my way through to the end of this project, and please do come and see it at the PNE in August.