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 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.

While Evan’s work isn’t normally the style of art that grabs me, his talk about process and materials drew me in and convinced me to like his work. His opening line of being focused on shape and form is what did it because this is exactly what I am currently obsessed with in the paper cut work I’ve been doing.

These bottom two photos were taken on the side of the studio that belongs to Evan’s studio mate. I was curious about the dried lizards and what he intended to do with them. Sadly, he wasn’t around to ask. I know exactly where you can buy these in Chinatown but I’d never seen anyone purchase them.

It’s always a treat to get to poke around in an artist studio, and to hear them speak about their work. Next up in the series is an Intimate Studio visit with painter, Nicola Tibbetts. Registration is available through the Eastside Culture Crawl website.

I will be there with a display of my work, as well as demonstrating some of the techniques I use to create altered books. Bring a book with you and I’d be happy to get you started on making your own altered book project.

The 2012 Mini Maker Faire is happening at the PNE this year on the weekend of June 23rd and 24th. The organizers are now accepting applications for participants, which you can find here.

Vancouver Maker Faire @ MOV
Date: Thursday March 15th, 2012
Time: 5pm to 9:30pm
Location: Museum of Vancouver
1100 Chestnut Street

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.

These photos were taken near the lighthouse, which on previous visits took about an hour or so to hike in to see. I suppose it was too much to hope that this part of the island would be left as it was and not end up as yet another subdivision.

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.

The above two shots of a juvenile crow were taken one after the other, and they are beautifully crisp images. I snuck up on this little guy because I know crows get antsy about having their photo taken. I was pretending not to notice it as I got the camera app opened up (which sometimes happens so slowly) and then I turned and took a few photos before it flew away. I am pleased I caught it as it jumped from the wire and opened it’s wings.

The photo below was taken yesterday morning on my way to work, again in the same area of Main Street in Chinatown. A large group of crows was flying back and forth over Pender Street between two trees, and I stopped to take a few photos.

I’m so glad to have a camera with me at all times, thanks to the iPhone.

All three photos were taken with the native iPhone camera app and processed using Instagram.

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 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.

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.

I haven’t yet announced this on my blog as I have elsewhere, but in two weeks I’ll be teaching a workshop at ChalkXChange about making altered books. This is only a three and half hour workshop, and it’s on a weekend too. I’ll be sharing some of the techniques I use to create my book work, and hopefully send everyone off with a finished piece by the end of the session.

If you’re interested in taking the class registration is available online through Eventbrite. There’s a more detailed description on the sign up page and also in the workshop section of my web site.

Altered Book Workshop at Chalk Xchange
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
1pm to 4:30pm
593 East Georgia Street (at Princess Street)
Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z8

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.

Our adventure to the museum happened on a spur of the moment Sunday afternoon. I was looking at photos of bones and things I’d taken at the ROM three years ago, when Boris suddenly remembered he’d recently bought an admission ticket for the Beaty through Groupon. It opened over the summer and I’d been wanting to visit, so off we went on the long journey to the other side of town.

The first thing you see upon entering the Beaty Biodiversity Museum is the awe-inspiring Blue Whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling in the main atrium. I’m sure the sight of it causes many a traffic jam by the front door as people stop to stare. I continued staring from every angle as I spiralled my way down the ramp to the bottom level where the rest of the collection is located. Standing underneath the whale made me feel very small and I couldn’t help but imagine it crashing down on top of me. (Curses to my over-active imagination).

All but a small fraction of objects are tucked away in a vast underground storage facility that houses the over two million pieces in the museum’s collection. It’s the storage that doubles as display and walking through the endless rows of tall cabinets reveals windows of skulls, taxidermied animals and birds, aquatic life in jars, fossils, preserved flora, insects, and everything else to do with the study of biodiversity.

As a child I was always drawn to the animal displays in museums, but as an adult I can’t help pondering the staggering amount of dead animals taken for the sake of research and how this contributes to the depletion of species. It’s a bit morbid to realize how many dead things are in one place, even if I do happen to have a fascination with dead things.

Boris and I started out following a tour of people lead by an interpreter but quickly got side-tracked by one wow-inducing thing after another. There was really no end to the captivating objects and creatures to look at.

This crocodile still looks ready to eat passerby – and with a smile I might add – even though all that remains is it’s skin. It was HUGE.

The windows into the storage units are sporadically placed throughout every row, and there is a variety of ways things are displayed. Some are set up to show objects at their best advantage, while others (like these) are pure organized storage views. I was amused to see even museums use shoeboxes to stash things away.

The Beaty Museum is a welcome addition to Vancouver’s cultural repertoire, and goes on my list of recommendations to locals and visitors alike. For me it can finally be a stand in for the ROM, a place I would visit frequently when I lived in Toronto and miss having access to. It’s funny how looking at photos taken at one led to the exciting discovery of the other.

Please visit flickr to view the full set of photos from my exploration of the museum.

One of my favorite moments during the Culture Crawl was turning around and finding the lead singer and guitar player from Wee Boy Pretty standing in my living room. I did a bit of fangirl gushing and told them how much I’d been enjoying their music. They were just as enthusiastic about my work as I am about theirs which thrilled me to no end. Check out the video below to get an idea of how good they are live.

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.

The coffee cup that says fart. This cracks me up.

RubyDog’s Art House is my favorite place to buy supplies and find inspiration for the collage work I create. I’ve been going there for the last couple of years and I always find something unique and inspiring to take home. The shop is owned by Leanne Bishop and it’s always fun to chat with her while I browse through the store.

When I dropped by a yesterday to pick up a new book about collage I decided to take a few photos and show people some of the interesting things you can find in the shop. There is an excellent selection of books on collage, book making, painting, and more. I think I’ve bought most of my art books from RubyDog’s because she seems to be the only one in Vancouver to carry as many books about altering books.

This is Ruby the dog, who can often be found napping peacefully in the corner, and is the namesake of the shop.

There are plenty of interesting little things to look at all through the store.

I’ve used these some of these tiny bottles in one of my altered books (that now belongs to someone else).

I have some of these clarinet pieces in my possession and that have not yet made their way into a collage. Leanne has a HUGE collection of letterpress pieces for collaging or collecting.

There’s really no end to the variety of things you can find at RubyDog’s Art House, from vintage ephemera to billiard balls. Please check out the shop and help support a wonderful local business.

RubyDog’s Art House
623 Kingsway
(Kingsway near Fraser Street)
Vancouver BC V5T 3K5

(An example of Richard Jackson’s work. Not from the show).

The current exhibition is a retrospective of the collected works of Richard Jackson. He’s a contemporary artist working with painting and sculpture, and is very much influenced by his background as an engineer. He’s all about the concept of what he creates rather than the content and uses multiple canvases and thick layers of paint to create wildly colourful abstract installations across the walls. Many of his pieces involve a huge amount of paint and were created on site in the gallery. I was really impressed with the show not just for the quality of the work but because of how well the show was put together. It’s rare to see an art show in Vancouver as tightly curated and as polished at this one was.

Even if contemporary art is not your thing, the architecture alone is worth a visit. The Wing Sang building is one of the oldest in Chinatown and they’ve done an extraordinary job of restoring it while maintaining some of the original details. My favorite spot was the rooftop garden with its excellent view of the city. The space is half covered in aged metal beams as a patio, and half in a lush lawn with two permanently installed sculptures from the collection. There were also red poppies blooming in planters placed around the edges of the roof and a blue sky overhead to complete the picture of a lovely oasis hidden from the city. I could’ve stayed up there for hours enjoying the sun.

To go on a guided tour of the Rennie Collection you need to reserve a space on their website. The tours are free and take place three times a day on Tuesday and Thursdays with a maximum of fifteen people at a time. I highly recommend you do it.

The space is newly renovated with high ceilings that give the store an airy feel. There are lots of beautiful and colourful things to look at including the front counter which is covered in vintage yardsticks. At this point I should mention I don’t actually sew but I do love threads and textiles.

The store was having a soft launch last weekend with their official opening day this Saturday, June 5th.

Did I mention the gorgeous fabrics Spool of Thread has for sale? These are pretty wow. Some of them would be dreamy as a summer dress or as curtains in my new place.

Thanks to Spool of Thread owners Lili and Henry for being so welcoming to their shop and allowing me to take photos. I’m sure the store is a welcome addition to the Vancouver craft scene.

I’ll be out of town this weekend, which I’m really excited about but it means missing out on a whole bunch of interesting things going on in town.

Make It! The Handmade Revolution: A shopping extravaganza of handmade items by local designers and artisans. Boris and I went to this last year and saw many beautiful things for sale. It runs all weekend long at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive.

Got Craft?: this is Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair that only happens twice a year. I’ve managed to miss it every time. It’s happening on Sunday from 10 to 5pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, also on Commercial Drive.

Art Walk: This is part of Artists in Our Midst, the studio and gallery tour that focuses on artists living in the west side of Vancouver. The Art Walk takes place Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6 pm and includes 31 venues with 52 artists.

Free Comic Day: Yes, that’s right. May 1st is FREE COMIC DAY where you can get comics from your favorite store for FREE. I like the word FREE.

Emily Carr 2010 Grad Show: A huge showcase of the work of over 300 graduate and undergraduate students in visual arts, media arts and design. The opening reception is May 1st from 7 to 11pm, and the show runs until May 16th.

I think there may be EVEN more events going on this weekend, but I suspect that’s enough to keep everyone busy. Let me know if you get any comics.