New Nest

I painted this nest on raw wood. Loved making it. Painting on raw wood is a little like investing in the stock market, one wrong move and the thing is ruined.  I however was successful, no major mistakes.

Tear Collecting

Here are a few of the tear jars I am going to be exhibiting in my show next March in Saskatoon.

March/April 2012
Museum of Antiquities - University of Saskatchewan Campus
Room 116 College Building
107 Administration Place
Saskatoon, Canada

Curated by Tracene Harvey and Anneka Drinkwater

For more information on the exhibition, collecting tears and or participating go to TearRoom Project.

Book Installation

If you were to drive by my house you would think that I am moving somewhere.  The carport is covered with boxes. Inside the boxes are books. Hundreds of books. I am doing an installation of books next summer for an art exhibition.  I am using books pointing backwards (spines in) to make an comment on the current change towards books without pages. The concept of turning a page is changing as the digital book becomes more popular. I am going to take the books and make them into manageable cubes so that they can be installed easily along an entire wall in the gallery, with no spaces between the books. I am getting the books from the library discards.  They are the really super old, nobody wants them books, or the damaged ones (spines broken, covers missing, water damaged). It doesn't matter to me if they are damaged for the concept that I have. Some of the books have that really old smell that is so unique to used bookstores and libraries.  I am not even close to the number of books I need yet and I also need to McGuyver some way to hold them together in small groups. It should be an interesting challenge for the winter as will be the storage issue. I have faith that both will work out.

Bulb - Altered Book

This is an altered book so those of you that really love books might cringe when you see what I have done. I got this book at the World Tulip Summit in Mount Vernon, Washington State in 2010. The book is abut the history of bulb growing in that area.  I was intrigued with the number of times the same word "bulb" appeared. So I used it in the following piece of artwork. I cut strips from the pages that had that word and placed a print of a bulb behind the cut outs. Orginally there were so many strips with the word bulb that you couldn't see the print so I removed enough so that you can tell it is a bulb but it is not fully visible. This piece will be part of my exhibition (Evince) next summer.

Nest - Protection

This is a new piece. The image does not give you all the subtle details of grey and white. Nor the super small lines that are within the nest. The title is protection and one side of the canvas is purposely darker to symbolize the things that our "nest" protects us from.

Love Locks Sculpture - Canada - A Time Line

I put together some documentation about my Love Locks sculpture for a proposal and put it into a sort of timeline. So I have uploaded it. The sculpture has been such fun to create because of the public participation element and because it is about loving each other.

Another Nest called "Balance"

So I created another nest this one called "Balance". It is huge 60 x 72". It is a triptych. I had to photograph it on the easel because I don't have a wall large enought to display it. I had so much fun making it. I had to use my entire body to move through the long twigs that make up the nest.

 

The series has a new display location and date

May/June 2013

at 

The Meewasin Valley Center Gallery, Saskatoon 

Another Nest - Shelter

Here is another nest for the series Nest - Nest Egg -Empty Nest.

Nest - Nest Egg - Empty Nest : Exhibition at Rouge Gallery next May

As part of my Artist in Residence with the Potash Corp Children's Festival I will be exhibiting my series Nest - Nest Egg - Empty Nest at Rouge Gallery.  I will get more images on the website as soon as I can.  Bought new canvas today to paint more nests.

 

Artist in Residence - Northern Saskatchewan Children's Festival 2012

 I will be Artist in Residence for the 2012 Saskatchewan Children's Festival,  June 3 - 6, 2012.  The focus will be on my new series Nest - Nest Egg - Empty Nest.

More on projects that I will be doing with the children will be posted in future months.

 http://www.saskatchewanchildrensfestival.ca/

TearRoom Project - Museum of Antiquities

The TearRoom Project 

March/April 2012

Museum of Antiquities - University of Saskatchewan Campus

Room 116 College Building

107 Administration Place
Saskatoon, Canada
 

Curated by Tracene Harvey and Anneka Drinkwater

I am collecting human tears.  If you would like to participate contact me.

Photo credit: Trint Thomas

"Surrender", and 3 photos by Trint Thomas

You bet something new for me!!!!! My son and I spent three days taking photos of the Lighthouse Park Area in August to submit to a group show at the West Vancouver Memorial  Library.  My piece "Surrender" was accepted.  It was a wonderful three days spent in the parks on the north shore of Vancouver and with my incredibly talented and creative son.  I found this white feather on the rock and all I could think of is that the animals in this world have to surrender to us because they have no way to fight back.  The call for exhibition asked for work that dealt with: the the fragility and diversity of the parks, hence my calling to "Surrender".

My son had three of his photos selected for exhibition.  I am so excited to be in an exhibition with him. 

"Surrender" 

12 x 18"

West Vancouver Memorial Library 

November 5 - January 8, 2012

Opening Event:  November 6, 2011

Lighthouse Park  http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/lighthouse-park/

Here are the three photos that my son took that are in the exhibition as well. 

Ink Transfer - text on nests

The other thing I have been working on is text on top of nests that were created using an ink transfer technique.

Economic Transfer

ink transfer and pencil on paper 

22 x 30"

 

  

Home

ink transfer and pencil on paper 

22 x 30"

Nest Egg - Home

Here is another piece in the Nest Egg series. The detailing in the stenciled letters on the background is not visible in the photo.  I so enjoyed creating this today.

 

detail shots of stenciling of text

Nest Egg - Security

I just finished a very large painting with the main image of a nest. On the piece I have included the words nest and security. I just love it. It is a bit of a break away from my normal style in that I was splashing and splattering paint on the canvas. It was fun and sort of freeing from my normal style. 

 

Nest Egg - Economics

The following four pieces are part of my Nest - Nest Egg- Empty Nest series.  These pieces use bank statements to enhance the nest and create a dialogue in the viewers mind between the titles and the numbers that appear in the nest spaces.  The nests are red as most people in this time in history live in "the red", living in the black seems to be a thing of the past for most people.  My daughter is studying economics at university and the vocabulary she uses intrigues me. The medium used is ink, bank statements and pencil crayon on paper.

Budget Line

Ecomonic Growth

 Income Distribution

Stocks