New Month, New Year, New Studio: The Birth of Necessity Studios.

I'm not even going to try to catch you up on what's been going on.
All I want to say is I got a new start to my creative life today.

outside doors

I got the keys to my brand new studio space. It's all shiny and full of promise.

that's my studio, in there, behind that door

 The vibe is energy-rich in this space.

completely empty yet full of promise

 All I have been trying to do this past month is shed responsibilities, duties, and obligations to anyone and anything to make way for days and days hunkered down in my new studio space.

a space where I can be free to make whatever I want and not worry about the mess

 I have a lot of catching up to do.

I cannot wait to move my canvases, all carefully wrapped for me for my move in April of 2011, into a permanent resting spot and out of the corners, hallway and bedrooms of my small apartment.

the view through my window from the outside looking in

OMG what a relief it is to have a workspace.  All that's left is to do some good work.

Aurora Studio Tour this weekend: Sat & Sun Sept 29-30, 10am-4pm

I'm hardly back in town and today I have a demo at Hillcrest Mall to help promote the Richmond Hill Studio Tour  happening Oct 13 and 14th all over town.

After that I am bringing my work over to the great Eva Folks, where I will be sharing her home with several artists on this year's Aurora Studio Tour.

These are two of the new works I am showing on the tour:

Strut   16" x 20" acrylic on canvas

First Day  16" x 20"  acrylic on canvas

Aurora Studo Tour Info


Richmond Hill Studio Tour Oct 13 & 14 (10am-5pm ) Brochure
Richmond Hill Studio Tour Bios

Getting ready for the Nuit in Ottawa Tonight

It's 2:27pm and I am getting ready for Nuit Blanche Ottawa.
Start time 6:22pm. End time 4:23am.

I'm already over-tired and I don't usually stay up past midnight so much anymore. What I do recall are having the best, most enlightening, and funny conversations, after 1am. Wouldn't it be great for that to happen again with all these ARTISTS around I keep saying to myself as I wonder how I will keep my eyes open and I wonder how long we will *really* last--and how long everyone else will last for that matter. 

I have wanted to do a Nuit Blanche since I attended my first one in Toronto: http://plasticmasters.blogspot.ca/2008/12/nuit-blanche-in-toronto-october-4th.html

 But here I am, four years later and this is what I'm doing or my first Nuit Blanche as a participant:

http://drawingthelinecollective.blogspot.ca/2012/09/dtl-at-nuit-blanche-ottawa-september.html


Basically, I'm seated on a chair, on the sidewalk in front of the Ottawa School of Art in the Byward Market, with my two drawing partners seated on chairs in front and behind me. We each start drawings in our sketchbooks that we pass amongst ourselves, working on a page until we decide it is done. Inspiration will come from everywhere, and from you too if you happen to be there.

Depending on the weather, (it was SUPER rainy this morning--kind of a muted sunshine right now) and the light levels, we'll stay outside for as long as we can take it, then move inside the Ottawa School of Art up to room 405 where we will have installed huge sheets of paper around the room. Here you can join us in our drawings. We have a bucket of supplies for you to use and we'll respond to your drawings as well as to ours.

Our event is quiet compared to some.

Around us at the School of Art will be 14 other art events, not to mention those set up in the Byward Market area and then in Hintonburg and the one I would like to get to myself is in the parking lot of the Enriched Bread Artists studio on Gladstone Avenue. Rob Hinchley, my great former printmaking instructor, and 3 others are creating GIANT woodcut prints using 4' x 8' wood panels for the block and then pressing them to the paper with a steam roller.

(Note to self: I'm going to have to try that when I get home.)

Nuit Blanche Ottawa Website here: http://nuitblancheottawa.ca/

Nuit Blanche Ottawa approaches ... 27 days and counting

large DtL Collective drawing, detail   graphite, charcoal, pastel, paint, ink

DtL (Drawing the Line Collective) will be performing drawing, sidewalk style, at Nuit Blanche Ottawa on September 22nd. We're going to be up all night, along with many, many other Ottawa artists in this inaugural Nuit Blanche evening for the city.

Drawing the Line is a collective consisting of three members: myself, Gail Bourgeois and Shirley Yik. More info, for the curious, can be found here: DtL
 

The best part will be doing a DtL project with my friends and seeing what happens over the course of the night.

our public drawing area at Blink Gallery with happy participants

The worst part will be not being able to see all the other art events because I am part of one of those events. Not such a terrible problem, of course, but I'll have to rely on the reports of others.

You'll be able to find us on 22 September 2012 - 6:22 pm – 4:23 am in front of the Ottawa School of Art (one of the festival partners) and up on the 4th floor of the school if we're not outside.

Tea for Two -- paintings for the tea room at the Burr House, Richmond Hill, ON

I was happy to provide the Burr House Tea Room (run by the Hill Potters' Guild and the Burr House Spinners and Weavers) with some artwork for their walls. 

I am installing the pieces tomorrow morning. 

There are 10 more in the works. 

All of these paintings are 8"x10" acrylics on canvas, all called Tea for Two. 

They will be shown in pairs. 

Some are more obviously connected in image, 

and others more by, 

shall we say,  

spirit. 

They will be on display in the tea room until the end of September, 2012. 

Tea room hours: 12:30 - 4:30 Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the end of November

Saturdays and Sundays only in December.

Drop by and have some tea and scones ($4.00! A true bargain!) 

Marvel at the artwork in the tea room! 

and in the craft gallery! 

(all made by guild members! and local artisans!!)

and on display in the main gallery where, (Oh!) I have an exhibit with the exceptional Doris Walter, sculptor. We're having an opening September 6th from 6pm-8pm 

so if you come by you can meet both of us 

LIVE! 

and 

IN PERSON!! 

Whatever Happened to the Chocolate Popsicle?

We've had a record-breaking summer of heat and dry weather here. I found myself, more than once, craving popsicles.

                                              

 This was the go-to treat when I was a kid, walking to the corner store with my friends, each of us buying a different kind of popsicle, cracking them in the middle and sharing the different flavours with each other. I wanted to do that with Chris the other day and I *really* wanted a chocolate popsicle. They were my favorite and I haven't tried to find one in years.

Maybe it's even been decades? But you know how the memory is, it's like no time has passed so I was positive I would find popsicle, and hoping to find chocolate ones.

the lowly orange popsicle serving as an icon of the venerable twin pop
shown here as a sterling silver charm

I'd even settle for the common orange popsicle if I had to, the worst of the bunch.

o

not the actual freezer where I bought the lifesaver frozen thingy, but very similar

 I walked to the closest corner store and peered into the freezer.

I was looking for a popsicle. The one I really wanted, but can never get, is the tri-coloured popsicle: blue, white and pink/red. They could have ditched the red part and just made it blue and white. That would be my preference. Sometimes you can get the blue/white/red in the "rocket" format, but it's not the same to me.

So I got a lifesavers popsicle-like thing today.  It was very yummy but triggered the popsicle memories of my youth.

Popsicle Pete! Where are you my old friend?

My popsicle quest had me trying to remember the last time I actually saw a chocolate popsicle.

fudgsicles are not popsicles

What happened to those?

It turns out that the popsicle I remember is actually called a "twin pop", developed during the Great Depression and made with the intention of sharing with you friends. They were discontinued in 1987. Sheesh. Apparently moms found them too messy and kids didn't get to the second half fast enough so they melted. Hello? Is this a case of "kids today" or what? Sometimes we didn't crack them in half but kept them whole and ate them like that and sometimes they melted CAUSE IT WAS HOT OUT and yeah, sometimes little kids get sticky gooey stuff on their hands. 

NY Times article on the demise of the Twin Popsicle

I think it was probably more likely that the company could make something smaller and charge the same price for it, thereby making more money. 

Popsicle Pete, CEO/CFO/Corp.

things-on-a-stick are always a good bet

I saved a few Popsicle wrappers a few times but never had enough to send away for anything. The wrappers were always super sticky and attracted ants like crazy, and held onto little bits of gravel. Then the goopy stuff got all over your hands and you just threw the wrapper out.

And as if on cue, after we finished our treats and were on our way home, an ice cream truck drove right by us. Look! Rockets right there on the back of the truck. Taunting me.
*shaking fist in the air*

Phooey.

BUT NO POPSICLES!

more on Popsicle Pete:  

 http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-most-baffling-food-mascots-all-time_p3/

Re-purposing my favorite Mobius-wear

I am trying to de-clutter my apartment and I have been going through some of my t-shirts. I have a lot of t-shirts and many are old old old, very worn, and I love to wear them.

Chris has been after me for about 5 years to get rid of this shirt in particular:

This is a "cyclist" shirt made by Tim Hunt and Karen Massey circa, oh, 2001? 2000? The shirts they made just got more and more comfortable, the fabric softer and softer and the design and colour always stayed true. As the shirt got older I started to use it as a "painting shirt". I have lots of shirts now, intended and unintended, that are painting shirts. This one just had so many holes that it was almost unwearable.

arm split open along the side

many different sized holes in the middle of the front

So what to do with this old favorite? I tried tossing it twice now and couldn't do it. So today I put it to work.

i

 After ripping it, easily,  into long soft ribbons

I used it to tie my tomato plants up off the ground.  Shown here is the true success story of my garden:

Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes, which I direct seeded  into the ground.   

I couldn't believe when they germinated in the poor garden soil, and I couldn't believe when they flowered, and now I can't get over the tomatoes growing on them!

The blue Mobius shirt was soft yet strong and I felt confident enough to tackle even the most sprawling of my tomato plants, the yellow cherry pear-shaped tomato. Look at this mess of blue t-shirt ties.

Next year I will do myself a favour and get the tomato cages. 

Really, I'm just trying to get through the gardening year this year.

 It's been a long long long time since I had my own garden. 

But, I'll make sure to have a few retired Mobius t's just in case.

Festival Season 2012: visting the Fairy Lake Artisan's Festival

Last Sunday I drove 20 or so  minutes north to Newmarket and the Fairy Lake Artisan's Festival. I knew two local artists exhibiting there and I wondered if I would know anyone else. Looking up info about the show I found out it's 15 years old. That's usually a pretty good sign.
As it turned out, there were artisans from out of town and that is another sign of a decent show. You don't travel for nothing.
Or you hope so anyway.
I recognized Out of Ruins, an Ottawa fused glass company and The Funky Clothesline, a tie-dye clothing company,  both have been around about a decade.
I remember when each of them started doing shows.
The fact that I saw artisans from out of town told me something about the calibre of this show. I've only lived here a little over a year and I had no idea this was going on or I probably would have applied to be there. But that's ok too, as this is my summer of visiting shows in the area, shows I've always wanted to see like Muskoka and Haliburton, which were just that-much-too-far from me when I lived in Ottawa to leisurely drive there for a visit. And then there are other shows like The Purple Turtle Art Festival  and the Eaglewood Folk Festival which are nearby and completely unknown to me. 

First signage for Fairy Lake show on Bayview in Newmarket

It was a relief to see the first sign telling me I am in the right place. The day after the market I am kind of a basket case so this sort of directional marker is very welcome.

cops at the entrance to the show directing traffic: peds, canines and cars

Walking over to the show I kept passing big clumps of people, almost crowd-like, and when I reached where I had to cross I was astounded to see traffic cops directing all manner of traffic. Was this show that busy, I wondered?

security at the entrance to turn away would-be car-parkers no doubt

This security volunteer guy was like a military sentry. He never wavered while executing his Duty..

this is Fairy Lake in Newmarket, Ontario

Fairy Lake turns out to be a real lake afterall, not just a lets-put-a-water-feature-in-town-for-the-tourists kind of thing. They are rehabilitating the shoreline and further down, past the show itself I came across people fishing. I plan to go back there and set a while over the summer.

welcome

Very bright and bold sign exorting us to ENJOY! OK.

booths

The show was bigger than I thought it would be.

more booths

In fact it went on

and more booths

and on.

The level of artisanal work was pretty high. Seemed like the first day of the two day show was the best as it dove-tailed with the Newmarket Farmer's Market on Saturday. The crowds were huge I was told and people were buying things. On the Sunday the sky threatened to open up and the air was heavy and humid. It was a strolling-by day. I did take a few business cards myself and if my year continues to progress well I hope to get something very special made in the fall.

ATM on wheels; looks crafty!  Who wouldn't want a trailer like this?

The ATM cracked me up. This set-up on wheels just looked so do-able but imagine what you'd have to do to actually do this? I met someone ages ago who was one of the first guys to bring ATMs to events. It was such a novelty, but none of his were as stylish as this little number. I would have liked to have seen an airstream trailer beside it.

bye bye