Remembering... Strangers at the Sudbury Videogame Show April 2019

 

 I feel nostalgia for the interesting stranger.

Pre-pandemic face masks.

This fish scarf!

This t-shirt!

It was heartening to see more Luigis than Marios.

This guy!

And this guy!

The emotive hairdos.

The confidence.

The nonchalance.

 

Recent Work Fall 2020/21

2 proofs for some tarot cards

linocuts
monster 

           handbuilt stoneware, underglaze, glaze

           Artist to Artist Greeting Card Collection

                  Urn for a Japanese Bobtail Cat

     stoneware, underglaze, glaze, hemp cord

Clay Maquette for a pandemic sculpture project

Relief  

Linocut, 2 blocks

Print exchange submission for Relief Conspiracy

Seriously

Woodblock print on Japanese paper

Canned Vacation

Acrylic on canvas

The 25 Year Ride

Clay, ceramic paint

I'm 30.

 I remember being 27. When I was 27 I knew that THIRTY was coming for me! 

I spent 27, 28, and 29 already being 30 in my mind.

At 30 I was disappointed. What? Is this it?

Shortly after marking 30 I was sitting on the bus, mulling over 30, and I had a vision of crouching on pavement and sifting sparkling black sand through my fingers.

I didn't know what would come next. My 20's seemed to be pre-planned somehow. But the 30's? What the heck were they about? I was thinking today that I still don't know. Even with hindsight being 20/20, I can't figure it out.

And so I find myself here, in 2021, my 30th year of making things. THIRTY. Wow. What do I do now? 

Seems apt, this post of mine. I thought I was going to talk about

  

 

 interesting and bleak local landscape

 

 

                                            some art projects I've done or am planning to do

                                                                          ephermera

                                                     this handmade model of the Titanic

 

 

 

                                                  crew of the Titanic (artist's rendition)

                                    Titanic passenger? Crew? Such a pained look on his face! 

                                                  Perhaps he knows what's coming next?!

 

That time at a show when my friend sold something he loved

 

 

Cats and what ails them 

With No Fanfare I Restart my Blog

Today is April 24, 2020. I have been in self-isolation due to Covid-19 since March 13, 2020. On that day I lost all the art spaces I travel to to make my art: a college, a printmaking studio, my own studio, a makerspace, a pottery studio.  I also lost everything I had been doing to make a living as a visual artist: future shows and sales, teaching opportunities, commissions etc.

So, don't tell anyone, but money is not the reason I make art. I make art cause if I don't make art I can never be happy. So while making art, for money, is necessary, making art, even if I'm not making money, is essential for my well-being. And so I keep trying to improve my skills. Keep challenging myself. 

I joined the #100dayproject on Instagram (@katieargyle7) to keep myself making something every day. Today is day 17 of 100 and I drew another artist.

It's not a good drawing, but I drew today. 

And that's very good.

Happy New Year.

This year I am re-committing to my blog.

Blog, I have missed you.

My blog didn't go anywhere. It was always here, ever faithful, waiting for me, wondering why I had forsaken her so...

Basically I have been trying to do the online thing "right". Right=putting content on your own website etc. I shouldn't follow advice that doesn't work for me. Yrying to follow that advice stopped me dead in my tracks.

I'm not blogging to monetize it. I'm not blogging to sell stuff, though if that happens that's a wonderful side effect.

No I am simply blogging because I like it.
And I like creating this historical document cause that's what I think this is.

And so today I open the book that is 2019 and I dedicate this blog to sharing whatever comes me way.

Friendly Plastic Swan Song 39/1000

Over the coming year

 I am going to use up 

my stash of 

friendly plastic.

I am aiming  to make 1000 things unless the material runs out before that.

Birthdays, Sketchbooks, Prints: once a year, once a day, once in a blue moon coming up...

Exactly a month ago I had a birthday.

It happened to fall on the November full moon called the Beaver Moon.

Rice Lake in the Kawarthas

Beaver Moon over Rice Lake

I was away from home and was lucky enough to see the full moon rise over Rice Lake on an unusually warm November evening. It felt like the perfect end to an astonishing year of accomplishments for me and an auspicious beginning for my next trip round the sun.



Yesterday on another full moon night, this time called the Cold Moon, I committed to some art practices I'd like to keep up this year. The Cold Moon Super Moon (yes it was a super moon) will keep me honest and on track.

Ever Evolving Cover of New Daily Sketchbook

proofing my blocks - day 1

What I decided to do was keep a daily sketchbook. I hadn't planned on it but I have added a task for myself to carve one small eraser block everyday for a year.

 I started with an image for the Beaver Moon and another for the Cold Moon. That's what got me hooked. So much personal satisfaction in these dime-sized prints for me.





Ooo! Just found this! More moon mania ahead! It IS an auspicious start to the year.

Blue Moon ahead.

2017 Year of the Rooster - print exchange by mail

This is the Year of the Rooster, specifically, a Fire Rooster year. 

people, wake up. (2017)  Katie Argyle - linocut on canson card, edition of 45.

 For several years I participated in a Chinese New Year print exchange through 

Proof Gallery in Toronto. After many years, they cancelled their event.

Theresa Martin, Kansas City, USA - the print was mailed as a postcard

 I looked for another exchange and found a Year of the Rooster exchange through the mail. 

Stephanie Chao, Laguna Niguel, California, USA

This was on Baren Forum which is a great printmaking resource aimed 

toward woodblock printmakers but definitely open to other fine art printmakers. 

Take a look at their site! Wow.

Frank Trueba, Felton California, USA - super interesting information printed on the back

I signed on to exchange new year greetings. 

There are 30 of us and we made and edition of prints/cards for each other.

copper etching over linoblock with chine colle - not sure who the artist is...?

On the list are a few Canadians, one from the UK, one from Italy and 

one from Tasmania. The rest are located in the United States of America. 

Sonia Jensen - clever two sided rooster card

So far I have received 7 of 29. 

Monica Bright, Star, Idaho, USA

Many more to look forward to.

Calvin Carlisle, Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA

Friendly Plastic and Me: A Love Story: the foreward.

I've got 369 friendly plastic sticks, all non-snappers.
If you know what I am talking about, then you know what Friendly Plastic is.

Lets just say my plastic is of the highest quality. ;)

I have a good range of colours and patterns.

And now that it's obsolete*, well, I could sell them for a pretty penny!

My Artrepreneur cohort (hello fellow Vaughan artrepreneurs) would say this is the obvious move.

But I think no.
Use it.
Allow it to fulfill its purpose: shiny happy things at a moderate price for fun and a bit of profit. (I did learn something.)

For me, that is its highest calling.

Since I'm still a bit under the weather I will end this note here. I have a whole year to talk Friendly Plastic. Feel free to unfollow me now!


*Friendly plastic continues to exist in its original form: pellets. If you have a hankering for making your own crafting material, or using this product for other applications, I salute you. For me, it is the end.
Here's a link to the manufacturers site.

Ebay search for Friendly Plastic

Sick. Ugh.

bundling up

Not much to say except I am sick today. Full on sick. I have a bad cold that started last week with an irritating weird little cough that you would think was fake. It grew to a bigger cough but no other symptoms and now I am hacking away and freezing and sneezing heading back to bed. I'm checking in to maintain my goal of writing every day on my blog this year. Posts like this are next to useless, but I am writing them in 2017.

Until tomorrow.

My Quest to Try New Things: play that ukulele already - January 2nd, 2017

For my birthday in 2015 I got this sweet ukulele.

 

cat for size comparison

 I was so excited. I wanted one for a long long time and finally had a good one.

I tried to learn to play it from books.

I was highly motivated to play this song for instance. 

But learning from books is never easy for me. So I turned to youtube videos and just got frustrated. 

tuner!?

What I really wanted was a class.

so many songs

If I start in a class then I can follow up with the other methods. I learn better with others.

Yesterday I saw one advertised on kijiji* that's not too far from me. By the end of 2 hours on an otherwise ordinary Sunday in January, this class promises that I will be singing songs by the end of it. Yay! I am signed up.

I am hoping to attend some folk festivals this summer.

A folk festival is the right place to bring a ukulele. 

And so, this is one of my 2017 goals: to play ukulele at a folk festival. 

for an AMP!!! (lookout neighbours!!!)

 

 

 

 

Ukulele Orchestra of GB - Shaft

 *possibly goal #2 of 2017: sell some stuff on kijiji