Bone Pile

June and July Franklin keeps cool

August/September Franklin

October/November Franklin

I am missing one Franklin which was up all September into October and this was a special edition Construction Season Franklin to commemorate the MASSIVE and ON-GOING stimulus-project-road-construction in and around Franklin's home. This text will disappear when I find my jpg. A picture's worth a thousand ( or 46) words after all.

Taking a Deep Breath

INHALE

Hello Faithful Readers and Picture-Lookers

I am going to start catching you up on what's been happening around here. Mostly I've been distracted by a year of wondering if I am moving away, and if so to where.


Two possibilities have been in the air all year:
London, England
and

Douglas, on the Isle of Man.
And right when I was all set to join the Basking Shark Watch on the Isle of Man,
to see and help conserve these fantastic creatures I found out, nope, instead it may be

Toronto.
So stay tuned. In the next 3 months things will get sorted out and I'll know whether I am moving 400 miles west or across the Atlantic.

This kind of stuff keeps me off center, even more than usual, and stuff drops off as I fret.
Life is taking on a new direction now and I feel like I can start to happily settle into the things that bring me joy... I feel like it's okay to breathe again.

EXHALE

Lumiere Festival 2010 - Recap

Okay, everyone pile in the car. No fighting! Don't make me stop this car...



Settling in for the ride



Charon the Ferryman keeping watch



The Styx Express is leaving on schedule



No Late Arrivals even if you have full fare...



We're okay with going to the Other Side




Even this guy doesn't phase us




View of my sculptural piece called One Way as it looked from the shore fully lit at night




View of my piece from further up the water's edge with the City of Ottawa as backdrop

Garlic Festival this weekend - Carp Farmers' Market

Carpe Allium - (seize the garlic)
24"x36" acrylic on canvas

All things garlic is the focal point of the Carp Farmers' Market this weekend. To get in the spirit I've painted four garlic-themed paintings of which this is one. Garlic paintings are a challenge.

Here's some more info from their website (click here to go there)
CARP FARMERS' MARKET

Garlic Festival 2010

We're very pleased to present our 11th annual edition of the Garlic Festival, featuring more garlic in one place than you can imagine. Fresh garlic bulbs, garlic braids and decorations, garlic concoctions, garlic braiding demonstrations, garlic cooking demonstrations, a garlic contest, garlic tasting, and wonderful garlic aromas.

The Festival will be held for two days:

* Sat Aug 14th 8 am to 3 pm
* Sun Aug 15th 10 am to 3 pm

100 vendors, FREE ADMISSION and lots of free parking.

on the eve of Urban Art 2010

I'm not at Carp Market this weekend so I won't have to stop and let the geese pass this Saturday like I did last week.


Instead I'll be out marking spots for artists and getting booths set up and wondering where item X is and did I remember to bring it?

I don't know where the time is going but it seems I'm always busy or thinking about what I have to do next. I'm either saving my energy for the "next big thing I have to do" (I usually do this by watching AC360 podcasts. Ever since I dropped the cable tv to save money last December I've missed Anderson Cooper the most.)

I'm on the eve of one of my bigger yearly events, namely Urban Art @ Minto Park. This year it's 5 years old and my 2nd time organizing it with my good friend and fellow artist Tim Hunt. We had far fewer breakfast meetings this year than last. A testament to how busy Tim was too.

So I had one stand out day this week. I was interviewed by Michael Bhardwaj for In Town and Out a local CBC Radio One program every Saturday morning from 6am to 9am composed of information and interviews concerning events happening in our area over the weekend. I was so happy to be able to get the word out about Urban Art and to get an opportunity to talk about the community Post-It Note event which will happen during Urban Art tomorrow.

Basically Ottawa is a town with a lot of office culture. What more familiar format than the post-it note can you have when you are used to office spaces? In the park I will set up a pseudo office and I am inviting the public to write a thought, an idea, a grocery list, a to do reminder, a pet peeve on a post it and to put it up for all to see. I hope I get so many post it notes that all the surfaces are covered. And, for those who want to tell me a secret, I'll have my Top Secret File available in the filing cabinet, so you can leave something hidden if you want.

Really I am wondering what's on the mind of the people in Ottawa. What are you thinking about?

After the show I'll gather the notes up and make them into some kind of art piece. I did this before, when I bound secrets anonymously dropped into a ballot box for me into a book form called a flag book. Each secret was glued against the spine and then the book flies open in a great dramatic gesture, one flap lying atop the next all the way down. I'm not sure if the post-its will become a book. I have to wait and see what I get. But that's the fun for me. It's out of my hands.
Great.

The other thing that made my interview day a very auspicious occasion was the fact that I caught the double-decker OC Transpo bus both ways. What are the odds of that?



View from the front at the top
I also spent a few days postering with Tim this week. Between us we put up 230 posters in the downtown core. Someone always takes most of them down during the week - I've seen city workers and private citizens do this - but hopefully some remain and hopefully all the other artists have done their share as well. Now all we can do is hope for good weather, and if we don't get, to go on with the show anyway.





See you tomorrow.

UV 11 + Humidex 41C + full sun and no air conditioning

Like the guy on some movie I saw ages ago who told the other guy "hey turn it up to 11" cause he wanted to rock out, our UV index around here is on 11 today. I was wondering how high the UV could go as it's been steadily 8 or 9 and then 10's across the board and today: 11.

If I go out will my eye balls burn or will they just get silently damaged to show up as cataracts a decade from now? What's with the sun going to 11 for Pete's sake?

Apparently the scale goes to 11 and then they don't count it anymore.
What if it's really a lot more than 11?
Makes you want to retire to your damp cool basement and not come out until the sun and the mosquitos are gone.

Until then all my windows are closed *sigh*. I wait all year to have the windows wide open only to have to grudgingly concede that if I want to sleep a few hours at night then I have to close them during the day. We don't have an air conditioner and this year I can't hear the hum of the neighbour's units either. We're all either too poor to afford the hydro bills that come with them or we're all just putting up with it. Eventually the temperature breaks. But this week, we'll suffer.

Better find my hat. And my sunscreen. And wear both.

This Weekend June 5/6 in the Glebe - The New Art Festival

Hard to believe the year has already brought us to the doorstep of the New Art Festival. Last year I missed this show. I think I've missed only 2 or 3 since it started, so I am glad to be back this year. My location is #27 Patterson, which is an area I've never been in so that's a new thing too. And another new thing will be my booth full of prints! I've amassed quite a collection of them since I started school, 4 years ago now, and I am happy to bring some of these works out into the light of day. I actually have a long history with printmaking in my life, having been an hand-set type printer using a Vandercook proof press over 25 years ago. This pre-dates my foray into the world of craft by 3 or 4 years but dovetails with my calligraphic pursuits. I've always pursued visual art, though my path gets clearer and clearer with every year that passes. It's completely clear now that I'll never stop making art no matter what I am doing otherwise or where I am or what tools or materials are at my disposal. I just have to do it to be happy. It'll be nice to be surrounded by others at the New Art Festival who feel the same way.

Here are a couple of prints that will be on display:

Keep on Trippin' relief bleedprint, conte & charcoal on BFK Rives 24" x 24" 2009

Zombies Need Hugs lithograph on stonehenge 15" x 18" 2010

AND

If you are a part of the next Ottawa art in the park event, the Urban Art @ Minto Park show to be held July 24th, from 10-5pm at Minto Park on Elgin St. across from Jack Purcell CC, which is organized by myself and Tim Hunt, then please stop by #27 Patterson and pick up some of these nifty handouts to help us promote the show. Spread the word amongst art lovers so they can find you and support you at your next show.

We love art lovers.

Illustration Friday: Fearless

Never Shy Away From Battle linocut relief print 8" x 10"

Friendly Plastic Experiments with Jones Tones aka mylar backed foils

I bought these foils a few months ago to try them on my Friendly Plastic sticks. I am about 99% sure this is THE foil that is used on the surface of the friendly plastic I buy. Ages and ages ago I came across this foil in a card shop. They were selling it as a way to embellish cards - just write on the foil and it would transfer to the paper. I think I bought it but never tried it.



I went on the hunt for this stuff just after Christmas and came
across it as Jones Tones Foil. When I saw it in the card shop
this wasn't what it was called.

My supplier had several colours so I ordered one of everything they had. Ah the joys of Christmas money. Today I did a few experiments with it. The only info I could find online was how to use it with polymer clay: roll out the clay, lay the foil on top, dull side down, then burnish it onto the surface. Rub fast and hard to create heat and then rip it off the surface like a band aid. Well I figured if I heated the friendly plastic that would activate/adhere the foil to it so that's what I tried. I got my heat gun and warmed the plastic up until it got really sticky then laid the foil onto it.

I then rubbed it to make contact on the whole stick. I then took the heat gun and aimed it over it for a count of ten along the length of the stick and then I let the whole thing cool down before I removed the mylar backing. I did rip fast most times but not always. I don't think it matters as much with the friendly plastic as it really seems to bond.



What dawned on me was when I was adding the foil over top of the existing foil, I would get a broken pattern. I actually found this very intriguing. It makes the surface more sophisticated adding depth and interest.

When I placed the foil on the back of the plastic, the side without the foil, pretty much the whole sheet stuck and I then had a new sheet of plastic with both sides having colour.

This too is interesting to me.












My next experiment will be trying to add patterning with the foil to another existing colour. For example, adding silver stripes to royal blue friendly plastic. Or gold hologram dots to green friendly plastic. I'm also wondering if I can add the foil to my work after I've already cooked up my design. Could I add the hologram pattern to a finished design and then take it off so it leaves a dusting of colour behind? I used to inset hologram sheets into friendly plastic ages ago and I remember them losing their patterning under the heat. They were really sensitive so I am curious to see how they hold up in the oven. Anyway I'll know soon enough, as will you dear reader. As will you.

Hilson Marketplace: Artisan and Community Sale

It's spring cleaning/garage sale season. And after years of not sorting sand clearing things out, I have decided to release some of my treasures into the waiting arms of.... you perhaps?

I'm doing my first garage sale and thought I'd try it with a bunch of other folks doing the same thing. So far I have some books, a tent, a foot massager warm bath thingy that was great when I worked retail on my feet for hours and hours, quite a bit of gardening related items. I love to garden but where I live now it's really heart-breaking. Too many critters, not enough sun, zealous landlords that cut stuff down. It's too much of a battle for me so I am selling my tabletop grow lights, complete with replacement bulbs and trays. Also a balcony planter new in box. A Santa ceramic dish new in box. A kitty cat fountain new in box. Two twirly Christmas light trees new in box.

And various odds and ends.

Artists collect weird stuff.

Here's where I will be:

Hilson Marketplace: Artisan & Community Sale

Presented by: Hilson Avenue Public School

This annual community sale brings together artisans and community members to sell art, crafts and basement treasures. There will be a café/BBQ, children's activities and a silent auction. All proceeds will support Hilson Avenue elementary students.

Dates: April 24, 2010

On: 9 am to 1 pm

Cost: Free Event

At: Hilson Avenue Public School
407 Hilson Avenue
Ottawa

City Sector: West Ottawa

Click here for google maps and OC transpo links

Alcohol Ink + Friendly Plastic test = success.

There was a time that you could get flat yellow friendly plastic.
Happy were the fairy wands, bee stripes and bright yellow suns I made from it.
Alas, I have only bits and pieces of it that I covet, saving them for use in a special project designated to happen "some day". Friendly plastic never had a metallic yellow to my knowledge. Why? I have no idea. Yellow must be hard to get right or must be unstable or something. Yellow, being a primary colour, would seem to be a colour you would expect to find in a friendly plastic artist's toolkit. It just ain't so. One day I was lamenting this fact to someone who had a solution for me. Make my own yellow.

What?

How?

An aside here: I am a friendly plastic purist. I have never been interested in trying to make my plastic look like glass or marble or whatever. I want it to be shiny happy plastic. It's what it is and I love it that way. I have never sought to change it ever so taking this advice was tough for me. But I love yellow and I need yellow and now I need brown too so I may as well change and adapt. As a human being this is what we've done for millenia and so I convinced myself that it would be okay.

So I set out on a search for Alcohol Ink.
Alcohol Ink faq here

I tracked it down at my local stamping supply shop, Heather's Stamping Haven, (here's her website, and her blog), and was thrilled to discover many colours. I kept myself to the plan (always tough) and purchased Lemonade to try to make yellow and upon consultation, Ginger to create brown. Sad to say but brown is another friendly plastic colour that's come and gone! BROWN?! yep. When I saw gold cobra go, well that was sad, but to think metallic brown would go too? It's still a mystery to me about the foils on the surface of fp (more on this in later posts as I may have found something to do about that as well!) but you have to cope with what you've got or innovate and I am innovating.

I opened the bottle and let the liquid land on the surface. The ink has a long needle-like nozzle/nose and I pushed it all around my plastic with the side of the nozzle while it was wet, and then if there was a spot where I thought there should be more I put more. I waited until it dried then tried to rub it off with my finger. A little came off so I let it dry longer. We're talking a couple of minutes. Nothing more. I chose flat metallic white as my base and the yellow really showed. I tried some yellow on a piece of orange copper and it made it a yellowy-orange. I liked it but it didn't change it enough for me for what I wanted to make this time round. But being able to slightly alter colours and get variations is very important to some of my plans for fp. Next I did the same process with Ginger on flat metallic white. I did get a good brown. Yay!

And for my first try I made these things with my altered whites...


Yellow Easter Chick


















Pin and Earrings

Monkey Juggler Pin

So the colour seemed permanent on the plastic before I cooked it up in the toaster oven. After it baked I tried to rub it off again and it didn't budge. I'm not sure how it will do over time. I don't know if the colour will fade or flake or what. I was using sharpie markers on friendly plastic ages ago and when I first wrote on the surface it seemed great. Permanent. But overtime it faded to a purpley tone and it sort of spread out, it diffused within the plastic somehow and so the writing that seemed so legible when I first made it turned fuzzy and faded. We'll see what happens to the ink as time goes by. So far, so good. The heat of the oven didn't obviously change it.

Now the only thing is the plastic breaks white. Like the foil, the ink sits on the surface and when disturbed the plastic's main colour shows through. It's not necessarily bad, or anything, you just have to figure out how to use it to its best advantage. I suspect with the ink I could brush it into the cracks/seams where I find the white especially distracting. I am sure it would work and IF THAT WORKS... well. It never ends, one idea leads to the next, and it's why I am glad to be making fp things again.