the fish pin

my wonderful fish pin: a kind gift saved by a freind from the Atlantic film festival years ago, the beauty and strength of paper in an elegantly simple effective form!

the past in the queen's jubilee year

I thought of this drawing today, a few years after it was made. However, the map of Vancouver and my impression of Richmond remain true to the time of its making.

The drawing is in ink on the cover of an environmentally friendly notebook found on sale in a Steveston shop. I was newly arrived from Toronto and experiencing a strange kind of culture shock.

 

hits the spot

especially with all our damp weather, something warm really hits the spot!

re-post :: 2007 False Creek

As Iceland Penny has requested favourite walks, this is a re-post of favourite long run along False Creek. It would make a great walk (ideal for cloud watching) and could include a side trip to Granville Island.
The walk, 1 to 24 and back: laurel and west 7th, the park with a bridge over 6th, west along the south side sea wall, past granville island, under the granville street bridge, along the sea wall under the burrard street bridge, vanvier park to kits beach. Vancouver, 2007

creative acts

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” 

― Marcel Duchamp

In writing an artist statement, I've contempated the act of making or as Marcel Duchamp says "the creative act". The artist can create but is the work finished? No, the viewer or "the spectator" then contributes through contemplation of the work. 

kelvin-helmholtz clouds

the amazing kelvin-helmholtz wave clouds as seen in downtown birmingham, alabama on december 26, 2011 

Sometimes I wonder about the ways clouds are represented by artists from other cultures. Is it a matter of personal style, technique, tradition or are the clouds really so very different in different parts of the world?
   When I saw the photos and read about the kelvin-helmholtz wave clouds, it seems possible that even the most fantastic cloud art could in fact be based on natural phemomena.

Clouds in Alabama :: kelvin-helmholtz wave clouds over b’ham
Kelvin-Helmhotz clouds :: kelvin–helmholtz wikipedia

happy holidays

Hope you have a good book to read this week!

From last year’s National Union Catalog Christmas tree at the Gleeson Library at the University of San Francisco, a lovely photo. Books, birds and lights. Merry! Merry!

2012 :: tangerine tango

Just in time! Pantone forcasts the coming year's colour:
tangerine tango
“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”         pantone.com

romancing the stone

portland, oregon :: august 13, 2011

7:31 pm :: view from the cafe window

8:38 pm :: view from the cafe window

9:14 pm :: view from outside the cafe

The play of sun, cloud and structure was lively and fantastically variable. Although I was at first attracted by the clouds reflected in the windows, I became increasingly interested in the beauty of the changing light and its effects.

pure feeling

Elissa Cristall Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Sean Mills.
Sean Mills :: Pure Feeling
September 22 – October 22, 2011
Reception: Thursday September 22, 6-8 pm
:: "Pure Feeling" (above) is on exhibit to October 22nd. The works in the exhibition range in size from 6" x 6" acrylic on panel to 47" x 47" acrylic on canvas. More...

word of the day

n. A deep appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of paper; a preference for reading items printed on paper rather than displayed on a screen. —paperphile n.

More at: www.wordspy.com

a hyphenation headache

Just discovered: a lovely article about hyphens and their usage! 

... the most exasperating and tiresome punctuation mark of all — the hyphen.

In general, we use hyphens to avoid ambiguity. Otherwise, how would we be able to tell the difference between a “man-eating shark” and a “man eating shark”? There’s also a big difference between a pickled herring merchant and a pickled-herring merchant. (And we don’t want to go around casting aspersions on herring merchants, as Lynne Truss says.) 

A definitive collection of hyphenation rules does not exist; rather, different style manuals prescribe different usage guidelines. In the American Medical Association Manual of Style — there are 8 pages on the hyphen. These pages include rules for whento use hyphens and when not to use hyphens. 

And hyphenation rules can be exceedingly complicated. Byzantine even.

To read more go to: impertinentremarks.com

to create is to relate

CORITA KENT EXHIBITION :: September 8 to October 30, 2011
Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC

THURSDAY September 8: opening night
SATURDAY September 10, 1-4pm: Families are invited to a FREE printmaking workshop to make banners, posters and prints to then take on parade around the gallery.

More about Corita Kent: www.corita.org

Image: www.corita.org/collection/photos/71-15.jpg

learning by heart

Learning by Heart :: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit, Corita Kent and Jan Steward, Oct 14, 2008
:: A personal interest in learning, creative and critical thinking has manifest in my recent reading choices. Learning by Heart, although it appears to suggest a rather loose and even unconsidered teaching method, really provides suggestions for authentic experiences that are paired with experimentation and exploration.
:: The book records lessons and projects once done by Corita Kent and her students. Kent's fascination with fonts, everyday consumer product packaging, and chance relationships generate free and expressive art works. Students were coached, encouraged and moved beyond self-limits. Today, similar projects would likely be welcomed by independent minded students wanting to make public art. 
:: For readers of this book or followers of Corita Kent's art, a retrospective show of serigraphs will soon open in Vancouver. (See following post.)

dyslexie :: a new typeface

I just came across Christian Boer's "Dyslexie", a typeface designed to help dyslexic readers. A short video shows how dyslexics see English type forms and provides some ways type has been modified to help readers. Some of the tricks could easily be added to teacher board work for iteracy and ESL students.

Yesterday I subbed in an intermediate ESL class. The students were writing essays. One student put a capital letter at the beginning of every line, new sentence or not. We reviewed sentence structure and the use of the capital letter and the period. The video shows the punctuation drawn larger. Drawing larger periods and commas might have been useful for my student as well.

I readily admit that I have a personal stake in this issue as I really felt that I'd never, ever learn English because "b" and "d" were one huge problem for me - sigh. I finally discovered "bed" which has both the "b" and "d" and looks rather like a bed with head boards so that I could remember "b" and "d" and also that "b", as in "bed", comes before "d" in the alphabet.

view the video and read more about dyslexie

what's on in vancouver

the georgia straight :: july 14, 2011

Make a curving, gestural line for the DRAWN Festival, which celebrates drawing around town from Saturday (July 16) to August 6. Exhibits range from Petley Jones Gallery’s The Power of Line show, with works by the likes of Jack Shadbolt, Andra Ghecevici, and Michael Hermesh, to the Burnaby Art Gallery’s The Solitudes of Place: Recent Drawings by Ann Kipling. Head to Gallery Jones for Anselmo Swan’s renderings of Hostess Cupcakes and other name-brand desserts, or visit the Elissa Cristall Gallery to see Louise Phillips attempt to make drawings that equal a line 55 kilometres long—the supposed life span of a simple pencil.

DRAWN :: Vancouver 2011

rarely is the day truly "just" grey

a response to today's weather description "GREY DAY" on the front page of the newspaper...

in observing vancouver skies over the last three months, grey days seemed perhaps common but a careful, frequent viewing has shown that even the grey days have surprising moments of blue and white with plays of various greys

frequent observation (detail), drawing series "pencilled, as it were: drawings," graphite and coloured pencil, dimensions: 22 inches x 30 inches

DRAWN 2011 Launch Party :: Friday, July 15

:: Come to the official launch of Drawn 2011, Vancouver's third annual festival of drawing.
:: Watch and mingle as some of Vancouver's best known artists create drawings in one of the city's most stunning historic venues.

What: the drawing party 3
When: Friday, July 15th, 7:00 - 11:00 pm
Where: 330 West Pender Street (between Homer and Hamilton) 
Cash bar proceeds benefit the Vancouver Drawing Festival Society

pencilled, as it were :: july 17 - august 6

From July 17 to August 6, "Pencilled, as it were" will be shown at the Elissa Cristall Gallery, 2245 Granville Street, Vancouver. Tuesday - Friday: 11- 6 pm, Saturday: 11- 5 pm. Telephone: 604-730-9611.

:: a description of the work ::   The series, “pencilled, as it were” began with a statement found in a school textbook, “One pencil can write 50,000 English words or make a line 55 kilometers long.” (1) The double statistic prompted multiple inquiries; first about the drawn line and then about English words.

:: Making lines with a single pencil, proved to be quite straightforward. The lines were simply drawn across the page, one by one in much the same way as English words are written line by line. Together, the drawings “2.88148 km” and “2.87861 km” make a 5.76009 km line which is much shorter than the predicted 55 kilometers (or 34 miles).

:: However, the second inquiry: writing, was not quite so easy. Although, drawing lines and writing words are both forms of mark making; in the case of words, meanings and thoughts need also be considered. “Meaningful” text became important. The source essay, “The Modifications of Clouds” by Luke Howard (2) documents scientific observation similar to observing and measuring pencil mark length and word count. With the scholarly language of seventeenth century England, the text also chronicles clouds and their naming. The resulting drawings are: “11,449 English words about clouds” and “10,058 English words about clouds" (see image above).

:: “The Modifications of Clouds” records Howard’s research and reasoning in naming the clouds with Latin words: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, cirro-cumulus, cirro-stratus, cumulo‑stratus, and nimbus. The essay is a scientific study, yet it is surprisingly poetic. Many of Howard’s words and phrases endure and proliferate when relocated in art making. For example: Howard suggests that because clouds change form moment to moment, there is a “necessity for frequent observation.” In response a record of the sky as frequently seen through windows, between buildings and overhead has been observed, recorded and drawn in a coloured pencil drawing of “frequent observation.” Another Howard phrase “tracing the clouds” has lead to a “tracing” of the words for clouds as found on pages 5-12 of “The Modifications of Clouds.” In addition, the series’ name “pencilled, as it were,” has migrated from Howard’s original description of clouds “pencilled, as it were, on the sky.”

(1) Ackert, Patricia and Linda Lee, “Pencils and Pens,” Reading & Vocabulary Development 2: Thoughts & Notions, Second Edition, Publisher: Thomson Heinle, 2005. page 15.  

(2) Luke Howard, Essay on the Modifications of Clouds, first published 1803.

vancouver drawn festival :: july 16 - august 6

Surprisingly, although I was drawing a lot, I had not seen myself as a drawer or at least not until the 2009 Vancouver DRAWN Festival. As I travelled from venue to venue seeing the drawings, listening to artist talks, and being a part of the engaged public; I realized how important drawing was in my own practice. Ever since, I have consciously pursued drawing.

My latest series of drawings "Pencilled, as it were" will be shown year's festival shown at the Elissa Cristall Gallery.

I encourage anyone who is curious about drawing, drawings as art, and the artists making drawings to visit the galleries and attend the artist talks. In the past DRAWN has proven to be enjoyable and uplifting! To find out more, visit: DRAWN - Artists and Drawings / Vancouver 2010