WordMarks: A Journal

Card Party Pictures

2012-01-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from our Card Party yesterday at Cecelia Press Printmaking Studio. We had a blast. Karen, Linda, Carolynn and Janet joined us for an afternoon of object printing, relief printing and mobile card making! Thank you to everyone who came....and have a peek at our Cecelia Press Face Book page if you would like to see more images...

Kids and Printmaking at LUZ

2012-01-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Susan Underwood and I are going to be participating in the Kids spring break program at LUZ Gallery in Victoria. Diana is busy putting the final touches on the program details but you can find out more here at LUZ

Susan and I are the co-owners of Cecelia Press Printmaking Studio in Victoria, B.C. We have plans to work with younger children and teens creating an array of prints using stencils, object printing, collographs and more! The example of one of my prints above is a stencil print from my Geometry series. Stencils are very rewarding as you have the opportunity to build prints layer by layer.

LUZ Gallery has a full size etching press and so participants will learn about the operation of a real printing press as well as how to continue to create plates and prints on their own with a minimum of expensive materials. All of our plates are going to made with items you can find around the house or in your neighbourhood for free!

Card Party at Cecelia

2012-01-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

Tiny Valentine with Tag

Susan and I are going to be hosting a Card Party at Cecelia Press later this month...we have tons of ideas for creating cards. The one above is a tiny Valentine card done with an easy cut relief image. The card has a tag and goes inside a translucent glassine envelope....these are lots of fun and you can make a number for your special friends. Just get in touch with either Susan or I for details and date. The cost is $40.00 and all supplies are included....

Tiny Bird

2012-01-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Today at our studio, Cecelia Press, I continued doing the series of watersoluble monoprints. I love the bright colours on very white paper - the paper doesn't look very white here...but it actually is. This one is tiny and I did it as an example for our Card Workshop coming up later this month. We are

going to try do monoprints and relief printing at the workshop.

I am looking forward to it!

Monoprints

2012-01-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolution is do the things I like doing in art....and I really like doing these water soluble monoprints. This one is quite small - the original is 3 inches by 3 inches. I have learnt a lot about how to successfully print one without all the mishaps and surprises which befall a monoprint. Like the balance between the releasing agent and the paint and the best dampness of the paper. I love watercolours and water soluble monoprinting is another watermedia process to explore and enjoy. And when they are printed you get the wonderful combinations of colours which you would never get just painting in watercolour.

Walking by the Shore

2012-01-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was walking by the shore and took a series of photographs of plants. They look very beautiful dried and have marvelous patterns in the leaves and fronds.

Here is the same photo converted to black and white in Photoshop and I love the high contrast of the values. We have been looking at the Miksang Contemplative Photography site and realize that simplicity is often the best subject for photography. One of the exercises in their book is just to go out and walk and not take pictures - just get into a contemplative state of mind - and then the subjects will be available to you. This is what I did yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the photography.

Not to Have

2012-01-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

This is an image of a recent piece of calligraphy and drawing based on the poem by Denise Levertov titled "Not to Have".

The poem was published in Denise Levertov Poems 1968 - 1972. The complete poem is:

Not to have but to be.

The black heart of the poppy,

O to lie there as seed.

To become the beloved.

As the world ends, to enter

the last note of its music.

I have used these words often in works and like exploring experimental techniques with calligraphic tools and materials. In the piece above I have only used the first line but I know that it is not readable and I am not interested in that...what I am interested in is experimenting and using the text as a starting place to create something which is new for me.

The original is done with a folded pen (and other tools) and I have been working on pieces for the Ruling Pen weekend which I am teaching in Vancouver for the West Coast Calligraphy Society in January. We are going to spend the weekend learning how to create several new hands with a ruling or folded pen and then experiment using the writing in some pieces. I am really looking forward to the weekend and seeing some new members of WCCS and some old friends there!

Best Wishes for the Holidays

2011-12-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island

All best wishes to you for the holidays....wherever you live, wherever you are....we hope that 2012 will bring love and friendship and beauty for you all year long.

Cecelia Press

2011-11-22T15:59:00.001-08:00

There have been a few changes at our printmaking studio. We are sad that Terry, one of our original partners, is leaving in December. We have changed the name of our studio - previously it was called duv - in honour of the three partners' last names....but now we are going to call it Cecelia Press. We think that name reflects our rather playful natures and it is also the name of the street we are on in Victoria, B.C. We also have a new Facebook page where we are posting our work and news "hot off the press".

Here is one of the images just posted today on Facebook. It is a "chine colle" and is a collage created from thin Japanese papers which were laminated to a backing paper. It has some threads and drawing included in it. It is from a series of over 50 chines which I did which were collages.

The Most Beautiful Thing

2011-11-14T11:53:00.001-08:00

This is an image from "The Most Beautiful Thing" series exploring writing as drawing. It is based on a quote from Albert Einstein which paraphrased states that the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. This weekend I changed the tools and wrote in Sumi ink with folded and pointed pen. Thomas Ingmire said if you want to be creative...just change one thing at a time....and see what happens. What good advice.

Sunday Squares

2011-11-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

Today I was trying glazing with squares...the base colour is Daniel Smith Quin Gold and then colours were added to that to make changes. Pure colours were glazed on top.

The squares are not as much fun as the circles for some reason...it could be that they are pickier to paint but I do love the combinations of Quin Gold with Cobalt Blue and Permanent Green and Quin Coral. There were some nice neutrals created too.

Little squares remind me of Paul Klee's paintings in that he constructed many beautiful watercolour paintings where he divided his picture plane into a tessalation.

Here is an example of a Paul Klee painting where he divided the whole surface into uninterrupted pattern. This one is titled "Ancient Sound" and although it is oil on cardboard - you can get the idea of the beauty of his patterns and how he made his work look like the brilliant mosaics he often saw travelling near the Mediterranean.

Geometrics in Watercolours

2011-11-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

The idea of geometrics has now morphed over into watercolours. At first I was doing stencil prints of geometrics in a series exploring how many different ways I could incorporate line, circles, triangles, etc. Then I started doing rings in watercolours. This is fun...the rings are done with Winsor and Newton Lemon Yellow, Daniel Smith Cobalt Blue, DS Quin Coral, DS Cobalt Turquoise and DS Cadmium Orange. The small dots are done with Indigo.

Since I took watercolours with Wendy Welch, I keep a little watercolour notebook for each painting. This has proved especially handy as yesterday I went to look at a proof. The painting needed to be bumped up in colour and so I can now just look at my little notebook and see which colour it is....thank you for that Wendy!

I got this idea from a new book on watercolours called Water Paper Paint by Heather Jones. I didn't quite follow her instructions but she has some good ideas for playing around with watercolours in fun ways.

Anyways, now I am onto squares!

Beaver and Elk Lake Walk

2011-11-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day on the Saanich Peninsula and so we walked around Beaver and Elk Lakes. We started out by the Victoria Rowing Club and kept on going with one slight detour when somehow we ended up on Bear Hill Road. (A word to the wise - never follow us.) We have no idea where we are going but thought this trail was fool proof since it goes in a circle around the lakes. But we did enjoy the colours of fall, the leaves, the birds and all the varieties of dogs on the path.

Ground Zero Printmakers Card Evening

2011-11-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a lot of fun at Ground Zero Printmakers! It started off NOT auspiciously. I was rushing along Fisgard and thought to myself...what if the door is locked. And it was! The official piece of corrugated cardboard which goes over the lock was in the WRONG place! And I and another member were stuck four flights down on the street. Lucky us. GZP is so smart - we finally found the phone number on the door and after a bit - we got in!

We had a vast array of "stuff" - collage materials, styrofoam plates, inks, stamps, glue and more supplied by members and GZP. We made cards for an hour or so and then Kathy Guthrie showed a simple style of lettering which could be used on the cards. She adapted the style from samples of built up capitals and showed us how to do it with a monoline tool - like a rollerball or Pigma marker. Kathy often writes on prints after using a fixative on them. I really liked this lettering and you can add serifs or build up the letterforms with some weighting for more interest.

Thank you Kathy and Alain and Victoria for a great evening...there were tons of nice cards created!

Building Prints with Geometry

2011-10-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend Kathy said she really liked creating prints based on the geometric. So then I began thinking about trying to do some miniature prints for BIMPE based on the geometric.

BIMPE has a call for entries coming up this fall...it is the Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition. The minature print competitions have size requirements (of course!) and I find that working in a small format is great as it puts a parameter on my work and makes me focus on one thing. Also you don't waste so much in terms of paper, etc. I thought I would try some geometrics for the competition and this is one one of the monoprints done with the pulled stencil process. Stencils are very forgiving and you can build up layers of colours and pass the print through the press many times adding to the image each time. Or you can just have a single pull through the press.

Stencils are an interesting form to work in as you have the positive and negative shapes and they rely mainly on form and colour over the use of line. But I am trying to get as many different kinds of geometric forms as possible and see where it goes. I have ideas about chine - ing forms too onto the prints.

Thank you Kathy for your thought about the geometrics!

Fall Studio Tour Weekend

2011-10-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Fall Studio Tour on the Saanich Peninsula. Susan and Don Wakal hosted me and my art at Picture Panache on Second Street in Sidney. It is a framing company which offers beautiful frames for all kinds of art and collectibles.

Susan framed three of my paintings from the same series. She chose three different styles of framing - Rustic, Classic and Contemporary. The visitors to the studio voted for their favorite and could win it as the door prize! Please note - Connie Furgason-Card created the signs!

Susan and Don have framed some of my other works - it is hard to take the pictures after they are framed and the pictures don't show how imaginative the framing is....

Thank you to my friends who came and visited - it was great to see you and I hope one of you wins the framed painting!

Fall Studio Tour at Picture Panache

2011-10-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Chine Colle work titled "Dance"

I am very pleased to be at Picture Panache Framing, 9715A Second Street, Sidney for the Fall Studio Tour on the Saanich Peninsula. The hosts, Don and Susan Wakal, have a boutique style store with all kinds of interesting moldings and examples of their work. They are going to have a demonstration of framing techniques and I will be showing my monoprints, etchings, and paintings. All of the work is very reasonably priced and Susan is a great designer when it comes to enhancing the beauty of any artwork.

The dates are Saturday and Sunday, October 22 and 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We hope that you can drop by!

Ruling Pen Rules

2011-10-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working on a few pieces for the Ruling Pen Rules workshop in Vancouver for West Coast Calligraphy Society on January 21 and 22, 2012.

I bought a new paper in a pad to try called Strathmore 300 Mixed Media at Opus...they had a sale of it this month. It is a heavier weight paper which can withstand a lot of wet and dry media and collage. This piece has the word SHANTI done with Matthew Coffin's folded pen in Japanese Moon Palace Sumi ink. Then the layering began with spraying inks, watercolours, walnut ink, coloured pencils, gel pens and pastels. The paper did curl a little bit but it could be flattened later but I wanted to try it as an alternative to Arches Text Wove which is one of my favorite watermedia papers. I like the Matthew Coffin design for the folded pen but there are a lot of other makes which work really well - especially the handmade Cola - pens.

I like to create a few samples ahead of time so I can think about how to explain processes more clearly and try to figure out what works and what doesn't. This piece owes a lot to Judy Melvin and Dick Beasley in the layering and sink art.

Open House

2011-10-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Studio all cleaned up!

GZP at DUV!

Susan U and Lorraine D in front of our beautiful Takach

Here are a few pictures from the Open House at DUV Printmaking Studio last Sunday.

Thank you to everyone who came....we had a great afternoon meeting YOU there.

It was a lot of fun!

Open House Coming Soon!

2011-09-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

We are celebrating our first year in operation at DUV Studio this weekend at the Burnside - Gorge Campus.

On Sunday we are having an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. with refreshments, print and card sales, and door prizes. So we are busy cleaning and getting ready and we hope you can drop around.

Simeon Goa designed two invitations for us to choose from - this one has my etchings on it and the one I posted earlier has Susan's bookmarks hanging on a line drying - just like clothes! We liked both invitations and used them both.

DUV Studio Open House

2011-09-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

DUV Studio is celebrating our first year with an Open House on Sunday, October 2.

We are located at 3130 Burnside Road in between Burnside and Cecelia. There is free street parking and parking in the lot behind the old school where the studio is located on the first floor.

You can see our loveable Takach press and we will have door prizes and refreshments. Each of the partners - Lorraine (me) Douglas, Susan Underwood, and Terry Vatrt - will have works on display and for sale.

We hope you can join us....

Vivid

2011-09-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I started as a sample when I was teaching the Ruling Pen Rules workshop last spring in Winnipeg.

I started with dented ruling pen writing in the top area which is green....but it has had lots of additions over the past few months from coloured paste paper collage to watercolour pencils to Prismacolours and pencil lettering.

The title is VIVID and we took one word and amplified its meaning....I am going to teach the same workshop in Vancouver in January, 2012 for West Coast. Violet and Janice have it all organized and the information on registration came out today. You could look at their website in the calligraphy organizations section in the side bar.

Fall Studio Tour

2011-09-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am really pleased to participate in the Saanich Peninsula Fall Studio Tour on the weekend of October 22 and 23. Don and Susan Wakal of Picture Panache in Sidney will be hosting the tour in their framing store and gallery. There will be lots of new prints and paintings available for sale which are unframed and a small display of some of the tools and plates used in printmaking. Watch this blog for more information in October.

Ground Zero Exhibition

2011-08-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Our printmaking group, Ground Zero, is hosting an exhibition at the NEW GALLERY at Cedar Hill Recreation Centre. Although the date appears here as August 31 - we are not able to bring in our work until September 1 as the gallery is not ready for the show....but please do come to the opening, Friday, September 9 from 7 to 9 p.m.

The Most Beautiful Thing

2011-07-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

One of my resolves this year was to be a better blogger - but July was not a great blogging month. I like blogging because it helps me to think about my art work and I like researching and writing. But I have been really busy getting things ready for the Sooke Show and photographing work to send to Letter Arts Review for their jurying for next year's annual issue.

This is one of my works I decided to send. Thanks to Jane and Neil for their help with my my choices and Neil's printing mastery.

The title is "The Most Beautiful Thing." It is based on a quote from Albert Einstein and the gist of the quote is that the most beautiful things we can experience are the mysterious. They are the source of all art and science and those who cannot stand in awe are not truly alive. It is a very compelling quote for me as I see art and science as being closely related in our quest to make our world meaningful and complete.

The piece is a part of a series and the quote is in an invented coded alphabet....one that if you followed it carefully it could be "read" and that writing is apparent in the lower half of the image. I often think that alphabetic systems that we cannot "read" look more beautiful on the page. The text is neatly and carefully done as opposed to the splashy intense work above done in Sumi ink. As Xane would say: "The math and the mess." And I wanted it to be a messy work to oppose ideas of conventional beauty.

Anyways, whether my work is chosen for the LAR issue or not, I like trying to pull things together, look at work, take photographs, and think about directions I am going in....or not....because in art it is always nice NOT to know where you are going...

Bird House

2011-07-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

These are two images of my piece "Bird House" which will be in the Sooke Fine Arts show. It combines everything I do into one piece....printmaking, collage, wire sculpture, bookmaking, writing haiku, calligraphy, papier mache, etc.

Many thanks to Jack Waters for the log base and drilling the holes for the stilts on the bird house.

Thanks very much to my Wednesday Art Group for the great papier mache party which started the whole thing off!

And last but not least - many thanks to Karen Gilmore for her great advice!

Qualicum Beach

2011-06-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip to QB - The Old School House window, the stones lined up on the driftwood and the beach in front of where we were staying....

SSI Field Trip

2011-06-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our CBBAG group went on a tour of artist's studios and workshops on Salt Spring Island. the first place we stopped was at EarthWeave Paper Studio. At this papermaking studio, Adrienne Linder and Hanna Young harvest seaweed, plants like daffodils and grasses, corn husks, artemesia and garlic stems. They cook these until they are pulpy and then create sheets of beautiful papers. Their cards and books are available at places like Sooke Harbour House and the Victoria Art Gallery. We enjoyed lunch with Adrienne and Hanna on the deck of the house.

Next we went to Mother Tongue Publishing where Peter and Mona have done letterpress, lino cutting and are now publishing art books about B.C. artists. Our final stop was at Illtyd Perkins woodworking where Illtyd builds furniture as well as creating custom bookbinding equipment. I loved Illtyd's signs and the closure on his door to his shop.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the tour and to those who organized this very interesting day!

Nothing Gold Can Stay

2011-06-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here are two images of a banner I have been working on for the poem.

I have been trying to develop a new set of capitals to work with this poem by Robert Frost. I was hoping to do pencil capitals for the poem in a paste paper book. I have been mulling this over for a long time...another of the many projects always awaiting me! But after doing the text I thought it might look better with an edged pen to give more thicks and thins. I wanted the capitals to be somewhat organic with the curvaceous Uncial - like round forms but to have an interesting texture meshing together on the lines. They were done with a Mitchell 3 nib.

The banner was done with gouache lettering on a watercolour background. The gold painted strips have gestural writing in them. This idea comes from the work of David McGrail, an Irish calligrapher, who writes in layered acrylics.

I always feel indebted to Gaynor Goffe for her inspiration of beautiful banners which you csn see on her website. She shares the site with her husband Tom Perkins. Tom is a premiere letter carver. Gaynor often uses organic materials in her hangings - like stone chips collected from her husband's work! I have always appreciated how she combines traditional techniques like gilding with a very contemporary look.

Four panels of text are on the banner

Close up of Writing

More pictures from Roberts Street Pizza

2011-06-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

Bottle Sill

Bottle in Window

Gate to Yard

Roberts Street Pizza

2011-06-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today we stopped at this beautiful spot in Ladysmith called Roberts Street Pizza. Ladysmith was once called Oyster Harbour, and in honour of the lifting of the siege of Ladysmith, South Africa during the Boer War it was renamed. Several downtown streets are named in honour of the generals from the British Army during the Boer War including General Redvers Buller and Lord Roberts. Buller was everywhere in his career - including Canada - where he participated in the Red River Expedition in 1870. The town was incorporated in 1904 and many of the buildings from an early era remain including these buildings which make up Roberts Street Pizza at 20 Roberts Street. The owner, Monroe Myers, gave us a tour of his different buildings and the varied collections they contain. The place bursts with creative energy and we were delighted by the colours, the objects made from cast offs, and the uniqueness of this space.

We hope to return one day and have a pizza.. the restaurant did not open until 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Thank you Monroe for making our day and taking the time to show us this treasure.

(One interesting fact about Ladysmith is that it is actually on the 49th parallel on Vancouver Island nestled along Ladysmith Harbour.)

Still More Altering in Haiku Book

2011-06-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Here is another one of Andre's beautiful linocuts.

Here is Miguel's moonlit page....it was so great to have co-alterers who had visited or lived in Japan as they added souvenir items and empty Pocky packaging!

And this is my "pink page" as I call it....

More Altering in the Haiku Book

2011-06-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of the altering in the Haiku book. For this page I had made a folded concertina insert and then Nicole printed small seasonal images. The linocuts are at the top of the page. Then she wrote seasonal haikus on each of the folds. I felt that the use of linocuts by Nicole and Andre in the book was so beautiful - they have such COURAGE to just print something on the page...boldly, where no print has gone before.

Here on the left is one of Andre's linocuts. Andre really uses the principles of Notan so well in work achieving a brilliant balance of black and white...very strong designs! And on the right hand side at the bottom - a little square of Sumi brush work by Nicole.

These two gleaming pages were done by Nicole. She did the linocut on the right of the pine cone and then did some brush writing on the left hand side...perfectly balanced.

This is one of my favorite pages by Miguel. He does these very distinctive paintings which grab my eyes....making them stare at these crazy eyeballs!

Ruling Pen Workshop in Winnipeg

2011-05-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

This is what it looked like outside the window of SJR where I taught the Ruling Pen Workshop on April 30 and May 1.

And so Nicole did this response to the scene!

We had a great weekend playing and experimenting with ruling pens and folded pens and making our own pens! Here are a few pieces I "grabbed" from the Calligrapher's Guild website:

Charlotte's new alphabet

Bound by Nature

2011-05-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is an image of one of my books which is in the exhibition Bound by Nature. I have eight books in the show which runs until June 18th at the Mennonite Heritage Gallery, 600 Shaftesbury Boulevard, Winnipeg. The gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon until 5 p.m.

The exhibition was curated by Deb Dannelly and features the work of eleven artists based on the theme of nature, books and landscape.

I hope you will be able to drop in and see everyone's very interesting pieces!

Star or Carousel Book

2011-05-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

On the long weekend, Victoria Day here in Canada, I went to my friend C's house on the mainland.. She conveniently lives near the other end of the ferry terminal and I live close to the terminal on the island - so a trip to her place is like getting on a bus and hopping off! But C is moving! To the island - where ironically - she will be farther away from me.

Well, it was much too much fun. We both love making books and show each other a new book structure on each visit.

These pictures are of my star or carousel book. I used imagery from my whale stencils and wanted to try to make each window different and have the imagery pop out and up from the pages. I was really inspired this weekend because on Saturday we went to the Scattered Artist's Tour and the studio sale of Barry Herring, a Victoria photographer. Barry had a moveable book created by Carol Barton called Vision Shifts...it was a thrill to see it close up. Carol is a queen in the moveable book world and she has this great site, Popular Kinetics Press, where you can view her galleries. Take a peek at this gallery of carousel or star books.

The Star Book is a type of pop up structure in which there are windows in each page. When you look at it from up above the pages form the shape of a star. It also looks a bit like a tunnel book in that you are looking into a portal. Carol is credited with rediscovering the tunnel book - one of my personal favorites - and teaching its structure in her many workshops and classes.

Thank you C for a great weekend.!

Altering in Haiku Book

2011-05-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some more fun pages from my Haiku altered book.

More Altering in Andre's book

2011-05-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Andre choose a beautiful little book about the Sea for his altering subject. It is the perfect topic for him as he is an avid kayaker and has built his own kayak as well as having had sailing adventures in the South Pacific.

These are three of my pages done in his book. I liked layering with prints, gesso, collage, threads and more to give the effect of the sea brimming with life forms.

If you look on Andre's blog Sea Wolf you can read his remarkable travel writing and see his beautiful photographic images.

2011-05-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

A few more of my altered pages from the blog post mentioned yesterday....my pages had to do with weather omens and reading cards! Miguel will probably get his book back soon in the mail....all depending on the postal strike possibility. That was another little thing about the altering project - we had to be able to mail the book and we often used Express Post as it was cheaper than Parcel Post.

Altered Book Project

2011-05-17T16:53:00.000-07:00

Signature Page

For the past several months I have been somewhat obsessed with altering. This project started with my good friend Nicole's idea to initiate a Western Canadian Altered Book Project. Very official sounding, eh? The participants were Andre in Vancouver and Nicole in Winnipeg and Miguel who lives in Vancouver and Kelowna.

We chose books we liked and hoped offered lots of possibilities for the other participants to respond to the theme or content of the books. The only rule was that you should have a "signature page" and mine which is in Miguel's book is above. It has a little red door opening to my picture and some of the "evidence" of my altering in his book.

Miguel's book is so interesting - it is Napoleon's Book of Fate. In 1813 Napoleon was defeated at Leipzip. However he left behind him a "Cabinet of Curiosities" among which a Prussian officer discovered this Oraculum. Originally this Oraculum had been found in one of the Royal tombs of Egypt during a French military expedition of 1801. The emperor ordered the manuscript to be translated by a famous German scholar and antiquarian. From that time onwards the Oraculum remained one of Napoleon's most treasures possessions. He consulted it on many occasions and it is said to have "formed a stimulus to his most speculative and most successful enterprises".

This book offered lots of great ideas - my pages have to do with reading cards and weather omens. I will post more pictures shortly. I was very happy to get Miguel's book in Winnipeg and pick up my book at Nicole's when I recently went there to teach the new Ruling Pen Workshop. I think we all started off shyly but really picked up energy along the way seeing what others did before us and even adding to their pages! Great fun and if you want to see more pictures right now go to Andre Guyot's blog called Sea Wolf at:

http://lobodelmar.blogspot.com/

Happy Spring to YOU!

2011-04-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Where ever you live...I hope spring is coming your way! This picture was taken of a store front window on Oak Bay Avenue in Victoria. I am still working away on my photography project called "Looking Through" and so all kinds of shots like this are fun to do!

Looking Through Project

2011-04-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Old English Car Club Restoration Fair and Swap Meet held at Heritage Acres in Saanich.

We encountered a number of cars we enjoyed photographing and love talking to their owners.

The picture is of the windshield of a 1954 Austin Healey 100. What a splendid little car!

It is owned by this happy volunteer at the fair who told me that "he fell in love with the car at first sight."

His name is Donald Parker and he and his wife Iris acquired the vehicle in 1977 and it was in "non running condition." Everything about the car is beautiful from its name plate done in cursive script to its pointy little domed brake lights. Donald closed the bonnet so that I could take even more pictures. Thank you Donald and the other car owners for a great day!

Art Day with Calligraphy

2011-04-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

Today I had a great art day with friends - we experimented with ruling pens, pencils, watercolours and more. Each of us had the same word - and we worked on the piece and then passed it to the next person. This is the one I started off with the hot pink at top. Then ruling pen and pencil and painting was added.

Can you ever guess the word?

It is "greathearted".....and underneath are some synonyms for the word done in pencil.

This is the one K started off with......

Lots of fun and interesting to see how other people work and how they collaborate together responding to what the other person has done.

This is the one C did....it has noodler's green ink and walnut inks on it....

The pieces were done on 10 by 13 inches pieces of Arches Text Wove....

The Independent Project

2011-04-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Neil and I have started another project course with Mike Andrew McLean. This time my theme is "Looking Through". Sound familiar? It was the same theme I chose last time but never did complete as I wandered off into the land of "Seeing Red" and the Schwartz Bay ferry terminal tableau. We presented our projects at the class. I am always dazzled by the variety of themes which people chose. One person owns nine cameras and is going to use each of them to take a picture of the same thing. Another is going to document the quintessential Victoria - the world of Willows Beach.

I was quite inspired by our video and talk on the work of William Eggleston. He just looks and takes pictures. Seemingly without a lot of preparation or fiddling with the camera. So that it what I tried to do today on my walk to the dentist's when I saw these perky chicks on View Street.

Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

OH.....IT SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY TODAY! The cherry blossoms are out and just littering the streets with petals. I went down to DUV Studio today and J came and we walked along the Gorge. We had to take some pictures of the beautiful trees and sky. Happy Weekend!

The Elegance of Black

2011-04-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here is the invitation for "The Elegance of Black" exhibition of the Watermark Printmakers. The show opens April 30 at 7 p.m. at the Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant Street in Victoria and continues until May 26. I hope you can get to it!

Ruling Pen Rules

2011-04-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

This month I will be doing a new workshop in Winnipeg for the Calligrapher's Guild of Manitoba. It is titled "Ruling Pen Rules". An example of some of my ruling pen work is in the image above done with a Butterfly ruling pen made by Jim Chin of Chicago. The writing is done with walnut ink with Moss Green pearlescents.

I enjoy experimenting and creating new kinds of letterforms with this very unusual tool. Ruling pens were used in drafting and then in advertising art. Contemporary calligraphers like Gottfried Pott and Peter Thornton are masterful with the tool. Although it seems like a tool which would lend itself to wild abandon...many of the forms are as carefully made as broad edged pen work. I am looking forward to this workshop which promises to be fun with old and new friends.

Wednesday Night Challenge

2011-03-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

Our Wednesday night group meets for art, conversation, tea, cake and fun over at G and J's place. This past couple of years we have been doing the "Whispers" project. One person gives their art to another person and the second person creates something in response. Then the second artist's work is handed onto the third....you get the process? It is just like the game of "Telephone" which we used to play.

Our new project over the next seven weeks is a variant of "Whispers". Here is my painting and everyone in the group will see it and respond to it and create something new. In seven weeks all of the works will be "revealed" on the "BIG REVEAL NIGHT". Can't wait!

Alexander's Coffee Company

2011-03-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

For two weeks Alexander's Coffee will be displaying my monoprints on their "Art Wall". Here is an image of one of the prints in the show called "Garden". All the works are framed and are for sale. Alexander's is located at 2385 Beacon Avenue in Sidney, B.C. My pieces will be there until Saturday, April 2 and so I hope you can drop in and see them and have an expresso!

Teenie Weenie Tiny Star Book

2011-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

When C came from Vancouve on Wednesday, she brought all the ingredients for making this teeny star book. All the pages cut and ready to fold plus book paper to cover the tiny boards and ribbons and beads. She has all these nice techniques for scoring! And she is an expert at getting tiny beads into tight spots. Although it is small...it takes longer than you would think to make but the beauty of making small structures

is that when you make mistakes you are not wasting lots of materials! Thank you C for a great day!

Cross Structure Bindings

2011-03-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

My friend C came from Vancouver today and we did Cross Structure Finding (CSB). I learned this structure from Louise Genest, a bookbinder from Montreal. Louise was awarded the Saidye Bronfman Award for her work and travelled to the Winnipeg Art Gallery where she received the prize and conducted this workshop.

This bookbinding structure is particularly good with a firmer cover like leather. Our books were done with Arches Text Wove laminated to book cloth. My book - the brown one - had writing done with a ruling pen for the cover along with painting. C's book was done with a paste paper.

The CSB is discussed more fully by Carmencho Arregui and you can find instructions and samples at her site at Out of Binding. Part of the reason for this resurgence of interest in non adhesive bindings was because of the flood in Florence in 1966. Then the restorers came to consider the structure of the binding in terms of its relationship to the book. They wanted to create book structures which moved freely and easily...and this is one of the attributes of the CSB.

Collagraph

2011-03-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Jane and I did collagraphs on Sunday. This is the first one I printed this week at the studio and I think I am going to work on colour blending more.

Wikipedia says:

"A collagraph is a relief print pulled from a "plate" that is made by placing textured materials on a surface."

Jane and I made our collagraphs using different kinds of acrylic mediums and gels, tapes, and texturing of stencilled forms. We did them on matt board and enjoyed trying to get incised lines into them as well as a thin layer rising slightly above the surface.

We had seen the work of Brenda Hartill on the web and were inspired to try our hand at creating a different kind of plate. She has a mixed media gallery with the beautiful use of three plates in one image....something for us to strive towards!

Wikipedia also says:

" Materials to make a collograph plate can include cardboard, paper, plastic bags, etc.,which are placed on a surface then coated with a a thin layer of protective sealant such as diluted Elmer's glue or polymer resin. The plate is made to enable relief printing processes. To achieve a variety of tones in a print one has to think about textured materials that will hold the ink for printing. Sandpaper is a great choice, and offers a variety of tone depending on the grain. Others have used string, rice, cardboard, or anything that will run through the press without ruining the roller."

Bound by Nature

2011-03-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

I just got the invitation to the Bound by Nature exhibition in Winnipeg! I think the invite is beautiful and was designed by artist, Nicole Coulson. The background photograph in the invite is a photo taken by Nicole. The exhibition is curated by Deb Dannelly who is well known as an altered book artist and printmaker.

Nicole and I have collaborated on two books for the exhibiton and one is titled Clouds.....so this invitation is such a nice reminder of creating our book together. The other book is a book of photographs by Nicole and bilingual poetry. The French was written by Roger Leveille and I wrote English haiku. The book is called Contemplation and I am lucky enough to have received one of the four copies of the edition.

Right now I am working on drawings for an outdoor nature sketchbook....(of course I have had more than two years to complete it)......but now am trying to finish more drawings for it when the weather is so unwelcoming for plein air drawing and painting.

Mail Art Across the World

2011-02-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

I just got a message about Mail Art Across the World! This one is different because it is a calligraphic mail art event and it is taking place in seven languages and four countries! There is more information at this web site:

http://www.calligraphy-mail-art.com/

HOW TO PARTICIPATE ?

Send us a beautifull calligraphic mail-art to one or several adresses below before the end of 1st april 2011 :

Mail art across the world

Atelier-Calligraphie

24 avenue Jean Jaurès

24750 Trélissac

FRANCE

Mail art across the world

Plumes et Calames

47 rue Montgomery

7540 Tournai

BELGIUM

Mail art across the world

Kalligráfia Baráti Kör

Szalai & Buzogány

1171 Budapest Porzó u. 13.

HUNGARY

Mail-Art Across the World

Manuscriptum, Igor Stepanov

4 apt, 7 Belorusskaya st.,

04050 KIEV

UKRAINA

WHAT IS MAAW ?

MAAW is a calligraphic mail-art call followed by exhiition in Europe and organized every 2 years since 2005 by 3 or 4 guilds.

It's organized by passionate people to promote calligraphy art and to build bridges between calligraphy lovers from all over the world.It's more than 1000 envelopes sent from around the world since 2005

It's almost 30 exhibitions held in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, in museums, cultural centers, libraries, media centers ...

It's hundreds of artists worldwide in Algeria, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, USA ...

They are passionate people, schools, artists and calligraphers, calligraphy guilds...

Some names : Denise Lach, Corrie Cameron, Katharina Pieper, Bruno Gigarel, Hassan Massoudy, Massimo Polello,Laurent Rebena, Laurent Pflughaupt, and probably others...

Please look on the website for more information and the rules for participating....looks like a great artistic event!

Snow Day

2011-02-23T16:23:00.000-08:00

Today is a Snow Day on Vancouver Island.

It was a snow night last night and when we woke up this morning, snow covered the rhodos and the driveway. This is what it looks like right now looking out of our front door.

Tonight was supposed to be the final night of our photography class. Both Neil and I were ready with our projects. He had spent yesterday printing printing printing, fighting with the printer, printing, printing, printing......until he got all of the prints ready for his black and white portfolio.

The class has been rescheduled. But we are feeling a bit sad because we were so looking forward to seeing everyone's projects and also having the $1.00 Americano Special at the Savoury Cafe's grand opening celebration......

Marouflage

2011-02-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

Victoria Edgarr taught me this nice technique called "marouflage". She learnt it at an atelier in Montreal and shared it with several GZP members last summer.

Marouflage (a French word originally referring to sticky, partly-hardened scraps of paint) is a technique for affixing a painted canvas to a wall. Paintings that have been marouflaged include the Louvre's version of the Madonna of the Rocks and many of Turner's canvasses in the care of the Tate Gallery. Originally they used plaster or cement but now adhesives like PVA are used. It is a tricky process but working on a small surface like this 6 inch square cradle makes it much easier to get all the air bubbles out.

Susan and I have been having a great time working together on marouflages at DUV Studio and making discoveries along the way about incorporating different kinds of materials into the works. This piece in the picture above is a combination of printed Japanese washi papers and a painting/drawing I had done...

Seeing Red

2011-02-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

Only a few more days and we will finish our photography course with Mike Andrew McLean. We had an assignment for the class and I have been working on collecting photos of things which are RED. The title of the project has been narrowed down to "Seeing Red"...and my friend SG is working on the layout this weekend for the booklet of red photographs. I think he has used a beautiful design for the type and title page and colophon.

This has been an excellent class. Last week we got to peek through Mike's large format camera. That was a thrill. The lecture was on Eugene Atget, Hilla and Bernd Becher, and August Sander as well as other photographers who use the "deadpan" aesthetic in their work. I am very fond of this aesthetic in which the subject is confronting the viewer "full on" so to speak. Most of the people using this sensibility use a large format camera and bring an lot of thought and consideration to their work.

I will miss the class when it is over but would happily continue to take more classes with Mike...I highly recommend him!

PS...the picture above is an example of what I think is the "deadpan" aesthetic in my work - the brand new and shiny varsol container at the "duv studio".

New Watercolour

2011-02-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

A new watercolour and collage painting. I was using the previous painting I posted last Wednesday for a "model" and had a lot of fun experimenting with the lines and the colours. The painting contains two of my favorite colours - Winsor and Newton's "Opera Rose" and "French Ultramarine Blue" as well as their "Green Gold" colour. "Green Gold" has toppled from its previous first rank as my favorite colour. Why? Who knows - but it could be because I was running out of it. My challenge for myself this year is to use the art supplies I have already have...and I have a few! I have managed to stay away from Opus for three whole months but Island Blue Print still beckons once and awhile...

Watercolour Play

2011-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun at the Watercolour Play workshop at VISA a couple of weeks ago. We did a collage - prime material for inspirations - and then painted in response to the collage. I did this one yesterday and finished it this morning and I am happy with the colours and glazing that happened.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2011-02-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year and happy birthday to Christiane!

Here is another "looking through" photo taken of the window at Quan Lee's in China Town. The China Town in Victoria is one of the oldest in North America and within a few blocks life bustles at a hectic pace.

I like the Quan Lee store at the corner of Fisgard and Government. They sell very nice Chinese brushes and papers for calligraphy as well as Chinese inks. I loved in this photo the mix of the tiny Chinese lantern meeting the big huge Coca Cola sign!

"I am Seeing Red" Series

2011-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

For our Contemporary Photography Course with Mike Andrew McLean....we have each chosen a theme which helps us "frame" our photographs.

At first I had this idea about boundaries and edges of things which morphed into another idea about looking through things...like passageways, windows, doors, etc. But then a third theme emerged which is t "I am Seeing Red" which I might morph into "Eye See Red" as I am collecting red photographs. This is the back of the Bistro Suisse restaurant looking onto Beacon Avenue. I loved the violet and red colours combining! It is amazing that when I took the picture I did not "see" the violet but the camera "saw" it! It is like the camera is a completely different "eye" on the world.

Banister at Deluge Gallery

2011-02-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to see the exhibition by Mike Andrew McLean at the Deluge Gallery in Victoria. Mike's show of black and white photographs is titled "The Whites" and it is his view of white items, buildings, landmarks, etc. in the Victoria area. Many of the "whites" only appear as white because of their value difference in developing b + w as in his beautiful portrait of the flame on a Coleman camping stove. His subjects are disappearing from view or not in use any more....like a bar of soap, the two candles, the office of Doug Christie, and the observatory.

Deluge Contemporary Art is located at 656 Yates Street in Victoria and Mike's show runs until February 12, 2011. Hours at the gallery are limited...from Wednesday to Saturday... so check their website at http://www.deluge.ws/dcont.htmlhen

The show is wonderful for anyone interested in classic film photography and it makes you realize that you can take a picture of anything at anytime and anywhere. When you are coming down the stairs after seeing the show you can see the beautiful red banister depicted above......

Watercolour Play

2011-01-31T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here is another playful exercise from the weekend Saturday workshop at VISA called Watercolour Play.

Our instructor, Wendy Welch, talked about the paradox of watercolours - how you need to have control of the medium but at the same time be willing to let go as so many happy accidents occur. Also you need to be relaxed to paint in watercolours but it is a difficult medium to work in....

Here we did spirals adding colours and washes after we had mixed up "lots of colours". Wendy recommends having at least seven colours mixed and ready to use. This was an exercise in colour blending as well as letting the white of the paper shine through.

I really enjoyed the day and hope to keep up doing watercolours more often....

Watercolour Play

2011-01-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was so much fun at a one day workshop with Wendy Welch at the Vancouver Island School of Art. It was called Watercolour Play and we had such a great time painting, mixing lots of colours, cutting out shapes, drawing spirals and circles with a brush and much more. One of my favorite projects was the "Signature" project where we wrote our names over and over again. My little painting is done on BFK Rives and we had a great supply of interesting papers like Rives to try at the workshop. More than enough paper to keep on going for several weeks! Thanks Wendy for a well organized and exciting day!

Community of HeARTS Fundraiser

2011-01-24T14:42:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to participate in this year's community of HeARTS Fundraiser .... I have donated a monoprint from the "Bird" series and it is being framed and will be available for bidding at the silent auction.

____________________________________________________________________

Here's the deets:

As some of you may know, Alexander’s hosts a community ArtWall for local artists to exhibit and sell their work.

In order to support our fundraiser, Alexander's asked our community of artists to donate a painting to be auctioned off . In addition, the staff of Angels at Alexander’s Coffee have all created a piece of art to be auctioned off as well.

Our show will commence February 5th and run thru the 19th on the ArtWall at Alexander’s.

All the art will be professionally framed or on canvas and on display at that time. This is a silent auction style of fundraiser and all bids for the art pieces will begin at $40.00.

Contributing artists include: Wendy Picken, Sheila Mather, Erin Sutherland (photography), Kit McDonald, Ruth Steinfatt, Lilija Gulbis, Judy Redfern ,Michele Warren (Photography) , Janet Remmer, Nancy Rotolo, Lorraine Douglas, Richard Julien, Poul Poulsen.

You can come in to view the work and bid on any piece during the show and unless you are outbid… you would be the owner of a beautiful piece of art.

Bidding will end at 4 pm on Saturday, February 19th.

All money raised goes directly to the North Saanich Middle School project to build the playground. Alexander’s does not deduct anything for costs incurred to produce the show or for framing,.Come out for a great cup of coffee at this independent coffee shop, or drop in for the fun of it to see the work.

February 5th – 19th

Alexander’s Coffee Co.

2385 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, B.C.

250 656-3234

Open :

Mon – Sat. 6:30 am – 6 pm

Sunday 7am – 5 pm

Playing around with Watercolours 2

2011-01-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here is another painting from our fun last Sunday just playing with watercolours and collage!

Playing Around with Watercolours

2011-01-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any watercolours in a long time. This past Sunday I went to my friend Jane's home and we had a really nice time playing with watercolours and collage; looking at art books, and generally just doodling around. I think she said " I would like see that painting when its finished"....so here is one little painting from the day Jane. The colours used are WN Cadmium Red; Terre Verte; French Ultramarine Blue; Indian Red and Cadmium Yellow.

Martin Byers' New Blog

2011-01-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! I hope that you get a chance to go to Martin Byers' new blog. It is on his website at http://thanku.ca/blog/

Martin is showing beautiful pieces of furniture and objects which he has finely crafted. He is just starting out showing his wonderful work...so do take a peek if you have a moment! In the image above is one of his projects from his class at Camosun College.

Text and Textures Class for the FCS

2010-12-27T13:43:00.000-08:00

Christiane Lenz and I will be teaching a six week class we are calling Text and Textures: Gothic. I saw a nice post on Atelier Gargoyle's last exhibition and one of the pieces was so beautiful. It had this "sink art" done with Sumi ink as in my piece above. I shamelessly copied the idea for this sample for the Gothic Class.

The class is sponsored by the Fairbank Calligraphy Society and takes place on Tuesday evenings starting February 15 in Victoria, B.C. Seating is limited and there will only be room for 12 students. Please do get in touch with me about registration.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-26T12:55:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Here is one of my most recent Chine Colles I have been doing at "duv studio". This has been a fabulous year as Susan and Terry and I got our new studio, our new press and started brand new printmaking and art adventures. We are lucky people! Our resolution for the New Year is to get together once a week and work on our etchings once our tank arrives from Daniel Smith.

Thank you for following my blog and all best wishes to you in the New Year.

Text and Textures Class

2010-12-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Christiane and I are planning a six week class for the Fairbank Calligraphy Society in 2011! It is amazing that 2011 is right around the corner .... :-) We are going to use Gothic to create textures with a variety of tools including brush on fabric. My part of the class to teach is the capitals so I have been working on an exemplar for them....seen above.

The class is in the planning stages but will be posting details soon as we hope to start in mid February. The class is open to everyone at any level but we will have a limited number of students because of the size of the space. Watch this space for more information.

Sparkle Show at the Ministry of Justice

2010-12-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

This afternoon the Ground Zero Printmakers participated in a show at the Ministry of Justice in Victoria. It was a fundraiser as well as an art sale. We had a really nice time...thank you Jacquie for arranging everything. The exhibition will continue in the board room and my Botanical piece which is pictured above is a part of the exhibit.

Pine Tree in our Back Yard

2010-12-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Monday night the storm winds gusted up to (and perhaps even over?) 100 k. an hour on the coast of Vancouver Island.

Here is what happened at 8:30 p.m.

Our beautiful pine tree's largest arm split away and hit the fence and took out the apple tree. Today a crew of arborists will arrive soon to remove the whole tree. Would you like a bough for your Christmas decorations?

Stencils and Stencil Collage

2010-11-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Stencils and Stencil Collage

This past weekend I went the Stencil and Stencil Collage workshop with Lesley Clarke at the Vancouver Island School of Art. I am really interested in stencils because I use them in monoprinting and love how forgiving and experimental they are. They also build up patterns and variations quickly which is always compelling.

We used an airbrush and this was my first experience with this tool. It was so beautiful in creating gradations of colour. The sample in the image is of my floating boy - he often appears out of nowhere in my work - and I liked working with the same imagery all weekend.

Lesley was very good at helping the participants in solving problems when they got to the place of being stumped or stuck. She had neat ideas for using all kinds of materials for stencils and creating texture with them. Thank you Lesley and VISA for this new artistic challenge.

Chine Colle

2010-11-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been doing works using some of my relief prints and adding elements. This is one which I did last week at duv studios in Victoria. This technique is called chine-collé. It is a special technique in printmaking in which the image is transferred to a surface that is bonded to a heavier support in the printing process. I am very excited about this process and having a lot of fun experimenting!

Clamshell Box Workshop

2010-11-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

A Clamshell Box is the perfect container to safely store and protect your prints, drawings and precious objects. It is also a beautiful way to display and complement your work. The image above is of two samples - one made with a paper cover and the turquoise one was made with a silk cover.

I will be teaching this workshop at Luz Gallery for the Photographic Arts. The two day workshop will introduce the fundamentals of box making and everyone will make a small lipped box. This model can be used to create larger boxes to custom fit artifacts, drawings, artist’s books, prints, photographs, etc. And there will be instructions on how to custom fit items as well as insert a name label on your box.

DATE: Saturday & Sunday February 26 & 27 , 2011

TIME: 10 am - 5 pm

2-Day: $225, Register by December 31, 2010 and pay $199 for this workshop!

+ Plus material fee approx $25 to be paid on first day of workshop

Location: Lúz Studio - 1844 Oak Bay Avenue, Oak Bay.

P. 250 590 7557

F. 250 590 7555

E. info@luzgallery.com

Inside of duv studio book

2010-11-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Connie said she would like to see inside the interactive book. It has flags and pockets and mini books and tags to write on.....

duv studio book

2010-11-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

We just had one of our best days at "duv studio". One of our highpoints was finding the space after looking for a long time. Then we ordered and awaited the Takach press. The arrival of the press was a great day and together we printed our first print on it. Yesterday we cleaned and rearranged things including our new paper drawers. Oh...what a splendid day.

In honour of our sweet little studio, I made an interactive flag pocket book. It has an accordian structure with all sorts of surprises inside - like tags to write on and mini books inside the big book. It will hold all sorts of archival things like our bill from Mini Movers, the broker's invoice, the Takach bill for press and blankets, a photo or two and much more.

It was fun to make and I am looking forward to showing it to my partners and stuffing it with memorabilia.

Black is the New Black Opening Night

2010-11-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

Last Friday was a great day.

First we drove to the Maltwood Gallery at the University of Victoria for the reception and tour of The Art of the Book 08. I have one collaborative book in the exhibit which I had done with Nicole Coulson. This was an exceptional collaboration if I do say so myself. There I got to meet people from CBBAG who I have only known by their name for years in the newsletter. Neil read in the library and to keep up with all the students all around him tapping on their laptops - he used his new Kindle.

Then we drove to China Town. The image above is the view from the Don Mee Restaurant on Fisgard Street in Canada's oldest China Town. We ordered dinner for two since there were two of us and it would be fast. But the next table ordered dinner for six. They had to move tables . There were only four people but the table wasn't big enough for all the food. But as Neil said.... they looked like they often ate "dinner for six" and could handle the challenge.

Then we hustled over to Xchanges Gallery on Government Street for the opening of Black is the New Black. We were there at the appointed time but Neil forgot his keys and nobody else was there so we waited in the car. You can see by the image why we waited inside the car....

The exhibition opened with a flurry of activity and here is one of the first visitors.

All of these large images have burnt black borders around them and are on two feature walls in the main gallery area. Each member contributed at least one large photo.

You always worry no one is going to show up but pretty soon the beautiful Xchanges Gallery looked like this:

That's the incredible Wanda in the picture....one of the members of Crossgrain and a great Holga - ite. She did the design work for the invitation and the lettering for the walls. It all looked very smart and sophisticated.

Congratulations to everyone in Crossgrain Photographic Society!

Black is the New Black

2010-11-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

Black is the New Black opens at Xchanges Gallery, 2333 Government Avenue on November 5 at 7 p.m.. This is a group exhibition of the Crossgrain Photographic Society. All of the members are participating - Thomas, Wanda, Shane, Mani, Barry, Mary Lou and Neil. They each have their own distinct take on the theme which celebrates the rich use of darks playing against the light. November was chosen for the show because of its somewhat gloomy nature here in Victoria!

Gallery Hours are on weekends only: Saturdays and Sundays, 1–4pm, during the run of the exhibition.. This exhibition runs until November 28. For gallery information call 382-0442.

P.S.....the image on the poster was done by Neil Douglas, congratulations!

More pictures from Art of the Book

2010-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from the collaborative book which I did with my friend Nicole Coulson. We mailed pages back and forth and each worked on painting, lettering, and gilding. I constructed the box and the binding for the book. I hope that you will be able to come to the Maltwood and see pieces "out of their cases" on the tours!

Art of the Book '08

2010-10-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Maltwood gallery at the University of Victoria is hosting the exhibition The Art of the Book 08. This travelling exhibition was juried and curated by CBBAG - the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. One of my collaborative pieces was chosen for the exhibit which is shown above in its clamshell box. It is a book and box based on the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

The exhibition runs until January 5, 2011. On November 5 at 2:00 p.m there is a tour and on November 18 at 7:30 there is an evening tour. Please RSVP to reserve your space on the the tour by calling

250 721 8299.

Happy Hallowe'en

2010-10-28T16:44:00.001-07:00

Our New Takach Press!

2010-10-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our new Takach press arrived at 2:45 p.m. at duv Studio. Here you can peek at it through the doorway. It does a full sheet of paper and was custom built at Takach in New Mexico. Oh, thank you Takach.

We had tracked it just like the annual trek of Santa Claus. We watched it online as it journeyed by multiple carriers through the United States and Canada to our doorstep. And that is where it was drop shipped yesterday. We had some dicey moments. We hired three wonderful guys from Mini Move. They showed up but the press didn't and we were paying them $125.00 an hour!

Long story short....these amazing guys did get it in the door in the pouring rain and up the slippy stairs after it had circled the neighbourhood a few times. We uncrated it in the hallway and got it onto the table with wheels which Susan's grandson built and then rolled it into the studio. Tomorrow is our big day...we are ready to print our first collaborative print. Oh happy day. Thank you Mini Move, Wes and Elaine, and my partners Susan and Terry!

Fall Studio Tour at Picture Panache

2010-10-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to be on my first Studio Tour at Picture Panache, 9715a Second Street, Sidney. I will be taking lots of unframed original paintings and collages, prints and thread drawings. Don and Susan have framed a number of my pieces and you can see how they take a piece of art and maximize its beauty.

Most of my work is contemporary but I also have traditional etchings, chine colles and florals at different price points.

I hope to see you there - Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Brush Work

2010-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Next week I am starting two all day classes in Brush Writing for the Warmland Calligraphers of the Cowichan Valley. This is a challenge for me as I have never taught brush before but I have had three great teachers in brush - Eliza Holliday, Carl Rohrs, and Georgia Deaver. Friends here in Victoria like Georgia Angelopoulos, Kathy Guthrie and Christiane Lenz are masters with the brush....they use it with their own personal style and each has a distinctive style. I really admire the delicate brush writing of Yves Leterme and the wonderful work of John Stevens.

The piece above is all about having fun with the brush - making strokes with energy and just relaxing and playing around. The surprising thing about brush is how it looks like it is quickly done - but it is a fairly careful process. Here I was trying to meld the strong large Enso strokes seen in Eastern brush work with some Western style pointed brush work.

I am really looking forward to the class with the Warmlanders....they are a great group!

Sidney Fine Arts Show

2010-10-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

These are my two pieces which were selected for the Sidney Fine Arts Show which opens tonight at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, B.C. The first one is titled Daedalus and it is calligraphy and pigments with gesso. The second one is a monoprint titled Bouquet. It was done with layering oil based inks and it went through the press about 16 times!

I hope that you will be able to come and see the exhibition this weekend....

Sidney Fine Art Show 2010

2010-10-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

The Sidney Fine Arts Show starts this week and I have two pieces in the exhibition. One is a calligraphic piece and the other is a monoprint. Over 1000 pieces were adjudicated by a panel of jurors and 388 pieces from 246 artists will be in the show. Please come and view all the wonderful works of art.

OCTOBER 15, 16, 17, 2010

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY 9 am-9pm, SUNDAY, 9am-5pm

MARY WINSPEAR CENTRE, 2243 Beacon Avenue, SIDNEY, B.C.

Fall Studio Tour at Picture Panache

2010-10-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wings - Edition of 15, Etching and Aquatint

In just a few weeks I will be showing work in the Fall Studio Tour at Picture Panache, 9715A Second Street, Sidney. The dates are October 23 and 24. I will have unframed etchings, monoprints, paintings and thread drawings on display and available for sale. Susan and Don Wakal have already purchased several of my works to show their artistry with framing including Wings - from the edition shown in the image. They will have those on display so you can see how they work together to really enhance the presentation of art.

Photo Portfolio

2010-09-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a newly completed project - a photo portfolio for Neil to carry prints home from the dark room. It has two pockets inside with flaps to hold the photos in so they don't fall out and so they will stay dry in the winter weather. By special request I did NOT put a ribbon tie on the portfolio....but traditionally the portfolio has a closure with some form of tie.

Scratch Foam Relief Printing

2010-09-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a little image of a fun thing done yesterday at my friend J's house. We did scratch foam - kind of like the material on the bottom of meat trays. You can cut it, incise it, punch holes in it....write on it. Great stuff for playing around like we were in Kindergarten. Then we inked up with water soluble inks and printed on Japanese papers.

The Versatile Blogger

2010-09-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

This is fun.

Connie from MonkeyMind just awarded The Versatile Blogger Award.

To continue the award process I have to reveal 7 things about myself and also name 7 blogs to share in this award.

Here are THE 7 MOST revealing things:

1. I think I have perserverance and determination. Others call it stubborness.

2. I read the obituaries every morning. I love a good life story well told. They are mini biographies and I often find out surprising things. It also reminds me every day what the inevitable is for everyone. How's that for a wake up call?

3. My favorite drink is tea...any kind. I drink it hot and I drink it cold. Just not nine days old. Everything can be fixed with a good cup of tea.

4. I always wanted to be an artist.

5. I save everything. Tiny bits of paper cut from book corners. Pieces of mat board. String. Old buttons. I have stuff stuff stuff galore.

6. I love interesting containers. I will often buy something just because I like the box it is in.

7. I always thought that by the time I grew up we would travel to the moon for our summer vacations. Maybe Venus for Christmas.

This is my list of blogs to share this "award" with....they are very interesting blogs which I love to look at in the blogosphere:

Art with Yogi
textures shapes and color
60 by 62
Personaleekhin
The Complete Booker
L'ivre des lettres et de couleurs
Tackad

....

Visiting Crown Point

2010-09-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Neil took this picture at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. We were lucky enough to get there just before they took down their summer show. Crown Point is probably the most influential studio in the United States and was founded in 1962 by Kathan Brown. It has reinvigorated the art of etching because of its guest artist program , teaching and beautiful editions. They have a gallery, bookstore and studios on Hawthorne Street .... very close to the SF MOMA. Neil thinks this is his favorite picture of me even though it does not show my face. The light is beautiful coming through the window isn't it? And I am engaged in my favorite activity - looking at art.

We were fortunate to meet Kathan Brown. She graciously took us on a tour of the facilities including the press room, the etching room, the inking areas, etc. It was wonderful....like heaven meets earth inside a tube of Charbonnel. I had a great time watching the printers ink and wipe for an edition using eight plates. And seeing all the shoes the printers have on hand to change into as their feet hurt so much after standing all day. If you get a chance, listen and watch one of Kathan's "egg" videos on the press website - I really enjoy them.

New Thread Drawing

2010-09-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a new thread drawing done on Twinrocker Handmade paper. Sorry you can't see the beautiful deckle on the paper but our scanner is not big enough. Double sorry for the shadow leaking into the scanner but the buttons and beads make it difficult to scan. (I am Canadian, we apologize for everything :)

I had a terrific day on Sunday with my friend J.

We went to the Sidney Fine Arts Show to drop off our entries and then went to the second hand stores in town.

I love doing thread drawings. They have bits of marbled paper I did years ago and I found new embroidery flosses at the thrift store to keep me going. Plus the beautiful green and mauve buttons were a treasure to find at Beacon Thrift. I like to think about the nature of the hand made paper while I am sewing. It has all the little bits of linter in the mix being reformed into something new. And I feel the thread drawings are similar - repurposing old items to make something new.

Maira Kalman at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

2010-09-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

On our recent trip to San Francisco one delight was our visit to the Contemporary Jewish Museum. First we tried to get into the SF Photography Centre - it has limited hours and it was closed in 08 when we went. This visit we had carefully written down its hours - and cockily sure of ourselves - went to the door. CLOSED FOR INSTALLATION. Next door the Museum of the African Diaspora was also closed. So us noodleheads stayed CALM and proceeded down the street to the beautiful CJM.

There we were lucky enough to have an illuminating tour of the works of Maira Kalman.

The following is an excerpt from the Museum's website:

"Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) is the first museum survey of Maira Kalman’s narrative art. Working as an illustrator, author, and designer, Kalman illuminates contemporary life with a profound sense of joy and a unique sense of humor. Kalman’s art appears everywhere in the foreground of today’s visual culture. She is well known for her covers and drawings for The New Yorker, over a dozen books for children and adults, two celebrated illustrated blogs for The New York Times, and collaborations with leading designers and innovators.

The exhibition features a selection of original works on paper that span 30 years of illustration for publication. Also on view are less widely seen works in photography, embroidery, textiles, and performance. As a context for this survey, Kalman has created a special installation, furnishing the gallery with chairs, ladders, and “many tables of many things,” drawn from her collections and indicative of how she sees the world both inside and outside the studio.

Kalman speaks of her work as a form of journalism. She uses writing and drawing to render an ongoing account of the world as she sees it. Hers is a daily discipline of creativity based on photography, travel, research, walking, talking, and open observation. A serious love of distraction pervades. Abundant depictions of fashion, food, art, and architecture represent life’s great pleasures. At the same time, rubber bands, pieces of moss, bobby pins, and snacks stake claims for smaller forms of satisfaction.

All of this might seem trivial were it not for the counterweight of history, memory, and loss that is also ever-present. Chaos is another constant, be it crazy and madcap or simply devastating. Indeed, it is her work’s gift to illuminate those things that affirm our own capacity for joy, sadness, humor, charm. In short, Kalman’s art inspires our humanity in light of life’s overwhelming events and details."

____________

In the image above you can see one of Kalman's most famous collaborative works - the cover of the New Yorker. After the September 11 attacks - she and Rick Meyerowitz - were speaking about how insular New York had become . They quickly dreamed up the names of the new districts and created a new map of the city renamed New Yorkistan with subdistricts such as Botoxia and Kvetchnya. The issue was published in December and sold out in days.

When Maira was asked what she wanted people to take away from this exhibit - she said she wanted them to be happier than when they came in....and we certainly were! We laughed out loud at her late husband Tibor's collection of onion rings and loved her quirky paintings, objects and sense of humour. I am looking forward to reading her illustrated Elements of Style by Strunk and White and following her The Pursuit of Happiness blog.

Haiku Book

2010-09-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished this new book called Haiku Bird. I have been working on it since last year when I first made and printed a collograph of a nest. Then I made stencil prints of birds.

My next step was to write seven haikus about birds and which relate to the structure of the book. This particular haiku shown in the image above is about the tangle of bird's nests. Images of birds have been laminated to the images of the nest and cut and sewn together. (This process caused my visit to the emergency room in April and my purchase of Kevlar gloves :) .... I highly recommend them.)

Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions

2010-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dr. Alain Touwaide of The Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions asked me to do the name of the institute for his website at: http://medicaltraditions.org/

I am thrilled that the site has my animated calligraphy for its title...you have to wait to go through the introduction...but....be patient...(get the pun?).

I met Dr. Touwaide at the Medieval Symposium at the University of Victoria when he was here as a special lecturer. Anyone interested in botany, history or medicine will enjoy the site.

Anniversary of "I Have a Dream"

2010-08-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today - August 28 - is the anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King which was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC in 1963.

There is a beautiful lettering arts connection to the speech in John Benson's stone work. His carving is on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. A circular black granite table records the names of those who died in the Civil Rights movement in lines that radiate like the hands of a clock. There are forty names on the table of those who died between 1954 and 1968. Water emerges from the table's center and flows evenly across the top. The water can be touched and the film of water is momentarily changed. On a curved black granite wall behind the table is engraved Dr. King well-known paraphrasing of Amos 5:24 - We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Benson's letterforms are an integral part of this memorial as well as the John F. Kennedy Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, Virginia; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Roosevelt Memorial; the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles; and architect Maya Lin also consulted with him on the inscriptions for the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Ms. Lin also designed Montgomery Civil Rights Memorial which is across the street from the Southern Poverty Law Office.

If you would like to read more about John Benson, here is a link to his business - The John Stevens Shop at: http://www.johnstevensshop.com/index.html

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In the Garden

2010-08-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is a monoprint titled "The Garden". I am getting ready for the fall studio tour on the Saanich Peninsula and am very excited that I will be showing my work at Picture Panache in Sidney, B.C. There will be more details coming soon on this blog.

I have been going through my pieces and looking for prints to take to the gallery and this is a small one in my garden series which I enjoy. It is a monoprint which means that there is only one like it - it was printed from a water based painting done on a plate and then the plate and paper were put through the press. With monoprinting you get unusual colour combinations and surprises - which is always the wondrous thing about printmaking.

Lorraine's Review - The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore

2010-08-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just posted a brief review here of this excellent novel on The Complete Booker. It is on the 2010 Longlist.