Images from the past Fragile Elements exhibition and... Blessings.

 Alberta Tarsands Goose on display at the Art Gallery of St Albert March & April 2014.

A visual statement pertaining to the destruction of wildlife due corporate greed.

Explaining to a patron of the arts why I chose to build over 120 nests that no bird will ever nest in.  Our man-made plastics pollute. Plastic bags, fishing line, balloons bits, etc add many unnecessary deaths each year as well as desecrate our soil, waterways and air.

On a brighter note we went to check out the exhibition at the train station in St Albert at the Grain Elevator Museum, can you guess who's work is on display?

We had a wonderful tour by a young gentleman who works there, sorry no photos as I left my camera in the vehicle, this photo courtesy of my sweetie.

An etching I did some years back dedicated to a great Leader, Elder and teacher, Morris Crow. 

Blessing to his family. Blessing to this Earth for all the nourishing bounty she gives us. Blessing to  Water for liquid nourishment that sustaining us. Blessings to the Air for clearing our minds and lungs. Blessings to all our relatives, the animals of earth, the winged ones, the finned ones, and even the ones so tiny we cannot see, for all together we are community. All together we are related and connected to one another.

Blessings.

Blessings.

Blessings.

community nest

So wonderful to see the large nest being added to. An interactive nest I designed for the exhibition. Viewers are invited to write on a piece of paper and thread it through the nest. If one does not wish to write they can weave supplied fabric or strings into the nest instead. I like the idea of audience participation, I believe it makes the "act or action of art" a communal venture.
Have a wonderful weekend, Hugs!

The Mayor of St Albert and a young viewer talking about the exhibition.

http://youtu.be/EjDfc8Yd3Rg

Isn't the young lady in the video sweet! I love it when young viewers talk about my work, I find it exciting. Did I ever tell you it was because of a young 8 year old viewer of my work at an exhibition at Kings University in Edmonton that really got me into studying, watching, photographing and painting birds as a major part of my art practice. I love youth, they are so inspiring.

Anyhow, at King's I had a memorial painting of my father with birds in it and this young lady stood looking at it for so long I had to ask what she saw "its alive, its so alive" was her comment. Well I was hooked, her words meant more to me than any spoken that night, in fact thats about all I really remember of the evening. As all things change my art practice has evolved to include 3.5 years of making hand-built birds nests, the irony of which no bird will ever nest in. Yet I can attribute it all back to that one comment which inspired me to learn about birds. So you can imagine how excited I am to see this young viewer talking about my work, yes, I am ecstatic!

Fragile Elements @ The Art Gallery of St Albert

 "Requiem for the Birds of the Four Winds; Tree Reclamation Project" is in the middle of the gallery forefront space, and "Subtle forms force shock of recognition; someplace in the middle of the ocean where the Albatross nests there floats a massive island of extravagant industrial waste" is the sculptural piece of to the right.

Here I am before the opening standing in front of various nest pieces. I was too excited to stay home so we arrived early, which was nice as we then had time to view the paintings done by Susan Casault and Peter Ivens before gallery audience arrived.

A wonderful article was written by Scott Hayes of the St Albert Gazette
http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20140305/SAG0302/303059997/-1/sag/artists-gather-to-honour-nature

An article done by the St Albert Leader
http://www.stalbertleader.com/2014/03/06/handling-with-care-fragile-elements-at-art-gallery-of-st-albert/

feeling strangeness upon completion

Have you worked on a long term project so intensely that once it was complete you felt at a slight loss, kind of like, what now?  Thats how I feel presently.

We delivered my 3.5 year nest project to the Art Gallery of St Albert today. Our front sitting room where I've spent the last three weeks inventorying and boxing all the pieces, over 100, is now bare, dusty, but bare. Empty nest syndrome?

I think it may take a few days to realign my thoughts as the past weeks have been consumed with documenting, which entailed photographing, measuring, titling and deciding on price and filling out insurance forms. Its all done, complete.

Its all pretty exciting. Scott Hayes a reporter with the St Albert Gazette came by the gallery, took a few photos and discussed my work with me. I will post the article when I receive it. Like I said its pretty exciting and fun. I'm enjoying the whole concept that the work is being professionally shown; especially since its not just pretty images. I believe the work to be multi-layered and thought provoking regarding important environmental issues, though its not "in your face" its subtle, yet obvious for those who choose to "see". Does this make me an environmental artist? Maybe.

Have a great weekend.

Art Gallery of St Albert exhibition invite

Winter Blessings and the best to all in the New Year

 The colors of winter sparkle on a sunlit day.

Young Snowy Owl and a fly-by shooting. Not bad for hanging my head out the window at 100km. Beautiful isn't he. 

Busy as ever I'm still taking on-line learning courses through the Edmonton Public Library and loving it though I'd gotten too far behind on one course and it deleted before I could complete it. I must hustle to complete the Non-fiction Book Writing course and the second Photoshop Elements course I began as they end Jan 31. I may have to ask for an extension for them as I'm also in process of photographing and documenting about 85 hand made nests. 

Its a lot documenting 3+ years of work in a few weeks. Yesterday I was able to document 9 but need to re-photograph one of them. 

The process I decided on to make headway is to photograph about ten pieces each day and download the images onto the computer, assess them, then go make corrections of camera settings and re-photograph. Download once again and compare images with the first batch. Yesterday most of the first batch was deleted due lack of depth. I don't mind images fading back into blur but I find there must be enough clarity to pull off an image even if it is an artistic type shot, and these being structural, need  clarity.

Next step is documentation which entails measuring each piece by height width and depth, making note of types of media used in the piece as well as the decision of a title, and lastly the date completed. Good luck on that one, I can safely remember which ones were recently completed but to know what year all the rest were done, ya, I'll will be winging it on that point. Personally dates don't mean much to me but Galleries showing work tend to want that detail.

I am taking the Non-fiction Book Writing course as I intend on writing a book about my experience with building these nests, hence also the desire to take excellent photographs of the pieces. Many of the nests have a short story to go with them as to why they were conceived and I believe its worth documenting.

The Art Gallery of St Albert is where the pieces are making their debut in March and April of this year. Yes its coming up fast. 

I wish you well and all the blessing of happiness to share with others.

Hugs!

St Albert Art Walk

My paintings displayed in the window of the Art Gallery of St Albert extension studio for the month. The Art Gallery of St Albert is a wonderful public gallery run by the most amazing friendly and informative people who really rock.
I was excited to be invited to take part in the galleries art walk event this month, sadly I was ill and not able to attend and paint on location as planned; the good thing is though I was absent my art was displayed in the studio and the paintings were a big hit with viewers. Four of my paintings are on display until July.

Its a wonderfully busy month. The Calgary exhibition was extended one week and the Red Deer exhibition begins next week so transporting art from one venue to the next is the main theme of this upcoming weekend. I am grateful for my hubby for all the art transporting he does for me. The exhibition in the Marjorie Wood Gallery at Kerry Wood Nature Centre opens on June 24th and goes till aug 1st.

Big Hugs, a hug shared is a hug received!

Art Gallery of St Albert, A good fit!

I delivered these three paintings last weekend to the St Albert Art Gallery and am pleased the beautiful waxwing painting sold right away, thank you.

I had a friend relay that my paintings look better in real life than what a computer can display. It is true something of the spirit, texture and impact of color are lost having to delete pixels for fast uploads, regardless it is a good tool to display what I accomplish. 

 Bohemian Waxwing "SOLD"

Raven Speak

Acrylic on canvas, 8x8, $269-

Savannah Sparrow

Acrylic on canvas 12x12, $379-

To purchase paintings contact the Art Gallery of St Albert 780-460-4310

On June 2nd I will be a profiled Art Walk artist in the Art Gallery of St Albert's satellite studio which is located a few doors down from the main public gallery in St Albert. Eight paintings will be displayed; two are fresh off the easel and have not been posted on the web yet. It will be a fun event as I will be working on a painting during the evening and get to meet wonderful art admirers and share my inspiration and joy of life around me. 

May you have a wonderful huggable weekend!

Hugs are warm and worth sharing.