new wonderful artistic adventures

Hubby and I took a whirlwind trip to Calgary on saturday to deliver two pieces for the Emmaus group exhibition at The House Coffee Sanctuary.  Sorry we forgot to take photos this time, oh well, it was great to see friends and spend time with loved ones as thats what matters most. We arrived back home at one am sunday morning, so were we ever tired all day.

Today hubby drove me to Colour Blind, its a store where I've the opportunity to do a storefront exhibition. We met the wonderful manager and I must say it feels like a great match as she is excited about my work and I'm excited to do the installation, wow. Feels soooo good!
I will try and remember to take and post some installation shots when we set up in april for those who are too far away to visit.

Such a timely adventure as I have about 50 nest pieces showing at The Art Gallery of St Albert and I will have other nest pieces showing at Colour Blind, now how cool is that. First we will set up the nest pieces then the store merchandize will be arranged around the theme, I am so excited.

Here is a teaser...

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!

As the snow recedes

 We took a walk along the river sunday and the only ducks we saw was one mallard

 and one goldeneye.

 A nest, though not sure who built it.

 As there is still a bit of snow a few people were getting in some cross country skiing.

As the snow recedes and the ground thaws the buds of spring burst forth with new life; except in Alberta its old waste that sprouts with reckless abandon. 

 A sorry commentary that as the snow disappears we find ourselves ankle deep in a waste dump. Everywhere there is garbage, plastics, paper, tins and cigarette butts in the street gutters, along the fences that bound the sidewalks, all through the kids playgrounds. Plastic bags flutter from bare trees. We are a society of rubbish. Its All Rubbish!

Whatever happened to public pride, whatever happened to using trash cans rather than just tossing garbage in the streets. We are a sorry bunch for sure.

And on a more pleasant note the Boreal Chickadees, which are one of my favourite winter birds have been about lately. 

Reuse, Recycle, Recreate.

"Sweetgrass Dreams Memory Box"

7.5x7.5x3.25 inch depth

The outside of the box has an etching adhered to it and on the inside is an etching of a small feather and a hand built nest created from sweetgrass. As one can imagine when the box is opened a most delicate sweet natural perfume waifs into the nostrils from the dried sweetgrass.

"no place reveals itself easily, one must sit quiet and breathe in the fragrance" 

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Based on the idea of a blackbirds nest I wove an inner nest of plain raffia and the outer nest of green raffia on thin willow branches.

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.

show teasers

Slow goes the turtle and slow goes I.
Still in process of documenting my work as I've had difficulty using Word program; and to figure out pricing whoa-ho thats a whole new venture in itself.
At least I was able to figure out how to fill out the gallery forms, lets hope they email back alright as my Word forms sure don't want to behave for emailing. Who ever said computers would make life easier, bah humbug, make trice the work load for me.

On a to a lighter song, I wish to share a couple of the interesting nests that I have built.  Enjoy!

 This one is made from the dryer lint after I washed a red wool blanket. The leaves are some craft leaves picked up at a garage sale last year though I found they were pretty crumbly so I washed a layer of white glue on them to help hold together.

And here we have eggs, yes eggs coated with wasp paper and painted orange inside so they glow.
Don't they look just lovely on the paper bag. Texture combinations, o-how I love the textures.
Have a wonderful weekend!