Visual Elements opens tonight

invitation for Visual Elements

Tonight the Woodstock Gallery opens the doors to it's new space, with the 53rd Annual Juried Exhibition: Visual Elements.
Come out for some fun, check out the gorgeous new gallery space and see some great artwork.
The gallery is located at The Woodstock Art Gallery is located at:

449 Dundas Street
Woodstock

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony at 6:45, with the exhibition opening following. 

I have a piece in this exhibition: The Benzene Ring Interchange Project (pictured above in the right column).

Hope to see you there!

Still trying to Tame the Beast

So it still seems like  I am more than a little buried in stuff to do. I'm trying to sort it out, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. But then, there's the old axiom work expands to fill the time allowed. Very true. It's like a living organism. So today, well actually last night, I made a list of just the things that I need to accomplish today. Just today... don't worry about the rest. Just get through today's list. I can do it. So far I'm on item 3... this blog. I'll get there. Breathe deep Marijo, breathe deep.....

So much time, so little to do.... strike that reverse it.

Sometimes I feel like I just need a personal organizer or assistant. How do I have so much to do and yet I feel like I'm getting nothing done. I have the biggest mess in my studio right now that has expanded outward to the entire top floor. My office, my sewing room, the bathroom... you name it, it's like a growing beast. I feel a little  like there's no hope of conquering it. And then there are the daily chores to do: laundry, dishes vacuuming etc. And proposals to write, and grants to explore. And getting my website updated, and emails to respond to,and, and and. The list goes on. And that's just the maintenance type/business stuff. I still need time to work in the studio!
I feel a lot like I'm drowning. Help! Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?

Photoshop

So the past few days I have been avoiding cleaning my studio by drawing in Photoshop and Painter. I've done a couple of paintings that I like. I started the sketches in Painter, but most of the painting was done in Photoshop.Any thoughts, constructive criticism, welcome. What do you think?

EpigeneticsEh!

copper wire hexagon

Been working on the painting for the upcoming epigenetics conference in London. My thoughts so far have been to work with the idea of discovery. What I'd like to end up with is a piece where parts of the painting move but always hide or obscure some part of the work at the at the same time. To that end, I have made three hexagons of copper and coated them with epoxy so the spaces in between are translucent. I am thinking that I will mount magnets under the corners of the copper and I found these gorgeous marbles to put on top to act as "handles". The painting itself is made up of 9 hexagons with the substrates attached to the back, so the framework is showing.

My thoughts are leaning to something similar to "Balance" with science occupying the imagery on the left and faith the right. We'll see how it goes. Right now, I'm just starting the imagery. The structure took a fair bit of time to work out and build.

Campbell River Gallery - exibition up

Well it's finally there! What an ordeal getting the work to BC. It left Ontario on the 30th of March and landed in Victoria by the 6th of April. One would think whoo hoo... we're on track, it just has to go north to the gallery. But oh no................ there it stayed according to the way bill anyway. And stayed, and stayed. At first I thought not too much of it, since the only other check in point was from London to Mississauga, and then nothing till Victoria. I figured it just hadn't been scanned yet, but would show up soon. Two days later, I realized I needed to get involved. Hmmmm, no one can manage to tell me where it is... uh.. really... 6 giant crates of my work , my life for the past couple of years, and you,  uh, can't find it? Pardon?After much fussing about, and three, yes I said 3, more days the crates are located in Nanaimo. (at least they were headed in the right direction). But the originating shipping company had place a hold on the delivery. They had told us to mark two man delivery on the way bill. Ok. Done. But one problem, the company on the delivery end that they transferred to, doesn't do 2 man delivery. Ummm, again, what, shouldn't YOU know that... just thinking might have been a good idea to know what your subcontractors are capable of BEFORE you use them. Maybe it's just me.

Sooo............... here we are. I'm a basket case, by this time the gallery really needs the work to install, and it's stuck in Nanaimo. Then we get Judy on the line (cue the angel sounds). Judy suggests that her people can deliver without 2 men, that yes, just one guy and a dolly can do it. Which I have to say makes sense, since I have been able to move most of the around by myself at home while building them. So we tell Judy to go ahead, and what do you know, the work is delivered the very next day!

Judy thank you thank you thank you.

Also a big big thank you to the curator and staff at Campbell River for their patience and help during all this. I really appreciate it.

And one more thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support with exhibition assistance.

Plastic... of sorts

Just experimented with styrofoam and acetone. Just a teeny tiny bit of acetone in the bottom of a glass jar, and some old styrofoam packaging. I ended up using about a 12 inch long piece about 2 inches thick. First of all it's just cool to see the acetone eat up the styrofoam. It's crazy. Then you get this goo at the bottom, that is sort of malleable. Maybe it needs more foam for body, not sure, will have to do some experimenting. But it's kind of stringy and once its out of the acetone wants to return to a solid rather quickly. It also is VERY messy and sticks to your hands very well, so I recommend glove or something.  I tried pouring it into a n old rubber mold, but I'm not sure it will work. We'll have to see on that one. Also spread some around on an old palette with a painting knife, with out much of anything to show for it. But again this is only the first experiment. I was happy to see the foam melt.. what to do with it will come.
Back to the studio!

Knowledge, Faith Asimov

I'm just beginning this blog, so please be patient with me. My goal is to discuss traditional media and digital media. In particular I will likely most often write about my thought process in relating to my work, so I thought I'd begin by talking about the painting on the right, Knowledge, Faith, Asimov.
This is my latest finished work, and it combines a variety of media. As with most of my painting, the focus is on the discussion of theology and science. One of my favourite quotes is from Isaac Asimov, and for me it sums up man's dilema. "Man knows enough now to kill a billion men in a single day, by an act of his will, but is not yet capable of understanding what lies behind that act of will." Asimov, 1962, The Genetic Code. Written in 1962, it is still true today. It blew my mind when I read it, and knew I had to work with that somehow. This painting is mostly traditional media. There is some digital transfer in the background of the circuit board. I generally like to work with a variety of media, and while I normally do more digital work and combine it into traditional media, I do not restrict myself to a particular way of working. The unique thing about this work is the spine. It is 3 dimensional and acts as a `divider` for the concepts of faith and science. Yet being the spine, it is an integrated unit of the body, so brings these two concepts together, in the way that we must deal with these ideas as a society.