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.

Getting ready for Campbell River

Been trying to build crates and/or decide if that is even the way to go to get my work out west for this coming April. I need to get the most cost effective, yet "safe" way to get my work out there. I spoke with Jennie at Gibson's Gallery; she was extremely helpful.  She gave me some sites to look into and a couple of phone numbers to get me pointed in the right direction.  That was good. Now i guess it's just a matter of figuring out what I can actually afford. I have an application in for exhibition assistance through the OAC, but have not heard anything back yet. I hope that comes through.

Pan Pastels

I just bought some pan pastels to try. I've been working on a painting in which I've been mixing painting, and coloured pencil. I've also been experimenting with painting some hard edges, which is rather off the beaten track for me. While working, I began to gravitate toward my pastels and started playing. Then the other day, on Laura and I's Saturday excursion.. we came across pan pastels. Well, I had to try. I picked up a couple colours. They are very nice indeed. I've been experimenting with applying them with a make-up sponge and using a brush. I even tried picking up the fresh pan and swiping it directly on the board. It's been a lot of fun, and the colours spread like butter. I only wish I had more...
I'm not sure I will give up the regular pastels, but they are a nice addition to the bag of tricks.

Driving Home from Niagara Falls

We spent Thanksgiving in Niagara Falls this past weekend. Just John and I. It was really a nice getaway.
What really struck me on the drive home though was the difference in the colours in just a couple of days. It was like the trees had transformed in just two days. I don't remember the colours being so intense on the way down there. (Maybe I was sleepy from the car ride)  On the drive home though, everything seemed crisper, brighter. Even the sky was more blue. And big, the sky was huge and I felt puny. It was a good drive.

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!

Studio Interrupted

Thanks to the big rain the other day, I have been spending my time cleaning out and sorting old drawings. Rain flooded in the room, made an awful mess! Boxed up drawings from long ago, soaked. So now I've been drying out what I can, and throwing out what can't be saved. I spent yesterday taking pics of everything that I could so that if they are totally wrecked, I at least have some record. They were mostly drawings from the Breitenbush retreat so many years ago. So many good memories from that. And by the end, I had really made some inroads in my drawing, so I'd hate to lose those tangible things that help me remember.
On the up side, I guess it was good to make me look at them again. And force me to document them. I hadn't thought about that trip in ages. They make me want to quit cleaning and get drawing!