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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Inspiration Tuesday: How To Stay Creative by *Hogret*

I found this "Journal Entry: Fri Jun 1, 2012" posted on Deviant Art by an artist known as *Hogret* or Margaret from South Africa) and her assemblage "Creative Tip No. 13" (below) really spoke to me this morning:

by Hogret Assemblage / shadow box 10 x 18 cm

Old dominoes tin, paper, vintage photos, acrylic glazes, washi tape, washi paper, poured resin base, tiny vintage brass cup, wings milagro, torch lightbulb, mica sheet, filing cabinet hardware, brads. Figure mounted 3D on sewing machine bobbins and a popsicle stick to create the shelf.

There is a lot of inspiration packed into her art and her online Deviant Art journal 

I copied her list of "How To Stay Creative" and highlight the ones I practice regularly in my own daily creative practice:

  1. Make lists
  2. Carry a notebook everywhere
  3. Get away from the computer
  4. Quit beating yourself up
  5. Take breaks
  6. Sing in the shower
  7. Drink coffee
  8. Know your roots
  9. Ask "What if …?"
  10. Constantly risk absurdity
  11. Listen to new music
  12. Rock the boat
  13. Surround yourself with creative people
  14. Get feedback
  15. Collaborate
  16. Don't give up
  17. Practise, practise, practise
  18. Make mistakes on purpose
  19. Go somewhere new
  20. Watch foreign films
  21. Break the rules
  22. Start a gratitude list
  23. Get lots of rest
  24. Take risks
  25. Write your own myth
  26. Do more of what makes you happy
  27. Don't push the river
  28. Read a page of the dictionary
  29. Stop trying to be someone else's perfect
  30. Got an idea? Write it down
  31. Clean your workspace
  32. Have fun
  33. Learn something new
  34. Create reckless juxtapositions
  35. Make a visual pinboard pinterest.com/
  36. Finish something
  37. Take a walk
  38. Get curious
  39. Don't ask – "What's it for?" "Who will like it?" or "Who will buy it?"
  40. Be kind to yourself
Which ones do you practice on a daily basis? Is anything missing? Which ones would you add?

Danny Gregory would add "Shut Your Monkey".

Danny has started a great, new FREE podcast on iTunes that provides a weekly dose of moral support and practical advice on overcoming creative blocks, procrastination, perfectionism and aims to leave the listener super-charged, inspired and ready to start making our best work.

Sound good? Download the FREE podcasts at: Shut Your Monkey on iTunes and have an inspired and creative week!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Lincoln Fields Blossoms


Mother Nature decided the date of this sketch outing. We originally planned it for May 8 but spring was slow to arrive in Ottawa this year. Last week, some great folks on social media sent messages that the trees in Lincoln Fields were in full bloom!

The fact that the blossoms were peaking on the Victoria Day weekend meant that a lot of other urban sketchers were out of town at cottages and unable to join us at this urban sketching event. I was so happy to see that some familiar faces did manage to find time to visit.

There were plenty of other folks at Lincoln Fields coming and going, taking photographs, having picnics, playing with their children or sitting under the beautiful canopy of blossoms to read a book.

Artist celebrating her 75th birthday with a stroll through the Lincoln Fields blossoms
I met a woman (pictured above) who was taking a stroll through the blossoms on the occasion of her 75th birthday. She told me that the last time she strolled through the blossoms on her birthday, she was celebrating her 48th and she stopped to sketch the blossoms on that day! I learned later from her daughter that she is a gifted artist!

It was a blessed, serendipitous encounter that left me feeling incredibly inspired about art making and reinforcing the importance of seeking out places of beauty to sit and sketch.

My first sketch

For my first sketch, I sat close to the pathway so that any other urban sketchers could find me easily. This sketch took me around 45 minutes. I found the blossoms to be quite a challenge to sketch. The range of hues, the abundance of blossoms and branches, the rows of trees can all be very overwhelming

Birds (warblers, orioles, woodpeckers) landed all around me as I sketched and when the wind picked up, petals showered all over me and my sketchbook. It was lovely.
Abundant bird life at Lincoln Fields

The beautiful blossoms

Sketch #2

My final sketch was of a family picnic in the orchard - the family came over to see my sketch and the children seemed to like it. This family has a picnic in Lincoln Fields every year when the blossoms peak. What a beautiful family ritual!

Family Picnic
I plan to do this again next year. What a beautiful way to spend a lovely spring day. I highly recommend it!

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Playing With Pigments With Artist Lisa Myers

Ottawa Art Gallery Spring Workshop

I spent the afternoon at the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) in the spring workshop "Playing With Pigments" with artist Lisa Myers http://lisarosemyers.com/home.html

Artist Lisa Myers

Artist Lisa Myers talking about her art exhibit at the Ottawa Art Gallery before the workshop.

I was really excited about meeting artist Lisa Myers because I had read about her work before attending the workshop. Lisa is of Anishinaabe ancestry from Shawanaga and Beausoleil First Nation.

I was eager to hear more about how her creativity emerges from the intersection of geography, memory and food.

Lisa  gave us a tour through the Ottawa Art Gallery before the workshop started and talked about the current exhibit  "ALL THAT YOU TOUCH" featuring artists  Autumn Chacon, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Ursula Johnson, Jaime Koebel, Lisa Myers, Melody McKiver, Gail Tremblay.

Lisa is a trained chef and artist. I LOVE that she considers "walking and cooking as research methods for (her) art making".

Blueberries


The story of Lisa's grandfather escaping residential school and surviving on blueberries.

Blueberries are used in Lisa's work and she spoke about how blueberries were metaphors for her for so many things:
  • When she strains the blueberries for printmaking to remove the skins and seeds, it's a metaphor for assimilation, taking away language and traditions and colonization. 
  • The "blueprints" metaphor in that the things we witness in our life are "blueprints" to who we are today.
  • The metaphor in the blueberry woodblock roller pin print of her father escaping residential school is that a persons movements leave a stain behind. This "stain left behind" could also apply to migrations.
Printmaking With Natural Pigments

Exploring the plants that provide pigment for art
Pictured below, Lisa sets up the supplies just before the printmaking begins. There were bowls and spoons and colanders and strainers etc

"The kitchen section is my art supply store"

Lisa said, "The kitchen section is my art supply store"
The Basics

There is SO, SO much to know about Lisa's process so I will not in any way try to explain that here in any detail. (There could be a separate blog post on "mordants" alone) Instead, here are some key points:
  • To prepare the fruit pigments (blueberries and raspberries) they were first frozen, then boiled for twenty minutes then run through a sieve.
  • The substrates we were using were paper, canvas, silk and wool. (Canvas, because it is cellulose, does not take the die well. Silk and wool is much better)
  • Acidity has an impact: The fruit pigment will change depending on the paper. For example on Stonehenge paper (cotton rag) the fruit pigment will be much bluer than on acidic newsprint where it will become very pink
  • Acidity has an impact: Vinegar and baking soda will change the colour of the fruit pigment: vinegar it will turn red; baking soda it will turn blue.
  • The fruits we used at the workshop for printing were blueberries and strawberries.
  • The vegetables we used for the workshop were parsley, beets, beet leaves, red onions and red cabbage
  • The printmaking methods we used were: screen printing, linocutting, wooden rolling pin printing
My Turn To Experiment

We had three hours to experiment with Lisa. I decided to do a linocut because there were plenty Speedball® Speedy-Carve™ Blocks on the table.

I chose to use the blueberries as a motif and a spoon because of the beautiful story Lisa told us about the "dish with one spoon" treaty. Known officially as the  Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, it is an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes

Yet another of Lisa's beautiful metaphors with the dish representing the land and one spoon meaning that we all will share. For this reason I added the spoon to my motif.

"Blueberry Dish With One Spoon"

I then rolled on the blueberry pigment and to my surprise, the easy carve surface repelled the blueberry pigment and then it ran into all of the crevices. I made the print anyways and below is the result.

"Blueberry Dish With One Spoon"first print

I took a ghost print (a second print following the original print without reapplying pigment)  that turned out very interesting. I was able to colour in the ghost print later with raspberry pigment using a wooden spoon. It is my favourite print of the day (so far).

"Blueberry Dish With One Spoon" (ghost print)
Cold-Bundled Eco-Prints 

At the end of the workshop we all prepared cold-bundled Eco Prints (process found on page 154 in book below "Eco Colour" by India Flint) on wool and silk.

We dampened our silk and wool swatches and then added various materials (cabbage, red onion, parsley etc) and then rolled the fabric up very tightly securing it with twine and rubber bands

The results of my cold-pressed bundle will not be revealed for another three days and the OAG has asked the participants to email photos of the results to them.

My wool cold-pressed eco-bundle on the left

Lisa demonstrating cold-pressed eco-bundles

We used canvas, silk and wool
Results of My Cold-pressed Eco-bundles

I opened my two cold-pressed eco-bundles on Friday morning after six days of being wrapped up tightly with elastic bands and twine. The results were so interetsing. The silk results were better in terms of the colours than the wool, but this may have been an error that I made in not wetting the wool enough?

I photographed four views of the wool and silk results recording both the front and back.

Linen (front)

Linen (front) close-up
 

Linen (back)


Linen (back) close-up

Wool (front)


Wool (front) clos-ep


Wool (back)
 I plan to set these fabrics using an iron and then use them in another piece of art that I will write about in another post. (Will be looking for inspiration at mixed-media artist Jane LaFazio's website http://janeville.blogspot.ca/)

I really enjoyed this day and would love to experiment more with creating natural pigments for art on paper and fabric.

I am grateful for the Ottawa Art Gallery for hosting these FREE workshops that give us access to such great artists like Lisa Myers.

I am also grateful to Lisa Myers for sharing her art, her knowledge, her process with all of us


 Reference Books
Two books were referenced during this workshop:



Other Links

If you are curious about this method of printmaking, you can use flowers and create so many things, here are some links to check out:



Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Today's Daily Sketch - "Sketch Du Jour"

The purpose of today's post is to share some "jour" themed sketches and ramble a bit about the word "jour".

I take it as some sign of serendipity or synchronicity that the word "jour" has been popping up and causing me to take pause over the past few days.

JOURNEY

First, it was a lovely piece, "The Art of Arrival", written by Rebecca Solnit that immediately started with what the word "journey" used to mean:


BONJOUR

Then I was drawn to the light at my front door, and the coat rack with the winter coats (*sigh* still) and the sign in the hallway that says "Bonjour".

My Moleskine daily sketch " Bonjour"
Lexington Grey Noodlers ink and watercolour


JOURNAL

Then I though a little about my art journal and how, as part of my daily practice, I sketch in it each and every day or "chaque jour" and create what could be called a "sketch du jour" or "daily sketch.

CONTRE JOUR

I couldn't help but follow this tangent even farther and I encountered a new term"contre jour" which is French for "against daylight". I guess I had not heard of it before because it is a photographic term and technique in which the camera is pointing directly toward a source of light, like this:

"contre jour"


On of my favourite Ottawa photographers, Christopher Ryan, had posted a recent photo to facebook that I thought "that would be fun to sketch" and I realized that what I liked about it was that it was a contre jour photo of sorts. The light is in such a way that only the silhouettes of the couple holding hands is visible. I loved that and the shapes and colours of all the signage. I liked the photo so much I asked Christopher for permission to use it as a reference for the daily sketch below.

Photo by Christopher Ryan (used here with permission)
My art journal colour study of "Elgin St"
 (Gouache on 100% cotton paper)


SOJOURN

I will end this post with the word "sojourn" which is both a noun and a verb meaning an impermanent stay reached by journey, or a period of temporary residence. (The words sojourn and journey are cognate through their roots in the French word jour, meaning "day").

A synonym for "sojourn" is "rest" which will be a future blog post

A dictionary of etymology of the English language: and of English synonymes ... By John Oswald
Isn't it funny how a single word "jour" can take you down an interesting path that can feed your art?

This "tangent du jour" led me to another artist, Paul Madonna, who marries his art with text in a most fascinating way.

Paul Madonna quote

"Madonna is an artist and writer with a background in painting and is best known for his series All Over Coffee, which he calls a 'strip,' a comic strip without the comic. Madonna's ink-on-paper drawings are characterized by their detailed depictions of urban cityscapes paired with stories. Madonna prefers to draw on site and straight to ink" (Source: Wikipedia)

Results from a google search of Paul Madonna

If you are unfamiliar with Paul Madonna's work, I strongly suggest that you visit his website https://www.paulmadonna.com/

Who knows what kind of journey it will take you on aujourd'hui? Enjoy!

My GREAT Day at the Farm!

Ottawa Urban Sketchers report on the day at the Experimental Farm

I have just finished a blog post on the Ottawa UrbanSketchers blog "What a Great Day at the Farm" that includes photos and sketches from some of the artists that attended. To see more of their work, visit our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1708303006086325/

I love cows and horses. It's a lifelong love of mine since I was a young girl and spent many hours at the Pollard's farm on First Line West in Mississauga many, many, many years ago.

Lots of sketchers stopped to sketch the Clydesdales and I definitely wanted to sketch them too but they were really frisky and active, it being early in the morning, so I headed over to the dairy barn to start sketching.

I am told that a young girl has named this cow "Penelope"
"Penelope" was actually my second sketch in the dairy barn. The cow that I had started to sketch was standing then decided to lay down after a few minutes. This happens - it's to be expected.

After the dairy barn, I went over to the small animal barn and found the animals quite active and  stimulated by all of the visitors, like this mother goat with her two kids that I videotaped.


The advice that I would give to folks who have never sketched farm animals is to find some sleeping animals to start. Something that I did as well in the small animal barn. I found this lovely little group snoozing ever so peacefully.

Sleeping sheep
I sketched the sheep in a different style (actually got carried away with the hay). I love experimenting.


I was about half way in on the sketch below when I thought to myself that I had bit off way more than I could chew. Time was running out. The sun was moving across the farm and changing the lighting rapidly.

Sketching from a shady spot on the farm

Last sketch of the day - the Clydsedale