X – Camera Talk

Very much looking forward to presenting an informal online talk on December 11 2020, for the X – Camera series, run by Inter-Arts Matrix.

I’ll be speaking on MAKE=BELIEVE, an ongoing site-specific project that has been in development for the last several years. Recently, this project has really taken off in a number of ways; thanks to the support of the Edmonton Arts Council’s Creator’s Reserve Program, I’ve been able to take a deep dive into the project, and have discovered so much more that I want to pursue.

It’s really exciting to have the opportunity to talk about work in progress, and get feedback from a different community of artists, and I’m very grateful to Sheila McMath and Inter-Arts Matrix for the invitation!

Information on the talk and link to register is below:

EVENTBRITE

Hope some of you can join us – it’s free, and everyone is welcome!

Meeting Me (virtually) tonight

Just a quick shout-out to anyone who might want to attend (yet another) webinar :) …

I’ll be speaking on my work and process this evening for #AGAlive, for the Art Gallery of Alberta’s Art Rental & Sales “Meet the Artist” series. The link to register is:

https://www.youraga.ca/events-features/calendar/agalive-meet-artist-sydney-lancaster

The talk is at 6pm MDT (Edmonton AB Time), and will last about an hour, including a Q&A.

A quick preview of a couple of things I’ll be chasing about:

Hope you can make it!

A Meet the Artist Event

I have been invited to participate in “Meet the Artist” for the Art Gallery of Alberta’s Art Rental and Sales program.

This will be a FREE, online, informal conversation with Sarah Huffman of the AGA; I’ll be walking participants through some recent projects, showing some new work that will be avaialable through Art Rental & Sales and talking about my approach to art-making.

If you’re interested and have the time, it would be lovely to see you – there will be a Q&A after the presentation.

Stay safe, and enjoy art!

Artist Talk Coming Up!

I am really not sure where the last month has gone … but here we are, in October!

And that means (for me) that Macromareal (a rising tide lifts all boats) will be closing at SNAP Gallery … but first:

SATURDAY October 10, 2020 – 1pm – 2pm MST SNAP will be presenting our artist talk, online.

Macromareal approaches the tidal range in the Bay of Fundy, its documentation, and related environmental data through a series of interrelated works that explore the cyclic and durational aspect of natural processes, and the relationship between those processes, human activities, and conceptions of time and memory. The artists will discuss the trajectory of the Macromareal project, their collaboration, and the resulting concoction of work in the exhibition.

This lecture is free, online, and open to the public.

IF you would like to join us for the talk, please REGISTER HERE>

IF you’re in Edmonton, you can still catch the exhibition in person before it goes away throughout this week on a drop-in day, or book a visit on SNAP’s website.

Looking forward to discussing the project, and hearing your thoughts and questions.

Today: A Talk

Today, I have the happy opportunity to share the Boundary|Time|Surface project with the McGill University community.

Very much looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on the project!

A Talk, Upcoming

Very happy to say that I will be presenting a talk with John Waldron about our cross-disciplinary work on the Boundary|Time|Surface project next week.

If you are in the Wolfville, Nova Scotia area, the talk is being presented at Acadia University – details in the image above.

Looking forward to sharing this project with students from both Visual Arts and Earth Science!

A Talk September 14th

Now that the dust has settled from the Opening of Boundary|time|Surface, I am happy to say that Dr. John Waldron and I will be presenting a talk on the project, and the ideas behind our collaboration!

This Saturday, September 14, at 2pm – if you’re in the area, please join us at the Art Gallery of St. Albert for our discussion:

“Boundary|Time|Surface:

Art and Geology in Dialogue”

Talking, Tomorrow …

Just back from a whirlwind trip to Vancouver with my friend & collaborator Scott Smallwood – we installed Macromareal(redux) at Emily Carr for a month-long exhibition, and spoke to some of the students there.

Not sure I’ve caught my breath – but tomorrow (February 28) I will be speaking again, with another collaborator, about another project – this time, at the University of Alberta.

At 6pm, Dr. John Waldron and I will be speaking about our project, Boundary|Time|Surface, as part of the LASERAlberta series of talks on art/science collaborations.

 

I am really grateful & excited to have this opportunity to share this project with the wider community here – and I’m really looking forward to the feedback and discussion!

You can find more info about the talk & the project here … .

If you are in the neighbourhood, please join us!

Parrsboro

Well, I made it out to Nova Scotia!

IMG_8480
Gotta Love the scenery!

IMG_8481
… at least it’s green out here (I think?!)

The talk we presented at the Fundy Geological Museum on the Boundary|Time|Surface project went well, and we had a nice group of people in the audience. Good questions and discussion, which is always the best part … the feedback is so much more interesting than just being a ‘talking head’ yammering on about things. (At least it is for me!) My thanks to Tim Fedak, the Director at the Fundy, for organizing this event!

Had a lovely couple of days in Parrsboro, NS too!

It’s a place with a sense of humour ….

IMG_8489

We had a little time (not enough!) to explore the town, and meet some lovely people. It’s quite exciting to see what the creative community is doing there – and just how much is going on. Had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Krista Wells and having a lovely poke around the Art Lab cooperative space that she and some other artists have set up on Main Street. DIY projects like this are really exciting, all the more so because they grow organically out of the community itself. I also had a lovely chat with Alan Johnson from Parrsboro Creative, another local initiative with offices just down for Art Lab on Main Street. Parrsboro Creative is tapping the energy and renewal that the arts can bring to communities everywhere, linking interested people to a wide range of learning opportunities, and spearheading an artist relocation program. This is a town that has it’s art on, big time.

Just down Main Street from Art Lab, we discovered these little gems:

IMG_8490
Where do those stairs lead? and what’s behind that door!? So much fun.

What to do with that little space between buildings??  magical doorways, of course!
What to do with that little space between buildings?? magical doorways, of course!

IMG_8493
A very sensible solution to hiding an empty lot!

We also had the good fortune to discover Main & Station/Nonesuch Cafe, a gorgeous space housed in a retrofitted heritage post office. Judith and Harvey have created a truly cross-disciplinary environment, with so much to offer: a cafe, bookstore, and gallery; a place to listen to learn through talks and workshops, residency opportunities … it’s quite amazing.

IMG_8495
This building is gorgeous, and Harvey & Judith have put some serious work into its restoration, and making it into a hub for creativity and education.

Parrsboro is also a deeply beautiful place; the Bay of Fundy was as breathtaking and powerful as ever.

IMG_8488
The view from the middle of town; Ship’s Company Theatre on the far right.

IMG_8507
Spectacular geology, that reveals the power of the tide at every turn.

IMG_8508
Nearly low tide; it’s amazing how fast all that water moves to fill the bay when the tide turns!

Have had a brief stop in Halifax … and next up is Newfoundland! Leaving tomorrow for Deer Lake, and from there to Gros Morne!

The adventure continues!

Sideways …

I am experiencing the unexpected – the result of opportunities taking me in directions I couldn’t have anticipated.

Life’s taken me sideways, and it’s turning out to be quite the ride!

Little did I know that when I completed Boundary|Time|Surface last summer in Gros Morne National Park, that the fall of 2014 and the first months of 2015 would find me presenting a series of talks on the project … to geologists.


 

So far, my geologist-art-collaborator and I have given talks on the project for the ATLAS Graduate Students Association at the University of Alberta, at the Atlantic Geosciences Society conference in Sackville NB, and the Edmonton Geological Society AGM.

(We thought it particularly apt that the ATLAS talk was on Hallowe’en … )

And now … we will be doing a poster and multi-media presentation as part of the Education and Outreach Symposia at the European Geosciences Union conference in Vienna, Austria, on April 17th.

It has been a terribly hectic time preparing for this trip (the proverbial ‘getting one’s duck in a row’ has been more like herding kittens on some days), and it hasn’t really felt real until now: we’re on the ground, settled in the hotel, and have attended the first day of sessions at the conference.

Admittedly, This still doesn’t quite feel real to me – jet lag will do that! But I have been having some excellent Viennese coffee to get me through, and taking the odd nap to deal with the waves of fatigue when they’d hit.

It’s going be a remarkable 10 days – opportunities to see some of the city, spend some time in galleries and museums, walk and explore.

  

It’s my first time in Vienna, and I’m already quite certain that I will barely have time to scratch the surface of what the place will have to offer. It’s beautiful in that complicated, accretive way of places long populated: the long history of politics, money, and social indicators of taste are everywhere in the architecture, in the graffiti, in the efficient movement of people from place to place.

  

    

Even the site of the conference itself speaks to this complexity: it is being held in a complex adjacent to UNO City … Home of the United Nations.

It will be interesting to see how Boundary|Time|Surface is received; I am looking forward to getting some feedback on this work from an international audience – a few of whom will also be practicing artists. In any case, it’s going to be an adventure.

Sometimes, sideways is a good direction.