Elsewhere has been and gone … took down the exhibition this past Monday.
How the time flies past … it seems yesterday (and a long time ago) all at once, that I was preparing and packing the work for this show.
It was a great space to work in, and we had fabulous support from curator Brenda Barry Byrne, and the staff at Gallery @ 501. I think I have been spoiled for other spaces!
So, one last goodbye … a video “tour” of the work Brenda Danbrook and I exhibited in Elsewhere. Hope you enjoy.
It seems I’ve become a desk jockey this last while!
I’ve been busy with a number of things that have kept me from the studio, but most of them have concerned getting things written (good thing I got me some “book-larnin’ ” in that department a while ago … never thought the English degree would be so useful!)
To what end have I been chained to my old desk, you ask?
This:
Looking forward to presenting this workshop very much.
… and now, back to the planning!
A thoroughly apropos title.
After the busy-ness of getting the work up for exhibition, and then the opening reception on the 9th, I thought life was going to slow a little bit. Not so.
I have been elsewhere (metaphorically) – catching up on all sorts of things that needed attending to.
Amongst those ‘to-do’ list items: A few images from the exhibition, and the curator’s essay.
And inside the gallery …
Our curator, Brenda Barry Byrne, has written an essay examining the use of memory in my work and Brenda Danbrook‘s. You can fine it online here, and a PDF can be accessed here: Elsewhere – Curator’s Essay – Jan 2015.
There’s also an interview with Brenda Danbrook and me in the Sherwood Park News. PDF of it here: Elsewhere – Sherwood Park News Article Jan 2015
This exhibition took the effort of many minds and hands to produce. My thanks to my co-exhibitor, Brenda Danbrook, and to Brenda Barry Byrne for comments, support, and great input and feedback, and to Strathcona County, for building such a beautiful gallery in which to show work!
My thanks and gratitude too to Kaylee Low from Gallery @ 501, Paddy Lamb, and Angele Karosi for their help in getting the work on the walls, and to Sara McKarney for helping me pack it and John Waldron for getting me and the work to the gallery!
Couldn’t have done it without you!
Many preparations afoot for the upcoming opening of Elsewhere on January 9 2015.
What it all amounts to is what happens ‘the rest of the time’ in the work of working on my practice.
And for the last several days, that has looked like:
400 square feet of ethafoam
two large rolls of bubble wrap
half a roll of cling wrapping
three and a half rolls of packing tape
20 feet of 12″ diameter concrete forms
48 square feet of foamcore
a large roll of heavy weight plastic sheet
cardboard … lots of corrugated cardboard
several large tubs
And this:
**Extra-special thanks to amazing artist Sara McKarney for her mad preparator-skills and help with some of the packing!
… and once all of that was done, it looked like this:
AND special thanks to John Waldron for the assistance with packing the truck and getting all of this, and me, to the gallery to unload!
So. That bit is done: work is packed and delivered to the gallery, and installation of the exhibition will begin January 5th. (ah, the glamourous life!)
In a bit of serendipity, this evening I came across a pertinent bit of writing concerning the whole subject of the artist’s life and practice. It’s a speech by artist Teresita Fernandez, and it hits so many salient points. Read excerpts (and hear it too) at the lovely Brain Pickings, here.
But first – before I get back to considering all of the relative successes and potential failures in this and other work to come, I can actually take a little bit of time and catch my breath, and reacquaint myself with the world outside my studio walls (like my kitchen … oh, ya … and the laundry).
I am very happy to announce that I will be exhibiting work with the talented Brenda Danbrook at Gallery @ 501 in Sherwood Park AB this coming January.
There will be a short informal artists’ talk at the opening reception.
I hope to see some of you there.
And until then … I’ll be in the studio doing last-minute preparation and packing the work!
A double negative = a positive?
A positive negative?
Feels like a Monday morning, before coffee!
I came across this bit of active erasure in Sherwood Park AB a while ago, outside Gallery@501.
This is perhaps a fitting follow-up to the idea of ‘fallow’ time. I think sometimes it’s too easy to shoot ourselves in the foot by buying into the notion that if we are not working all the time and at break-neck speed, then we are not being productive, that we have somehow ‘failed’. Quantity over quality.
Let’s pass on that, shall we?
Spent a lovely Saturday afternoon on the Art Bus Tour! It was great to see such a range of work in one afternoon – print media at SNAP, the Member’s Show and “Naked” Show (figurative works) at Harcourt House, then down the highway to Sherwood Park, and finally back to SNAP for some festivities …
The exhibition at Sherwood Park’s Gallery @ 501 was terrific … I attended the opening on Friday, but found myself eager to spend more time with the exhibition. My congrats to Sean Caulfield and Royden Mills for a beautiful, thought-provoking body of work. Well worth the trip!
The tour ended up at SNAP, and their Block Out Fundraiser … which is where the road repair equipment and printmaking come in!
The ingenious April Dean, Executive Director of SNAP, managed to secure a permit to block off a bit of Jasper Avenue so that some large-scale prints – 4′ x 8′ – could be inked and printed with an asphalt roller!
It was actually quite exciting to see this whole process from start to finish … there were some moments where I think most of us were holding our breath, hoping that nothing happened to the plates under all that weight. And of course, it’s always exciting to see a print being pulled – it’s the ‘great reveal’ that comes at the end of all the time and effort spent creating the plate -but it was especially so with such large work!
There was also great music, food, and drink at the event, and a sale and silent auction of some beautiful (and cheeky) print works … including “art critic panties” (which I hope I won)!
All in all, a great art-filled day!
I’m looking forward to all the other art events this summer, including the next tour, coming up in July! I don’t think there will be steam rollers involved (m)any of those, but who knows … might run into some road construction, which won’t be nearly as fun.
One of the many things I like about the creative community in Edmonton is that when people see a need for something, they make it happen.
This event is a perfect example of that ‘make it happen’ attitude: an Art Bus Tour!
Harcourt House is coordinating the booking of seats for this event, and as you can see from the poster above, the tour will take participants to the exhibitions at Harcourt House, SNAP, and Gallery@ 501 in Sherwood Park.
Harcourt House will have its annual Member’s Show up, in celebration of the Centre’s 25th year of operations:
More information on Kinetic can be found HERE.
Gallery at 501 will have a brand new exhibition of work from Sean Caulfield and Royden Mills:
AND … the tour will finish up at SNAP, and their Block Party fundraising event:
More info on the event at SNAP can be found HERE.
I think this is a great idea – we’ve got some great exhibition spaces in the Edmonton Region, but it’s tough for people to get to all the galleries without a car (insert my plug for an extensive regional train or light rail transit system here!!).
SO … come get on the ART BUS! Hope to see you there!
