Lantern Magic

On Sunday night Dec. 21st, we gathered in the local park with our lanterns to celebrate the return of the light.  At dusk, a lantern procession took place wandering the trails through the woods all the way to the duck pond where twenty floating lanterns awaited us. Some say more than 200 people came to join us to create a special and magical winter solstice evening.
We were so lucky that the weather collaborated with us for a dry evening!

Now it is time to pack up all the lanterns till the next time. They need to be put out of the way, their fragile surface tears easily and I have more than once poked a hole in them inadvertently. The big paper lanterns are hung on a wire below the ceiling in my studio, out of the way. Floating lanterns are not easy to store, they need to be left alone in a big space, which is not an option.  They are built with bamboo skewers inserted in an insulation foam base, the paper is glued on the bamboo sticks. By pulling out the sticks, the lantern remains intact, I thought of folding them but my friend Carole Reid had the brilliant idea of rolling them individually. Hourray, they take little space, are 100% safe and it's easy to do.

It has been a great project, my studio was the lantern making central for weeks, heaps of colourful tissue paper covered every inch of my tables, dozens of floating lanterns rested on every flat surface that could be found, everything was ready for the special event. I loved it, happy patterns and shapes everywhere in the anticipation of the lantern procession.

Now, it's gonna be nice to regain my space and get back to work on my last paintings.

Wishing you all a very happy and gentle holiday season and nothing short of the fulfillment of all your dreams in 2015.

Two months in images

Life was busy theses last two months, and here I am today making my first xmas card to send home with a box of goodies. Getting this box ready, looking as good as it can and out to the post office early is an annual marathon for me and the ritual that marks the beginning of the season.

I am going to review quickly the artistic endeavors that have taken place since my last post.

Project Liv'Art with Nanaimo Francophone Association and Conseil culturel et artistique francophone de la C.B.  Participants illustrated one of the twelve texts written for this provincial project.  Our text was a beautiful legend called  "La sirene des bois" (The Mermaid of the Woods). After a brief discussion on the text, the group agreed on the images that were going to illustrate the text the best, and everyone grabbed a pile of magazines and started the search.

Collaboratively, a collage took shape from a heap of images and shapes cut out or tore off from magazines.  Each one was making suggestions and the result is astounding, revealing the beauty of nature, honoring first nations and showing a mythic picture of the "Wood Mermaid".

La sirene des bois

My show at Le Centre in Vancouver is still on till mid-December. There was a great opening night with friends, family, art afficionados, baguette, french cheeses and wine!

My friend Andrea Georgiev recorded 13 songs she has written recently like a long love poem to life, her life. I helped her get the visuals for the cover and booklet. It was a return to graphic design for me, a nice challenge to render my friend's vision and lots of fun meeting with her regularly to complete the project. It is out in the world now and I listen to it over and over. '"Tangled Illusions".

I decided to follow my bliss and organize a lantern procession to celebrate the winter solstice on
Dec. 21th at a beautiful local park. My friend Carole Reid designed a colourful poster from a picture she took of our floating lanterns. Lantern making workshops are this Sunday at our local art supplies store Iron Oxide.

On Dec. 12, 13 and 14, Silversmith Maureen O'Connor opens her studio to four other artists. I am one of them! Here's the invitation I designed for the event.

Enjoy the season of lights wherever you are. I love to walk at night in my neighborhood and relish in the brightly lit set ups some houses offer, the more the merrier. Have you put up your lights yet?

Artists's Studios - Work in progress - Creativity Workshops

I like to visit artists' studios, spaces where creative activities happen are so inspiring.  It's always a pleasure to discover older pieces and witness the works in progress lying around. I particularly like to observe the general bric-a-brac of treasures piling up in corners.  Some studios have little altars to their muses, others have collections of colourful pieces of glass.  My friend Carole Reid has a collection of tug boats tags that she has found on her walks along the beaches, she has made little stilt houses with them previously,  this time she might turn this collection into 2 coffee tables.  What a beautiful idea! Tug boats are part of Carole's heritage, three generations of men in her family have spent their lives on them.

Carole's studio has bright light and is quite orderly, plus there is a large storage space to house her paintings and canvasses.  I also found 4 life size torsos tucked away, waiting  to be part of a future installation?  Lets hope so, Carole has a gift to create evocative installations, a very unique way to tell a story.

The dynamic duo Titia Jetten and Robert Plante opened up their studio to the public last week end.  Big beautiful portraits, sweet bugs lounging on sheets of music, photographs and their famous illustrated cards. Big double studios filled with creative projects, colourful and inventive.  I was fascinated by a series of bold shapes printed in red and black on the pages of a book.  Next time I visit them I'll take pictures of these little gems to show you.

In my studio, two pieces are labouring away.  I am reworking Meanwhile in the Valley, simplifying it mostly, harmonizing the top part and bringing light into the cave.  Not quite done yet though, paintings have their own timing!

The other one is a 36" x 60" painting called Rice Field.  The pink at the bottom is too strong, I am thinking of muting it in shades of ocher yellow and orange.

I will be offering creativity workshops in November and early December.  Here's a draft of the postcard in the making.

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More next time on the development of the workshops, in the meanwhile have a fulfilling week!

Afternoon in the Studio

An afternoon in the studio or better a Sunday afternoon in the studio. The weather was softly warm, with light rain and grey sky. The studio had become an art gallery again and I was eager to see everyone and show my new work. My friend Gretchen and her daughter Ana took great care of the guests.  There was white wine sangria with basil leaves served with preserved lemon and parmesan biscottis, I am still experimenting with that recipe, it needs a little herbs to bring the tangy taste of lemons to fullness, someone mentioned thyme, I’ll try that next time.  Add to all this a nice mix of guests and we have a perfect summer afternoon!

I called it The Delicious Series,  it’s my idea of a delicious afternoon!   

  The studio was filled with friends, artists and visitors giving me feedback on my work, enjoying each other's company, laughing, and drawing ephemeral master pieces on the Buddha board. 

Ephemeral Art by Rob Plante - photo by Titia

Talking art - Photos by Kerstin Bolseng and Carole Reid

It’s gonna happen again at the end of September to celebrate the change of the season.  As for now, Summer has officially begun, the sun will be here soon!! I am spending the month of July in Quebec visiting with my maman, family and friends and catching up on the art scene in Montreal.
I am looking forward to walk the streets at night from one stage to the other at the Jazz Festival! Cheers to you all for a Delicious Summer!

DRIFT + new projects = life goes on

DRIFT party on Friday night was a great event with live music, people every where, laughter, smiles ole! There was a festive ambiance all week end. Thanks to Mariko and her team for organizing a successful art event and bringing tons of new people to the gallery.  A really energizing time!

 

In the fall, I wrote proposals for three interesting projects and they all came through, yeah!

The first one is 'Journey to Inclusion' with the multicultural society.  This project explores the steps and the vision toward accepting and embracing diversity to create an inclusive society.

Five local artists are paired with five community members who are experiencing discrimination in their daily lives.  My teammate is a beautiful young Muslim mother, her presence is clear and grounded, her voice is soft, yet strong.  She wears a scarf and gets stared at, growled at and disrecpected in many ways daily.

I record her story and together we create a picture of her experience on one side of a 2' x 4' panel, the other side will be our vision of an inclusive society.

The five teams will present our work at the Port Theatre on March 21st.  The paintings will be exhibited in the lobby windows for an extended period of time.  I'll keep you posted on this project as it unfolds.  Here are some pictures of our sketchbook so far.

The other two projects will take place in February and March 2013, you will find out more in the next few weeks.  I am very happy and excited to have such creative months carved out for me in the new year.  Life is good!

Tomorrow is Solstice, my friends and I are taking our lanterns to walk the labyrinth at the Bethlehem  Center in Nanaimo for a magical evening.  All are invited to join us from 7:00 to 8:30 at the Sheppard Hall on Arbot Road.

Wishing you all simple joys and magical gatherings during the holidays.

Great Company, Good Food, Light and Love!