I purchased art by Opie Oppenheim

The Native Art Gallery that I once managed has announced that it is closing its doors. I was sad to hear this after all the work I did there. Well, as most closing businesses do, the gallery is having a 50% off sale. I went in to get a little momento and came back with this print by Opie Oppenheim. Opie came in the gallery last spring and it was a pleasure meeting him. He is very funny and that is reflected in his work. This piece has a set of numbers in the top, left hand corner. Many people have speculated on what those numbers represent. It was suggested that they are a salmon count from the year the print was made. So I asked Opie what the numbers were for. "Oh, that's my bowling average." he says. Apparently this piece was never intended for reproduction, it was a scrap, a 'work in progress', but he loved the way the drawing and the casual 'chicken scratch' interacted so he had prints made. I now have this unintentional art hanging in my house. I am sad that there will no longer be a place where memories like this can be made.

unidentified hairball

Yep, just as the title says. My big kid and I drove past this on the streets of PG today. And no, it is not someones *Fluffy*, or someones *Rover*, we checked that. It's just a big ole wad of hair in the middle of the street.

Why is this dog so fat?

Maybe it is because for the last 8 months he has arrived at the Middle School exactly at 1pm each weekday. He knows that if he times it right, there will be dozens of food goodies littering the school grounds, and he's no dummy! If he arrives as the bell rings, that means the kids will all go back inside that grey building and he can eat in peace. Oh his poor arteries!

missing!

I heard through friends on Friday that 2 of my drawings that are currently on tour with the Artfest Show in Northern BC have gone missing.(see my original post Thursday, April 26, 2007). I had a 3 drawings, about 2.5 ft high and 1.5 ft wide that were a set. Apparently the Gallery at MacKenzie did not receive all three pieces, only one. They hung the one piece. When I heard this I had several questions. 1. How could the gallery not see that there were 2 pieces missing when all 3 pieces are shown in the program for the show, which they would have, and each piece is labeled 1 of 3, 2 of 3, etc? And... if they did notice the pieces were missing, didn't they feel that this was something to be alarmed about and that it warrented a call to the show organizer or even the last gallery that had the show to inquire about the missing pieces? As far as I know, none of this has happened. It took an alert person who was viewing the show to notice that these were missing and discuss it with another artist who just happened to be a friend of mine. Yes, this is how I found out that my pieces are missing. I have been wringing my hands as the call I placed to the show organizer will not be answered until Tuesday, when he is back in his gallery. I will keep you posted on the developments.

it all started with a leak

And I don't mean the slang term for leak, although the two are somewhat related. The toilet that is right above my art studio in the house has had a very slow leak. The dad-guy has spent many hours replacing seals and flooring only to have the leak increase. And again my artwork has been baptized in am amonia-smelling liquid. So, the dad-guy lifted up the porcelain throne and began to replace the flooring. This time, however, we no long have extra linoleum to redo the floor. So we (innocently) went to a local flooring place to look at some small roll end stuff. But then, we thought, if we replace the bathroom flooring, the kitchen won't match it, and we might as well do the hallway too as the carpet is a bad idea there... and while we are on the topic of carpet, the livingroom carpet will not match the new lino...

I know Sirdar and wife of Sirdar can relate!

The dad-guy's day

It is a special day for all of you who are a father to some one. They look up to you, they model on your behavior, and they love you. Above are two drawings of Kevin, the dad-guy in this family. I did the top drawing in 1997 and the bottom drawing today. He wasn't very cooperative today. He kept sticking out his tongue and making faces, so the chin area is not as accurate as I would have liked. None the less, here is my tribute to the man who spends so much time parenting our kids with love.

Pine Beetle Art

I had the surprise of being interviewed by CBC Radio for the Daybreak North show on Friday, June 1! It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I was setting up my installation of boxes for the Red & Blue Pine Beetle Art show in Vanderhoof and CBC was there. You can listen to the clip at the Daybreak North website up until Friday, June 8th. Take the link above and scroll down to June 1st. The clip starts out, "Like a lot of the north, the road to Saik'uz is thick with dead, red pine trees but many northern artists have found inspiration amidst the devastation." You must have Real Player to hear it.

published...at last!

No, not me, my daughter. Here is her version of a violent storm over a castle. It appeared in the PG Citizen daily newspaper. It's never too early to start your career in art!

you wouldn't!

Friday turned out to be very interesting. I was relieved to know that I did not embarrass my 13 year old at his school on Career Day. Right after breakfast he gave me a serious look and said, "I hope you'll be good today." Of course I couldn't resist going through a mock presentation that started with a badly sung song and some pathetic footwork,

"hi, I'm Alec's mom,
I'm a designer,
I can do it...."

"How's that?" I asked. "YOU WOULDN'T!" he said. There were 30 presenters and the 750 students could choose 4 sessions to attend. Although I wasn't as popular as the Coroner, the room was full for all 4 sessions. Not bad for someone who can't sing.

the words have stopped

I haven't written anything deep or thoughtful for a while. I just haven't been into it. It seems that when the imagery comes out on pages and canvases in bright splatters of colour, the words stop flowing. Perhaps they come out of the same tap. Funny how they don't mix. Physics says they should, after all, hot and cold water mix. Maybe it's like our water system at home, if the filter needs changing then everything else gets messed up.

things are happening...

I received a phone call tonight saying that 2 more of my art pieces have been juried into a show in Vanderhoof at the end of this month. Juried shows look great on a resume as your work must pass through a panel of individuals who evaluate it and decide if it is thematically and technically skillful enough to include in the show. I have a painting and an installation about pine beetle kill in this area which will be included. I further heard that the show received funding and may go on tour! Kevin and I just finished making a crate for my last set of work that is going on tour for a year. Wow, things are really happening. It is exciting, but a lot of work. I thought I was going to be gardening all summer, now I have two software programs to learn and a bunch of art to crate...hey, I asked for it :)

extreme ironing

more of this sport which I am really starting to enjoy. There is a shot of me doing a lamb's tale and one of the splits. It looks easy, but don't try this at home!

decisions...

are those choices that I am not good at making. I have an opportunity to teach an extra class at the College of New Caledonia this fall in the New Media Program, "Web I". The problem is that I am a bit rusty with my HTML. Oh, I could brush up over the summer you say, yes, that is true, but then I also had other projects in the making for the summer. It would be good for me to do this because I would use the creation of my own website as the guinea pig to refresh me. I would make more money in the fall, I would enjoy being with the students, but my shoulder would hurt from the extra use. That repetitive strain injury always returns if I spend too much time on the machine. What to do?

who am I?

trying to keep up with all the login information and passwords for my 'online presence' is making me crazy! Someone needs to come up with a better way. It is almost as bad as having a plastic card in your wallet for every store you shop at!

waste not...

One of the assignments I had the 'Design History' students work on this semester yielded some interesting results. They were to find and present a controversial art or Design piece. That is where I was introduced to the Cloaca Machine. Created by Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye, this machine can be fed like a human, it then produces waste like a human which Wim packages and sells investment shares in. Yep, if you are an art collector, you can invest in sh*t art'. What a comment on the whole pretentious art collecting scene! Apparently the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has one; and Wim has been successful in selling shares. You know what they say, 'do what you love and the money will come'.