Sure, you've already got something to do for Halloween... but what are you going to do when the little trick-or-treaters have come and gone, but the party won't start 'til later? Why not join me and many more local artists and illustrators at Forsya Boutique and Gallery for the opening of "Creep", a group show of spooky, quirky works?! Participants include Ryan Heshka and Liane Varnam.

(If you visited the Interurban show in which I took part a while back, you will recognize the two lil' buddies I've got in this show)

I am officially a teacher-on-call, but I am not getting called much. Rather than spending my days trying to figure out how to pay rent, I have been spending my days in the studio finishing this commission. It's for my old friend Tara and I'm really hoping she likes it. It's titled Linden, and it's 24 x 36". I tried to avoid overworking the piece and to make the most of the texture of the canvas, though I'm not sure that shows up much in the photos.

Josh bought us tickets to Thao Nguyen at the Biltmore tonight, and I'm excited to hear more of her music since I've based my enjoyment of her music on the one song we have. Yay for a little adventure!

This blogger turned 30 a few days ago and got spoiled by lots o' loved ones. In particular, my darling Joshy got me a lovely present. I've mentioned James Jean before, since I feel moved and profoundly jealous whenever I see his work, and Josh got me Jean's Kindling collection of prints. Click the link to his site for a tour of the set, under the "Bound" heading.

All the images are beautiful, and this is one of my favourites...


This guy kills me... born the same year as me and he's already accomplished more than I dream of. Can't tell if that means I should dream bigger or give up!

Looking for feedback on this one, so embrace the freedom of the interweb and leave a comment!

At an ECUAD show about a year ago, I purchased a handmade diorama clock. Unfortunately, I didn't write down who made it, gave it as a gift, and now can't acknowledge his/her great idea. Whoever you are - great idea!

Anywho... I often thought it would be fun to try and make one too. Now that I have all the paperwork, but none of the actual work, of teaching, the time seemed right to give the clock a try. I have also been really interested in local birds lately, so I started with tonnes of chickadees (which are all over the yard, all the time, going "bzee bzee bzee"):


I picked up the clock parts, had a frame left over from the two dioramas I made for the Interurban Gallery show way back when, and started measuring, planning, and overthinking. After much fussing and fun, here's the finished clock:



And the clock in it's natural habitat with a couple drawings by Harley Smart:


So what do you think? It ended up being quite fun to make and I'd like to make some more. There's so much potential with dioramas! Is this something you could see people buying if I made a bunch?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think...

It's three weeks 'til something is a habit, right?

Second week of attending life drawing at Blim, and I enjoyed this week more than the last. The model was more relaxed and chose some very interesting poses, in part because he didn't seem worried about whether he looked good or not, just whether the poses would be interesting to draw. I also felt more relaxed and comfortable experimenting with approaches. The drawings are not a wild departure, but I decided to involve some coloured chalk pastels. I usually steer away from messy media, so it was fun to get dirty (insert double entendre here). The host plays great music for drawing as well. Take a look at the sketches, some are stronger than others, and (as always) click if you'd like to see a bigger version.




Did you notice the classy touch of having my shadow visible on the sketch. Very professional, no?

I finally dragged my big ol' pad of newsprint and my lazy bee-hind to Blim for drop-in life drawing. It's been a very long time since I drew a naked stranger for a couple hours. I forgot how intense and exhausting it is! We did 10 1-minute poses, 10 2-minute poses, 4 5-minute poses, 2 10-minutes, and 1 20-minute. The fast poses at the beginning feel like an exercise warm-up, with hand and arm swinging over the paper as fast as they can, to capture the basic gesture before the time runs out. I find it a very challenging and freeing exercise, since I tend to make such small, controlled drawings. I'm hoping to make a habit of attending.