Monday 16 November 2009

As Seen on Radio

One of many taken today

One of the biggest challenges as an artist is to get your name out there, and I registered for a course about how to do just that this fall. It's not that I haven't been doing some PR work (heck, I've done it for others!) before.

Sadly, the course was cancelled at the last minute and rescheduled for the weekend we spent in Vancouver, but my efforts have finally started to seriously pay off.

At the end of September, I did a live interview over at CJSW on their Tuesday show ArtsLink that was a lot of fun, and yesterday, the interview I taped last Thursday with Russell Bowers of Daybreak Alberta, the province-wide CBC Radio One weekend morning show ran (to hear the interview you can scroll down until you see pictures of me and the work.)

It's long (just shy of eleven minutes), but full of good questions (on Russell's part) and a lot of laughter on my behalf, but it does get the point across, I think.

I took in How to Make a Peacock Fly

Poster

and Virginia Woolf Knits



plus we discussed fall fashion

Tree 2, shot 1

and the three exhibits I'm currently showing in.

Trying to describe visual art on the radio is, at best, a challenge though. Pictures really do make a big difference.

As the sun goes down

Saturday 14 November 2009

Lest we forget....

Right place, right time.

Since I moved back to Calgary, Remembrance Day has usually been pretty grim, weather-wise: this year was a pleasant exception. While the temperature was a bit on the nippy side, it was sunny, and the breeze held off for the morning ceremony down at the cenotaph in Central Memorial Park here in Calgary.

We have three major ceremonies here: one inside at the Jubilee Auditorium, one outside at the Military Museums (that always attracts a huge crowd, estimated this year at 12,000), and the more intimate one at the cenotaph. Not being one for crowds at the best of times, and especially not being keen at stuffing myself into a building with a lot of germs, I made the obvious choice.

A wreath awaits

One thing that surprised me about the crowd was the number of children in attendance, like the Cubs and Scouts waiting to place their wreath

Learning early

and so many who gently placed their poppy on the cenotaph after the ceremony.

Sign of the trinity

Although there was no formal ceremony, a private donor provided the money to create 506 crosses, each labelled with the name, rank/unit, and date of death, of all the soldiers who called Calgary "home" but who were killed in action during the First and Second World Wars, Korea, and Afghanistan. It too was a busy place: the new normal since we entered the soi-disant "war on terrorism."

For much of my adult life, attendance at Remembrance Day ceremonies had been declining, but it is now becoming important (if not verging on popular) to pass on the stories of wars past.

Sadly, our species still feels the need to repeat them.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Swept away

Sand-swept

I'm not sure what I like doing the most when I visit Vancouver in the fall: walking along the beach or seeing the leaves turn colour. Perhaps it's living in Calgary that makes me enjoy these two, since we have neither, but I love to walk along the shoreline on the firm sand and see sights like the one above.

Backlight

When the weather got sunnier on Saturday, we headed up to Lighthouse Park and Point Atkinson -- the forest primeval and well-known harbour landmark together -- where we wandered among tall trees, said hi to the one and only slug we saw (shortly before s/he was snuffed out by a BMW that was allowed on the footpath), and inhaled the salty, humid air.

Two (three, if you count the slug) other things that Calgary doesn't have.

Time to howl

That being said, I'm not about to pack up and move (back) to the coast: once was enough, and as much fun as it is to visit, there's something about a waxing prairie moon at Hallowe'en that I just wouldn't want to give up.

aaaaa oooooooooooooooooooooh!

Morning glow

The flip side of that moon is fall sunrises here -- the right combination of clouds, low sun angle, and wind-stripped trees can be most amazing.

And when I haven't been out with my camera, I've been working away at my bench and reaping the rewards of recent works. horizon (below), currently at EPCOR Centre through November 23, is part of an online gallery show and was also juried into The Bonefolder, an international, peer-reviewed publication of bookbinding and book arts. Check out page 55.

Inside flags

In fact, it was such big a hit in Vancouver that the owner of the gallery that carries my work here (Arts on Atlantic) has asked me to edition it, which is how I'm spending my time at the bench (and some in front of the computer, setting it up to run multiple copies and tinkering a bit with the layout of the endpapers).

Photos of the edition of four will be up when they're complete.

Books for Sale

The shop is currently empty.