Paper Cut Nut

Recently an interest has been sparked to search for paper cut artists. There are so many out there who do bloody amazing things with just paper.
In the same realm of paper cut artists are diorama artists and I am really happy to know that there are people out there who have the patience to make pieces of paper into art without paint, or other additions(ok maybe a little glue...)
Here is a great blog post on flavorwire with 10 fabulus paper cut artists: http://flavorwire.com/229698/10-amazing-cut-paper-diorama-artists#10

Also webdesignerdepot.com has a great list of "100 Extraordinary Examples of Paper Cut Art," which is where the above images came from.

A photograph I took was selected for Winnipeg’s first Timeraiser event! Timeraiser is an event that has people bid on art using volunteer hours instead of money. It first buys art from selected artists who apply, then the event is a little like a job fair, only with volunteer opportunities, and future volunteers put a silent bid on a piece of art, and the winner who bids the most volunteer hours gets to go home with that artwork. Timerasier events have occured accross the country for a number of years in most major Canadian Cities. This year's Winnipeg event is taking place at the West End Cultural Centre on May 6th.

Check out a video for it here:
http://timeraiser.ca/en/how_it_works

Cabin Collage

This past weekend I went out to the whiteshell to a friend's cabin. We did all the normal fun cabin stuff that you can do in winter-went snowshoing, and skating, hottubbing, and we also did some collaging! It turns out that Keira has been hiding her collage talents from me all these years. Happily we sat in her sunroom cutting, gluing, drawing, and sewing things together. That's where I made the above image. Keira has a lovely collection of fabric scraps that she shared with us. It's amazing how someone elses' fabric scraps are so much more appealing than the ones that I own, because hers are unfamiliar to me. Thanks go to Keira for the lovely weekend, and the collage party!

Hello Dear.

#63 Hello Dear.


I'm in a big deer phase right now. This one was made with markers, wash, watercolours and ink.

Image-a-Day...

#47 Impatient Monsters - Made with Markers and wash, and pen and ink.


#50 Green Hand - Made with Markers and water wash, with pen and ink.


#51 Freedom - Lino Cut print

I went to an art education workshop on Friday, and made this lino cut print at Martha Street Studios. Martha Street Studios is a printmaking studio that exists as a gallery, studio, and place for community members to make use of it's facilities - they run workshops regularly for adults and also have high school programming and programs for youths. It was nice to finally see this place, because I've been eyeing workshops with them for a while.

Art-a-Day...

I've still been progressing with my art-a-day project. It does take some stamina and devotion to maintain an image a day, but so far am really enjoying it.

#38 Rain Protection


#45 Untitled

Winnipeg Centre Vineyard Craft Sale

Once again this year I am a part of the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard Craft Sale coming up on Saturday, November 27.
There was an amazing turnout of people last year, which was great for many reasons- because it is a fundraiser for a Women's co-op in Nepal, and for vendors it was a really great day with a lot of interested customers. There were loads of fantastic vendors last year selling art, hats, jewelery, and many other hand-made items. I only participate in few craft shows all year, and this is one I'm happy to be a part of. There is a new website this year which will be up and running by this Friday. www.vineyardcraftsale.com

Image a Day Week 3

Image a Day # 16


Image a day #17 Merthings.

Just in case the text is hard to read, it says, "The merthings lived at the bottom of the ocean and angered easily at the mention of their more beautiful cousins, the mermaids."

Images-a-Day Week 2

Here is a little glimpse into my progress with my image-a-day project. A few of these images are doubling for the image-a-day personal challenge as well as the Sketchbook Project.

# 6


#7


#8


#9

ART PROJECT COMMITMENT!

Some changes are about to make their way through my life in the next two weeks: I begin teaching at a new school, and I am moving(not far away though, within Winnipeg limits). With the beginning of these new things, and the end of summer, I feel the need to make a change or a commitment to my artmaking. Since drawing in London, and feeling renewed about how and what I'm drawing pictures of, I decided that I don't want this newfound inspriation to fade. My solution to not getting lost in the working world and having art energy fade is that I am commiting to making AT LEAST ONE IMAGE A DAY. I have been inspired by art-a-day artists and their blogs such as Don Nace who makes a drawing a day as a type of journalling, Kal Barteski a Designer who sought making art as a form of creative renewal, and Somsara Rielly who, to mark her 35th year began a collage a day for a year(And recently finished in July!).

I have decided to set a few rules for myself for this commitment:
-Images can be drawn, painted, collaged, sewn, etc, however a photograph doesn't count unless I put some time into editing, or if it requires a major amount of arranging to take the photo.
-If I miss a day and don't make an image I can make up for it the next day, or can make a bunch of images one day and be off the hook for days following. Either way, by the end of the week I should still have 7 images, one for each day.
-Images must be at last 4 by 6 inches, but one large piece does not count towards multiple images.
-Images can be made anywhere, on anything.
-This commitment begins at 12 AM August 30, 2010 and ends at 12 AM August 30th 2011. In one year's time I should have accumulated 365 images. If I am unsuccessful in achieving this deadline extensions may be permitted, but with a penalty of one extra image for each week it is overdue.
-I can terminate this commitment in the event of: personal tragedies, loss of limb, very major commissions, or extreme hatred of being committed to an image-a-day.
-I do not need to blog each image made.
-Images can include any theme, HOWEVER at least one image a week is to report on a current event in the news.
-Images made for Illustration Friday count.
-Images should feel finished.
-Projects started before this commitment began can count towards a finished image, upon completion of the project.
-Images made prior to August 30th can not be counted, unless reworked and refinished.

Meathaus-Website

I Came across the website Meathaus, and like the selection of work I see so far. The Meathaus website describes itself as:
"A loosely defined collective of friends and associates contributing to irregular comics and art anthologies and an art-blog-website with a special emphasis on drawing, sketchbooks and comics."
Naturally this would be something that would interest me. There are interesting postings on artists, their work and selections ranging from art, animation, comics, photography, design, and other categories. There is a particular flavour to the selections. If it were music I would define it as indie, but it is art...so I'm not sure what word comes to mind-perhaps part of the appeal and what makes it feel fresh to me is the drawings are more masculine(which is a change from much of the work I come across on Etsy and many other design/decor blogs). Check it our for yourselves and let me know what you think of it.
http://meathaus.com/
Screen shot from the meathaus website.

Drawing

I started this drawing several months ago back in October I think, and only just finished it recently. Sometimes I go back through a box of drawings and will rediscover drawings that were never finished, or ideas that were abandoned. It's actually satisfying to rework them after a few months.

New Ink Drawings

At times the craft market was a little on the slow side today. The downside of that being that obviously sales were not as frequent as I would have liked. The plus side of it being slow is that I finished several drawings. The bird lady one is still waiting for a title, or some text to be added to it. Any suggestions?

Art/Craft Market at Portage Place Mall

I nearly forgot to post on my own blog about a craft show I'm in. For any Winnipeggers out there, come out to Portage Place Mall on Thurs and Saturday- May 7 and 8th. Starting at 11 until the late afternoon and from 12-5 on Saturday artisans and crafters will be selling hand made goods. I had my table today next to some gorgeous pottery, and there are some other great items out there.

Here is a link to a good description of all sellers:
http://handmadeinmanitoba.blogspot.com/2010/04/next-week-is-portage-place-shopping.html

And, someone who bought something today made a post about me/my work!
http://downtownpeggy.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/craft-crazy/

Art School Getaway?

May first finds me sitting at home, comfortably in my pyjamas in the late afternoon on a Saturday drinking Dr. Pepper. Things completed today: spoke on the phone with my two best friends, and also my brother, completed an Illustration Friday image, read the paper, and contemplation about my summer plans. I have been thinking about the idea of taking a summer course somewhere far away for part of the summer. My research into art schools outside of Manitoba has me looking at such schools as the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Concordia University in Montreal, and I have even been delving into researching schools across the Atlantic in Europe.

Every time I think I'm finished with school, I always seem to go back.
Emily Carr is very appealing to me as a school because it has a good reputation for actually teaching technique, and after reviewing just the summer session courses that they offer, it makes me wish that I had done my undergrad there, instead of at the School of Art at the U of M. It's been a few years since I've spent any time in Vancouver, and think it would be a nice choice. However, the Vancouver lure isn't nearly as strong as the lure of Montreal or Europe(both places I have visited in the last two years, and have since wanted to go back!). Montreal has disappointed me in that Concordia University has already closed it's acceptance for summer session courses.

That leads me to my grand idea of taking off to LONDON, England for several weeks out of the summer. I was looking at a few different schools and found the University of the Arts in London which is an amalgamation of 5 different art and design colleges in the heart of London. Their short courses are a week long, and offer a great range of courses that has me wishing I had the time and resources to do another degree with with them. I was also trying to find some English speaking schools in either Paris or Spain, but could only find a few limited options that were well beyond my price range. Spain had great appeal to me because if I could improve my Spanish skills at the same time as my art making skills, I would be accomplishing quite the zealous summer goals(as well I have a certain affection for Spanish culture having spent months in both Guatemala and Mexico). London naturally has some attraction for me to visit because I've never spent any time there(other than a 5-hour layaway in Heathrow airport), and it has all the things a massive city should have to offer to a twenty-something, museum-hungry, architecture-enthused artist who likes walking. As well it is English speaking, which eliminates potential language frustration. I am about 80% decided about what I'm going to do, and want to submit an application soon to make sure I get into the course that I want.

These are my current thoughts anyways. I have learned about myself that I am open to suggestions, so if I come across another idea, I could persuade myself to adapt my plans.
I feel like I should note, perhaps for any naysayers out there who think to themselves, "But, doesn't Winnipeg offer any good courses during summer?" Well the answer is not really- I tried to sign up for two courses, through Red River College and The Winnipeg Art Gallery Studio and both were cancelled due to lack of interest. Also, I just like to travel.

Heart Flipping Map

I made these two images separately, several weeks apart, but decided they work together.
The flipping heart original is available on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelsandGhouls

Francesco Galle-Illustrator and Fine Artist

Reading an issue of Maison Neuve(A Canadian publication of arts, opinion and ideas) the illustration of artist Francesco Galle promted me to look up his work online. Some of his work is really nice. Naturally ink artists tend to lure me in(but not just any ink artists). At his online portfolio http://www.francescogalle.com there are two sections: one for Illustration work, and one for fine art. Several pieces that have a certain allure are his series done in ink and painted with expresso coffee-the idea of it is appealing enough, and is actually carried out in a way that has attractive lines, shapes and subtle brown blobs. Also his portrait series in his illustrations were drawings that I enjoyed looking at because of the ink lines that made up a unique portrait.
Screen shots above were taken from his website.

Don't Forget to Create

I have recently loosened the hold work has on me because I was offered a new position, and was able to reduce my hours from a full-time contract to a little less than full time. Not working full time is wonderful! Though at times I feel a little lazy. This drawing is a product of that time off, where in the back of my head if I'm slacking off I have this artist's conscience telling me that I should seize the time I have for art.

I put it up on etsy, I'm curious about how many hits it will get.

Ace Art's Winter Warmer

AceArt's annual winter warmer started today, and runs for the next two weeks until the 12th of December. Members were invited to submit works, so I entered two drawings in the show. I'm quite happy with both of them. I framed them in some decent frames that I found and I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out matted and framed. The winter warmer is usually a good show because it always has an assortment of items and for me I find it interesting seeing how other people price their work and which items sell. The opening was today, but I have been slowing down at posting because I recently moved and don't have my internet installed yet(But soon! Dec 1st the installation guy is coming).

The aceart Winter Warmer 2009

show and sale continues December 1-December 12

during gallery hours 12-5pm, Tuesday-Saturday

AceArt is in Winnipeg located on the 2nd floor of 290 McDermot.

Deviant Art- Why Not?

I started up a Deviant art account. I mainly wanted to just check it out and see how I like it. I decided to post photos, instead of artwork. I have a lot of photographs, many of them I love, but have too many really to do anything with other than post on facebook. So I'm going to try out Deviant art, and am considering an etsy photography shop, though I am not that great at promoting my original shop, and I imagine I'd be even worse at promoting more than one.
Here it is, I still have to upload more photos.
www.juliamark.deviantart.com