Introducing Sherlock

In January I got a tiny little dog from the pet shelter Hull's Haven. Despite specializing in Border Collies this rescue shelter takes in small dogs as well and I found Sherlock while in foster care. He is part chihuahua, and probably part miniature pincher. Most of the time he is a little sweetheart because he loves to cuddle, and fits perfectly on my lap, which is where he is resting right now as I write this. Sometimes he can be a little monkey, and show some neediness and co-dependency, but overall he is a fantastic little dog, and I can barely remember how boring and bland my house was before I got him.

This one is a self-portrait.

When Pride rears its ugly head...

A drawing inspired by a sermon at Riverwood Church by Wayne Seimens.

Chair Lair

Able wholesale is this somewhat eccentric used goods and Liquidation store on Notre Dame Avenue in Winnipeg, except it's not the cool kind of eccentric like Ragpickers, or that antique store in Osborne Village. It's more like the eccentric-eerie kind of store. I drive past it everyday, and one day in summer I couldn't suppress my curiosity anymore: I entered this three story building mish-mash of furniture, housewares, industrial kitchen supplies and other miscellaneous products. As I was walking through this place it just kept on going and I didn't know what I was going to find next. There was at least one flickering florescent light, and in the back part of the industrial kitchen gear there were some guys moving furniture around. To be honest I felt a lot like I shouldn't be in there, like this is the kind of place that isn't so great for a 20-something to be by herself (no-one in there was creepy or acted weird, it was just the general vibe my intuition was giving me). Nevertheless, I love a good bargain, and can't resist the idea of turning something ugly or almost-good into something fabulous. I happened to find an old vintage desk chair that looks a lot like something that Ikea would mimic nowadays. I got the chair for the fair price of 20 dollars, took it home and refinished it. Here are my visuals from that experience.

Highlights

There are times when all those end of the year reflections are annoying to me when I see them in the paper, or on TV, but I put together a set of highlights of my last year. I just had my 29th birthday on the second, so the timing of the new year and my birthday makes it easier for year-long resolutions and contemplations.

'Lovejoy' survives encounter with the sun

An Illustration for an article about a comet that flew into the sun, lost it's tail, but kept going... From the Winnipeg Free Press, Weekend Edition.

Gadhafi Dies, Libya is liberated...

"Libya's new leaders to declare liberation Sunday amid questions over Gadhafi's killing"
Image # 2 from my new challenge, to create an image a week based on a news article. This one is from the Winnipeg Free Press.

Operation: Headline Deadline

"Zombies Hurt in Film Set Accident"

With my image a day challenge behind me I decided to begin a new challenge for myself: to complete a piece of art based on a weekly news heading of my choice. I decided to just keep the challenge well within reason and so that I would try to focus my attention on one piece for longer. The image a day for a year was actually really great and I still sort of have that mentality that I need to be sketching every day, but it's a bit of relief to know that if I don't draw I'm not disappointing myself, and also won't have as much to catch up on if I slack a little. I found the image a day challenge really great to stimulating spontaneity, creativity and great ideas. It would really help to loosen me up and also helped me to be more ok with a drawing that was simple. It also made me appreciate sketchbooks so much more. With my new idea challenge I want to push myself a little more stylistically and also technically.
The rules for my new project are as follows(it's fairly straightforward, but I like making clear guidelines for myself):

I will take any news headline and illustrate it any way I choose, except if it has already been illustrated.
I must post weekly, and complete each drawing by Sunday night.
The starting week is the week of Oct 10th to Oct 16th.
I am allowed to make more than one image per week which can count towards future weeks.
In the event of disaster, death, a large commission, moving house, or major illness I can excuse myself from image making without penalty(in my image a day project I stated a clause that if I took longer than the time frame to complete it, I got a one week extension with an extra image tacked onto the pile). Yeah, ok I know that it's a bit silly to make deals with oneself, but that's the only way it's gonna get done, set a definite goal!
I will complete 52 images.


This week's Headline is from BBC News: "Zombies Hurt in Film Set Accident" (just an FYI, on the linking page the headline was shortened to this, but the full headline reads "Zombies hurt in Resident Evil Film set Accident" In Toronto some zombie actors were hurt on the movie set and when the ambulance arrived, the paramedics initially thought the injuries were a lot worse because of all the zombie make-up. Read up on it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15268321

Draw, Cut, Paste, Draw

"I looked after her as long as I could see her, a tall, stooping figure in unfashionable clothes, walking slowly out of my sight, and out of my life forever."

"I am assured that after life there is death and after death a more enduring life in a happier world."
Here are a few collages from the past week. It's been a while since I sat down to make my own collages. The text from both are some tweaked lines from an Agatha Christie novel, and the rest of the images were also made from pages of that book. It's so satisfying the way old newsprint pages take ink...

Duet- Illustration Friday

Duet for Illustration Friday. I tried two versions. I'm on images number 193 and 194 for my year-long image a day project, with means that I'm actually a little more than halfway. All year I've been doing pretty good at not falling behind, but in recent weeks I have missed drawing for a bunch of days which leaves me almost three weeks worth of images behind. I'll have to push myself to catch up.

Toy-Illustration Friday

The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is Toy. It is a picture of my dog's stuffed toy.

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!

Refreshing Winds: Art vs Photo

I am happy to announce that two of my photographs have been accepted into the juried art Show Refreshing Winds which opens January 21st, and runs until March 5th! I submitted a several photographs to the show at the Mennonite Heritage Gallery, and was very excited to hear that two photos were accepted. The show coincides with a conference at the CMU campus with the theme Here in this Place.

Some black and white pictures I took in London this past summer were accepted to the show. I sometimes forget to mention on this blog that I am a photographer. I tend to separate photography from art in my mind, because the process of each is so different. I love both, and actually have this fear that I am a better photographer than artist. Or rather what I mean by that is that I think my photographs can sometimes be more accepted than my artwork, and I kind of wish it were the other way around. I sort of happened into photography by accident. I was hired to teach a photography class before I had ever been a photography student, and thus spent one summer in a photo crash course covering black and white, colour processing, and digital photography. Thankfully I ended up loving it, but this is a recent development for me. I honestly sometimes forget to associate photography with myself because it's like it hasn't made it's way into my identity yet. Art though; painting and drawing has always been a part of my identity, that's why I still think of taking photographs as second fiddle to painting and drawing.

For the MHC exhibit artists were invited to submit works using the following statement as a guide:
“Our goal is to recognize the importance of context and culture in our worship, to explore and understand how culture impacts us, what culture means in our theology and how worship is embodied in location.”
The photos fit this theme more easily than any recent paintings, and I am really happy to have somewhere to display them especially within the context of the show.
I will include more details about the show closer to the date.

On another note, December finds me falling behind on my image-a-day project. I have the next two weeks off, so I'm hoping to do some much needed catching up on creating.

Sneaky-Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday Image Sneaky.

Ink Drawing

This one is part of character development for my Illustration class.

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."

Illustration Friday-Linked

Barely getting it in before the next topic is announced, another Illustration Friday image. I accidentally added one line too many to her face, making her look a little unhappier than I wanted, but it is at least fitting with the topic (unlike my last IF piece...).

Courage is Very Important

Dog drawing started months and months ago, but finished last week. Original is for sale on Etsy here.

Illustration Friday-Propagate

Ink drawing done for the topic Propagate.
Taken from my macbook's thesaurus:
propagate
verb
1 an easy plant to propagate breed, grow, cultivate.
2 these shrubs propagate easily reproduce, multiply, proliferate, increase, spread, self-seed, self-sow.
3 they propagated socialist ideas spread, disseminate, communicate, make known, promulgate, circulate, broadcast, publicize, proclaim, preach, promote; literary bruit abroad.

For other propagation entries check out IlllustrationFriday.com

Also available on etsy, click here.

Flying Heart

I signed up to contribute to the website IllustrationFriday.com. It invites artists to submit illustrations based on a weekly topic. I like the idea of a larger artist community getting a bunch of drawings together for discussion and networking. So here goes, The topic this week is Renewal. This drawing didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, the wings are bit wonky, I should have used a reference picture when drawing it. But there are elements that I love about this drawing. Hopefully someone else also enjoys it. It was one of those "I should be sleeping but instead I'm drawing" drawings.

Ink Work

This was drawn about a month and a half ago. I don't have much to say about it really. It was drawn in ink. I considered adding another layer into the background, but I thought that would just make it too busy.