Book Launch Invite/Swoon's August Shows Sat August 4th 2-5pm

Here is the official invite for the book launch, which will be at Swoon - Fine Art, Antiques & Fashion, 1410 Hammonds Plains Road, Hammonds Plains NS.  Saturday August 4th, 2pm - 5pm.

 

This particular opening at Swoon should be one of Swoon's biggest ever! There are 4 shows opening for August:

Open Air - A juried group show with 60 "plein air" paintings by 30 artists 

Carvings - carved sculptural pieces by Ralph Pardy

Gemini and Beyond - abstract paintings by Anna Horsnell Wade

and 

Get Better - a collaborative show by SEVEN, a group consisting of one poet and 6 artists from the Annapolis Valley

If all that art makes you hungry for delicious local food or thirsty for good coffee/espresso, there is FINALLY a good restaurant/cafe right close Swoon.  Edible Matters just opened this week to rave reviews at 1345 Hammonds Plains Road! I can't wait to try it out!

What If Michelangelo Was A Telemarketer: my first book "proof"

This past friday I picked up the proof of "What If Michelangelo Was A Telemarketer" from Kwik Kopy.  I'm so excited!!  It just needs a few minor edits here and there, but by early next week I hope to have my first batch of printed copies ready for sale.  Jean Langley at Kwik Kopy Halifax is doing an awesome job of laying it out, anyone looking to self publish a 'chap book' style book should definitely check them out.  Altogether the book is 58 pages, so 14 sheets of paper and one sheet of glossy paper folded and stapled which is right near the limit of what their booklet maker is comfortable with.  Good to know, as I have rough drafts in my head for a few more similar rhyming illustrated storybooks already.

The book launch will be Saturday August 4th, 2 - 5pm at Swoon - Fine Art, Antiques & Fashion.  This should be a jolly party since it'll be right during the opening reception for Swoon's August shows.  I'll have copies of the book available for $10 each, an ebook version (.pdf) will be coming soon to gumroad.com for $5.

I decided to go with colour for the book covers, here they are:

front cover

back cover

I did a pile of research into "colour pychology" and bright yellow seemed to be the best fit for the cover colour.  "Dubious Press" is the brainchild of my writer/musician friend Michel Lejeune, currently of Toronto, who plans on having an entire "Dubious Media" label.  I suggested a fox for a logo so here it is, the first ever Dubious Press logo.  Like other logos, I'm sure it'll evolve over time! 

A Weekend With "The Opester"

Well I just had a great, action-packed weekend with my dear friend Helen Opie, whom Brendan (my husband) nicknamed "the Opester" before they even met; she doesn't mind and the nickname seems to suit her.

As well as an amazing artist Helen is a master gardener and has been extremely generous with advice as we're keen on growing as much food as possible.  Saturday March 31st Helen invited me to her home in Granville Ferry where she was explaining how to grow tomatoes from seeds.  She'll be co-gardening this year with her friends, Jeff and April as she figures there is plenty of space on her 1/3 acre lot to grow food for Helen as well as Jeff, April and their children.

Onion Seedlings in Helen's Kitchen

Strawbale Raised Beds

Helen had an assortment of tomato seeds and pepper seeds to plant, mostly from Hope Seeds.  I brought a few packs of seeds from Halifax Seed as well as a deep-root planting tray from Lee Valley Tools.  I didn't plant peppers as I've cut way back on my intake of nightshade plants; tomatoes are nightshades too but are too delicious and too much fun to grow.  

Seedling trays were planted with a couple of seeds per hole filled with wet soil, 3x the depth of the seed.  So for tomato seeds, which are small, they are just barely covered with soil.  The trays are then covered with plastic wrap (but only until they sprout) and my tray now sits in a sunny window, on a heating pad which I also got from Lee Valley.  Helen suggested I cut the front and top off a cardboard box and line it with tin foil, to reflect more sunlight onto the seeds.  I'm out of tinfoil right now but will try to remember to do this!

Helen and April planting pepper seeds

Helen also has the next show opening at Swoon, her paintings as well as paintings and sculptures by Christine Lavoie will be featured for April, with an opening Reception this coming Saturday from 2 - 5pm:

With Saturday being a gorgeous day and Helen having many neighbours and friends who don't go into the city often, she got the great idea to host a "preview of leaving attractions" from 2 - 4pm, and hung all her paintings on the streetside outside wall of her home.  When I arrived at Helen's place she had a long list of folks in the neighbourhood to call up to invite to her spontaneous art event:

Her outdoor show attracted many residents throughout the afternoon, who enjoyed the work very much, and appreciated the opportunity to view it!

Helen proudly holding her painting-hanging-hammer

Sneak Peak at Helen's show, minus a couple paintings

Helen's "Whalecome" sign, which suits her home very much!

 

Late Saturday afternoon we packed all her paintings into my car and I drove her back to my place where she spent Saturday and Sunday nights for a well-earned rest.  She also gave me some red worms so I can start my own worm compost bin, I'm excited about that.   I'm very pleased that she likes my new digs as much as I do, and on Sunday, after she dowsed to figure out where my septic tank and its access is, we walked around with my shovel to see how the soil is.   Fortunately the overgrown field in front of the house appears to have wonderful rich soil full of worms!  Much nicer soil than she suspected at first glance. Thank you, river. 

I think the area by the shed will be a fine spot for some fruit and nut trees, and perhaps some raised beds as well.  Helen suggested I get some silage plastic to place over the sod, black side up, so that it can start to rot the ground cover underneath.  Later in the summer I'll plant squash, tomatoes and other plants through evenly spaced holes in the plastic.  Sounds much easier than breaking up all the sod as it is! 

Home Sweet Home!

Lots to report this week as well!  Here is a pic from the front porch of our country home; I'm looking forward to maybe getting a few alpacas and/or sheep in this field. The north branch of the La Have is in the distance but I'll get better pics of the river later.

 

"Wise One" - earthenware 

 

 

Last Sunday I joined the Lunenburg Art Gallery which I'm quite excited about.  It was a random sort of occurrence, I had gone in there with an invite for Helen Opie's upcoming show at Swoon and met some really nice people there; it's a great spot and celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.   Members get to have a piece in the member's gallery each month, so this month I put in one of my favourite earthenware vases "Wise One - a tribute to Jack Sures" as well as some stoneware ornaments and figurines for the display case.

My mom who is back in Richmond BC, and very supportive of our wanting to get into gardening, mailed us about 50 clippings from her red currant, black currant and gooseberry bushes.  She's given me instruction on how to tend them, and I hope they will thrive.  My father passed away in 2007 at the age of 81, and my parents garden was a huge source of pride and enjoyment for them; their rows of currants being a highlight so it'd be nice to have some of those memories live on out here.  Here is a photo of the baby currants sunning themselves in my new studio, with one of Joanne Colman's "dreamcatcher birds" at the top left, there are more pots of clippings in front of the other window too:

I thought about building a studio on to the house but realized the house is plenty big for 2 people and using an upstairs bedroom as a studio will be just fine, especially since it has a view of the river.  The rest of the room is a disaster right now but hopefully the transformation of cluttered room into magnificent "dream studio" won't take too long! 

There is a good sized metal outbuilding that I hope to get wired up so that I can keep my kiln in there, and even glaze out there in the warmer months:  

The last bit of exciting news is that the new Nova Scotia Potters Guild website is now live, and the website committee has been populating the members area with information about potters as they arrive.  I think it looks awesome and will be a great resource for the province's potters and pottery fans alike!

Lots of Catching Up To Do!

It's been a while since my last post but I plan on starting to make regular updates to my blog from now on!  2011 until now was such a busy time! June 26th I got married to my lovely husband, my "Petting Zoo" show at Swoon was shortly after.  Once it ended I had fun putting the animals out on the lawn and veranda for the perusal of the commuters of Hammonds Plains.  I think the chickens on the railing especially helped to draw in curious passers by who aren't quite sure what Swoon is all about.  

Later in the year I really indulged my love of creating art installations became excited about creating a large Halloween display for the front of Swoon.  This consisted of a 9' tall grim reaper and pet wolf, giant snake with a baby in its tummy, several tombstones, 5 giant bats and a black cat.  It made for a VERY messy house for about 6 weeks.  Better late than never, here a few pics:

These props were all made out of papier mache, painted with acrylic indoor/outdoor paint so they weathered the elements fairly well for the 2 weeks they were out.  October was a busy month at Swoon, with the October show opening at the beginning of the month, "The Other Side" Swoon's first group Halloween show, and a costume ball with the very swingin' Jazzette.

Right after Halloween I set to work on some papier mache Christmas tree ornaments which I used to call "Merry Creatures".  I hadn't made any since my last Christmas in Regina (2007) so it was a pleasure to make these guys again... little papier mache animals with Santa Claus hats.  I made over a hundred and fifty during my 3 years in Regina.  Saturday November 19th was Swoon's first annual "One of a Kind Christmas Tree Ornament Show and Sale".   It's off to a great start, and we think it will grow into a popular annual event!

December brought "Christmas Presence II" which is Swoon's second annual pottery show and sale, timed just right for people who missed out on the area's various craft fairs, and to provide potters a venue where they can just drop off their work and let Brandt work his talent for display.  this year in addition to ceramic ornaments and small ceramic figurines, I have begun making larger figurines, that are more the size of my "Pulp Creatures".  It's been fun to translate some of my favourite papier mache designs into clay.  Here are pics of a few, available at Swoon.  (the bunny is my favourite!)

Right after Christmas it was time to start packing and moving!  What a lot of work!  We moved out of my Halifax home on Westerwald Street, to our country home in Upper Northfield, which is near New Germany.  It is so peaceful and beautiful out here I can't wait to get my studio set up and get back to creating, and to try my hand at gardening and raising a few animals.  I'm hoping having Polish farmers for parents will have rubbed off on me somehow, despite having grown up in the suburbs...  

Petting Zoo

Here are some images from "Petting Zoo", a show of my papier mache animals at Swoon - Fine Art, Antiques & Fashion   July 9th - July 31st, 2011.  The idea was to turn the red room of Swoon into an indoor petting zoo, which included a couple animals you might not normally see at one...

Alpaca

Chickens

Cobra and chicks

Gila Monster

Duck and ducklings

Pygmy Goats

Pig

Lamb and Sheep

More pics, as well as dimensions and prices can be viewed at Swoon's website!

Pulp Creatures Headed to Regina

I just finished a batch of Pulp Creatures which I'll soon be posting to the Paper Umbrella in the Cathedral area of Regina, SK.  I began making papier mache animals for sale in 2005 when I lived down the street from Paper Umbrella; Brad and Theresa have kindly sold hundreds of my creatures between 2005 and 2008; so I'm excited to post some back there now that I live in Halifax!  Here they are as a group in the main gallery at Swoon in Hammonds Plains Nova Scotia:

Update:  It's March 30th and I just posted the creatures!  I hope they make it to Regina safely!

This batch has:

Giraffe,

Buffalo (2)

Rabbits (3)

Cow

Sheep

Ladybugs (2)

Snails (2)

Goat,

Pronghorn,

"Lovestruck" Birds (3)

"Lovestruck" Bear

"Lovestruck" Duck

Duckling

And Helen, the big white Duck, named after my dear friend Helen Opie! this duck reminds me of her, in a very good way!