Journal Experiment - Jan 15 to Jan 27

Wait? January? Yes ... because I'm posting these pages sequentially, and waiting till they ripen on the page, i.e. till I've had enough distance from them that I feel comfortable posting them. Today three more pages, when I was just getting the hang of doing them regularly. I'm creating them faster now, so the speed should increase as time passes. Or words to that effect. Here we go:

And the inevitable notes:
Page 1: Jan 15
~ Photo of Barbie feet from a zine I did on anatomy. When I was a child I thought you'd know you were "grown up" when your feet took on this shape. Yep, pretty naive.
~ Page from Scavenger by Seth Fitts, who I discovered at the Sketchbook Project when it was on tour in Vancouver one year. I can't tell you how happy I am when looking at his work. Well, I could, but it might be a little awkward for both of us. You can find more of his amazing work here as well. He's up there with Shaun Tan, Nick Bantock and Joseph Cornell in my own personal artist/star rating system.
~ Child's drawing? No idea whose... came to me in some stuff to use in collage. Probably from my friend Rose who brings me little delights to add to my journals. She knows me so well.

Page 2: Jan 19
~ Random jottings, all me I'm afraid.
~ Save the Humans photo clipped from the newspaper. Taken at the BC Parliament building in Victoria. No idea when ... or by who ... just saved the photo.
~ Rules for Public Library (circa 1930's?) ... another gem from Rose.

Page 3: Jan 23-27
~ 7 books for Downtown Abbey addicts. Heard on the radio, probably CBC. I'd already read The Buccaneers (suggested by Mr. B's Mum years ago and I loved it). Since I enjoy Fay Weldon, I think Habits of the House will be the next likely read.
~ Child Motion Development from a Russian Health Encyclopedia I acquired somewhere. I particularly love Figure 11 (bottom right corner), although I can't say why.
~ Knitted polar bear sweater which is unraveling ... as seen in the building I work in as a GIANT poster, so I went to the Admin office and asked if they had it as a smaller format, which they did. I thought it was the perfect marriage of concepts ... wearing a sweater instead of turning up the furnace, which uses energy which creates global warming which means the ice floes the polar bears depend on are melting/unraveling ... genius. Wish I'd thought of it (or a similarly clever concept).
~ DIY reusable gelli plate ... if you are a gelli plate person and haven't looked at Linda Germain's Printmaking Without a Press blog, you really should. I'm just sayin'.
~ Cube books in a box ... an idea in progress. I mention a class with Roxanne Padgett, one of the top three teachers I ever had at Artfest (which I *still* miss!). She's AMAZING (yes, I'm shouting that). Go look at her stuff here.

It occurs to me it's no bad thing that I'm annotating my journal with online notes here ... like having my actual journal be hyperlinked and searchable for myself. Such a good idea ... so glad I thought of it.

More gelli fun - zine covers + envelopes ...

Finally had some time this afternoon to sit down with my Gelli Arts plate again. My goal today was to make some bases for zine covers and goodie envelopes for an upcoming zine swap. Although it might look like it, I didn't actually approach my colour choices in any kind of organized way. I just arranged them this way for the photograph afterwards.

I usually use a variety of paints, but these ones were mostly made with higher quality paints so I could get good "pick up" when pulling up residue paint off the plate. On the higher end, some colours were Golden, as well as Kroma (a local paint company in Vancouver). Kroma tends to be very buttery and lovely to work with. I love their pigment quality and how they blend. Slightly down the economic scale, there is some Pebeo and Amsterdam acrylics. Still good pigment, but not as good on the pick up. My new favourite colour is still Titanium White - the zine cover on the right-hand end must have about eight layers of uglier and uglier paint experiments - all saved by cross-texturing wavy lines in white. Fabulous.

For this gelli plate session I used some of my favourite "pattern makers" : 12x12 stencils from The Crafters Workshop, two pieces of wavy corrugated paper (not sure of the name or the source ... still trying to track down more of this stuff!) as well just plain old dragging a triangle graining tool through the wet paint.

I only foresee one problem with these zine covers ... I have to give them away in the swap. I wish I didn't fall in love with all the stuff that comes off the Gelli ... it would make life easier when it comes time to hand things over, even when I'm getting a bona fide art journal zine from some pretty amazing artists in exchange. Sigh.

Caran d'Ache, Watercolours and Other Stuff ...

In my last post I mentioned that I'd discovered a new way to use Caran d'Ache water-soluble crayons as watercolours, so I thought while I'm at it, I might as well show you my *new* portable art kit that I've put together. As my friends have heard me say (perhaps a little too often?), if I'd known how much I was going to love these crayons I would've bought the big box. I bought a set of 30 while at Artfest a few years back, and even though they were on sale, and the store was giving Artfest attendees a further discount, I still hesitated. It's not that I didn't think they were worth it, but I already have way too many art supplies that "other people love" only to find that I can't make them do interesting things in my hands. My problem, not theirs. Anywho ...

For the first three years of their lives, my Caran d'Ache sat in a neatly spectrumized row in their original tin, and then one day I needed to do a background, and the most efficient way to do it was by breaking a crayon  (gasp!) and using it on its side. I paused, thought about it, and then, ceremoniously, broke my first crayon. And then I broke them all, one after one. And I lived. I know that might sound weird, but I'm funny about keeping things pristine in the package, just in case, oh I don't know, I get audited by the Art Police or something (I didn't say it was logical). Two things happened after that ... every trip to Port Townsend and Akamai Arts led me to buying more Caran d'Ache, and I moved my little half-crayons to a lovely thin little tin (less prone to coming open and spilling and all that sort of un-Virgo stuff). But (and you saw this coming, didn't you?) one day, even broken in half, I'd bought so many new colours that they could no longer fit in the lovely little tin. Uh oh. I graduated to a larger tin, and the new tin had room for Other Stuff. This is the story of the Other Stuff, and how, at our last retreat, I discovered I might actually *like* watercolour painting, something which has mystified (and possibly terrified) me for years. 

So ... left to right in the photo ... elastic hairband (more about that later), Mini Mister, scribbles of Caran d'Ache on label backing sheet, bit of old t-shirt (don't tell Mr. B.), dollar store paintbrush (cut to fit in tin), pop bottle cap, the Caran d'Ache I scribbled with, and the traveling tin. Oh, and the artwork? More on that later. It's taken about a year to perfect this little traveling kit. All packed up it measures 6.5" x 4.5" by 1", and is in fact, an old Maya Road tin I got years ago, its contents long gone. I've never been one of those people who likes BIG containers of water when I paint ~ too many opportunities for tragedy to my mind (hmmm ... must be the Virgo thing again). I prefer pouring a little water from the Mini Mister into a pop bottle cap, and cleaning my brush on the t-shirt scrap, or (truth be told) on the back of my hand (I know, I know, I'm a symphony of contradictions). But then I've never been the kind of person who slathers on acres of acrylic paint either, which would require the large pot of water and the Big Brushes.

Finding out that certain label backing sheets make excellent palettes was another bonus. Oh yes, I know, it *sounds* logical, but I discovered that not all label backing sheets are equal. Some are so slick that you can't scribble the crayons on them and that's no good either. Also (and quite coincidentally), a standard label backing sheet folded (or cut) in quarters, neatly fits in the Maya tin, too. Double bonus. The elastic headband holds the whole tin together because heaven knows it was *no good* at keeping my hair in place when I wore it. I think I must have a spherical head. But that's a discussion for another day.

Here's everything packed up to go ... the bit of damp T-shirt is rolled and tucked away so the wet is well away from the water-soluble crayons and the now dry bottle cap and the mini mister make sure it stays that way. The label backing sheet has been wiped clean of any residue and is folded in quarters ready to lay on top of the crayons and the little brushes, and the elastic headband waits to wrap it all up. The headband goes around the tin twice by the way, which is perfect when I want to elastic the tin to my journal for traveling.
Well, that's about it ... unless you were hanging around to see the artwork, in which case ...

These are my first attempts at illustrating somebody else's words ... in this case, the song "Parkette" by Bob Snider. I could rave on here about Bob Snider for awhile, and you'd probably understand him better by listening to him, but he's amazingly elusive online, which fits somehow with his persona. My first encounter with him was years ago when I was volunteering on the Admin Committee at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. A couple of us spent some time trying to track him down for a scheduled performance only to discover later that he'd been busking in the downtown eastside. I'm no musical expert, but I don't think I would describe his playing as dazzling or virtuoso. In fact, his style of playing and his banter are so warm and casual and understated that it's only about halfway through the song you realize your heart has been sucker-punched (in the best way possible) by his lyrics. "Parkette" is one of my favourite little nuggets of his work, a brief 1 minute and 40 seconds. The pages are not in order in my painting, in case you're wondering why it doesn't make sense ~ and I'm only show you half, since the final project will be printed back-to-back. When I say "printed" I'm being optimistic. I thought when I got inspired to paint his lyrics that it'd be an easy thing to contact him and get permission to create and print my little book, but as I say, he's darned elusive online, and I've yet to get through to someone who can ask him if it's cool with him that I've created this. But when I do get through, and if he gives the okay, there may be a minizine in the making. But, in the meantime, I've definitely gotten over my irrational fear of watercolours.

Whoosh! Say ... wasn't that a deadline?

This year's trades: Books, Mini-Zines, Buttons & Tags

Time tends to speed up as Artfest approaches, and this is especially true when it's time to make all those items to trade with other attending artists. I decided to make a variety of items since this'll be the last Artfest (insert moment of silence here).

The largest (and most collaborative!) trade item is the Book of Faces (top left). I posted an invite on the Artfest Yahoo group for people to send black and white line drawings of faces to add to my ongoing collection ~ an attempt to encourage myself to draw more faces. I'm pleased to say the finished book contains more than 150 drawings, as well as additional sections on tracing and clipart, as well as blank pages so people can continue to add their own faces.

Also included (by kind permission of Kathy Barbro) is a section I'm calling "Art Projects for (Big) Kids", which features some of the face-themed projects over on her Art Projects for Kids website. Her site  has *way* more than face-related art projects, and I highly encourage you to surf over and have a look, particularly if you have children or, what the heck, if you've ever been a child. The full-size version of my Book of Faces will be traded with people who submitted drawings, and I've made four mini-zine excerpts of the book (the blue covers along the right-hand side of the photo) to trade with other attendees. I'm so pleased with how they all turned out ~ and relieved to have them all done in time!

I'm also making some laminated luggage tags with some cool thread "dribbles" on the back. Mr B. wanted to know how exactly you "dribble" thread ...he insisted it's not really possible ... of course, when I showed him what I was doing, he agreed that dribbling was as good a word as any he could think of.

Artfest-wise, I'm also making some fun 1" buttons, as well as participating in the Artfest ATC book AND the 4x4 chunky book, but thank heavens all those bits and pieces were sent to their respective organizers long ago. I might even manage to get a few more ATCs made when all is said and done. Whoosh, indeed!

For any of you who've been to Artfest, I don't need to tell you how wonderful and rare an experience it is. So, here's a shout out to Lelainia for taking me to my first Artfest years ago, and bunches and bunches of appreciation for all the fabulous teachers and like-minded friends who've grown out of my Artfest connection. I know this last Artfest will be amazing and bittersweet and I plan to soak up every little bit of it ~ hence the overkill in my participation this year. I wish Teesha and Tracy and their whole gang all the best as they set their sails for other projects and artistic horizons.

Exhausted and well worth it ...

Who knew sitting still all day and talking to people could be so exhausting? Had a wonderful time at Canzine West - sold enough zines to make it all worthwhile financially - but that's never really been the point for me. I love talking to people - finding out what fires their creativity - what artist inspires them (maybe one I've never heard of - hey, it happens!). And when it comes to selling I'm almost more pleased to get trades from other zine makers than cash (I know - how *uncapitalistic* of me!).

Maybe because Canzine West followed so closely on the heels of WOTS (AKA Word on the Street) it seemed like there were a lot of familiar faces today - both behind the tables selling (or trading!)and in front of the tables buying. The fact that the space was large enough to accommodate plenty of both was great. And the diversity was fabulous - it really did have the feel of a *cultural fair* about it. I'm so glad I went - even if my face does hurt from smiling (and laughing, and talking).

One of these days I will *actually* post pics of the zines in question (really, I will!), and maybe (gasp!) even start selling them online, I mean I can't keep waiting for zine events to come around, can I?

Had some really great interactions today ... people who were new to zining and therefore eager to start their first one, and people whose work is not only familiar to me, but I already own most of their body of work (I really am a *collect the whole set* kinda gal).

I know, you were probably hoping for a pic here - any pic, but sorry ... need to go finish making some Artist Trading Cards for our monthly ATC swap tomorrow. Ah, the life of an artist ... never dull, I'll say that much. Photos at 11, or whatever blog phrase is equivalent to that.

Where to find me Saturday (hm ... sounds familiar)

This Saturday, October 16, I'll be selling zines at Canzine West. They invited me to be a vendor and since I already have all my zines ready and priced (from Word on the Street), I thought I might as well. The hours are more to my taste (starting at 1 pm) and I'm curious to see what Canzine West might look like, and well, I was going to go check it out anyway, so going as a seller isn't much more difficult. The table rental was amazingly reasonable, and it includes a subscription to Broken Pencil Magazine.

In fact, it looks pretty much like Broken Pencil is part and parcel of participating, even as a spectator ... I see the $5 entry fee also gets you a copy of their fall issue. It's been awhile since I had a look at Broken Pencil ... I remember it as quirky and fun and well, interesting. I look forward to reading it and hope it jiggles loose whatever writing/reading block I've been experiencing ever since I started making art.

Back in the day (pre "art making") I used to be well-read - not a voracious reader, but always in the middle of two or three books at a time. I even wrote on a fairly regular basis - then everything went visual. Not that I'm complaining, I love making art, and words always manage to be part of what I do, but lately I can't seem to get through even a full page of text before my head begs off and my hands want to "do" something instead.

Here's the specs for Canzine West ... if you find yourself in downtown Vancouver and zines are your thing (or you wonder if they might be) and you'd like your own bright shiny new copy of Broken Pencil, come say hi ... I'll be in there somewhere.

Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1pm - 7pm,
W2 Storyeum, 151 West Cordova Street
Cost: $5 at the door.
Includes a copy of the fall issue of Broken Pencil.

Giant Zine Fair: Over 150 zines from across Canada on display and for sale! The heart of the event, indie publishers both in print and online come from across the country and the continent to show their wares! Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness!

Where to find me Sunday

This coming Sunday I'll be at Word on the Street, Vancouver's Annual Book and Magazine Festival, go here for more info. More accurately, I'll be at Word UNDER the Street in the Alma Van Dusen Room, from 11am to 5pm - selling zines and other fun stuff with my friend Dawn (AKA Misti Ko). We had such fun last year - not getting rich by any means, but there's more to life than money, like trading our zines with other zine creators, for one thing! I wanted to post a picture of all the zines I'm selling, but (you guessed it!) they're still in production. I'll try and post a photo before Sunday, but I can't guarantee - life just got exceedingly busy again ...

I had a funny feeling that some of my *art* deadlines were getting away from me, so last week I started a spreadsheet to keep track of them (yes, I know - how *virgo* of me), and between last week and mid-November I have 16 project deadlines. Some are little (and will be quick to complete) some are huge and still in formation. Some are even *done* (fancy that!) and just waiting for addresses to be assigned (darn you, swap-bot!), but I will definitely be keeping my nose to the art grindstone for the next two months. But hey, better an art deadline than any other kind, I say.

And speaking of art deadlines ... here's a funny thing that happened this morning. Or it would have been funny had it not happened at 4:30 am (did I mention I'm not a morning person?). Over the last month or so I've been mulling over ideas for one of my larger, as yet unstarted projects. I would mention which one, but some of the people who read my blog (and who are also part of the project) might be surprised to find I haven't even started yet ... anywho ... at 4:30 this morning my brain wakes me up with a great idea. Well, okay, my brain thought it was great, personally the jury is still out, but on with my story ... darn brain wouldn't shut off. Anyone standing outside my window (quite a feat considering I'm not at ground level) would have seen my light going on and off multiple times over the course of two hours while ideas continued demanding to be written down. One thing I've learned is that when ideas arrive you darn well better pay attention to them or they wander off and are never heard from again.

So there's me ... scribbling down strange ideas at 4:30 am - and practically giggling with glee to boot, if it's possible to giggle while only partially awake. So now it's problem solved - got it all worked out - just have to create I what saw in my mind's eye, and (in my dream) physically held in my hands. Well ... at least I know what it's supposed to look like.

Just wondering ... do any of you pre-visualize your finished artwork? I mean like actually *see* it in your dreams - complete, framed, mounted, published and being enjoyed by others in your dream, while your dream self is busy memorizing what it looks like so you can *make* it when you wake up? Just curious.

Okay ... well, back to the art mine! But I thought if I didn't tell you where I'll be, and why I haven't posted lately you'd all think I got lost on my way to the keyboard. See you Sunday? Oh, and bring a brolly for the outside Word on the Street stuff, but down at Word Under the Street, we'll be warm and dry, so come buy our zines. More info about us here, where we are listed as "pengrafyx & ko"