Parrot Palooza!

So, back in September I was fortunate enough to attend a local Parrot Palooza as a vendor. It was a wild time and I even met local celebirdies, such as Max the Moluccan.

Originally the show was supposed to be in a community hall, but they switched it to the new VCA vet hospital down the road from us. Somehow I didn't factor in that I would be in a room of screaming parrots for seven hours. It was like "SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM SIREN SCREAM I love you SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM BARK BARK hello", but once people arrived, talking balanced out the noise. All the parrots there were club member parrots--no outside birds allowed. There were so many! Cockatiels, conures of all kinds, cockatoos, one blue and gold macaw, an African grey, a few caiques, several different types of Amazons, a parrotlet, two Quakers, and a grey parrot who someone told me the name of, but that I didn't recognize. I'm so happy with how the portraits of Birdzilla and Yoshi turned out.

A Great Way to End 2022!

I'm thrilled to share my short story, "A Foot in Two Worlds", was accepted into this anthology :-) My dad came to Canada in 1960 and navigating two cultures has always been a part of my life.

Immigrant Sci-Fi | Successful Submissions & Selected Stories - We’re pleased to announce the authors included in our upcoming anthology which combines the new & contemporary, set in future, interstellar, fantastical and alternative realities.https://t.co/kOMCbRjkWc

— Flame Tree Press Team (@flametreepress) December 14, 2022

Tony! Tony! Tony!

For years now I've done pet portraits at the local comic expo, but COVID has put the kibosh on that. I was able to attend a parrot show called Parrot Palooza at the end of September though and here's one of the subjects, a French bulldog named Tony.

I found it very hard to cartoon Tony and it actually took two tries. Click through for larger.



His human also ordered a realistic portrait which was done on pastel paper with assorted pastels. I loved how this one turned out!

This Post Grad Life--Tying Up Loose Ends

I'll admit I'm not the speediest artist, but I began this trio of dog portraits in 2019! It was hard to find a good chunk of time to finish them while I was finishing up school. Naturally there was a lot of things to do and I was only able to sit down and finish the final portrait this month.

Each portrait is 4x6" and was rendered in pencil crayon, marker, and PanPastel. Click through to see the larger version on Flickr.

This Post Grad Life--I'm A Winner!

One of the things about being a new grad is that it takes a while for it all to sink in--you've crossed the finish line--but there's so much work to do. In my case, I've spent the last few months cleaning, organizing, donating and recycling where I can. It's nice to not have to step over things and vacuum the carpet. Best of all, I get to make art for myself again. If you have been following my Facebook page or my blog for some time, you know I was a regular entrant to the Calgary Stampede Western Lifestyle Arts and Crafts Show. The show is a quiet, dim respite from the excitement of the fairgrounds but also a great place to see local talent from cakes to quilts.

I wasn't sure I would be able to complete an entry before the end of the semester and the June 20th deadline. It's probably true for a lot of grads, but once the semester was done, I was done. I could not make anything and the pressure was on. Instead of worrying about what the finished item would look like, I just simply got started!

About ten years ago I was making miniature tapestries with embroidery floss and revisited the tapestry idea by snapping a piece of aida cloth into a small embroidery hoop. Strand by strand, the landscape began to take place. Click on any photo for a larger view.

Making a mountain was the hardest part. I used a wedge of cardstock to weave the sky around it.

Once the tapestry was done, it got a haircut and a layer of glue around the edges.

Then it was time to make the front. I printed my drawing, "Little Horse on the Prairie", onto a piece of cardstock, snip snip snipped and assembled! There was no way I could weave the horse in on such a small scale. I was already having trouble seeing and ended up buying clip-on magnifiers for my glasses.

My frenzied work paid off because I won third place! My friend Luba kindly shared the news. Regrettably I did not get out to the Stampede this year to see the other works.0 I'll definitely be back at the show next year with something bigger and horse-related, I'm sure :-)

#TBT: I Did It! I'm A Grad!

I can’t believe this happened two weeks ago—I graduated! My art school held convocation on May 26 in person. It was an exciting day with a couple of obstacles at first, but I made it. I did it! To recap, I started my BFA part-time through Cont Ed in 2003 and the Alberta University of the Arts was called ACAD, or Alberta College of Art + Design. I made mplans to graduate in 2009...2013...2016...2019...but life just got in the way and it was hard to give up well-paying jobs with benefits when one has bills and a mortgage today. I even took a five year break because I couldn't keep up with work and school.

Here are all the happy grads before the ceremony. The reason there are so many is that grads from 2020 and 2021 were invited back for their chance to walk the stage and fist bump the university president.

The ceremony opened with a Treaty 7 land acknowledgement, a blessing from a Treaty 7 elder and a Métis Region 3 elder along with some short speeches and introductions. For the non-locals, Calgary is situated on the traditional territories of many Blackfoot Confederacy nations. Two former grads received honourary art MFAs, which was nice to see. Her Worship, our Mayor, was the commencement speaker and she gave a great speech about the importance of creative industries, which was pretty heart-felt. Then there was the student speaker, who I didn’t know. One of the downsides of being a part-time student is that you never have time to be involved with school activities.

Then, it was time for a lot of clapping. A lot of clapping! 2020 and 2021 crossed the stage and when it was time for 2022 grads, Ceramics and Fibre were called first. It’s amazing how a moment you have been waiting for and daydreaming about comes and goes so quickly. It was akin to being married back in 2004–-afterwards it’s like, whew, all that work for one minute? But it was great! I walked across that stage, fist-bumped the president, then paused to get hugs from my teachers. They gave all the grads a little card and inside was-—a needle! Awwww! What a touching little gift.

The whole ceremony was touching for its inclusivity. Indigenous students received an eagle feather from the Treaty 7 elder and Métis students received a traditional, red woven sash from a Region 3 elder. It was so wonderful to see the celebration. Students were encouraged to wear traditional dress if they so chose, but only a few did that I saw. One grad wore a Korean outfit and a Romanian grad wore a traditional dress under her gown, which she doffed when receiving a special award at the end.

The ceremony went on for a total of two hours and we scattered to the wind as we were ushered out. My classmates and I hoped for a group photo, but that didn’t happen. There were just so many people and we scattered to the wind.

I cried and hugged my mom. “I did it!” I said and she was red-faced and crying. Dad felt he was too old to go to the grad and my brother had fears about catching COVID. So it was just Mom that showed up for me. I cried in the washroom afterwards, whether from sadness or relief or hunger or hormones I don’t know. It was just a lot in one day and all jets were running on fumes. Hungry. Thirsty. Tired. So many feels!

I returned my gown, kept my cap and we had some more snacks outside. The day was picture perfect—-just sun, no wind or grey clouds. A perfect day for graduation. We ducked back inside for the grad show and found my picture hanging on the wall. Mom said it was very nice (of course Mom would say that).

It was hard, seeing all those happy families hugging and celebrating their grad. Grads are a bigger deal now in the social media age than 1997. There was an acknowledgement and validation that yes-—your child can go to art school and it’s not an embarrassment anymore. That they can have a successful life and career in the visual arts. It had been so, so long since I had seen so many happy people hugging and loving that it was like I had forgotten what joy meant.

I cried all night. The day was overwhelming and even two weeks later--it doesn't feel real. I did it!

Time for Junicorn!

Post-grad life just doesn't seem to slow down! I can't believe it's June! What happened to May? Well, I can tell you a bit about May--I spent a lot of it catching up on eight months of life delayed. I reconnected with friends, re-organized my art supplies, vacuumed and bit by bit cleaned up a mess that took eight months to create. I also pushed a writing and art submission too, which was a lot of work. It's been fun to do normal things!

And, it's been fun to return to drawing. I missed draw a lot. So, what better chance to catch up on that than Junicorn? Junicorn is a month-long drawing challenge much like Mermay or Inktober. I think I'll do a daily sketch and draw a finished picture at least once a week. We'll see--I'm trying to be gentle with myself and remember that it doesn't all have to be done in a day!

I'm posting the best pictures to Instagram and you can follow all of them on Twitter too.

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Somewhere around Week 12...

For my final Tuesday class project, I did a small installation with a photograph. I would love to do larger prints of the photograph. However, 9x12 was the largest size guaranteed by the photo lab for next day printing. Ah, art students! Some things never change no matter how old a student you are ;-D In reality, waiting for the light to be just right was tedious. There were many overcast, spring days where the right just wasn't right.

Time to Bloom is inspired by a genre of still life painting called vanitas which was popular in 17th century Netherlands. Usually they feature haphazard composition, signs of wealth and signs of mortality such as skulls. Mine is much more toned down and humble. For example, below is a vanitas (titled "Vanitias" by Pieter Boel and Jacob Jordaens):



My photo wasn't as cluttered. Some things I wanted to include I simply could not find around the house either, doh! I could see making more photos like this though. Our personal objects and homes say a lot about us, whether we realize it or not. Additionally, vanitas paintings are often coded--a skull may represent death and mortality, books could indicate knowledge and gold, of course, wealth. It took 169 photos to pick the perfect one, by the way, and I chose five for printing.



Here's a close-up of just the photo:

Twelve Weeks Goes By So Fast--That's A Wrap!

It's funny when you're finishing up school--excited for the future, anxious in the moment and relieved when it's over. How does 12 weeks go by so fast? I had so much time in January! I also swear semesters used to be 15 weeks.

My last Thursday class was tough. I was so exhausted—I stayed up too late and got up too early—and when my turn came around, I kind of flubbed the delivery. But, the semester is done like dinner. Time to put a fork in it ;-D. I just have one assignment to hand in and that’s it. I’ll be back next week to drop off my piece(s) for the grad show and then won’t be back again until convocation in May.

I expected the last few classes to be wrapped in some kind of sentimental, nostalgic montage of feelings and experience, but there were none. There was mostly a lot of thirst and hunger. I didn’t have lunch until 3pm on the last Wednesday and when Thursday’s class was over, I wolfed down a cheese bun and a buffalo chicken wrap. It takes a lot of calories to simply stay awake.

I’ll post pictures of my work in the coming days. Mostly I just want to rest and clean up around the house. Every horizontal surface has been fair game for the past three and a half months and it felt so rewarding to simply vacuum yesterday and not step over a giant pile of art supplies to get into my office!

Studios have to be cleared out by the 22nd and I grabbed everything in one trip last week. Already it feels so weird to not have any homework. I completed three writing assignments, eleven projects, learned a lot about papermaking, started a couple things over twice and generally worked a lot more than I normally would at my own pace. Two of the projects were kind of turds and one of those will go in the recycle bin, heh!

I still journalled my adventures and will get this blog all caught up in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Gearing up for Week 3--Ideas into Action

So, after filling out my studio proposals with project details, I sat down to work on sketches and ordered supplies. To keep things straight, each class has a distinct theme. The first project for each class has begun. I was so into my homework lsat Saturday that I forgot to eat!

FIBRE 327

Memory and place--four pictures depicting a place which no longer exists and a memory that may or may not have occurred there. This is always a great broad theme!

FIBRE 419

Renaissance-inspired art--I love Renaissance art and it doesn't get the attention it deserves in art college. It's easier to focus on modern artist, but now I have the skill level to re-explore and do some research on the period.

FIBRE 451

Homebody--I proposed a series of square-based works of domestic life during the pandemic where self-isolation means spending a lot more time at home--and with ourselves.

The fun thing about paper-based art is that I have all the materials at home, so the projects will be thrifty and eco-friendly. I am going to track all the waste created from my projects by saving anything that can't be recycled to examine at the end of April.

Gearing Up for Week 3--Books

Yesterday was fun. My friend and I went to the thrift store to look for frames for my FIBRE 327 homework. It was actually hard to choose—I wanted something beat-up and vintage, but not too beat-up and vintage. I bought six frames and one definitely came from a smoker’s house. I wiped them down with Purell and then attacked them with Windex. Eeek! Kinda gross.

We made a final sweep of the store and I found a brand new book called Making is Connecting by David Gauntlett. It looks like a good practical guide and scholarly resource about how creative people connect. The book was published in 2018 and I gotta say, it’s hard to find anything new about big or little c crafting. Score! I miss random finds while browsing.



My other books arrived today. Art/Work is a practical how-to guide to setting up a creative business. It’s required for FIBRE 451 and I can easily pass it on to someone else. I’m at the weird point where I know all this stuff, but one can always know more too!



I also bought Klutz's Lego Gear Bots book for FIBRE 419. A wise person once told me years ago that if you don’t understand something, get a children’s book on it because they are easy to understand and have lots of pictures. Klutz books are great for this because they come with all the supplies to try out without spending a lot of money. It would be fun to include moving parts in my work, Lego or otherwise!

Week 2--A brief recap

Week 2 was relatively easy, again—teachers had individual meetings with students to go over their project proposals. The proposals are worth 5% of our mark, so everyone starts class with an A+ if they submitted one. Naturally, being a professional student, my proposals were well-thought out and contained realistic goals.

All my projects this year are going to be paper-based in some form, whether straight-up paper art or dioramas. The great thing about the individual meetings is that artist names were dropped into the chat so everyone could take a look if they choose.

FIBRE 327

Josh Fraught, Morgan Rose Free, Law Calver, Neil Goss, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, DJ Smirnoff, Marjolein Dallinga Bloomfelt,

FIBRE 419

Anna Torma, Francis Alys, Ana Mendieta, Jana Sterbak, Marlene Creates, Leonora Carrington, Iris Van Herpen,

FIBRE 451

David Hoffos/Margo Henry, Sandra Sawatzky, Roni Horn, Liza Lou, George Platt Lynes, Ann Newdigate, Jean Lurcat, Archie Brennan, Aino Kanaijami, Dance Doyle, Cloudi Jongstra, Luanne Martineau

Back to school!

It's hard to believe, but this is my very last semester at ACAD. As you might remember, I have been at it a looooong time. There's a lot of barriers to being a mature student and fortunately some of those barriers came down in the last couple of years with flexible online working and learning.

The first week of classes is always so super easy, but this semester is going to be a little confusing because I have the same teacher for two classes and a lot of my classmates are the same across all three classes. My first assignments are a studio proposal for each class. If I pick a series of projects, it should be easy to keep them straight, LOL!

Here are the questions:

• Summarize the work you intend to produce this term. Include your topic(s) and the processes/techniques you intend to explore.
• PROJECT 1/2/3/4 - Describe this project including its concept, scale, budget, materials and tools required.
• How will the work you are proposing challenge you and move your creative practice forward?
• List at least two texts or books that relate to your topic (not including technical "how to" books.)

When in doubt, chart it out! I'll need this to keep me on track. Two of the three studio proposals have been sent in so far.