Back on Track

The "Streetfest"... at 7pm Queen Street closed to traffic and bands lined the streets. It was pretty busy, even given the less than perfect weather.

This week was interesting. With no goal in mind but getting myself back into the right head-space, I took on a couple projects a little different for me. Right now I'm elbow deep in an illustration project for an album cover, and I've got little drawings for stencils taped up all over my studio walls, which will eventually end up etched on wine glasses and decanters. It's been fun, and got me in the right frame of mind for an outing. Lucky for me, the Beaches Jazz Festival was on this weekend... so with extra batteries and an empty SD card for my camera, I headed on down to the east end of the city.

Swing dancers having a blast.

I got there early... before the main stage acts started. I knew there was other stuff going on, so I wandered down to the park by the water, where there were two other stages set up. One was dedicated to Latin Jazz, the other to Swing. One guess as to where my butt was parked for the next two hours...

One thing that sometimes comes along with a swing band... the dancers! This couple was fantastic... no serious acrobatics but obviously very comfortable dancing together in front of an audience. I took a load of photos of them, at least 2 or 3 I'm sure will become larger scale paintings. I thought about going up to them and getting their contact info... they were so good... but I didn't do it. I kinda regret it now. Who know if or when I might bump into them again.

Weather is one variable that can totally screw up an outdoor festival. Of course the only day I was free to go was the day it poured buckets. Intense, but over quickly, the rain delayed things a bit, but didn't put an end to it.  :)

Yiannis Kapoulas on the ...uh... guitar?
ok, what the heck is that?

After a wonderful Thai dinner with old friends, we wondered down Queen Street and took in the "Street-fest". I was totally captivated, but I was assured by my friend who lives there that the residents of the area are not quite as enthusiastic. Noise, traffic problems and drunken, rowdy behaviour were the norm for the week. But still..  all that music...

I now have well over 100 photos to sift through for inspiration. I'm sure a few will make it onto canvas, painted while listening to one of the CDs I purchased from the vendors at the festival.

The Aftermath

I had a definite "what's the point" moment this week. I have these fairly regularly... a couple times a year at least. I get that overwhelming desire to just give up. Give away all my art supplies, convert my studio to a guest room and be done with it. Don't know if I'm alone in this, but I suspect not... working at a creative endeavor, trying to keep going and growing when sales are few and far between, and there is so much other stuff that needs to be done... well, it's not easy to stay motivated. It hit me this week as I was sorting through a portfolio full of sodden, ruined artwork, trying to see what, if anything, could be salvaged. The answer? Not much. I manage to save a couple oil pastel pieces, and about 15 watercolours from a summer spent in Europe some 25 years ago (tossing the rest of those out hurt... they may not have been particularly good, but they held sentimental value for me. But the thing about watercolour... well, it isn't waterproof). The rest of it filled up a couple garbage bags (and recycle bags, depending on what it was), and headed for the landfill.

I know that if I take a break now I will get stuck. Been there, done that. And then I will wallow in my stuck-ness. Obviously, not a very good option. But I'm so tired... the last 6 months have been incredibly stressful for me. Recap: a solo show with only 2 months advance warning, a move from the house I've lived in for 17 years, and then the flash flood and sewer backup into my basement while my husband and son were away on vacation. And all this time working a 40+ hour/week job with increasing pressure to do more/ be better/ work faster. Not even mentioning the daily cooking/ cleaning/ never ending mountain of laundry. It's exhausting. And depressing.

So, what's my plan? Well, I'm open to suggestions. This week I didn't do much, creatively speaking. I think I have to take some of the pressure off myself to produce. Maybe take a couple weeks and just play. Get back to the joyful part of creating. Try something new... maybe pick up a new medium or do a bunch of small pieces in experimental mode, or maybe try a completely new art form, like writing. Might not accomplish anything worth sharing, but if I can get myself to a place where I can't wait to get back into my studio, it will have served it's purpose, right?

Seriously... I'm open to suggestions. Any comments are appreciated.

Stormy Weather...

Photo from ctvnews.ca

Last weeks post never got written... this past week my life has been in chaos. Last Sunday I had planned to go downtown to see the Toronto Outdoor Art Show, like I do every year. Only I woke up with the migraine from hell... I'm prone to get headaches from air pressure changes, so even though things looked fine outside my window, I figured we were in for a bit of rain at some point. No big deal.

Holy understatement. The rain Sunday was intense but quickly over. Monday, however, was a different story. Did we ever get rain... an entire month's worth in the span of about 3 hours. The streets of my neighbourhood resembled Venice. The water had nowhere to go.... storm drains were like little fountains in the streets. I made it home, with a few detours to avoid driving through what looked like lakes, calmed down my dogs (who are terrified by thunder), found my candles (since we had no power), and settled in to wait it out.

My husband and son had gone out to Newfoundland last week to visit with family. My dogs are old... they are pushing 12, so leaving them in a kennel so I could join the boys wasn't really an option. I don't mind... usually the week they are gone is incredibly productive. Without having to cook or run the usual errands I can spend my time painting. Didn't quite work out that way this year. When I ventured down to my basement late Monday night (after the rain stopped) I saw exactly how I was going to be spending my week... cleaning up a big, soggy mess. The water level went down fairly quickly, and the actual damage was minimal, but there was mud (or... whatever...) everywhere. As we have only lived here about a month some of our stuff was still in boxes down there, but nothing really that could be damaged by water. Most of what could be damaged was either on another floor or on top of something else. So I was lucky. To say the least.

The cleanup is done now, and when I talk to my neighbors I realize exactly how lucky we were. Garbage day produced a street lined with soggy carpet and ruined furniture, and contractor trucks seem to be parked outside houses next to the dumpsters. I think maybe I should go buy myself a couple lottery tickets...

West Queen West... an education

Yesterday, my husband and I played tourist in Toronto, and did the West Queen West Art tour with art writer and guide, Betty Ann Jordan. I worked at a graphics place in Parkdale many years ago... anyone familiar with Toronto will remember when that area was mostly low income rentals and filled with newcomers to the city. Not so anymore. From Liberty Village to West Queen West the area is being upscaled in a big way. Condos everywhere, cool little galleries and shops, trendy restaurants line the streets. As we drove to our designated meeting spot (I would normally have taken the TTC, but we were late and had to be home shortly after the tour was over) I wondered aloud how long this area would last as the city's artist haven... those condos would undoubtably cost way more than most artists could afford. And rents for the store fronts were surely climbing as the area gentrified... those small, independent boutiques and galleries would have their work cut out for them to stay afloat.

The Drake Hotel

Our first stop was the Gladstone Hotel, housed in a great old building from 1889 and features rotating exhibitions in the public spaces, along with artist designed rooms (which can be viewed on the website). Then it was down the road to the Drake, which I know as a live music venue and didn't realize that it was still functioning as a hotel. There was lots of interesting art here as well, including a mural on the rooftop patio that apparently changes every few months.

Sculptures in the stairway going up
to the patio

Out on the street we headed west, popping into a few smaller galleries close by. Katherine Mulherin has a couple galleries here, each featuring a different up and coming artist, one of which is "copy-cat" artist, Eric Doeringer. My husband was completely baffled by this work... basically he recreates projects by other artists and presents them as his "recreation". He had a wall of small sized canvases, basically knock-offs of well known works, like you would find knock-offs of designer handbags on a street corner in NY. This sparked a debate between the two of us on the nature of creativity, and what constitutes a creation... but nobody else on the tour seemed the slightest bit interested in participating.  We decided to hold off the discussion until we were done. 

Working west we hopped up Ossington a few blocks, noting that a couple stops on our tour were actually closed for the day. We did, however, stop in a fantastic shoe store, Gravity Pope, where I went back afterwards to buy a pair of brilliant orange sneakers. I'll take a picture of those later.  :)

Apparently there is an "artist flea market" in the area... it was on our list as a place we would visit, but we didn't actually stop and I don't even remember seeing it. At this point we were running pretty late... we had someone with mobility issues on the tour, which while easily accommodated, but meant we had to skip a few stops to meet our time deadline. 

Outside the gallery, Hubs spotted this
overlooking the courtyard. Can you see
him? Here's an enlargement...

Our final stop was at the MOCCA, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, where they are hosting an exhibit by Louise Bourgeois. Here's where things got a bit... interesting. My husband asked what I saw as a reasonable question... why was the Museum of Contemporary CANADIAN Art hosting an exhibit by a french woman who spent much of her life in the US, and what was her connection to Canada (there is none). The young man in the gallery got a bit defensive (hubs says more like snippy), stating we should be happy to have this exhibit ANYWHERE. While I enjoyed the art and can appreciate Ms. Bourgeois' place in art history, the conversation was a bit off-putting. 

overlooking the MOCCA... are they trying to say something?

The Summer Sizzler

Opening of the "Summer Sizzler" juried show in London.
My piece is hanging in the window at the back.

So this weekend required a trek out to London for the opening of the "Summer Sizzler" juried show, at the Art Gallery of Lambeth. I was there early to help out... Not the norm since I live so far away, but I had the day off and leaving early meant missing that awful rush hour traffic. When I went to unlock the door, I was caught a bit off guard to see that there were actually people waiting out in the parking lot! I usually get there about an hour after the doors open, so this was something I've never witnessed. But it was a lovely evening, and what better way to spend it than looking at art, listening to music and having a little wine.

I did the initial rounds to say hello to people I had met before, (the London arts community is very supportive and many attend whatever event is going on) before getting out my camera. I only got to snap a few pics before the batteries in my camera died. I didn't even get a shot of my 3 dancer paintings that were hanging directly in front of the door. I'll have to be a bit more prepared next time and make sure I have my back-up batteries fully charged.  I believe the gallery is going to be posting photos of works juried into the show on their Facebook page over the next couple weeks. Interested? Head over to Facebook and check it out. And be sure to "like" them... that way you won't miss anything!

The entertainment, Ben Brown, gave the gallery goers an evening of nice acoustic music. By the
end it was a bit of a sing-a-long... not something I've ever seen at an art gallery. Fun. 

Back at it

Room for both dogs and still a place for
me to stand. Amazing.

Finally!! Unpacked!

Well, kind of.

Mostly.

The main floor anyway, and most of the upper floor. Ok, the basement is still in boxes, but I used to have floor to ceiling, wall to wall built-in bookcases, which now I don't have, and I have a very large collection of books (I LOVE books) that I have nowhere to put. So they are still in boxes. And will be until I can figure out what to do with them.

Just the same, I am finally able to get back to work. My studio is organized... or as organized as it can be until I work in there for a while. I've been finding that even though I put things in what seemed to be a logical spot when I was unpacking, when I needed that particular item I had to hunt high and low for it. Still, for the most part I had a pretty productive day yesterday. Started a couple small canvases and one larger one. I had done a few journaling exercises last week to kind of get me back into the right space, and surprisingly it seemed to work. Having had issues with getting blocked after taking time off, it was nice to find things flowing somewhat easily. I did an exercise I've done before and quite enjoy from LK Ludwig's book "True Vision" called Found Poetry, and combined it with automatic writing. Here is my result:

I quite like the colour combinations here. I think I'll use this in a painting. 

Here

The view from my studio door. Just a bit overwhelming.

Well, I'm all moved into my new home. It's been a little chaotic... there are still boxes everywhere but we're slowly getting organized. I'm itching to get back to work. It's been well over a month and I'm really feeling it... I feel like I'm starting to sink. Strange way to describe it I guess, but it's the only word I can think of that really captures it. I've reserved the weekend to unpack and organize my studio, with the hopes of getting to work at least one evening next week. I think a few hours playing with my paint will do me a world of good.