June 2018 - Update

May 31, 2018

After a hiatus during my studies in Winnipeg, I finally got around to relaunching my Etsy shop. I worked really hard on rephotographing my art and presenting it in a way that makes it more appealing to purchase and place in homes like yours!

Fall Exhibitions!

September 03, 2017

I'm excited to share that I will have two exhibitions coming up this Fall! The first is a group show with some fellow classmates, Julie Epp and Kendra Schellenberg, we all received our BFA degrees from UFV. The exhibition is titled, Horror Vacui, which simply means the fear of empty space. As you can imagine all the works in the show are extremely detailed and obsessive in nature. The show will include works created individually, as well as a collaborative mural we will be painting/drawing directly onto the gallery wall. Read more to learn about each of our inspirations for the show, as well as the exhibition statement.

Horror Vacui

Horror Vacui is the fear of empty space and the filling of emptiness with details in a work of art. This visual art expression is an important source of inspiration for artists Mallory Donen, Julie Epp, and Kendra Schellenberg. Each artist struggles with issues of fear, joy, and acceptance throughout their creative process. Donen’s practice is driven by the conflict between order and chaos, and explores the infinite nature of digital imagery. On the other hand, Epp’s process is a battle with fear, inner thoughts, and a search for calm in the mundane creative process. Lastly, Schellenberg uses the overwhelming visual aesthetic of horror vacui to engage in conversations about gender, beauty standards, and acceptance. Everyone struggles with inner conflict; Horror Vacui visualizes the mental chaos of life. Art allows us to engage in moments of deep consideration and at times can be a gateway into a numbing calm, empty of worries or thoughts.

Mallory Donen

My process fluctuates between spontaneity and my obsessive need for control. I find comfort in keeping things in order, but at the same time when things become too controlled there is little room for growth and change. That is why I am always pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and intentionally creating moments of disruption. This struggle between chaos and order is the driving force of my art practice. I am constantly introducing ways of relinquishing control throughout the artistic process. But I inevitably end up back where I started, in an ordered, restrained system of creation. My work explores notions of obsession, control, chaos, infinity, and absorption. Inspired by the theme of horror vacui, my art reflects on the infinite calming chaos of digital imagery.

Julie Epp

In an age where lives are lived through online experiences, my brain has become over stimulated. Multitasking, my old friend, is an enemy of productivity; I must embrace the mundanity of focus. My artwork is likely the only consistent focus I’ve had. My mandalas sit inches from my eyes while I draw, and though I am focused, my brain is crashing, burning, bursting with thoughts. It might seem like a good opportunity to be thinking; a chance to be inspired. But the thoughts hang dramatically over me like a creature ready to crush. They are ideas and aspirations but they are also pressure and panic. My work is a chance for me to focus my energy, and it takes a lot of work to get into a headspace where something good comes out of it.

My mandalas are a product of years of disrupted focus, followed by relief. The sculptures are the opposite: they are a product of intense concentration followed purely by thirst and hunger. To me, horror vacui is about the fear of allowing empty space to be filled by anything but artistic joy.

Kendra Schellenberg

12Schellenberg_Kendra Object Spaces_04.jpg

I have always been drawn to work that contains a lot of detail. When I am creating my own work, there’s always a part of me that needs to prove that my art is worthy of attention, and my solution to this is often to fill it with detail—as if this somehow proves that I care about my work, that it is something of value—because I’ve spent a lot of time on it. At the same time, my art practice is an extension of my feminism, and is a way for me to engage with issues that trouble me. I saw an opportunity to use the overwhelming nature of horror vacui as a means of conveying the overwhelming feeling of needing to conform to gender roles and beauty standards. By incorporating imagery I’ve tapped into in previous work, I hope to dig further into representing the affect of the socially-constructed gender binary that is so prevalent in the media we consume.

The second exhibition is a solo exhibition, which will feature my new work titled Glitch Series 01. The show will also include a select few works from my MFA Thesis Exhibition. During the opening reception of the exhibition, on Friday, October 27th, I will also be giving an artist talk discussing ideas from my thesis and how it influenced the creation of this new body of work being showcased in the solo exhibition. The talk will also include a slideshow of images that give an even more in-depth look into my process and my hard drive of digital files.

Canada Day by the Bay 2015

July 02, 2015

Wednesday, July 1, 2015:

Today was my first time ever showing my art at a vendor booth. Canada Day by the Bay was a great experience and I learned lots about what to do and what not to do. First off location is key, the organizers of the event positioned my booth just west of the pier which is where the majority of the pedestrian traffic is concentrated. However, this section of grass has a fairly high ledge which takes a solid effort for people to actually step up and come into the booth. This definitely was a negative, as the demographic of White Rock is mostly seniors, and of course families with strollers and small children.

Another challenge was that the grass where my booth was located was on a slant. Therefore, I had to be make sure that my canopy and easels were set up so that they would not blow over when there was a large gust of wind. I was able to secure the canopy, but we had a couple moments of panic when paintings and easels went toppling over. Note to self: bring bean bags to weigh down the easels. The easels and paintings weren't the only things we had to worry about. Everything that I had laid out on the back table such as drawings, prints, and frames, would blow away when it was really windy. We ended up taping the drawings and prints to the table but this didn't work for long either. A better solution would have been to use some sort of paper weights.

My favourite part of the day was painting live in my booth. I started out a little shaky because I was a bit nervous painting where everyone could see me, but I'm almost positive that the wind had something to do with it too. Afterwards, I was able to focus on the painting and I really got into it. I would hear people walking by saying "Oh, look she's painting!". It was a pretty cool experience. Sometimes I could feel that someone was watching and I didn't want to be one of those anti-social artists so I would say hello. However, a lot of the time once someone knew that I knew that they were watching me paint they would scurry away as if they weren't supposed to watch.

It was a challenge working with paints in the heat and humidity since I had to work fast so that my paints wouldn't dry out. I brought a small travel container for some water, as well as a small syringe, which I used to add water to my paints when they needed to be rejuvenated. I finished the painting earlier than I had expected and I wish that I had brought other canvases with me to paint because I finished the painting before the biggest rush of the day. Once I finished the big painting I painted a couple small paintings on 6x6" cardboard. After that I drew a pen drawing on a postcard and painted it with watercolours.