May 2018 - Update

RAW: Vancouver

12-RawLR.jpg

Thanks to everyone who showed up to support me at the RAW: Vancouver showcase back in April. For those of you who couldn't make it, don't worry there's always next time! The event was a success and I definitely learned some valuable business skills while preparing for the show, setting up, tearing down, and of course throughout the night while interacting with lovers of art and newbies alike! I love hearing everyone's opinions and reactions to my work. It is especially interesting getting feedback and unique perspectives outside of an academic setting (this is still fairly new for me). Please check out a selection of photos from the event below, taken by the official photographers, Mike Chen Photography and Evan Chen Photography.

Paint by Numbers Series

Watch me choose the next set of squares for Pattern #2, which is part of the "Paint by Numbers Series". The series of quilted paintings, further explore ideas from my thesis "I Come From a Long Line of Machines".

Settling In to My Vancouver Apartment/Studio

A week or so ago, I finally hunkered down and spent a day hanging my art onto my walls. My apartment now feels like a mini gallery of my work and it feels a lot more like home. It's also starting to feel more like a studio and a space where I can be inspired to continue to create on a constant basis. Instead of looking at blank walls, I look up and I can see a timeline of my art over the past several years. This inspires me to keep going and to assess where do I go from here? What do I want to make now? 

There are days when I'm not sure what project to work on and sometimes I question why I'm spending every spare moment of my time on art. But when I look around my space and remember how far I've come and how hard I've worked on my art, it pushes me to keep on moving forward. I've been reading "In the Company of Women" by Grace Bonney and it's reminding that being a creative individual is hard work, and it takes time, patience, and perseverance. These are things I struggle to often remember, but I'm doing my best to be present in the moment and enjoy the journey. I have to keep reminding myself that every artist starts somewhere and I'm just at the cusp of being an emerging artist. Patience doesn't always come easily to me, but it's something I'm working on. Like a muscle, I know it'll get stronger with more exercise. 

March 2018 - Update

Sorry for the lack of blogging and art updates lately, balancing a full-time job and an art practice is not an easy task. I'm doing what I can and I'm happy to say that I'll be in an exhibition this month. It's an exhibition celebrating women in history, in conjunction with International Women's Day. 

 
WEBSITE_FEATUREDIMAGE_HERSTORY2-510x200-2.png
 
 
“International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. It commemorates the movement for women’s rights. The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on February 28, 1909 in New York.

The Celebration of Herstory Art Exhibition is Thursday, March 8 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. It will be held at the White Rock Community Centre at 15154 Russell Avenue, White Rock.”
 

I'll be showing my new cross-stitch piece "Yayoi Kusama: The Queen of Dots", a portrait of an artist who has always been source for inspiration for me. Kusama is known for her obsessive practice that utilizes the simplistic form of dots. The cross-stitch piece took a total of 45 hours hours to complete and was framed using resources I had on hand in my studio. The wooden frame was from an old canvas painting and was repainted with the Kusama's signature dots. The window matte was cut from black paper and the cross-stitched canvas is fixed to recycled cardboard. This process of recycling and repurposing old materials connects back to my goal of a $100 art budget for 2018. 

I have also been hired as an Artist Mentor throughout March and April, for a mural project with 8-10 high school students from Elgin Secondary. Along with Rachel Kirkpatrick, we will be leading this group of AP Art students in the creation of a mural to be painted in White Rock (East Beach Residential location).

Rachel and I scoping out the mural site during our first meeting discussing planning and preparation for our upcoming studio sessions with the Elgin Park students. 

Rachel and I scoping out the mural site during our first meeting discussing planning and preparation for our upcoming studio sessions with the Elgin Park students. 

The planning for the mural will take place over the course of three studio sessions where the students will collaborate, brainstorm, and pitch a mural concept/sketch. They will be presenting their idea/concept to White Rock City Council for approval. Once the mural has been approved, Rachel and I will oversee the painting of the mural until it's completion. The plan is to have the mural completed by the end of May at the latest. Hopefully, the weather will improve and we can get it thrown up in April.

That's all for now, stay tuned for updates on the #WRYouthMural! 
 

Horror Vacui - Exhibition Documentation

Earlier this year I was in a group exhibition at Deer Lake Gallery, in Burnaby, called "Horror Vacui". The show included myself, as well as two fellow UFV BFA grads, Kendra Schellenberg, and Julie Epp.

For those of you who were unable to make it out to see the exhibition in person, here are some documentation photos of the exhibition. 

September Update

Things have been super crazy while I've been getting ready for my two exhibitions coming up in October. Therefore this will be a short blog! Amongst all of the chaos I did manage to create some new art! I also recently finished a cross-stitch commission based off of an 8-bit video game called, Chrono Trigger.  

Fall Exhibitions!

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

03Epp_Julie_Mandala 1.jpg

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

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. 

Glitch Series 01

Since returning home after the completion of my MFA thesis I've been taking it pretty easy and trying to allow myself some sort of break. I've recently completed a new project titled Glitch Series 01, which involved converting a series of digital image glitches (sourced from images generated in Photoshop) into a cross-stitch pattern which was then completed as a cross-stitch work. 

The images used for this project were a series of glitches that occurred one day while I was working on another project in Photoshop. The file that I opened did not appear the way that it was supposed to, instead it was a collaged mashup of several files which I had opened within the past week or so. Instead of dismissing this unexpected moment as a computer failure, I accepted it as a gift. It was as if the computer had gotten frustrated with the overwhelming amount of information and data I had given it within a short span of time and this was its way of materializing that frustration. The computer had spoken and I wanted to savour every last moment of it that I could. 

I proceeded to save and alter these strange glitches that reloaded and occurred each time I saved the file. I adjusted the curves and colourations of some of the images before saving them, in order to enhance the artistic, almost painterly qualities. In the moment it was a highly energized, playful interaction, a constant wave of communication that fluctuated between myself and the computer.

I stored these glitch images in a folder on my hard drive, unsure of my future plans for them. It wasn't until I began integrating cross-stitching into my thesis projects that I realized this is what the glitch series would become. 

I selected 9 cropped sections (below) of the single glitch image (above) to create a series of images that would then be converted into a series of cross-stitches. 

The 9 selected images above were then uploaded onto a website called StitchFiddle.com, where they were converted into cross-stitch patterns. Below are the resulting cross-stitched works.

Each piece is approximately 3.5" x 3.5". I'm still working out the kinks for final display but currently my plan is to frame each digital image with its corresponding cross-stitch partner in a 20" x 20" frame with a double window matte. Below is a rough mock-up of what each of the final pieces will look like framed. 

This project evolved and developed over a long period of time, but I am extremely happy with the results. I wouldn't be surprised if I continue doing more cross-stitch works with a digital aesthetic in the future. 

MFA Thesis Exhibition

Last week our MFA Thesis Exhibition titled 3...2..1.Chaos opened and I defended my thesis I Come From a Long Line of Machines. 

I Come From a Long Line of Machines investigates the repetitive processes of embroidery, finger knitting, digital image-making using Photoshop, and how they are similar in their use of mechanical systems. By engaging in a collaborative process with different machines and tools, I attempt to share control of artistic production. I address notions of artistic authorship, chaos, order, control, infinity, and mechanical repetitive systems. I embrace systematic processes in order to create art that is similar to that of a programmed machine. By doing so I am able to gain perspective into the ways in which machines and humans are alike.

End of Final MFA Semester

Things are starting to get wrapped up quickly over here in Winnipeg. This past week I finished my final semester of my MFA. All that's left is one last revision of my thesis, some finishing touches to get my projects exhibition ready, and then my thesis defence. I'm not going to share lots of photos of the work I'll be showing for the thesis exhibition, cause I'd like to keep it as much of a surprise as possible for those who will be attending.

For next month's post I will be sure to include lots of installation photos of the exhibition! In the meantime, check out the poster we designed for our exhibition, titled "3...2..1.CHAOS". For those that want to attend the exhibition try to come to the opening reception on Friday, May 26 from 6:30-8:30pm. 

On another note, I've been starting other projects now that my thesis work is almost complete. I've started experimenting with digital drawing using an app called Adobe Draw. I got a stylus for Christmas this year and I'm finally starting to get some use out of it, now that I've got more free time. Check out some of my digital drawings below (some of these have been manipulated further in Photoshop). 

Lastly, I've completed another cross-stitch square. It was based off of a computer image glitch that occurred during my hours and hours of digital pattern making. It's the first square of a series of glitch squares that I will be creating. The cross-stitch measures 50x50 squares, which is just under 4"x4".