Life does have its twists and turns

Getting older is a right pain in the behind. There are some benefits, if you are lucky enough, but generally the physical side of things just steadily deteriorates. The only variable there is the speed of the deterioration!

That said, onto some other stuff!

As my vision is not what it used to be I’ve had to rethink my Master’s proposal. My ability to focus visually is essentially gone now, and isn’t stable even on a good day. Doing anything requiring fine attention to detail and working with sharp objects is no longer on the table. On a really good day I might be able to read a label, with my prescription glasses only; most days I have to ask someone to read them for me. So reading warning labels, instructions for mixing materials, etc. is not possible. Why oh why do manufacturers insist on printing instructions in a font size of 0.002?

I’ve discovered that monoprinting is something that I can do without having to be concerned about my ability to focus! I can get assistance from the in-house studio technician to find the ink colours I need (as I can’t read labels and actually can’t tell brown from purple anymore, amongst a few other colour identification issues.)

Also monoprinting is something that doesn’t need precise detail; it is a more intuitive process of creation. No two pressings will be the same, no matter what you try – and that, I am discovering, is exciting about it. What I’ve made so far I like and am stoked to continue to create in the technique. I plan to incorporate mixed media into a lot of my work too, playing with different mark-making methods, media and collage. It is getting my enthusiasm levels back up to where they used to be when thinking about my upcoming projects! I didn’t realize how much of that excitement has been missing.

Back in November and December I did the induction workshops for the Screen Printing studio and the Printing studio and I blogged about those here. And next week I will be doing the induction for Collagraphic printing as we didn’t cover that in December – now that I am interested in exploring it more.

I’m planning to do most of my experimenting at home, and then use the studio for the larger formats and scaling up ideas I tested at home. Also, printing the backgrounds in the studio is a lot faster and smoother.

I like utilizing uncommon methods to get an end result. Usually involves using craft materials or techniques to make “fine art”… to me it is all art. It is the creative process that is used to create something to been seen that is the “art” part to me.

We have a lot of crafting equipment and supplies at home. While I had to disburse all of my lifetime inventory when I moved to the UK, my friends have TWO lifetimes worth of stash which I now can access! I’ve already been utilizing the die cutting machines to make the cutouts to use with monoprinting. There are also embossing machines, cutters, a Cricut, thousands of metal dies, many types of paper and cardstock, stamps, inks, markers, adhesives, fabrics, fibres, stretchers, ribbons, floral crafts, wire, beads, and a lot more. There is an entire room in the house that is floor to ceiling art/craft supplies.

I’ve also managed to accumulate a fair amount myself lately – those art and craft box subscriptions are helping with that. I’ve now got a fair stash of lino blocks, cutters, screens, printing inks, rollers, markers, bookbinding supplies, as well as the usual paints, etc. So I have MANY ways of making marks.

I haven’t been back to the glass studio since before Christmas – which is when my eyes started to get bad. Hopefully, once I’ve got my school work up-to-date (was totally unproductive for most of January and all of February due to my eyes) I can get back to that, carefully though – blood can spill quite freely working with glass.

I picked up the prints I did last Friday in the studio yesterday – quite a few aren’t dry! I was a bit heavy handed with ink as I was using a palette knife to apply it as well as the rollers. I did 21 prints in total and about half are still sticky – I had them laid out all over my room, trying to balance them near the radiators. Then I had an epiphany… bought a two pack of those wire drying racks that sit on the radiator! Perfect! I’ve got two – one on each radiator in my room… Fits (just) on the radiators, sits behind my table so no contact with anything to transfer ink onto. The other one is also blocked from any contact. So glad that occurred to me before I started playing with wet inks at home.

I think my drying rack is actually better than the one in the studio! What do you think?

Monoprinting means you get one impression, and subsequent pressings (the “ghosts”) are faded versions of the first. I mess around with the plates after the first press, moving things, adding things, removing things, even re-inking parts, etc. And you NEVER know what you will see when you pull the paper off the plate. That’s the really exciting part I’ve discovered.

Here is what I produced last week – some will be used to create mixed media works, others I am going to leave as is as they are really cool (at least I think so!) I used cardboard cutouts and die-cuts, and pampas grass (the curly stuff) and plant parts I’d collected while walking the dog.

I am partial to the ones that are messier looking… I think because the results are more of a surprise. Once I get more familiar with the whole process I may be able to better predict what I will get, but, maybe not. That keeps it exciting. Right now, the predominantly yellow ones are my favourites – might be because of the contrast as I can see them better.

I’ve collected a lot more grasses (the pampus grass grows all over the place here, and I just love the curly strands,) spent seedheads, twigs, and other things to use in my next batch. I’m also pressing flowers to use in the mixed media aspect, or maybe even in the printing process if they lose their colour when dry.

Subscription boxes… this could be addicting

I’d heard about, and seen posts, from people who subscribe to various subscription boxes. People I follow on social media would post “unboxing videos” of whatever boxes they were subscribed to. I thought it was a neat idea but didn’t really think it was something I would necessarily be into.

Well… let me tell you about my last 12 days…

While randomly bopping around my feeds, in particular, YouTube (as I do subscribe to some artists’ channels,) some unboxing videos popped up for Artful subscription boxes.

Hmmm… Well, as you may know if you follow my blog, when I sold my house, and then eventually moved to the UK, I had to “get rid of” my lifetime accumulation of art and craft supplies and equipment. The hardest was when I was packing to move over to the UK – I only had three suitcases and a backpack to contain my entire life.

I arrived with minimal materials – some needlework items, a few sketchbooks, my watercolours, brushes, fine liners, pencils, pastels… Well, I suppose that doesn’t seem like I’m deprived, BUT, as someone who always had everything possible and stashes of scrap and reusable materials on hand, it is a bit of a challenge!

When I got here I went and bought new acrylic paints as I didn’t think packing used tubes was a good use of my luggage weight limitations (and what if they leaked in transit?)

So on Saturday, January 14th… I started Googling art and craft box subscriptions… just as a survey you understand, to see what they were like, and how they were rated. That may have been a mistake… or not? Jury is still out on that.

I checked out some blogs that ranked the various subscription boxes, looked at the websites, checked out a lot more videos of unboxing and artists using the materials from the boxes, and some of the instructional videos the various companies had up.

The Artful box subscription looked pretty good – the boxes looked to be good quality, containing everything you need (for the most part) and the value/cost looked very reasonable to me. They are a quarterly box, and there was a coupon if you subscribed to their newsletter. There was also an option to pick your first box, or go with the current box. So, I subscribed that day for one year (four boxes)… I chose the Gouache box for my first one. I’ve never actually used gouache so that seemed a good one to start with, to get a feel for how comprehensive it was – materials, instructional videos, etc.

I also ordered the “upgrade kit” for the Gouache box which contained a ceramic mixing tray and more brushes, and a few other things from the Artful store site – Ohh Deer.

Then, on Tuesday, January 17th… sigh, I started looking at craft boxes. Oh man… Again, I looked at reviews, videos, etc. Cosy Craft Club looked good. (BTW, these are all UK based companies that I was looking at due to postage costs!) All these companies have “old” kits available for individual purchase, so I ordered five kits from Cosy Craft Club: 2 x Mini Junk Journal Kit, Twine Basket Weaving, Loom Weaving, and Softcut Lino Printing.

I was impressed with the customer service from both Artful and Cosy Craft Club. The owner of Cost Craft Club immediately makes contact and engages in conversation via email which I thought was great. Artful responds quickly to questions and issues too, resolving them promptly.

The first order to arrive was Cosy Craft Club. It arrived around noon on Saturday, Jan 21st. That is one thing I love about the UK – Royal Mail delivers on Saturday. I immediately unpacked the shipping box – then had to open up each kit to check them out and, of course, took photos…

The five kits ordered…

Mini Junk Journal Kit (green cover option)

Twine Basket Kit

Softcut Lino Printing Kit

Loom Weaving Kit

I immediately started on my Mini Junk Journal. I had to email Cosy Craft Club as I couldn’t get the link to the instructional video to work and she responded right away! As I said above, I am really impressed with her customer service!

I watched the video through once, then got going. I had done bookbinding in school, once, but it was a riveted cover. The instructions were clear, and everything needed was in the kit, including templates for the hole punching so no measuring of anything was required. The video was very thorough, and easy to follow through the entire process.

Each kit is put together by different artists – so branding varies, and they make their own videos. So far I am impressed with the instructions given in the two videos I’ve watched.

I really enjoyed this kit! I made a few “mistakes” – I think I flipped the template on one of the three signatures as it is out of alignment with the other two, but it is a learning curve, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. When I was finished I went downstairs to show it off… and it was 8 p.m.! I had no idea how much time had gone by.

As this was a “junk journal” the included papers were a little too messy for me – tea stained printing paper, odd sized scraps of lined papers, etc. So I replaced and added to it – artist paper mostly. Also, I created some pockets using card making supplies. On the artist who created the kit’s YouTube she had videos of other journals and books she made and many of the larger ones had pockets, etc. so I decided to make some for mine. There is a roll of funky tape included in the box so I used that for the edges/sealing of those pocket pages.

I haven’t tried the others yet. I passed along the Twine Basket Kit, as after watching the instructional video, I realized I won’t be able to manage it as I’ve some arthritis and RSI issues in my hands, and it requires at lot of tension, grip and twisting with your hands/fingers.

I was having such an enjoyable time with the book binding that I got back on the computer… oh yeah. I did a thing. So on Sunday, Jan 22nd I ordered a “Complete Bookbinding Starter Kit” from Learn Bookbinding, and several (as in five) refill kits – with the two included in the starter kit that is seven books! That is next Christmas sorted! They are really responsive to inquiries too.

The next delivery was Monday, Jan 23rd, first thing in the morning. It was the additional order from Ohh Deer (Artful’s store). This was the Upgrade kit for the Gouache and a couple of Papergang stationery boxes.

Gouache Upgrade Kit

Eden Project Stationery Box

The Menagerie Stationery Box

The Eden Project Stationery box contained a “Grower’s Journal” which was why I ordered it… it was a disappointment. The print was light grey on white and in a microscopic font size. I simply could not read it. However, their return policy is great – return it immediately and they’ll reimburse postage. I emailed them about why I was returning it and they immediately responded to thank me for my feedback on the journal. I sent it back by mail on Tuesday, Jan 24th.

The Eden Project Stationery Box

Contents of the Eden Project Box

The Grower’s Journal… not useful to me.

The other stationery box, The Menagerie, was nice. It contained a calendar that you can start for any year (I’ll save for next year as I have one up for this year already.) These stationery boxes have one main item that varies, an art print, a couple of note cards, maybe something else (this one has stickers for the calendar,) writing implement(s) and a pamphlet or booklet.

Back of The Menagerie Box

Inside The Menagerie Box

First look in the Menagerie Box

Contents of The Menagerie Box

The Menagerie calendar – any year

The upgrade kit for the gouache box (they call it “Paint Mixing Kit”) was nice. I like the ceramic mixing tray/palette – very heavy and won’t shift if you are working the colours and loading your brush. It included two brushes – a fan and a filbert (which are different from what is included in the main box!)

First look at Paint Mixing Kit

Contents of Paint Mixing Kit

The Gouache Box arrived later on Monday, Jan 23rd. Which was amusing as I didn’t get confirmation it was shipped until the following day. I am pretty impressed with this box.

Gouache Box

The packaging – they really pack well

Nice box!

The paint I assume…

Nicely boxed set of 12 gouache paints

Nice size!

“Art print”,,, well, guess it will go in the stash with the rest of random things I can’t quite throw away.

25 page Mixed Media art pad

The paper quality is nice

Four blank note cards with envelopes

Blank colour chart

Pencil, F

Four brushes with storage bag

114 page magazine featuring Gouache

The amount of paint is great – proper sized tubes, not “samples.” And the magazine is full of examples and some instruction about gouache. The brushes are synthetic which is fine – I have a massive supply of natural brushes. They do appear to be good quality (there is a no. 1 rigger, no. 3 round, no. 3 angle and a teeny tiny 5/0 round) but I won’t know until I use them! An F pencil is good for sketching before painting – lighter marks. The pad of paper is nice – a full sized art pad (many other kits seem to only include a pack of small sheets for use.) The colour chart is handy, and fits inside the box of paints (presuming I’ll leave them in the box they came it – it is a nice box!) Apparently every kit has four blank note cards – I assume to make your own custom art cards using this month’s media.

There is a link in the magazine to “tutorial videos” on Artful’s YouTube page. These are private until a couple of months after the kits are sent out. I have to say I was underwhelmed with their “instruction” video. But when it finished, YouTube populated the screen with dozens of other videos from other channels about gouache – now THOSE were helpful!

The magazine does contain instruction and information about gouache. And includes a pictorial step-by-step of the painting of the art print that is included in the box (not sure why I’d want to paint that as they sent me a print of the original? I would have preferred a step-by-step of something else.) There are articles about multiple artists and examples of their work using gouache. So the magazine is very useful.

Here are the links to the places I’ve ordered these kits and supplies from:

Artful and Ohh Deer

Cosy Craft Club

Learn Bookbinding – I’ll post about the kit I ordered once I receive it! I’m pretty excited to make a “proper” sized book. ** Right after I posted this I received notification my package had shipped! Yay!

What I’ve been up to for school

I’m finding working on my MA Fine Art to be a lot different from college/undergraduate studies.

I liked the structure of multiple classes running at a time (5-7 per semester), deadlines, due dates, assignments, lots of different professors/instructors to discuss things with, etc. In the MA we’re doing one course per year (it is a three-year part-time program.) We go on campus once a week for our seminars for that course. We have writing assignments for each seminar (the topic of which covers two sessions each at least) that are due before the second session.

We also have, on the same day, either workshops, tutorials or critiques with the whole group or individually (they combine all three years of the program together for this.)

Not that there isn’t work to do, but it is self-generated – research and documenting what we are working on for our proposals. Is a but of an adjustment for someone who is timeline driven. All those years of working to deadlines has really conditioned me to want things broken down into a hard schedule.

Now that’s off my chest, I have been enjoying myself learning about new media and updating my skills and knowledge in others.

I’ve taken the “introductory workshops” in the studios for Mold Making, Ceramics, Screen Printing, Printing and Metal Workshop, and in February will also be doing Letterpress. There are many others available in technology – 3D printing, Photography, Green Screen, Film and Audio, Virtual Reality, etc. but I swore I was never, ever, doing any of that again once I got through the courses at college. And I’m sticking to that.

The studios here at the University of Plymouth are extremely well equipped with a full-time technicians there to instruct, advise and assist!

Mold Making was a bit of a refresher for me, but the great equipment, facility and materials are something I’ve not been able to access on my own! I am going to be using it to create the main work for this year’s art project.

The first photo here is the silicone mold – I’d sculpted a relief portrait of Pippa (my furry friend who wakes me up every morning) and the next shows the results.

We also made some coasters.

The next was the Metal Workshop – I was curious as I though I might use metalwork in some capacity, but this is heavy duty metalwork! Interesting, but not something I think I’ll dabble in. Too much physicality involved for this old tired body. Plus, using a forge and different types of welders are a little out of my comfort zone! Also, couldn’t use the electric powered arc welder anyway due to metal implants in my body… go figure.

Then I did Ceramics – we got to build a pot. I think it is being fired as it has been missing from the shelf in the studio for a couple of weeks. I hope to see it again soon. I intend it to be a garlic pot.

I will be using clay to create my main work, which is then going to be cast to make a mold.

The next one was Screen Printing. This was fun. I wasn’t able to access Photoshop (long story, would take a whole post up just telling it!) so made up acetates of a drawing (the single rose) by hand at home using black acrylic paint. I wasn’t sure if the image I really wanted to do could be done the morning of the workshop. Ended up the tech in the print shop/paper stores was helping everyone photoshop and print their acetates, so I was able to get my skull illustration separated and printed.

As I had two sets of acetates ready I was able to make the screens to do two different prints, which was great. I was able to try two ways of aligning the second colours – the second (on the single rose) worked way better for me.

The last workshop was the Printshop. It was a two-day workshop, but as I have a medical appointment on the second day, I arranged to go in last Thursday (just for three hours rather than all day) to cover it with the technician by myself. The first day was Relief (woodcut, linocut, etc.) and Intaglio (etching, etc.) – I’d done some linocut before. I didn’t find these techniques of much interest/use to me.

BUT… the second session was Planographic Monoprints. THIS was brilliant and I think I will be doing a lot more of it! The technician said I had “a flair for it.”

It is a very enjoyable process, creating the different impressions of the monotype. The only problem is cranking the antique press – my elbow is still extremely painful – the cranking was done on Thursday afternoon, it is now Sunday afternoon.

I hope to be able to work on my sculpture in the Mold Making Studio this week… I have my armature ready to go. I’ll use waste clay (texture isn’t important) to do the sculpt, then we have to cast the mold. I think it has to be a two-part mold, but all that is going to have to be discussed with the technician once I have the item in the studio to show her. I need to make at least six casts so the mold needs to be durable.

All in all I am having a great time. There is also a Woodshop on campus and I really want to check that out too.

The dog days of summer ended, and I missed it

Apparently, the Dog Days of Summer ended on August 11th. I looked it up. The term refers to the hottest days of Summer, which lasted until a little over a week ago around here. The change was quite dramatic in our garden. We went from close to 30C to 20C daytime highs. We were getting sun from around 10 a.m. as it appeared over the buildings to hit the back fence, then as it moved, the rest of the garden would get time in direct sun until close to 8 p.m. in the evening. This last week it is now starting to hit the back fence around 1:30 p.m. and a strip of around four feet of ground along the fence until 4:30 p.m. Everything stuck in all-day shade in the rest of the garden has reverted to Autumn shutdown stage.

I did a bit of clean-up by removing summer squash plants that haven’t been productive and are stuck in 100% shade now. Even though they were blooming, all the flowers were male so no fruit. The last of the zucchini has several small fruits on it but they’ve been the same size for around three weeks! Not sure what’s up with that. Also pulled out done flowers and other vegetables, pruned the plum tree (apparently they need to be done late summer, not while dormant,) and have started cleaning up planters.

The cucumbers are in a perfect spot up high on the wall and are still getting all the sun – and being productive. And I move my peppers around to follow the sun as they are in pots.

Mini cucumber

Hot peppers

4 mini cucumber plants in planter

I’ve finally been able to make pickles!! Refrigerator pickles as I’ve no inclination to do actual canning – an issue of space for storage really. They’ll get eaten fast enough.

I was not able to find PROPER sour dill pickles here in the UK. So I made my own and they are fabulous! Salty and sour with garlic like I was used to getting in Canada. Everything here in the UK is sweet… EVERYTHING. It is crazy.

homemade refrigerator pickles

homemade refrigerator pickles

I had six pint jars which worked out well for the amount of room I had available in the fridge. I’ve already consumed most of the cucumber dills from my first jar. I made four jars of pickles so far, with a fifth jar that is just brine, ready to add the next batch of cucumbers to. And if my hot peppers ripen I’ll pickle them too!

One jar is just cucumbers from the garden; one is “recycling” a jar of gherkins that weren’t sour enough for me with added red pepper and some mushrooms; one is recycling supposedly “New York Deli Style” pickles that in no way resembled deli style dill pickles (I couldn’t bear to throw out perfectly good food product!) with green and red peppers; and one is asparagus. I’m quite happy now. No one else in the house likes pickles so they are all mine!

I’ve been on a baking kick this week making cookies. I’ve been trying new “keto/low carb” recipes I’ve found online. They all need tweaking to suit me better, but are tasty nonetheless! I made a Tahini Chocolate Nib cookie and a Almond/Peanut Butter Brownie cookie. I substituted things based on what I had – using chocolate nibs instead of chips, using some peanut butter as I only had half the required almond butter, etc.

Almond & Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies

Tahini Chocolate Nib Cookies

The Tahini cookies need more tahini (recipe was half butter, half tahini,) needed to be flattened, less time and lower temp. The Brownie cookies need more moisture (I will probably add cream cheese next time) and need to be a bit flatter. But they did turn out and are not crumbling in my hand.

I am painting my bedroom. Last Sunday I did the front wall… almost died. I was up most of the night with vicious cramps in my upper thighs which I think were from balancing on the step ladder. Not fun – took almost four days for the tightness to ease. BUT, am happy with this wall. Anne is going to paint the opposite wall for me – says she’ll be MUCH faster and can cut in better than me. I won’t argue!

I managed to match the paint colour with my curtains without taking the fabric along to match – I’ve a very good eye/memory for colours. I had an ink & watercolour I did a couple years ago that is a perfect piece to go on the green wall so I got a frame for it.

Before

Matched the colours

Not bad on cutting in

Finished with curtains back up

Ink and watercolour work

Framed art up now

This wall painting project is making me frame up a lot of the art I kept and get it on display. The new paint is making the other walls look bad, but I’m not up to painting THAT much. I’ll just cover them with lots of art.

Oh yeah… today is my one year anniversary of arriving in England! I can’t believe that much time has passed already. And we still are dealing with the bloody pandemic. At some point I hope I’ll be able to start travelling around Europe on short trips like I had been planning for the last seven years! I am not comfortable with the travel situation (virus, delays, unrest, etc.) so will keep occupied locally.

August 27, 2021 – Arrived at Heathrow (the mask stayed on until the car park!)

Double vaxed at last

On Tuesday I got my second dose! My original second appointment was for August 6th, but lots of supply has been arriving and the Delta variant is gaining ground so the provincial government started opening it up. As of this past weekend everyone can book. I was automatically notified of my rescheduled appointment by the clinic I had my first one at.

The challenge for many is getting booked through the online system, which isn’t necessarily easy. There are pop-up clinics in hot spots too. On Sunday June 27th the City of Toronto and Scotiabank Centre (where the Maple Leafs and Raptors play at home) held a clinic all-day and vaccinated 26,771 people! A new world record for the most vaccinations in one day. The previous record was 17,001 in Texas in April.

I am glad my appointment was at 8 a.m.; it was already 24C and I was walking there. I don’t like heat. When I got home before 9, it was up to 26C and I was pretty uncomfortable. Thank god for A/C. I really feel horrible for everyone out west getting hit with the record breaking heat wave – the city I moved here from is in the mid-high 40s right now. I am so glad I’m not out there.

It was really busy at the clinic too. They’ve got the drive-thru option going with two lanes, and inside the rink was packed (socially distant, of course). Way busier than when I went for my first shot. But it was moving very fast. I was in line inside by 7:57, shot in the arm by 8:04, then had to wait 30 minutes (historically I’ve had a vaccine reaction), and was home by 8:45.

I remembered to take my little sketch book with me this time, so the 30 minutes went by in a blink while I was sketching some ideas for a commission.

And the only reaction I had was a sore upper arm around the injection site, again, same as the first shot. So that was great.

There are lots more doses in the pipeline so it looks pretty good for most Canadians to be fully vaxed by the end of summer, which is awesome. I will, however, be continuing to wear a mask for quite some time. I like not catching colds and having a reduced allergy response to pollen! Plus, no sunburned nose.

My plans for heading abroad are moving along – visa applied for, flight booked, notice given to landlord, selling/donating/disposing of stuff, bought two huge suitcases and fully vaxed! Now I just have to wait and hold my breath… and hope for no delays.

I finally stopped working on my thesis project “Anthropocene of the Crime.” I got the additional paintings I decided to do finished, and did end up doing just one more to make it a nice round total of 60 threatened species.

Giant Armadillo (listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List) the last painting, species #60

We did our live virtual show and artist’s talk with the Robert McLaughlin Gallery on Zoom on June 14th… still waiting for a link from them to share with everyone, once they have it up on their website. This is the link to the live presentation invite that quotes our professor and the featured art is my project: http://rmg.on.ca/events/emerging-visions-artist-talks/ I’m hoping they’ll post the recording soon.

The project is still up in the studio for now. We are supposed to hear from BMO 1st Art around July 9th on the results of their judging. Then I’ll be taking it down and, if I happened to be the chosen Ontario artist I’ll have to mount it all on a sheet of plywood to be transported to their show, if not (most likely) I’ll just retrieve my paintings and scrap the rest. Some of the paintings have been spoken for and there are some I want to keep.

My project blog, which covers all the species I’ve painted and explains my project, is at https://anthropoceneofthecrime.wordpress.com

The final and complete crime investigation board of “Anthropocene of the Crime”

Received my credentials in the mail yesterday. I have to say I was underwhelmed. I was expecting the college to include some swag at least, not just a cardboard mailer with the diploma inside. I’ve seen what other schools have sent their grads and was expecting there would be something. They didn’t even include what normally is given out at convocation in a normal year.

They saved massively on the budget for convocation for two years now, and they also kept charging us ancillary fees for services and facilities that were NOT available during lockdown – so why couldn’t they have at least provided a decorative folder for the diplomas?

It truly is, literally, just a bloody expensive piece of paper.

Day 447 (of the Pandemic)

Another month gone and we’re getting close to summer now – just three weeks until it is official.

The last 14+ months have seemed like both the longest AND the shortest of my life. Time has dragged out something awful, but also things have happened and gone by so quickly.

My timeline for moving abroad is now less than three months – 87 days precisely. That is the date my lease here is up, so that is the date I’ve been aiming for as a departure date. However, now that it has been announced by the Provincial government that our second vaccinations are being moved up due to lots of supply, I may be able to go sooner! My current appointment is August 6th, but if I can get one in July I could leave at the beginning of August instead of the end.

There are a lot of things that have to be done in a specific order, and then all the rest of the details that one has to take care of when moving, and moving internationally takes it to a more intense level.

I’ve continued to paint more threatened species to add into my thesis project. I ended up installing my display in our studio on campus and finished it for photographs on the 13th of May. After that I decided to keep painting. I’m enjoying the process and it is keeping me occupied going over to the studio to work on them.

This is my thesis project, which I call “Anthropocene of the Crime.” In this there are 43 paintings of 45 different species that are under threat. Along with information, articles and papers on the threats to the species’ survival, suspects, and lots of string.

I have completed another eight paintings, and have six more in progress, that I am going to add into this before we do our “Live Virtual Show & Artists’ Talk” for the Robert McLaughlin Gallery on June 14th. Most are smaller – ten are 3×4 inches, with four 5×7 inches – and will fit in where there are openings in the existing layout. With those included there will be a total of 57 paintings of 59 different species… I feel like I need to do one more to make it an even 60.

When I was mounting it and putting in the map pins, I suddenly realized that I had somehow missed including any South American species! Oops. So I did three the next day to add in before photographing, and I’ve also added another species in the batch I’m currently painting.

I shot a video explaining the project and what is on the crime investigation board in detail and posted it to YouTube. Here’s the link Antropocene of the Crime – it is just under nine minutes. I wasn’t sure how it would work, as I was holding my camera and talking without planning a script, but it turned out well enough that I’m willing to share it.

I am working on a dedicated blog to accompany my project – as we aren’t having a public display it loses impact completely. In the blog I will have each painting posted with information about the species on their own page, with links and other information. It actually will provide a lot more in-depth detail than just examining the physical display in person, and show off each painting individually. There are a year’s worth of paintings in this project!

The blog is called “Anthropocene of the Crime” (of course) and once I’ve got the last batch of paintings finished and the photos added to the blog, it will be ready to go live. It will be available no later than June 14th when we do our virtual show, but I’ll put it up as soon as I’ve got it ready.

The current batch I’m working on. The eight on the left side are finished, and the rest tomorrow maybe.

I am planning to create note card sets with all the paintings and possibly prints and other items. So I’ve scanned them all as I’ve been finishing them. That’s a summer project, along with a low carb cookbook/e-book a friend is insisting I put together. I scanned all my recipes and once I’m done with this whole thesis project, I’ll start working on that.

Day 416 (of the Pandemic)

And so it continues. We are back in a hard lockdown here because of record numbers of cases with the third wave of Covid, full ICUs, younger people dying very quickly from the variants… and a slow vaccination rollout.

I was able to get my first Pfizer vaccine on April 16 – I was really emotional about it. I had to wait 30 minutes after it and while I was sitting there I starting crying. Combination of relief and letting go of some of the fear I think. Also was the biggest group of people I’d seen in over a year.

School finished on April 16th – my three-year Diploma is complete. I am still working on my Thesis project in anticipation of our grad show, however, that may not be happening at the gallery – we don’t know yet. The lockdowns have caused the public galleries all sorts of issues so we don’t really know what will be happening. Our prof has called an online meeting with everyone for Monday. I still need to get mine assembled and photographed in the next week or so to submit to the BMO 1st Art! Competition.

Very happy with my marks again. This semester I received 100%, 100%, 99%, 97% and 93%. The 93% was 3D Printing which stressed me out a lot, so I am very pleased and relieved about that. Another 5.0 GPA – so for four of my seven semesters I had a 5.0, that makes my average GPA 4.98.

The two lowest grades I had were in my first year: 86% in Photography and 87% in Digital Drawing. I did not know any of the programs that people were using for Digital Drawing as I’d never done any (had zero interest in it and that has not changed.) I was pretty lost and, as we were told to “use what you know,” I ended up using the Windows photo editor, Paint, Word and Excel. It wasn’t fun but I managed to do the projects, but I wasn’t happy with any of them.

Photography was challenging due to my sight and hand problems – I can’t see the manual camera controls without my prescription and even then it is still difficult; and I can’t see the subject with my glasses on. I also can’t hold the camera and manipulate controls at the same time as I have grip problems. Was so frustrating. I would take 400-600 photos for each assignment and wouldn’t know if I had anything useable until I got them on the computer. I would just randomly change settings without knowing what they were until I could check the metadata and hope I’d used the right ones! By fluke I nailed a couple of the assignments and got really high marks, which made up for the duds. LOL Very frustrating as I can take pretty good photos… on AUTO SETTING!

When our final grades posted I copied and sent my transcript off to the schools that I have conditional offers from for finishing my degree. IT/Sligo, the Irish school, immediately sent a new unconditional offer letter.

With the state of the pandemic I am waiting to make a decision on my offers – I do not want to continue with online learning. While I did well, I did not enjoy it, nor do I feel I learned as much as I could have with in-person instruction and the interaction with other students. As a international student the tuition and fees will be very high (for instance, at my current school they are six times more than domestic students pay.) I want the in-person, hands-on, social interaction aspect to be there; it is a huge expense and I want the most I can get out of it. I will leave it as late as I can to make that decision, and hope that if I do decide to go that I can still find private living arrangements! If not, I will defer for a year.

It seems that most schools are anticipating a “blended” delivery model – some in-person and some remote. But things are in such a state of flux. Part of the issue is that the 18-24 age groups are not being targeted for vaccination in most places yet. Seems that the schools are looking at the number of people vaccinated on campus as the marker for how much they can open back-up.

I’ve got extensive lists of things I need to do preparing to move overseas, but there is an order that they have to be done in and getting the process going involves making the decision about which school’s offer to accept or defer for a year. I’ve got just over a month before processes have to start – visa applications, finding accommodations, making deposits… some things can be on pretty short notice (like booking flights… right now super easy) but others it can be a couple of months.

Here are some of the 41 paintings of 43 threatened species that are part of my final Thesis project. This part of the work is done, and now I start on the actual physical construction and assembly.

I’m really pleased with how these have all turned out. Of course I have my favourites, and there are one or two that I may actually not use in the final display as they didn’t translate as I had hoped. But I am happy with this body of work.

It’s New Year’s Eve – Day 298 (of the Pandemic)

I was thinking of waiting until Day 300, but decided to just go ahead with this on New Year’s Eve.

I’ve made a bit of a tradition of posting my version of a year-in-review here, but, honestly feel like there isn’t much to say about 2020 that hasn’t been covered or isn’t worth mentioning at all.

We’ve all been dealing with the same issues around the world, to different degrees – depending on your country and/or jurisdiction’s response to the Pandemic and related issues.

Here in Ontario, Canada, we are in lockdown again. Record daily totals of new cases (2,923 yesterday) almost everyday. We’ve politicians taking their family on international vacations for Christmas and posting misleading “Christmas” greetings that make it look like they are at home talking about how this Christmas is different! Bastards. Meanwhile, those of us who are worried, scared and following public health restrictions are spending our time alone in our homes.

The good news is that the vaccines are here. Based on news reports yesterday, I should be able to get it sometime between April and July… at least, that’s their “schedule” for now. As I am planning to attend post-grad studies abroad in the autumn I really need to get that done! Presuming that the Pandemic travel bans and protocols are eased up by then to allow for it.

So, for what it’s worth, here’s my rather subdued year-in-review:

• Major highlight for me was for both semesters in 2020 my GPA was 5.0 which puts my overall GPA at 4.96.
• The college went into full lockdown mid-March so we had to finish up the semester at home – even the studio classes. My plans for final projects all went out the window and I had to improvise at home. Home is student housing – 126 square feet of space of my own – which doesn’t allow for large builds or even flat works bigger than 18×20 inches. But I managed.
• Fall semester was, for Fine Arts, a combination. Our two studio classes were on campus – they split us up into smaller groups in different studios to maintain social distancing while there (although many people don’t grasp the concept!) The rest were live on-line classes.
• Got my African Violet to bloom!

• I was Hair & Make-Up lead for Pride & Prejudice at the Oshawa Little Theatre – show ran in January and ended mid-February – right before the shit hit the fan. It actually seems like it was longer ago than that at this point.
• In January took a workshop on How to Become A Successful Artist – lots of useful information from Tim Packer in Oshawa.
• Managed to break the little toes on BOTH feet (at different times) during lockdown. I’ve since wrapped the leg of my bed with a towel and duct tape to stop doing that!
• I sold my car at the end of August as I wasn’t using it enough to justify the insurance and parking costs.
• I completed the Institute of Student Leadership’s program and was awarded their non-academic certificate. This involved social education, attending the summit/conference, volunteer hours and campus involvement.
• Did some art classes online for fun – watercolours and pencil crayons in particular.
• Started a monthly challenge for January and actually completed the month.
• Participated in many webinars over the summer on social issues, learned a lot.
• Had a mixed media piece accepted into a juried show at the Station Gallery in Whitby.
• Took part in National Portfolio Day online and talked to many schools around the world about transferring to finish a degree. I’ve started the application process for a few for both BFA and MFA programs.
• Applied for scholarships – not successfully so far. But I keep trying!
• Was alone in my unit for around four months without any roommates. Three went home at lockdown in March, and the fourth moved out in May. So I was all alone until September. Was nice as I didn’t have the stress of worrying about contamination.
• I started keeping a “Pandemic Journal” on my Facebook timeline in March when the WHO declared the pandemic. I post every evening with the new total worldwide numbers, local updates, and some personal things.
• And, last but not least… I cut my hair, MYSELF, on Christmas Eve. I could not take it anymore! I hate it touching my ears or neck. And I did an excellent job of it considering I did it by touch only, no mirror! Full disclosure – I do know how to cut hair on other people, but have never done more than trim around the front on myself before. I keep it very short and “feathered” so the fact that it is lying smoothly after basically grabbing and hacking thrills me.

Here is one of the latest works I’ve completed – this is the companion piece to one I shared in my last blog post of Conservation successes. This is of Extinctions we’ve caused, the concept is the various species crossing over the Rainbow Bridge to become constellations in the night sky. It’s 8.5 x 11″ watercolour/ink and pencil crayon and will be published in a local arts magazine that will be featuring the art of the students in our program.

I wish everyone the absolute best of health and happiness in the New Year. Be safe and we’ll get through this.

Day 287 (of the Pandemic)

I’m glad that the vaccines are finally in play, but this is going to get much worse before it gets better. Numbers are soaring here. I’m still staying away from people as much as possible and I have to say I really miss interacting and conversing with people. Not that I was ever a social butterfly but I was busy with volunteering and my make-up/face painting business, school and work and that provided contact with lots of people.

Friday was the last day of the Fall semester and also was timetable selection for the next. There is only one course scheduled for on campus at this point which is our Studio Thesis class. All the rest are now online. If everything here goes back to total lockdown like they did in the Spring, there is a possibility that class too, may end up remote. Which is NOT good. Hard to work on large studio projects when you can’t work in the studio.

Marks are out on Tuesday and I have my applications pretty much ready to send off to degree granting schools as soon as I have the marks. I’m applying to both BFA and MFA programs abroad.

Close to 95% of all the work I did this semester tied into my thesis theme of Threatened and Endangered Species. Here are some of the final works as submitted:

This is a painting Conservation successes (so far) – species that humans managed to save by taking action. The assignment was to produce two images suitable for publication (8.5 x 11″) in an arts magazine, on a social cause or issue. The companion piece is of Extinctions that humans caused.

This is my elephant mixed materials sculpture at the stage he was at for final review and marking. I’ve still a fair amount to tweak! Each stage I spot something that isn’t quite right (to my eyes) and have to do some alterations. As long as we are on campus next semester I will be able to finish him.

This is one work that didn’t fit my overall theme. The assignment was to research an ideology and narrow down a focus. I ended up concentrating on women’s reproductive rights being out of their control. I was horrified to learn about symphysiotomy and pubiotomy – I mean, sick to my stomach horrified. And these were still being performed in Ireland at a catholic hospital up until the 1990s and are still being used in the developing world. I’m not going to get on my soapbox but the fact that women were not informed of the procedures, were not aware of them, gave no consent and went into delivery thinking everything was fine… to only wake up to to find themselves in a hammock with their legs tied together for months because their pelvic cartilage or their entire pelvic bone had been severed to get the baby out easier… and most women NEVER properly healed and were in pain the rest of their lives. I’m getting irate again typing this!

I did this mixed media piece for this project. It is called “The Garden of Men” and is collage on acrylic and stretched canvas. I did a lot of drawings of the female reproductive system, scanned them, replicated many times, printed, coloured, cut them out (got blisters from the scissors) and made this collage garden out of them.

And this is one of the 17 paintings I completed in my main thesis project. This is a Kakapo, a flightless parrot from New Zealand who is critically endangered. They are the only flightless parrot, the heaviest and the longest lived (around 100 years.) Conservation efforts started in the 1890s but weren’t successful until the 1990s when they took drastic measures and cleared two islands of all predators and relocated every specimen they could find to the islands. They only found 49 to relocate so the genetic pool is limited and unfortunately issues are developing.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas (at home please!) and here’s to a healthy and happy New Year for the whole world.

Day 225 (of the Pandemic)

This has been a long seven and a half months and the second wave is surging. I’m guessing next spring before we will know if we’ll be able to start resuming old activities. I know I’m in no rush.

Areas around me are having to roll back to previous restrictions due to the increase in confirmed cases. And watching the numbers around the world the wave seems to be more of a tidal wave – in Belgium for instance with over 10,000 new cases per day.

I have two classes on campus and today we were informed that as of this Thursday if we are to be on campus we have to do an online assessment to get permission to access. We have to do it every single day we have to go on campus, permission is for only that day. Three standard “self screening” questions. Are you sick? Have you travelled? Have you been in contact with a case? Then they send you an email giving you permission to enter – which you have to show to gain access.

I’m perturbed as I don’t use a smart phone and resources to print off emails daily aren’t readily available – so how am I supposed to show this permission? I’ve sent off an inquiry.

Latest art projects are progressing. Prepped 21 more canvases with the base colours for my thesis project over the last couple of weeks. Last week I started working on the subjects. I’ve finished 13 of the total 35 planned works.

First batch are all 8 x 10″, and the second has 4 x 12″, 6 x 6″ and 5 x 7″.

Did a prototype for my Fabrication project, sort of. It showed me my original idea wasn’t going to work, so I switched gears. This is a 6 x 10″ shadow box with a white rhino I made with glass seed beads. The final project is going to be 24 x 24″ and not a rhino and will use found objects. I only used the beads I had available so the contrast of the shading on the body isn’t as striking as it could be – silver outline and detail with gold fill. I quite like how it turned out.

I also did some art on leaves for one of my online classes – it was a sustainable theme so I created a surface out of dried leaves and non-toxic materials to do my illustrations. I made four “leaf paper sheets” but only used two.

I can peel off the white – it was child safe non-toxic paint, and the leaves can be used for something else. And I know it will peel off as it started doing so while I was drawing!

Halloween this year is so quiet. Very strange for me as for over 20 years it was such a big deal working flat out doing make-up for clients and events for most of the autumn, and particularly the two weeks leading up to the big day. With the virus things are very low key everywhere.

Just as a throwback – here is one of my many favourite Halloween make-ups done on a client.

Have a nice Halloween, whatever you end up doing or not doing! And stay safe.