New Studio... Courses Offered Soon!!!

I just went by my soon-to-be-new-studio today. Saw the friendly land-lady again, paid the rest of May's rent... and got the keys!!! I didn't think I'd have access 'til May, but Landlady is nice. Happy happy!

So in the next couple of days, I will be heading over there with tape-measure and papers and pen in hand. Like any time that I start in on a new space (for example, back in 2002 when I bought my home in Courtenay, BC) I like to make a little "dream-map" of what I imagine things could be like there. I want to set this place up well, so that I utilise the space to its best. Shelving, extra lighting... things that will make it all the better.

I will be teaching courses in this space for kids, teens, and adults. The courses will be administered through the Salamander Arts Centre, but people can contact me directly, too. There will be courses in felt-making, painting, and mixed media stuff. The kids' courses will run mostly in the summer, and the teens/adults right through 'til Christmas. When I have the exact dates and times worked out, I'll provide a link to the lists. In the adult courses, we will make things like felt scarves, felt coasters, felt purses, felt beads, felt cat-toys...

The painting course for adults that I will offer is one that I had designed a few years back, and offered in the Comox Valley... however there was never enough interest in it then. I am hoping that in all of Montreal I will find 4-8 people who would like to "Add Depth To Painting"! It will be a fun course, despite the dry name. Depth is a good, good thing!

Anyhow, I must get on to packing things around the home that will be transferred over there, now. Soon I'll get movers to come and haul furniture and etc for me, so I need to get a-boxin' up. I'll also need to shift stuff from my old, shared studio space to home in the next couple of weeks...

Busy, happy, exciting time! Really, living the dream.

I am not really a blogger

I am not really a blogger... Just looked at "last published" and it was over four months ago. WELL!!! I HAVE been working one day a week, so am waaaaay too busy for writing! Ok, not really.

To make a long, rambling story a tiny bit more succinct, I am going to be renting a studio of my own, starting in May. I will be offering classes and workshops for kids, teens, and grownups in felt-making as well as painting. Some of the kids' summer programmes will be mixed-media creations... should be fun!!!

When I'm not teaching over these next few months, I am planning to work on paintings. The new line o' paintings will be based on the format of music... here, to absolutely bore you, is my proposal that I just sent out for a grant recently:

"In this project, I will produce a new group of paintings that are based on the structure of musical forms. In the recent past I have made works that are based on the structure of poetic forms, namely the Sonnet and the Ghazal. I intend to give some musical forms a similar treatment in paint.

Rhythm, line, form, pattern, texture, body, repetition… many art-terms are also musical ones. What could happen if some of the strict rules of format are taken from one realm (music) and applied to another (painting)?

I will research forms of music, then assign codes and indications for myself as to how to represent the specific rules of music formats in a visual sense. Some examples of musical genres I am thinking of… Classical, Hip-Hop, Maritime and Quebecois Folk/Traditional. I will narrow down and specify which particular musical formats I will use during the research stage.

When I paint these new pieces, I will apply a sense of landscape to them. This sense of landscape would be inspired by the musical genres, themselves… as well as being a situation that the viewer of the work could imagine themselves as inhabiting. I hope to give the viewers of this work a unique experience; a point of reflection and contemplation.

For six months of work, I anticipate to make about 12-15 major pieces… large-scale paintings. I will also make a number of smaller studies, sketches and small paintings. The large-scale works would be about 5’x5’."

OK. So if anyone's made it through that, you win a prize!!! A pat on the back.

If I do (and, if I don't) get that grant, the next series of works will be based on an old, old, old proposal (well, about four years old) that I had made to create "Impossible Views"... paintings that are based on mirrors, corners, and... stuff. Hard to explain. You've already had way too much reading. Later, later. You'll get a pat on the back for that one, too.

Things are going well, in general.

N

Some Good Old Fashioned Resolve

It's time for the annual list of hopes, plans, and things I'd like to accomplish/put into gear this year. I drew out a general timeline for the stuff I want to get done, and then boiled it down to some generic things. Then I made some sub-lists and stuff... it's a long and drawn-out, complicated process. A recipe for my next year, in a way.

But you'll get the short version and here it is:

**********

-slice the potatoes
-put them in the oven with some olive oil
-make a packet of gravy
-buy some cheesecurds.

When the potatoes are all done in the oven, put the gravy and cheesecurds on top. Enjoy!

**********

Haha, just kidding. Here's my short version of this year's resolves and stuff:

-have more art exhibitions
-do more vounteer work
-do more teaching of art
-apply for grad school

Yay! That is all do-able. I'll try to not have poutine so often, too.

I Am Trying To Post A Recipe...

I am trying to post my Mom`s infamous recipe for Peanut Butter Balls. The issue here, is that Google or my computer or `someone`` thinks that I am typing in another language.

So... sometimes things are printed that shouldn`t be so.

OK. I`ll do it anyway. At least I have a good excuse for typos... It`s in Lithuanian!!! Haha. Ha. Ha. :(

Mom`s Infamous Peanut Butter Balls

1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Icing Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla
3é4 Cup finely chopped Peanuts

Combine. Shape into balls, store in fridge overnight.

Coat with chocolate!

I use either belgian choc, or semi-sweet... note peanut butter is a little sweet already, and you add SUGAR to it, so don`t worry if your coc isn`t sweet.

I meant``Three Quarters of a Cup`` where it said something weird.

OK!

N

The Craft Rat

As some of you are well aware, I sell things like felt wool scarves and my smaller paintings and prints of paintings on an Etsy page (http://HendersonArt.etsy.com/, in case you didn't hear about it yet...)

As of yesterday evening, I now have a second storefront on Etsy... this one's purpose is to showcase more punk styled things. I'm starting with the first item, a men's scarf that incorporates trash in it! Seriously, go check it out. http://TheCraftRat.etsy.com/

A huge thanks goes out to my punk friend Greg, who also has an Etsy shop (it's empty at the moment, but I'll link to it from TheCraftRat as soon as it's not!)

Cheers and happy holidays to you all.

To Jog Or Not To Jog... That Is The Question

I have the sniffles. Should I jog? It's a sunny day. Heaven knows that soon enough I'll be looking out onto overlapping blizzards.

I'll jog. I hear that gentle exercise improves the immune system...

Yesterday I spent the day (well, about 8:30 to 2:30) out in St. Lambert, for a professional development day with ArtsSmarts. I'll be guiding an entire elementary school through making a big wall-hanging of some sort. As with ArtsSmarts projects, a lot of the goal is collaboration and process and spontaneity and hand-on problem-solving. So although I have some lesson-plans worked out, the whole project is really by, for, and about the students themselves. I am really, really excited about this!!! I'll teach 106 students how to make felt.

Speaking of felt, tomorrow I will have 20 scarves at a table in Ottawa, for a cool craft fair my friend is in. She offered to take some scarves in an amazing fit of generosity! In the meantime, I am churning out the things in an attempt to re-build my stock. Considering I now am fully self-employed (or freelance, depending on what term you like) it is important to just keep on chugging. And on that note, time to hit the road... jogging!

On Drivers Who Must Be Allergic To Their Brake-Pedals

I went for a walk today, to try and buy some wool. The wool-shop was closed, but it was a gorgeous day for a walk. I ended up buying some delicious food from the store, of which I have eaten a healthy amount.

In the process of reaching the closed wool-shop, I was almost schmunched by a car.

It was a silver car, quite nice, and the driver was turning a corner in full view of moi. I was crossing the street on a green light in the cross-walk. The car swerved a little, like to try and "sneak by" me, but then realised it wouldn't work so they ACTUALLY tapped their brakes. I still had to run a little in order to not be clipped.

This event gave me the excuse to, once again, in my country-girl, trucker-swearing, backwaters-chick manner, to shoot the driver "the bird". It felt good, for a minute, then I was angry. I walked off the steam, up to the closed wool-shop and back home (via the market for previously-mentioned delicious-foodstuffs).

Now, I came to a job-search conclusion. Is it possible to be an undercover vigilante who hands out citizen's arrests AND is it possible to get paid for this? That would be an easy job.