One more for the show tomorrow

Nature : Not nature

Karin Millson 2012

hand made papers, potassium premanganate dye, rust dye, found fabric, stitch, ink
on acid free board

Price $160

What of these, - "What does it matter" - pieces ?

Following a new philosophy, I am giving these small pieces the names Nova I and Nova II.
They are for sale with the price tag - "Donation to a charity of your choice."

 Nova I      karin millson, 2012

 Nova II      karin millson, 2012

Any comments? Be gentle.
If you want to see some wonderful photographs of night skies go to Astronomy Photographer of the year, here.  But be quick I am not sure how long the BBC will leave that page up.

Have you been here?

The Shop at Reader Rock Garden, Calgary

Reader Rock Garden is a designated provincial historic site in downtown Calgary.  It  features the Reader Rock cafe, a study room and other facilities which are at the centre of a beautiful garden, dissected by meandering paths and streams.

In the house is a newly-opened gallery which houses a rapidly-growing and diversifying eclectic collection of visual art.  Stunning photographs, fibre and glass art,  mixed media and pottery... some quirky, even insider art, some traditional works are sometimes wall-hung, or framed by shabby chic, wooden doors and window frames.  Across the other side of the small gallery are shelves and tables with assorted 'antiques' ( I feel I have to put that in quote marks as I am English and used to truly ancient antiques) and relicts from past lives in Canada and elsewhere.

Artists represented here are all local and range from the aspiring to very well-established.
I am very pleased to have some of my work nestled alongside the strange: tree-climbing bears depicted on ??repurposed?? dried fungal growths or the stunning: digitally printed images by Harry Palmer for example.

This is a venue that is going to settle down into a very special niche and I am extremely fortunate to have been asked to show my work here. It is a gallery to go to especially when you are looking for something quirky or of a particular style; I can imagine this place becoming a mecca for interior designers or film/advertising agency photographers who are looking for props.  So let's see how my work does there.

I don't know how/why things happen the way they do, but it certainly gives a satisfying feeling when things fall into a comfortable place without being asked to do so... this is far more satisfying than pushing, pushing, pushing to make things work.

This gallery is not trying to be a high end fine arts store.  It already has its own personality:   One that registers well with its eco-environment: It sits well in my mind. 

More details about The Reader Rock Garden - read on or click here:-
"This historic garden is a tribute to one man's passion for plants and beauty.  William Roland Reader was the Superintendent for The City of Calgary Parks 1913-1942 who transformed a bare hillside into an internationally-acclaimed garden.
During the turn of the century it was common for horticulturalists to collect alpine plants on their travels and create gardens as living artifacts of their journeys.  Reader actively engaged in this practice and for 30 years the Garden trialled over 4000 different plant species, making it one of the few significant gardens in western Canada.  Reader used the Garden as a showplace to educate people about the gardening potential of the prairie/foothills region of Alberta, particularly Calgary.
Lovingly rehabilitated according to Reader's original plans, the garden blooms from mid-March to mid-November. "

Please scroll down to see evite for Worked up

I discovered an interesting website when scrolling around looking for images of industrial felt to show the itsy bitsys at River Valley School on Friday.

Out in town today, visited the location for Worked Up, it is what folks call "an intimate space" and should look stunning with all the works I have been promised.

After checking that out I moseyed down to the Epcor Building as I often do when I am "in town".  sometimes I am unlucky and they are between shows.  But this time I hit the jackpot because CBBAG have two wonderfully full windows.

I particularly enjoyed Susan Kristoferson's paper and Wendy Passmore Godfrey's book.

Wendy Passmore-Godfrey - The bookwork grew up on a diet of pulp fiction.  2012
Sorry Susan, but my photos of your pieces were unfortunate!
Difficult setting for photography - that is.

Below are works by Diana Un-Jin Cho  

The work of Diana Un-Jin Cho is inspirational, and I will direct my students' attention to these most colourful works (that draw on Korean and Canadian influences) during our workshop next week.

I haven't been in there for while, clearly, as I hadn't seen the new murals... I love the puppet boy and the very long-legged ballerina...

On my return to Art Central, we were fortunate, Cheryl and I, to see these gentlemen creating a sand mandala - I haven't seen anything like it before and I found it most moving. If you can get to Art Central on Friday they will be moving all the sand together and giving pieces away to signify compassion.  I do hope some of you can make it.

I had seen it earlier in the morning but covered with a perspex box.. so this is the best image I have, sorry about the reflections... the detail is exquisite. Believe me.

Cheryl treated me to lunch and I had the pleasure of seeing her 4 art works that are ready for the show.
We had a great chin wag over lunch and there are exciting times ahead.... stay tuned.
We were eating in Cafe Rosso, the coffee shop at the bottom/in the Telus Convention centre... good Paninnis.  How does one spell that ...These up-cycled shingles were a stunning display on one wall.  I would love to give credit where credit is due, the artists is Karen Scarlet

What of my own work... This was all work today!
Hmmm, bit of felting preps for class and some abstraction.... That is like distraction but is good for one's creative well-being.

Worked Up

 - As I said I am not, but I am exhibiting along with 11 excellent artists who I do admire.

[Illustrated art by Linda Hawke,  evite design:Bobbie Olson ]

Congratulations to SDA members and other local and not so local surface designers, 12 in all, who have come together to exhibit work developed after being inspired by Jason Pollen.:-

Cheryl Atkinson, Arlee Barr, Anne Fetterly, Linda Hawke, Susan Kristoferson, 

Siri McCormick, Karin Millson, Bobbie Olson, Michelle Sirois-Silver,

Judy Weiss, Barbara Worden and Saaraliisa Ylitalo

Do come along to the opening which has been timed to coincide with the  First Thursday event at Art Central downtown Calgary, where there will be much to see.  Register for the Art Central newsletter to hear about other events on that night.

The exhibition is open all week 2 - 6 October, on the lower level Art Central  (see details above).  If you can't make it for the opening, we would love to welcome you there anytime that week.

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm in making this project happen.  Special mention goes to Art Central for donating the exhibition space and the many who have donated time and their professional skills necessary to hold an exhibition at all.

I find I can concentrate for about an hour at a time on one job.  I seem to be better at concentrating  on 50 jobs in a 24 hour period.
So I took a break and filmed my latest design exercise p.j. Nod to Lyn there.

Went to take a photo and found the shadows were playing watery games with them.

I know this is boring to most viewers but it tickled me.  Especially as the wind sounds like water which fits rather nicely with the imagery.  Not bad for a hand held "Instamatic" =Nikon Coolpix.

Went to the library yesterday (I do sometimes you know), and found a great little book on Typography***.  One can learn so much about design from looking at typography too.... and I say 'too' because right now I am embracing the idea that, like love, it is all around.  - Do you like the non-mixing of metaphores there?  Keep your eyes open and you will see a tasty little design sweetie right where you are sitting (oh dear, I went and mixed my mets., when I was trying so hard not to).

***Type idea index by Jim Krause

and the great thing is that there are many more where this one came from. Thanks Jim.

I am not worrying too much about image quality as I just want to keep things moving.
I have a day at home today... no appointments or necessary shopping trips till singing lesson (not mine) this evening.
So a warm up exercise and then some preps for the workshop on Thursday.
This one was a fool around with acrylics and then do what I thought was necessary with some stitching into the paper to give the piece a structure.  I am quite into playing with lines... are these lines or shapes one might ask... when is a line a shape...
I remember one teacher asking what makes a line... if not a series of dots,  so there we have it -
Dot - Line - Shape.
And it is even more complicated... as my line/shapes are made up of a series of lines in themselves...

Here is a piece of work by my daughter.

Thanks Lyn for getting us started on this project.
And thanks for the wonderful advice and wool from Legacy in Cochrane. Their blog is at this address.
Such wonderful help, how can I fail when I go into River Valley School to teach this semester?
It is one of those times when I don't know who is going to have more fun, the students or the teacher!
And check out their website... and see, I might even get some tasty morsels for my troubles... which wont be troubles at all.
Thanks to the generosity of the anonymous who is sponsoring these Friday events.  It couldn't be done without you.