Next SDA Meeting Thursday 25th April with Lisa Grey

This is the first information out about the next SDA talk in April.

Mark your calendar.

Lisa Grey will talk to us about her life and work.

Please come willing to be part of an inspiring journey.

Please feel free to share this information.

Date: Thursday 25th April

Time : 7pm - 9pm

Place: Atlantis Fine Framing & Studio (click here for map)

Cost: Free to SDA members.  Non-members $10.

(((Why not join SDA - and get their magnificent journal 4 parts a year, only $60 plus international postage.)))

RSVP - required for Lisa's talk to allow us to assess seating needs and refreshments.
Also numbers are limited.

You can RSVP by pressing HERE.

Lisa is a member of the Surface Design Association and the representative for New Hampshire, USA.  


She is a very highly respected teacher and practising artist who produces sumptuous works that are exhibited and sold internationally.  She is famous for her application of disperse dye to produce spectacular marbled surfaces.  Combinations of her printed and dyed fabrics with her photographic imagery provide a refreshing take on surface design.
Her philosophies, galleries and methods can be viewed on her delicious website.

If you think you know what your are going to see and hear about you, are probably wrong....
There is a full spectrum of the rather comfortable .......

A Fine Balance (Detail)

Disperse dyed using painting, marbling and xerox transfer techniques.

Artist: Lisa Grey

.......to the somewhat uncomfortable which will make for a very interesting evening.

Adored/Abandoned II 

Pigment inkjet print on collaged paper and fabric with freehand machine stitching on marbled background. 

15" x 15"

Artist: Lisa Grey

Last Night

I was overwhelmed by the 100 or so samples we were gifted for the night by the Surface Design Association - or was it the Tylenol.

Sorry about the quality... if it is really bad bad bad I will take it down.

I decided to go to the meeting last night because, a) I didn't want to miss anything! b) I organised it with help from Arlee and Susan. C) I didn't feel like I would infect folks.  After all, I have had this thing since last week....

I am sure there will be more updates on the SDAlbeta blog but here is a summary:
Susan's wonderful hospitality; (Don't you know how to one use a semi-colon Stoopid?) SDA members wonderful pot luck snacks; Karin's one million types of tea; 20 SDA members and non-members - diversity in experience; relaxed friendly atmosphere; mix and mingle; meet new friends;  too much squeaky talking by Karin; astounding Swatch Collection B;  Home too late for someone who is getting over a cold.
Thanks to everyone who came along.  Next meeting 25th April (A Thursday) all are welcome SDA members and non- members.  Lisa Grey will be talking to us.  Location, time etc to follow.

Shippetri : A combination of Shibori with movement via puppetry.

Attenborough-esque Puppet Moments
Your mind may wander as you watch this brief film, don't be impatient... or feel it necessary to press the stop button, but let time slow down for you  and, for a short time, escape this fast moving life-style we are all living. Perhaps the audio-visuals will move you to a creative, or restful, state.

PechaKucha Kreatures 2013 from Daniel Millson on Vimeo.

Puppetry: Wendy Passmore-Godfrey & Karin Millson
Film: Daniel Millson & Wendy Passmore-Godfrey
Editing: Daniel Millson
Text and Narration: Karin Millson
Full credits are given in the video itself.

If you are a follower of my work/blog, you will know that I have had a long history of creating artworks based on marine worms (Nudibranchia)* from felt, silk, and synthetic materials, using shibori with other mixed media techniques.  
My Kreatures ought to move, they each have a presence, a personality and people want to touch them and move them to give life to the otherwise inanimate; to see how they articulate and how they might have lived.  They are designed to be move and be moved. 

This year I collaborated with the very talented puppeteer, Wendy Passmore-Godfrey, to begin to animate my Kreatures.  There are many avenues we can walk with this but this year's work culminated in a short presentation at the Puppet Power, 2013 Conference : The Fearless Face of Puppetry  at a Pechakucha-style event, in Calgary this weekend.

This was a wonderful opportunity that Wendy provided. The evening was full of very moving stories of people using puppets to approach, teach or overcome social, medical or educational issues.  I was very moved by many of the presentations, and privileged to be part of the occasion.

Our presentation came after the short intermission.  And I believe it provided a period of lighter relief, although one comment on YouTube says "I find myself disturbed and fascinated by this all at once." (Runzu87).  Clearly, our Vimeo film does have powerful messages, as we hoped and as I alluded to during my, possibly, poetic introduction.

On a more personal level, the involvement of puppetry took some of my fear out of presenting my work and I hope we might use the combination of visual and performing arts to even greater effect in the future.
*Thanks due to Gary Cobb and Dave Mullins for their work at Nudibranchs of the Sunshine Coast Australia.  and their generous permission to use their imagery to stimulate my work and presentation of my work from time to time.

Scorsese

Made this whilst demonstrating at school.
Didn't have enough time to add many spines to the puffer fish Scorsese (joke not wasted on anyone who has watched Shark Tale).
Does anyone out there think there is a market for these sort of creatures?  I am willing to sell, I mean how many creepy things does one want in ones house before one wants to move out?

Making Cat Space Module today, but Laura couldn't come and enjoy the fun as we have a storm warning across southern Alberta... winds and snow all day... Not as dramatic as it sounds around our place, in fact  Very pretty.  But very hazardous on the highway to Jasper.
I'll post Cat Space Module if I finish it. It is in the dryer right now.