Mily's Art Blog

Art Toronto

2011-10-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

Rachel and I went to the Toronto International Art Fair, recently aka Art Toronto, on Friday and it was amazing as per usual. Here are some highlights. The first thing we saw was an abstracted cigarette floating through space (and there's the more literal representation attached to glass so you know it's about a cigarette floating through space).

Me: OMG that is so realistic!

Rachel: No, that's a real person!

By Will Kurtz

This is an enormous sculpture of a head...

Old Self, by Evan Penny

And close ups from a sculpture of a younger enormous head. This one was eerier for me because although it was a younger man he seemed just as close to death.

By Evan Penny

Something shiny.

By Franco DeFrancesca

There were also photos, drawings, and a mad installation/performance by Kent Monkman, a mixed-Cree artist who dresses in drag. Either of those qualities would be enough to win my adoration, but together... yes... sniff that colonial foot.

How Could You Break Your Promise, by Kent Monkman

iArt

2011-10-23T00:25:00.000-04:00

By David Hockney

Today at the ROM I witnessed a woman using an iPhone to photograph a projection of some of David Hockney's iPhone/iPad-drawn "Fresh Flowers". Let me explain. This guy discovered an iPhone app for drawing and he thought it was a pretty convenient medium so he made a whole bunch of these drawings. Not actually a surprising use of technology for creating art, generally you would see images like these at home on your own computer. A Facebook app for drawing called "Graffiti" came out a while back and it was all the rage for about a week. Though I have actually seen people make some impressive stuff using that app. Stuff that would knock David Hockney's socks off. Below is a drawing I did using "Graffiti" back in the day for comparison's sake.

By me

I occasionally like how Hockney draws light, especially on mugs, glass, and sometimes in the sky, but overall I dislike the digital look. I'm more impressed when I can't tell that an image was even drawn digitally. While my preferences are inevitably a product of my own digital generation, this must be pretty crazy stuff for an old guy like Hockney.

Regardless, I have to give him props because this is the first time I've seen this sort of art displayed in a major museum. What's more, he displayed them on iPads and iPhones fixed to the walls. I was struck by the fact that the cost of the art would be entirely in its mode of display. Actually creating each piece is free once you already have your iPad. Seeing some of the drawings projected larger onto the walls, I couldn't help but anticipate the invention of enormous iPads purposed as digital canvases. Maybe all the pro artists will have one in 2015.

By David Hockney

Or people will realize that iArt wasn't meant to be taken so seriously. In his exhibit book, Hockney wrote that at first he would send his drawings to his friends who commented on how "direct the drawings seemed as they held the iPhone in their own hand." I almost feel that this personal connection, the viral aspect, and the fun aspect are lost by putting the drawings on the wall of the ROM. Unfortunately, artists have to make money.

Be Efficient Girl

2011-10-17T19:18:00.000-04:00

"Best of Nuit Blanche! Infectious and inexplicably amusing!"

-me, 2011

Turn up le volume. Artist: Karen Zalamea

sketches

2011-10-17T18:48:00.002-04:00

Hello blog. I've actually had stuff to do since starting my Master of Education. Hoorah. Now inventing a classroom activity involving ASL... On another note, here are some recent-ish sketches by moi:

I wish cool things would happen on my street

2011-09-05T00:15:00.000-04:00

Last week of AbEx

2011-08-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

The abstract expressionist show is soon departing the AGO (the last day is Sept 4) and I am loath to say goodbye to my favourite paintings.

Dwarf by William Baziotes (most adorable painting ever)

Mark Rothko

Inuit Modern

2011-08-03T19:24:00.001-04:00

On my bi-weekly tours of the AGO's Canadian gallery, I usually include a brief exploration of the Inuit Modern exhibit, because I love it. Except that last week they had changed all of the prints and drawings on the walls and I didn't realize until I was halfway through my tour. I was a little perturbed that they removed "Enchanted Owl" by Kenojuak Ashevak from 1960, which is the most perfect piece of graphic work ever created.

Enchanted Owl, by Kenojuak Ashevak (1960)

The outlines of the feathers are varied and imperfect but in my mind, this only serves to make the overall image more perfect looking. I don't think the owl would be nearly as powerful if each feather was a flawlessly clean-lined and Photoshopped shape.

Inuit prints and drawings often have animals or figures floating in mid-air and objects don't seem to be realistically situated in space. However, the Inuit perspective was explained to me thus: In the Arctic, figures appear to just pop out from a white background. I imagine, sometimes, everything is white - sky and ground alike. As in a whiteout, there is literally no clear horizon line.

Photo of a whiteout in Antarctica from Wikipedia

In context, this makes Inuit drawings totally realistic.

Hunter and Inuit on the Land, by Ruth Annaqtuusi Tulurialik

See what I'm saying?

Compare the above to drawings of interiors by Annie Pootoogook.

Calling Annie, by Annie Pootoogook

Space is clearly delineated (e.g. the radio is on the table; the table is in front of the wall), but the picture still looks fairly 2-dimensional and objects on the wall are scattered about in the same way that figures are scattered about in many other Inuit drawings. This is a phenomenon I cannot explain. Go to the Inuit Modern exhibit and make your own conclusions. It'll be on until October 16th.

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

2011-08-02T16:48:00.001-04:00

Okay, I know this post is delayed - I went to TOAE July 11th - but anyways, this is what I bought at the show this year. For some reason my photos don't really capture the awesomeness of the mug, so I suggest visiting the artist's website: Jeanne Longman.

dressing up my munki

2011-06-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

Munki wanted to show off the earrings I bought in Kensington Market this week and how versatile they are.

Munki is Classy in her bow ring and belt bracelet:

Munki is Boho-chic in her boho ring and Great Wall of China bracelet.

Awesome.

She Rules with Iron Stix

2011-06-09T13:01:00.002-04:00

A little research into the girl with the Stop Harper sign revealed the following - a contemporary political performance artist.

Willie Cole: making stuff look like other stuff

2011-04-24T17:25:00.001-04:00

The Thinker, by Willie Cole

Some similar sculptures as these are in the AGO:

Speedster, by Willie Cole

Shine, by Willie Cole

two shoes

2011-04-16T14:00:00.003-04:00

Theoretically wearable, but stupid-looking:

Marc Jacobs

Not at all wearable, but awesome:

Guo Pei Winter 2010 collection

If you couldn't see the Asian influence, take a look at this:

omg four arms (what is she doing with her fingers?!)

Pictures from Fashletic

another architectural shoe

2011-04-14T15:10:00.000-04:00

It took me a good 3 minutes to figure out how to fit one's foot into this shoe. Upon realizing where the heel goes, I can't imagine this would be comfortable or even stay on one's foot. Why can't people design comfortable shoes?

John Hakes' Mojito shoe

a model wearing a more wearable but less sleek version of the shoe

kinetic sculpture

2011-04-14T01:26:00.003-04:00

where will they not put advertising?

2011-04-07T13:30:00.000-04:00

I was somewhat intrigued when I bought a coffee this morning and found that there was advertising on the sleeve. Although I can appreciate the clever marketing scheme (my attention was indeed drawn to the radio station ad enveloping my delicious coffee), if ads were regularly on coffee sleeves (or worse, the cups themselves!) then I would probably pay little attention.

And anyways, stop putting sleeves on coffee cups. They're completely useless and even counterproductive in the winter when half the lure of coffee is the warmth of the cup /rant

Giuseppe Penone

2011-02-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

I'm rather disappointed to have heard that the Giuseppe Penone sculptures in the AGO's Galleria Italia are being replaced with a new exhibition this month (possibly already), although I wouldn't be surprised if Penone wanted his trees back. I would too if I were him. I made sure to take photos of the space before it changed.

Penone sculptures on left wall

View of Dundas Street from inside Galleria Italia

Penone is awesome because he actually carves into tree trunks and creates inner mini trees. He also snatched up this fallen tree from the Palace of Versailles after a storm and took it all the way to Canada. It won't be easy for the AGO to beat this in the next exhibition.

Guiseppe Penone at work

Come up to my room @ the Gladstone

2011-01-30T20:48:00.000-05:00

Shrine Dedicated to the Memory of Demolished Barns and Fallen Trees by Lubo Brezina and Scott Eunson

By Groundwork

The following was probably my favourite thing - a warped facade of a room, made of thread. I overheard the artist talking about this work and she said that although the room appears generic, it was based on her actual room. She also said that her training was in drawing, not textiles, and she was essentially trying to draw with thread.

By Amanda McCavour

Sorry if that's you...

Moose made of stickers! Awesome.

A peace sign made of many tiny toy soldiers

This is also pretty neat. The following is from her statement:

This work is hand painted silk mounted on plastic discs. The two layers of portraits are created from photos of Chinese-Canadian women including myself. On one side, images depict the time these women were in China. On the other side, the images depict the time these women were in Canada. The layered images create the feeling of the two identities merging together.

By Xiaojing Yan

Interior Design Show

2011-01-29T21:26:00.001-05:00

Here's a preview of the Interior Design Show happening this weekend at the Metro Convention Centre.

By Sarah and Theo Richardson

Commutehome.com

TIRE-E By Haniyeh Khosravi Fard and Farhad Shabani

By Lynn Jackson

happy 2011

2011-01-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't written in my blog for over a month, but I haven't been seeing much art lately. However, I was recently impressed with the changing art that appears on my new Kindle whenever I power it off. I'm not sure whether Amazon paid people to draw sketches of various authors in e-ink or if they have a program that converts the pre-existing pictures to this style.

An older Kindle model of seemingly comparable quality

Also, the following came up when I googled in "Kindle art." Although the wooden Kindle doesn't actually work, it would be awesome if it did.

Laser-cut wooden Kindle 2 by Rob Cockerham

smelly art

2010-12-13T22:45:00.003-05:00

Lately, I have been busy (procrastinating on) writing my grad school applications. In the course of my research, I discovered a new kind of art. In the last half century or so, art has popped up that is not primarily visual. There is sound art and art you can touch and interact with. And now, there is smell art. The Museum of Arts and Design in New York is opening the Centre of Olfactory Art in November 2011. Although the scents seem to all be perfumes created throughout history, they will be presented independent of their packages so the viewer - wait, smeller - can fully experience the artfulness of the smell. Maybe if olfactory art takes off, people will be creating scents just for art exhibitions.

Art you can smell by Ernesto Neto

yarn bombing etc

2010-11-28T12:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was at the Bata Shoe Museum looking through a book on knitting and yarn bombing in their special exhibition on socks. I didn't realize that putting yarn on stuff was something people did. Apparently, yarn bombers knit covers directly onto trees, poles, fire hydrants, etc. Here's an example by Kari McDonald, an American art student:

Defeat the Sorrow, by Kari McDonald (2009)

That looks like one warm tree. I like how you could almost miss the yarn at the bottom of the tree but it transitions into something more colourful. I really wonder how this stands up to the elements and if the authorities cut it off the tree when it gets wet and soggy.

Here's another example by "Knitted Landscape" (two Dutch artists) who seem to have a similar purpose as McDonald - providing a colourful contrast to an otherwise bleak winter landscape:

by Knitted Landscape (Iceland, 2007)

by Knitted Landscape (Ireland, 2007)

Lastly, one of the most awesome things ever created - a knit cover for a motorcycle by Theresa Honeywell:

Everything Nice, by Theresa Motherwell (2006)

I couldn't even tell that this was a motorcycle at first. It just looked like a little girl's bike. Not that this would be the first pink vehicle - I'm reminded of the pink Hello Kitty motorbikes in Korea. Honeywell really takes advantage of the sweet girly aesthetic of knitware; her other works are knit guns and tools. Lovely!

Christmas video

2010-11-24T17:31:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I got the chance to see Avner Levona and crew shoot a Christmas video. This was Avner's idea just for the fun of it. It was nice of him to include my name in the credits as the "Location Assistant" which sounds so nifty think I might put it on my resume. Truth be told, all I did was find the location.

And here's what shooting the video looked like:

Shary Boyle's "Flesh and Blood" at the AGO

2010-11-14T21:37:00.004-05:00

I, along with about 200 other people, crowded into the AGO yesterday to hear Shary Boyle talk about her exhibition. When I first saw the exhibition, I was so creeped out I didn't even want to look at it. The only piece I liked was a small porcelain sculpture called "The Bed" (which I unfortunately can't find an image of). It shows three people lying down sleeping in a bed: a woman, a man, and another figure whose head is under the bed sheet. I couldn't stop thinking about who that third person was supposed to be. Since it was shorter than the others, it reminded me of a child, but strange that a child would be in her parents' bed. I also thought it could be a third lover - maybe one of them was having an affair - or they were just the polygamous type. Luckily, I got to ask Shary Boyle about this, briefly. She mentioned that it was like another "you": There are always other you's in your relationships, whether you carry past selves around or future selves.

I also got her to sign my programme and she made a speech bubble for the two boys.

King Cobra

As I've been forced to see this exhibition several times for various reasons, I'm becoming acclimatized to it and starting to like more of the pieces. I really like some of the strange mini sculptures, as well as the life-size white sculpture of a woman which is illuminated by a colour-cut out projection of butterflies and other shapes.

Virus (White Wedding)

However, the scarecrow having sex with the woman made out of tiles still makes me uncomfortable and I really can't look at the glow in the dark woman-spider trapped in her own web.

Scarecrow

The exhibition is on until December 5th, 2010.

tiaf continued - bonfanti

2010-11-01T01:46:00.001-04:00

Another thing that surprised me at the TIAF was Ross Bonfanti's concreatues. Bonfanti finds old stuffed animals, removes the stuffing, and fills them with concrete. The cool thing is that you can't tell that they're made of concrete. They just look like sad, inside-out toys until you touch them and find that they're completely hard. The cutest one ever was an upside down teddy bear, but Bonfanti even had a totem pole of bears with the ones at the top progressively smaller than the ones at the bottom.

the 2010 toronto international art fair

2010-10-30T15:53:00.000-04:00

at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre is definitely worth going to. It's still going on today until 8 and Sunday and Monday from 12-6pm. You'll get to see a picture of a skull dusted with diamonds by Damien Hirst, plus a small painting he did of coloured polka dots which is far more expensive (and less interesting) than the diamond skull. On the same note, one of my favourites this year was a large sculpture-painting by Kim Dorland of a sparkly green swamp thing c/o the Mike Weiss Gallery. She also had some cool sparkly owls. More on that later. Happy Halloween.
Because I couldn't find pictures of the aforementioned works, here's Hirst's unicorn in formaldehyde (unfortunately not at the TIAF this year):

Still Life with June

2010-10-22T13:58:00.000-04:00

Did you know books had trailers now? Weird...

bayview subway station

2010-10-19T21:12:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy seeing art in the otherwise bleak subway stations and I think we could use more of it. It would actually be the perfect public space for changing installations, though we rarely use it for that purpose.
I'm also intrigued by the imagery at Bayview and Sheppard that was created by Panya Clark Espinal in 2002. It looks like abstract distortions from most angles but viewed from the right spot it looks impossibly realistic, with the shapes extending from the walls to the floors.

Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy by Ronnie Burkett

2010-10-08T14:25:00.003-04:00

Ronnie Burkett and Billy Twinkle puppet

It's hard to do a one-man show because it always ends up looking like you're playing with yourself - especially when you're talking to dolls and making them talk back to you. And especially when one of those dolls is a miniature version of you that you made yourself for that very purpose. It's an odd set up, but one that draws out multiple layers of meaning.

Burkett began the show with himself as the puppeteer Billy Twinkle, manipulating a stripper puppet who takes her clothes off seamlessly by herself. Then when Burkett/Billy becomes possessed by his dead puppeteering teacher, he himself becomes a puppet to the will of his possessor: he is forced to reenact his past, with puppets playing his past selves and mentors. The story explores the course of Billy’s career from when he was a kid at a puppet festival doing his gig with his stripper puppet (see above picture) and trying to get the puppeteering master to take him on as an apprentice - to him as an adult, now the master, being hassled by a kid with a drag queen puppet.

Basically, this is the best puppet show I've ever seen (granted, the only one - but still) and I highly recommend it. It's showing at Factory Theatre until October 24th 2010.

Ronnie on stage

Doreen puppet holding Jesus puppet

nuit blanche part II

2010-10-06T21:07:00.000-04:00

Lastly, we went to Queen West, which didn't seem to have as much art going on as the zone map led me to believe. Regardless, the interactive Hair Matters installation from the Toronto School of Art was amusing. Nuit-blanchers were given a piece of yarn each to attach to the master ball of yarn which was supposed to represent a giant hair ball. Luckily, it wasn't gross as one would expect an actual hair ball to be. Actually, it didn't remind me of hair much at all. It was more just a mess of yarn and ribbons. I did, however, notice that someone put some actual hair in the installation. Ew.

Hair Matters, Toronto School of Art

The best thing I saw in Queen West was off in a building that no one seemed to know about. It was called The Night Watch by Jérôme Havre. There were several screens projecting videos of chandeliers spinning in time to eerie classical music. There was also a brown patched together ghost-like figure in the centre of the room. The figure confused me and although the chandeliers did actually remind me of Versailles, I didn't really catch on to the artist's intended meaning as described in the guide book: "Havre explores French colonialism by recreating the Grand Chandelier of Versailles in simulated African skin". Actually, I just liked the way the chandeliers moved to the music.

(photos by me)

nuit blanche 2010

2010-10-04T14:08:00.002-04:00

Toby Smith, Bau-Xi Gallery

Bryan and I went to Nuit Blanche this weekend. We started out in Yorkville but everything had ridiculous lines, so we saw the Winter Garden exhibition at the Japan Foundation and then headed downtown. We checked out a few galleries across from the AGO and I really liked the photography at the Bau-Xi Gallery. It's hard to make photographs that everyone hasn't seen a million times before, but somehow this exhibition managed to collect some original images (granted, my photography knowledge is limited) from various artists. Many had pretty colour combinations and an alluring glow.

Ferit Kuyas, Bau-Xi Gallery

Heidi Leverty, Bau-Xi Gallery

One thing I had never seen in art before is a 3D gallery. The "Three Dee Realms" exhibition at Open Studio (401 Richmond St.) featured black and white prints of fantasy landscapes that could be viewed with 3D glasses. 3D is taking over motion pictures - it shouldn't be a surprise that it's leaking into still art. Although I thought it was awesome to see art in 3D, I did feel a little sick while looking at the pictures.

Yorodeo (Paul Hammond and Seth Smith)

Print by Yorodeo (Paul Hammond and Seth Smith)

Also at 401 Richmond St. was "Man with Yellow Typewriter" a live performance by Martin Helmut Reis with photo exhibition by Jim Gronau. The photos showed Martin in various poses where he looks sad and alone in a vaguely humorous Magritte kind of way. The catch was that Reis was actually at the exhibition. He would walk into the space, take a look at the photo exhibition, then sit down on a bench where he would proceed to take out his typewriter from the yellow case and begin typing things on leafs that were scattered on the ground. He handed the leafs out to gallery-goers and gave me one that said "leaf me be". Contrary to the way he looks in the photos, Reis was approachable and pleasant.

Martin Reis/Jim Gronau

Performance by Martin Reis, photo by me


Performance by Martin Reis, photo by me

Performance by Martin Reis, photo by me

Leaf by Martin Reis, photo by me

to be continued...

Word on the Street

2010-09-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

I hoped to see some more interesting or independently published books yesterday at Word on the Street. I did, however, meet two comic book artists, J.R. Faulkner and Brian Evinou, and listened to Stuart McLean tell amusing half-fictional anecdotes while some prepubescent boys cheered fanatically in the background as if Stuart were Justin Bieber. I didn't end up buying anything at Word on the Street but as I'm recently employed by the monopoly of Canadian book retail, I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to buy books.

Stuart McLean (photo by me)

St. Clair Artwalk

2010-09-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Bryan and I went to the St. Clair artwalk, which Noah Cole had told me about the day before. Noah has extensively photographed either end Canada and was showing his work at the OUT/AUT Gallery of Modern Art at 823c St. Clair West. His show will be on until October 10th.

Noah Cole (Vancouver, 2005)

We also happened into the home of painter, Barbara Muir. She told us she had sketched Oprah via Skype, that her cat can play the piano better than any of the other cats on youtube, and she fed us homemade pizza.

Barbara Muir (Oprah Sketch)

Lastly, I really enjoyed seeing Dina Torrans' huge mixed media paintings at the Artscape Wychwood Barns. They're fantasy-like landscapes with minimal but important 3-dimensional elements tacked on. You don't get the full effect from the web version, but luckily she has a show "Mapping Infinity" at Impressions Art Gallery at 102 Yorkville Ave., going from Sept 29-Oct 20 (including Nuit Blanche).

Dina Torrans, Delivering

queen west art crawl

2010-09-19T12:51:00.000-04:00

I went to the outdoor exhibition at Trinity-Bellwoods park for the Queen West Art Crawl yesterday and was impressed by the variety of stuff that was there. I rarely feel the need to own art, but I really would have loved to own (and use) one of these:

Filipa Pimentel

had I had 50 bucks + HST. I also could see this on my living room (if I had a living room) or front entrance wall, since it looks vaguely functional. I really wanted to take out those papers and read them, but I don't think Patti would have appreciated that.

Patti Harris

Although I wouldn't really want to own these ones, the mushrooms were particularly memorable for their quirkiness:

Victoria Nesbitt

More than the mushrooms, I really like Victoria's unique wedding band designs on etsy. The nature references make them seem light and impermanent but the tree bark lines give the impression of something old and long-lasting.

Lifetime

Lisa Ng

2010-09-13T15:50:00.000-04:00

I went to the Junction Arts Festival yesterday and saw Lisa Ng's paintings in the Academy of Realist Art. She won second prize in the juried exhibition, but her work was my favourite. She creates these mini worlds where bizarre things are happening, such as one painting where a guy on the subway is literally coughing up a lung and everyone is cowering behind him, including some vermin. Her website is also worth checking out. I especially like the "cannibalism" section, which reinterprets common food items as human body parts, but somehow manages to be more quirky than actually disturbing.

Lisa Ng

Viktor & Rolf Spring 2010

2010-09-08T11:47:00.001-04:00

Just when you thought there were no new silhouettes to be had in fashion... I'm kind of amazed by the floating skirt. I can't imagine how they got that to stay up. The only thing I hate is the one that looks like cheese and a mouse has been nibbling on it. Katy Perry, on the other hand, disagrees.

buskerfest future dinosaurs

2010-08-29T17:41:00.001-04:00

A step above the usual guys on stilts, these dinosaur-like creatures were pretty spectacular. You can't see it from the pictures, but the costumes were so detailed, with textures unlike dinosaurs but but the way they moved was really creepy and dinosaur-like.

sand sculptures

2010-08-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

In progress (CNE)...

Bowser

2010-08-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

uninspired.. here's Bowser.

also on 5th avenue

2010-08-09T12:47:00.002-04:00

Louis Vuitton storefront...

Apple cube

2010-08-07T10:32:00.002-04:00

Apple Store, 5th ave, NYC

Toronto really needs some architecture like this to make it a true international city. This is the entrance to an Apple Store in New York City which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In the middle of the cube, there's a spiral staircase winding around a cylindrical elevator, by which you descend into the basement store.

Take that, Louvre Pyramid escalators! I like the simplicity of the cube, but considering Apple's design aesthetic, I wonder if they even considered rounding the edges.

robert cavalli spring/summer 2010

2010-08-04T19:33:00.003-04:00

Combine a boot with a sandal and... ta da!!

Also very interesting...

pistachio lady

2010-08-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

Found this by German Mills Public School. Crazy kids...

I...

2010-07-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

...got a haircut, took pics to celebrate.

photo manip

2010-07-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

I love this photo from CSnyder on deviantart. It looks real but at the same time you can be pretty sure it's not. He has other photos worth checking out but to me this one embodies the perfect balance between the real and surreal.

Symbiosis

fujifilm instax mini

2010-07-20T21:01:00.001-04:00

Photos by me

lorraine roy

2010-07-12T14:33:00.001-04:00

My absolute favourite artist at this year's TOAE was Lorraine Roy. She makes these incredibly intricate, textural woven wall hangings. From a distance I thought they were paintings, which would have been impressive enough, but up close you can see all the detail in them. These are some of her works, but you can't really see much from the digital versions. Luckily, she is represented by several galleries in Toronto.

Bebb Willow

Bonbons

Petit-Fours

143

2010-07-11T15:18:00.001-04:00

TOAE

2010-07-08T17:50:00.000-04:00

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is this weekend - let's go! I've never been before but I did apply for a job with them, which I obviously didn't get a call for.

Room 13

2010-07-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

I just discovered Room 13, a kid's art program at Harbourfront that's "run by kids". What's cool about it is that instead of just asking for donations, you can buy the artwork they create, but it'll cost you 50 bucks a pop.

Daffodil by Tara

mug

2010-07-04T17:27:00.000-04:00

I really like this mug I bought at Arts on King today for $20. It's pretty, and somewhat textural. I'm fairly certain the artist is Chris Hierlihy.

Chelley in the mug

moonstory

2010-07-01T00:48:00.001-04:00

Story and drawings by moi

the worst shoe design ever

2010-06-29T17:16:00.003-04:00

I had heard about toe socks before, but not toe shoes until today when I saw an asian dude on the subway sporting something that looked like this:

Upon googling, I found that they're called Vibram Five Fingers. I guess I shouldn't knock them till I've tried them, but in my mind, there's an obvious reason why street shoes are made like mittens - they protect your toes, which you don't need to use individually anyways. If you're rock climbing, maybe it's a different story.

unintentionally art

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

Smashed window in downtown Toronto by G20 protesters...

Photo by Sagan Bolliger

toronto star G20 political cartoon

2010-06-28T19:21:00.000-04:00

So... when do we get to find out what the meeting actually accomplished? Obama? Harper? Bueller?

earthship

2010-06-22T20:00:00.001-04:00

Apparently there is a movement to make houses that sustain themselves independent of public utilities like power, water supply, and water treatment. So in the US, there came the Earthship, a solar-powered home insulated with tires packed with earth and decorated with recycled materials like bottles.

Would I live in a house like this? Yes, I would. Do I think it has to look like a hippie spaceship? No, I don't.

ancient energy efficient refrigerator

2010-06-08T21:15:00.002-04:00

a yakhchal

As early as 1700 BCE in Persia, people were storing ice underground in yakhchals (ice pits). They would collect ice from mountaintops and put them in the underground pit insulated by a special mortar. Windcatchers also helped to keep the yakhchals cool. Windcatchers were an architectural device that trapped cool air in from the wind and let hot air out. I'm still trying to figure out how this works, but if it could keep things cool in the desert, it should be really easy to operate in Canada. It makes me wonder why we burn so much fossil fuel to cool refrigerators and buildings when we could just use insulated pits and windcatchers. I think the houses of the future will all have giant pits in the middle... like so:

marker drawing

2010-06-07T21:13:00.001-04:00

a line drawing (by me) using this pic as reference

a skyscraper that rotates

2010-06-03T22:14:00.001-04:00

Architect David Fisher is building a "dynamic" skyscraper. Every floor can rotate independently of the other floors, and if you're wealthy enough to own one of these floors you can control the speed and direction of rotation by touch or voice command. Each floor can rotate at a maximum speed of 1 complete rotation per 90 minutes (I feel sick already). Also you can drive your car into an elevator and have it carried up to your apartment. Fancy.

This building is also an eco-innovation. It generates its own electricity via wind turbines between the floors and solar panels on the roof. It will even generate enough electricity to power other buildings!

The first skyscraper built in Dubai is supposed to be finished later this year, while the Dynamic Architecture website proposes more be built in London, Paris, New York, and Moscow. I'm a little unclear as to whether these projects are really underway or if they're just a dream.

This shows some different possible configurations of the buildings. I imagine it would really look like the third picture once everyone starts the rotating, but I wonder if sometimes they will lose control of their rotations so that the building can look awesome.

butterfly top

2010-05-30T18:21:00.000-04:00

I love this top which I got from Smart Set yesterday. The beading is all wood.

mirrors

2010-05-24T11:06:00.001-04:00

Us in sculpture by Tyler Rock, Harbourfront Centre

Dan's Late News

2010-05-23T10:34:00.012-04:00

I saw Dan Perjovschi's "Late News" drawing installation at the ROM yesterday (it was a performance in February when people could watch him create the piece). Perjovschi has drawn on the walls of galleries in New York, London, Paris, and now Toronto (we are so honoured). He immerses himself in the city's local news and then draws his response in a simple black line drawing, like a cartoon. Apparently he was trained to paint in a more traditional style of art in communist Romania but decided to strip away all the frills in order to communicate a message and engage with society*.

I can relate to that, because my high school art teachers just taught me how to draw, and they did it well but my art had no meaning back then. At U of T, they did the opposite. No one bothered to teach me the technical stuff (the how), they would only teach me the concepts (the why). In the end, I stopped making pretty pictures and started making stuff that meant something to me. When I went back to my old high school and showed my art teacher my new art, he didn't get the style change. He thought it was a regression. I was hurt and embarrassed when he had to remind me of the basics. It would be nice to have the skill or probably just the patience to make technically awesome work, but I guess I just don't care enough to spend an entire weekend (or two, or three) just making art that only a few people will see anyways. In a fast paced society, our concept of beauty might be changing, and we value quickly communicated information.

Anyways, I liked "Late News", but not being immersed in the media myself, I didn't get all of his references. I'm not even sure which countries he is referring to here.

Maybe he should have left the newspapers he used so I could do a little research of my own. Also, I don't know why there was so much about the Olympics in his drawings - who cares about the Olympics anymore. Oh right, "late" news.

*National Post

if wood could melt

2010-05-23T01:26:00.000-04:00

I wanted to find out about the relationship between wood and melting so I typed in those words and ended up with this. (By the way, wood doesn't melt.)

By Kino Guerin

two worlds

2010-05-19T13:28:00.000-04:00

There might be other worlds we're not aware of. One of those people should be a scientist sticking something in the ground.

gravity

2010-05-16T19:42:00.000-04:00

Have you noticed anything strange about gravity lately?

cyborg rose: semi-fail

2010-05-11T21:48:00.000-04:00

It's been a month since cyborg rose was spray-painted and it still hasn't dried. Hence, no picture. It is still in its protective spray box. I guess this is a semi-fail.

and lastly...

2010-05-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

me in mirror art by Amanda McLean-Doman. She showed it at the OCAD grad show along with the actual wig she used.

OCAD grad show

2010-05-09T19:49:00.002-04:00

Bryan and I went to the OCAD grad show yesterday. Here are some highlights.

3 giant heads that you can put your own head into. Two sideways facing heads facing the forward facing head in the middle. Inside each one is a different textural experience.

By Madelaine Elliot (me in the head)

Someone took a series of everyday objects and "transformed" them all into wooden rectangles.

By Misha Michael

A realistically constructed miniature hallway.

by Masahito Toguchi (Bryanzilla in the hallway)

From a series about twins called Entwined (get it? enTWINed), earrings to wear with your sister.

By Sachiko Burgin

Favourite painting.

By Janie Reed

Turkish circle art

2010-05-04T22:09:00.001-04:00

Eric Emin brought me back this concentric circle art from his trip to Turkey, from an artist drawing/selling on the street. It looks like it was done with different coloured pens. I don't know much about Turkish art, but maybe we can think of this as an update of more traditional Turkish designs.

awesome bedroom

2010-04-28T21:53:00.002-04:00

Why live in a box when you could have this? There's something universally appealing about hidden compartments and elevated surfaces like your own stage. I like how you'd be completely hidden in the elevated bed, but there's still a little peephole to facilitate communication (and spying). Also, the stairs are so surreal. This is a child's bedroom created by H20 Architects in Paris, but give me a bigger bed and more closet space integrated into that wall and I'd live in it.

More pictures

Petroff Gallery

2010-04-24T21:53:00.002-04:00

Bryan and I happened upon the Petroff Gallery, which is on Eglinton west of Bathurst, today. They have some pretty amazing glass and other sculptural works there even more of which are on their website.

By Brian Kelk (all glass.. umm.. wow)

By Floyd Elzinga, (giant pine cone!)

By Avner Agayof (traveling menorah)

I < 3 you, Photoshop

2010-04-19T22:51:00.002-04:00

Comfort, by me

I've always wanted to be a Photoshop pro. Mike told me to colour in Photoshop using the Multiply function in layering, so I tried that with an old drawing. Then I played around with the selective colour. It brings me back to the good old days when I used to make 50 copies of the same photo, just slightly altered each time. ...And just by making it blue, we suddenly have Avatar fan art. Look, they're even glowing! I just need to add some plants and stuff.

geekologie

2010-04-15T13:32:00.001-04:00

I can't believe that I never knew this site existed. I found it while google-imaging "tent" and ogled a picture of a tent shaped like a car being used for urban camping. Then I found other strange things like this - a tunnel built into a house. You've got to wonder what motivates a person to complete a project like this.

found materials collaboration 1: cyborg rose

2010-04-10T19:32:00.003-04:00

When Bryan said maybe we could do something with that rose I ripped its head off and stuck a metal shaft between the head and the stem. This prompted the larger project seen below. To make a vase, I wrapped cords around an empty coke bottle and hot glued screws and bits of electronics to it.

Bryan spray painted the rose, stem, and bottle copper.

Then we decided to extend the bottle upwards to merge with the rose, and we made a leaf. The final product is yet to be sprayed.

no turning back

2010-04-08T20:57:00.001-04:00

It's tempting to look back once you've reached your destination, but sometimes it doesn't matter - there's no turning back.

Follow the fishies

2010-04-06T20:52:00.003-04:00

I think the girl at the bottom was supposed to be climbing up from a cliff into an ocean above but I just realized that I didn't actually draw that. Probably because it's an impossible perspective. Oh well, use your imagination.

fish tree

2010-04-05T21:32:00.000-04:00

Drawing by me, words by Bryan

Bryan's unusual pet

2010-04-04T09:22:00.004-04:00

Photos by me

slices of the perverse

2010-03-29T20:37:00.002-04:00

My new job editing children's workbooks has actually begun to inspire some artistic ideas in me. Is it wrong if I steal ideas from a grade 1-2 workbook? There's just something so eerily poetic about puppets cutting their own strings. Also the bizarre image of a flower growing down into the soil while its roots grow upwards into the world as we know it. Lovely. Until I make those ideas my own, here's something from Montreal based artist Payam Montazami (congrats Payam, you're FB advertising worked).

They are Watching Us

This stuff is so creepy. Rarely does anything in the horror genre deserve to be taken seriously, but I do really like this. It's a simple idea but something I haven't really seen before - opening the canvas up into the third dimension to reveal something underneath, which in this case is very alien.

They are Watching Us

But who is watching us? A painted on eye? Or just ourselves and our own fears. Anything "perverse" is necessarily human and we always watch ourselves. That's what art is anyways - representations of ourselves. I also like the following piece from his Facebook photos, probably because it doesn't creep me out as much as the others.

Slices of the Perverse on Facebook

shrimpwhynot

2010-03-22T17:13:00.001-04:00

I got a job! Yay! Where did the last 7 months go?

To be eaten Busan shrimp

asia architecture

2010-03-18T14:03:00.003-04:00

I love this kind of design. You know when you're stuck in rush hour and you just wish there could be another highway? We have plenty of sky. Why not build up?

Fukuoka, Japan (highways)

Bangkok, Thailand (walkways)

Busan, South Korea (public transit line)

in bed

2010-03-17T19:44:00.001-04:00

I am bored. Very very bored.

Bangkok details

2010-03-15T20:03:00.001-04:00

Beijing details

2010-03-14T20:11:00.002-04:00

Great Wall

Forbidden City

Temple of Heaven

Tiananmen Square

hanbok

2010-03-12T22:48:00.000-05:00

Korean traditional clothing (Hanbok)

Are the suburbs on life support?

2010-03-06T17:53:00.005-05:00

I had to attend a lecture at the "Mourning the Suburb" Symposium at Prefix Institute for Contemporary Art yesterday. I hoped it might be thought provoking (it's wasn't exceedingly), since where to live (suburbs, city, or even country) has been a contested subject for me for the last 3 years or so. Personally, I love the quiet of the suburbs. The suburb is the land of leisure. I love being able to take a stroll through my neighbourhood and to know that no one is conducting important business or getting riled up at a night club or any other sort of debaucherous establishment nearby. On the other hand, when we do want to partake in business or debauchery, those establishments are just too far away. The convenience of being able to stumble to one's doorstep from fatigue or intoxication is a great feeling.

The startling absence of museums, galleries, and theatres in the suburbs is also problematic for me. What I got out of the lecture was that the biggest problem with the suburbs is the lack of community and culture. Suburbs don't really have public spaces for people to express themselves creatively. That's why we see things like yard sales. Regardless, this is not un-remediable. A more accessible public space might help to engage suburban residents with their communities. I often receive notices about community issues (political, environmental) being discussed at some public forum unknown to me. I've thought about but never actually attended one of these. If I thought my friends and neighbours were attending, that people not directly involved in politics actually cared, I wouldn't feel so out of place going to one.

The suburbs often receive a lot of hate from both city-dwellers and suburbanites, not to mention environmentalists, but so many people choose to live in the suburbs because there are a lot of positives to them. An OCAD student last semester did a photography project on the bleakness of Brampton. From his photos, Brampton looked like a construction site for building the same house, over and over again. But despite the aesthetic sameness, it's important to acknowledge that suburban residents are as varied as city dwellers, especially in Toronto. I love how American artist Laura Migliorino's photos demonstrate this in a positive light.

From The Hidden Suburbs: A Portrait

It's seems that people are not mourning the suburbs at all. The suburbs have their problems, just like the city and the country, but they aren't dead. Migliorino wrote in her artist statement that "the notion of the American dream as a house in the suburbs is alive and well."

same old sadness

2010-03-03T20:39:00.001-05:00

Drawing by me, words by Bryan

Yay Canada

2010-03-02T20:16:00.003-05:00

So I hear that Canada won the most gold medals, like, ever. I'm not a big sports fan but there is a certain amount of pleasure in seeing the US come second to us. We should also be proud that we created the most innovative medal design I've ever seen, however ugly it may be. Who would've thought to create an "undulating" surface but British Columbians. I'm torn between appreciation of the unique design and the undeniable reality that they look like a manufacturing error. Maybe the varied plane could have been a little more subtle, or just plain flat like most of the great Canadian landscape. What I love is the imagery on the front of the medals. It comes from an orca image drawn by aboriginal West coast artist Corrine Hunt. The image on each medal was "hand-cropped" from the greater image so that each medal is different and unique. I guess that's what you might call a modern (they were drawn onto the medals using a laser) form of handicraft.

heart manipulation

2010-02-26T13:02:00.005-05:00

I drew this to illustrate a to-be-published short story about a morgue worker who becomes enamoured with a dead girl. I felt his "love" was at least partly based on her incapacity for speech (as her lips were sewn up). Being dead, she couldn't have an inherent personality. This is different from his obnoxious wife. Personally, I prefer my love loud and alive, so it's a good thing I have Bryan. Speaking of which, here is Bryan's awesome manipulation.

Sealed by Hooray for the Future (print available)

Hands

2010-02-23T00:07:00.001-05:00

With

2010-02-21T21:06:00.001-05:00

Dead Sea, Israel, 2007

Vancouver, Canada, 2007

Jeju Island, South Korea, 2008

Myrtle Beach, USA 2004

Thornhill (home), 2007

the most profound...

2010-02-17T18:51:00.009-05:00

Bryan thought it would be interesting to see someone else's artistic representation of his poetry. He gave me this quote illustrate: "The most profound achievement of the twentieth century is that you can now live your entire life without ever touching another person." First I thought about a man alone in his apartment connected to the world only via technology. He's sitting on a couch looking at the viewer wide-eyed, hunched over with his hands together in his lap. But such an image would lack context, so I thought of millions of such people each in his or her own little box, like animals stacked in cages. One guy would drive the delivery truck around town, delivering the necessary tangibles to the people in their boxes.

I thought about people on the subway hunching their shoulders inwards so as not to touch the people sitting next to them. I thought about a boy and girl passing each other on the street and their iPod wires happen to get tangled up; they're frustrated with the inconvenience of human connection.

I thought about a series of computers connected by tangled wires, but touch is personal even when its virtual, and depersonalized through technology. So I drew the above sketch. It's not that people aren't connecting, it's that we allow something to mediate that connection. It's often technology that we come physically into contact with in order to connect with other people.

hooray notebook

2010-02-15T20:18:00.002-05:00

I made this notebook for Bryan for Valentine's Day. The front was supposed to say "hooray for the future" which is his motto/blog name but there wasn't enough room on the cover. I think hooray is sufficient. When I hear the phrase, I always think about clouds and a rainbow so that's what I made. Isn't is cute?! It's made out of a cut up wine bottle bag, stuffing, and yarn; the paper inside was some extra I tore out of a notebook that I had bought in Thailand and made into a photo album.

documenting 7 years of visual obsession

2010-02-14T12:38:00.015-05:00

It's obvious that as a society we are trying to understand love, a phenomenon deemed central to the meaning of "human." Some people write novels about love; some philosophize about it; some study it scientifically. I do all of those things but primarily I collect, interpret, and create images. First I sought to represent the connectivity of minds through the intertwining, merging, or melding of bodies. Like this:

Entwined by Shy-Too-Shy

Just try to untangle them in your mind. There's power in the solidness of the formation they've created. The following was my FIRST attempt at such a representation:

By creating images, I wanted to create a kind of love. I wanted my love to be genderless and universal, but the darker figure turned out to be more feminine and the lighter figure masculine. I wanted my love to be equal. But with the two figures indistinguishable from one another, the image didn't look good; it looked confusing. I kept wanting to define each body separately (by shading one differently).

Love seemed doomed to be two separate people, rather than one joined entity. And the shading created an element of race that was entirely unintentional. This was my first sketch I considered successful, even though it didn't solve my artistic or philosophical problems.

I had an artistic epiphany when I realized that my lovers didn't have to be touching. They are two separate entities drawn together by something else.

I later satirized my own representation of love. I thought love might be a farce. What is this mysterious force that draws us together but the language (words or otherwise) that comes out of one person and consequently makes the other feel something.

As entirely separate entities with faulty mechanisms of communication, aren't we doomed to misunderstanding?

The Lovers by Rene Magritte, 1928

As beautiful and simple as real love might be, the complexities of interaction still make relationships difficult if not impossible to maintain. Without a proper use for love, why bother having it?

Complejidades by pijijes

Especially with the pain of separation that must ultimately occur.

Giving up on representing love for awhile, I tried drawing related human interactions. Desire for inclusion:

We cannot help the fact that we need each other to survive and even more, to propagate. We create social structures to bind us.

But in the end, we have to decide which hand we would most like to hold, and maybe it doesn't matter which one.

By David Shrigley

Most of us, if we are human, come back to that basic human desire to love and be loved. We try and try.

And as with most human endeavors, perhaps occasionally we succeed. Happy Valentine's Day.

Fire on Toronto by Bryan Jay Ibeas

mad gift wrapping skills

2010-02-11T10:22:00.002-05:00

I was at an environmentally friendly gift wrapping shop thinking I could make my boyfriend's birthday present look all shmancy. Then I realized that the most environmentally friendly way to wrap a gift would be to use paper I already had. Duh. So I used the soulpepper theatre guide and a page out of a Monet picture book as my wrapping paper. Then I cleverly made a flower decoration for the top by ripping out strips of paper.

I thought my flowers looked pretty decent until I found these and later this. I tried.

maya*made

origami box making semi-fail

2010-02-08T20:54:00.000-05:00

green roofs

2010-02-08T12:32:00.002-05:00

In Japan, I came across the ACROS building and thought it was an excellent way to reconcile technology with nature. With trees running all the way up one side of the building, it goes far beyond the rooftop garden idea. The other side just looks like a glass building, but the green side merges with the greenery of the park and becomes part of the landscape. As it slants upwards, its like a human-made mountain. Imagine how awesome our city would be if all its buildings supported a forest for a roof. Let there be green roofs!

ACROS Fukuoka Building, Japan

O'born artists

2010-02-02T22:37:00.002-05:00

When I saw O'born Contemporary's website, I thought child pornography might be making a comeback in the art world. Then I read that Edith Maybin placed her 5 year old daughter's head on her own body. It makes for very confusing imagery; also if you were concerned about the suggestive nature of the photos, I'm not sure you'd actually be comforted by the knowledge that they were photoshopped.

Edith Maybin

If fakeness is Maybin's excuse for the suggestive nature of her photos, I'm not sure what Jess Roberts' excuse is.

Jess Roberts

converse extension

2010-02-01T13:35:00.002-05:00

A new take on footed pajamas. I'm a little surprised this hasn't been mass produced and sold at Stitches to punky teenagers. I would have worn it, back in the day.

Converse Extension by Daryl van Wouw, Virtual Shoe Museum

monsters

2010-01-31T14:50:00.002-05:00

My Weepies-inspired monster collage.

varying degrees of me

2010-01-30T18:59:00.002-05:00

Okay so I fibbed. One of my fusion subjects was found on Facebook, not Google Image. I just had to use this picture of my rez-mate because we fit so perfectly together. Even our glasses match up. Do we have the same nose?

Yoan

25% me

35% me

45% me

55% me

65% me

75% me

85% me

me