Crawl recovery, anyone? And all I did was attend! Kudos to all the artists and organization folks who pull that long weekend together. It’s hard to live up to a week THAT filled with art, but let’s see how I did.

Meetings & Making

Without all the Crawl visits, I had a bit more time to make art this week.

I’m exploring a theme that alters what layers mean to me. As I document each piece I produce, keeping track of the layers I’ve used, I think of them as slices of life experience — the changes and adjustments we make as we learn more throughout our lifespans.

But this week, I thought: they could also be literal coverups, as we add polite responses to obscure our actual thoughts. Don’t know why that’s been on my mind!

Here are a few passes on that concept from a digital point of view.

Basically, these are my recent urban series pieces, with some altered monoprints added as a topmost layer, and varying amounts of opacity. In round 2, I thought about how much I like bold letters in a collage, and used text layers, very faintly, as well. I don’t think they’re as effective as the physical layers, but, well, I’ll just have to keep experimenting both ways.

And then, while on the move from Vancouver to Seattle, I took my camera for a little walk in the early winter.

Textures, detail, a little colour — all good!

Viewing

Outsiders & Others, a gallery I’ve visited several times, has moved to a new, downtown Vancouver location. Time to check it out, I thought.

The current show is Will Dewgrave, with his Reflecting Frames. Unwittingly, I got there just as an artist-led workshop & discussion were finishing up. I checked the hours & the weather — forgot the event calendar! But hearing Will’s take on creating an artistic life was insightful, and his detailed work drew me in.

I really appreciate the work and artists that Outsiders & Others supports, and I’m thinking of ways to be more involved.

While I was in the neighbourhood, I also stopped in to see the silent auction pieces available at Jennifer Kostuik — wonderful, and a great discussion!

Up Next

I picked up my last piece of test framing, and it looks wonderful.

Thanks to Estrella at Paneficio for all the help. She’s now set to help me frame for upcoming shows, with a range of options for me to try.

As this year tiptoes towards the end, I think I’ll be wrapping up these posts shortly — an even 50 is sounding appealing, with a couple of weeks off to finish out the year. And, we’ve all got a few other things to take care of, don’t we? How’s your year-end looking — any time for just resting?

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