Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cube Gallery installation in Ottawa

Here is an image of the installation in Ottawa at Cube Gallery. What a beautiful look with 65 different artists all producing works that are the same size, 12 x 12".






100 tear jars handed out on the UofS campus

On Friday Nov 25 I handed out 100 tear jars on the U of S Campus. It was great fun to share the project with the students. I am curious to see how many tears will be returned.  The tear jars will be added to those I already have. Below are a few of the tear jars I already have.

















4 exhibitions up at one time in Canada

I have four exhibitions up in Canada they overlap by a few days. I have two prints at Open Studio in Toronto, 8 prints at Cube Gallery in Ottawa, 3 prints at Rouge Gallery in Saskatoon and 1 Photograph in the West Vancouver Library Gallery in Vancouver. 


 



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Large Bird Nest made from Wire

For the past week or so I have been testing my bird-like skills by building a nest from bits of wire. The nest is about 80cm across and is super heavy. I am currently building a second one that is larger. The act of making this nest has made me contemplate how we arrange our homes, what we bring into our homes, what we decide to display in our homes and what things we discard from out home space. I read the book  "Home" by Witold Rybczynski years ago and it has profoundly influenced my nest series. The concept of "home" has always intrigued me and has been something I wanted to explore. His book Waiting for the Weekend has also influenced my work countless times.

This nest will be included in my exhibition in conjunction with the Northern Saskatchewan Children's Festival. 

I have 5 other large nests that I plan on building and will work on them in the approaching winter months.



Sunday, November 27, 2011

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Completed

After many failed attempts and lots of frustration the tower of bird nests is complete. I love it. I now want to create an inverted one with the nest on the bottom being the smallest because human's have sort of messed up the order of what they want.  This concept is inspired by a conversation with my husband. Young people want all the things from the top  for example fulfillment when they don't have shelter yet,  haven't really worked yet or  have stability or security. The young people are wanting recognition and mastery of a subject but haven't done some of the things on the other layers of the heirarchy.  The sides of the glass boxes are open intentionally to symbolize that moving from one layer to another is very possible.



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bird Nest from Lottery Tickets

I have constructed a bird nest from lottery tickets. The inspiration was an article in MacLean's Magazine where they said that many people do not have any sort of nest egg for retirement and are planning on winning the lottery to cover retirement expenses. I cut lottery ticket purchase forms into strips to create the nest.


Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I am working on a new project that will see bird nests encased in glass etched with the words that describe each layer of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. The nests will get progressively larger and be stacked in a pyramid shape.  I bought a dremel today and will be etching the glass with it. I cal see the dremel becoming part of many of my projects.



Maquette of the entire pyramid of nests