A little bit about what I’ve been up to this fall:

1. Culture Days was celebrated across Canada. I helped to organize venues for local artists to give visual art demonstrations at Arts Off Main and other shops along Main Street.
2. Spent a weekend in Manzanita, Oregon at our friend’s cozy cottage where I was out with my camera getting great shots of the beautiful beach and surrounding forests. Many of these photos have become part of my Shape of Breathing series.
3. I was the featured artist at G&F Financial on Main Street. Thank you G&F for supporting local artists by offering your walls as gallery space!
4. Malaspina Printmakers is now offering silkscreen printmaking. I took a course with Molly Winston to learn the basics as I would like to start combining silkscreen with my digital inkjet prints. Molly encouraged us to go big and I brought home some huge red pieces! Great fun for the first time out.
5. The Eastside Culture Crawl was Nov. 18-20 and this year our studio, Octopus Studios, enjoyed the company of over 1100 visitors! I showed my new Shape of Breathing prints and the West Coast landscape art prints I made earlier this summer as well as demonstrating through-out the weekend. I got lots of positive feedback on the Shape of Breathing series so look for more work in the new year.
6. Nigel, the printing guy, and I were invited to judge a photography contest at the Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of BC. With four categories – people, places, animals and open – and over 90 submissions we had our work cut out for us. There were some really good photos and we managed to narrow down the winners without too much bickering! It’s great to see the company supporting its staff’s interest in photography by sponsoring this contest. The winners photos hang in the office hallways through-out the year. Thanks to Anna and her team for a great effort.
7. My larger pieces are hanging at Fiona Begg’s law office, located right next to Arts Off Main Gallery at 218 East 28th. Pop in if you have a chance.
8. And lastly, I’ve enjoyed a couple of great visits to the Vancouver Art Gallery: once for FUSE with my friend, Carmen, and the other with Megan and Shanti for the Michael Audain talk. There is a major art exhibit on right now of works from the Audain Collection. Michael spoke with directness and sincerity about his love of art – how he falls in love with a piece of art and develops a relationship with it. Especially true for the numerous First Nations masks he has whose spirit he feels, whose presence is alive in his house. Not what I expected to hear from a property developer/businessman! I enjoyed his anecdote about one of Jeff Wall’s photographs of Richmond. He said many learned art folks have seen and commented on the work hanging in his home and offered their analysis of it. But apparently, when asked, Jeff said he just took the photo because he liked the scene! And sometimes it doesn’t get simpler than that.