Monsters with Chika!

These are some collaborative paintings I did with my friend Chika for a group show at The Untitled Arts Society called Ampersand 3. All the pieces in the show were done collaboratively. 

I've shown here the paintings, but also some of the sketches that the paintings were based off of. The drawings themselves were done by both of us, with each of us beginning a sketch, and then switching books after random amounts of time until we agreed that they were done. We sketched 20 or so monsters and then chose our favourite six to actually use for the paintings. Which we have even sold already! Neat!

I did some custom pieces for a couple of ladies who saw my work at a festival this summer and wanted different colour combinations and different quotes.

More Quotes

I was selling shirts and art and cards at the Market Collective at the beginning of December, and made up three new quotes on fabric. I even sold two of them! And I have a stack of wood waiting to be wrapped in fabric and several pieces of fabric that are ready to go. Lots to do!

Oh man, sewing on the flower in the first one was pretty tricky. I'm really impressed with how it turned out. If you look closely, that white line around the edge is the thread. Done on a machine. Very slowly and carefully....

More Quotes on Fabric Art Dealies

Here's a couple more experiments using silk-screened patterns and sewn on elements to capture the mood of some inspirational quotes. Fun stuff. It's fabric stretched over a 8x12 inch piece of 3/4 inch plywood. I can see many directions to take this kind of thing. So much to do, so little time....

My Head Is Filled With Song: Part III

Here's the third piece for a series I'm working on called "My Head Is Filled With Song."

This one is for Wilco's "The Late Greats." Man, what a good song. My only complaint is that it's not long enough! And what awesome lyrics: "The best song never gets sung, the best laugh never leaves your lungs, it's so good you won't ever know, and never hear it on the radio."

I've noticed that I almost always create images that have a light background and dark foregrounds, so for this one I wanted to try switching it up and have a dark background with light foreground objects. Fun stuff.

Alphabet at Ampersand; A Collaboration with CHIKA!!!

My dear friend Miss Chika Ando and I just finished a collaborative piece that will be in the show Ampersand 2, at the Untitled Art Society Main Gallery (4th Floor, 319 - 10 Ave SW, Back Alley Entrance, Calgary).

We created an alphabet of adjectives that can be used to describe people. For each letter we chose a word that Chika was unfamiliar with and then made up a sentence and drew a picture illustrating the sentence. This is one of our favourites!

The show is on for three days. Today and Friday from 12-4, and on Saturday there's a reception party with the artists in attendance from 7-11pm. Come on out and see our lovely alphabet! And all the other neat collaborations!

My head is filled with song: Part 2

SMASHING PUMPKINS: 1979

Eesh. Posting every week is tricky. Okay, so here's the second one of the series I'm working on. Man! I love this song! Who doesn't! So good to drive to! Sooooo, yeah. I experimented a bit with using fabrics as a main element and gluing stuff on and whatnot. It's colourful that's for sure.... Keep on the lookout for another in the next couple of weeks!

My head is filled with song: Part 1

FLEET FOXES: Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

I've recently been working for a painting company (yes, houses, walls, solid colours...) to generate some income, and have been finding it tricky to make time anything creative. To get things flowing again, I've started a project for myself. Every two weeks, I'm going to try and make an album sized illustration based upon a song that I really like or has affected me in some way. The first one is inspired by the Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song." It's a neat image, but I think it could reflect the song a bit more. I don't think the illustration quite has the same feeling as the song does... I will do better on the next one!!! AHA!!!

Illustration Friday - Frozen

A silly painting inspired by perhaps my favourite thing to eat. ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!

Collaboration with Chika!

Chika and I were part of the group show "Ampersand" at the Art Life Gallery in Calgary in August. The show featured 14 different pieces, all of which were done collaboratively. It was a blast! What you are seeing here was actually our second attempt at it. The other side of the board, which is about 2 by 4 feet, has our first attempt on it, which we abandoned after deciding we didn't really like the direction it was going... The piece was done without any planning, and I must admit partly under the influnece of delicious rum. Good times!!!

New Stuff

This is a late birthday card that I gave my sister at the end of our travels. I thought of all the most memorable moments and the neatest things we did and saw and drew them on the card.

This is a card my sister and I sent the parents from New Zealand for their 34th wedding anniversary. All I had was pens to draw with. I chose an animal from each of the countries we'd visited and had them relaying the message. Then on the back are my sister and I wearing cute dresses we'd picked up along the way, saying hello.


This is a commissioned painting (2 by 6 feet) I did for a friend. I saw where the painting was supposed to live, and then was given complete freedom to do whatever I wanted. This is what happened. All the white trees were silk screened onto the wood, and the bottom stripy part is scrap fabric from an old sweater of my mother's that I shortened so I could wear it. So much fun!

TIKI!!!!!!

This is a panel I did as part of a friend's installation in which he turned a gallery into a tiki room with a bar and a stage and bamboo and anything else you could possibly want. I foolishly left it til the day before I needed to have it done and stayed up ridiculously late to finish it... Oh deadlines... I rather like how it turned out. Very silly.

Surfing-ho!

This is just a silly surfing poster. I like surfing.

Paintings!

These are some paintings I threw together for a group show at Oolong . Very silly.

This one is just an experiment.

Art Attack Apron

I did an apron for the silent auction at art attack this year, and had much fun sewing on eggs and ridiculous little drawings in thread, all related to food of course...