West Carleton Arts Society Presents The Artists' Path

Simply passing on information. S. Mini Conference 2011 – The Artists’ Path Please join us for our 2011 Mini Conference and get inspired and learn creative ways to display and sell your art.  Our goal is give you the information that will make you more successful in your work.  We are thrilled to have the following guest speakers at this year’s conference: Wendy Feldberg – award winning Fibre and Mixed Media Artist.  Wendy will guide us with a discussion on inspiration and creating your composition.  Wendy will also show how she applies these practices in her own work. Margit Hideg – artist and creativity educator.  Margit will share creative ways to sell your art.  She will guide you through the process of looking for new ideas and non traditional venues to showcase and sell your work. Patrick Gordon – proprietor Patrick Gordon Framing.  What is in a frame?  To frame or not frame?  How is the best way to present my work?  Patrick Gordon will show different types of framing options for all types of art work.  Mr. Gordon will also explain alternatives to traditional ‘framing’ presentations. City of Ottawa – Public Art Opportunities.  The City of Ottawa staff will present opportunities that are available within the City of Ottawa in the area of Public Art.  Direct purchase opportunities as well as juried competitions. Gallery Panel – Open discussion with a number of different gallery owners.  Find out their individual submission process and artist evaluation.  What do they look for when representing an artist and the types of work they showcase. Space is limited so register early.  www.westcarletonartssociety.ca/events Date:  Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 Time:  9:00am to 4:30pm Place:  Carp Memorial Hall (Intersection of Carp Road and Donald B. Munro Drive). Lunch:  Provided Cost:  $40 per artist / lunch is provided Due Date for Registration:  September 22nd, 2011. Registration Form.

Portrait Painting

Good morning, I met a portrait painter, Deborah Kerr, last evening and we had a fascinating conversation at the end of which she suggested I look at a YouTube entry made of her doing a demonstration on portrait painting.

Take a look at what a beautifully edited, well-conceived video looks like. Also, marvel at Deborah's talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XthHa1q33Y

Images from Hair=>Cut=>Peace

These 2 photos were taken by my friend Michael Gauvreau. They capture the empowerment and embarrassment I felt during the performance. The picture on the left shows Lily Butter cutting my hair while the picture on the right was taken right after the unassuming man cut the front of my head bald! Look at the body language I display in these two pictures! They couldn't be more different!! In the picture on the left I look confident and at ease. The picture on the right shows a different mood, one of disbelief. My whole body and face are tense, my arms at my side indicate how dejected I felt at that moment. Thanks for the great pics Michael! ~~~~~~~~~~~~


The picture below was taken by Brian Double. I met him the night of the show. He had heard of the show through the internet and was very excited to be able to participate in the performance. Here two childhood friends cut my hair while a family friend looks on. You can see the look of disgust and intrigue on their faces. A lot of people couldn't believe I was actually doing this and were quite taken aback!

Gallery is Going to Double in Size in a few months.

In a few months the gallery will be expanding.

In November, the square footage of the gallery will increase to 2,900 square feet. The gallery will be one of the largest commercial galleries in Ottawa. Plus it will be the only gallery in Ottawa that has a sculpture garden.

I will be taking down a main wall, moving the kitchen up to the second level. The entire main floor will be gallery. And the second floor to our home will extend itself to showcase more art.

The front room of the house (currently the kitchen) will soon be a space that will feature a painter each month. The main room and back room will host the monthly themed shows.

The second floor of the building will have the permanent show of gallery artists (rotated but not monthly). The second floor will increase to have storage space for the gallery artists. So that clients are able to see more than what is on display in the monthly shows. Plus there will be a mix of sculptures upstairs.

The sculpture garden will extend to the back yard (behind the house / gallery).

A staff member will be helping work two days a week in the gallery starting September 1st.

A lot of things are going to be happening.

Next month there is no themed show in the gallery. I am taking a bit of a break. But September 15th -> I Killed the Group of Seven Group show. This show was a massive success last year. And if it is half as good as it was last year. Wow.

best wishes

Patrick

Piece of the Peace

I wanted to show additional photos of Ali Sztepa's performance art piece, Hair Cut Peace. These refer back to her post of August 21/11.

Gallery Life

About a week ago, I visited a couple of galleries, an opening or two.

I was struck by the uniformity of work that I saw at these other galleries; like the Art in the Park shows, much-of-a-muchness. It made me proud and happy to be associated with Patrick John Mills Gallery.

One of the things that really stood out for me is the difference in friendliness. No one introduced themselves, no one seemed to know that a new person had come to their gallery. In fact, an astounding thing occurred.

I was looking at a painting, getting a perspective, seeing it from different angles, when someone from the gallery picked up a large canvas from where it was stored behind a counter,  and propped it up in front of the art I was looking at. He never excused himself, nothing. I was standing in front of someone's work, looking at it, and he occluded it, covered it entirely, not caring that he'd obscured someone's work, not caring that someone was looking at it.

How sad for the artist, how sad for an art gallery patron.

Book of Interest - The Judgment of Paris

Ross King's book extols the virtues of one of the 19th century's renowned artist, Ernest Meissonier in contrast to the incipient Impressionists, one of whom, namely Claude Monet, said, "It really is appallingly difficult to do something which is complete in every respect, and I think most people are content with mere approximations." A big, hmmmm, to this.

Might be a book to relish especially if you are keen on the history of art and how movements, in this case, impressionism, came about. 

You can see some of Meissonier's work below.

http://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=ArAUgAjwpwOqzuQJnbyTrTQt17V_;_ylc=X1MDMjE0MjYyMzUzMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTcxNQRuX2dwcwMwBG9yaWdpbgNjYS55YWhvby5jb20EcXVlcnkDRXJuZXN0IE1laXNzb25pZXIEc2FvAzA-?p=Ernest+Meissonier&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-715

Hair=>Cut=>Peace

Hair=>Cut=>Peace was a performance I undertook from approximately 7:42-8:18 pm in Patrick John Mills sculpture garden on July 7th, 2011. I have been processing the events of that performance ever since that night.

My intention for the piece was to remain silent throughout. I love to talk and am very expressive, I did speak on two occasions and when reviewing footage from that night I can see my body language was very telling as was the body language of everyone who participated.

Some people, as they cut my long blond hair, were gentle. Others were disgusted. Still others were aggressive. Everyone whispered something to me as they brought the scissors down. It was a humbling experience.

Towards the end of the performance things began to shift. Someone procured a pair of craft store pinking shears to hack away at my hair, an unassuming looking man cut a bald patch in the front of my head, people were losing interest and not approaching me. And that is what I love about performance art--the unpredictability of it and the intrinsic role of the audience.

After the unassuming man cut the front part of my hair bald, the mood instantly changed. I will never forget the gasp the audience gave out at that moment. I felt a huge range of emotions throughout the performance, everything from embarrassment to empowerment.

It’s taken me a while to process this experience and I haven’t been fully able to yet. I attribute this to; having a very busy summer--working, going swimming and out of town every so often and doing other art shows (I brought Creation Congregation to Big Art Party at Patrick’s at the end of July and I have a garbage art installation up at Orange during the month of August) and the intense nature of the piece.

I’ve since had my hair cut by my old friend Tony at The Clip Joint, his barber shop on Ogilvy Road. I have decided to grow out that front bald patch for peace.

The hair is still wrapped up in the green piece of fabric I sat on during the performance in a plastic bag in a cupboard in my sunroom. I hope to use the hair in mask making.