New Art Class Beginning Feb 13

creativity is like a muscle
when you work it it gets stronger

…

T r a n s f o r m   is a new course starting mid-February being offered as part of Gallery Gachet’s Art School.  Its purpose is to support individuals in their daily creative practice.

for self-identified artists of all abilities, including aspiring.

Note that you can attend the first session with zero obligations to complete the course.

…

We believe that:

• By creating art every day we’ll improve in leaps and bounds (both technique and creative prowess).

• By committing to your practice (and to this course) you’ll find increased confidence in your creativity, and

• By flexing your creative muscles you’ll gain personal power to shape the world around you, from the mundane to the monumental.

To learn more about this art course please,
CLICK HERE to download Info Sheet.

Course begins Wednesday, February 13, 2013

launching a new creative project?

I’ve been finishing up a proposal for a Course that I hope to offer next term at the Gallery Gachet Art School, co-facilitated with my rad friend Caleb.

 

Transform: Active Creativity for Personal & Social Change

The backbone of this course is that we agree to make art, or to do something creative every day (or every other day). Creativity takes bravery, and a willingness to be vulnerable as we learn to see and experience reality directly, and then to act to transform this reality in some way through our actions.

Using a combination of discipline and gentleness, as well as by locating our creative practice within a supportive community context, we vastly increase our odds of success and of realizing our intentions.

 

I’ll probably do more promo here, but for now I include the drawing I did this morning, as I contemplated re-engaging with this daily creative practice thing… that if you follow this blog you’ll know I’ve not been doing recently. I prefer my mindfullness practice on my meditation cushion these days.

I do believe approaching daily creative practice within a group context will be super cool, and I am genuinely excited to support others in this work that has been so transformative for me. And i guess jumping back in too!

 

More about Gallery Gachet, from their current show catalog:

Collective Habitat 1997 – 2012 | ART-i-FACT: 88 East Cordova

For 15 years, this building/Gallery Gachet site has been home to diverse and unusual artists; it bears witness to creative engagement with art against oppression, paradigms of self-taught vs. school taught, politically motivated art, art borne of abuse and marginalization, inclusive art, and art revealing the power dynamics within contemporary art practice and institutions. Gachet’s contributions are unusual, subversive and underrepresented. In the development of the knowledge exchange concerning art, Gachet engages mental diversity, inclusivity issues and intersections of oppression. Vision, reality and artistic output have an intimate relationship with perspective and socially-defined definitions of sanity and competence. As we move into a more expansive and accepting climate in the contemporary art world in Canada – one that is warming to Outsider art, ability-iconoclasm and political art – Collective Habitat creates an artistic and theoretical record of Gallery Gachet’s participation in this zeitgeist.

my art as social practice

Chris Bentzen is a Vancouver curator, organizer, button-maker, and soon-to-be gallery owner. A few weeks ago we sat down to talk about art, and one result is this wee video. Chris releases one video weekly featuring a local Vancouver artist. Happy to be included in the roster!

Good luck with your gallery opening, Chris.

Interview with Vancouver artist Sara Ross from bentzen on Vimeo.

flowers for mom

i made some flowers for my mom   to celebrate her birthday.
Lilies are her favorite.
She said to me, “ah, now my lilies are not yet over for the season!”

to find her treasure (the flowers) mom followed ten cryptic clues
we laughed at our site-specific foibles, our love of this place,
our family home, temagami. I love my mom.

invitation to mindful moment

On the banks of beautiful Still Creek in Burnaby, BC i worked with a group of community artists and the Still Moon Arts Society to create the Spirit Fish Festival.

Kyira Korrigan helped me create this Invitation to Mindful Moment    which I image recreating in Stanley Park some day.

INVITATION
You are invited to pass through this arch and into a mindful moment.

Step 1: This journey will be undertaken in silence.

Pause a moment before entering; breathe deeply and let go of words.
When ready, announce your intention to proceed with a ring of the bell.

Step 2: Find a place to comfortably stand near the river. WATCH YOUR STEPS, WHERE YOU PUT YOUR FEET! When you arrive, return your gaze to your surroundings.

 Pause for a moment, and listen. What is the dominant sound? Explore the components of the background you are immersed in. Listen a bit longer—let a minute or two pass.

Step 3: As you exit, you may choose to ring the bell again to sound completion of your mindfulness.

More about SpiritFish: video link

velodeco : make something from nothing

for the last three years i’ve had the great pleasure to create and provide the decorations for a kids bike parade. I hand-make streamers out of used plastic bags + salvaged veggie twist ties.

HOW i ride my bike all over town visiting various large-chain grocery stores where people ‘recycle’ their disposable plastic bags    i don my gloves and dig through the bags of bags    searching for beautiful colours    most bags are not desirable: thin white safeway beige yellow buy-low grey home depot yuck.

A gem would be solid red or blue sears, multicoloured record store, white and pink hello-kitty! I’ll post instructions sometime.

here’s the thing with this work. it’s not collectable. it doesn’t hang on your wall. it’s not new. is it even art? just because some kid hung my quote work on their bike for a few days and rode in a parade… i suppose the kids feel validated for loving their bikes for fun and freedom, parade viewers see the bikes and feel hopeful for the future. i feel good too. okay.

eighty nine : up to good

here come 12 old blog posts that are yet to be created    sorry for the long lapse    i guess this has been an unannounced holiday from blogging    tho not from daily creative actions

does this count?

eighty seven : leading folks in song

success!!! i led a group of community folk in a song as part of songs for birds   a public event at our neighbourhood park that i co-facilitated with my housemate Jenna. I did it. It sounded good us all joining voices together. The woodpecker nesting close by liked it too.

pictures on Ant’s website

sixty four : mandala : old work

this is car crash mandala : the practice of present moment
it was a performance piece that i create on the street at the encouragement of
Mark Mushet of Vancouver Review Magazine in 2009   and he took the picture

it was published as part of the magazine’s art centerfold. thanks Mark!

forty six : lantern making party

can i take credit for the cuteness of kids?  mmm nope.

finally some pictures from one of the lantern workshops that i coordinated    held at the Secret Lantern Headquarters.

these young fellows are very skilled at making things   due to the encouragement they have received from parents who take them to community art events, and also their experiences at gatherings such as Fire Maker where they learn primitive skills such as making a bow and arrow or learning to skin a rabbit.

while you cannot see it in this picture   one of these lanterns featured an owl and a fern.

having the kids present brought much lightness    and a sense of welcome and rightness to this workshop.   as did the candidness and contribution of all who were there! THANKS ALL!

 

connection in the dark days making things together     so basic so human we are

INVITE : Terry Lowe

regular blog viewers will already have seen this, tho not a finished version.
i am posting so folks can view the INVITE through an email invite going out today.

forty two : tasty bread

leftover potato bread          was delicious for breakfast this morning! potatoes were salvaged from farmers fields…

forty : beet star

how to make pickled beets   :   salvage beets from farmers field    peel    wash    slice thinly    arrange as star for photograph    add salt with no iodine    add tiny bit water    caraway seeds    wash bucket    mix all   wash plate    make weight to rest on plate maybe another smaller bucket with water in it or maybe a giant clean rock    press PRESS wait WAIT    cover with cloth    stir every few days and press some more    make sure to keep the beets completely submerged so add brine if needed

when will it be ready? not sure yet.

thirty nine : material lanterns

5 beautiful pictures from solstice.

thirty four : lanterns

Look at these beautiful lanterns we built for Winter Solstice Lantern Festival!

eleven: parade of lost souls

Beehive stops traffic at Parade of Lost Souls

Left to right: Crow, Wolverine, Owl, Goblin, Squid (aka Octipii Vancouver), Jester, and Zoro’s cousin the lightening tamer. I am including this as my creative endeavour for the day, as I put together the Owl costume in a few minutes before we went out, after spending the day finishing previous projects and completing previous posts on this blog.

woo woo, woo woo, woo woo-aaaaah, says Owl.

five: i will cook food for you

On the other side these tokens say:  “i will cook food for you”

I made these tokens as an effort to stimulate supportive community. I was heading down to the Occupy Vancouver site, and anticipated being around many people who i had never met. My intention was to strike up a conversation with folks, talk about my art project, and ask them:

“would you be willing to cook food for someone in the next two weeks?”

If willing then i would give my new acquaintance a radiating heart token as a reminder of their inspiration to support another person.

Use what you got.