The Crow’s Speech
[fve][/fve] While I’ve been working this morning, there’s been quite a conversation happening outside my studio window. It interested me, so I thought I would share! I only wish I knew what they were talking about …
Done
UofS: Creating Paint from Soil
[fve][/fve] Last week I was up at Christopher Lake in Saskatchewan to teach about making paints from soil for a course at the University of Saskatchewan. Alongside my colleagues Ken Van Rees and Allyson Glenn, we taught about making pigments out of bones and soils (and even bugs!). Being an interdisciplinary course, students in both … Read more
Conestoga Pigment Hunt
It was a beautiful weekend here in Conestogo! And, what with the water being low and my family looking for an adventure, we spent a good part of the day down by the river. I was looking for some of the bright, eby ochre I’ve found in the past … but we also found clay, … Read more
Conestogo Map
Maps are taking shape! With my hope of publishing the Atlas of Canada’s Local Colours in time for 2015’s Year of Soil, I’ve been busy finalizing the layout and layering of my local colour maps. I’m continuing to develop in this work depicting the processes, time and colours resulting from my ‘placeful’ experiments in a … Read more
Wunderkammer Frame
Over the March Break I decided to take a break from my maps and icons and solve something that’s been bothering me for some time … Over the past decade I’ve collected local colours from the soils and rocks of a lot of different places, but most of these amazing pigments are hidden away in … Read more
Atlas Bound
Atlas of Canada’s Local Colour is now bound! While only a temporary binding, it’s still pretty exciting to see and hold my maps in the book form I’ve been imagining. It was an interesting challenge to decide what kind of cover I wanted to have, and what it would reference. I tried a number of … Read more
The Creative Path
It’s been a week of making leaps in my art, and then having to retreat back a few paces. While the overall progress should leave me satisfied, I’ve found this difficult. It seems like I’ve been preparing for a long time to create the maps of my atlas and I feel really ready for all … Read more
Northern Colours
Some years ago an American friend considered the map of Canada I had on my studio wall. Into this map, I had pushpins marking the different places where I had collected local colours. Given that almost all the pins were along the Canadian/US border, he noted that I hadn’t been very far north yet. I’m … Read more
Marl Lake: Preparing Maya Blue
Since I began this project I have been pining for a good blue to use in my work. Growing some woad and thereby having indigo to use was a wonderful start.Certain concerns, however, were always in the back of my mind as to whether such pigment could really be counted light-fast. So I kept … Read more
Conestogo: Bad day
Today was not a good day in Conestogo. When I woke up this morning, it didn’t feel like a good day but I told myself that it would be one because I would chose to make it one (such notions are never foolish until one looks back on them I suppose). But it left my … Read more