Party on the Pavement, a huge success.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We had a great time and I am so grateful to everyone who came and to the Neighbourhood Small Grants who made this event possible.

Smiles were made, inner artists seeped out, chalk was a vehicle for this event and for the people who choose to take a piece and give it a try.

We stood at Davie and Bute Street at the Rainbow on the sidewalk and handed out chalk to passersby’s and some said yes, some said no, some had fun and some had to go. Katie, a dear friend of mine came out to be with me on the day and I am so happy she was there because she helped me work the crowd and later her son and husband came by to make their drawings too.

Photos can be found here

Here’s to making it a yearly event, I have chalk leftover and some balloons ready too.

Party on the Pavement is happening! Sept 6th 1-3 pm Bute Street Plaza

You coming?

When was the last time you drew with chalk on the pavement?

Chalk, hand sanitizer, ballons and fun are supplied.

This event is made possible by neighbourhood small grants, without them I would not be engaging in the community like this and I am so happy to have the opportunity to celebrate coming out of a dark time.

Please drop by anytime between 12-3 pm on Monday, Sept 6th at Bute Plaza at Davie Street.

Let the balloons lead the way.

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Duer, get a pair.

Ever wanted to try Duer Denim?

I got you, they are amazing and now that the season is changing we can grab those jeans again.

https://prz.io/ON2051NsL Use this code for $20 off your purchase.

They reached out to me after I sent them a marketing package, I’ve been sending them all over town to my favourite brands. They responded to me by giving me a free pair and offering me this amazing coupon code for you too.

Give them a try. I made these quick and dirty selfies of me wearing my brand new pair for the first time with my phone. Better photos to come in these jeans because I know I am going to live in them.

I am wearing the Slim Straight in Indigo wash and they feel like pyjamas. I’m serious, they are that comfortable, I have them belted too and I don’t have to make any adjustments when I sit down or stand up they just move with me.

Go see them, their customer service is on point and the denim will be a treat, promise. Plus you have my coupon code to use that will get you 20% off your purchase.

What are you waiting for?

My process

Things are hot and smokey here in Vancouver and I am having a bit of trouble settling in and focusing by sitting in front of my computer now.

I had to think a lot about what to post this week, I am knee-deep in marketing, sorting out my journey and making plans for my next moves, thinking through the need for the next moves and the desires behind them.

Alongside this time of processing plans and feelings, I am working on my virtual artist residency. Drawing, projecting images and drawing so I can practice with spray paint, using water-soluble paint in a refillable pen on vellum over top my large format printed vogue images. A trip to Layout Art Supply to pick up more supplies, spray paint, smaller refillable markers, different types of markers, more water-soluble paint in the colour of purple, some extra nibs for the refillable pen and some extra caps for the spray paint so I can experiment with different types of ways the paint can come out of the can. I am capturing my process during these days of the residency in my Instagram stories, mostly with timelapse videos if you want to come along and see the process unfold. I also created some long-form IGTV videos with specific goals of my process.

I filled out my final application for an artist residency in Montreal this week too. The application needs to be juried and accepted and I will not know for another 10 days so I will have to sit tight and exercise patience.

I think it is worth filling you in on my photographic process at this point because it also drives the rest of my art practice of continuous line drawings. The lines, shapes and the connection created in each image gave me the want to draw the lines to symbolize the process and how we need to connect, now more than ever.

We know each other by our lines, wrote William Blake after The Book of Ruth. He was referring specifically to the bounding lines that keep everything together, the lines that bind us, without them there is chaos. Chaos is unmanageable for anyone, the lines, the connections we have in our lives keep us grounded and keep chaos at bay. With this in mind, my process of planning and executing a shoot can be traced with a line.

I am inspired by an idea and reach out to the agency I work with to select a model to work with and book them. I then find the clothing I want to use during the shoot and print out inspiration images to use during the shoot as inspiration for the model and myself. I use them as a guide to keeping the original idea in mind during the entire process. I also use them as a guide for posing so the model has a reference.

I make JPGS from the shoot after a quick edit in Lightroom and send them to the modelling agency so they can make selects. I also make my own selects and add them to a submission cue. I always work ahead and plan my days by working ahead, planning for me is key.

Then I decide if I want to draw the lines in digital form using procreate and my iPad or if I want to make a print and project the image so I can draw it big or if I want to just use a smaller print and make a drawing with a 4x6. All of these decisions are based back on the original inspiration of the editorial I decided to create.

Turns out sitting down to tell you about my process became a much longer blog post than I intended and I’m glad. Sharing the process with you will also give you a window into where I am moving next with my art practice and my photography.

Each of these series of steps is long and takes a lot of energy. For a long time, I thought I just had to take photos and that was that, it is only now over a decade into this journey do I know and realize that the process is so much more than gaining recognition. The connection for me is the key and in that key is the line I am using to be so grateful for what I do and for me to engage with you.

Thank you for reading this far, I appreciate your support and am so grateful to have you along on my journey.

The images in this post are a recent editorial I created, some expired polaroids and images used in my formal artist residency application.

A Neighbourhood Small Grant, a silk screen workshop with Blim and a second vaccine.

It has been an exciting week, it started with a bang! Well kinda, I got an email at 12:02 am Tuesday morning. How was I reading my email at that time you might ask? I work a serving gig a few nights a week and we get home late sometimes. I wind down in a lot of different ways, first stop my email to catch up with anyone who might have reached out.

Thank you for applying to the Neighbourhood Small Grants (NSG) program. 
Every year, a committee of neighbours reviews all of the NSG applications to ensure that projects meet our program goals. The Committee greatly enjoyed the creativity in your application, and loved your project idea! On behalf of the Neighbourhood Granting Committee, I am pleased to inform you that your project was awarded funding!

I can’t wait to share the project with you, right now I am in the process of pulling together the location and the date. As soon as I have a poster to share you will find it here.

And then, the week got even better.

Then I learned how to silk screen with the fabulous people at Blim, so fun. I was able to take a course, buy the supplies and bring my own shirts to screen on and pay for studio time. The set up is perfect and any question I had was answered with ease.

The screen I choose to make is from my latest grouping of drawings, moving away from using my photos and carrying the continuous line into what feels good as I move my pen across the page. I am using the exercise of drawing a self portrait with your eyes closed and inspiration from other illustrators to make these new drawings. I am filling pages in a sketchbook with practice day after day and it is a practice I am really enjoying seeing develop. One I could see going BIG as a community based Mural to. Let’s see what we can do.

The week rounded out with my second shot, my first was AstraZeneca and my second one is Moderna.

How was your week?