Silkscreened Airmail Tests

Over the last two days I printed over 4 meters of this airmail pattern. I designed the repeating pattern using vintage airmail envelopes and registered the two colours on two screens. I printed test samples on mercerized cotton, bleached linen, canvas and on a few coloured cottons for fun.

I’m going to spend another 7 hours in the studio this weekend printing another 3 meters on the fabric I decide on. Eventually I plan on making some oversized cushions and some tote or messenger bags. I’ll keep some for myself, give some to special friends and sell the rest at my Two Hands Two Crowns Etsy shop!

Next Photobooth Animation in the Works

In 2010 myself and friend, Pamela Norrish made Coast to Coast to Coast, a stop motion animation shot entirely in a photobooth. Ever since then I’ve been planning my next photobooth animation and very slowly working away on it.

Shooting a short film in a photobooth has many challenges, among them include the space issue (you have to fit a couple people, puppets and props into a small booth), the timing issue (with 2.5 seconds between frames), the cost issue (it works out to a $1 per shot) and the public issue (using a booth in a mall or bus depot means you’re dealing with curious passer-bys.)

Additionally, Halifax only has three photobooths and they’re serviced by the owner of the booths himself so the quality of the photos are often inconsistent or they’re just plain out-of-order. So, for this next animation I dream of going to Montreal and shooting in the city with the most photobooths per capita.

I’ve just finished the main costumes for the animation. The Whyte Bull head is constructed from fabric I silkscreened and the Commonplace Bull head is entirely crocheted, I also silkscreened a celestial background. I took a set of test strips with both heads and I’m pretty happy with the results. I still have to make a few more puppets and props but the bulk of the construction work is done. I hope to shoot the animation this summer!

Three Cheers for February

February for me has always been one of those months you just have to tough through. Not much exciting stuff happens and the weather is usually poor. On February 2nd the transit system here in Halifax announced they were going on strike. I normally rely on transit pretty heavily as I live a little far from the action. In the first days of the strike I complained about all the time I was losing by walking to my friend Rosalind, who is wise in many areas but especially wise on matters of health. Rosalind reminded me that the increased amount of exercise would actually reduce stress and improve my energy. I may have rolled my eyes when I heard this.

But of course, Rosalind was right. Nearly every day of February I walked between 8 and 15km, powered solely by my legs and audiobooks. And with all that time walking, February still turned out to be a highly productive month! It was a particularly stimulating month because all of my interests were engaged. Here’s a recap of my February:

-I started work on a fine art piece for the show A View From Here at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, which excitingly just received a grant in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. (The photo to the right is a detail of the unfinished work.)
-I’ve collaborated with the CBC on a story about photobooths and I started building the official Fotomaton website (a photobooth-art initiative that I started last year with American artist Aran Graham.) I also built the props for the next photobooth animation I’d like to shoot this summer (a blogpost on this coming soon.)
-I designed and got my first two ever tattoos!
-I accepted a few commissions, including an emblem for Bad Dog Theatre Company in Toronto (top photo), a custom cross-stitch through Etsy and two a couple of posters for a band in Halifax.
-I’ve just started collaborating with Lisa Amerongen on a children’s book she’s writing and that I’ll be illustrating this summer.
-I spent a week volunteering as a judge for the Canadian Improv Games and kept up my regular volunteer shift tutoring kids at the public library. And I’ve kept up top-notch grades in my five classes and still found time to attend my regular yoga class.
-And perhaps most excitingly I’ve decided I’m going to attend the 2012 Photobooth Convention in Venice, California from May 18th to 19th. I haven’t got the resources to go yet but I’ve got a few ideas.

Thanks February!

Bull Headed

I thought I'd share some quick illustrations and a paper mask + photostrip I made in the fall of 2010. I made these while I was thinking about a large art installation and animation I would like to make someday. Along the same lines, this past fall I revived the mythical bull imagery in this set of illustrations.

Recently I've been thinking about this project again and I'll share some of my recent inventions here soon.

Two Hands, Two Crowns, Two Tattoos

A week ago today I visited the private studio of Lydia Stalingrad, formally of Utility Tattoo here in Halifax. My very wonderful friend Krista Leger, who has two tattoos herself came with me to tell me distracting stories, take some photos and calm the anxiety of a tattoo newbie. (All the photos here were taken by her.) I first thought of getting these tattoos exactly two years ago when I was staying in a cabin in Northern Saskatchewan, I started working on the designs then and last week I was finally ready to make the commitment.

On a technical note for tattoo geeks out there, getting the tattoo on my dominate arm (left) hurt noticeably more than the one on my right arm. However, my left tattoo has being healing very fast whereas my right arm was bruised and swollen in the following days.

My motivations for getting the tattoos are a combination of being too personal to share + probably boring to other people so I won’t go into the reasoning here. Though, yes it does relate to my company name Two Hands Two Crowns.























I got these in one sitting so I'll be going back for tiny touch-ups once they're healed. I'll probably post photos of the finished products in four or five weeks time. I’m quite pleased and excited for them to be all healed up!

My Feline Valentine

Last week Hank, my beloved cat, asked me if I would be his Valentine. I thought this was pretty romantic of him, considering our relationship is already quite serious (we sleep together every night, you know.) I, of course said yes and started my search for a cat appropriate Valentine. Late that night I woke up to see Hank using my computer, though I couldn’t make out what was on the screen. I pretended to be asleep.

Well, this morning Hank and I exchanged gifts and boy does he know me well! He ordered this beautiful, collectible, embossed, vintage Airmail envelope for me off ebay. (Seriously, click on it to see the details.) I gave Hank this equally beautiful vintage Valentine and a heart-shaped bag of cat treats. Hank's gift will be added to my rare Airmail envelope collection soon, as seen in the bottom right photo.

Anything but Idle Hands

In the last few weeks I’ve been crocheting-away at the blanket I’m working on. However I encountered two hurdles, firstly I misplaced my 6mm hook and both yarn stores in the city were sold out, so I took an involuntarily two week break from the blanket. (I did eventually buy a new hook and then found my old one immediately afterwards.) Secondly, the Halifax Transit service has been on strike for the last ten days meaning I don’t have that time during bus rides to work on it and more generally I have less free time now that I’m walking everywhere.

All this brings me to say that I’m actually going to put the whole blanket project on hold. I recently accepted an invitation to participate in an exhibition at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto that runs from April 21 to July 15. The exhibition theme is the exploration of Canadiana through craft mediums. I have a piece in mind I’ll be making especially for the show, and you may have guessed it, it will be crocheted. I’ll be using Canadian wool to make a three dimensional form which will be shown in a display case. I don’t want to say too much more about the piece but I’ll definitely blog about the finished work.

Here is a picture of about half of the blanket triangles I was able to get done.

Feministory

A couple weeks ago I submitted a one page comic to Bitch Magazine, out of Portland, Oregon. Every issue has a theme and a feature called “Adventures in Feministory”, the theme for the Fall 2012 issue will be “Elemental”. After much thought I decided the subject of my comic would be the career of Rosalind Franklin; the Jewish-British scientist who worked on decoding the molecular structure of DNA in the 1950s.

In addition to the finished comic, as part of my proposal I also drew up these portraits of two other women I’d be happy to make comics about. I did these drawings with ink and brush and tinted them afterwards in Photoshop.

I won’t put the finished comic here in case it is selected, though it will be a month or so until I find out. Cross your fingers for me!