City of Craft, Love and Money

A strong suggestion for those in the Toronto area, City of Craft, a wonderful event that I had the pleasure of being a part of last year is happening Dec 18 & 19 at The Theatre Centre. It only happens once a year, so don’t miss out! It's a great chance to support local crafters and buy some one of a kind holiday gifts. If you aren’t in the Toronto area, check out their website, it has lots of nifty stuff on it, including an artist interview I did this past weekend for an upcoming exhibition!

In conjunction with City of Craft, Tara Bursey has curated Love and Money, it's on from December 16 to 31st at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery. The opening is Thursday, December 16, 7-10pm. This group show features lots of stellar artists working with the themes of craft, fine art and commerce. Unfortunately I'm not able to make it out to Toronto this year for the show, but there will be a long list of awesome people in attendance. To read more about the exhibition visit here and to read the ongoing artist interviews visit here.

I’ve finished and shipped off my piece, which is compromised of five cross-stitches of the former Canadian dollar bills. I posted an image of the 50 dollar bill a while back and I won't share the other bills until the show is over, but as a little sample of the work here is a close-up of the two dollar bill laying over the ten.

"Fotomaton: Selections"

A few months ago I was happy to be approached by Miami-born artist and photobooth connoisseur Aran S. Graham for an exhibition he was putting together. The show, "Fotomaton: Selections" is the first of many in a series of small exhibitions that feature photobooth art. I’m pleased to have two pieces in the show, other artists include Odile Marchoul from Austria and Verdi Yahooda from England.

Here’s the show information if you happen to be in Florida:
Location: Andy Gato Gallery at Barry University, 11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695
Opening: December 17th at 7pm

For more information, including how you can submit works for future exhibitions, contact Aran Graham at aran@aranphoto.com. The website (which is still under construction) is www.fotomaton.org.

As a teaser here is one frame from the 20 frame piece I submitted to the show. I’ll post the final work here when the exhibit has finished.

NEW PROJECT: The Photobooth Drawing Swap

My three very favourite things in the whole world are photobooth pictures of other people, sending and receiving real mail and the making drawings. And so, I’ve come up with a simple ongoing project to swap your photobooth pictures via the post for my original drawings. This is how the Photobooth Drawing Swap works:

1. You decide you would like to make a mutually beneficial trade and email me at meagsfitzgerald@hotmail.com to give me your address and request my address.

2. You then find a nearby classic black & white or colour photobooth (not a digital one), you can use Photobooth.net’s Locator* feature if you don’t know where the booths in your city are. Then have some fun and take some candid photos.

OR

2. You dig through that old shoebox or junk drawer and find those old pictures you don’t need to hang on to any more. Whether you send one individual photo, a whole strip or 10 strips, you get a one of a kind drawing/drawings. (Let me know if intend to send multiple strips and I will send you several drawings to make it at fair trade.)

3. You pop your photos in a mailbox.... wait a few days and presto! You’ll have a pleasant surprise waiting for you.

Just to give you a feel, here are some drawings from some old sketchbooks, the sort of things you might expect to get.

*I volunteer for the Locator feature on Photobooth.net and you easily can too. If you know of a photobooth in your area that has not been added to their database, click here to see how you can contribute a booth location.