Catching Joy

I had some fabulous news regarding this piece I made for the Catching Joy exhibit at Neilson Park. It was purchased by the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at UofT to add to their fabulous collection of moveable books. Apparently my work is slated to appear in an exhibition of moveable books at the Library sometime in 2020. 

I am honoured and amazed! 

She Tried to Catch Tickles

Catching Joy is a themed exhibit opening Sept.11 - 30 at Neilson Park Creative Centre.

Artists were given a line or two from the book, Joy by Corinne Averiss, and asked to create an artwork based on them.

My lines were, "She tried to catch chuckles. Then she tried to catch tickles." I had a lot of fun thinking about the visual imagery conjured up by the words and the overall theme of the book. This piece is 28"x11" and 8"high. The spirals are becoming my specialty...

Recent Works

I've been working with larger formats lately - requiring the paper to be reinforced, even though it's a heavy 2-gauge stock. It's more difficult to cut and use my punches on, and when I glue pieces together to make them stronger (mostly for the upright pieces), the paper warps toward the glue side. So it's been interesting, technically, to make it work and because of the tendency of the paper to droop - some happy 'accidents' have given more interest in the finished results. A lot of this is 'found' paper - leftover from other projects. I really hate to throw it out and the negative shapes are so beautiful. So the scrap heap becomes art! I am enjoying the grunge textures and using water-soluble graphite to muck up the the paint a bit. 

These pieces are about 24"x12"

Uprising

 Uprising is an over-size painted paper pop-up I created for the Etobicoke Art Group Highlights Exhibition, which is on right now at Neilson Park Creative Centre. It presented a number of technical difficulties, in part brought on by the haste in which I made it. Waiting for glue to dry made me a little impatient, but overall, I think I'm happy with the results. It was placed by a corner window in the Main Gallery. I happened to visit on a sunny afternoon and the effect was magical. The light created really interesting shadows and intensified colour on the undersides of the structure. 

 Pop-Up Accordion Book Workshop

Timed and designed to beat the Winter Doldrums - a Pop-Up Workshop! Make something to make you happy - join me at Neilson Park Creative Centre for two days of making paper pop-ups collected into an Accordion Book. Saturday and Sunday, February 24 & 25. Check it out here. 

New Works

A nice long break over Christmas has afforded me time to get back to my beloved paper pop ups. I've been playing with doodles from my sketchbook (and on every scrap of paper in the house) and transcribing their loopy energy into 3-D, together with spirals - which I love cutting out (very Zen!). I have boxes full of hand-painted papers, which I make in the summer when I can work in the back yard. It's lovely to be in my cozy studio on these cold winter days, enjoying working with papers created during sunny, warm times.

Loopy Doodles

Leaf Trails