New Works

I created two large works this past year for the Etobicoke Art Group's annual exhibitions - 'Highlights 2023', and the Annual Juried Exhibition at the Etobicoke Civic Centre Gallery. Some of the pieces displayed here are small works I made over the past two years.

 

Pop Up Workshop

Join me for a Pop Up Workshop with CBBAG - Canadian Bookbinders and Book Arts Guild, on Saturday, September 11, 1-4 p.m. Eastern Time Zone (Toronto/NY). We will be making Star-Shaped Structures with Pop Up Faces. Click here for information and registration.

Geometric Pop-Ups

I wanted to find simple ways to construct geometric shapes that work as pop ups but can be taught online. The construction has been pared down to its simplest format. 

 

Isolation Pop Ups

All classes and workshops were cancelled by mid-March due to the COVID19 Pandemic. In many ways the enforced isolation at home was a gift - giving many of us time to slow down and explore projects which had been simmering on the back-burner for too long. 

Things are slowly opening up, but the pandemic is far from over. Here's some pieces from March. 

PopUp Workshop!

Coming up soon on Sunday, March 29, 2020 with CBBAG at 180 Shaw St. in Toronto.

All day PopUp Workshop with Painted papers - learn lots of cool pop up techniques and go home with your very own 3-D Accordion Book.

Click here for details.

Also - on Saturday, March 28th, Surfaces: Painted Paper Workshop. Enjoy a full day of messing about with acrylic paints to create wonderful decorated papers for all your artistic needs. 

Click here for details.

Canadian Bookbinders and Book Arts Guild Maker’s Mess Series

the Toronto CABBAG is running a series of really great workshops this year called Maker’s Mess - no experience required, fun AND educational. I’m looking forward to teaching two days in March 2020 - ‘Surfaces: Painted Paper”   And ‘The Artful POPUp: Painted Paper PopUps”. Click on the links for more information or to sign up.

Uprising - The Movie

Did a quick video of my very large PopUp Sculpture, Uprising, for PopUpTober. 

Ziggurat

I set myself the project of creating a Pop-Up Accordion Book using Japanese Papers, which are very tough, but also soft. I wanted to make a sewn book. All of the structures are sewn into the backing paper. Some lino-print patterns have been added, as well as decorative stitching. I had to devise a way to stitch the structures so they would move freely and didn't use the tabs I would normally use to glue them in place. It was fun having to figure out new ways to make the pop-ups work within the parameters I set. You can see by the not-quite-as-neat stitching on the Tetrahedron (pictured last) that there was some trial-and-error. I didn't pull out the stitching for fear everything would tear, though the paper is very resilient. 

Summer Projects

Trying to get odds and ends used up and finish some projects that were started and abandoned. Sometimes everything goes together beautifully but most often it's a struggle!

I've got several of these small (5 1/2"x 11") folios on the desk at the moment. It will be great to get them done and on display.

Parallel Fold Pop Ups

I was digging through my box of WIPs and came across this piece. It's cut from paper that was splattered with paint, then folded and smooshed for symmetry and to give the paint cool textures - something I often do with my papers. Then I cut into the negative spaces  - I love the shapes I get from this method - they're really interesting to me. I play with the cut papers until I'm happy with the design and then start gluing. It's a simple parallel fold pop-up - made more complex by the 'random' shapes. 

Reading the Runes

A few month ago I saw a Call for Submissions by the CarpOs Collective to display work in a single window space at Gallery 1313. I thought it would be fun to try a large pop up in that space, applied, and was accepted, much to my joy!

This is the work I created specifically for that space - 66" x 25" x 22"...called 'Reading the Runes'. The imagery is from ongoing studies of a series of photos I took of tar fixes on asphalt parking lots, which I call Targlyphs, because that's what they look like. 

This pop up is the largest I've made, to date. It really does work and I'm looking forward to seeing it in its space in a couple of weeks. 

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