Rocky Mountaineer Train Station
1755 Cottrell Street

Sunday, June 27th

noon to 6 pm

I’ve spent the last couple of days getting prepped for Portobello West on Sunday, June 27th, and though I’m usually busy working on new lockets or magnets for an upcoming market, this one has got me doing some extra dashing about because I’ll be in a booth instead of my usual table. I’ve had to completely rethink my set up & I don’t think I can be 100% sure I’m ready until I actually am there & setting up. eep! These are the moments where I’m grateful to have an excellent mister who doesn’t even complain when he has to drive back home because I forgot something. He’s also very good at bringing me coffee. *grin*

After Sunday’s market I’ll have two days of school (one of which includes a presentation – do you have any idea how long it’s been since I had to stand in front of a class? With, like, people LOOKING at me???) and then it’s vacation time. I’m heading out to my parents’ cabin for a few days of relaxation. Lots of sleep, hopefully lots of sunshine and lots of walking along the ocean sounds like heaven right about now. I’m tempted to not bring any work at all, just my sketchbook. But with the Folk Festival coming up in only a couple of weeks, I should probably at least make some Scrabble tile pendants while I’m there, right? Three days off, really off with very limited internet access, feels incredibly decadent to me.

What are your summer plans? Do you take real time off or mostly working holidays?

Brrrr! The Car Free Fest was chilly on Sunday, but I was delighted to see that the clouds didn’t keep folks away. I saw plenty of familiar faces and really wished I’d been able to wander around more. It’s tough when you’re a vendor working on your own; you’re pretty much stuck behind your table the entire day. Fortunately I had plenty of lovely customers plus tricky gusts of wind to keep me busy.

I did as best I could to change up my table display so it would be more weather-friendly, but alas, when the wind suddenly changed direction? I was not prepared. My new locket display sits sturdily on an easel & then was bracketed by two other heavy wood pieces so there was no way it was falling over. Until the wind switched things up & a strong gust came from behind knocking it to the ground along with all of my lockets! I scrambled to get everything picked up & carefully inspected every piece for damage. Luckily only one necklace showed any sign of trouble & it was a really minor fix (a charm fell loose). Phew!

And also – yay! I try to product test my lockets by wearing one myself (constantly), but to be honest, I’ve never really tried to damage the shiny resin that seals my artwork. I’m interested to see what happens after being worn for long periods of time & I hope that the precautions I’ve taken will keep the work from yellowing or fading for a very long time (so far, so good!). But I assumed that hitting the concrete would be sure to cause at least minor scratches on the resin, which is essentially a plastic. I hope that my customers aren’t planning to drag their lockets around on the driveway, but it’s still nice to know that they can withstand being flung to the ground, if necessary.

Image from A Survey of Print Permanence in the 4×6 Inch Consumer Digital Print Market

When I was researching printer ink longevity for selling my artwork, I thought the process they use to test each paper was interesting. They basically stick a sample print in a box & expose it to insane amounts of light for a month or two, then calculate the amount of fading. They’re able to extrapolate that data to figure out how long the print would last when exposed to an average amount of light. (I’m not sure how they get that figure, but they’re assuming some daylight, some tungsten light every day. I imagine the practical difference varies dramatically. A living room in Vancouver is going to get wayyyyy less UV exposure than a condo in California with floor to ceiling windows.) Three estimates are then given on how long a print will take to show signs of fading when: under glass, under UV-protected glass or in an archival album only exposed to light while being periodically looked at.

Obviously as someone who sells her artwork, I find this interesting, but also the geek in me finds it really cool. The printer technology that’s out now hasn’t been out for very long. There really hasn’t been any way for consumers to know if the claims that various brands of ink & paper are “archival” quality is true or not, so reading these reports has been an eye-opener. Nobody wants to just “wait & see” with their wedding photos, right?

Before this gets too (much) longer and boring-er, two things I was surprised by:

1) If you have a good quality printer at home, the photos you print may have a longer archival rating than the ones printed professionally at Costco or Walmart. I know printer & ink technology has come a long way, but I was really surprised by this.

2) If you want your photos or whatever else you’re printing to last more than a few years, don’t buy generic ink. Those ink cartridge refill places? Super cheap, but the ink is horrible for archival purposes. If you’re mostly printing papers that are going to be tossed (recycled) anyway, then this wouldn’t apply to you. But if you’re printing family photos or anything you think you’ll want to hang on to, the testing has shown that the standard rating for those cheapo inks is 5 years or less. Apparently you *do* get what you pay for.

You can download all of the tests from Wilhelm Imaging Research if you’d like to read more.

Grab your bike, your walking shoes or hop on a bus & come on down to the Car Free Festival on Sunday, June 20th! I’ll be hanging with the folks from Blim at 17th and Main Street (with an outdoor table – eep!), but festivities are popping up all over Vancouver, from Commercial Drive to Kits. Yay!

I wandered around the last couple of years as a participant? non-vendor? pedestrian? & always really enjoyed myself. It’s so lovely to be able to stroll the streets & there is plenty of entertainment. One year I settled into the drum circle (they provide the drums & promise not to laugh). Last year the mister and I mostly just ate yummy things, shopped for pretty things and listened to the local bands that were belting out tunes up and down Main Street. There are lots of activities for kids too, so don’t hesitate to make it a family ride. Those with fur babies don’t seem to be shy either!

I’ve spent most of today trying to figure out how exactly to set up my table so that gusts of wind won’t send my wares flying. If it rains…I don’t know. Most of my table display are old wood crates that are sturdy enough to haul my goodies around, but are hardly moisture-resistant. I’d really prefer they don’t get wet either. So…I’ve still got some puzzling to do, but hopefully the sun will be shining & it will be a non-issue.

I’ll be slathering myself with sunscreen, of course, but I suspect I may be harvesting some new freckles tomorrow anyway. Don’t you love summer?

It’s summer! Of COURSE I would sign up for 2 classes plus host an art show plus take on a new wholesale client plus sign up for a whack of markets plus try to plan some holiday time so I can actually see my family! Yes, I have once again bitten off more than I can chew and am a busy little bee running around trying to keep my TO DO list from piling so high that I get buried right underneath it! Phew!

I had such a fantastic time at my art show on the weekend that it deserves its own post (with plenty of photos), but that will have to wait for another time because wouldn’t you know it – I’m dashing out the door to my art class. Last night they had me attempting to build a sculpture that represented a “stair experience” plus the words “liminial” and “vortex”. Oh, did I mention my only tools were cardboard, string & masking tape? Yeah. Not exactly taking that beauty home for display in the grand foyer! haha

Tonight we’ll be discussing the roots of modernism, which apparently involves a whole lot of French history. It’s an interesting class, but to say my knowledge of the French Revolution is rusty is putting it mildly. Au revoir!

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon & I’m settling in with a cup of coffee & my homework. Yup, kgb is back in school! I signed up for 2 summer classes at Emily Carr University, both required courses if I’m ever to get my certificate in Fine Art Techniques. I’ve taken quite a few classes there already, but I tend to pick painting classes and things I’m really excited about rather than the slightly…less interesting, say, core classes required for me to get that certificate.

The class I started last week, Issues in Contemporary Art, is completely hands-off, which I actually am excited about. I haven’t taken a book-learnin’ class in probably 10 years. I’ve done lots of painting and drawing courses, workshops etc., but where I just have to read? And write assignments? And possibly do a presentation IN FRONT OF THE CLASS? Exciting and nervous and makes me want to throw up a little bit in my mouth.

I am sooo not a public speaker. Even introducing myself as we go around the room makes my face and chest flush red. But I’m excited for the challenge and I’m thrilled that I will have homework that requires going to galleries and looking at art. How rad is that?? If I had the money I would absolutely go to university and get an art history degree. Or maybe marine biology so I could go out on dive expeditions to do scientific research. Or sociology, just ’cause I’ve always been interested in people and society and change.

Clearly I enjoy school. It would’ve been nice to have grown up in a wealthy family where I could take classes just because knowledge itself has value. I feel like that’s a luxury these days. Most people take the minimum amount of education they need to get hired in a specific field. How many times have you heard philosophy or liberal arts degrees referred to as “useless”?

I get it, I really do. We all need to put a roof over our heads and put food on the table, so coming out of college with whopping student loans makes no sense unless you’re going to be qualified for a well-paying job. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

This week my homework involves reading an excerpt from Ways of Seeing based on the BBC television series with John Berger. So far, so good. I loathe artspeak – that pretentious babble that the art community insists upon to make itself sound fabulously snobby and intelligent – so I was expecting to be a little irritated by this class. I think artspeak alienates a broader audience who would enjoy art a lot more if they didn’t feel stupid as they try to decipher self-important artist statements. There’s also a strong sense of bullshit, especially with abstract art. The average joe looks at a simple color block painting and thinks, “My kid could do that.” Trying to explain why it’s art (or why it’s good) with unintelligible jargon doesn’t help at all. It sounds like bullshit and I’m sure it feels like the artist is just trying to pull one over on a gullible buyer.

Barnett Newman – Voice of Fire

Why not explain in simple language that the reason the giant canvas painted with simple stripes isn’t as simple as your kid slapping paint on a roller because the layers of color were added so carefully and chosen just right so as to make the whole composition practically vibrate? That there are many layers of glaze that traps the light to make it reflect and bounce in just such a way that it gives the color incredible depth? That standing in front of it encourages people to *keep* standing in front of it, falling into it, meditating on the color? Explained like that I’m guessing you’re going to have a whole lot more non-art lovers remark with (at least), “Huh. I guess that is kind of cool.”

Guido Molinari - Sérielle bi-bleu

For the record, I should note that there is plenty of what I would consider “bad” art out there. Like music or film, art is highly subjective. And that’s fine. In the example above, I’m not trying to say that Joe should now like the abstract painting because he understands why art critics like it, but at least he should be given the chance to understand WHY art critics think the work is good.

Unfortunately, once the price tag associated with the work is taken into consideration, attempts at any kind of critical understanding stop in their tracks. A huge segment of people will never agree that a painting is worth $1.76 million dollars, but art pricing is a whole ‘nother topic that I’m going to back away from lest I never get my homework finished!