Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tuesday's Victorians

Since my last post a whole pile of absolutely thrilling things has occurred.

Here, let me make a list of the highlights:

• Last Friday, I found out I'd been accepted into the Graphic Design BFA at OCAD, meaning I'll be a full-time student again come September.

• I became part of an art collective, and we're opening a working studio/gallery on Queen West in May (!!!). Stay tuned for WAY more information on this point of interest!

• I'm learning to use Dreamweaver (a web design program) while redesigning my dad's website. FINALLY beginning to understand CSS/DIV layers/all those code-type things.

And the most relevant one for this post,

• I've been drawing stacks of Victorian portraits, many of which will be on sale in the coming weeks on Etsy (links will be posted as soon as they're up)!

Thus far I've fully finished fifteen of these dudes and ladies, with many more to come (I'm hoping to make it to 60 or so by the end of the project).


Four of the men, showing how dapper they can be!

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for more info on the Strange Victorian sale - they'll be super cheap and looking for new homes!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sunday Wanderings

Today I was rifling through my many (so, so many - I think I have a bit of a problem) browser bookmarks, I found something I'd filed away ages ago, most likely soon after getting this computer (so almost two years back). The something was this thing, an application that lets one pop ordinary digital camera images into a magical little box, then play with a pile of controls to make said photos look like something out of a proper analog polaroid/lomo/toy camera. Needless to say, this little toy thrills me to no end and I have spent the last hour-ish dragging pictures from my photo library and prettifying 'em.

Cases in point:


Tiny Pacific Octopus, photo originally taken at Ucluelet Aquarium in BC.


Tentacles!


Jellyfish floating around inside the Vancouver Aquarium.


Gorgeous daylily from my dad's summer garden.


Whilhelm the merfox on display at my last show.


Watercolour palette.


Rocky Mountains as seen from airplane (on the way back from BC).


A pair of bears menace a poor, encapsulated merfox.

I fear this application may become quite addictive!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Collected Collection Collecting

Just as with my last show/project, I am making use of the incredible variety of imagery that zips through my Tumblr dashboard (as well as picking plum photos and links from other places on the web) to create a digital scrapbook, accessible from any computer and always sitting around, ready to zap fantastic, inspiring ideas into my brains.

Click through below to see a smattering of the things that have lately been providing me with inspiration:

COLLECTED COLLECTION: A Scrapbook

For those of you who'd prefer a quick overview, some of the latest additions:


Description, from Flickr: This armchair is where Charles Paget Wade, owner of Snowshill Manor from 1919-1951, would sit and listen to the radio. It's not in the main manor house itself but in a converted outbuilding called the Old Priest's House in the courtyard adjacent to the house.

MEANWHILE, THE DOLPHIN CLUB by Wendy MacNaughton
- a series of gorgeous watercolour illustrations telling a small, nostalgic story.


A microscopic stunner courtesy of Science is Beauty


A silly postcard, found on Flickr

Friday, March 4, 2011

Elsewhere

My lovely Freedom Clothing Collective ladies were kind enough to ask for one of my images for the header of their March newsletter. I ended up altering the scan of my first fully finished Seahouse into a suitable banner image, like so:



And the final newsletter turned out like so.

It's always exciting seeing my work wandering around, getting into places it wouldn't normally be!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

See? Houses!

Another strange set of items from the weird world of R. W. Brackley, an amateur Victorian scientist and intrepid marine explorer whose many curious discoveries stunned the world in the late 1800s, but were then lost in dusty London archives for over 100 years. He's also the main character of the next project (see? More info is trickling out - gradually, but it's coming!).



Seahouse (n) - pronunciation: /si:haus/
Formations nearly identical to human-built Victorian houses, found sprouting out of the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain. First thought to be strange rock formations, but later classified as coral-like organisms due to observed feeding behaviour.







See? Houses! Seahouses!