Photographer Jon Duenas

I saw these beautiful, dreamy photographs by Jon Duenas while perusing Design Sponge. Grace (of Design Sponge) mentions how they bring summer to mind, and after looking at more of his work online, I can't agree more.
I've been so busy lately - finishing this year's sketchbook project entry, working through a couple of my New Year's resolutions, and preparing to move in March has got me pretty eager for things coming up. It seems that last few weeks have been a flurry of planning and preparation and there's no stopping it for the next few weeks. All I can hope for is that my hard work and planning pays off and that I can enjoy a bit of the calmness captured in these photos.

Here's a link to the Design Sponge blurb, and here's a link to the artist's website.

Wanderlust at the Textile Museum of Canada

Back in November, I visited the Textile Museum of Canada. After studying textiles in school back in 2005-2006, I haven't done much research or learning into what's going on in fibre-based art in the last few years. What I remember loving about studying textiles was how traditional and unchanging textiles can be, while at the same time there is seemingly endless opportunity for innovation.

On at the museum while I was there was an exhibition called Wanderlust. It had works by three artists who are Canadian, yet who live quite nomadic lifestyles and call several places home. The piece that caught my attention, pictured above, is by Jordan Bennett - a Newfoundland/Labrador artist who combines objects from popular and skate culture with an exploration into his Mi'kmaq heritage. I was struck by the simplicity of this piece. In the context of the textile museum, it feels at home with the permanent collection of centuries-old traditional pieces - relics of ancient cultures with equally ancient art practices. The catalogue tag on the shoe rienforces this image, yet the fact that the beading appears on a pair of throw-away skateboard sneakers sheds a contemporary light on this work and shows us that this culture is not so ancient after all. 

Here's a link to his website, and artist statement which sums up his intentions better than I can. 

For some very interesting reading about Native issues and popular culture this is one of my favourite blogs - Native Appropriations

 

My last daily photo

This is the last daily photo I took, on January 20th. It's a photo of a photo that I have stuck on my fridge with a magnet - and it's one of the only family photos I have on display in my home. It's of a very young me with my dad. January 20th is his birthday, so I thought it fitting to take a pic of my favourite photo of us.

Here are some more of my daily photos. As I said in my last photo-a-day post, I found it challenging to find an opportunity for a photo each day. Sometimes I'd find myself staring into every corner, and still finding nothing inspiring. While it made me look at the world a little differently, it also began to feel forced. I want to keep taking more photos, and maybe this will evolve into a weekly thing.

Dwellings

A couple weeks ago I sent my completed entry to the 2013 Sketchbook Project off in the mail. The theme for my book was "dwellings" and I used drawings, hand-drawn and letraset text, and found photography to meet that theme. The entire book can be seen on my website.

More photos to finish the week

Here's my daily photos to finish the week. I've come close to forgetting a couple of times, but it's been fun and I'm starting to look at the places I go to everyday a little differently which is, I think, the best anyone can hope to get out if a challenge like this.

Photos to finish the week

I'm doing well so far on my photo-a-day challenge. Here's three more:

New Work In Progress

It's Sketchbook Project time yet again and with the January 15th deadline looming I'm working my way through finishing my book. As always, I'm not as far along as I wish I was, but here are two of the spreads I've finished so far.

Many of the images are photographs blown up and copied from vintage National Geographic magazines. My book theme is "dwellings" so the images I chose remind me of home. They're all landscapes and images of nature. For text, I'm trying to hand-draw much of it, in conjunction with distressed letraset transfers. I'm looking forward to competing the project, I just wish I didn't feel so rushed. With a trip to my hometown and a move on the near horizon, I'm a bit distracted to say the least.

Photo A Day

Among many goals I've made for myself this year, I've decided to invest more into this blog. It may mean a transformation of the content, it may mean I need to really decide what I want the direction to be. What I do know is that I need to invest more time in my own creativity. Starting with small steps, I've decided to try doing a photo-a-day challenge. Here is what I've got so far.