All Packed Up and Ready to Go

I was so excited this past Tuesday to finish my sketchbook, pack it up in brown paper, address it to the Art Library in Brooklyn, and send it off in the post. I'm happy with the finished book, but I do regret not spending more time on it - both in doing the work and in planning the layout of the book.
I didn't fill the entire book as they sent it. Many of the pages at the back of the book were perforated along the spine, allowing you to neatly remove them and reduce the total number of pages in the book. A feature which I took advantage of. Also, each page reads as a standalone rather than the book as a whole acting as more of a narrative. I don't know if I would prefer having a linear "story" in the book, but I do wish there was a bit more flow; that the transition from one page to the next felt a bit more natural. Ah well, live and learn. Luckily, I have the Fiction Project to start fresh with in the next few days, and the next Sketchbook Project will be open soon.

Because of the number of images I decided to upload the complete book in two slideshows on my tumblr rather than posting them all here (scrolldown a little and start with part 1) . I will however, post three of my favourite spreads from my book.

Bowling and Birthday Cake

Today is my Dad's birthday and we celebrated by going for bowling, dinner, and home for cake. I had a great time, and this is the first of either of our birthdays I have spent with him since I moved away from my hometown at in 2004, at the ripe old age of seventeen.
I'm visiting until Sunday because the holidays were kind of a blur and I didn't get to spend Christmas at home - the first one in my 24 years of existence. I was disappointed, but I'm loving being here right now. Especially since my best friend is living here now too, and not across the country.
As far as new work for the week goes, I finished and sent off my sketchbook project, but not before scanning every page. I'll post the covers - just as a sneak preview - and then all the rest tomorrow.

And, as of this morning, I'm officially participating in The Fiction Project! I chose Great Hopes and Massive Failures again - I want to see what I can do to expand on the theme. I'm so excited! And this time, I don't want to leave it all until the last minute. The finished book needs to be sent off in May, so I need to get to get to work. Asap.
Anyhoo, it's Thursday, so here are my top three. I decided to post my three favourite photos of the moment. Not my favourite photographs ever, but my top three from a quick browse through various lists of blogs and favourites I keep online. I hope looking at these beautiful, inspiring images will help me to keep up with my New Year's resolution to take more photos.

I found this one on ffffound. I love the look of vintage film stock (or at least vintage toned digital photos) and this one has amazing perspective.

I found this image on Ish & Chi. It reminds me of summer and makes me want to crawl into bed. Especially if my bed looked like this one. I'm still working my way toward the bedroom re-tooling that I had started in the fall. Lack of funds forced me to put a pause on the project, but I'm looking forward to the much-needed transformation.

And this one, by Richard Billingham (found here). The photo is from a photo series documenting his parents, and the images remind me a lot of work by Diane Arbus. I found this one in particular quite striking.

Well, that's folks. Tomorrow all of my sketchbook project will be up.

Check me Out

I forgot to mention in my previous post, I was featured on the Asterix Magazine Blog!

Click!

The magazine/blog is run here in Toronto. Go here to find out more.

Thursday

For my first top three thursday back from my break I've decided to do a miniature roundup of my favourite three recent "favourites" from craftgawker. Usually I just add an image I like and then check the link and tag it later. It's nice to revisit these images. Click to look at all of my favourites.


This image is cute, simple, and I love the colours.

This image reminds me of summer. I know it's still only January, and it's only been snowy here for a week, but I am looking forward to spring. And fresh spring-y air.

Finally, this super cute calendar seems like a great way to look forward to the new year, and it also brings me to my mini weekly goal and a glimpse at my New Year's resolutions.

My little goal for the week is to finish and send off my sketchbook project. It's due the day after tomorrow, so, for better or worse this goal will be accomplished.

As for my New Year's resolutions...well, I usually don't make them. I didn't last year, and I figured I wouldn't this year, but I do have things I need to accomplish so there's no harm in making it official.

1. Get to over 50 on TIFF's 100 Essential Cinema List (I'm at 30 now)
2. Take more photos
3. Participate in The Fiction Project
4. Submit my work to more art shows
5. Go to more art shows
6. Finally achieve my two year old weight loss goal

So there they are!

Until next time :D

I'm Back!

My little hiatus has gone on long enough. I'm back and ready to be here week to week, making good quality posts and most importantly, making new work and new goals. Thanks for sticking with me.

I'll be brief about my New Year plans - I'll go into everything a little later (I think that will be a good weekly goal post). I'll just say that 2011 is off to a good, productive start.


A couple weeks ago, I dropped by The Paper Place and picked up a few things. I had some time to kill on Queen West and I decided to camp out at Second Cup and make some new work.
I bought pretty washi tape as well as some paper cut out dots and letterpressed recipe cards from the aforementioned Drop Around. It was fun just to sit around and make new work with what I had on hand. The work follows:



These three are meant as a little series of three. I plan on framing them and using them both as new work for my class, and as models for the larger works I plan on doing for the class as well.
I've already applied for space to show the new work I'm doing, and I'm also looking to do a two-person show with a good friend of mine.

Whew. I know that was a quick little post, but there's a lot I want to cover, and not a lot of time at the moment (I need to leave for work in 20 minutes and I still have bed hair and slippers on). Don't worry though, I plan on doing more posts in the very near future - and I'll get through everything. There's also going to be a lot more new work to see, so stay posted.