the facebook plunge

Blogger, meet facebook.

I think you'll be great friends.

So yes, I have made myself a facebook fan page. I didn't think I'd want to, but one really can't ignore the usefulness of that platform - especially for the local connections who spend a lot of time on there and not a lot of time learning that you take photos by other means. Much of the stuff on there you've probably already seen if you follow this blog or my flickr, but there's a few that you won't have. I'm going to add a Photo Retouching gallery to show some before and afters of my photos. So atleast that will be new!

If you like, go ahead and "like" me on facebook if you have an account! I appreciate any support. As far as I know, fan pages don't assault your notification boxes like groups do. I'm still trying to figure it out. It's linked to my personal account, so I'm finding it difficult to navigate between the two. Maybe once there's more activity on it, it'll be easier to tell.

Anywho, I thought I'd pop in with that bit of news seeing as I've been a bit lazy about taking new photos lately. I have a shoot booked for tomorrow, so I'll atleast have that to post about. Lots of new ideas in the works too, I just have to get over this cold and the feeling that my bed is the only place to be when not at work!

I hope January has been treating you well!

RMGexposed

Saturday, November 13th was the evening of the RMGexposed event at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. I had been working for the previous twelve hours, so I wasn't very much feeling the spirit of mingling and meeting new people. I just sort of made my way around the exhibition and took some quick photos of the set up and the crowd.

I loved their installation in the lobby. They had these giant balloons strung up and had photographs from their permanent collection randomly projected on to them.

This is my print that I donated for the silent auction after being a selected finalist in the juried competition. I didn't realize the starting bid would be $75, but then I noticed the first bid on mine was $110!! I was so surprised, but it felt pretty awesome! I should inquire to see how much it ended up going for.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the gallery and the turn out. There were SO MANY people who attended. I had no idea such a lovely place existed in downtown Oshawa, but I'm glad I know now. I'll have to go back more often.

Also, this awesome store donated a bunch of furniture for a lounge set up. I believe it was called Brush Strokes. They had some really nice stuff out. I took a photo of this lamp at the reception desk because I aspire to own it someday, I just need to track it down:

How cool is that? It's a cityscape on the metal face of the lamp. If you look at it from above, the shape of the lamp shade is: (). So fun. Definitely going to have to make a trip to that store and hopefully not have to cry about how much I can't afford beautiful things.

'Til next time~

30th annual juried art exhibition

As promised, here are some photos from the group show I was recently a part of at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. The show ran from October 17 - November 7, 2010. I didn't take any photos at the opening reception as it was a bit crowded, so I just went back on another day when there were less people around to take these. 

Room #1:

Room #2:

I was very excited to find out that the jury had selected my piece to be a part of the show. Then I found out they awarded it with the VAC Award of Encouragement! So much love.

I'm very happy to have been a part of it.

news!

I recently entered a couple pieces into the 30th Annual Juried Exhibition at my local gallery. I found out yesterday that one of my pieces was chosen to be a part of the show! They chose Knitwit:


knitwit, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I'm really excited. I get to exhibit with a group of varied artists that I haven't met before (well, maybe some I've met)! It's nice, because most of the shows I've been a part of have been basically with a good number of classmates from university, so this is a nice step towards getting my work more exposure.

The show is at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington and it opens on October 17, 2010 with the reception from 2-4pm and it runs until November 7, 2010.

Please stop in if you're in the area! :)

scratch board fun

knitwit, originally uploaded by avalilly.

So I found a book of illustrations by Virgil Finlay that reminded me how much I enjoyed playing with scratch board back in high school. I thought I'd give it another try and see what I could accomplish with it.

If it isn't hard to tell, this took a very long time. Scratch board is basically a thick paper (usually white) covered in china clay and india ink, which you scratch away to make the image. I use a tool with a tip like these:

I will be selling prints of this, probably in an edition of 50. My test print at the original size of 8.5" x 11" didn't yield enough detail, so I'll probably make them at 11"x14" instead. I just need to find the best place in which to sell them online and also how much to price them after printing costs.

Once that's figured out I'll throw a link up on here, if you happen to be a prospective buyer!

mortal

mortal, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I don't think I've posted this one yet. I finished it back in March, I guess I just haven't gotten around to documenting it. Yesterday I decided to photograph a bunch of drawings I've done this year. I posted them to flickr, so take a look if you wish (click on the image to take you there), most have already been posted here though. Detail photos are also contained in the comments of the images on flickr.

Feels like I haven't been doing much drawing lately. Or, well, anything but photography, really. Must motivate self...

open house

Yesterday was York University's Visual Arts Open House. The entire Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts was transformed into an exhibition space for all students of 3rd, 4th, and 5th year standing to show their work. I just showed a few of my drawings in the drawing area, as the only other studio I'm taking at York right now is a historical painting techniques course and my painting isn't that far along yet. There was a lot of really great work being shown, so I ran around with my camera taking photos of my favourites:

As you can see, I kind of stuck more so to the drawing and painting areas. The sculpture work was scattered throughout the building and had some really good pieces, but I just don't think my photos did them any justice. I didn't take any photos in the photography area, mostly because there were so many people in it and also a lot of the work is smaller so you wouldn't have been able to see it very well unless I posted like 100 close ups of each work. There was also some time based art and printmaking areas showing work too.

Essentially what I'm trying to say is, go to York University's open house next year. There is so much to see and it encompasses so many different styles of art. We installed our work in the morning and the show went from noon until 8pm! If you have a chance to see it sometime, I definitly recommend going. It's one day only~

24 hour workshop

Over this past weekend I participated in a 24 hour workshop organized by the Visual Arts Student Association. Essentially, participants would start, finish, and then hang their work in the Special Projects Gallery in under 24 hours. We are displaying our work all this week (January 18-22), the gallery is in the Goldfarb Center for Fine Arts at York University next to the Curry's.

Facelift (Laura Crowell 2010) 22"x30" conte on paper

(I'm not 100% done with this, but it'll do for now.)

These two drawings were done by Michelle Mackinnon. I believe they're 6'x3.5'. I can't believe she finished the one on the right in less than 24 hours. Amazing!

A paper sculpture by Billy Garland.

Print media!

Awesome mixed media work by Diana VanderMeulen.

Unfortunately, I don't have the names of all the artists. I'll try and get them and then update this later on, but go check out the show and find out for yourself in the mean time!