chantilly lace

Recently, I was given (very short) notice that I would be participating in a group exhibition in the Gales gallery at York University. It was to feature works by five talented young female artists (Jess Thalmann, Jiallin Ji, Jo Fallack, Lili Huston-Herterich, and myself). Unfortunately, due to time contraints (ie. practically no notice and it being the busiest part of the semester), there was no way to really plan a show that would have a lot of cohesion between all the different work. So, we figured we would all just put in whatever work we could and that would be that.

Another unfortunate piece of business was that the artists who utilized the gallery space right before us were given the wrong shade of white paint to restore with and our walls ended up having very noticeable darker blocks of paint across them. Already being frustrated with the show and everyone being so busy, there wasn't any time to go out and buy the right paint and fix it. We decided to just roll with it and we installed our work over top and named the exhibition Chantilly Lace after the shade of paint that wasn't meant to be there.

These are the drawings that I installed in the show:

Outspoken (Laura Crowell 2009) 22"x30" conte on paper

Untitled (Laura Crowell 2009) 22"x30" conte on paper

La Scapigliata (Laura Crowell 2009) 22"x30" conte on paper

The show will be running until November 13, 2009.

Interesting experience, to say the least. I am a little sad that we were given such crappy notice about it though. I've wanted to show work in that gallery since I found out undergrads were allowed to apply, so it's unfortunate there wasn't enough time for me to produce new work for it.

Outspoken is my most recent piece. I'm hoping to continue with a series of drawings in a similar style. The hands drawing has already been shown at Whippersnapper gallery earlier in March of this year in the Play/Pause show. La Scapigliata is sort of just a drawing for the sake of drawing something. There's not a terribly big meaning behind it, so I felt a little silly including it.

Ah well, there was space on the wall, so why not!

decision daisy

I am aware that the flowers in question are actually blackeyed susans, but originally I tried this idea out with daisies and liked the title so I kept it. The daisies were much smaller, so writing on the petals was much more difficult than it was with the susans and would have required way more photoshopping than necessary. Fortunately, my mum had a nice crop of these flowers growing in the backyard during the summer and they didn't seem to mind the black marker as much, so WIN.

decision daisy, originally uploaded by avalilly.

all yellow, originally uploaded by avalilly.

handful, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I'm not sure if I want/need any more images to go with these. Might just leave it as a triptych, since it seems okay the way it is.

The leaves are already changing colours here. I love autumn, but I had so many summer-requiring ideas, I guess I'll just have to wait 'til next year to do them.

play/pause

PLAY/PAUSE was a York University Undergraduate Visual Arts Students Association (VASA) juried art show. We ran it at Whippersnapper gallery in downtown Toronto from March 2nd-13th, 2009. My piece, "Untitled" (hands) made it in. The reception was held on March 6th, 2009 to much succcess. The place was packed! Here's some photos from the exhibition:

Overall, it was a wonderful show and a really good experience. I'm looking forward to doing this more often (talent and opportunities permitted)!

For more photos from this event, check out my Flickr set: Play/Pause!