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Saturday, January 31, 2009

artists' flea market, part the second.

aitor and i spent another day in katharine mulherin's lovely gallery space today hocking our wares and meeting new folks. it was less bitter cold than last week, and there was certainly more bustle about.



it's been a pretty sweet four-week experiment (with its terminus next sunday). i really get excited about art and craft interminglings. katharine also has big things planned for next weekend's wrap-up. as i said last time, these events are small but very worth checking out. there is a feeling of undiscoveredness all around, be it rifling through people's old stuff or encountering new artists. i also really like the revelatory nature of displaying one's art alongside one's cast-offs. it really reveals a lot about the artists in a way that never occurred to me at other flea markets. maybe the gallery just inspires such contemplation. but speaking of discovering things,...





today i was extra excited to encounter the personage and work of one sarah mcneil, a recent toronto transplant from australia. her work certainly spans the art/craft gap with an aesthetic and sense of humour that both appeal to me greatly.


i purchased one of her zines and read it to myself on the short streetcar ride home. it was the perfect length to take me stop-to-stop which reminded of how the time it takes to get from the land of point to the pointless forest is directly proportional to the time it takes to sing a song (big props if you get that allusion - it also means we shared a part of our childhoods).





just look at that table of contents. how could i not be smitten? after my chance encounter with mia nolting in portland and with ray fenwick's hall of best knowledge on my bedside table, i am beginning to feel surrounded by a comforting swirl of lists and charts and text as art. and i will tell you something: it feels good.

7 comments:

leah b said...

my. i also have a dear love of pie charts (bar graphs are pretty good, too). there was point in elementary school where i tried to work one into every assignment.

what a super lovely book - and the portraits are pretty great, also.

Nightjar Books said...

whoa! she's in Toronto? I'm pretty into her overly wonderful animal portraits: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=12572861

I have to come out to the flea market!

sweetie pie press said...

nightjar - i think she is coming out the the love and rummage show next weekend, so i will try my best to connect you two.

leah - you would like this zine a lot.

Anonymous said...

How about a game of Poli High?

sweetie pie press said...

very nice, mike. you win all the props. and you know what they say: "a prop in every direction is the same as no prop at all."

Anonymous said...

Okay...I want to find a sofa like that around here! Then I'd have to learn to re-upholster!

toronto craft alert said...

yummm. would love to meet her too!