this hyperbolic life.

photos by belphoebe

today was spent in the most delightful manners. an early morning trip to st. lawrence market to goof around with the reverend (i bought i really nice dress that was not part of the plan), an afternoon class on hyperbolic crochet at the knit cafe and a nerve-wracking performance of an excerpt from my play at the summerworks festival launch party. the latter activity was only nerve-wracking because i made it that way. i just haven't been in the swing of scripted performance lately. but the crowd was exceptionally warm (read: wine drunk). thank you for that. and thank you, michael, for inviting me out of my rut.

the crochet class, on the other hand, was much less stressful - although i always feel a self-imposed pressure/fear when teaching anything to anyone. regardless of my neuroses, an afternoon spent in simple crochet and complex mathematical thought is always restorative. like a knob, i didn't bring my camera so i've stolen some pictures for this posting. that also means you will get to see a picture of me explaining excesses of surface by flapping my hands about.

backblog (or how i learned to make the internet more quantum).

pictured here is a photo of some collected works of a miss saddle kobayashi. this picture was taken almost a year ago, when saddle was here from japan on a one year visa. not long after this picture was taken, i purchased the shrinky dink/polyfill/glitter creation pictured most prominently. it has been on my wall ever since. you see i have an affinity for successful art involving glitter. the fact that shrinky dinks and polyfill are also used make this piece mind-boggling to me. but i'm getting off my intended tracks.

track #1:
saddle misses toronto. as a result, she is taking the reigns on toronto vs. nagoya: round 1 - a civilized "art fight" between artists of toronto and artists of nayoga. in round 1, all artists/crafters are being asked to create work 4" square and no more than 1" thick. this is a co-presentation with city of craft and you can find more info on our website, if you like. the call is open until april 20 with art having to be in the mail by may 10.

track # 2:
it occurs to me in looking through all my past pictures, that i don't want to forget the stories that go with them. basically, i should have let faythe convince me to start blogging a few years ago. but i didn't. so now i have to blog backwards. although this little project started being undertaken at the end of january 2008, it will now begin moving both forward and backward and in between. look around! see if you can find the past reminding me of itself. i will let everyone know if i figure out how to generate pictures and stories of the future.

sweets buttons and other news.

okay, so the new sweets buttons by missy kulik are done and up in the etsy shop here. they will also be making live appearances with me as i do craft fairs in the spring and summer and fall. speaking of which, the city of craft/workroom spring thing trunk show is just around the corner and you should probably check it out if you're in toronto.

shannon gerard will be there. she also happened to get written about on reuters today (regarding her boobs and dinks early detection kits) and they happened to use some of my photos.

back in the straddle.

hey, wondering what's up with button operations at the sweetie pie press? me too.

with a day job and the festival i was running and some illness thrown in to boot, the button factory has slowed somewhat over the past couple of months. but we're currently working to rectify that situation and get the wheels rolling again.

pictured above is a sneak peek of two exciting new commissioned artist button sets - sweets by my favorite southern belle/zine queen, missy kulik, and the as-yet-unnamed set of microscopic exploration by toronto-based visual artist/indie magazine magnate, mark laliberte. despite her diminutive size, missy is a pretty big fan of sweets herself. she names everything after them - her cat, her band, her other band, her home. in a visual landscape where cuteness can seem saccharine-plastered everywhere, missy keeps it simple and comes by it honestly. and as for mark, aside from being the everything behind locally-made art & design magazine carousel, he is also responsible for the 1" buttons project that i give the most props to, pop noire. and this coming from a real button snob. you should probably check out the massive outputs of both these guys. it should keep you occupied for a while. when you're done with that, you can come back here where i will hopefully have the finished sets ready for your perusal.

sock monkeys and boobs and dinks.

above is pictured a recent custom order i did for operation sock monkey, an initiative launched by local lady, lindsey hodgson, late last year to both send sock monkeys and other support to aids affected children in africa. you can read much more about the project on her website. also, i think the buttons turned out pretty cute. we had to rush to get them done in time for this saturday's sock-monk-a-thon (on facebook here, and open to anyone who wants to lend a hand/needle). these sock monkey making parties give you a nice tutorial on sock-monkey creation in exchange for your first born monkey - it either gets sold to raise funds or get sponsored to go to africa.

speaking of precocious animals, look at this guy i saw on the streetcar today on my way to work:

somehow when an elephant with a belly full of mice gives you the finger, you just know everything's going to be okay. thanks for providing me with my daily omen, anonymous artist. (and thanks for making it auspicious. i'm totally maxed out on foreboding omens lately!)

after work (where we watch this owl all day), i also got to go on a hot group date with a bunch of my friends. we went to the opening of shannon gerard's playing doctor installation at open studio.

shannon's work is really interesting to me because it straddles art and craft (and in this case, education) with ease. this merging of art and craft is a big hot topic in local indie craft circles (i can't speak to whether or not the art community wants to foster more "low-craft" fusion). and shannon just flips back and forth between both worlds so effortlessly. she's also got mad crochet skills, which i always respect. these skills are not shown off nearly as much in her boobs and dinks as they are in her upcoming series which i have had the honour to preview. and that's saying a lot. her dinks and boobs are no slouches. the whole project is quite impressive in concept, design, quantity and display.

congratulations on your opening, shannon! here are a bunch more pictures to celebrate you:

frozen mitten # 2

frozen mitten

found april 2, 2008
christie & ashworth
toronto

this frozen mitten was being angrily tossed into the middle of the street along with the business end of a broom today as i travelled up christie street. i guess the lady doing the tossing had become tired of mittens and broom parts accumulating on her property (or possibly just a property she admires). regardless, her timing was good as i am a newly established mitten rescuer.

as a side note, i was on my way to drop off a small button order for this. if you are a youth who makes art, you might want to check them out.

supply swap two: the craftening.

photo of the last supply swap by the workroom

there is another city of craft/workroom collaborative supply swap happening this weekend. on sunday. in toronto. maybe you'd like to come.

to quote myself from the city of craft website:

Sunday, April 6th
1:30pm - 3:00pm
the workroom
1340 queen street west

You get a free lunch bag to fill if you bring a contribution of craft supplies to swap.
Subsequent bags are $5.
All proceeds go to support City of Craft 2008.

now also available in facebook.

note: becky connoisseurs amongst you will notice the witchery karyn's panorama software has performed on my legs. that makes this week's black art photography (sorry, letterpress; you've had your day).