convenience store.

newest in my collection, is this wonderful new painitng by toronto artist, amita sen gupta. i could not be happier with it, in no small measure because of the fact that it came from an image of a building in the heidelberg project. i love it!

 

from city to city.

my friend serena has made an amazing book about her years in one of the most incredible places i have ever visited on this earth - bruno, saskatchewan. my encounter and subsequent relationship with bruno and her/tyler brett's then project there, all citizens, is definitely a highlight of all my years touring arts and crafts across this continent.

serena is launching the book in toronto on wednesday, december 12, 2012. i am really honoured to have been invited into the proceedings as a panel speaker.

wednesday, december 12, 2012
8:00pm
the gladstone hotel
1214 queen street west
toronto
$5 or free with book purchase

below are some of my favourite images from my visits to bruno, surrounding areas and all citizens. it was hard to choose.

textile message.

i had the great fortune to be invited out to the textile museum of canada today. thanks, tara! everyone else, go now. the current canadiana show (dreamland) is really amazing. just check out that buck wall hanging by grant heaps if you need proof. they are also currently offering 25% off everything in their gift shop - including vintage craft books. go go go! go now.

night terrors.

oh, spookiness is in the air. on the way to the workroom's 4th anniversary party i managed to steal a quick peek at brette gabel's latest show, bad dreams, at gallerywest. brette has taken iconic images from scary movies and worked them into a series of quilts so that you can snuggle right into your nightmares (bigger image). although i don't know what movie it references (the omen?), my personal favourite was the black-on-black cross - creepy, subtle, cozy, cursed. eerily, the cross showed up red in my pictures but it didn't look that way in person. totally haunted.

charmed.

fall is in the air, it is a bone-chilling 23 degrees celsius and the leaves would be turning and falling if it didn't feel like nuclear summer outside. that can only mean one thing - hallowe'en is right around the corner! i can hardly contain myself. for me, hallowe'en is the absolute best holiday of the year - it's all witchy and tricky and theatrical. so imagine my delight when i connected with sandi falconer this year over the city of craft design job and, in so doing, discovered a comrade in charms (you can see what i mean over on the city of craft website).

this set was created as an extension of our mutual love of all things superstitious. sandi selected five charms - a crystal, a rabbit's foot, two arrows, a wishbone and a watchful eye. not only will these charms protect you and keep you lucky but they also provide a comely set of accessories that you can wear to your next spiral dance or dark alley.

the charms sets are available in the etsy shop now and in person at all upcoming events. look for them in discerning independent shops near you sooner or later.

white night.

harbinger by ryan livingstone

for those not from toronto, nuit blanche is an annual, city-wide (kinda), all-night art party. from sunset to sunrise, the city is encouraged to stay out and do stuff. some events are official and some are just chaotic ad-hoc happenings. it happens in the fall and usually i am away somewhere. but not this time! fresh back from tour, aitor and i decided to take in some night sights to welcome ourselves home. we both agreed that planning and research were recipes for disappointment and decided to just walk from roncesvalles east along queen street until we got tired of it and then come back. easy peasy!

the last year i was around for nuit blanche, i remember parkdale being a total wasteland. don't get me wrong, i prefer wastelands to club districts but it was really nice to find out about the parkdale bia's leitmotif cube van artist installations. the programming was all over the map as far as style, quality and realization (in my eyes), but i liked that about it. most pieces, even those with heavy concept, provided an easy entry point for observers/participants. a program that spans everything from white noise to a capoeira circle really expresses the community nature of bia activities. in this way, the vans provided a wide range of engagement to the actual community of parkdale, families included.

brian's songs by caroline and gord langill

infinity in the palm of your hand by quality slippers

all night stitch and bitch at the workroom

chromatic high five by amanda browder

the vibe totally changed after we crossed dufferin. it no longer felt like the programming was for the community it was in, the streets were jammed with taxis, drunk people were screaming at aitor about his moustache and the 'art' felt like a thin decorative veneer over the normal drinking that goes on at all the bars that have overtaken the strip. in spite of all the really lovely things going on at the smaller galleries and spaces (like the knit cafe), the might of the big bars was winning out. by ossington, i was getting anxious and everyone was pointing cameras at aitor. our nice date was turning ugly. we strolled back along side streets and relaxed immediately upon crossing dufferin again.

the giant, flaming, bloody altar at queen and dufferin has progressed somewhat. a woman was now scrubbing the entire concrete seating area on her hands and knees, the foamy red spill-off trailing onto the sidewalk and into the sewer. everything smelled like lavender.

after bemoaning the growing night club culture of our neighbourhood, we found a party that was more our speed:

your special day by brette gabel

yup, brette gabel's your special day at gallerywest invited folks in from the street with balloons and signs promising an awesome party just for you. once an hour, the gathering became a surprise party for whoever walked through the door next - complete with sparklers, people singing, homemade cake, a pinata and a fresh-delivered pizza. up there is our birthday boy breaking his pinata. such a wonderful way to end the night - a party about people instead of posing and drinking. we went home beaming and said goodnight to the neon crow at the top of our block.

working in pairs (or the fabricate show at freedom clothing collective).

this evening, i managed to stop by freedom clothing collective to catch the closing reception for fabricate, a show co-presented by freedom and meredith keith gallery. conceived from the current overlap of art, craft and design, the show paired makers of different disciplines into collaborations. since most of the programming was at the other gallery, i only got to see the collaboration between lizz aston and jen kneulman (the ghostly and structured woven pieces pictured throughout). i wish i had time to see the whole show. this particular discussion is a very interesting one to me at the moment. plus, the images i saw online of the other pieces communicated some great skill and curation. freedom's head curator, marsya maharani, wrote an interesting note about the origins of the show and how it fits into the overall complexity of the freedom project and contemporary art/craft/design interplay here. full show write-up is here. great work, everyone! man, it is nice to be back home.

zine dreams.

tomorrow marks toronto's fourth annual zine dream zine fair. and, oh, how i wish i could be there. it's a great event. if you are in the toronto area, i suggest you go.

it feels like i have had zines all around lately (even though i have not made one yet this year).

some things:

1. zine dream.
2. i made a treasury of favourite book works i found on etsy. so lovely.
3. the wundrkabinet's reading raum installation closed last night at the etsy labs in berlin. by all acounts, it was an unflinching success.
4. some pals i was chilling with in albuqueruqe are currently working on the first ever abq zine fest. they just launched a kickstarter to help, too. they are booking table spots through it and even offer some zine packs for out-of-towners to purchase.
5. toronto's canzine is now accepting sign-ups for tables at their november show and proposals for art rooms. i've already got my table!
6. the 2012 toronto comic arts festival is also accepting applications for sequential book-makers at the moment. i haven't been in town for this event in years but word on the street is that it has grown into quite the concern.

with all this bookish activity rolling around, maybe 2011 really does mark the revenge of print.

good thing i have a tour zine in the works. it has to be out by the end of the year. oh my.

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photo by the workroom

look over there! that way! look!

i know i am weeks behind on this blog. i will catch up. you will hear all the tales of junk in texas, craft in the midwest and the tantalizing treats of the deep south. but until i manage to catch my breath, might i encourage you to check out my now (nearly complete) list of summer tour supporters (that's what all those banners are to the right). a stroll through that link list is sure to delight your senses with the output of brilliant makers the world over. there is music, photography, comedy, pertinent reportage, paper goods, hand sewn sartorial delights, ceramics, independent retail and more! in my exhaustion and neglect, this is a worthy list of friends to immerse yourself in. enjoy! and feel free to report back on any shocking awesomeness you find.

factory showroom.

it has taken us only a handful of days to accumulate a massive karmic debt to leslie at the stitch lab here in austin. she housed us for the weekend, hooked us up with another place to stay for the rest of our visit, gave us a bunch of local tips and now has given us an afternoon and evening of space to commandeer at the stitch lab - her awesome supply shop and workshop hub.

this place is amazing. austin's only source for wool felt, a packed and varied workshop list (tonight it is screen printing in the next room), notions, vintage buttons and samples from all the workshops neatly displayed in every little corner. some places just feel immediately comfortable to me - like a slice of home...only better.

i even spotted a stitch-up of one of the new berkely illustration/sublime stitching collaborative patterns in the washroom. home sweet home, indeed.

well, back to work. opportunities like this are not to be squandered.

death and texas (or, things on which to rely).

my favourite screen prints by timber!


custom letterpress coaster station from andrew le & tim cook


examples from heidie kenney's diy doll kits

i am way too zonked to pull actual thoughts together so i am just going to leave you with a few favourite images from today. i was also too zonked to take the whole event in properly - such is the beginning of a tour. the exhaustion of touring can never compare with the exhaustion of leaving home and i am a couple days away from feeling stable again. i know that there were more awesome vendors lurking in the depths of this show that i did not find. what i did happen into was lovely enough but i wish i had the mind power to see more. my photos from the whole show can be found here. yeehaw! now, off to sample some home-infused drinks i have heard about here.

lone stars (or renegade austin, day one).

today marked the first day of the second annual renegade craft fair austin. it was our first time doing this specific show and only the second time that austin has figured into our tours at all. texas is big and austin is very far away from everything (by american standards, anyway) so it was a great treat to find ourselves back in the lone start state.

we had a great time checking out all of the incredible interactive programming - including the friendship bracelet making station hosted by renegade (top) and the vintage baseball card set-up presented by local rock star collective, public school.

i even found a few moments right as the show was opening to build a brand new display for my diy security envelope installation kits (constructed from materials aquired on the way down, no less). the installation kits are a hard project to communicate to people, so i am hoping that this visual presentation will at least draw people in to ask questions.

and what launch of a tour would be complete without reunions and new friends? look below for some of the amazing crafters we collided with (berkley illustration, miss natalie/canoe, leah duncan). as per usual, i wish i could have collected so much stuff, but we restrained ourselves to two things on our touring survival list - a big key chain and little wood-burned pocket knife from miss natalie's new canoe line.

and now, if you will excuse me, i have a pool party to seek out.