My Display at Art Among the Ruins
Last month I participated in my very first art show - Art Among the Ruins - and I couldn’t have asked for a better day. The weather managed to cooperate (except for a 2 minute sprinkling of rain) and it was wonderful to be outside and meet the many wonderful people who came by the show for the day. I sold a bunch of notecards and my Moo mini business cards were a big hit. I also got to meet some of the talented artists who were part of the show and was overwhelmed by their support. All in all it was a great day and I look forward to doing it again next year. In the meantime, I’ll be busy preparing for the Women’s Art Festival on August 16th in Kingston, Ontario.
This month I will be participating in Art Among the Ruins, a large outdoor art show & sale. The show takes place on Saturday June 13, 2009 from 10am-5pm and is set among picturesque ruins of a 19th century mill along the Napanee River. This dynamic community-driven art show is in its third year and showcases juried-quality artwork from over 40 diverse artists working in various mediums including painting, photography, sculpture, metal, fibre, wood, and glass. Admission is free and the event will happen rain or shine (but I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for ’shine’).
The show is located at 27 Earl St. in Newburgh, Ontario which is located just 10 minutes north of the 401. It is about 30 minutes from Kingston and would make a great day trip from either Toronto or Ottawa.
The fifth issue of Photosho just hit the stands and one of my photographs, X Marks the Spot, is featured in this issue. The theme of the issue is Architectural Grandeur and this issue is done exclusively in black and white which makes for visually appealing collection of images. X Marks the Spot was taken during the architectural opening of the of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, designed by Daniel Libeskind, at the Royal Ontario Museum back in June 2007. This image is in good company amongst the many other urban and rural Canadian architectural landmarks featured in this issue. A great preview of the magazine is available on the Photosho web site although it looks (and feels) much better in print.
A few weekends ago, Sarah, Justin and I visited the Diefenbunker, a huge four-storey underground bunker that was designed to house crucial elements of the Canadian government during the Cold War in the event of a nuclear strike. The bunker is named after former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and is now open to the public as a museum. It was really interesting to learn about the Cold War and Canada’s history in it, from possible Canadian targets to how many nuclear test were conducted on North American soil, and to snap a few photos as well. My favourite shot of the day, pictured above, is looking up the blast tunnel on the way down to the bunker. The entire set of photos is available under a Creative Commons Attribution non-Commerical license for those who may be interested in using these photos for a project.
A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to participate in a Miksang Level 1 workshop lead by Janice Van Dijk. I’ve wanted to take this workshop for a few years now, but up until now it has only been offered in Ottawa and Toronto so I’m thankful to Janice for bringing the practice to Kingston.
Miksang is a contemplative approach to photography and the focus of the first level is to synchronize the eye and the mind. This is done by becoming aware of things in your environment that catch your eye and then taking a photograph of exactly what your flash of perception was without all of the distractions. It is through this mindful approach that you are able to enter a meditative state and the minimal look of most Miksang photographs results from reducing what caught your eye down to the pure visual elements of colour, light, pattern, and space.
Over the course of the weekend we did several assignments that focused on color, light (patches of light, shadows, and texture created by light), patterns, space and dots in space. The full set of images taken during the workshop can be found here.
I noticed this very cool ad when I was passing through the Orlando Airport and was immediately taken by the stunning hand art as well as the clever way the message of the ad was communicated. I was curious if there were more like this and it turns out that this is part of a larger series promoting international access with AT&T wireless - click here to see some of the other painted hand images representing other countries around the world such as India and Zimbabwe. It turns out that AT&T isn’t the only one whose used this technique, however, I think that their painted hands are the best of the bunch in terms of detail and expression.
This Friday is the opening reception for the Exposures exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and one of my photographs, Block D Rising, will be on display. The exhibition consists of images taken by Kingston photographers that explore the changing urban environment and evolving economies in the City of Kingston and the surrounding area.
The opening reception is on Friday November 14th from 7 to 9pm in the Atrium of the Art Centre and the exhibition will be on display until December 17th.
The shortlisted photos from the Verge Magazine 2008 photo contest, which I entered back in the spring, are now online. You can see all of the amazing photos that have been shortlisted as well as vote for your favourite for the Traveler’s Choice Award. Two of my photos have been shortlisted - Solar Power (in the Developing World category) and Seasoning (Environments category) - so please check them out and vote for your favourite.
View the shortlist and vote here.
I’m happy to announce that the two photographs displayed here, Solar Power and Seasoning, have been short-listed for the 2008 Travel with Purpose photo contest put on by Verge Magazine, a Canadian travel magazine that explores opportunities to study, work, and volunteer abroad. Both of the images were taken while I was in Peru - Solar Power, which was selected for the Developing World category, was taken on the Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca and Seasoning was taken in the Salt Pans near Cusco, Peru and was selected for the Environments category.
The images will be on display at the Go Abroad Fairs in Vancouver and Toronto in September and other events through the fall. Some of the short-listed images will appear in the Verge Magazine photo annual later this year, so if I’m lucky, I may get to see these photos published. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.
This past week I had the opportunity to participate in the second of three workshops that are part of the Exposures program put on the by Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The program was designed to bring together Kingston photographers and examine the changing Kingston landscape through photography. This workshop was lead by Preston Schiedel, a Kingston photographer who uses a large format camera to capture desolate black & white Kingston landscapes. The workshop was centered around his photography and raised some interesting questions about the images we capture and the process of photography itself.
It was interesting to hear Preston talk about his process, which is very different from my own. His camera is large (40 lbs) and the film he uses is expensive, so he only takes one image. This means that he will spend a lot of time studying a subject before photographing it and making sure that the exposure and other details are perfect before committing the image to film. In my case, I have a small camera and I can take up to 400 RAW photos on one memory card, which allows me to take large number of images in one sitting. What this means for me is that I’ll often walk around with my camera, photographing what I see along the way, often times taking several shots of the same subject. I don’t worry too much about exposure or composition as these issues can be dealt with in post-processing - I’m happy as long as the photo is in focus.
Before attending the workshop, I had an idea of the different processes we employed as photographers, having heard him speak before. However, the point really hit home when he asked us to do an assignment for the workshop, which was to go to the Richardson Beach house down by Lake Ontario and take one photograph. This exercise forced me to operate in a completely different mode and I struggled with myself to not hit the shutter button every time I saw something of interest. Before going there I thought about what time of day would be best and when I arrived I walked around the building several times, looking for the right shot. There were a few shots that I would have liked to take, however, when I saw the shadow of the railing on the stairs I knew I had my shot. The assignment was an interesting challenge, however, I can’t see myself abandoning my “shoot now, process later” approach anytime in the near future.
Next up is a workshop with one of my favourite photographers, Edward Burtynsky. Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to the opportunity to participate in a workshop with him.
