Toronto Art Days

I am in Toronto with family for the month of May getting a much needed Urban fix. I plan on seeing as many art galleries as possible and simply wondering the street taking pictures of anything I find inspiring. In the first day we hit a local yard/ street sale, many great finds to be had, (picked up a smoking lily bag for $.25 !)

 Maggie outside the Mascot cafe, she enjoyed receiving a  panda puppet given to her by the owners.

 Local park 2 blocks away, Chad is trying to bump me off the teeter totter, good luck! We walked by a local kids designer and scored a fabulous dragon's tail fancy pants kids   she is a creative mother making cool things. 

 Another momma designer selling fabrics and samples, Aunty Abby busy shopping and Maggie dancing.

Hand made guitars and banjos out of tin, sounded so good, wish I could play. 

Altered - Intersections of Art & Mothering

I have not had a moment to blog about the group art show I am in at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery from May 5th - June 6th 2011.  Here are some photos of the show and the set up to get there. 

I wanted to create a performance piece inspired by my 2 1/2 year old and how she influences my art and alters it as well.  I wanted to incorporate a shadow puppet effect and chose corrugated plastic to make a house that would let the light filter through.

 Keeping with the theme of my studio and to reflect age and time,  I framed the unit on the outside with weathered wood.

 I connected the sides together by a building a frame on the inside.

 On set up day at the gallery I was able to assemble it fairly easy. It would house 2 lamps to create the shadow effect.

 There were five mother/ artists in total. Danielle Arsenault, Sandy Buck, Natalie Grambow, Angela Somerset, Shiloh Sukkau.  We had two days to install our show and used every moment.

 This is Shiloh prepping the wall.

Danielle and Angela are figuring out where to hang their pieces.

Our little Angels were set up in front of a video the night before opening to allow us more time to hang our pieces.

 This is the opening party, the kids really got into the gallery vibe.

the name of the piece was "Tell me a Story"

 the performance piece was a hit. I used images inspired by children story books and taped them up on the inside walls while drawing along in coloured markers all the while while a musical game was repeating itself over and over.  Maggie followed my every move on the outside.  

After the performance, I let the kids go in and add their inspired creativity.  The front child is using the musical toy while others draw on the wall.

here is an idea of how the shadow would have looked during the performance, with the door closed. 

this is Cloe, Natalie's lovely little girl who added her creative touch after the performance...if only I  had thought of using 2 markers at once. Kids are truly inspirational.