IF – Climbing

So these two turtles were originally seen in the Darwin exhibit at the ROM, slowly cavorting around behind glass. Here I've imagined that the have escaped and are navigating the back alley obstacles, seeking their fortune – one more enthusiastically than the other.

The background is a photo taken with my new Holga camera. Michelle and I went out on an expedition Wednesday night, putting our faith in hand-holding and long roughly counted-out exposures, and it worked! You can see the rest of the images on my flickr. Oh foggy city nights, I love you...

I dream of card-making

Now that Christmas is over and all the cards have long since arrived, I can tell you how much I love making Christmas cards. For the past few years I've had friends over in November or early December to make a mess, try out any of the crafty ideas that have been floating around our imaginations all year, and get a head start on the Christmas eating and drinking (the mulled wine is as essential as paper and ink...).

I love it because it's a concentrated afternoon of playing and making, and although we're each working on our own card designs, it feels collaborative. For one afternoon, my apartment is like a studio for that design collective we never quite formed.

Well, one-half design collective and one-half preschool – when it comes to card designs, I like to go back to the basics. And nothing's more basic than potato stamping! Cutting into a potato, coating it with ink and stamping away... you definitely can't be precise. Given that messy, spontaneous, intuitive art is my favourite kind to make, I love it. Here is a sampling of potato-stamped cards I made over the past few years (not the best specimens, as these are the leftovers, but you get the idea):


This year though, I didn't buy any potatoes. I had recently been to Urban Source on a Main Street scavenge with my sister and a friend, and had filled a bag with totally random stuff which seemed destined to end up on Christmas cards somehow. I sat down with no plan and ended up making these:

An army of dreams – castles, houses, buildings, each living in their own bright, windy, blue sky world. I started by tearing and folding a piece of the coolest textured foil, from Urban Source, pink on one side and green on the other. Then I scribbled some blue ink on paper, placed the castle over it, and stenciled dream above. And then replicated it 30 times. The castle and sky felt dreamy, I was dreaming of holidays, and wanted to send everyone sweet dreams for the year. This fit with my pattern of making cards that are bright, fun, hopeful, usually minus the red and green and super-Christmas-y stuff.

I really got down with the Christmas crafting this year, making some other fun stuff for presents too – a mobile recycling old jewelery, 3D letters, etc. – which I'll post about soon. Happy New Year!

IF – Late

Yesterday morning I was walking along Harwood Street, on my way to the bus stop as usual. I should have been rushing but instead was gazing up at all of the gorgeous leaves, reveling in a perfect sunny fall morning. Some mornings the sun is so bright at the end of the long street, filtering through all of the trees to reach me in a haze. So there I was busy in my head admitting that maybe fall can sometimes be almost as beautiful as summer, and *shock* there was a wasps nest hanging in one of my favourite small yellow-leaved trees, its leaves nearly all dropped to expose the evil bulbous papery thing.

I think it's way too late in the season to have to be confronted with such a thing. Aren't all the wasps supposed to be DEAD by now? If only I was so lucky...

Still it was a little bit beautiful hanging there with no activity, just another texture beside the leaves and trunk, eerie in that hazy morning light, a relic of the passed season.

Dresses: classic couture or Shanghai cool?

Besides the iguana, my favourite thing at the ROM was the fashion. I couldn't stop myself from drawing these two dresses. I fell in love with them about half-an-hour apart and in two different rooms, but they ended up on the same sketchbook page, standing beside each other defiantly.

The first is by Zang Da, a designer from Shanghai. I loved his stuff because it had such a basic and effortless feeling about it, but drama too. Neutral, minimalist, elegant, feminine and bold. The dress above was black. I can't seem to find an official website for him, but here's a couple of blog posts about him and his designs if you dig the dress and want to know more: Shanghai Style Icon and Zang Da in his Studio.

This was part of an exhibition called Shanghai Kaleidoscope – "Shanghai as a laboratory for 21st-century urban creation" – which also included some great video work. And again, the exhibition design was interesting, floating mannequins and all.

On the right is the Delphine Cocktail Dress by Christian Dior, 1956/57. I was so excited when I saw this in the textiles exhibit – it reminded me instantly of a vintage black dress I bought a few years ago to wear to a friend's wedding on New Year's Eve. Mine's not Dior of course, but the concept is the same (the sash that folds over and hangs down like a scarf, with a fringe at the bottom), and it was so cool to place it in time like this. How great would it be to wear the Dior one, so red and perfectly pouffed.

In this standoff between classic and cool, I don't really want to pick a winner – I want both. To be both avante garde and put-together glamorous, all at once, or at least in the same week.

IF – String

Just in time...

Click image to enlarge

Who knew iguanas were so cool?

At the ROM, my Dad and I almost skipped the Darwin exhibit. But it was so great! I surprised myself by being totally into the animals. I watched this iguana for ages. After a while he got bored with me and closed his eyes. Up close, I could see him breathing in his sleep. He woke to find me staring at his belly, smoothly heaving up and down.

The exhibit design was so awesome for this show. I loved how they had big "live!" stickers on each of the tanks that held a live animal (there were tons of stuffed animals and models as well). It reminded me of "As seen on TV!" stickers. I snuck a few photos of the graphics from the show.

IF – Sugary

While spending a week wandering around Toronto with my dad this summer, I did tons of sketching. This is the first one I've coloured (more to come, including lizards and giant sandwiches). I imagine these ladies like their tea sugary. Felt like I got to know them a bit watching them and drawing, sitting in the Bay Cafe high up over Queen Street. After this, we stumbled upon a seniors fashion show downstairs that was so charming and kind of unbelievable.

Illustration Friday – Clique

Doodling these cliquey girls on the bus ride home, I had a sudden impulse to chain them together. There's no easy exit from a clique...

Illustration Friday – Island

I love islands. I'd like to spend the rest of my life drawing islands, while hanging out on islands, all around the world. Mmmmm.

Illustration Friday - Worry

Illustration Friday – Garden

I went to Victoria for the weekend and spent a glorious hour or so in the backyard with my Mom, eating smoked salmon and pear salad and chatting about our summer holiday plans. The garden was as beautiful as anything could be – with bright sun streaming through the white sheets hanging in front of the laurel hedge, and yellow flowers budding, clematis climbing above us.... spring I love you! And you too Mom!

Illustration Friday - Grow