Food Is Art

This article was originally written on August 6th for the Northern Sun News.

My husband has been sick for the past several days with a nasty summer flu. I must have sympathetic flu symptoms because I too indulged in a full-fledged movie marathon with him, watching hour upon hour of movies (3 out of 4 of them had Johnny Depp in them…yahoo!) and begging people to bring us chocolate cake via Facebook (everyone laughed but nobody took action). Two of the four movies we watched focused on the power of food to enrich and delight not only the sense of taste, but life itself.

Food is art; it brings up emotions and memories just as a painting or photograph does. It taps into that deep rooted desire that transports us to another time or place. Every time I eat a beet, I can’t help but feel proud of my Ukrainian heritage. I also think of all the times as a child that I turned up my nose to my Baba’s wonderfully rosy creamy borscht, thinking it looked weird (Pink soup? Really?) and smelled a little bit like dirt. Little did I know that I was probably breaking her beautiful heart by doing so, since we all know that food IS love in the Ukrainian household. Every fall when I harvest my roots, I take pride in knowing that my father-in-law is anticipating that first fresh pot of earthy, homemade goodness. I give him borscht for Christmas. Seriously.

And I think about the work that is invested in the harvest. Just as an artist goes through a meticulous process to get to their final creation, so too does the gardener;  breaking the earth with the hoe, nurturing the soil with bone meal and compost that was slowly created by the perpetually munching red worms that feast away in a dark, moist bin in our basement all winter, the careful placement of each seed considering depth, width, placement to the sun, the proper amount of soil, keeping the bugs away, ensuring the birds don’t eat the seeds before they’ve erupted as a seedling…..it’s all so much work to get that succulent, red tomato. And so worth it. 

That is why it is so delightful to go tromping through the forest and come across a batch of grape sized blueberries, or luscious raspberries. No work was involved in this discovery, but the mind knows just how much work and thought Mother Nature put into these delicious creations. And we Northerners appreciate this and take photographs of our findings and share our blueberry jam with our friends and neighbours without once ever giving up our “secret hiding spot”. The process of seeking out the wild mushrooms or the fiddleheads is part of the art of harvesting and not sharing our picking spots is just plain common sense!

On a side note regarding photographing food, I always find it entertaining when people post copious amounts of pictures of food on social networking sites. I understand it; I too have taken photographs of food. But when you go to a baby shower and post photos of every single hors d’oeuvre that was served and don’t take any photos of the baby, then you might want to reconsider why you went to that shower in the first place and perhaps just go to a restaurant next time instead. Haha

Food as art; it’s too big of a topic to cover in one article, and as I brainstormed my ideas on a piece of scrap paper, I thought, “This is impossible! There is too much to write about!” Then when I talked to my husband about my dilemma, he too said that it was impossible and that there was too much to write about, and then commenced to prattling off a series of other topics I could talk about that I hadn’t added to my list regarding food as art. *Sigh* Perhaps I will branch off on my article writing to bring you a series based on food and art, so that I can explore the various aspects of this topic thoroughly. But until then, if you want to watch a fantastic movie or two, (or it you’d rather READ the book which these movies are adapted from) then I highly recommend reading/watching, “Chocolat”, “Julia & Julia”, “Ratatouille” and my favourite, “Like Water For Chocolate”. They truly capture the concept of the passion that is absorbed into the fantastic foods that we eat.

 

Next time you’re thinking of popping an easy “slider” into the microwave and quickly filling your gullet, stop and think about the connection between food, feelings, creativity and life. Perhaps you’ll decide to nourish yourself instead with something that is a bit kinder to your body and your soul. Bon appetit!

Hairy Paper

Please note; this article was originally written for The Northern Sun News on July 30th in the middle of a heat wave. Even though there are many references to summer, the ideas can still apply! 

We are in the thick of summer and I don’t know about you but I’m basking in the heat, not daring to complain after the miserable 50 below winter we had. It will come all too soon so I’m soaking up as much vitamin D as I can, as healthily as I can. It means taking my studio outdoors and painting on my deck, hoping that the papers I’m working on will also reap the benefits of the positive energy being absorbed. It makes me reflective of all the different projects I have worked on outside and hope that the following list of past projects I have done will give you fodder for your own creative adventures:

1.     I once made “hairy paper” with my friend Martha. We collected dryer lint, shred it up with ripped up pieces of scrap paper, boiled it all, threw it in a blender, and then added the pulp to a kiddie swimming pool full of water. We used homemade screens to scoop up the pulp to make our sheets of paper. When the paper dried we learned that you shouldn’t use dryer lint to make paper if you own a dog, hence the hairy paper.

2.       I have been known to annihilate pansies by hammering them into paper. Pansies make an excellent imprint on paper when you pound the snot out of them.

3.       I take a small package of art supplies with me when I travel; my sketch pad, a set of coloured pens, some Sharpie markers, a few pencils, an eraser, and a variety of pencil crayons. I have drawn the Altantic Ocean on the beach of Meat Cove on Cape Breton Island. I have drawn the Altantic from the beaches of Holland a la van Gogh.  I have used the architecture of a chateau in Southern France surrounded by hedges dripping in hot pink hydrangeas as inspiration for a full coloured realistic drawing. I have gesturally sketched the fiercely strong jack pines in the Woodland Caribou Park that seem to defy logic as they pierce through the smallest cracks in the granite. These sketches are better than a photograph because it takes me right back to that moment in time, capturing all of the smells, the brightness of the sun, the breeze off the ocean and the opportunity I had to be truly reflective of the environment I was in.

4.       I put out pans of watery paint in an assortment of colours and then rolled large sheets of paper across the ground. Alexander stepped right into the pans, using his feet as brushes for beautifully colourful abstract art. The bath water was pretty interesting looking after that artistic endeavor!

5.       I like to tap into my inner Banksy (check out his graffiti online) by spray painting found objects such as an old, unfixable violin, and a large taxidermied jack fish and hang them in my sunroom. They always stimulate conversation and intrigue! I find most of these objects at the dump and figure if my art piece doesn’t really work the way I want it, then I can just take it right back there again!

6.       I have doodled with a Sharpie on my husband’s back at the Winnipeg Folk Fest, letting the music summon the lines and shapes that become a part of his skin for a while. Automatic drawing is a fun way to create without feeling like you have to have specific results when the drawing is complete. Simply listen to music, put a pen in your hands and start drawing whatever comes to mind without lifting your pen. Once the song is over, look at what you’ve created and see what happens when you let your mind wander to music. There might be something doodled in those lines that are worth exploring further!

You don’t need a plan to create outdoors. You don’t need a whole lot of supplies. You don’t need to first find something to do on Pinterest. You just need to sit down, soak in the rays, let your senses take over for a while, and trust that Mother Nature will give you some excellent guidance as to what your artistic endeavour is going to be for that moment in time. You won’t be disappointed; only if you forget to put on sunblock. Don’t forget the sunblock. 

Soul Sisters

I have stumbled across amazing people in my life; having moved around a lot in my childhood (by the time I was 12 I had moved 6 times). Even though I was a brutally shy child, and to this day I still consider myself to be shy, I learned that the only way I was going to actually have a life of interest was if I was both approachable and willing to approach others. 

  A serendipitous encounter in The Water Buffalo is what led me to marrying the love of my life.

 It was the coincidental meeting in an introductory Psych 101 university course that re-introduced me to my “bestie”. We spent the rest of the term skipping class and going out for coffee instead. I barely got my credit in that class but the development of our friendship was much more important.

 I can’t imagine my life without these awesomely fantastic people, and also makes me think of all of the wonderful characters that are yet to come into my life, whether just for a fleeting moment, or a life time.

While on holidays last week in South Dakota, I took a journey through the market square of Rapid City and came across a funky art store that sold locally made art. When I walked in I instantly felt at home. It was cluttered from floor to ceiling with doodads and whirly-gigs. Art was covering every square inch and most was made with re-claimed materials, was layered in multi-mediums, and screamed QUIRKY! Behind the counter, a woman was busily chatting with a friend, the excitement in her voice resonating throughout the store as she talked about her artistic world. I was delighted by the company and the environment.

When I had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the owner, I pointed to a cluster of ravens that had been meticulously yet fluidly painted onto canvas. She staked claim on them, and I told her of my love of ravens too, explaining their meaning for me, and pointing to the raven’s wing permanently embedded in my arm as a tattoo. I could tell by her use of reclaimed material in the jewelry that she made that she too was a raven with a scavenging spirit. She said that she was actually getting a tattoo of ravens put on her shoulder next week.  I felt an instant kinship, and even asked her if we were long lost sisters, to which she replied, “….soul sisters. We’re soul sisters.” I bought a pair of earrings and left feeling a new revitalization with who I was and what is important to me in the world.

That chance meeting with my soul sister made me think of who I am as an artist. I walked into a place that looked like the artwork was all created with me in mind. I could relate to the artwork being created. I understood the perspective of the artists. I knew the process they went through to get to their final art piece. It made me think of what I am creating today and whether I have allowed myself to stray too far away from my true art form. I have a studio full of trinkets and  doodads that float around as visions in my head. I don’t make them into art because the demand isn’t there for what has been considered a bit too unconventional. I had a regional gallery owner tell me that “people don’t buy abstract art” so I stopped making abstract art. Why did I do that? Why did I allow one person’s perspective to alter my direction when just two states away, there is someone out there that has a whole 1000 square foot, two leveled studio and gallery full of art that is just like my own?!  It has made me realize (again) that there is a place in the world for everyone. I walked into a foreign space and was welcomed with open armed acceptance of true self and I’m going to dive in again, and start creating art for me and the truth of my inner creativity. It`s an exciting and beautiful thought.

 I guess out of all this, the moral of this story (not that I’m into sharing morals in all of my articles!) is that it doesn’t hurt to talk to strangers. There are more beautiful people in the world than not, and they all have something that we can learn from them, if we take the time to ask questions and listen without judgement. Thank you, Soul Sister, for revitalizing my funkydoodad spirit!

This article was originally written for the Northern Sun News on July 30th, 2014. 

The Powerful Beauty of Nature

We were all quickly reminded of the power of nature this summer, when we watched a fellow community member struggle against the odds, and eventually make his way out of a disastrous situation. We are all thankful for that and the amazing work of a variety of people that came together to save his life and make the area safe again for others. For me, it became a time of reflection, as I was just there the day before the occurrence, having gone for a bike ride with my son to that exact spot at Half Way Creek. So quickly it can happen. So quickly we are brought into the folds of Mother Nature’s arms and told what to do instead of telling nature what we are going to do to it.

As an artist, I spend time manipulating the environment. I want my perennials arranged in a way that emphasizes the texture of the leaves and the succession of colour from the blooms. I want to carve out pockets of dirt to urge vegetables out of its ground, cut down trees that don’t fit in with the architecture, and plant more trees to give a “natural feel” to my yard. I think of both form and function when playing this game with the flora that surrounds me.  I ridiculously think that I can control the earth and the plants until the critters come along and chew on my lettuce leaves, and burrow holes through my tomatoes. The grubs dig deep within the grass and turn my yard into a lumpy obstacle course. The rain comes and gives all of my plants root rot and the wind snaps the branches off of my delicate trees.

You don’t have to look any further than Canada’s own Group of Seven to see how our weather can arch trees beyond the point of no return and fill the skies with impending doom. (Image Google search “Group of Seven storms”). We can all relate to that feeling as we watch the elements unfold their wrath before us and have a story to tell of our “close call” with Nature. Therein lays the balance; the give and take if you will that we should consider the thought of surrender at times instead of trying to fight something that is bigger than ourselves. I believe that Mother Earth does this all the time for us. She is put in a position of absolute surrender. I am all too quickly reminded of this when I take walks in the woods and see old garbage that has been completely smothered by the fresh green shoots of a native plant, and I think, “Ah Nature, you’re too forgiving.”

Every year my husband and I do an exploration on Canada Day. We pick a back road somewhere down the 105 and we venture into the unknown, seeking out what Mother Nature literally offers us in our backyard. It is an artist’s dream and I spend a lot of time photographing her extraordinary, untiring beauty. We are always pleasantly surprised and thankful for what she offers and this year was no exception. Yet even in the middle of nowhere, we are confronted with the essence of human presence, usually in the form of garbage, or four wheeler tracks that have ripped through the ground. If we went on these adventures with the intent to pick up garbage, we’d never make it back home. And we too were confronted by a large road wash out that had engulfed the road and easily pushed all of the road’s content downstream, along with several massive trees, which even sheered the sides off of large embankments, leaving years of sediment layers newly exposed. And as I looked upstream, I saw the little critter that was perhaps the cause of all this, and couldn’t help but think if this animal’s oblivious ignorance, simply doing what nature had intended it to do; what it was instinctually born to do. This beaver had no intent of harm, no reason to show resentment towards humans and how they plowed a road straight through his living room. He was just listening to the running water that was swooshing through the culvert and had an instinctual desire to fix it. And even though that cut into our mission of further exploration, and cuts into the productivity of others, and costs us money and man hours and so on, I can’t help but think that it’s a good reason to stop and think about just exactly what I’m doing as a human being, and an artist, and a citizen of this beautiful earth, and make decisions as to whether I really want to put up a fight with the might of Mother Nature, or graciously surrender to her significance.

Kitsch Tchotchkes

Yes, this is an ornament. I don't understand. I.just.don't. 

Kitsch tchotchkes; say that five times fast. We all have them, we’ve all anxiously given them as last minute gifts, and we have all embarrassingly received them as well. A tchotchke is a small, miscellaneous object of some kind, usually in the form of a souvenir. I've heard them called everything from dust collectors to crap, but there’s always a connotation of worthlessness attached to them. That’s where the word “kitsch” comes in, referring to that said object as tacky. It is an adjective for super cheesy junk and it is a bizarre sub-genre of the art and design world.

 Sometimes I stand in awe at the small figurines I see in stores and shake my head. Somebody actually walked into a manufacturing company and said, “I have an idea. Why don’t we make a statue of a mother unicorn with soft multi-coloured hair made out of squirrel tails, nestling its purple glitter baby unicorn, sitting on a rainbow that is in the shape of a heart.” And someone says, “YES! LET’S MAKE TEN THOUSAND OF THEM!” And then they end up in the bargain bin with a huge orange super sale sign on them because who the heck would buy something like that at full retail price?!!! And then your child buys it for you as a mother’s day gift because they’re five and they like glittery unicorns and the bargain bin just happens to be at their eye level and within easy reach of their little squishy hands. These marketing geniuses are pulling at the heart strings of every five year old in the world. The bastards.

Kitsch tchotchkes fascinate me because they muster up thoughts of the absurd. One of my favourite things to do is go to Value Village and peruse the kitsch tchotchke shelf. Again, the management is on to something here because it’s always the first shelf you see when you walk into any Value Village. It’s brilliant. You are pulled in by the kitsch; you laugh, your mood is lightened, and then you end up spending $50 on a bunch of pants that don’t fit you. Or maybe that’s just me.

And I have this habit of photographing my favourites and posting the photos on Instagram or Facebook. Sometimes when I do, people say things like, “I can’t believe you didn’t buy that!” Really? I am a photograph hoarder, not a kitsch tchotchke hoarder, thank you very much!  They are delightful to look at, and giggle at, but I definitely don’t want this stuff in my house. But I am more than aware that people dedicate full china cabinets to tchotchkes, getting full pleasure out of them, and secretly revelling in the fact that these objects of desire are safe from the harm of dust and accidental breakage. To each their own, I guess. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder and who are we to judge what is considered a fantastic piece of sculptural art versus a tacky hunk of resin junk?

If you are interested in continuing on this quest for quirky, might I suggest you start at this website? www. museumofbadart.org. Again, you are also welcome to check out my photos on Instagram under the username Bobeckman.  If you’d like to take this a step further, send me a photo of your favourite kitsch tchotchke at funkydoodad@hotmail.com  Happy hunting!

Here is a picture of a baby elephant zookeeper in coveralls tending to a wild elephant. 

This article was originally posted in The Northern Sun without pictures. So, here are the pictures. You can't read this article without the pictures! 

The Cost of Creativity

The wedding cake that Teresa made for Brad and I. 

It seems like such an oxymoron to be raised as a “banker’s daughter” and grow up to become an artist. Art and money are as separated as they can get, right? Artists make art “because we just feeeeeel it, maaaan!” While that may be true to a degree (perhaps for some more than others….after all, I don’t want to stereotype and generalize that all artists are the same breed) there is actually a lot of important factors that are put into play when considering the cost of creativity, and believe it or not, most artists and creators consider these factors when putting a price tag onto that art piece.

I can’t help but think of my sister, The Midnight Baker, who is constantly appraised for her work. After all, people are using the most important of the five senses when appreciating her work; taste. (Well, I think it’s the most important of the senses, because I’m Ukrainian and I like to eat.) Not only does her work have to be delicious, it has to be customized to suit the buyer’s demands, and it has to be aesthetically pleasing. By the way, she surpasses all of those criteria and then some. Yum!

 But there is always somebody in the crowd that wants the triple layered wedding cake for the price of a Twinkie. As Teresa puts it, “This isn’t a hobby. This is my livelihood. I am a one-person business.” Do you know how many cakes and cookies and tarts she has to make to pay to keep her kitchen up to code, pay for commercial insurance (which has to cover things such as slippage/accidents, breakdown of equipment, her delivery vehicle), pay for packaging supplies, pay for ingredients, pay for a portion of the heat, and hydro (can you imagine what her hydro bills are with a double stove running 24/7?!!!), paying for fees for accounting, licensing, food handlers certification, paying for advertising, office supplies, and so forth? All of that cost is put in a deliciously chocolaty bite sized morsel with buttercream frosting at a reasonable price. She truly is a sculptor with flour, sugar, and eggs and deserves to be paid well for it.

And I can completely relate to my sister, (and not just genetically…har, har, har!) because I too am asked questions like, “When are you going to turn that original painting into prints?”  And “Are you planning on having a sale any time?” Could you imagine going to a doctor and asking for a discount on their service? When have you ever had a vehicle repaired and asked if the mechanic could get paid less per hour? So I am going to spell out how I price out my work, so that it is understood why my price for my art is my price for my art. Just like my sister’s cake is her cake.

I use a combination of the classic “square inch” method and an hourly rate, whichever seems fairer. The square inch method is simple: multiply the length of an art piece by the width, and then multiply that by a dollar price. A beginner artist would charge about $1 per square inch. A very established artist would charge $6 per square inch. So a starting artist would get $80 for an 8x10 painting and an established artist would get $480 for that same size of painting. That, my friends, is why artists are called “starving artists”!  I charge on the low to medium level of that scale because I want my work to actually sell while still considering the same factors that my sister does such as the cost of supplies, my use of hydro, et al. I want to be fair to you, and I want to be fair to me.

If I sell my work in another business or gallery, then I have to consider a commission fee. I can’t just hang that artwork up on the wall for nothing! Some galleries generously only ask 10% where larger established galleries ask for 50% of the sale. Again, how would you like to go to a restaurant and only get half a sandwich but pay full price? Some days I feel like I’m eating half a sandwich when I’m working in my studio.

But I love what I do and am proud of what I do and I won’t feel shamed into lowing my price or standards because we live in a Walmart society. My philosophy is that you get what you pay for; an original, one of a kind, funky piece of creativity that can’t be compared to anything else. You’re paying for that one of a kind experience. You’re paying for those wacky, interesting thoughts that get projected onto cookies or a canvas. You’re paying for that professional judgment that ensures that you’re getting exactly what you asked for, and then some. You’re paying for that exorbitant amount of time that the artist spends with passion and zest. Food for thought. 

All photos are from The Midnight Baker's Facebook page, and all of these cakes were created by Teresa Faulconer, my sister. :)

This article was originally written for and posted in The Northern Sun on June 1lth, 2014. 

Viva La Liberte!

My husband and I were just put up against the wall recently with a fully loaded rule book pointed straight at us, and told we needed to abide to said rules or suffer the consequences. Fortunately, Brad has just as much of a rebellious spirit as I do, and we both decided to graciously walk away from the confines that were being laid out before us. Viva la liberte! The situation made me think of so many artists that have been considered defiant because they didn’t “play along nicely”, or theydid play along nicely, just not the way others wanted them to play. Freaks, rebels, weirdoes, devils in disguise….call them what you will, they changed the course of history because of their willingness to go beyond the expectations and break the norms.

Portrait of Marcel Duchamp

Let me tell you a quick story about Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was an artist that submitted an art piece to an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 in New York City. He was on the selection committee, therefore, the art piece that he submitted was signed using another name; R. Mutt. The deal was that anyone could submit art into this exhibition as long as they paid an entrance fee. There was much deliberation on the committee regarding this art piece, and they ultimately decided to hide the art piece from being displayed. Duchamp resigned from the committee. What on earth could the art piece possibly have been, you might ask, to cause such controversy?! It was a urinal. Duchamp went to the store, bought a urinal, changed its positioning, signed it R. Mutt, and submitted it in the show.

Some of you might be absolutely outraged to think that Duchamp would even consider that to be art. Some of you might think he was being facetious. Some of you may think he was brilliant. I am hoping you think the latter and this is why. The people on the committee had a confined (may I even be bold enough to use the phrase “close-minded”?) perspective of what art is, and were forced into a position of thinking and perhaps re-defining what should be considered when art becomes Art. Duchamp simply felt that the urinal had beauty in its form. When not placed in its typical setting, it purely became an object to be appreciated and stripped of its labels. He also argued that just because he didn’t actually make the urinal, does not mean that it’s not art. The placement of the object created new thought, and THAT is what makes it art.

Right now you might be thinking, WHO ON EARTH WOULD CONSIDER A URINAL TO BE BEAUTIFUL?! Who said art had to be beautiful? I have seen enough funny looking babies in my lifetime to know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Who said art has to hang up over your couch? Who said that art has to be “nice” and play by the rules? I always tell my students, you need to know the rules before you can break them. It’s my way of ensuring that they know the foundation of the Arts, and how there is structure and there is beauty in this fantastic world, but that if you just stick with those rules, then you might as well be doing colour by number paintings, because there is no thought going into your work. It is important to push those ideas, even when the status quo may think it’s being a bit too rebellious and shaking their pretty, happy norms.

Picasso hid “Les Mademoiselle D’Avignon” for decades because fellow artists felt he was making a mockery of Modern Art. Cubism became a household name once revealed.

 Monet’s first Impressionist painting, “Sunrise”,  was described as looking like it was scribbled with crayons by a child that was drawing on a moving train. 

Dali was considered to be crooked instead of brilliant when he signed blank pieces of paper before his art work was printed on them (I know I’d much rather have an original signature over a printed one, and they sell for so much more). Banksy is considered a vandal as he spray paints poignant statements on walls around the world.

 And what about Mr. R. Mutt aka Marcel Duchamp? He became the father of “ready-made” art, otherwise known as Found Object Art. He took found objects and transformed them into other things to be used and/or appreciated. Sound familiar? Ever hear of someone turning a pallet into a table, or jewellery being made out of old computer circuit boards? Google “found object art” and when you are looking at all of the beautiful things that are made out of reclaimed materials today, think of Duchamp and his willingness to rebel against the rules to bring concepts like this to you. This art piece is considered one of the most influential pieces of modern art in existence.

Marcel Duchamp

“Fountain”

Glazed ceramic

1917

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This article was first published in the Northern Sun News, without the pictures because there's never enough room because I always go over my 500 word limit. I can't help it.

Insta-history

When I reflect on my history with photography, it takes me right back to my sister and I sneaking into the cupboard to steal my dad’s 110mm camera to take goofy snapshots of ourselves. Like he wasn’t going to find out that we were doing “selfies” in 1981! That was back in the day when film came in canisters or cartridges and you had to get them developed before you even knew what you took a picture of. There wasn’t a delete button. You got what you got and we usually got grounded. But with those photographs, you also got some interestingly artistic surprises, such as leaked light (sometimes the backdoor of the camera would accidentally open or you’d just have to check to see if there was actually film in the camera!) or sun glares from pointing your camera directly into the sun. Cool stuff!

My dad must have been tired of spending his money on all of those photos because I got a Kodak disc camera one year for Christmas which just so happened to promise “action shots”.  Mind.Blown. I had my best friend jumping all over the place like a lunatic trying to capture that quintessential frozen, leaping-in-the-air shot. Why that was important to keep, I’m not too sure but I still have a few as a reminder of my curiosity and discoveries.  

 I received my first single lens reflex 135mm camera when I was 14 and my world changed. Suddenly I needed to know what aperture was, why there were different types of films, shutter speeds, polarizers, bouncing light, f-stop. Who knew that such a small little light box could be so complex!? Fortunately I worked at Panis Production (who remembers Panis Productions?!) throughout high school and learned a lot about the subject from some of the best such as Don Nord and Jake Seigel. Conversations easily circled around either the technicalities of the camera, the aesthetic qualities of composition, the power of lighting and so on.

My high school art teacher taught me how to develop my own film in the dark room (we called it “The Dungeon”) and I ran off to university to earn a minor in photography. Little did I know that it would automatically seal the deal on becoming the unofficial leader of the high school yearbook when I became a teacher. Yes, I too used to drag kids into the dungeon to learn the ancient technique of black and white negative and photograph development. But that all changed when digital cameras came in. I remember being a bit of a “kicker and screamer” when discussion arose of removing the darkroom and replacing the cameras with digital ones. I guess I was a purist. How could a computer replace the beautiful quality of a finely printed photograph?! A part of me still believes that, but I’m cool with creative change, and can now say I have whole heartedly embraced the awe of digital photography. Basically, with all of the bells and whistles that allow you to manipulate photographs, it’s pretty close to impossible to take a crappy photo.

I missed the boat when it comes to Photoshop, though. I can putter my way around it and get what I want most of the time, but I’m not one of those people that can click a few buttons and presto, I have a manipulated photograph of my sister with a unicorn horn. *sigh* It could be so much fun. But for now, I have “apps”. I subscribe to a fantastic app on my iphone called “The App of the Day” which shares free iphone applications every day.

Basically every second day is some form of a photography manipulation application. If I want my photograph to look like an oil painting, or a Pop Art print, or look like the edges are torn, or a completely different colour, I just have to press a few buttons and I’ve completely altered my photograph. Who would have thought that possible when I was a fascinated 9 year old learning how to capture memories? Now not only can I capture memories, but make them look awesome in the process. I use Instagram almost daily to record the wonders of the world through my eyes, and I get to share them with people all over the world…literally! In a relatively short amount of time, we have gone from accidentally making leaked light photographs to intentionally pushing a filter button on our iphone to replicate that same effect. We are lucky to have these ingenious opportunities with relative ease! Give it a try, and if you’re interested, you can check out some of my digital photography on Instagram under the username Bobeckman.

Originally published in the Northern Sun on June 11th, 2014.

A Bouquet of Awesome

Ok, I should never say never (because you just NEVER know) but I think I can kind of, sort of, safely say that winter is behind us. I know this because John Miller has put out his annual flowers, and that’s a true sign of warmer weather. They guy knows his plants and he knows his weather! So it’s time to hit the greenhouses, and if you’re like me, you already have. I have vowed that I’m not buying any annuals this year because we are going to be building in our yard and I just won’t have the opportunity to spend my time dead heading. Plus, I’m Ukrainian and I like to eat, so I’m more likely to grow plants that I can graze on while roaming around in my yard.  But at least I can share some thoughts with you about annuals and how you can play with colour theory from an artist’s perspective to help come up with ideas on making arrangements for your outdoor flower pots.

 Colour is probably one of the most powerful elements of art there is. It has the power to capture your attention and leave you staring at one thing in a painting like a deer in headlights. I like to call this “punch you in the face colour emphasis”. You are left shocked by the colour that you’ve been assaulted with. Colour can also stir up a variety of emotions. Sit is a Pepto Bismal pink room for a good amount of time and see how you feel. Get my drift? Colour has impact and you can play with colour theory when composing your flower pot arrangements to get different desired effects and “curb side appeal”.

Let’s start with the basics; our primary colours. You can’t go wrong with a brilliant shot of red, blue and yellow in a flower pot. Just keep in mind that the eye will go to the yellow flowers first, (because our eyes tend to look at warm colours first) so either evenly place them throughout the flower pot, or put them as the highest or most central flowers. I am picturing a cluster of yellow marigolds in the center of a pot, surrounded by red million bells and finished with trailing blue lobelia to soften everything. It’s like Ernie’s (from Sesame Street) shirt transformed into a bouquet of flowers!

If you want your planter to have a unique edge, then go with the secondary colours, that being orange, green, and purple. The colours will vibrate like a Norval Morrisseau painting! Stick with lime greens such as Creeping Jenny vines, for extra “pop”.

If you want your flower pots to be a bit more subtle, and focus more on the form and texture of the flower, then think monochromatically. Monochromatic colour is based on selecting one colour and tints and shades of that same colour. So, if you pick red flowers, then you can also add deep red flowers and different shades of pink flowers as well, remembering that pink is just red with white added to it. This really makes your planter look unified.

For colours that just look like they were meant to be together, think of complementary colour theory. Complementary colours are made of one primary and one secondary colour that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. So team up any red flowers with green, team up orange flowers with blue, and team up yellow flowers with purple. Now when I say blue, it’s actually really difficult to find a true blue flower, but there are some that are pretty close. The bluest flower I’ve ever seen was in Phil Vinet’s garden. He’s the only person in the whole world that has been able to actually grow a Tibetan blue poppy from seed, and they are a marvel to look at. The thought of blue poppies beside wild, orange tiger lilies is quite the vision!

Finally, if you really don’t care, then go for the Crayola crayon box effect, (which by the way is called polychromatic colour theory) and just throw a mish-mash of flowers of different colours, textures and sizes together. After all, they’re flowers and you really can’t mess up a pot of flowers because, well….it’s a pot of flowers! And who doesn’t love flowers!? But if you want to be fancy-shmancy then think about your arrangements from an artist’s perspective, and play with the amazing colours that Mother Nature has shared with you. I would love to see pictures of your planters! Feel free to email me at funkydoodad@hotmail.com

Originally posted in the Northern Sun News on May 28th, 2014. 

Trashy Treasures

This wedding dress was found at the reclaim station. It will make an awesome Halloween costume. 

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a dump DIVA! I think it stems back to a childhood trip that we took to the abandoned Pickle Crow mine and town site back in 1977 or so. What an adventurous day! We had to break through tough roads in a Suburban just to get there. Dad pulled out the metal detector and we were sent free to pick through the trashed buildings to explore and scavenge. I recall finding a doll’s brush and thinking that was a really weird thing to find at a mine site.

My dad “oohed and aahed” over everything we found, turning our discoveries into instant treasures. It’s in my blood.And aren’t I a lucky woman to be married to a man that has just as much zest for the trash as I do, and can completely appreciate that many things in our home were found directly at the dump. And now he works there. It’s the circle of life. Hahaha

So before we go any further, let’s break the stigma that is connected to bringing home the trash. Many people turn up their nose to the thought of having something from a second hand store in their home, let alone something that has been pooped on by seagulls and had a bear’s greasy ol’ butt brushing against it. 

Yeah, I’m not cool with that either, but there’s things like bleach or vinegar that can get rid of pretty well anything, including your fingerprints. (Did you know that most of the stuff that you buy at stores has had rats running across it too? That’s because these products are in storage containers and sometimes there are pesky animals there as well…just like at the dump.)  But most of the time, people are throwing things away that are STILL IN THEIR ORIGINAL PACKAGING. And I mean, people are throwing them away, in garbage bags….not even considering the reclaim station that we have at the dump or setting it to the side for others to take. 

I posted a bunch of free stuff on my Facebook status last week and stuck it in front of my yard and within the hour it was all gone. Yahoo for not filling up our maxed out landfill! And I just put a bug in Brad’s ear asking if perhaps they could “red tag” big ticket items that come in to the dump such as kitchen cabinets, or wooden furniture and have a special spot for them at the dump so that people know it is good for the picking. This stuff isn’t GROSS! IT’S AWESOME! Stop being a poopy pants and get with the recycling, reclaiming program. Can I say poopy pants in a blog?  I just did. 

So what does this have to do with art? Everything!!! Artist around the world are using reclaimed objects in new, inventive ways to show you how to think outside the box and not only break your notions about the conventions of art making, but also make you aware of the despicable amount of mass consumption that is happening and the affluence of waste that is connected to it. I can’t help but think of the fantastic website “Inhabitat” whose slogan is “design that will save the world”. Just to give you an idea, this is the kind of headlines that you’ll find at this website;

• ·         Michelle McKinney Creates Delicate and Ethereal Artwork from Industrial Metals
• ·         250 Colorful Pringles Cans Make Up This Working Pipe Organ
• ·         Giant Buddha Statue Made of Recycled Materials Pops Up on Brooklyn Waterfront

Most working artists are working with reclaimed, found materials for a plethora of reasons ranging from the typical cost reductions (Hey, we aren’t called “starving artists” for nothing! Art supplies are NOT cheap!) to the statement it creates, to the exhilarating design challenge that we are given when an object is put before our eyes to manipulate into something new. It is this genuine out-of-the-box thinking that makes what is created unique and desired.  And if you’re really into “keeping up with the Jones” then not only is it practical to buy reclaimed art, but it’s also really “in”.  It’s called shabby chic. La-dee-da.  So, basically, the bottom line is; it’s really cool to not waste, and it’s even cooler to go and get more stuff from the dump and make it into something new again. Then you’ll be the talk to the town. ;)