FLUX in FLUX

Spring is here and though it would be nice if it were warmer the cold reminds me that there are a few school related things left on the good ol "to-do list" which need to be checked off. The most exciting of which is setting up for FLUX in FLUX the thesis group show which will be happening all day today and tomorrow (featuring painting, drawing and sculpture students work). I must say the organization and cooperation of everyone is great to see and there is a large variety of work. It should make for a great opening tomorrow night (7-10pm) at Aceartinc 290 McDermot Ave in the exchange. Here is a handy map if you are not exchange district familiar.

There will be beer and snacks at the opening tomorrow night as well as all of the artists if you want to chat about the work. If you can't make it out tomorrow night the gallery is open to the public from 12-5 Tuesday to Saturday and the show will be up until April 30th (admission is free). I hope your spring is wonderful!

-Julie

april art shows

This week has been a little rushed so far, but I am enjoying my last week of classes. On Friday I had a lovely time hanging photos up at Stellas for Gen & I's show 'Transitions'.

I always find it funny how much art work I make about time, spaces and change when in life change has always been a tough thing for me. I am a creature of habit, and anyone who knows me knows this to be true, I like to have a plan. I think it has my close-circle prepping for a post-university melt down of some kind. But I am avoiding that at all costs, it doesn't feel productive [hah]. I'm a lot better than I used to be with the "i need to know what comes next" thing; I've even been putting my ipod on shuffle [you may think this is a joke, but I like to see it as progress] hah.

Anyways, yesterday was a fantastic time painting shoes and going barefoot to raise awareness about TOMS shoes One for One movement. Needless to say I love being barefoot, painting, and charitable companies. So it was a good day!

rainy day collaboration with Gillian King

April brings a lot of art shows -- Open House* for U of M fine arts students is this Sunday (April 10th) from 12-5. Come out and walk around campus, check out the best of the entire Fine Arts faculty's work from 2010-2011.

*note that there will be a lot of nudity, other work that my be offensive to some so exercise caution when bringing children (or if you are like me in the past walking around with your grandma hah)

happy april everyone,

-Julie

one week

one week to have this cleaned up, set up, and ready for open house/ final crits.

tonight though i will be heading to Stellas on osborne to hang photos, which will be up for all of april! all of the photos will be from my ongoing series of collaged winnipeg images.

next week i will be only speaking spanish in preparation for my spanish finals, i have a feeling this could get increasingly annoying for my friends and family. apologies.

one week left of classes left for my degree, i never thought this would happen, i feel so old.

as far as arty stuff goes in the next little bit my schedule is;

april 2nd - "Trantions" Photography at Gallery Ingenue (Stellas on Osborne)

april 5th - style your sole event at U of M; i will be painting shoes (from 11:30-1:30) in university centre; in support of TOMS and 1 day without shoes [more info here]

april 10th - fine arts open house (U of M campus), noon-five

- painting featured in gallery 111

- studio space in the artbarn (upstairs #227)

april 16th - "Flux in Flux" (Thesis Students Group Exhibit at Aceart), opening saturday seven-ten

so if you are out & about in wpg in april checkout some art, it makes you cooler :)

-Julie

march; blink and you'll miss it

The opening for Temporary Spaces went soooo well, thank you to everyone who checked it out throughout the week. The comments in the book were overwhelmingly positive and very encouraging so thank you. It was fun to go check on my paintings everyday and try and eavesdrop on what people were saying, catch up on the new comments and go on with my day wondering campus.

[the above two photos courtesy of miss brittany mahood visit her photogblog here]

So post-show it was back to real life with a pile of not-so-fun papers to write, which I am happy to say are FINISHED! Its sinking in that I have less than 3 weeks of classes left. Last minute paintings to finish and running around to do, all very exciting. I'm happy to say that I am back in the studio, working on that final push before final crits. This was my morning :)

And as schedules lining up have it, I happen to have an art gallery date with my mom this evening, looking at art will always remain one of my favourite things. So the moral of the story is; breath in, breath out, life is good.

happy march everyone; heres hoping it warms up soon.

-Julie

back in the swing

Well after a year or so of an unplanned hiatus from the art world (between academic classes and not being in the country not much art was made) I'm somewhat back. It was a great time setting up the TOMS group show at GoSA on Sunday night.

Yes that would be me with a level, feeling semi-official, I think everything was fairly straight. Group shows are a fun dynamic, and I must say everyone had a great attitude and excitement about the show. Which makes for a great hanging. The food from degrees didn't hurt either (my favourite place on campus to eat).

Some of the beautiful shoes being featured in exhibit, which runs until this Friday March 4th at GoSA (Gallery of Student Art in University Centre at U of Manitoba).

Oh and the new issue of Chesterfield Magazine came out this week and a photo of mine from Nicaragua was inside, nothing like black and white film photography to brighten my day.

Here is to a productive week!

-Julie

TOMS

Very exciting stuff, I was selected as one of the winners of a design your own TOMS contest which was put on by Segue in association with SOFA at the U of Manitoba.

.blurb from the fb page.

(Segue is a group of students committed to their spiritual journeys who see great needs in our world. We want to raise awareness of these needs and provide opportunities to get involved and make a difference. We intend to be a part of positive change.

TOMS represents a need and a way to help meet that need. Help us raise awareness of the need and put shoes on the feet of kids in need through our series of TOMS events this year.)

this is my design...

and these are the shoes I will get to put my design on

As one of the winners my shoes and artwork will be displayed in GoSA (gallery of student art) February 28 - March 4 & during the “Style Your Sole” event.

I can't wait to get started on this little project, it should be a great show and I can't wait to see what everyone else does with their shoes!

For more info on TOMS shoe company visit... http://www.tomsshoes.ca/ very cool company with a global perspective!

new year, new work

So I've been decently hard at work once again, with classes and painting and freezing my tush off taking picture outside... All of which are thing I like to do but nevertheless need a push to get going on. Since I am graduating in May I have really been focusing on trying to get the most out of this last little bit of my life that I will be in school for. Before I know it, it will all be over. Both a good and scary thing. So here are a few things I have been working on so far in 2011...

a recent photo collage

my latest painting... my work seems to be getting more abstract

Hopefully I will be able to maintain my good studio work habits well into this new year, and not get overly bogged down with my academic classes. I think I will be able to manage it all and let my academics just serve as research for my paintings.

Oh my beautiful mess of a studio. If you need me ever, this is hopefully where I will be. I'm really going to try and not get caught up in perfection this term, and just paint, "let it flow" if you will... I tend to get in my own way a lot. But have been flooded with ideas lately and am excited to translate that onto a canvas. Exciting stuff.

Thats all for now,

-Julie

thought process...

When I was a child I was very odd. But you know, lots of kids are funny, if you spend time around kids you know what I mean, I mean that in the most positive way possible. I wore rainbow fluorescent tie-dye outfits, didn't brush my hair, was super painfully shy in social situations and wanted to be frankenstein when I grew up (that was until my wise brother told me I would have to have bolts in my head; so I chose to be an astronaut instead).

But anyways this all has a point I think...

thats me in the middle

So anyways my work this year has to do with destiny and dreams. It gets me thinking a lot about how different events in your life alter those original plans and dreams. Also though how you can be in something that makes no sense what so ever at the time but look back on it and have moments of major clarity. For as long as I can remember I have had an odd fascination with tarps. Yes those blue, orange, yellow whatever colour bright plastic things that cover construction sites in the winter. When I was little they looked magical to me. They made me want to go play in there. A few years ago I decided to re-visit this fascination after seeing a large balloon shaped tarp on a power line by my home.

This launched into a photography project that brought up issues of time, change, transformation, whimsy and the way I see the world. I love the photo collages that I created in 2009 and this year when applying for a show I dug up those images to send along with my application. All of a sudden my brain just click click clicked all together. Here I was painting these children in their dream spaces... while their cities have turned into tent cities. They were essentially living my childish naive dream of living and being under a tarp, with some very real very difficult realities.

While in Haiti this past May I myself slept under a "Samaritans Purse" tarp in a pastors yard in Port au Prince. All of this led me to turn my studio space into a kind of gallery under a tarp, the blue light is both comforting and limiting. I feel like this idea and how to incorporate it still needs a lot of developing. But its so odd how these things come together, it both makes me smile and makes me feel on track.

I guess I'll see what it turns into.

-Julie

school... the countdown begins...

my little corner of the world :)

SO its November 17th and the last day of classes is December 8th... so the end is in sight (and by end I mean a temporary break). It feels like I have a million things to do before that happens but I'm sure in true Julie fashion I will just stay up until 2 the day before they are all due. BUT the good news is my thesis work has been progressing (however slowly) but progressing none the less. Below is my currently messy studio...

As I may have mentioned all of my work this year (so far) has been about my time spent in Haiti. This causes me to get side tracked easily while looking for just the right source image, browsing through my photos (and team mates photos) I can easily get lost for an hour or two.

Excuses excuses I know but thats what I've been dealing with for the last while.

Who wouldn't get distracted by this cuteness though!? All of the memories come flooding back, which in a way help me paint with more clarity. So who can really be upset about that. I just hope that I am able to begin to work more quickly and am able to balance all of my stuff a little bit better next term.

Anyways thats all for now as I really should be painting...

-Julie

make tiny paintings for a good cause? YES PLEASE!

So this week I have been working on artist cards for a charity event put on The World WISE Resource Centre at the University of Manitoba called - Create for Pakistan...

Heres how it works, us (fine art students, or creative types from any faculty) make art on little cards free of charge and sell them in university centre, all proceeds go to the red cross and their relief effort in Pakistan (following the terrible flooding that took place this summer and continues to devastate the nation.)

I chose to make little paintings of things that fly!

Now you might be saying, well thats all well and good but what do I do with these tiny little masterpieces? If thats you, I thought I'd throw out a couple ideas...

You could buy a bunch and frame them (all together or separately) because; like my wise brother once told me "chicks dig when you have original art in your room."

You could also use them as gift tags on presents you will soon be running around getting for the holidays, just saying how much cooler is a hand painted rocket ship than a mass produced non-personal card.

And if you aren't feeling overly creative you could always use one as a trusty bookmark, and know that you've helped people out who are way less fortunate than you!

Here are the details for the sale where you can purchase or just donate;

ARTISTS CARD CREATING SESSIONS
November 2 :: Art Barn (2nd floor common area) :: 3:00 to 5:00
November 3 :: University Centre Fireside Lounge :: 1:30 to 3:30
November 4 :: University Centre Fireside Lounge :: 11:00 to 2:00
CARDS & COLLAGE MATERIALS PROVIDED
Materials Potluck :: bring what you can and want to use and share with everyone else

All artists are welcome to contribute to the campaign by creating cards. Contact world_wise@umanitoba.ca with your questions.

You're not an artists? Join the World W.I.S.E. Resource Centre for World Opportunities Week on the first floor of the University Centre on November 3 & 4 to see our team of visual artists in action, and to purchase your own miniature art piece in support of Flood Relief in Pakistan.

THE CANADIAN RED CROSS :: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=35760&tid=001 Please donate generously. Donation jars can be found at GPA's and IQ's on campus (University Centre).