Papergirls Know How To Party!

Last night was the Papergirls party and exhibit at the Roundhouse. I met up with Penn, (my art partner in crime) and we viewed the 500+ pieces of art that will be handed out for FREE at a secret location on Saturday.

 The Roundhouse is a gorgeous community building in the heart of Yaletown. I'd walked by it daily during the 2010 Olympics, on my way to the stadium. I was always in a rush during the Games, so last night was the first time I really got a chance to see inside it. It's beautiful facility, full of large spaces with huge windows that allow for lots of natural light. The architecture is wonderful.

In the gallery space last night, there was masking tape art and words on the floor. Such a cleaver idea!

The art was displayed clothes line style throughout the space.

 It was a good sized crowd and I liked that we had plenty of space to spread out in so that we could really see the art.

Organizers welcomed everyone and I'd been asked to say a few words. I made a short speech about how I'd come to be involved in the project and what I thought about it. I'd given some thought about what I wanted to say, but hadn't written anything down, so it was mainly off the top of my head. That was something new for me. I usually write everything down, but I wanted to try something new. Penn said it sounded good to her, so I'm chalking that up as a win.

There were so many cool and interesting piece of art. Here's a sampling of some of my personal favourites:

Here's Penn with the piece she created.

We had a really good time and met some fun and creative people. It always feels good to make new connections in the artistic community. It always makes me think of this piece of poetry by Rumi:

"There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise."

Based on the success rate of the first ever Papergirls event, I think it's safe to say it will happen again. Penn and I are already thinking about what we'll do next year!

Thank you to the Papergirls organizers for bringing this event to Vancouver and to Roundhouse volunteers for helping to host it. I am feeling pretty chuffed that I can officially say I've had my art exhibited at the Roundhouse! (Which didn't really occur to me until someone pointed it out-I was more focused on the giving part and being excited to see what other artist had done. The exhibiting part was a bonus!)

If you're local and would like to see the exhibit, I believe it's open to the public until Friday and then Saturday, keep your eyes out-Papergirls will be delivering FREE art at a secret location in the city! Watch for girls on bikes handing out art! I'm hoping our paths cross while I am out doing City Chase!

We Need Your Help!

In order to earn our first Chase Point (which gets us on our way) for Saturday, our team needs to raise $100 which goes directly to the official charity of City Chase, Right to Play. Right to Play's mission is "To improve the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world by using the power of sport and play for development, health and peace." Having been involved in the 2010 Games, it's a cause I can easily stand behind.

If you read the news I shared in yesterday's blog post, you know that we only have FOUR DAYS to reach our goal, so if you can help out, please do! Any amount is appreciated! To go directly to our fundraising page to donate, click here. for every $50 raised one child will be able to experience Right to Play's weekly sport and play-based programs for A YEAR! I'd say that's money well spent!

Please help spread the word! Thanks!

Exciting News!!

A couple weeks ago, I entered a contest online to win registration ($150) in a local event called  The Mitsubishi City Chase. Urban Rec was giving away registration for 3 teams to enter the chase. This is something my son and I had talked about doing in 2009, but it was not to be-I spent the spring and summer of 2009 going through chemo to try and get my MS to go into remission.

 I entered the draw by explaining why I wanted to participate. The draw came and went and unfortunately, I didn't win. I'd been following City Chase on Twitter and we'd been talking about the event. I told them that I'd entered and that I was hoping to win because not only was it something I really wanted to do with my son for the good memories we'd create and the chance to do something like this before I am no longer physically able, but also because if I won, I would be writing it about.

My plan was to share my experience in the chase on the MS Society's website for young people who have MS or have a loved one affected by MS, Someonelikeme.ca which I write for. Participating in this amazing event would give me a wonderful opportunity to talk about resilience and not letting MS keep you from going after your dreams. Anyone who knows me knows that if anything, my diagnosis 3 years ago has only made me more determined to work harder and faster to cross things off my life list and I've been crossing off some pretty big stuff since then!

Anyway, as I said, I did not win the draw. I was disappointed, but ultimately okay with it, because you can't win 'em all. I set it aside while hoping to be able to catch some local coverage about how it all turned out on the 27th.

And then something happened....

This afternoon, I got an email from the good folks at City Chase. They had shared my entry and the conversation we'd had about my motives for participating with the fine people at Urban Rec and GUESS WHAT?!?! Urban Rec decided that I (we-my son and I!) should be in the chase too! They have gifted us a registration!!

WE ARE CHASING ON SATURDAY!!

I was completely stunned-I never saw that coming and it's totally made my week, quite possibly, my summer. I am constantly in awe of how the magic of my life works. I love it when life throws the doors wide open!

So I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Urban Rec for their incredible generosity and to City Chase as well for being so sweet. I am deeply grateful. I promise that our team, BRAVE & CRAZY will leave it all out on the field of play. We will think hard, play hard and most importantly, laugh hard and at the end of it all, we'll come in smiling and with a good tale to tell. See you at the finish line!

A Scholar's Garden

My friend Carol and I went on a photo date this morning. She took me to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden in Chinatown, Vancouver. I've lived her 25 years this summer and oddly, I've never been. We drove down streets I've never even been on and I can see I'm going to have to go back and explore because there were tons of things I would like to shoot.

We arrived early and chose to have a guided tour of the gardens. I'm glad we did-our tour guide was a lovely Asian lady who was extremely knowledgeable and patient with my many questions about how some of the elements of the garden (like the stone masonry) were constructed. I have a feeling those are not the sorts of questions she's used to getting. (I'll blame my Gramps for my interest in that kind of stuff.)

I learned alot about Chinese design. For example, the key shaped doorways are symbolic of the gateway to heaven. Any doorway that is square shaped is the doorway to earth. When human beings stand in the space between these two portals, they are happiest. What I loved most was that every single doorway and window was created to frame the natural beauty of the garden. When you move slowly through the spaces, you see some amazing vignettes.

These are some of the roof tiles, which have intricate patterns on them. I shot this because I liked the symmetry. There is the symbol for longevity on the face of each one and flanking that symbol on both sides are bats, which are considered to bring happiness. The garden has thousands of bats (symbols, not the actual animals) in it.

There are four elements to a Scholar's garden: water, plants, stones and architecture. Part of the beauty of the garden is the pond that runs through it. The pond water is specially treated so it's always a dark jade colour. If you look closely, you can spot some of the resident turtles sunning themselves.

There are water lillies throughout. They're in bloom this time of year.

So gorgeous! One thing I really appreciated about the garden is that it's so relaxing. There are high walls surrounding it, so you can't hear the traffic of the downtown core. It's like a serene oasis in the middle of the city. One thing that was really cool was that I got to see a real live Ginkgo tree. I've only ever seen the leaves and fossils of the leaves, but never a live tree. It's really beautiful!

I spotted frogs in the pond. You have to be quiet because they are quite skittish and if you make too much noise, they disappear. The garden was pretty much ours for the first hour or so, so we got some good shots.

There are also large school of koi fish in the pond, some of which are 45 years old! Part way through the morning, one of the guides struck a small gong and then put it in the water as it vibrated. They do this so the koi feel the vibration in the water and make there way to a certain spot in the pond to be fed. The kio came quickly and they are quite tame. It was pretty amazing!

 I think this is far and away my favourite photo of the day. I love how the light is coming through the window and how it frames the long hall on the other side. It's a Light Hunter's paradise!

On our way out, I spotted this trike and had to take a photo. I love the little Chinese lanterns hanging above. So charming!

One of the best things about Vancouver is that there are so many wonderful treasures neatly tucked away, just waiting to be discovered. THANK YOU Carol for introducing me to this wonderful place. I learned so much this morning and had such a good time! I can't wait to explore Chinatown!

A Gift For You!

 I've had so much fun creating images for Wading In and Light Hunters and I thought it would be fun to share some of them with my loyal readers (that's YOU!) by creating some Desktop Wallpapers from them. I know we're a little over half way through August, but the bandannas were just begging to be used.

My husband has a ton of these and he wears them under his hardhat during the summer months, draped over his head so his neck doesn't burn. (Think Foreign Legion hat style.) I snapped this shot one day when he'd washed a bunch of them and hung them out on the line to dry. They looked so pretty flapping in the breeze-kind of like little prayer flags. I think there's just something so oddly charming about laundry on the line in the summer time.

Being Canadian, I have a soft spot for our national symbol, the maple leaf. When I saw this one lying on the forest floor, I couldn't resist. I love the texture and contrast that were captured in this image. There's a beauty in simplicity.

To add these to your desktop, click on the image to get the full size, then right click and choose "set as background" et voila!

I've signed up for Vivienne's next installment of photographic goodness, Swan Dive, which begins on September 6th. I am really excited about shooting in Autumn. I've waited all year for this, my favourite season. It's only a few weeks away and I can't wait till it feels like the season has "flipped the switch" and the weather changes.

I love the wind stirring the trees, the leaves fluttering down and crunching underfoot, the clean, crisp air, the harvest. It's cozy sweaters and jeans and hiking boots. It's celebrating birthdays, Thanksgiving, our wedding anniversary and Hallowe'en. I hold my breath during the summer. (I loathe it, truth be told. Yeah, I know I'm probably going to catch some flack for admitting that, but it's true.) In Autumn, I breathe deep. Everything about Autumn makes me feel joyful and alive.

I am *so* ready. Bring it on!

Papergirls, Vancouver

I made a trip to the Roundhouse on Saturday to turn in my submissions for the Papergirl Vancouver project. Essentially how the project works is that artists make prints of their art work to donate. The good folks at Papergirl roll the prints up and deliver them by bicycle to the public on the streets of Vancouver, for FREE. Art to the people! Isn't that cool?!

They are going to have an exhibit of all the artwork on the 23rd before it gets into the public's hands. It should be an amazing show!

Here are the images that I chose to share:

 Sign

Photo taken at Granville Island.

 Feather In the Wind

Photo taken at Granville Island.

 Forest Floor

Photo taken at Maple Ridge Park.

And lastly, Shelter of Friendship, a mixed media piece.

 This is the first year of what I hope will become an annual event in our city.

 I'm looking forward to seeing what other artists contributed. My friend Penn, who gave me the head's up on this project has posted about her brilliant contribution here.

What's New

Light Catcher, self-portrait.

It's been quiet times in the studio the last while as I deal with being under the weather again. I came down with something over the BC long weekend and had to page my GP late on the Sunday night to rescue me. A week's worth of antibiotics and I think I am on the mend. I have nothing, if not an impeccable sense of timing.

Meanwhile, here's the latest:

Creating:

I am working on issue #3 of my zine, Manual Dexterity. I am hoping to have it done for early September, but we'll see. Sometimes life throws you curve balls and this issue got derailed once before. Hopefully it will be clear sailing this time. In the meantime, if you missed issue #2 I have limited copies available in my Etsy Shop. Issue #1 sold out and once issue #2 is gone, it's gone!

I've been writing articles a fair bit. Apparently I have lots to say.

I'm also working on a submission for Papergirls. Penn let me know about this one and I think it's a great idea, so I am hurrying to get something together before the deadline on Monday.

Reading:

I haven't had much time to read lately-I do most of my reading over the winter, but I am still working my way through Shutter Sisters' Expressive Photography, which I posted about here. There's just so much information that I am combing through it slowly. It's been immensely helpful and inspiring as I develop my own photographic style.

In the jacket of the book, there were some "ads" for some other publications by the same publisher. One was The Photographer's Mind by Michael Freeman which is specifically about developing your own style. I made an inter-library loan request to borrow it and then got an email from my own library that they had decided to purchase it for our branch. They are going to hold it for me so I can have first crack at it when it comes in.

I am 100% convinced the librarians at our branch are stalking my reading list-this is not the first time I have had this happen when I try to borrow an art book. Also,  some time ago, one of them confessed to me that when they see a new book I've requested for purchase, they put a hold on it so they can be next in line to read it. This just cracks me up. Maybe I should start charging a finders fee?

Watching:

Let's see...Well since traditionally summer has been what I call "TV Wasteland", I tend to watch series I've missed or that friends suggested I see on dvd. So far I've mowed through Weeds (up to the current season which is airing here now), Dead Like Me (which was filmed here in Vancouver) and am currently on season 3 of Six Feet Under. I kind of prefer to watch a series on dvd over watching it when it airs on tv-I can watch it straight through and really enjoy it. Like right now, I am finding the scant 40 minute eps of Weeds on tv annoying. I keep forgetting what happened the week before.

I am also watching Deadliest Catch, Breaking Bad, Auction Hunters, Rookie Blue and Canada Sings. (Canada Sings is really fun. It's like a Glee game show.)

Listening:

I've mainly been playing the monster collection of tracks by James Taylor that I have on my iTunes. I haven't purchased any new music for awhile. I'm waiting for Zaac Pick to release the new song he's been working on. They played it on the radio last week for the first time, but unfortunately, I missed it because I drove into an underground parking lot and lost reception. ARGH!

Anticipating:

I entered a contest for an upcoming event and I'm waiting to find out if I am one of the lucky winners. If so, I will know on Friday. It's for an adventure I'd really, really like to have. *fingers crossed*

Dreaming:

Of Autumn. Is it here yet?!? I cannot wait!