Stickin' Ideas Together

Hello art friends; Last night ArtsAlly hosted its public launch in the Grand Ballroom at the Vancouver Club. The very blurry photo above is of Michelle Martin, a founder of the ArtsAlly, standing beside yours truly. It was a well attended event directed at business professionals in our community advising them of this company's art rental option. This service is an affordable option that empowers businesses to support the local artist community while avoiding the higher cost and commitment of purchasing art. And of course, any option that excludes mass-produced prints must be a good one : ) I'm glad to be part of this new addition to the Vancouver art world; I wish all of us success in this collective endeavour.

It all started back in the Spring… I was contact by a start-up online option to buying and renting art. No fees up front. Standard commission. I joined.  ArtsAlly.com  officially launched last month. Today I received a few txts from friends congratulating me on my up & coming "hot, local artist" status. Turns out vancitybuz z featured the site and all its artists…including yours truly (#17)! Needless to say I'M PRETTY PUMPED ABOUT THAT.  Please give it a read & pass the sets to your pals. Cheers ArtAlly; I wish you a successful life! OK, I gotta go now and start making more great art. Hopefully I'll move up to #1 ; ) Keep creating! ~ Kathryn

You bet! Welcome to the world of renown fabric artist  Tilleke Schwarz . In her own words, this is what Tilleke says about her work: My work is a mixture of graphic quality, content and fooling around. The humor in my work is typical for my Jewish background: a mixture of a laugh and a tear. Folk art and daily life are great sources for inspiration. I use mixed media with a focus on hand embroidery on linen and on drawings and paintings.  My work can be understood as a kind of visual poetry. It is a mixture of contemporary influences, graffiti, icons, texts and traditional images from samplers. And of course cats are usually included. The embroidery contains narrative elements. Not really complete stories, with a beginning, a storyline, and an end. On the contrary, the narrative structures are used as a form of communication with the viewer. I am thrilled to be attending a lecture by Tilleke on September 30th, here in Vancouver courtesy of the Maiwa Symposium on Granville Isla

This past Sat we went to an opening reception for an art school colleague of Barry's.  Tim Okamura  is by far the coolest artist, in person and product, I have met. Tim's showing briefly at the  Douglas Udell Gallery , Vancouver. His dynamic urban style, more-real-than-life subject matter and master skills rocketed the energy meter off the scales Sat night. And as of mid-way through the opening, almost everything was sold. I have been lost in Tim's Facebook page for a couple of days now drinking in his art. Raw talent? Yes. Relentlessly dedicated to his craft? You bet. He's an inspiration to the modern artist. Create a place for yourself in this world and get excited about it! Be king of your own making.

We had a great time last night! A big thank you for everyone who came out!!

Until the Opening Reception of Delivery! My darling Barry hung the show for me today. And an exceptionally talented writer friend of mine, Vicky Tran , wrote an extensive article about it which she has posted on her blog (dated May 15th). Have a read if you want to learn lots about me, my process & the Delivery collection. Drop by Havana's on the Drive this Sunday, May 18th, between 4 and 7pm for the Opening Reception. Show runs until May 28th. I look forward to seeing you there.

Hello all; I am very pleased to invite you all to my smartened up site. It's just a bit tidier and slimmer. Interestingly so am I. But I digress, please take a look at the ART section. Delivery is being shown from May 15 - 28th at Vancouver's Havana Gallery on Commercial Drive. Drop by for the opening reception on the 18th. Love to see you there!

Tap Plastic's EX-74   is a two-part expo resin finish I have used on my DeLIVEry series. It's relatively easy to use but a bit pricey. The user does not need to be a chemist, but to be successful, one does require to be prepared with proper equipment and dedicated time. The product is only available in the US and needs to be delivered by ground. The couple times I have ordered it I was hit with a hefty customs charge. On the positive side, the product covers a lot of surface. Good bang for the pricey buck. The final finish is very glossy, like glass. The reflective quality of the epoxy provides a depth to the collaged layers which makes visible the hidden gems within my paintings and lets the colours sing. I appreciate how the epoxy seals in all the textural elements of my work. The distressed and torn edges within each piece appear precious. Tap Plastics has efficient and helpful on-line customer service. I have emailed many user-related questions and heard back each

Before I immersed myself back into Delivery, I was experimenting with some laser colour prints of photos I'd taken on my iPhone. I printed a series of six images, on card stock, of my daughter twirling with abandon (as only children can) and gazed at them lovingly. My next thought was, "now what?" So I did what came naturally, I took out my trusty sewing machine and ran a few lines up them. I ended up with two sets of three large colour copies haphazardly stitched up.  My next thought was, "now what? " So I did what came naturally, I took out some zinc white acrylic paint & splashed it about. You guessed it, I didn't immediately know what to do next, but I figured it out with some white titanium and plastic stencils. In case you didn't know this, zinc white is a translucent acrylic where as tit white is opaque. Lots of fun and creative layers can be accomplished playing those two opacities off of each other. I then pulled out a

Hello art friends; Once again I am dumbfounded by the speed at which time travels. It's already March of the "new year". Good news is I am showing a rebirth of my Delivery series at the end of May in Havana's gallery on Commercial Drive and I am ready for it (in spite of time's trickiness). Since the arrival of 2014, I have been birthing additional paintings to add to this series. These little babies will easily fit into your home and are easy on your wallet too. Here's a sneak peak of them in-progress. I'll keep you posted on the show too so you can drop by!