Archive for the Category ◊ Art ◊

26 Feb 2010 Toronto Art Expo: The Photos
 |  Category: Art, Out + About  | Leave a Comment

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Just a few for now…

whirling dervishes

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25 Feb 2010 Toronto Art Expo: The Videos

It was a full evening of art at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Thursday night after work. I didn’t really have a clue what I was attending, since all I got was a text message from Natalia a few days ago which consisted of a jumble of words: “free tickets art exhibit Thursday” and that’s all it took for me to say yes.

The official website: http://www.torontoartexpo.com/

I’m still working through the photos, but here are the 30-second videoclips I shot of the Korean Salmunori dance and drum group Jeng Yi and the whirling dervishes from Turkey at the opening night of the Toronto Art Expo:

I spent most of the evening staked out in the front row so I could shoot the whirling dervishes up close. I only brought my 50mm f/1.8 lens with me, not the zoom, because I didn’t have a press pass and usually art events discourage photography. I didn’t want to attract attention to myself.

I also grabbed some brochures about Turkey from their table near the entrance. What helps me to plan trips is to use the tourist brochures as a guide for distances and timing between cities. There are lots of maps for orientation and the descriptions about each city are useful, too. And, of course, it’s all free!

17 Feb 2010 Atlanta’s Noguchi Playscape
 |  Category: Art, USA  | Leave a Comment

designer playground

From the Piedmont Park website:

The Noguchi Playscape, located near the 12th Street Gate, was designed by world-renown artist and sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904 – 1988), under the aegis of the High Museum and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Completed in 1976, Playscapes is the only Noguchi-designed playground completed in his lifetime. Noguchi playgrounds are aspects of what he called “the sculpture of spaces”, intended to make sculpture a useful part of everyday life. Piedmont Park’s Playscapes familiarizes children with shapes, colors and textures.

designer playground

Is that not the wackiest swing you’ve ever seen? As soon as I saw the slide, I wanted to take photos around the playground. I love to see art in everyday function.

I have so many stories about Atlanta to tell (all good), but I need to catch up on sleep first…

14 May 2009 Trans 1 Graffiti
 |  Category: Art, Other Photogs  | 3 Comments

Trans1 - Aero-soldier.... 2008
Trans1 – Aero-soldier…. 2008 by TRANS 1

I came across TRANS 1’s Flickr photostream by accident and I am just blown away by his work. The eyes in his graffiti are mesmerizing. Check it out!

10 Apr 2009 Community Art Memorial: Presence of Absence
 |  Category: Art, Loss, Toronto  | Leave a Comment

Participate in creating a memorial — honour deceased family members and friends.

Click here to add a name to BFO-Toronto’s Community Art Memorial:

http://www.communityartmemorial.com/

Deadline: April 14th

Anyone can participate and you may add names as often as you wish. Please share with friends, family, networks.

http://www.bfotoronto.ca/images/presence.gif

Artist Robin Pacific Makes “The Presence of Absence” Felt — Interactively Online, Broadcast from Downtown Toronto Video Billboards, at Two Indoor Exhibitions, and from an Outdoor Projection Exhibition

Robin Pacific’s latest public art project, The Presence of Absence, creates an ongoing shared urban experience of communal mourning. Using downtown video billboards, a publicly interactive web site, and three public exhibitions, The Presence of Absence combines art and new technology to knit the city back together through our shared losses. It aims to re-invent the social mourning that our culture has relinquished.

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10 Nov 2008 My Photos At Large
 |  Category: Art, Linkage, Photography  | 2 Comments

I have “All Rights Reserved” on all my online photos, which I’m sure gets ignored and abused without my knowledge (it’s the internet, after all). The last time I reminded someone to provide attribution for my photos that he used without asking, he deleted the entire post in a huff. A completely unwarranted huff, since he didn’t even link back to my sites — he’d just downloaded my photos and posted them!

Depending on what people use it for, I usually say yes if it’s for charity/asked nicely/assured proper attribution (name/link back) because I am generally a sharing type of person. I’ve considered a Creative Commons license in the past for my point-and-shoot photos, but surprisingly I’ve sold p&s photos and I don’t want to take the extra time to use different categories — it’s easier just to use one!

Here are a couple of positive examples, where I was happy to share and reciprocate in giving credit:

(I was planning to post this at Halloween, but I completely forgot…)

Burningbliss asked to remix my photo of Alberto.

Fotofyoog: Gail at Large's "Bravo Alberto!"
Fotofyoog: Gail at Large’s "Bravo Alberto!" by burningbliss

His description:

Part of my collaborative “Fotofyoog” Project (see set). The original photo came from Gail at Large – her photo titled “BRAVO ALBERTO!” Thanks “Gail” for such a wonderful photo to play with! =) And yes…the split, creepy monster, outer-image was also manipulated from Gail’s original pixels (if you look at the details you will see that both the “good” and the “evil” images were created from the exact same original photo).

Here’s the link to the comparison photo.

In other news, one of my 2006 film photos of a likeness of Stanley Segalla, the Flying Farmer, accompanied an article written about the man. It’s funny because I have photos of Segalla in the flesh, but the cut-out made the grade…

Two and a half years ago Stanley Segalla, then 81, flew from his home in Connecticut to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in upstate New York on very short notice to help me scatter David’s ashes on his birthday when we couldn’t get the biplane that day. I’ve written more about Stanley Segalla here.

The author of the article, John Cilio, sent me the PDF last month, which you can open up and read here. (PDF posted with permission.) I just found the online version here — it was published in the November issue of the Atlantic Flyer.

It’s the end of an era for Segalla — he flew his last Flying Farmer routine at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in the closing weekend last month. He’s following the sun and moving full-time to Florida for his other business, where he teaches aerobatic flying in the winters. Even at 83, the man’s still working but at least he won’t be commuting back and forth from Connecticut!

09 May 2008 Happy Mother’s Day Weekend: The March of Dimes
 |  Category: Art, Volunteering/Charity  | 3 Comments

Happy Mother's Day weekend

My tote bag with a design by Keet Leibowitz* (aka Relentlesstoil) arrived yesterday, much to my delight. It’s part of a campaign to fundraise for the March of Dimes.

The March of Dimes is an nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. The March of Dimes also works with partner agencies to improve the health of infants and mothers worldwide. They’ve been around a long time, starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s crusade to beat polio.

Mother’s Day is this weekend in many countries (March for the UK, and throughout the year for other countries), please consider a donation to the March of Dimes or a similar charity supporting family health in your area.

* Keet also illustrated my aviator print from Siobhan.

31 Jan 2008 BEST PRESENT EVER!
 |  Category: Acts of Kindness, Art, Aviation, Gail at Large  | One Comment

BEST PRESENT EVER!

(I ruined my own surprise today, by accident. More on this in a bit.)

Thank you, Siobhan! I’m sorry Canada Post took so long to deliver it, but it is no less appreciated and it’s still a happy surprise!

Illustration by Relentlesstoil.

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16 Oct 2007 Heritage Vancouver: A Call For Artists
 |  Category: Art, Photography, Vancouver  | Leave a Comment

This email languished in my inbox for nearly two weeks, and I hadn’t given it a second look until today:

Hello

Below is a link to a Call for Artists for an exhibition Heritage Vancouver is hosting to coincide with their Annual General Meeting on October 18th at the Vancouver Museum.

Vancouver Arts & Culture Forum: Call to Artists

To get things started we have created an on-line gallery of art inspired by the Burrard Street Bridge. One of your works has been included in the gallery to provide an example to show how each work of art can be displayed on line and linked to the artist’s web site.

Heritage Vancouver: Burrard Street Bridge Online Gallery

If you would like to show or sell any of your work related to this theme at the exhibition, add more art work on the theme to the on-line gallery, or if you would like to have your work removed, please let us know. Also, if you know of other artists who may wish to participate, please feel free to forward this message.

Thank you

Janet Leduc, Heritage Vancouver and Roger Chilton, Vancouver Arts and Cultures Forum

The photo they used for the online gallery of art inspired by the Burrard Street Bridge is this one:

Burrard Bridge 6/9

One of my favourite photos, I shot it more than two years ago with the Canon A80. Not bad for a point-and-shoot. It’s the third piece from the left, and one of the few photos in their online gallery.

The AGM for Heritage Vancouver is the day after tomorrow so this is probably too late, but hey, it’s worth submitting your art if you can.

27 Sep 2007 Both Owlmen Loved the Same Cat
 |  Category: Art, House of Fielding  | One Comment

Both Owlmen Loved the Same Cat

View larger.

I was tidying up my attic flat when I came across this. I really need to frame it before it gets lost (again) in the paper abyss that is my spare room.

I’d like to think of this as the House of Fielding, when there were three of us.

Illustration by Socar J. Myles
www.gorblimey.com