chelsea lawrick

RAW WORKS 3

2012-01-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

Curated and put together by

Dena Lazarenko and Bullys Studios

Featuring artwork by:

Dena Lazarenko

Aaron Davidson

Leanne Carmichael

Gordie Scott

John Sayer

Jason Spencer

Ryanne Easley

Jordan Holms

Mat Vass

Mike Hannay

Taylor Ferguson

Severn Bowen

Shane Hunt

Chelsea Lawrick

Andres SalaZ

Francesca Andreis

Sean Clarke

Musical entertainment featuring

Adam Grant & Tyler Maynard

Evan Joel & Mat Vass

Johnny

Andrew Carey & Sean Clarke

$5 at the door

If You Make Art in A Forest..

2012-01-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

This post is long over due, but better late than never! November 26 marked the one night only event that was If You Make Art in a Forest.. put on by NoMass Gallery at 196 Kingsway. Here are some images I took with my iphone of my pieces in the show, accompanied by artist statements and a video put together by MGA|MTK. I was especially excited about showing Trophies as it was my newest wallpaper piece and it was making it's "debut appearance" (haha)
I've shared two of these before but with the addition of the new one and the small prints, I've included all the artist statements near the bottom of the post to tie the ideas of the wallpaper series together.

Trophies
Chelsea Lawrick
5ft x 5ft
Digital print on paper
wood frame

17"x22" silkscreen prints I made for the show of
Trophies and Romantic Wallpaper

6 and Counting
Chelsea Lawrick
8.5 ft X 6 ft
silkscreen on paper
found chair

Romantic Wallpaper
Chelsea Lawrick
6.5ft x 5ft
silkscreen on paper
wood frame

If You Make Art in a Forest… Statement

Wallpaper to me is something that people, upon entering a room, would not initially notice. Wallpaper is often decorative and a mere feature of the room, not to be paid attention to the same way a framed photograph or painting is on display to be gazed at. This idea is integral to the way my three works in If You Make Art In A Forest… are interpreted. Within the wallpaper are images that are confronting issues (with regards to Romantic Wallpaper and 6 and Counting) and observations (Trophies) about ourselves and society that normally go unnoticed.
I call upon the viewer to take into consideration the way they themselves fit into my works and where their position in these issues and observations lie. The works exist in their entirety to create the moment of self reflection between the viewer and the works in regards to the subject matter the works deal with individually.

Artist Statement for Trophies

Trophies explores the relationship that exists between humans and animals. I am interested in the way we consider ourselves, as humans, so far removed from our primal instincts that we are no longer animals in our own minds. I am intrigued by the notion that although we may separate ourselves from the primal natures of animals, unknowingly people are participating in the very primal notions they dismiss.

My comparison in this wallpaper is between the obvious dead bird: the trophy of the kill that the housecat would bring in to show their ‘owner’, contrasted with the hidden taxidermy deer heads: the remnants of the kill a human would bring home to proudly display. We are not as different from animals as we think.

This wallpaper was constructed entirely of animal parts – in addition to the bird and deer, the rest of the pattern is made from photographs of a horse spine.

Artist Statement for 6 and Counting

In this wallpaper, I have used the faces of 6 of the young men who were highly publicized in the media for committing suicide in the US during the month of September 2010 (amongst others, and certainly amongst many outside of this month) for being victims of homophobic bullying. The chair has dual purpose: the idea is that a person could sit in the chair, and once sitting, is facing away from the wallpaper (away from the young men whose victimization was ignored). It could also put someone in the empty spaces in the wallpaper, as in they too are victimized. When the chair is empty, however, it can speak to the loss we have experienced of these young men due to senseless, ignorant bullying.

Artist Statement for Romantic Wallpaper

I created this wallpaper as a response to a type of homophobia that is not as blatant as the sorts that are publicized in the newspapers and the like – a kind of homophobia where people barely recognize that they are homophobic.

I believe that many people can recognize the steps we are slowly taking towards a much needed social revolution, and that to be told they are working against it (to be called homophobic) is a quality that no longer possesses any respectful attributes.
In other words, a sort of silent homophobia has been born. I’ve heard many people talk about the LGBT community and say something along the lines of “I don’t care what they do, just don’t do it in front of me.” To me, this aligns with the notion of “if I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” These are very often the same people who claim they are accepting of everyone and certainly not homophobic, yet cringe when a gay couple kisses on television.

Placing images of gay couples kissing within the framework of a familiar wallpaper pattern – which could almost make the images blend into the wallpaper – was done as a response to that silent homophobia. The idea is that people can sit in front of the wallpaper and go on with their lives as though something that bothers them doesn’t exist.

NoMass Gallery Event from MTA|MGK on Vimeo.

Trophies

2011-12-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

They are iphone photos but I am eager to share these! I will be replacing them with better photographs soon.

To make a long statement short, I am using painting to point out similarities between animal and human behaviours. In particular, those of collecting, hunting and the pride associated with each. Regardless of how far removed we believe we are from our primal instincts, humans are still animals, and still act like animals no matter how far away from these instincts we consider ourselves to be in the name of a civilized society. (and hey, that's okay)

Chelsea Lawrick

Collecting Mice

30" X 48"

oil & spraypaint on wood

Chelsea Lawrick

Look What the Cat Dragged In

~30" X 52"

oil on wood, with spray paint on the wall behind

Chelsea Lawrick

Deer Trophy 2

30" X 48"

oil on wood

Chelsea Lawrick

There's an Animal on my Wall

oil on canvas

Chelsea Lawrick
Look What Father Brought Home

48" X 60"

oil on canvas

Chelsea Lawrick

Untitled (for now)

48" X 60"

oil on canvas

Victim

2011-12-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

In these two images I have digitally layered photographs of the twenty-six women Robert William “Willie” Pickton is being accused of (already charged for, in some cases) murdering. In Victim 1, I have created one face – a face of a woman who has never and will never exist. I am interested in the effects mass dissemination has on the meaning of an image. The work is meant to comment on and critique the over use of images, the notion of the icon, and the loss of meaning and identity through this mass dissemination of their images in groups (illustrated by Victim 2).

The identity of the actual women who were murdered has been lost, and instead their images have become a stand in for the murders themselves and for William Pickton. When we as viewers see their faces we probably think of Pickton before we think of who these women actually were as individuals. In the media, they are no longer their own person but rather a collective Victim, almost a Jane Doe.

Victim 1

Chelsea Lawrick

Digital Print

Victim 2 (Missing)

Chelsea Lawrick

Digital Print

INVITE: If You Make Art In A Forest...

2011-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to be a part of an upcoming exhibition and silent auction called If You Make Art In A Forest... It's happening Saturday November 26 at 196 Kingsway. I've said it before and I've said it again, I.Love.This.Space. I will be showing three installations and will have accompanying silkscreen prints for two of them for the silent auction. Hope you can make it for this one night only event put on by NoMass Gallery, a new pop up gallery in Vancouver!

Opening night schedule:
4pm. Opening Reception
5pm. Artist Talk: Michael Nicoll Yahgulaanas
6pm. Dance: Kirsten Wicklund
7pm. DJ: Thomas Maxey

Contributive Admission is $5 and includes a drink :)

Hope to see you there!

Big Little Art Show

2011-11-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

Upcoming show and sale at Kwantlen University Surrey Campus that I helped organize. Check it out if you're around next week!

Look What Father Brought Home

2011-11-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Lawrick

Look What Father Brought Home

oil on canvas

I think I'm going to take this smaller painting I recently finished and make it into a 5' x 4' painting soon :)

The Space in Between: Opening Night

2011-10-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

The opening night of The Space in Between happened last Friday October 7th at 196 Kingsway in Vancouver. It was a really great evening with a lot of amazing art. By the end of the night the curator Keith Cunningham estimates we had between 500-600 guests through the door - fantastic! The room was buzzing with excitement as people chatted, sipped yummy wine and looked at the artwork.

me and my paintings

The show is still up until November 5th and the gallery is open from 11am-4pm Tuesday-Saturday.

(photos by Andres Salaz)

Anna Marie Repstock's painting (i looove this piece)

INVITE: The Space In Between

2011-10-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

The opening night for The Space in Between, an art exhibition and sale, is this Friday October 7 from 5pm-8pm. The exhibition is put on by Atta Glanz Productions and Emmanuelle Renard. I love love love the venue - I volunteered there for the Cheaper Show this summer and am really excited to be back in there this weekend. At the corner of East 10th and Kingsway, come check it out for yourself. I have three paintings in the exhibition - hope to see you there!

Curators Statement: Twenty-six local artists have been asked to interpret the concept of The Space In Between. The resulting works are intriguing, poignant and, at times, amusing. Concepts of stability, permanence and static reality as it relates to growth, evolution, erosion, accumulation and processes that generally go unnoticed and /or undocumented are interpreted both from a physical viewpoint and a metaphorical perspective.

Opening Night: Fri Oct. 7 5-8pm

Gallery hours: 11am-5pm Tues-Sat until Nov.5

196 Kingsway (Corner of E.10 & Kingsway)

Connecting the Dots at Five Sixty

2011-10-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

Connecting the Dots was last night at Club Five Sixty in Vancouver as part of Culture Days BC. I had never been in the venue before installation, and gosh was it ever fantastic. It was much larger than you would anticipate when you see it from the street. There were some really amazing art works and great performances. I am really glad I was able to be a part of this event!

me and my piece Romantic Wallpaper
silkscreen on paper
(photo by JT Benjaminsen)

I've shown this work a couple times before, each time in a different presentation - this framed version is by far my favourite.

Artist Statement for Romantic Wallpaper

I created this wallpaper as a response to a type of homophobia that is not as blatant as the sorts that are publicized in the newspapers and the like – a kind of homophobia where people barely recognize that they are homophobic.

I believe that many people can recognize the steps we are slowly taking towards a much needed social revolution, and that to be told they are working against it (to be called homophobic) is a quality that no longer possesses any respectful attributes.

In other words, a sort of silent homophobia has been born. I’ve heard many people talk about the LGBT community and say something along the lines of “I don’t care what they do, just don’t do it in front of me.” To me, this aligns with the notion of “if I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” These are very often the same people who claim they are accepting of everyone and certainly not homophobic, yet cringe when a gay couple kisses on television.

Placing images of gay couples kissing within the framework of a familiar wallpaper pattern – which could almost make the images blend into the wallpaper – was done as a response to that silent homophobia. The idea is that people can sit in front of the wallpaper and go on with their lives as though something that bothers them doesn’t exist.

Connecting the Dots for Culture Days BC

2011-09-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Culture Days is a celebration of arts and culture happening not only in Vancouver but also in many other cities throughout Canada. I'm pleased to be exhibiting a piece at the upcoming exhibition Connecting the Dots held at Five Sixty Club during Culture Days BC (October 1 & 2, 2011). Rather than having an opening, there will be a closing soiree with live music and performances. For more information about the event, check out the image below.

For more information about Culture Days, check out this link.

Global Echo: Australia

2011-09-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Another Global Echo exhibition has taken place! This time, in Perth, Australia at the BEAUTIFUL new Spectrum Project Space at Edith Cowan University. It ran from August 5 - 24. The exhibition looked fantastic, it was nice to see work from Kwantlen up there as well as work I recognized from faculty and students I worked with last fall in England. Have I mentioned how beautiful their space is? Love it.

a nice shot of the space

wall shot with some of Kwantlen's work

(left): Paulo Majano (top):Ana Black (bottom):Chelsea Lawrick

(Photos by Maggie Tang at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia)

More photos of the opening by Maggie Tang

Link to the event information

PAPERGIRL Vancouver

2011-08-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Papergirl: The art of sharing art. The idea behind this is that people submit art they have made, and it is given to the public at random and for free by cyclists who have volunteered their time. The beauty behind this is that it may be the random person's first piece of art they have ever received - and it was for free! Everyone deserves art. The whole event questions the value of art and the value of giving. It has happened in many cities worldwide but this week greets the first Papergirl ever in Vancouver, BC.

A friend and I looked through some prints and chose a few to send in. The work is on display at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre this week (August 22-26) and the opening is tomorrow! They received almost 600 pieces of art! Afterwards, the cyclists will set to the streets to hand out the artwork to strangers (on an unannounced path, of course!)

Opening Party: August 23 7pm-930pm

To read more about Papergirl check out their blog here.

Pentimento Gallery (Toronto): Opening tonight!

2011-08-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight's the opening day for the Home Girls show at Pentimento Gallery in Toronto. I mailed in my piece last week and it arrived just in time (phew). I'm dissapointed I can't make it to the opening what with me being in British Columbia and all, but I'm still thrilled to have work in the show to begin with.

I'll post pictures when I receive them from the gallery!

ARTspace Ontario

2011-07-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

I came across this call for submissions a week or so ago: ARTspace, a community initiative of the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham, Ontario is hosting an International Print Exchange - people all over the world are invited to submit an edition of 10 prints made specifically for this exchange. One will be exhibited at the Thames Art Gallery and put up for sale - the others will be sent out to people who have submitted to the show themselves. So basically, send in 10 of your own, get back 10 new prints!

This was a cool opportunity to have work shown out east as well as a good excuse to get myself into the studio after weeks of working the ol' 9-5. It felt good! A little rushed, but here's what I came up with last night. They are probably the smallest prints I've ever done, but to stick with the guidelines the images are 3.5"x5". Tiny and lovely.

The show runs August 10 - September 17 and the opening reception is on August 11. I can't wait to see what comes back to me in the mail, I'll definitely be putting pictures of those up when I get them.

ARTspace

165 1/2 King Street West

Chatham, Ontario

N7M 1E4

ARTspace Website

ARTS 2011: Opening Night Photos

2011-06-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

ARTS 2011 is an annual juried exhibition of art made by people living and/or working in Surrey, BC. It is happening right now at the Surrey Art Gallery until August 21st. The opening night saw a good attendance and I met some great people! It was an awesome, art filled weekend - first this show, then Saturday night I spent my evening volunteering at the Cheaper Show. Nothing better than a weekend full of art. I was happy to be accepted into the ARTS 2011 exhibition and receive an honourable mention award. Here are some photos from the show:

Paula Parkman
Layered Landscape
painting on maps

Meghan T. Carich
Spirits of Light
leather

Sean Mills
Untitled
acrylic on wood panel

Stephen Welther
September 11
stone

Chelsea Lawrick
Your Mundane Life is Killing Me
silkscreen on paper

Brenda Peacock
Untitled 2
encaustic/mixed media

Deborah Morriss
Twins
ink and oil stick
(sorry for the bad photo!)

Me and my piece

(Left) Mark Lubich
Crayola # 2
fused glass

(right) Robert Gary Parkes
Blossoms in Gold Platter
blown glass

Jordan Strom, Curator of Exhibitions at the SAG,
and myself with my piece in the show

Global Echo: First Exhibition

2011-06-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

I posted a while back about Global Echo and what I was doing to facilitate it at Kwantlen University. I was excited to find out today that the first show has happened at The Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead, United Kingdom, with our prints included. I can't wait to see the photos, and I'll definitely post them when I receive them.

Here's the invite that was circulated:

Related posts:
Global Echo: International Artists in Print

8 weeks of painting

2011-06-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

The semester is coming to a close.. thankfully this is the last time I will ever need to think about taking three condensed courses in one semester. It was a good term though - I just finished the last of my paintings for our Landscape painting class. I didn't want to paint traditional landscapes so I opted for something I've been interested in for a while now but never had the chance to complete a small body of work with it. I have been thinking a lot lately about the way humans and animals are so similar. I wanted to paint animal heads as trophies of domination and representation of the hunt. I won't say too much about that right now though - on to the images..

bloody freezer
oil on panel 4ft x 3ft

oil on canvas, each 24" x 30"

wild cat
oil on canvas 24" x 36"
(already posted this but I wanted to put it in context)

oil on canvas, 4ft x 3ft

raw
oil on panel, 22" x 35"

Invite: ARTS 2011

2011-06-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

The Arts Council of Surrey partners with the Surrey Art Gallery every year to create their juried ARTS exhibition comprised of local artists from the Surrey area. The works were seperated into catagories: paintings - works on canvas, paintings - works on paper; drawing, mixed media & printmaking; 3-D works & fibre arts, and photography & new media.

The silkscreen I submitted for jurying was selected for the exhibition, and I'll be receiving the honourable mention award. I'm so excited for this! I love the gallery and I am so happy to be a part of the show.

Opening Night: June 24th at 7pm

Exhibition is open June 25 - August 21

Surrey Art Gallery

13750 88th avenue, Surrey.

Hope you can make it!

Psychologically There: Opening night

2011-06-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

WOW. What a night. The Surreyalists Collective has been working tirelessly to get ready for the opening night of their first big show, Psychologically There. It happened last Friday, June 3 in Gastown-- one of my fave areas of Vancouver. The show consisted of 13 artworks, lots of conversation and many more people than I expected (the little pessimist in me was imagining 10 people through the door... boy was I pleasantly surprised!) We pulled this thing together so well I am so proud of everyone and what we can do when we put our minds to it! I was so happy to see so many people out supporting local emerging art and so glad to reconnect with people I haven't seen in a while. Okay, enough cheese... on with the photos!

a shot of half the gallery with a portion of Shelly's work

We told you we had buttons!

Eric & Rhea

Matt & Melissa

Alan Canning
Technological Spaces

Shelly Leroux
My Mobile Landscape

Andres Salaz
Unfamiliar Recollection of the
Unforseen Past

Chelsea Lawrick
Choke

Robert Kovacic
Empress Hotel - 1912

Cody Lecoy
Psycho Logic

Rhea Paez
30 seconds, Untitled

Bri Harrison
Intrusion

Debbie Langtry
Entwined

Roxanne Charles
Dis-con-nect

Elizabeth Anderson
Slippage

Gunilla Kay
Freedom

Daryl Markiewicz
Biological Biomorphics

Thank you again to everyone who helped out and came out to see the art! Everyone made the show a huge success! It's up until this Thursday if anyone missed it and would like to check it out, noon-7.

For more about the Surreyalist Collective, check out www.surreyalists.com

PSYCHOLOGICALLY THERE

2011-05-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

Upcoming show:

Work by:

Andres Salaz

Alan Canning

Bri Harrison

Chelsea Lawrick

Cody Lecoy

Daryl Markiewicz

Debbie Langtry

Elizabeth Anderson

Gunilla Kay

Rhea Paez

Robert Kovacic

Roxanne Charles

Shelly Leroux

Come out for a night of art and happiness. Free appys and cheap drinks!

In the meantime, I'm off to SASQUATCH music festival in Washington. Panic shall ensue upon return. Planning a show is more work than I expected. Looking forward to the night when it all falls into place. Mark it on your calender friends!

mountain lion

2011-05-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Lawrick
"Wild Cat"
Oil on panel

oh hello deer

2011-05-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Lawrick
"Deer"
oil on canvas, 20X26"

New painting! A continuation of my freezer painting my legs and yours (2010) that I've decided to turn into a body of work. I've managed to turn the theme of a class called Landscape Painting into painting taxidermy animals and freezers. I love flexibility.

New Work

2011-04-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well the studios are empty at school which means it is my favourite time to be in there,... so here are a couple prints I've made in the past week. I love an empty studio. So much room to work. They're not the best photos as I took them on my iphone, but they work.

Chelsea Lawrick "I Don't Have Any Secrets"
Silkscreen on Paper
11"x17"

I have been doing a lot of work involving secrets over the last year. For the print "I Don't Have Any Secrets" I used secrets that people submitted through my project "Sharing Secrets". I'm really into this whole one project becomes another that becomes another sort of thing lately.

Chelsea Lawrick "Your Mundane Life is Killing Me"
Silkscreen on Paper
~ 11"X17"

Speaking of which, I decided to turn a drawing I did in England into a four colour separation silkscreen. The colours turned out really funky, an interesting twist on the original drawing.

I'm looking forward to more empty studio time, as the summer semester only has one print making course going on. Gotta love summer :)

Global Echo - International Artists in Print

2011-04-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, today was the day. If you haven't heard about Global Echo yet - I'll do a quick debrief. When I went on exchange to England this past Fall I attended the University of Central Lancashire. While there, I sort of found my niche in their print making department. They had this poster on the wall asking for submissions for prints - I asked my instructor more about it and thought it would be great to get Kwantlen involved as a partner.

In a nutshell, it is an international print exchange and exhibition opportunity. Schools in England, Australia, USA amongst others have agreed to partner with one another and send each other prints from students and faculty at their schools. The prints then become a part of the universities collections and also are curated to form a show at each institution. Today was the deadline for submissions to the print exchange, and I was so happy with the submissions! I spent all day packing them up for shipping, I am exhausted but it was worth it. I can't wait to see what other schools send us..

I hope to organize the show of the prints from other schools during the fall 2011/spring 2012 year at the Kwantlen Art Gallery. Great job to everyone who submitted.. I'm very excited about this!

Ai Weiwei: Deleted from the Internet

2011-04-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Chinese government detained Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei last week. His wife said she still has no idea where he is and that he is in poor health. Twitter is full of #AiWeiwei tags as people express their concern and demand his release. The United States has called to the Chinese government to release Weiwei. State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said, "The detention of artist and activist Ai Weiwei is inconsistent with the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens, including China's commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we urge the Chinese government to release him immediately." (Suzanne Presto, VOA News)

This is such a sad state of affairs and the world has really amazed me with the speed in which people have jumped on board to help spread the word about this mistreatment.

In addition to his detainment, it has now been reported that the Chinese government has completely erased Weiwei's existence from any Chinese internet network.

Please, do your part for this amazing artist. Make his presence on the internet known. Blog about him, write about it, do anything you can. Social networking has shown us how much power it really puts in our hands. And very importantly, fill out this short form to send a letter to the Chinese government demanding the release of Ai Weiwei.

I had the pleasure of seeing Ai Weiwei's work at the Tate Modern in London this past winter and I am outraged by this robbing of Ai Weiwei's free speech and human rights. Please send off the form and spread the word.

LINK: PETITION TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF AI WEIWEI

STRETCH OF ROAD

2011-04-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 25th marked the date of Kwantlen University's year end show (although not really 'year end'.. still a month left y'know!) at the Cloverdale campus of Kwantlen. I have to say, the show was a great time. It felt like this year was a lot busier than last year and a lot better presented. The space has definitely evolved since last year, with the addition of small walls, new paint and a beautiful video projector in its own room. We use the space as 4th year studio space during the year, and then it's tidied up at the end and used for the show.

Jasmin Nguyen receiving the Margaretha Bootsma Award

Along with the show itself, we all await it impatiently for the awards portion of the show. This year we had the addition of the Margaretha Bootsma Award and the Linda Schwartz Endowment Award to accompany the yearly Faculty Choice Awards. The first two are third and fourth year awards that are applied for with application packages and portfolios and selected by faculty. Faculty Choice awards are selected based on individual works in the year end show.

Sibeal Foyle congratulating Cody Lecoy

Linda Schwartz used to be the Dean of Humanities at Kwantlen University and assisted in creating the new BFA.(Thank you Linda!!) I was pleased to be the recipient of this new award. Margaretha Bootsma was a much loved faculty member and practicing artist who recently passed away. Her husband presented the award to Jasmin Ngyuen. The Faculty Choice Awards went to Debbie Langtry, Daryl Markiewicz, Kenny Chui, Elizabeth Anderson and Tara Hallquist. Also mentioned was Cody Lecoy's recent win of, aside from a monetary award, a year of mentorship from renowned Canadian Coast Salish artist Lawrence Paul Yuxwelputun. At the end of this year long mentorship, he will be hanging a painting at the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). What an amazing award!

(left) Kenny Chui, Daryl Markiewicz, Elizabeth Anderson,
Debbie Langtry and Tara Hallquist being awarded
the Faculty Choice Awards from Nancy Duff

Andres Salaz pretty much never ceases to amaze me. I was discussing some artwork with a friend from work when she says "wow that guy is going crazy on those bananas.." and I turn around to see Andres doing his performance piece. He quickly drew a crowd as he gagged on bananas amongst a mess of white makeup and blue dye. I loved watching the reactions of people, some giggling, some just watching and some just in disbelief of what was going on in front of them. I have a video I should post soon. Not your typical Cloverdale evening.

(right) Chelsea Lawrick "Your Mundane Life is Killing Me"
(left) Janine's painting (I need to find out the name of this)

I was happy to have one of my drawings, "Your Mundane Life is Killing Me" included in the show. I made it while I was in England during a life drawing session and brought it back to Canada rolled up in a suitcase. The skeleton and the headless body are to show the physicality of humans without their minds, as though someone is simply existing rather than living.

Rhea Paez "Control" (digital film still).

Maliheh Mandegar "Uncensored"

Jay Cabalu "Popsicles"

Jasmin Nguyen "Intoxicated Lips"

Christopher Snell "Self Discovery"

Chelsea Lawrick "My Legs and Yours"

dancing time. Andres Salaz with his paintings

me and Rhea playing around in front of Andres' paintings

Anthropology of Love came out and played at the show

Daryl Markiwiecz

Cody Lecoy

a good night always ends with dancing

The show covered a nice range of mediums and styles, from sculpture and installation to paintings, painting to performance, with many things in between. I didn't see a lot of print making however, which was a little disappointing (small bump though!) Overall I really did have a great time this year. Cheers to all who made the trek out to Cloverdale!

I will also take this time to mention how much I love jasmine green tea.

But more importantly, the deadline (April 8th) for submissions to Global Echo is coming up fast. Click here to find out more, and let me know if you have any questions. This is an awesome opportunity for any Kwantlen students and faculty who are into print making.

Show Prep and Fundraising

2011-03-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Stretch of Road, Kwantlen University's year end art show, is in two days and the deadlines are moving in quickly! Yesterday we dropped off our work to submit to the show, and of course some last minute touch ups were in order. It was awesome to watch everyone's stuff come in and see the years work in one room! The work that will be put in the show was selected today, and tomorrow is the day for pickup and hanging of chosen work. The suspense is killing me!

The Fine Arts Collective did some fundraising today to put towards an exciting show we are planning for May. I had a nice night with Rhea and Eric baking cookies and getting photography tips from Eric. We managed to pull in more than I expected.. a success I'd say!! :)

Andres doing some last minute touch ups

Rhea finishing up a project

checking out a submission at the exhibition space

cookies!!!

we ate sushi before making cookies :)

YUM!

Alright well that's it for now... everyone come out on Friday! We will be having a 50/50 raffle to raise more money for the show in May. I'll definitely be there taking tons of photos. See you Friday!

EPHEMERA

2011-03-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

We just installed our second show this semester in the Kwantlen Art Gallery last Tuesday. The theme for this show was the ephemeral/temporal. Everyone took the theme a slightly different direction; people chose to use everything from video, sound, performance, melting mediums to things that decay. I decided to make an interactive piece that the viewer engages in.

Chelsea Lawrick "Sharing Secrets" (right) &
the book people took pages from (left)

"Sharing Secrets" is an extension of a project I did last year where I asked people to submit secrets to me anonymously via the Honesty Box application on Facebook. I had a huge response and I loved every minute of that project. For "Sharing Secrets", I used some of the secrets from the previous project and wrote them on paper that went inside of a white box lined with fabric. The idea is that people can enter the gallery, put a secret into the box, and take one of the ones in the box with them when they leave, creating memories and connections with strangers that they will formulate identities for based on this experience of having their secret

The project took an interesting turn after installation. More people than I thought began to interact with it, as when I went back in 2 days later my whole stack of paper was used up. I noticed scrap paper inside the box that I didn't cut. My project is just around the corner of the entrance to the gallery where the guest book is located. People had began to rip off pages from inside the guestbook to submit their secrets to the project. A person who commented in the book wrote that he found it interesting how peoples' need to get their secrets out and participate in the project was so necessary to them that they would destroy something of record, the guestbook. Anyways, I put lots of new paper there so hopefully the book doesn't get destroyed further, but I found that a really awesome turn in the project and people's interactions with it.

Chelsea Lawrick "Sharing Secrets"

I didn't get photos of everyone's work, but below are several more of the pieces in the show:

Kirsten Sedore "Pretty Grenade"

Tara Hallquist "Temporary"

Jay Cabulo "JonBenet Ramsey"

Shannon Nixon "One Wear Washables"
(remains of a performance)

Rhea Paez "Untitled"

Wei Heng Liu "Desire" (film still)

The show is up until This Monday, maybe Tuesday. It's a short show because need to use the plinths for next Friday's "STRETCH OF ROAD" - Kwantlen's annual year end show at the Cloverdale Campus. The opening is this Friday, March 25 from 6pm-9pm. Hope to see you there!

global echo - new deadline

2011-03-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

KWANTLEN print makers:

Kwantlen's Year End Show

2011-03-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

come one, come all!

Commonline

2011-03-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Commonline is an online arts zine that is published from Seattle, Washington. They feature writers and artists around the world, from emerging to established (finding a common line, perhaps? :) ) Lots of great art and writing to see on there.

Visit them here: http://common-line.com/

Check out my work (and a little writing explaining the pieces) on the site: http://common-line.com/search/label/Chelsea%20Lawrick

Time to go clean and study, enjoy the chilly weather!

Public Art Projects

2011-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago we braved the rain to do critiques on our Public Art class's finished projects on the Oberg property. Lots of different themes and different approaches, but it was neat to see how everyone worked their pieces into the property. Thank goodness for rainboots. I had taken photos of everyones work but, thinking I had uploaded all of them already, I cleared my memory card last week - these are the ones I had put on my computer already.

"untitled"
Chelsea Lawrick
oil on canvas, photocopies and light

My idea changed a little bit from my past post about the progress of this one. I started off wanting to hang it from a tree and have two sides to this piece of canvas, but I changed my mind and decided to make a frame for the canvas and back light it. I glued photocopies from an old Vancouver history book onto the back of the canvas and shone light through the back. Seeing as how this is a public art class and we are to think about how this would actually translate into public art in the community, I see this as a prototype for what would be made of several back lit paintings. They would be placed on the walls of places in Vancouver - some in the DTES, some in a random alley, some on the side of a west end hotel - in enough variety of places that people start to wonder what they are doing all over Vancouver. This would (hopefully) raise get the conversation going about women who are marginalized and so easily forgotten in Vancouver. I chose not to title it because I would hope that (in the vision of this turning into a city wide project) that the conversation would start off as not really knowing what is going on, to word of mouth confirmation of the purpose of the paintings - to remind people of the life of the women who have gone missing and those who are still in the position to go missing themselves - the word of mouth part is necessary in order to start real conversation about something, rather than someone just being told what it is about and going on with the rest of their day without really thinking about it.

my painting on the side of Evelyn Oberg's house in Langley

Rhea Paez's boarded up little home within the trees

in the studio with the lights off to show what it would look
like at night. if in an alley, it could also provide a safer
environment for people with the use of light.

Kenny's balloon field :)

Debbie Langtry 's sculpture at the Oberg property. She took images from
Evelyn's home and copied them ontotransparent material inside of frames.

Deanna Welters' wrapped trees

I wish I had photos of everyone else's work - the one time I actually empty my memory card and I somehow didn't upload all the photos! Dang! :( Anyways though, it was a really neat critique and awesome to see what everyone came up with as I didn't really see people working on them as much as we would have seen things progress in, say, the painting studio. :)

TATP @ The Lion's Den Chinatown

2011-02-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday (Feb 17), a group of 4th year visual arts students from SFU hosted a sweet art show, To All Tomorrow's Parties, at the Lion's Den in the Chinatown area of Vancouver to raise some cash money for their upcoming grad show.

The show was a collection of 2D works, installation, film and performance. I had to opportunity to hang a version of my "Romantic Wallpaper". It was a rad night and I got to meet a handful of pretty cool people while checking out some sweet stuff.

I remember going to the Lion's Den a couple years ago for a Halloween party and man, has that place changed. I spoke to the gal who does the leasing for it. Mairin Cooley, and it seems like she has put her heart into making that place look so much better than when I had seen it last. Props, Mairin. The place was packed by the end of the night and the show was great.

Overall? A lovely night.

Live Drawing
Jose Arias
Performance with semi transparent paper, black felts and pens

A Tribute To The First
Mike Patrick
Paint on Wood Panel

Canadian Tiger; Rainbow Fingers; Yuuta; Zebra Milk,
Camilla d'Errico
Prints

(left) Romantic Wallpaper
Chelsea Lawrick
silkscreen on paper

A Tribute to the First
Mike Patrick
paint on panel

oh hey there :)

TO ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES.

happy valentines day :)

2011-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: GLOBAL ECHO

2011-02-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

DEADLINE EXTENDED. more info in the next couple days. <3

If you have any questions, write them in the comment section here with your email and I will reply to you, or just email me Chelsea_Lawrick@hotmail.com <3

FOUND

2011-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

We opened the first of our open studio shows at the Kwantlen Art Gallery last week. This first one is called "FOUND" and is unified through the theme of the vernacular. (the plain, the ordinary) Everyone's work came together really nicely, and I'm thoroughly stoked on all of it. Here are only a few photos of the just under 20 pieces we have in the gallery currently.

This image on the left is of my untitled piece. I did it with the same pattern as my Romantic Wallpaper from a while back. Instead, I used the faces of 6 of the young men who were highly publicized in the media for committing suicide in the US during the month of September 2010 (amongst others, and certainly amongst many outside of this month) for being victims of homophobic bullying. The chair has dual purpose: the idea is that a person could sit in the chair, and once sitting, is facing away from the wallpaper (away from the young men who's victimization was ignored). It could also put someone in the empty spaces in the wallpaper, as in they too are victimized. When the chair is empty, however, it can speak to the loss we have experienced of these young men due to senseless bullying.

Lynette Bosa

Rhea Paez

Kirsten Sedore

Shelly Leroux

painting for Public Art

2011-01-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

Evelyn Oberg has generously donated her large property (complete with education centre, live in artist center [which we hope to take advantage of one day] and massive forest property) to Kwantlen both while she is living on it and once she has passed. Last semester, students from the Performance Art class taught by Ana Gomes went there to do some of their performances (unfortunately I only saw these through Andres' photos, as I wasn't in the country to attend) and this semester we are using it as our installation space for our first Public Art class assignment.

I intend on hanging this long strip of canvas from a tree branch, placing the life size figure of the woman on the ground. On the other side will be pages from a book about the history of Vancouver, with a black silhouette of the same figure at the bottom. (To do with women missing from the DTES, and how we paint this area of our history black and in the past chose to ignore such prominent issues while women suffered)

Anyways, I'm just working on the painting now.. here are some photos of different stages. Missed getting a picture of the first stage which was all blue. Oh and the rest of the canvas is folded behind, it's actually quite long.

2nd layer

3rd layer

Feb 20/11

Note: This project developed into something a little different..same ideas, different look! Will post pictures soon!

we have collected

2011-01-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday we had our first show as a collective at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, B.C. to accompany Kwantlen University's 22nd Awards Show. We had some interesting bumps in the road, like finding out the day we needed to transport the works to the casino that, in order to rent a truck, the person with the credit card is the one who must drive - well, it was impossible to find someone with both on half hours notice, so Sin to the rescue it was! (I should find him on the interwebs somewhere so he sees this!) In the end though, it was a great time. We had some sculpture and drawing but it was mostly paintings of all different scales. Oh, and the dinner was delish!!

The guys figuring out their ties.. I can't remember who was teaching who haha

Elizabeth Anderson

Andres Salaz

yours truly

(Jolene Harrison (left) & Bri Harrison)

Alan Canning

Debbie Langtry

Robert Kovacic

Rhea Paez

Shelly Leroux

Cody Lecoy

We're all pretty much in love.

portfolio

2011-01-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

I'm still going to post about works in progress, adventures and finished projects on here, but for a simplified view of some of my art, I've gotten back into using my old flickr account for an easier view.

www.flickr.com/photos/secretplaces

life as we know it

2011-01-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

Life in Canada is back in full swing. The last four months have been a gigantic learning experience. I learned what it was like to live with others and how to adapt to new studio spaces and ways of working. I learned some things that I can bring back here and continue to work with, as well as things I will not be continuing because I prefer the way I was originally taught. I feel fortunate to have been given this opportunity to learn abroad and also travel at the same time. An experience I would recommend to everyone.

Meanwhile, within four days of being home I got right back into school and work, leaving little time to grieve the loss of my life in England - probably for the best! I'm realizing more has changed in four short months than I could have anticipated, but I'll embrace it with a smile on my face. This year promises a lot of interesting people, enlightening conversations and new experiences. "Cheers" to the future..

untitled parts

2010-12-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

"Untitled Parts"
laser printed images on paper suspended in gelatine within medical urine sample containers

I wanted to create a collection of urine sample containers filled with gelatine, containing images that are forced to interact together and thus create an ambiguous narrative. It is loosely based around the medical system and the body (and my experience with it - there are my own xrays in this), but also intends to draw stories between individual containers as they correlate (or don't) to one another. The gelatine eventually melts when in room temperature and the images will float in a watery fluid. Instead of using silicone which would probably have held for longer, I chose to make this an ephemeral piece - alluding to the body and preservation (or potential lack thereof).

memories of the h(a)unted

2010-12-03T08:25:00.001-08:00

"A Childhood Memory"

16.5" x 24"

silk screen on paper

detail of

"A Childhood Memory"

"Silenced"

approx 16.5" x 19"

silk screen on paper

"Wounded"

16.5" x 24"

silkscreen on paper

Equator Arts Cafe

2010-12-02T14:12:00.001-08:00

I just got home from hanging two prints at the Equator Arts Cafe in Preston, England. Preston friends, get a coffee and have a look for yourselves :)

Tate Modern

2010-11-26T02:51:00.000-08:00

Things have been busy lately.. trying to figure out stuff for next semester while finishing this one, alongside trying to see the world and enjoy my last stretch of time here in England.

Sunflower Seeds, Ai Weiwei

I went to London a few weeks ago and had a walk around the Tate Modern. One of my professors, Dorothy Barenscott (Her blog: Avant-Guardian Musings) posted on her blog about the exhibition Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei so I thought I'd check it out. It was amazing to see in photos but even more breathtaking in person.

Weiwei basically employed a city of people who had not had work in a while to hand paint a hundred million ceramic sunflower seeds for the exhibition. Although without reading about the work it could seem like he was using cheap labour but upon watching the video one can see that the city was very happy to be a part of this work, as they had no work in a long time and this came as a good opportunity for them. The interesting thing about looking at this exhibition was to look at the sunflower seeds (which looked entirely real, by the way) individually, and then back up and see them blend into this mass object that would not be there if each individual seed did not exist.

When the exhibition opened, Weiwei invited people to jump around in them, touch them, hold them, just interact with them, but due to the ceramic dust getting into the air healthy concerns were raised and now viewers are restricted to walking alongside them or viewing them from the next floor up. Either way, it was still great to see! But all I wanted to do was touch one.. probably because I wasn't supposed to, haha. Check out a video about the exhibition here.

Other things I got excited about

In a previous entry ("Tate Liverpool") I wrote about my first encounter with the Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz. She showed up again at my visit to the Tate Modern. These works, titled The Abakans was really interesting.

Massive in size, they were made out of discarded rope threads - Abakanowicz wantd to challenge the rules of what constitutes art - what is craft and its role in art and how do they merge together. Using weaving, a traditional method of craft, to make real, solid art, she has created these really intense pieces.

The Tate had this room called Surrealism and Beyond, which had somany amazing things housed in it I

had a difficult time leaving the room. Included was Wedge of Chastity by Marcel Duchamp.Made as a wedding gift for his second wife, I had to laugh when I read that it was apparently thought that the couple kept it by their bed wherever they went.

It was small and simple, and yet another piece that all I wanted to do was have it in my hand haha.

Another piece I really liked was Untitled (Blood and Feathers# 2) by Ana Mendieta. In the three and a half minute film, Mendieta stands without clothes along the bank of a river. She pours blood all over her naked body and proceeds to lay in chicken feathers, covering her body. The Tate's website says the video is ambigous in meaning but deals with notions of sacrifice and the female body. I really liked the way it was filmed, and the colours it produced, and the way it transfixed me throughout the video. Definitely an artist I'm going to be reading more about when I get the time.

natural selection

2010-11-09T15:01:00.001-08:00

"natural selection"

silkscreen on paper

approx 7" x 24"

your mundane life is killing me

2010-11-04T12:47:00.001-07:00

24"X33"

collage, paint, charcoal and wallpaper paste on paper

skewed magazine

2010-11-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Skewed is an online art magazine and blog based out of Vancouver. Starting off by featuring UBC art students, it has expanded to include artists worldwide. They featured me on their blog recently, check it out here.

The online zine is published bimonthly, and is always an awesome read with great artists being showcased. Check out past issues here.

coulrophobic response

2010-11-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

"coulrophobic response to the definition of fear"

drypoint print

approx 5" X 7"

Sex, Violence and Desire

2010-10-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

"Sex, Violence and Desire (1, 2 & 3)"

8" x 10"

three and four layer reduction lino prints with chine-collé

Tate Liverpool

2010-10-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I spent the day in Liverpool - I was really excited to go, as the Liverpool Biennial, Touched, is going on right now. I went into the Tate Liverpool and visited some of the works. Unfortunately we weren't able to photograph anything, but I'll point out my favourites. Magdalena Abakanowicz, a sculptor from Poland, had her mixed media installation "Embryology" taking over a large room on the bottom floor of the gallery. When I walked into the room, I noticed the lights were dimmed and there were hundreds of brown organic looking sculptures, varying in size, in seemingly random clusters throughout the room. The size and shape of them are very sensual and with the soft lighting gave a feeling that is difficult to describe. Once I read the title of the piece, I began to feel as though I was walking through a nest of some sort, something ancient and delicate. The image is from her website and is of the piece when it was first shown, at the Venice Biennale in 1980. The show at the Tate is the first time it has been shown in the UK. A very evocative piece - I loved it.

Another piece that really stood out to me was Wannes Goetschalckx's "1 Without," a video and mixed media installation also as part of the biennial. It was commissioned specifically for Touched and consisted of several white plinths containing televisions that looped different videos. The videos are of the artist doing mundane activities - eating peanuts, sleeping, masturbating, swinging absent mindedly, for example- all within a contained wooden space. They show the things that humans may do if they were alone in captivity. Lately I've been thinking a lot about human nature and the fact that we so often reject the idea (the fact) that we too are animals. If we were not in a civilized society that we are in, and were in captivity (by whom I do not know, I'm just brainstorming) we would probably behave just like Goetschalckx's videos depict. Loved this piece. P.S.: Goetschalckx is from Belgium. Without = Wit (Belgian for white) + hout (belgian for wood)

There were several other works that were interesting as well, but those two interested me the most. Although I was there to see the biennial, I also thought I'd take a look at what else was in the Tate that day. I had no idea there was an exhibition going on called This is Sculpture. I was not prepared for the excitement I experienced to see Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Picasso and several others all at once. Arman's "Condition of Woman" made me giggle at how little has changed.

silkscreen projects from last year

2010-10-17T16:34:00.001-07:00

Just found this photo of a series of silkscreens I did onto found photos and reproductions from a local thrift shop last year. The images are based around the ideas of past and present. I'm not certain of the size of them all but for scale the one on the bottom right is around 8" x 10" unframed.

This other one was also done during the same term, and I can't recall the size but the bricks beside them are standard size... so.. you can kind of gauge that way. (sorry) It's called "Pretty Girls Stand Straight" and is a series of silkscreens onto varying fabrics mounted onto wooden canvas frames. Done as a response to the fact that over many decades the standards set for women have always been near impossible to satisfy, and that perhaps we should begin to look at imperfections as the beauty in individuality.

Life Drawing Sessions 2 & 3

2010-10-17T13:42:00.001-07:00

Session # 2

Session # 3

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's "Recorders"

2010-10-17T07:02:00.001-07:00

Being from Vancouver, I had the chance to see Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's work before - in his project "Vectorial Elevation" shown during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Using twenty massive search lights, the public was invited to create huge light sculptures in the sky by arranging the spot lights that were situated around English Bay.

While I was in Manchester a couple weekends ago for the Manchester Weekender 2010 I had the pleasure of stopping by the Manchester Art Gallery to see Lozano-Hemmer's multi installation interactive show "Recorders". It was an entirely audience based show - without audience participation, it would not be a whole in concept nor visual product. Using different methods of surveillance technology, he creates a playful show that contains a darker commentary on social surveillance and the more ominious sides of todays technology. Everything was so entertaining to partake in, and once you realized what you were contributing to, it was usually too late. From fingerprint enlargements to face recognition to voice compilations, you immediately became a part of the artwork and very often without even know what was going on at the beginning.

"Autopoiesis" was one of my favourites. You approach a mirror on the wall, and look into it for a moment. The mirror is equipped with a scanner and face recognition software - after a moment you are instantly recognizable. A laser shines the word "autopoiesis" onto your face and you become part of the work itself. I walked away momentarily and returned; the software recognized me almost instantly and I was again labelled with "autopoiesis" much quicker than my previous visit. The term itself means "auto (self) creation."

Another one of my favourites was "Microphones." Modified vintage microphones were arranged in a circle in the centre of one of the rooms. The participant is invited to sing, speak, laugh, make any sound, into the microphone. Rather than hearing yourself speak back, the microphones play back the voice of one of up to 600 000 recordings left by previous visitors. It's an odd feeling to know that in future, someone will hear your own voice play back. Interestingly enough, I said a simple "hello" and a mans voice played back one of

my favourite songs, Work on You by MSTRKRFT. So here I am, a 9 hour plane ride away from home and speaking into a microphone in an art gallery and I hear the lyrics of a song by two Canadian djs come out of a speaker in England.

I love the way the world works.

"Pulse Room" was also very intriguing. The participant is invited to hold their hands on pulse readers at one end of a room that has hundreds of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. There is an isolated light bulb hanging in front of the pulse readers, and after a short period of time, your heart beat is shown as a pulsing light. After another short period of time, it joins the masses of light bulbs and voila, you have in front of you a sparkling room of lights beating at the different rates of past participants, yourself included. It really is a sight to see. Check out a quick video of it here.

"People on People" was another really playful piece that raised questions about surveillance, technology and identity. You enter the room and are instantly being recorded and shown on a 20 foot white wall. There is no hiding from it and you are instantly enlarged and exposed. I soon noticed that my image on the wall wasn't always live, and often a recording. I walked through the room and noticed I could see other people inside of my own shadow.

The beauty and fun of the whole show makes you almost forget what kind of information you are handing over. Luckily, this is an art show and not a true scientific collection of information, but it goes to show how surveillance technology works and how collection of information is so easy nowadays, as well as how long it can be stored - even in these artful collections, the data can be stored for up to 600 000 participants in most of the works. A video of Lozano-Hemmer explaining the three works that I didn't describe from "Recorders" is linked here.

Lawrence Malstaf's Shrink

2010-10-04T03:31:00.000-07:00

I was able to make it to Manchester this past weekend for The Manchester Weekender 2010, an annual arts, food, all-round-culture-fest in the heart of the beautiful city. Fortunately, I got tickets to see Lawrence Malstaf's Shrink, a breathtakingly claustrophobic performance (and experience) shown at the Old Freemason's Hall as part of the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) festival.

Malstaf vacuum seals himself (and volunteers, but our showing didn't include any) between two large sheets of transparent plastic, so that they are suspended off the ground and held in place by the seal. He stays in the plastic for about twenty minutes, and moves around once in a while, releasing the seal slightly to enable movement and then sucking it out again with the hand held vacuum.

Initially, I took it as a message of preservation, as a reference to packaged meat and the personal experience of being on display. However, I found that in a 2002 interview with Malstaf, he mentions that he doesn't want it to be a reference to meat, and notes that "You feel protected inside, a feeling of weightlessness and pressure. People relate it to the womb and rebirth. Maybe the experience itself would have been more appropriate than the image of packed meat." (kopenhagen.dk) Regardless of the intended meaning, I think the experience of watching the performance was a feeling in its own as well. To watch his skin fold and overlap under the vacuum's pressure was a sight to see.

To know that the body is undergoing such stress and that within those sheets of plastic is a living thinking brain was something to wrap my mind around - without knowing it I think I felt the meditative scenerio; to imagine my thoughts trapped in there as though they too get held into the vacuum seal, to be seperated from everyone else and sealed into your own small world consisting of only your body - I'm beginning to see how people would compare this to a womb and birth.

Life Drawing

2010-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Today was the first life drawing class of the semester. John will be our model for the duration of the semester as far as I know, and each class is an exhausting (but productive) 7 hours long. Here are a couple of drawings I did today. Both 18 x 24 and done with pencils.

My new home

2010-09-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

We were assigned studio space last week when I was still unsure about what I was going to take, but luckily, today I found this lovely little corner with a window view to call my own.

My new home for the semester

Mossy, overcast, wonderful, beautiful England as seen from my window

I've chosen to take a course called Artist Books, Editions and Multiples, as well as print making and life drawing. I stopped by the MA show last week but wasn't able to take photos before it came down. Some very inspiring large paintings.

PS: I made scones. I can't stop baking! I gave a homeless man some banana bread last week. :)

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

2010-09-11T02:33:00.001-07:00

The eagle has landed. I'm in England.

We went to Blackpool to have a day at Pleasure Beach and see the famous (and tacky) Lights of Blackpool. Here are some photos I took at the fairgrounds :)

mine & yours

2010-08-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

"my legs (and yours)" 4' x 5' oil on canvas

my legs and yours- wrapped and stored for future use, or future disposal.

happy mothers day

2010-08-16T23:13:00.001-07:00

This is a portrait of my brother I painted for my mom for mother's day. He passed away in 2007 and I had yet to take on the task of painting him, regardless of my mothers countless requests. Anyways, I finished it and I'm happy with it.

"Kyle Lawrick" oil on canvas

in a dark corner there is light

2010-08-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

"reflection" 36" x 48" charcoal on paper

"a dark corner" 18" x 24" charcoal on paper

These images are of the woman who took care of my brother and I while my dad was at work while we were younger. She knew me for most of my life and she taught me so much while I was growing up. She was the strongest woman I have ever known, and even through her battle with cancer, when I saw her she still never seemed to show any weakness. It wasn't until after she died that I found images on her daughter's facebook of the only moments of weakness I ever saw in Carol.
Although they are slightly unsettling, I find them so beautiful.

Marnie

2010-08-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

“Marnie Frey” oil on panel, 5 ft x 4 ft

I wanted to paint a woman who worked in the sex trade as a way to pay respects to the women who are stripped of their humanness as a result of their addictions and their inability to fit into the social norms of society, as defined by people other than themselves. I believe many people believe that these women are dead before life runs out and that they have become some kind of machinery.

During research for the painting I became attached to Marnie Frey and after reading about her life before and during her addictions and prostitution, I decided it must be her who I paint. After I finished, I was speaking to a family friend who I hadn’t talked to in a while, but used to be very close with. I told her about my painting, and she ended up telling me that Marnie Frey was her cousin that she had never met. What a coincidental string of events.. It feels like I was meant to paint her.. in some unexplainable fateful (if you believe in that sort of thing) way..

Romantic Wallpaper

2010-08-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

"Romantic Wallpaper"

silk screen on paper (installation)

detail

In other words, a sort of silent homophobia has been born. I’ve heard many people talk about the LGBT community and say something along the lines of “I don’t care what they do, just don’t do it in front of me.” To me, this aligns with the notion of “if I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” These are very often the same people who claim they are accepting of everyone and certainly not homophobic, yet cringe when a gay couple kisses on televisio

Placing images of gay couples kissing within the framework of a familiar wallpaper pattern – which could almost make the images blend into the wallpaper – was done as a response to that silent homophobia. The idea is that people can sit in front of the wallpaper and go on with their lives as though something that bothers them doesn’t exist.

Photos taken at Kwantlen University's 2010 Year End art show, Tangent, and was the recipient of a Faculty Choice Award.

choke

2010-08-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

This was probably one of my favorite drawing styles to partake in. I was shown a book of Alison Lambert drawings and tried it out. I loved it so much I had to do it again. Check out some of her drawings here.

Directions:

choose an expression/emotion
have way more paper, charcoal and glue sticks ( i seriously used probably 3-5 sticks) than you would expect to use
draw a picture, cover half of it in new paper. draw over that. rip part of it off and glue it somewhere else. repeat.
when you confidently feel you are beating the shit out of your drawing and that you are absolutely covered in charcoal, keep going. it feels good.

Loud music is a must.

"choke" charcoal, mylar, paper, glue, etc etc. about 6' x 4'?

an untitled self portrait I did in the same style is below. The picture doesn't show it very well, but there are paper birds with things written inside of them glued shut and caged in with wire around the mouth.

Try this technique, seriously.

paintings regarding censorship

2010-08-16T17:53:00.001-07:00

Below are a couple of paintings I did that concern the turmoils involved with self censorship. Opening or closing the mind and mouth are difficult, painful decisions to make. Nonetheless, one or the other must be chosen. I was having a really difficult time seperating my personal thoughts and opinions from the social boundaries and rules that I had learned to be norms. -- understanding that because they don't sit well together all the time that that is alright and in fact, probably best anyways. Art as therapy/self discovery? Life is good :)

"Open" 7' x 4' oil on panel

"Close" ? x ? (much smaller though) Oil on panel

We are the disposable youth

2010-08-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Biltmore + disposable camera + multiple Leff Blonde beers =