Capture. Create. Relate.

i’m so hungover.

Relate

Doors of Downtown

http://weheartit.com/

We Heart It. Please join me in loving this site. love love LOVE!

<3

These are honourable mentions for my artist heart

Natalia Fabia:
This woman is a strong contender within the arts world, in my opinion. She creates such fantastic realistic figure paintings of such interesting people from all walks of life. Her brush strokes are tight, yet you know it’s a painting (to me, that is the most important part).
http://www.nataliafabia.com/

Nimit Malavia:
Fantastic illustrator. He inspired me to experiment with ink as a medium. It worked out nicely as my ink drawings were displayed in the Material Studies show I posted about previously. I hope to experiment further with inks. Truth be told, I’m not patient at all (odd coming from an oil painter, huh?) But Malavia is excellent. His illustrations are so whimsical and range into other mediums as well. Check this artist out!
http://nimitmalavia.com/

Ian Francis:
My former love interest (art-wise) back in… Second year? He is a wonderful mixed media artist who has an extremely talented way of combining many different mediums to create these environments for his figures. You don’t know whether you should feel bad for them, if they’re lost or if they’re just waiting for something. To be honest, I get a sort of sad feeling when I see his works. Regardless, Francis is an inspirational artist.
http://www.ifrancis.co.uk/

Hello, friends. Another thing about me, I love fashion. I love everything about it. I love how it always changes, how structured it is, how unstructured it is, how colourful it can be, how versatile it can be. More importantly, I love style. I love how style changes from one person to another. I love how what I wear can look so different on another person and vice-versa. These are some style/fashion/whatever blogs I visit on a daily basis:

KnightCat:
This blogger loves her some Kate Moss, Kate Bosworth, Erin Wasson, Alexa Chung, and Bambi Northwood-Blyth.
http://www.knighttcat.com/

Christeric:
She is such a talented fashionista. Very quirky blogger.
http://christeric.blogspot.com/

Stop it Right Now:
I get such a strong “Don’t fuck with me” vibe from this woman. Hell ya.
http://stopitrightnow.blogspot.com/

Fashion Squad:
This woman has a glamorous job (at least it seems that way).
http://fashionsquad.com/

Song of Style:
Such a pretty girl. What I love about this particular blogger is that she posts so much of her you can very easily relate to her style and get a nice idea of how to pull the looks together.
http://songofstyle.blogspot.com/

ANNIIEEMAL:
This girl looks like she’s a little rough around the edges… but in a good way! I like her a lot!… could never remember how many i’s and e’s and n’s there are in her site though.
http://anniieemal.blogspot.com/

Front Row:
This girl.. psht. Not much to say about her. I don’t really like her tbh. Hah, just kidding. This is Anh’s blog. My fellow tumblr pal (except she doesn’t know I have a tumblr…shy?) She’s a great girl who I have the pleasure of working with every weekend (until school’s over and my availability opens up!) This girl knows her PK!
http://front—row.tumblr.com/

thank you, ok:
My friend introduced me to this next blogger whose family is her neighbour (I think this blogger lives in Korea?). Apparently this girl lives an excellent and envious life. She also knows an Aritzia buyer! Love me some Aritzia. She looks friggen hip.
http://thankyouok.blogspot.com/

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I like to pretend I’m as stylish as these bloggers/the people they blog about.

So here are a few artists that deeply, truly, wonderfully inspire me.

Kent Williams:
This man is a fantastic painter and illustrator. What I love about him is his ability to combine so many different images to create such dynamic compositions. I love his gestural brush strokes and how they have a life of their own. Also, his characters in his paintings are executed extremely well. I look to him whenever I feel like my compositions aren’t working out and he inspires me to think outside of the lines that confine objects and let the paint bleed a little.
http://www.kentwilliams.com/

Andrew Morrow:
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Andrew’s work. It is both luscious in subject matter and in colour. Actually, this is the man whose works I look to whenever I feel like I’m in a colour palette rut. He just picks his colours so well in every painting he does. He also has this amazing ability to suggest so much with so little brush strokes. Again, this is where colour kicks in, right? If you have the tones down then you’re gold. That is something that I need the patience and discipline to work on. Amazing stuff. Also, he is an MFA graduate of the University of Ottawa and teaches 2nd year painting there as well! I have yet to grow the balls to get him to seriously criticize my works …
http://www.andrewmorrow.com/

Chloe Early:
Chloe Early is an artist who I admire for her bold colours, her wacky compositions and her interesting subject matter. Her subjects range from animals to humans to objects. Normally all of these things would seem so disengaged but her compositions and created environments allow them all to exist in this smooth storyline she has created for them. She also paints on aluminum… imagine how that must feel to paint on?! She is a very well-rounded painter with strong technical skills. Very urban. I’d definitely like to pick her brain apart and find out what she’s thinking.
http://chloeearly.com/

Shawn Barber:
The cream of the crop (in my opinion… and whatever that expression actually means). I LOVE this artist’s work. He is the reason for my appreciation for art back in September 2010 when I felt like everything I was making was absolute crap. Shawn Barber is who I look to for inspiration for my figures in my paintings. Figure painting is all I do, really, so I’m glad I found him. His colours are so rich, his brush strokes are efficient and dynamic, he provides such a life for his figures in every single one. His lighting is fantastic, his subject matter is just so interesting to me (tattooed portaits? Hello?!) and he’s a budding tattoo artist! Definitely someone who’s art I want to own on both my body and my wall. My painting style has drastically changed just looking at his work.
http://www.sdbarber.com/

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Phewf!!

Studio Style

So yes, I am sober now. And, no, my prof didn’t care I was drinking in the studio. And, yes, I got my essay done, I’m starting my assignment and I’ll paint tomorrow morning. I’M A GOOD STUDENT!!…

And, yes, I realize that I havn’t been posting many Create posts. But please excuse me while I explain why. Here is a little bit about me and what I’m in the process of right now in this present moment.

All the Create posts involve art by me (as well as the Capture posts, I might add). There isn’t a lot of art of my own that I like. In fact, I feel like i’ve been in a creative rut up until September 2010. Some drastic changes and realizations were made at around that time and good lord thank you for that. My art has reached a fantastic high, I’ve had two art shows to prove it and, and, AND!! … I just feel so fantastically happy with everything. That’s the best part, riiiight? Life’s good, I’m good, my friends are just so amazing, I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. This year more than any other year I’ve realize just how valuable they all are to me and I’m fortunate to not have forgotten that. On the flip-side, I’ve had fantaastic opportunity to see which of my friends value me and which don’t. And I’m very fortunate to have had the chance to see that and keep optimistic about it. - Relate?

Anyways

To get to the point, I’ve basically posted everything new that I’ve done since September. Some might say I’m a slow painter, some might say my pace is normal, who knows? (actually my photography prof seems to think im a slow painter but what would she know anyways??). But everything i’m working on right now is for the Grad Show called Flux (deets later). So I want everything to be a surprise, and boyyyy, you are in for a surprise! Lately I’ve been surprising myself in the studio. I’m really excited about what I’m doing and I’ve always been a fan of suspense so yeah, I’m keeping my stuff secret. But once the Grad Show is up and running I’ll have some fun little treats to post for all y’all. I’ll post my creative process and everything. Maybe I’ll make a quick vid to show my process? It’s something I’ve wanted to try out. Maybe I’ll post some photos for my Create posts? It’s a bit of a hobby of mine. Not a serious one, but I’d like to get more serious about it and I have SO many photos on my computer it just might crash. We’ll see!

What a Grimsicle Fairytale
ft. DJ Brains4Breakfast

Alright guys. Happy St.Patty’s day first of all (not that we need a REASON to drink). I’m super busy oh.em.gee. thus why I havn’t been posting much lately. Also too, I apologize for my bad grammar… I decided it was in my best interest to combine fun and academics by writing my essay in the studio while drinking some good ol reliable Pabst. I can’t really see why this is a bad idea. Right? My professor just walked in though so this could be interesting. Don’t worry I tucked the PBR under the table BUT I think I babbled…. Anyways, have fun being drunksies for me. I have an essay to write, an assignment to write and a painting to do. God Damn!!

Playing around with my narcissism. The first painting of last semester.

Untitled 2010
12” x 16”
Oil on Wood Panel

Peace, Love & .. Deer.

Untitled 2010
Acrylic on Wood Panel
12” x 16” 

Solo vacation to Fort Lauderdale
(aka one of the best things i’ve ever done for myself)

3 days into the birth of this blog and I am already breaking my rule of 3 posts/day (each to fulfill the 3 ideas my blog intends to embody .. if you havn’t already caught on) Although, some rules are meant to be broken - especially with the announcement of an art show I am currently part of.

Material Studies: A Group Exhibition is a show that has been curated by 4th year BFA student Morgan Zagerman. This show will feature snippits of the 40 studies that the 2010 fall semester’s Directed Studio professor Jennifer Macklem assigned as an ongoing semester project. They range from mixed media, sculpture, painting, charcoal, ink, etc. It runs from now until March 18th, 2011 at Gallery 115 located within 100 Laurier. The date of the vernissage is March 15th from 6pm - 9pm.

Artists featured are:

Claire Cepukas
Edith Chartier
Myriam Couture
Krisha Dayola - Me!
Chris Lindsay
Isabelle Poirier
Morgan Zagerman

Show up if you can!

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Edit: You know what? I’m not breaking any rules if i’m the one making them. 3posts/day with the exception of important announcements. Life doesn’t allow for restrictions, gotta make room for the unexpected!

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Sketchy-sketch 2010

Colours of London

After all this time, all things Europe still make my heart break twice.