April 2007

i layered those colours about 10 times to get the result i wanted.

jan jelinek, from “loop finding jazz records”. i love this kind of quiet, dark microhouse music.

(originally posted to videosift by farhad, the leader of the obscure).

(with my friend amalie atkins, an artist and filmmaker)

the opening reception last friday night went really well. it was an opening for two exhibitions: “lasting impressions” - works from the art gallery of hamilton, and “personal :: political”, the artists by artists exhibition by dave geary and me.

it’s been a year since i showed my work in a gallery here. people seemed curious to look at my drawings in person. up close, you can really see the different color pencil pigments and how they blend. i pay a lot of attention to that technique when i’m drawing, but you can’t really see the details in an online digital image. so i was happy to get to show people my work in real life.

it was great to see so many people at the reception. some friends of mine were there, and i got to meet some of my blog readers in person. there were also lots of people i’d never met before, from the art community. they said very nice things about my drawings. i was talking, talking, talking all night. when i got home i was supertired, but it was a good night.

the best moment of the reception for me was at the end of the night, when one of the security guards came up to me and told me she really loves my drawings - they’re beautiful and they make her think. she shook my hand passionately. she said she first saw my work at this year’s women’s art festival, which was on at the mendel art gallery in march. she really liked the chickens. when my drawings were put up for this show, she brought her kids to see them.

i was touched. she wasn’t obliged to say anything nice about my drawings to make me happy. everyone at the opening reception was very nice, but you know that it’s not all sincere. i thought this woman’s thoughts were very genuine.

the show is on until june 3rd. admission is free, and i hope many people come to see my work in person. if you can’t make it, you can view images of the drawings from my show in my online gallery.

(click the image to view close up)

the japanese says “suteki na nomiso”, which means “lovely brain”.

i used a sheet of black paper. i’ve never used black paper before. it was a lot of work to color with color pencils alone, but i kind of like this ambiance.

11 x 14″

the dancing robot is called Keepon. it’s dancing to “i turn my camera on”, by spoon. it gets the rhythm from the music and changes the pattern of its dance.

from the inventor’s website:

“We are currently developing and studying dance-oriented nonverbal play with between children and the robot Keepon, designed and built by Hideki Kozima. Keepon is a small creature-like robot developed to perform emotional and attentional interaction with children. It has four degrees of freedom, a soft rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose”

more here…

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