Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee 2013

That time of year again! I feel so lucky to have enjoyed the company of many of my family and friends.

I am slapping pie dough around and making tortierre for this evening. Other little treats that please us are also being baked and stewed. My energy is holding strong and I am looking forward to spending time with my sons, friends and other family.

Leave for snowy and beautiful Wells tomorrow. Will celebrate a nineteen thirty's New Year at the Well's Community Hall for the big Dance and party, rest for a day or two and then drive back home through the gorgeous and snowy Cariboo.

Will open up the studio for a day or two's work, mostly drawing and planning for the next projects, both personal and collaborative, if all goes well. And I trust it will.

So Bonne Annee once again! Happy New Year. 2013.  Peace and love!

Alone

Rust and texture samples with wasp hive  Patricia Chauncey  photo Christine Hatfull

Dreamed last night of Afghanistan. Cliffs and rocky landforms were defined by a soft, snow covering.
Under the snow were bubbled and dimpled bio-luminescent creatures. Soft and amorphous but oozing  slowly through the land. I needed to get to a community celebration but was not sure how to pass through the vulnerable environment.

I knew that no one I knew or cared for was anywhere near.

When I walked the ground cleared as I stepped. It didn't matter how thick the creatures and snow were. I looked behind me and the snow and creatures again engulfed where I had just been. The question was am I  passing through or am I being consumed. 

The further I walked the more it became clear that I was alone and there really wasn't anywhere to go.
I looked down and saw a single glowing creature left behind by the rest. I reached to touch it . The warmth of my hand caused it to divide.

Collaboration

Sample for Proliferation Project. My work and experimentation.

Proliferation Project  photo research with Tim Hurley and I     photo Tim Hurley

Rust Gardens   Tim Hurley and I   photo Patricia Chauncey

A collaborative solar oven made in Wells for natural dye projects.  photo Tim Hurley

A film collaboration with Krisztina Egyed and Ivan Hughes    photo Jim Heagan

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to be involved in a few collaborations with other artists through time. The successful ones happened because both people involved were committed to a time frame, had a similar vision, had a place to accomplish work and understood what it is required to go from fantasy to actualization. The unsuccessful ones were an exercise in power struggle, defensive behaviour, a difference in skill and access to resources. The disastrous ones were defined by lack of commitment, passive aggressive avoidance and an outright theft of ideas.

 I've thought about it a lot over the last few days while trying to decide to end all efforts regarding a project that I was initially excited about. Collaboration is not like an ordinary work experience. It is of self for the people involved. It requires commitment, lots of communication and down and dirty effort. Real work that is personal, vulnerable and sometimes completely exhausting. Shared. Doesn't matter if it is only created for the participants or shared in a public way.

Double Vision-Morphos Inquiry Invitation

 

Photo Scott Pownall 

 

 I loved doing the "Morphos Inquiry" show with Hilary Young, producing a work called "Stones" with Charles Wilson and the "Homeless Show" with a number of DTES artists and activists a number of years ago. I am asked to collaborate with very exciting artists. Some of them are international and high level and some have work or ideas that are so exciting I am kept up at night percolating my own. I think carefully about doing it. I want it to add to my creative repertoire and experience. To share all of what making my art means to me and to learn from another artist. It is huge gift of myself. More now than ever. My time to do all this now is so very constrained and limited. Sharing it is more important than ever.