12 Days of Christmas Art Challenge and Sale

My 12 Days of Christmas Art Challenge and Sale is on NOW! Inspired by the recent Black and White Photo Challenge on Facebook, I have set a goal to produce small affordable art pieces over the last half of November, hopefully one new painting or drawing every 2 days.

Orpheum Neon watercolour and ink miniature by Tiana Kaczor

Orpheum Neon is the first art piece. It is a watercolour and ink drawing of Vancouver’s Orpheum theatre sign. It is based on a photo I took a couple years ago while walking along Granville St.

Get your hands on some new original artworks for the price of a dinner out, and treat your friends, family, or yourself to a one of a kind gift!  All art will be available for sale in my Etsy store. Head over and take a look. Check back every couple of days for new additions.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/211430398/original-watercolour-and-ink-drawing?ref=shop_home_active_1

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By All Means Create

We’ve all had it, that voice that says we can’t do something, or that we can’t do it well enough, or we don’t have the time. Perhaps we need to listen to Van Gogh who said “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” The staff at Opus Art Supplies has made a video illustrating this quote. It was a nice little reminder for me this morning and thus I wanted to share it.

Make Good Art speech by Neil Gaiman

With my recent feelings of being a bit blocked, this was an amazing speech to listen to at the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. No, I’m not blocked, I’ve just been caught up in paying bills, and completing chores, and trying to do things that everyone else says I should do. Life isn’t always easy, but at the end of the day, or perhaps the beginning, we should do at least one thing – make good art! Thank you Neil Gaiman for your good words.

 

 

Photos from Transitions exhibition

Only a couple days left and then I take down the Transitions Exhibition at the Richmond Cultural Centre and move the giclees back to the Anne Vogel and Transitions clinics. Here’s a few shots of the show:

 

View across the rotunda at the Richmond Art Centre of the Transitions photo exhibition.

 

Giclees of Finn Slough, Museum of Anthropology and Minoru Track by Anne Vogel Clinic clients.

Three photos from a Transitions client.

 

Transitions Community Public Art Project Show

It’s here! This is the public exhibition of the project I have been working on for 1 1/2 years. The City of Richmond paired me up with Vancouver Coastal Health’s Transitions program and we also added the Anne Vogel Clinic. 17 photographs are in the collection you can see for the whole month of June at the Richmond Art Centre. Please come to the opening this Friday, June 7 from 7 to 9pm for some nibblies, music, and of course the art.

Transitions exhibition poster by Lisa Ernst

Vancouver Coastal Health’s Transitions program, and the Anne Vogel Addictions/Primary Care Clinic, offer support for Richmond adults who are on their journey in recovery from mental illness, substance abuse, and/or addictions. The staff at these clinics hoped this project would help tell the hidden stories of people in our community and allow the participants to use the creative process of art making to enhance their physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Clients at the clinics told stories and created metaphors about their challenges in life. Clinic staff helped decide to use photography as the medium for the project as using a camera seems a less threatening way to create art for people who are not experienced artists. At the beginning participants came up with the idea for taking photographs of doorways, archways, and bridges, sometimes with an unidentifiable person walking through the frame. This is to represent a person moving from one part of their life to a new part.

Participants went out into the community with their own digital cameras, or disposable cameras provided to them, and recorded images of their lives. The goal of this process, and our group discussions, was to not only have fun with making art, but to hopefully help recovering individuals address personal issues, develop social skills, increase self-esteem and gain self-awareness.Once the photos were processed and hung on the walls at the clinics the smiles on the faces of the clients and the staff proved that these goals were reached. 4 of the selected photos are by Tiana using ideas from stories she heard from clients. 13 photos were chosen from the ones the clients submitted.

How to View The Show at Emily Carr

With over 300 Design, Media, and Visual Arts graduates this year, Emily Carr University of Art and Design’s grad exhibition offers something for everyone. I walked through the rooms for 2 hours on Monday but was disappointed with the first few rooms thinking that after 4 years of study shouldn’t there be some art that displays a little more skill and thought? But then I started finding a few artworks that made me laugh, or appreciate their technique, or think about their message.

Parcel #1357 by Shannon McKirgan

There will be as many opinions about an art show as there are people who walk through it. Art is personal. What you like another person may hate. Some people like posters of puppies in their living room. Others would faint at that idea and thus spend hours at auctions trying to find the right Miro print to match their decor. I forget which artist said it, perhaps it was Christian Boltanski when he had a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but I remember this idea and use it whenever I view art: the artist said “I don’t care whether they love my art or hate my art, just as long as they have some kind of reaction. If they feel nothing then my art has failed.”

The next step would be to ask yourself why you love it, or hate it, or are indifferent to it. Art is a form of communication. So what is it saying to you? Sometimes the answer doesn’t come right away. I like Shannon McKirgan’s “Parcel #1357”, but I still am not sure why. It’s not a style that I normally pick out. The subject is a little depressing – a lone box of a building. For now I think it’s just the quality of her brushstrokes and the positive versus negative space, as well as the framing presentation.

Cachalot and Gray by Fiona Hawkes

With the whale close ups in charcoal by Fiona Hawkes I immediately knew I liked them because I appreciate the skill in her realistic drawings. I draw realistically, and thus whenever I see other artworks in this style I am drawn (ha!) to them.

Throwing by Nolan Drew

Then there was the mini installation “Throwing” by Nolan Drew. It immediately put a smile to my face because as much as I love working on a wheel, it’s not easy to make a bowl or vase or anything round, and Nolan’s piece reminded me of that frustration. There have been times when it collapses, or flies off. I still remember the expression of surprise on one of my student’s faces when she had her clay go whizzing off the wheel and splat onto the classroom wall.

You have this weekend to catch “The Show”, which ends May 19th. There is also an online catalogue at ECUAD’s website. http://theshow2013.ecuad.ca/  Hope you find something you love or hate.

How to Draw from a Poor Photograph

“Riley and CJ” by Tiana Kaczor, Fall 2012, pastel and conte.     Click on images to view larger.

I had a commission that was a Christmas present, so could not post it online until after the holiday. I am now at liberty to share this work with you.

“Riley and CJ” posed a problem for me as I usually work from photographs that show enough detail so that I can create quite a realistic art piece. However the photo that was provided to me was very pixelated. I am not an artist who usually draws from my imagination, except in my private sketchbook, so I would not want to take artistic licence with this commission and just “make up” the details. Instead I decided to try a different style, working like the Impressionists with dots and dashes of colour, and a different medium, chosing pastels and conte. The client agreed to my style change and I set off to create a realistic drawing of a pixelated photo.

Tiana’s process of drawing Riley from photo and photocopy.

“Work with what you’ve got.” is a rule I follow a lot in my artmaking. Whether it’s taking whatever materials I can find to make an assemblage instead of buying special sculpture supplies, or using the qualities of a photograph to determine the detail and style of the image when put into a different medium like paint or pastel. Kind of a bit like that saying “When the world gives you lemons make lemonade,” isn’t it?

Grand Prix competition piece for sale

Tiana creates during Steveston’s Grand Prix of Art 2012

A couple weekends ago I competed in Steveston’s Grand Prix of Art. We were told our location only minutes before the race, and then had 3 hours to complete a finished work of art, whether it be drawing or painting. http://grandprixofart.com/?p=890

This is the first time I’ve ever entered a plein air competition and decided to keep things less messy by using conte and pastels instead of paint. The weather was rather chilly and an hour into the race my fingers started to freeze up. Luckily my parents came by and brought me a hot chocolate. Thanks also to Eva at Cannery Cafe for offering to bring me something hot.

“Pieces and Points” conte and pastel, 8×12, for sale $200 framed, $170 mat only.

It was great creating on the streets of Steveston as it gave me direct contact with the public; art can be such a solitary activity a lot of the time, working away in ones studio. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to take a peek at my picture and encourage me to finish in the 3 hour time limit. It wasn’t easy working so fast with no break but I did finish “Pieces and Points” just as the Cannery horn blew to signal the stop of the race. The title was chosen because the store Pieces is in my drawing, and points refers to the pointillism style I used, which turned out to look a bit like snow falling. (Maybe that was subliminal because I was cold!)

Tiana at her station on Moncton for the Steveston Grand Prix

My 8″ x 12″ pastel and conte drawing of Moncton Street titled “Pieces and Points”  is for sale at $200 framed, or $170 with just the mat.

Warrior Has Left My Studio

Tiana's warrior "Wu Chang" waiting to be loaded onto truck.

I’m so tired! After two months of painting, the second month being quite intense, “Wu Chang”, my terracotta warrior, is now finished. The truck from the BC Lions Society for Children With Disabilities arrived this morning at my studio to pick the warrior up and take him off to receive the protective clear coat. With only one man to carry him it was a little tricky getting “Wu” around the corners in the house, down the stairs, and out onto the front lawn. However, no ceiling lights were hit, the warrior wasn’t dropped, and thank goodness the truck had a power lift. I can see the benefits of having a studio on the ground floor, and with a big sliding door like a garage.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise before the official unveiling in a couple weeks, so I will not be posting a lot of pictures right now. But after the 24th of April I will be uploading to Flickr and YouTube to show my process and the detail of my work on the terracotta warrior.

Empty Easel, Online Art Magazine Offers Help

I am updating my resume and my artist CV, and I was looking online for some examples of artist biographies and statements when I came across this extensive online magazine for artists called Empty Easel. From art tutorials to business advice to artist profiles this is, at first glance, a huge bank of information and one I will be returning to when I have more time. Take a look at:   http://emptyeasel.com/    and let me know if you find any interesting articles.