Canada Vignettes - The Egg

A good fried of mine recently reminded me of the value of National Film Board of Canada work. It prompted me to search out this piece. It's kind of amazing to me to remember that when I was a kid we didn't have commercials- we had these vignettes or the CBC symbol for 3 minutes. A lot of these vignettes stuck with me and this egg vignette in particular. Even though it's almost 30 years old it corresponds quite well with the present state of affairs across the world. It particularly reminds me of last weeks debacle in the Canadian Parliament. Here's hoping for better.

Video Stills

Efforts to edit my video are so far unfruitful but here are a few stills from the piece.

Nathan Keay's Work

Yesterday I saw a selection of Nathan Keay's work in the Made in Chicago exhibit, currently on at the Chicago Cultural Centre. I really dig this work for a number of reasons; it's awkwardness, it's forlorn-ness and it's humour. I also like the way it forms an intersection between performance and photography- something that I am obviously quite interested in. For more images check out Nathan's website:

http://www.nathankeay.com

Post Interesting Painting

A fellow Canadian artist and friend, Chris Millar, has recently launched his website featuring his extremely complex and amazing paintings. Pretty fantastic stuff and I highly recommend checking out his site! Here's the link:

http://postinterestingpainting.com/home.html

Installation Shots and Time Out Chicago Article

Here's a few black and white shots from my installation in the show.

And here's a link to an article written about Turned Intos in Time Out Chicago :

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/art-design/69355/turned-intos

Chicago in Black and White

An exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago featuring some photographs from Robert Frank's series The Americans inspired me to load up my 35mm with some HP5 and go booting about town. The results are my version of tourist shots. I rarely go photograph 'just for kicks' these days so this was kind of fun. I love the graffiti from the underpass near Navy Pier. It really speaks about the feeling of optimism around the U.S. since Obama was elected.

I also took a few pictures of my installation at Three Walls which really makes it look like some sort of 1960s conceptual piece. Go black and white, go!

Performance Anxiety?

I've been having recurring dreams of recording my dreams with the audio recorder so that I don't forget anything. I then wake up and realize I haven't recorded anything. I usually forget a few things.

Sleeping in the Installation

One of the first nights in my 'lab' in the gallery.

Opening at Three Walls

Last night was the opening for the Turned Intos show at Three Walls and it seemed to be quite a success. I think about 150 people came out to see the work. This was partly due to the fact that several other galleries in the building were having shows but was exciting nonetheless.

Last night also marked the first night I slept in my installation piece. Part of my concept for the work I put in the show was a month long performance where I record my dreams every night and file them into a folder which visitors to the gallery can access. The work is cumulative and I'm interested to see what comes of it. Not surprisingly I dreamt of the gallery last night. I also had a recurring cereal theme...well the gallery bit seemed logical anyways.

Today, my fellow artists and I checked out the Field Museum which was fun. Many dioramas and dinosaur bones and artifacts. A nice way to unwind after the intensity of the week setting up for the show. Looking forward to returning to Banff in a month. It feels like I've been gone for years but it's only been just over two months. Time is not linear.

Anyway, I'm off to tuck into my dream lab in the gallery..

Ms. Buttons

My friend Jen Hutton ( a.k.a. "Buttons") has a new show that just opened at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Check it out if you're in the neighbourhood.
She also has this snazzy new website: http://jenhutton.com

Info About The Show

More information about the show in Chicago can be found on the Three Walls Gallery website:
http://www.three-walls.org/works/group-shows/

Chicago

Made it to Chicago! I'm staying in a Mexican neighbourhood with two lovely people, one of whom is on the board of directors at the gallery I'm showing at. I'm so excited to be here and check out the city. I could feel the energy of the place as I drove in last night; freeways a-buzzing and the huge expanse of city lights laid out before me. Only had a minor snag at the border – I think it's because I told them I was an artist. In any case, I made it and have already got the bed I'm going to sleep in at the gallery. Slowly gathering the bits I need to make the installation work. Should be interesting. Hope to check out some music and the art galleries in the coming weeks. Hard to believe I'll be back home in Banff in only 6 weeks or so! It's also hard to believe last week at this time I was preparing to go square dancing with my aunt in Kingston ( square dancing is really fun by the way). Time flies when you're being a gypsy in a Corolla. More to come.

Snow en Montreal

Sitting here having tea and toast at 2 a.m. and it's snowing outside. The big slurpee - slushy kind. What happened to the everlasting beautiful red- leafed autumn of Montreal? 

I'm not ready for this. 

Snow makes me think of my cozy Banff apartment, baking and going skiing- not necessarily in that order. Only another week and a half and I depart for Kingston, then Toronto, and then Chicago. Road trips are a little less appealing with blizzards so I hope this tapers off a bit. I'm showing signs of my age as previously any road trip would be cause for perpetual excitement. I guess it was that Banff - Montreal leg of the journey : a bit long.

Last night in the lab I felt like the flash-awakened-participant- all- star. Seven photos of me holding seven different objects for seven mini dreams. Gone are the days of  being completely bamboozled by the flash. I feel like an old pro at this really. That's kind of saying something though I'm not sure what: "I'm conditioned! I've built up resistance to the stimulus!" If nothing else I guess I'm persistent.

I've been reveling in the book my brother gave me for my birthday. It's called Eats Shoots and Leaves and is a hilarious book about punctuation. It's definitely given me pause to think about how I approach writing in e-mails and on this blog.  I might have to abandon the emoticon..

Anyway, I ramble. It's now almost 2:30 a.m and the tea is two sips from being finished. Here's to the days of northern darkness!

Excited

I'm very excited to have made it onto the Hey Hot Shot! blog as a 'contender' for the next competition! Check out the link along with all the cool photos being submitted :
http://www.heyhotshot.com/blog/2008/10/28/hey-hot-shot-contender-sarah-fuller/

Toronto

Had a lovely weekend in Toronto visiting family and hanging out. So great! Here's a few pics that I took at my aunt's house. I still love taking pictures of domestic spaces...There must be something to this and so I continue. The window shot is decidedly Barbara Spohr inspired. 

Upcoming Show in Chicago, Ill.

Here's an invite for the upcoming show I will be part of in Chicago. The project is a result of an exchange between Alternator Gallery in Kelowna and Three Walls Gallery in Chicago. I'm LOVING Montreal but can't wait to check out Chicago!!

Mt. Tremblant

Our 'adventure' to Mt. Tremblant. 

The place

Interior shots, Montreal apartment.

Scenes from a Drive-In

I felt like a nostalgia archeologist at this place. What a gold mine! I think I need to go back and photograph more here.

Frankenstein-ian..

Dreamin' 

Debrief...

Just finished the first two days in the lab with some successes and some surprises. Day one (or night one) I did my first real test with the camera and flash set up which was pretty interesting.  It's possible to track the moment my brain waves indicate that I am falling asleep and so at this point, the camera is triggered and the flash is fired. Now, here's the part I wasn't prepared for= it scared THE CRAP out of me. It woke me up which I suppose was good, but..yeesh. Phrases that come to mind are "Scared the living daylights" or the phrase I thought of all day yesterday which was, "It scared the Be'Jesus outta me!" Seriously. Those strobes almost blasted me into another dimension. I have not been so instantaneously alarmed in, well, I don't know if I ever have. It was a bit hard falling asleep after that as I had a major adrenaline rush. I did remember what I was dreaming though so that was good. I have to muck about with the system a bit because I want to try it again (something I wasn't so convinced of yesterday- it took awhile for the memory of that experience to fade), but I think it's worth  it even if it ends up being only a few pictures. Last night, being awakened by sound effects was a piece of cake in comparison and I slept like a baby. Today I'm feeling much better and not half as anxious as yesterday where I repeatedly had visions of the strobes surprising me throughout the day. Today- yoga, laundry and applications for exhibitions.

Morning musings

The view from bed.

Road photos etc.

A couple of pictures from the travel out east. Ford's Drive-In from Great Falls, Devil's Tower in Wyoming (more culturally appropriate title is Bear's Tipi or Bear's Lodge) and this creepy looking house from northern Ontario. It looks haunted to me! Off to the lab today to do more tests in preparation for the photos. 

Montreal

I made it to Montreal and so far- it's great. Here's a picture of the room I am renting for the next month and a bit. It's an amazing place and outfitted in the era it was built- perfect for a nostalgia freak like me!! It's also above this neat place that makes custom boots- I think I'm going to get a pair while I'm here. The only challenging bit is the creative parking scenario... This isn't Banff where parking is free. Minor details!

Meera Margaret Singh

Hey check out my friend Meera's new website!! A very talented lady I must say!

www.meeramargaretsingh.com

She also had an opening yesterday which I missed (sadly) but will check out when I get to Montreal either today or tomorrow!

Miles versus kilometers

How come miles take so much longer than kilometers? (Other than the obvious point that they are longer). At least this is my perception  because I am only in Minnesota right now- after 2.5 days of driving. hm.

Saw Devil's Tower this morning and people climbing up it- I wish I was climbing up it! It looked cool. I bought the book with the description of the routes... Another thing on the  list I guess.

I'm always happily surprised with how beautiful this country is. I mean, I know it's beautiful, but it's nice to be reminded. I've never been through this part before and was interested in all the history- Wounded Knee, the Black Hills, even the strangeness of Mount Rushmore (though I didn't drive to see it, the idea of carving a mountain out into heads always seems a bit bizarre- no offence). Many tunes later I am in Minnesota- hoping to make it to Canada tomorrow via the  Mackinaw bridge which I think is the way Lisa, Brent and I travelled in 1999. Maybe it won't be as windy.

Great Falls, Montana

Just pulled into Great Falls, Montana and have set up camp at Dick's RV camp. Many pawn shops, casinos and payday loan places. I saw the coffee shop that Erika and I stopped at in 2006, post Indian Creek. Already  took advantage of a photo opportunity when I spotted a retro sign for "Ford's Drive- In" just off the I-15. Excited to be on the road but am kind of missing my old dog Max who travelled with me the first time I travelled in the States  alone, back in 1999 . Max may have had some emotional problems but I was felt safe because he was liable to attack anyone who threatened me. I often worried about lawsuits however..Anyways, the RV campground has wi-fi, so I can e-mail while tenting. Weird.

Vending Machine

This vending machine is owned by a distant cousin of mine in Iceland. It's powered by solar and wind power and is monitored by web cam (to protect from vandalism). Inside is an average, everyday vending machine and yes, it's in the middle of nowhere. I love this thing.

The Road

I'm kind of on this kick where I trying to find and photograph dead end roads- particularly ones where nature has reclaimed the territory. 

Hmm..that wasn't there last night

Last week, two of my friends and I embarked on an adventure into the wilderness beginning from the Dave Thompson Highway, down White Rabbit creek and into the northern reaches of Banff National Park. Our first night of camping was on White Rabbit Creek, about a 20km hike in from the highway. We found a good spot on a gravel sandbar in the middle of the stream. When we woke up we found that we had been checked out by a rather large black bear in the middle of the night. This print was less than 10 metres from the tent. Funnily enough, all of us felt comforted by this fact; the bear didn't find us that interesting and moved on without bothering us. Of course, it's kind of an odd feeling finding a footprint like this really close to one's tent. We were pretty diligent with the bear calls..

Polaroid Pos/neg Pinhole Pictures

Did I mention I shot a lot of film in Iceland?! Good lord! Here's some more that are kind of growing on me though I'm not sure if they're looking too artsy with the Polaroid edge. The Icebergs are in Jokulsarlon- the glacial pool where parts of Vatnajokull calve off and travel off to sea. Pretty spectacular place really. The whole south coast was a stunning place.

Indian Creek in Iceland

This was one of the formations that I saw that looked so much like the desert that I had to stop and take a picture. It was massive though- i think higher than a lot of the walls in Indian Creek. It's deceptive because in Iceland it was so hard to grasp a sense of scale. Things that looked big weren't so so big and things that seemed small from far away were humungous upon closer inspection. I've got to go back there!

Iceland pictures revisited

Finally feel like I may be making headway through the piles of celluloid carnage I produced whilst in Iceland. It seems like the common threads are images that refer to stillness, oddness and perhaps reflect my feelings of foreign-ness as I searched for familiarity. Here are a couple that I think make the cut critically speaking..

The Creative Process..

Here's an excerpt from a book I've been reading as part of my dream research. It's called Writer's Dreaming and was compiled by Naomi Epel. Essentially it's an entire book of writers talking about how dreams have affected their writing or their creative process. There's one writer near the end of the book named Robert Stone that has a really interesting way of talking about the practice of making work. He's talking about writing, but it feels pretty bang-on for visual art as well. Definitely comforting, especially when one is in the midst of trying to make 'stuff' in solitude in one's apartment...Anyway, here it goes:

The practice of art, the practice of writing fiction is an act against solitude. It's ironic because one of the great difficulties of the writing life is its solitude. You do so much alone. You end up being much more autonomous than you want to be because, not only have you got to start yourself, but you end up having tremendously strong experience in solitude. Anyone who's ever written anything he cares about has found himself in a deeply emotional state and all alone. All by yourself. You get yourself worked up into states that are quite intense. I think this is necessary and it's not a bad thing. it's tough on the psyche to have to be enduring all that emotion with no one else to take it to, but there's something about the way the  emotional buildup progresses and resolves itself that makes me think there's a really primary need being served in this process. That this is a response that is necessary. And that I might be in real trouble if I wasn't able to do it. Because the drive to do it, if it's not satisfied, becomes eventually destructive, something that turns against itself.....

And later:

You've got to get into the process. The process is liberating. The process is good. You have to take it by the day. You just can't find yourself sitting there saying, What am I going to write next? Ultimately that is what you're saying but you just can't obsess over that. You take it day by day. And you have to not worry too much..

It's all about letting the story take over. It's surrendering to the process, letting yourself become involved in the process, that is necessary. You can't be outside your own story, as it were. You can't be just constructing it consciously, self-consciously, moment by moment. You've got to let your imagination go. And begin to hear voices, figuratively speaking. Get into it and do it. Beguile yourself. Entertain yourself. And keep yourself inside it.

Hm.

One More Cup of Coffee

I couldn't resist stopping at this sign on the way back from Vancouver yesterday. I accidently shot a pos/neg  polaroid so I already  have an negative which is kind of neat. The colour version will be processed shortly. I love this stretch of highway for some reason. It's Canada's answer to the desert and the desert is an ongoing muse of mine. I'm not sure if it's the connection to the broad skies of the prairies or the seemingly vast desolation of the landscape. Plants, signs, and buildings desperately holding on  to their place in the sandy dirt, anxious to stand upright, yet continually worn down with wind and time. This sign seems almost chipper amongst the straggley bushes. Only 400 metres and you can have a coffee. That seems like solace to me!

Photo Fun in Banff

If anyone is in the neighbourhood..I'm doing a Truck workshop in Banff tomorrow, August 9th right beside the Banff square (which is actually a circle) from 11am- 3pm, weather permitting. The workshop is part of an ongoing project hosted by Truck Gallery called the Camper Patch Project. Artists create a one day workshop that can be facilitated from inside the Truck Gallery's camper van. My workshop is about a historical photo process called The Cyanotype and at the completion of the workshop, participants get a nifty patch (similar to a Brownie patch) that show they have successful done the process. Plus you get to keep whatever you make. Fun all around. For more information regarding Truck Gallery or the Camper Patch Project, visit: www.truck.ca

Dream Conference and Lab

Here's some images I took while in Montreal last month for the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference. It was quite an interesting mix of people and I learned a lot about dream research. Particularly interesting to me were studies about dream narrative.  A little too much material to write into the blog.. Still processing the whole event which was quite intense! Enjoyed the little bit of Montreal I was able to see in between seminars. It was also very exciting to check out the Lab at the Sacred Heart hospital where I will be working with Tore and his crew in September.