seasons exhibition in invermere

This blog has devolved into something of a vacation roadshow this summer but bear with me, autumn and its serious work, introspective reflection and philosophical ruminations on the philosophy of aesthetics is almost here. Or not. Anyway, I'm Canadian which means I'm culturally required to mention the weather and if the temperature this week was any indication, fall is already here.

I have spent days sorting through the 800-some photos I snapped like a rabid, vista-starved retiree. Isn't this a pretty shot? I took it in Invermere at about 8 pm the night before the gallery opening. Property prices in Invermere are appalling because, as you can see, this spot is a little piece of paradise. I have never seen so many golf courses, mountain views, lakes, rivers, ski hills, hot springs and west-coast-hip villages crammed into such a few square countries (by European standards). Rich Albertans with their oil money have made it the resort destination of choice. Not only that, they buy art! And they did. In spite of the heat, four of my works sold the day of the reception and five have sold since then, not to mention the other smaller work that seems to walk out the door on a regular basis. Not bad for a gallery that's only been in business for three months. Kudos to Kate, the business manager, and Heather, the owner/artist-in-
residence, for doing such a great job.

If you look closely, you'll see me working at the table in the gallery's courtyard. It was a hot one that day, mid to upper 30s, but I sweated it out like the trouper I am. You know -- protestant work ethic and all that.

A fair number of people stopped by to chat and see what I was up to. Is there anything better than talking about me-me-me for three hours straight while people look at my work? Look out Hollywoood!



These are my biggest supporters. They know that if I manage to sell all 13 of this series they'll get Rock Band for the XBox. All of a sudden they're taking an interest in my art like never before. Children are such a comfort in one's old age, aren't they?

Greg was flipping through the local rag, The Columbia Valley Pioneer, the day before the show, while I was busy imposing my Olympics obsession on the entire family. (Yes, I'm an addict and yes, I love beach volleyball! So there.) He discovered this:

Stay tuned for more of the roadshow in future episodes. You'll want to find your dark glasses now so you can fall asleep without me noticing.

is art dead?

This has been just about the busiest August I can remember. We've been back five days and I still haven't downloaded all my photos. Unheard of. By the weekend I hope to have dealt with the most pressing of the drudgeries but meantime, here's the drawing, taken from a photo I took the evening before near Radium Hot Springs, that I demo-ed at Effusion Gallery on August 16th.

We covered 3000 km in 10 days and I spent most of that time looking for dead and dying trees to photograph (even at 140 km/h) as I am completely enamoured with their expressive beauty right now. Hell, I'll take anything dead -- and I did. I brought home cow, badger and skunk skulls, an assortment of antlers and horns and a half a cow jaw from Alberta. OK, so I don't exactly do my vacation shopping in the tourist shops. I have Michelle instead, who collects these things while riding her horse on the plains and in the foothills. That's way more valuable.

And speaking of the value of good artist friends, check out John's experiments in negative-space drawing. I love his latest approach to problem solving. Do drop by; with a little encouragement I'm sure he'll post more.

I may do dead art but art is definitely not dead. This is the best electronics reduce/reuse/recycle I've ever seen for ages, using dead phones to make very alive art.

lucky 13

All packed up and ready to go to the gallery. See you there?

We'll be gone for about 10 days. Calgary is the eventual destination. Road trip!

this blog has text, too

I discovered, after reading the comments on the last post, that nobody actually reads the words over here so all I'm going to say is:

YAY! I'M FINISHED! (Slide show here.) Pour me a double, my good man.

when rudy's rich all his words will be in clouds

I love this. Choose a selection of text that you want to make into 'word cloud art' and go here. I decided to choose a chunk of text based on Uath, the hawthorn tree (May 13 - June 9), that goes along with my latest drawing. Here's the artwork:



And here's the cloud (click image to see full size in Wordle):



More great stuff from Rudy:

skateboards + light
toy cars + paint

I'm pretty convinced that one day Rudy will be rich from all this. How rich? According to Rudy:

When I'm rich, this will be my apartment.

very cool video for a super amazing touch screen computer (which I will have, when I'm rich)

Starry Night on Second Life (which will be my virtual home, when I'm rich)

Bar code art (which will be featured on everything I buy, when I'm rich)

adam's art

On Saturday afternoon the other artist in the house (13 year old Adam) and I did a little creative experiment. We took two of his pencil drawings (one of Egyptian god, Set, and one of his own invention) and did a mixed-media drawing each on black. This is the first time he's tried working like me, so I was really interested to see the result.

Here's Adam's Pigman and my interpretation.

Here's Adam's Set and his interpretation. I think he really nailed the process.

And here's the artist, looking all reflective and deep, taking a break yesterday at Gold Creek.

church on sunday

Today's 'service' was a hike at beautiful Golden Ears Provincial Park, about an hour east of where we live (and, weirdly, where First Blood was filmed). I really needed the break after spending most of the time that I haven't been working at the hospital (or doing the 45-minute drive to/from) since my dad had a bad one in an ongoing series of strokes two weeks ago. He's feeling better now, i.e. complaining endlessly and alienating all the nurses and hospital staff, so things are looking up! :)

We hiked five kilometres up to Gold Creek Lookout and had a picnic lunch. The weather was perfect (mid 20s) so it was cool in the forest.









On our way back down we stopped beside Gold Creek, which is so incredibly clear -- and tasty!













Back to the salt mines tomorrow.