Whyte Museum Photography Show - March 24th - May 22nd, 2012

Chateau Dreams 

From the series Seeing Double: Reflections on Human/Nature in Banff 

Original Polaroid Spectra Image (Double Exposure) 

4x4" matted and framed 8x10" 

$125

I currently have work in a photography exhibit at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. This is the fourth show I have participated at this beautiful museum, which is very near my home. The Whyte puts out calls for local artists to submit work in particular themes for these juried shows. The accepted work is exhibited in the Museum Shop and the Swiss Guides Room. I submitted four images from my series, Seeing Double: Reflections On Human/Nature in Banff. The are all double exposure images made in camera, using a Polaroid Spectra. The opening for this show is March 24th from 1 - 4 PM. The show runs until May 22nd, 2012.

2 Exit  

From the series Seeing Double: Reflections on Human/Nature in Banff 

Original Polaroid Spectra Image (Double Exposure) 

4x4" matted and framed 8x10" 

$125 

Deer Sky
From the series Seeing Double: Reflections on Human/Nature in Banff
Original Polaroid Spectra Image (Double Exposure)
4x4" matted and framed 8x10"
$125

Recycled Flowers
From the series Seeing Double: Reflections on Human/Nature in Banff
Original Polaroid Spectra Image (Double Exposure)
4x4" matted and framed 8x10"
$125

Annual Homegrown Art Show in Banff

"Give Up All Preconceived Notions" 

Collage 

12x12" 

By Tiffany Teske 

SOLD 

This is the fifth year I participated in Homegrown Art Show at the Banff Town Hall. It is a fun evening of food, drink, friends, art, and fun, in this amazing little community we call home. My piece sold to a very good friend of mine, which makes me very, very happy!

Food

More food...

Family...

Friends!

A Few Photos from the Opening of Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration

Jenny Shea with her babe, Myself, and Jo-Annie with her babe 

I am so behind on this but here they are; a couple of photos from the February 3rd opening of my current show at the Banff Public Library. There was a great turn out, considering there were four other major events happening that night in the Bow Valley. Jenny & I were so happy to welcome our friends to see our latest work. We received lots of great feedback and we sold four pieces at the opening. Jenny brought her new little boy, Luka, who was able to meet my friend, Jo-Annie's little girl, Olive. Fun was had by all! If you would still like to see the show, it will hang at the library through February 29th.

Mixed Media - Article in the Banff Crag & Canyon

A Fine Catch

By Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media

12 x 9"

$125

I would like to thank Camara Miller for the awesome article that follows...

Mixed Media

By Camara Miller

As local artist Tiffany Teske walks around her newly opened collaborative show at the Banff Public Library, she contemplates aloud about the possibility of wax and photo transfers on metals — techniques she has never tried before.

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: a Mixed Media Collaboration opened at the library on Friday and once the pieces were on the wall, Teske and copper-artist Jenny Shea were already inspired to work together again.
“(Jenny and I) are really just scratching the surface,” Teske said.

The two met a couple of years ago and immediately decided to collaborate.

“I’m drawn to metal,” Teske said, describing the inspiration that comes from working with another artist in unfamiliar territory, and in this case, developing a curiosity about working with metal.

Although the show has many solo pieces, the collaborative works had each artist making the background for a few compositions, then swapping to add onto the backdrop. Teske, specializing in photography, would then switch canvases with Shea who was creating a copper-work foundation. The pieces might have made another trip back to the original artist before each was complete.

For Shea, the process was a new experience.

“It was fun because I would see a story in one of Tiffany’s photographs and try to finish the story in my own way,” Shea said.

Teske emphasized that it really came down to trust. Both admit it wasn’t ideal to work in separate workspaces, but was the best way to work since both have young families.

While no initial themes were discussed, the show exhibits nature with a modern take on the classic subject. However, another theme that stands out is one of community. The library is an accessible venue and Shea commented that the opening last Friday led to some fantastic conversations about the works.

“Everyone will see something different in the pieces,” Shea said

The feeling must come naturally when you think about how the images were made. While the workspace arrangements may not have felt ideal, it developed some interesting art under the circumstances. One would begin the story, the other would interpret the beginnings and it would be passed back and forth. Instead of one uniform intention behind the show, it was a collage compiled by moods if the artist or stories from their own life.

Check out the exhibit at the Banff Public Library until Feb. 29.

Article in the Rocky Mountain Outlook about My Current Show at the Banff Public Library about Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration

Blame It On The Rain

By Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Assemblage

12x9"

$125

 The following article appears in this week's Rocky Mountain Outlook.  

Metal Meets Photography

By Michelle Macullo

Pick-up lines—we’ve all heard them. 

And when they’re not rude, they’re usually lame. ‘Don’t you know me from somewhere? Did we go to different schools together? Can I have your phone number? I seem to have lost mine.’  

But what’s the line when a self-taught metal artist Jenny Shea and a professional photographer Tiffany Teske repeatedly run into one another at art and craft fairs?

‘Hey baby, wanna make art?’

That’s exactly what they did.

And during February at the Banff Public Library Art Gallery, everyone’s invited to see Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration. An opening reception with both artists in attendance takes place tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 3) from 7 to 9 p.m.

The exhibit features both individual and joint pieces. At its core is Teske’s ephemeral photography and Shea’s patina-kissed, landscape-inspired copper sheet work. The result is an unexpected flow and ease to it—like to people sitting down, discussing the state of the world, while finishing each other’s sentences.

“I like learning new things and not always doing my own thing in isolation,” Teske says.  “Collaborating...pushes you to try other things.”

The joint works suggest the two sat side-by-side as the pieces came to life, but such was not the case. Juggling young families and life in general, the pair decided to hand their respective portions off without instructions. Instead, they relied on “trust and mutual respect,” to guide the process.

“Here’s my stuff,” Shea asserts. “Decide what you want to do with it. Let’s do this and see what happens.

“And I knew she (Teske) was going to create something amazing.”

Shea says art has taught her to go with how she feels—allowing the linear part of her brain to come up with a rough plan, but listening to the metal and being comfortable with what it offers.

“I’ll have an idea in my head, but by the time I start working on a piece, it can change,” she explains. “I have to let it go naturally.

“Sometimes after I’m done, I’ll go to bed and decide I’m not happy with it. But I’ll wake up the next day and know that it’s beautiful. I love the surprise.”

So now that their first collaboration out in the public domain, will there be a second for the artistic power couple?

“Absolutely,” Teske smiles. “Jenny and I are only just getting to know each other and what is possible together. I can foresee more than one other date in the future.”

Shea couldn’t agree more.

“It’s nice to work with other people’s art,” Shea echoes. “I hope I get to do it again.”

 For more information or to purchase a piece, please contact the artists directly at Jenny@themagpieroom.ca (Shea) and Oldesage@hotmail.com (Teske).

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration is on display until February 29.

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration - Art Exhibition at the Banff Public Library, February 2012

Head/Heart

by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Collage

 12 x 12"

$150

I have always enjoyed collaborating with other artists. I have never been the artist who toils away in my studio, all alone, hoarding my "secrets", and being afraid of others "copying" me. I have gotten to where I am today by learning from other people, artists, and teachers who have been willing to share their knowledge. I have gone on to have a generous attitude about sharing my knowledge and to have an insatiable appetite to learn.

Ocean Romance

by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Collage

 12 x 12"

$150

I met Jenny Shea just over a year ago, at the Whyte Museum. We were both participating in a holiday art sale. I was instantly drawn to her beautiful pieces made with metal. Take a look for yourself at her website, The Magpie Room. She also liked my Polaroid transfers and we traded our art. I even bought one more piece of Jenny's work the next day. I had only just met her, but I was excited about somehow trying to combine our styles, for me to somehow use my images on her metal collages.

Make Memories
by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

 Mixed Media Collage

 12 x12"

$150

I have shown my work several times at the Banff Public Library and realized that it would be great to have a show there with Jenny. We applied, got to work, and tomorrow, February 1st, we will hang the show. It will be up until February 29th. If you are in the area and would like to come to our opening, please keep reading for all the info....

Opening Invite: 

Join artists Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske for the opening of their month-long exhibit at the Banff Public Library at 101 Bear Street in Banff. "Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration" is the result of Jenny's metal work and Tiffany's collage & assemblage work being combined into pieces that were completed separately but by both artists. For some pieces, Tiffany created the backgrounds, then gave the pieces to Jenny to finish, and in others Jenny started, and Tiffany finished. Each artist has chosen some of the titles for their pieces. In addition to the collaborative pieces there will be many of Jenny's signature metal pieces and several encaustic collages made by Tiffany. Everything will be for sale through the artists, and Tiffany will bring some prints and items that will only be available that night.

Please join us from 7 - 9 PM to celebrate our show which will run until Feb 28th. We look forward to seeing you, and to showing off Jenny's newborn son, Luka. :)

Artistic Epiphany
by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

 Mixed Media Collage

 12 x12"

$150

CAAG Small Gems Show - December 2011 - New Encaustic Collages

Pretty Bird

Encaustic Collage

12x12"

$175

I have work in three group exhibitions this holiday season; at Cube Gallery in Ottawa, at The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, and at the Canmore Artist and Artisan Guild (CAAG) Gallery in Canmore. Running until December 27th, 2011, the CAAG Small Gems show has a wide variety of photography, collage, paintings, pottery, and mixed media pieces. It is at the CAAG Gallery, 950 8th Avenue, in Canmore, the same building as the Canmore Public Library. I have 6 pieces in the show...

 Back When Life Was Simple

Encaustic Collage

9x12"

$175

Spread Your Wings (Fly)

Encaustic Collage

9x12"

 $175

Play

Encaustic Collage

9x12"

$175

He Love Me (He Loves Me Not)

Encaustic Collage

12x12"

$150

Rolling Stone

Encaustic Collage

9x12"

$175

More Art This Weekend at the Whyte...

Lone Pine (Norquay)

Polaroid transfer original

3x4"

By Tiffany Teske

$150

I just posted about the Kaleidoscope of Crafts sale at the Whyte Museum this weekend, Friday November 18th, and Saturday, November 19th. If that was not reason enough to make a trip to the Whyte, there is also an exhibition opening in the Swiss Guides room of the Museum on Saturday. It is called Small Treasures, and will feature the work of Alberta artists, many of them local, with an emphasis on smaller, affordable pieces for gift giving. The show will run from November 19th to January 17th, 2012 with an opening reception from 1 - 4 PM on Saturday, November 19th. I have four pieces in the show and will be at the Museum during the opening.

Winter Sun

Polaroid transfer original

3x4"

By Tiffany Teske

$150

Frozen Shadows

Polaroid transfer original

3x4"

By Tiffany Teske

$150

Winter Blossoms

Polaroid transfer original

3x4"

By Tiffany Teske

$150

Canmore Leader Article about Hot Flash (Encaustics Show at Elevation Gallery)

 My friend, Cheryl, & I, at Hot Flash

Hot Flash
By Corrie DiManno

CANMORE - "I wanted to know, am I doing everything right, because it's very difficult. It turns out yes; I'm doing it right, but my way. And there's the other way which I've learned this weekend."

This is what encaustic artist Pascale Ouellet (Bigoudi) got out of the weekend's workshop hosted by Seattle-based artist Debra Van Tuinen as a part of Elevation Gallery's latest exhibition called Hot Flash: A survey of encaustics.

Ouellet, who has four new pieces in the show, attended the workshop to see how her way of using wax matches up with the way other artists in the medium use it.

"This is new versus old," she said describing the way she and Calgary-based Teresa Posyniak use wax. And ironically enough, it was Posyniak who opened up Ouellet to encaustics about five years ago. "We use a new technique and a different kind of wax, this is a more traditional way."

But even though it's two different worlds of wax, Ouellet took away a lot from the workshop, even a few techniques she might try in the future, like working with heat guns and irons to fuse the wax, a process she doesn't do. But as she said earlier, she's made the medium her own.

"I work really fast and this is really fast, so if it gets too finicky, it doesn't work for me. It's just good to learn and see what you do right and what you do wrong." However, it's safe to say Ouellet is doing it right with the digital printing she had done for the first time as the backgrounds on her new paintings. The backgrounds serve as the types of wallpapers that Ouellet is drawn to, because although ideally it's wallpaper she really wants on the canvas, wallpaper itself is not archival quality, so she used digital printing in its place.

"I've always been fascinated with the patterns, especially the ones from the 50s," she said. "I wanted to do something special for this series."

An addition to Hot Flash was the inclusion of several pieces made from Van Tuinen's two-day workshop before the opening reception on Sunday, Oct. 16. Mixed media artist Tiffany Teske was one of the nine participants in the workshop and had two encaustic artworks placed in Hot Flash. Teske said the workshop was a huge departure from what she normally does, which is using beeswax without pigment and creating smooth, glasslike surfaces.

Both of these techniques Teske sticks to were unglued, as both of her finished products, one called Rivers and Roads and the other Forever Thine, incorporated lessons Van Tuinen taught.

"She'd show us the technique and we'd get to work and really make something," Teske said.

Following the instructions, Teske left a lot of texture in her work and used reds and blues in her waxes, rather than leaving them clear like she usually does.

"I think it's important to constantly be learning, for me anyways, I'm so curious about everything."

corrie@thecrag.ca