A Dream Come True - My Article in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine

I have been enamoured with one magazine for several years now. This love affair with Cloth Paper Scissors started slowly, smoldering as my collection of issues grew, and finally engulfed me after I gave birth to my eldest daughter, Quinlyn. I nursed her on demand, and she demanded so much that she was 26 pounds by 6 months old, and I felt literally trapped under a baby most of the time. I longed so much to work on my art, but never really had the energy, something that most people who know me will never hear me admit. I normally have oodles of energy! The time was bittersweet, since I loved my baby and most parts of being a new mother, but I missed my freedom. Making art is up there with the things that I need to do to live, like breathe and eat. I am not me when I am not being creative. I had some commitments, to a gallery show here and there, and I made what I could, but it was not nearly as much as I was used to. So, I decided if I couldn't physically make as much art as I wanted to, I would be creative in other ways, such as by cooking, photographing my baby, and by reading, reading, reading about techniques I wanted to try. The cooking and photographing came easy, as did the devouring of new techniques, but it was sheer agony not to be able to actually make much. The magazines that I spent the most time reading and rereading, next to Mothering and Vegetarian Times, were Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset Studios. It was at that time that I made myself the goal of bring published in a magazine. As a photographer I had been featured in several newspapers. And since then, I have had work in Filament, Highline, and PhotoEd Magazines, as well as in the book, 1,000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. All awesome but my heart skipped a beat the day I received my advanced copies of the 39th Issue of CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS, the one that I wrote the Workshop article on Fuji film transfer processes for. I am so happy, proud, amazed (I am still pinching myself that I have been working with the amazing people at Interweave!!) and excited. I own every single issue of this magazine, I even has my mixed media quilt, I Need Your Kindness, appeared in the Muse Flash section several issues ago, but now I am one of only a small number of artists who have shared their knowledge in a Workshop article. CPS even challenged me to make a video of the technique to go with the article. I am on cloud nine. Thanks so much, CPS, Jenn Mason, & Barbara Delaney!

I have worked with Fuji and Polaroid film processes for over 10 years. I have always wanted to write about it...

 

I love this image of Editor, Jenn Mason, with her vintage Polaroid Land Camera from Ebay...

 

My bio, fun stuff!

 

Page one of the article, with two assemblages I made to accompany it.

Featured in the Light Leaks Gallery, the LAST Issue, Sniff, Sniff....

Light Leaks Magazine, Issue 19, Secrets

Light Leaks, Issue #19, arrived in my mailbox yesterday. It was a bittersweet moment, because I knew one of my images was being featured in the gallery, but I also knew it was the last issue ever. Yet another one of my favourite magazines is no longer being printed. Here is what Mike Barnes and his wife, Rachel, had to say about their decision, in an email sent out about 2.5 months ago:

"As you know, we have struggled to keep Light Leaks in print over the past year. We had an excellent plan—with the addition of the Light Leaks Shop and Holgapalooza we felt the financial difficulties could be resolved. Unfortunately those additions required more of our own time. With a growing young family, free time has quickly become our most precious commodity.

While we enjoyed working on Light Leaks over the years, we have come to a point where we must focus on our own careers to support our family. My own interest in toy camera photography has always been a hobby, not a profession. Unfortunately as much as I loved putting together Light Leaks I spent most of my time putting together a magazine about toy cameras, but not actually being able to use those toy cameras myself!

Contributing to each issue of Light Leaks magazine was (I think) an excellent use of my time, and I think all those who contributed will feel the same way. It was always a labour of love for an end product that never lacked in quality. For all of you that have been scoffed at for wielding your beloved low-fi cameras, Light Leaks represented you and why you love what you do.

For current subscribers, you believed in us, and we thank you for that. We would be honoured to have you consider your unfulfilled subscription a donation into helping us pay our final printing payments. We can offer you some of the remaining back issues that we have left, or some of the digital versions we have created (which also includes The Toycam Handbook), however supplies are limited. In addition to creating some revenue from the digital issues, we have had to sell off our entire store inventory to help get this last issue to you.

We will be closing the Light Leaks shop, but keeping www.lightleaks.org open along with links to the digital versions.

We want to thank you all for supporting our humble magazine, and especially to those who contributed over the years, particularly Gary Moyer, Steph Parke, and of course my wife, Rachel who did a lot of the work behind the scenes. Best to you all in your future low-fi photographic adventures!

Mike Barnes (toycamera@rogers.com)"

My little one...

...hamming it up

My image, Talking Walls, is a Holgaroid double exposure, made using a Holga CNF 120 with a Polaroid back. The original image is on chocolate Type 80 film from impossible project, which has shades of brown and pink, but it was printed in black and white for the magazine.

 My photography also appeared in Issue 13, Road Trip and Issue 14, Childhood.

Goodbye, Light Leaks. You were a stellar Canadian publication that toy camera lovers around the world will always remember fondly. Thanks so much!

FIVE - Congrats to Guerilla

Can it be? Guerilla Magazine is 5 years old?! Back somewhere near the beginning, Tony Martins, asked to feature my Polaroid transfer work along with a wonderfully written article called "When Nude and Food Become Narrative". Because of being involved with the magazine, Tony contacted me to be part of a retrospective exhibit at OAG, The Ottawa Art Gallery. I have enjoyed many exhibits there, and once had a duo exhibit "brown & pink is the NEW black & white" in the theatre upstairs, with my friend, fellow photographer, Angela Marklew, as part of the Ottawa Fringe Festival.. I have never shown in the main gallery so I am excited about it. I wish I could be there. As the invite above states, the event is on September 3rd. The pieces that I will have on exhibit are:

Golden


Eggplant


There will also be a silent auction featuring work by the following artists:
Juan Carlos Noria
Karina Kraenzle
Michael Zavacky
Allen Ford
Susie Osler
Sarah-Jane Schorlemer
Cindy Stelmackowich
Jane Burnstein
Jeremie Roy
Rémi Thériault
Tony Fouhse
Angelina McCormick
Darren Holmes
Jonathan Lorange
La Petite Mort Gallery
Tiffany Teske
Uta Bakowska
Pedro Isztin
Eric Chan
Dipna Horra
Paul Galipeau

Not a bad group to be amongst. If you would like to see the image that I donated to the auction you can go to my Polaroid blog, since it is a mature theme that I decided not to post here for those who don't like nudes.

Ottawa Where Magazine Feature

I was shocked and pleased to be approached by Where Magazine in Ottawa about my current show, Wanderlust at the D'OMMA Gallery. First I was contacted to have the show listed in their gallery listings online. Then, I was contacted to be featured in the two page spread of the current print issue under "Hot Art". NICE! The write up and photo turned out really well. Thanks, Where Magazine!

Miss Me??

We moved into our new home last weekend!! As seems to be the way I do things, I also completed a bunch of new firsts in the midst of house renovations, packing, unpacking, cleaning, tripping over things, and trying to find toilet paper, a frying pan, and my underwear. I started a new job, working two days a week at my friend Pam's children's boutique, Silver Spoon (big bonus, Quin comes with me to work!); I taught a mosaic mirror making workshop for kids at the Banff Library (not the first time I teach this but the first time I teach a course for the library and it was awesome); I am working on a whole new body of work for a solo show in Ottawa in August at the d'OMMA Gallery (my first show of work containing mostly recycled materials, aside for adhesives and paints). And, as luck would have it, our internet, which should have been on at the new house as of Monday, was JUST CONNECTED TODAY, Friday, yes, 5 DAYS after it should have been. Needless to say, this has caused my blogging to grind to a screeching halt, and has made it quite difficult for me to answer all the emails I have received about booking photo sessions during our upcoming Ottawa/Maine trip. Sheesh. I guess with all the other things going on, it was better I could not hook up to the net. However, when I can't get on the net, that is when everything happens (when it rains it pours). In this case, everything is that Where Magazine in Ottawa, asked for images of my new work so they can feature me in their Hot Art Sections (Yippee!!) AND Jamie Ribisi featured me as one of her Fine Art Etsy Finds (Double Yippee!!) which lead to 6 new sales (Triple Yippee!!!). Thank goodness I am back, ahhhhhh, technology, I love ya!

Well, Its About Time...

... for the rain to stop. It has been raining since last Wednesday (it is Monday today). I woke up to the sound of raindrops and a wet world but then it cleared up. I almost didn't believe it.

And, it is about time that I FINALLY put up my bio and some images on the OMMA (Ottawa Mixed Media Artists) site. I have been a member for 4 or 5 years. I wish time grew on trees. I was prompted to finally do this simple things, when I received an email from the new listings editor at Where magazine. I will be the featured artist for the month of August, at the d'OMMA Gallery, in Ottawa, and she needed images of my work. When she stated that she could not find anything about me on the site, I knew it was time to check that off the list. Here my images album . Feels good.