DARE TO UNRAVEL: art

Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

the other side

Last year, one of my nearest and dearest friends, Cristin, and I decided to throw an art show under a collective we started called UnderBelly Art. We organized the event kinda just because and kinda just to see what kind of magic we could make with some like-minded people in the city. Our first event Yards of Chinatown, although made possible through no formal plan and the most minimal of budgets, was the cat's meow! We had a weird and wonderful group of artists, performers and patrons soaking up the community love (and spiked refreshments) and adoring local art all day long.

Since this event last summer, Cristin and I have been gearing up for another summer large-scale outdoor art event, along with a slew of other strange and mystical pop-up art events for the Fall.

Our big bang summer art show, PillowTalk (with Mr.Sandman) is taking shape and drawing near (Sunday, August 12! Woo!) Right now, we're organizing our community-driven art projects that are taking place all through July in preparation for the show. As well, we are sending out a call to all artists, performers, musicians, artisans, or anyone with an inspired idea or industrious spirit to participate in the show.

The atmosphere of the concept of 'pillow talk' simply breeds conversation, so we’re asking all participants to reinterpret, redo or reenact a moment inspired by the pillow and help us transform a space in order to explore the conundrum of sleep and dream life. If you're interested in participating or would like some more information, give me a hola! underbellyoutfit@gmail.com

You can also keep up-to-date of projects and art opportunities by liking our Facebook page. Or you can follow our every move via twitter @undrbellyoutfit

Thanks for showing interest or getting involved. Mad love!

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The UnderBelly Art Collective hosts large-scale and pop-up events that present the community with an opportunity to come together to initiate new thinking or weave a different social fabric for the arts. Taking the form of a gallery, a performance space, a gathering for miscellaneous ideas--you name it--UnderBelly aims to create a welcoming and highly accessible venue for artistic freedom and exchange.

Our creativity is expressed through the love of thought. Love of art. Love of sounds. Love of love. We are looking for the beauty in every moment--we cheer on the tug of war between artistic abandon and structure. We applaud the moments that are simultaneously chaotic and harmonious. We encourage the heroic experiments of the maniacally over-ambitious, while provoking curiosity and curating a new experience. Like a black hole, Underbelly wants to draw you in and make sure you can’t escape our pull. But this isn’t rocket science. This is magic.

[website launching summer 2012]

this'll do

I'm not going to tell you what I've been up to, I'll just let you draw your own conclusions based on these images--all of which I love and kinda sum up life these days. I know the writing has been moderate lately but I'm so enamored with all things off-line that my beloved blog has been shuffled down my list of priorities. Regular scheduled blogging and all other digital self-indulgent practices will resume soon enough. Thank you for checking in consistently regardless of the lack of updates. Love y'all.

images via http://thethinkingtank.tumblr.com/ http://dumdumgrrrl.tumblr.com/ and comme de garcon installation

don't stop.don't change.stay beautiful.

You create your own reality. You chose how you feel about the outside world, other people.. you’re even free to chose how you feel about yourself--although, we often forget that.

You don’t have to be down today, you don’t have to be regretful of the past, you don't have to be the version of yourself that others like and you can't stand. Don't stop. Don't change. Stay beautiful. Sometimes, happiness is much simpler than we make it out to be.

images from inspiration folder

the process

Think about it. Scratch it on paper, a napkin, the back of your hand. Let it keep you up all night. Grab the materials without thinking. Lay it out. Lap it up. Cut it. Destroy it. Mend it. Reunite everything. Peel away the layers slowly. Rip into the meaning quickly. Tag it. Scrutinize it. Hang it on your wall. Try to ignore it. Wake up in the middle of the night and look at it in the dark. Take a picture of it. Take 20 more pictures of it. Edit. Re-edit. Keep it simple. Kiss it goodbye.
That's my process in a nutshell.

|image Judit Reigl, Outburst, 1956. Metropolitan Museum of Art|

adrian ghenie

so inspired by this painter

right time wrong turn

Installation Images by Alicia Kwade

“I like to be the right thing in the wrong place and the wrong thing in the right place. Being the right thing in the wrong place and the wrong thing in the right place is worth it because something interesting always happens.”

This quote from Andy Warhol echoes the theme of recent days for me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have a habit of being at the wrong place at the right time. Timing, in general, has always been a point of interest and concern for me --I’m chronically tardy, I never wear a watch, and I have an unrealistic perception of time. And luck! My (mis) fortunes should be tracked and studied by the Lady Luck herself due to the sheer volume of people and opportunities storming in and out of my life in the most peculiar ways. Luck and timing always go hand in hand. And although many people are afraid to acknowledge the huge dependency their lives have on luck --thinking they have this great control -- the truth is that we don’t have as much control as we want to believe. After many years of experiencing head-spinning chance encounters, I’ve realized that there’s no sense trying to control them. So when the clock strikes trouble I’m usually nearby. As much heart- and head-ache as I experience, being where you perhaps shouldn’t (or didn’t want to) be can also be life changing and force you into unanticipated situations where, as Warhol put it, interesting things always happen.

Has a wrong turn ever turned out right for you?

the art on my walls

These three prints by Lucy and Bart, a photo collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess, can be found on a wall in my apartment. I love them. I adore them. There hasn't come a day where I've been tired of looking at them. They've been in my face for two years and I still find myself hopelessly intrigued by them.

letters for lost lovers

I just rediscovered these images I had saved on my computer a few years ago,

They are of from an exhibition called Letter to Clair by photographer Patrick Swirc.

For more than two months Patrick Swirc wrote a letter in the form of a diary by taking a photo everyday for Claire, the loved one who had left him. He made no secret of his hope that she would come back. This letter

\was intended for her, and she received it.

My dearest Claire,

In this letter you will find all my grief, poured out each day into a picture.

I photograph myself. I am saving what no longer exists.

I want you for eternity.

Patrick

text via

images via

outsides insides

Say hello to a few paintings done by my beautiful and talented friend, Shannon Armishaw.

Things you should know about Shannon:

She creates dream-like landscapes liberated from practical concern.

Her ability to spin flesh and bone through rigid city structures in her images reminds me that it takes a certain kind of artist to convey the sensory experience of space.

She can paint to shine a light on a dark place.

My neighbor is her dopppleganger.

Her work is exhibiting at The Ottawa Art Gallery in Art Rental and Sales for the rest of the month.

Check out Shannon's blog here.