Archive for December, 2010

Thanks to Mercedes La Rosa at Bijougraphie we’re adding these 4 Lucky Charm necklaces as prizes in the insane raffle we’re holding right now! Each piece is one-of-a-kind, hand painted and worth $45.

If you haven’t yet purchased tickets to our donor raffle they’re available HERE for $25 each. There’s a 1 in 4 chance that you’ll win a prize! Winners will be announced on January 3rd, 2011.
If you’ve already donated you’re eligible to win one of these necklaces or any of the other items pictured HERE.

The 7th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival returns to Vancouver mid January!

Cover image: Stan Douglas!

The PuSh Festival is Vancouver’s mid-winter festival presenting acclaimed local, national and international artists. The 7th annual PuSh Festival takes place January 18 – February 6, 2011 at venues in and around Vancouver and offers work from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Poland and Germany. The Festival has been hailed by The Georgia Straight as being “an event that brings the cutting edge to you, lighting an insanely creative bonfire in the middle of the deep, dark winter.” and presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts with theatre, dance, music, and various forms of multimedia and hybrid performance.

This year the festival boasts 17 Main Series shows, a mapping symposium, and the triumphant return of Club PuSh and the PuSh Assembly networking event. The Festival also features a suite of works that reflect upon Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary and notions of ‘cityness.’

For a look at the full schedule and information on purchasing tickets and festival passes visit PuShFestival.ca and follow them on Twitter at . You can also pick up a program guide (with an amazing photo by Stan Douglas on the cover) at any of the 10 JJ Bean locations or download it as a PDF HERE.

Expert handcrafting and high-end design make a beautiful couple, don’t you think?

Local design and manufacturing company Bocci has a glass-blowing studio on site. It’s pretty awesome to watch their high-end chandeliers be created right in front of you.

The manufacturing process, often involving expert hand-craftsmanship whether in glass or other mediums, is as important to the design team as the final design. As they say, “Bocci’s philosophy is that the form of an object should relate directly to the manner of its making. Instead of inventing form, we focus on inventing a process, and the process in turn yields form.”

And now Bocci is looking to produce a couple of three- to four-minute videos on the making of two of their products. To gain a fresh perspective, they’re having a contest to find a videographer. Here are the details, in Bocci’s words:

Please submit a video, maximum 30 seconds in length, about the “making of” a fried egg. Upload your video to YouTube and check “unlisted” in the privacy setting, then email the link of your video and your C/V to eggs@bocci.ca no later than February 1, 2011. Judging will occur in the first week of February by a panel consisting of Bocci’s board of directors (including Creative Director Omer Arbel), and the results will be announced on February 7th. The two final “making of” videos need to be complete no later than April 1st, 2011.

The winning candidate will receive a $5,000 fee (Canadian funds) and one sample of each of the pieces filmed, in exchange for the production of our two “making of” videos. The winner will also receive travel to and from Vancouver, living expenses (if required), and a modest reimbursable expense budget (to be discussed at a future date) for equipment rentals. Bocci already owns a Panasonic AG-HMC150 PU camera which may be employed to gather footage. The winning candidate will be credited in all of Bocci’s promotional material, including the debut of one of the two videos at Rossana Orlandi’s Gallery during the 2011 Milan Design Week.

Sometimes we call her MacGyver. Galen can pretty much make anything out of anything, especially when the clock is ticking and domestic emergencies loom.  I’m serious.  She is a brilliant multi-tasking renaissance momma, spilling over with inspiration and love for us all.  She expresses herself creatively before she gets her funky pants on in the morning, and she’s constantly evolving and finding fresh ways to spread her lovely vision. Galen worked primarily as a painter in her twenties and early thirties, and
explored an impressive range of themes and styles.  She began working with fabrics a few years ago and now uses her super-fine taste and creative instinct to take beautiful prints, materials and colours and convert them into an entrancing collection of adult and children’s clothing pieces, stuffed toys, pillows, play-tents, magical garden things, and assorted other seriously charming and beautiful whatnots.  She loves colour, texture, pattern, form, and function, and every one of her creations has it all.   So these days, maybe she’s less MacGyver and more MacGyver’s Lovechild.
- Lynda Hutcheson biased, long time co conspirator

The Proof

01 A typical view. Most days involve some twirling, some Ramones, a good book and a flight of fancy.

02 This must be my desk these days. Loaded and ready for action, my sewing machine tricked out for good times.

03 A favourite site. My 3 true loves heading up a mountain for berry picking.

04 The Mighty Tick guarding future art supplies against the forces of evil.

05 This looks familiar. A fleeing model making tracks in one of my new sewing endeavours. She’s clearly on the hunt for champagne.

06 Some recent projects. Top and bottoms. Not much of a poker players face.

07 An unexpected self portrait. When I painted this, years ago, it was a metaphor. Now it’s a day in the life.

08 I’ve been making lots of critters these days. It’s amazing the social networking that takes place with the stuffed people and the 3 year olds. This guy is a well intentioned criminal master mind.

The Questions

What neighbourhood do you live in?
41st and Arbutus-ish – I wish it had a (debatably) sexy street name like “K-town” or  ”the Dale”, but it shuts down at 8 so the sexy street namers are all napping in sweet Kerrisdale.

What do you do and where?
I’m a painter, and newborn fabric artist burgeoning on crafter.  I’m also a newbie blogger, (contain breathless excitement, “oh squeal another blogger”). Since I’m in my breeder phase,  I wrangle  short people most days and look for art and craft from about 3 feet off the ground. I try and do something creative as a daily practice, sometimes I even groom.

What are you working on?
These days I’ve moved from the canvas to the thread. I’m often working on multiple things at once: Funky kids clothes, not your Grandma’s quilts, my own Franken-stitched stylings and getting up in the morning.

Where can we find your work?
You can see my painting here,  and my crafty forays here.

UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED!

Save the date! On January 13th, 2011, Vancouver Is Awesome will be presenting a charming night of comedy and music at the Waldorf Hotel…

Full lineup announcement coming soon. Until then, save the date!

WOW! A serious post-Christmas miracle just arrived in the form of a $1000 donation which came from the proceeds of the WINTER IS AWESOME fundraiser party that Troy Kelly and Jeremy Harrison put together for us at Ginger 62 last week!!!

HUGE thanks to both of those guys as well as Barry Rabold and everybody at Ginger 62 including DJs Mike Lake, Riley Keefer, Byron Kopman and Trevor Risk.

This is by far the most creative way that anybody has ever donated financially to V.I.A., by independently organizing a fundraiser and then dropping off the proceeds for us. To hell with Winter and Vancouver being awesome, it’s all about THESE GUYS!!!

Hello, Baby Santa Claus here.  For many people Christmas time is the time of year when you spend time with friends and family to relax.  For others though, it’s a time to get rad.

Courtesy of the brothers Gilley, I’d like to bring to the masses, this wonderful display of holiday cheer starring me, Baby Santa Claus.  More often than not, I prefer to be at home alone than in public with Mr. Choy, but this was an exception, I’m glad I made the trip out the parking garage to be a part of this video.

****Warning: video does not contain strong language but does contain some Mariah****

I started this project called A Stranger A Day to overcome my shyness and talk to people. The challenge: talk to a stranger a day and try to convince them to let me take a picture and share a story. Since most tattoos have a story behind them, this will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome.

Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Stranger #92

Location: A friend’s house, Main and 10th.

Text message: “I have a stranger for you. He is full of tattoos.”

That’s all it took. My friend was scouting for me, which was awesome. I asked her if I could come over, she said yes. She knows how this goes, so she didn’t even mention the project to him. I showed up at her place, and before being introduced, I approached the stranger and asked if he wanted to be part of the project. He said yes! I was offered a beer, and started chatting.

“Yeah yeah! Of course, I love helping people. This is no problem at all. Let me think which tattoo I should show you. Maybe this one, the one on my knuckles. SNFU stands for ‘Society’s No F***ing Use’. It was a punk band from Seattle, back in ‘82. Then in 1987 they moved to Calgary. They were pretty big in the Vancouver punk scene, I remember these shows at the Cobalt, where 300 kids would gather and sing along. Everybody was there.

Then one day we were all high on meth, living in a punk commune here in Vancouver. I asked what SNFU meant, and someone said ‘society’s no f***ing use’. A tattoo gun was ready and I just got it, because I strongly believe that. I believe in keeping it local you know. Societies are getting too big, to a point that no one knows anyone anymore. Everybody is just using someone else, instead of helping each other out…”

It was awesome to hear his story, and the context. I am always honoured to hear points of view, and it is amazing how different strangers end up having opposing stories, with their own beauty and intricacies. Anyways, I am rambling here. We continued to talk a bit more and then the conversation branched off to other topics. It was a cool night. I am glad my friend texted, and that he decided to share. :)

Thank you stranger!

To check out the daily strangers, click here:  astrangeraday.com