Browsing “The Proof”

“Gayle is a professional artist who is very committed to her craft. She attended Emily Carr University immediately after graduating high school. Her determined attitude got her in many exhibitions and she had two solo shows by age 23. That year, 2010, she painted herself into getting tendinitis. Her main passion is for painting, but it doesn’t end there. When it comes to picking music I can always rely on her to get some great tunes from any decade. She’s always had an innate talent for music, and even writes and sings for our band. Although at first she was too timid to sing in front of just me, when she gets on stage now she can interact with a crowd of strangers and create a positive atmosphere. Even though she works so hard at keeping herself busy she always has time for the people around her. She’s a happy and confident woman, and her assertive attitude has a certain friendly warmth to it.

Even though we have a lot in common when it comes to personality, it seems like she has a different perspective on the world around her. I can’t say I’m shocked at the way she can solve problems sometimes. Being in a relationship with Gayle is quite the experience. Her wit and charm always keep me laughing, and I’m happy to have her as my best friend.”
-Justin Symonds

The Proof

01 This is a piece that I painted live for a charity event. Its Justin’s eye.

02 Justin and I at a recording studio while waiting for our band  “No one like you” to be edited. We are half the members of The Strangest Days. You can download it for free here: www.reverbnation.com/thestrangestdays .

03 Here is my best friend at Buntzen Lake Reservoir (my favourite place in the GVRD). We loved to hike up the mountains and in the summer swim together there. He had an amazing presence that I will always hold dear to my heart. Bear Arnold 2001-2012.

04 Here I am with my mom, dad, brothers, and their girlfriends. I’m the baby of the Arnold family (my dad was the youngest of his generation as well). My big brothers mean the world to me.

05 My amazing parents. This photo was taken in Maui on a family holiday. They are two of the most gentle and loving people I know. They started with nothing and worked their butts off to become extremely successful and I am proud to have them as my parents.

06 This is my cat, Kitten, in my studio. As you can see, he is a great model.

07 Here is a shot of one of my storage shelves in my studio. My novels, sketchbooks, oil and acrylic paints and mediums are shown.

08 Here is a shot of my band, The Strangest Days. I am blessed to be in a band with three very talented individuals. Photo by Derrick Chesterton.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
I live in Coquitlam, a suburb of East of Vancouver.

What do you do and where?.
I work from home as a Professional Artist, but I have started a second occupation as “Art teacher” in Vancouver (multitasking is something I’ve always enjoyed). My second solo exhibition Regardez-Moi was completed during a residency in Montréal, and I was in a group exhibition in Toronto. I would like to continue showing around Canada.

What are you working on?
Commissions, organizing and participating in events, teaching, leading the band to a record and more gigs, and a series about fashion marketed to China.

Where can we find your work?
Art: www.gaylearnold.com
www.facebook.com/gaylearnoldTSD    
Music: www.reverbnation.com/thestrangestdays

Ashley Forshaw is an experienced, enthusiastic and passionate makeup artist practising her craft in the Vancouver area. She is proficient in all aspects of makeup application from fashion to airbrushing to prosthetics.

Her experience includes makeup for movies, weddings,  promotional campaigns and magazine articles to name a few.

She loves sharing her knowledge and is currently an instructor at Blanche MacDonald School.

Her most recent special project was a year long effort creating a series of photo shoots which she incorporated into a dayplanner that was sold to raise funds for the ALS Society of Canada. (www.adreamcometrueforals.com)

When not pursuing her desire to learn and practice all aspects of makeup, she is an eager outdoors enthusiast as she loves to snowboard and skateboard.
Dance is also an interest as shown by her involvement in both hip hop and Zumba classes.

The Proof
01 My work is all about painting the body and face. In an average week there is always one nude model in my house.
This model was painted to show the animals effected in the BP oil spill.

02 My Inspiration board, without this I would never get anything done, or at least never get anything done well.

03  I also create small prosthetic makeups, and in order to do this it is necessary to take a life cast of the model or actor.
This image is a stone replica of an actresses face. From this I created a fake nose and chin, that was applied to the actress.

04 Last year I created a 2012 calendar for the ALS Society of Canada. I produced 13 images all based around fairytales.
This is one of my favourite makeup. Face prosthetic, head to toe body paint, fake teeth, and a fuzzy fur texture covering the full body.

05 Some of my brushes, without these my work would look quite rough. It’s like being an online editor without a computer.

06 In addition to designing and creating the face and body makeups for the models, I also created the skirts. I am no fashion designer. My skill with fabric, consists of duck tape, fabric glue and chicken wire, but surprisingly one would never know.

07 In action. This was a body paint I designed for the Vancouver IMATS show. when you wore the appropriate 3D glasses, all of the organs appeared to come out from the body

08 A great combination of all things makeup. Beauty makeup, prosthetics, paint, and contact lenses.

The Questions
What neighbourhood do you live in?
I live in North Vancouver

What do you do and where?
I am a makeup artist and body painter. I work freelance all over B.C. as well I am an airbrush instructor at Blanche Macdonald Centre for applied design.

What are you working on?
Currently, I am designing a body paint for a competition in Florida

Where can we find your work?
www.fairytalesforals.com
http://www.facebook.com/ashley.forshaw
http://gallery.me.com/ashleyforshaw#100008
www.canadiantalentfarm.com
Google Me.

“Binge work lifestyle and international wanderlust.  Fine single malt and champagne powder. Lil Wayne as business coach, Burning Man as spiritual home town.  If you squint, you can see elements of design theory in a life lived like this one. Contrast, texture, asymmetric balance, negative space; I wish he’d clean the goddamn office fridge.”
- Andrew Simpson  - partner in crime.

The Proof

01 This is the view onto Pender street from one of our windows at The Still Brandworks. We are in the 101 year old Duncan Building in Gastown. I like things with history and legend behind them. I’ve also spent a lot of time building this company.

02 This is something I recently worked on! 8 pound, hand blown, gold / silver inlayed, hand calligraphed and engraved special bottlings of scotch and tequila. They were gifts for our clients this Christmas. Each one has immensely thick glass walls to transmit the colour of the spirit they contain.

03 I love riding bikes up, especially down and also in the general vicinity of mountains. In the last few years, I’ve gotten into touring as well as downhill mountain biking. This was something I had wanted to do since I was a kid. This is a photo of me by Ben Taft.

04 This is my 26 year old triathlon race bike, “Dave Scott”. I do not do triathlons. I found her on Craigslist two summers ago and rigged some saddle bags onto her for touring. Since then I’ve ridden / hobo camped all over the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island. Last summer I spent a month cruising around the islands of Croatia. Hence the speargun.

05 I think I’ve been snowboarding for 17 years now and it is one of my great loves. Snowboarding has defined much of …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

I met Kevin in art school 14 years ago. His face was pierced in 3 places and I wasn’t too sure what to make of him, really. Except that I was curious to learn more. I remember all of our first casual conversations and I can’t say that about anyone else in my life. To think, I married that guy 6 years later…I would never suggest it was love at first sight, but I suppose my intuition always knew he’d be an important part of my life. And that’s a gift in itself.

I’m really one of the lucky ones and met him early and boy, did I find a good one too! Never a day goes by that he doesn’t surprise me with his sharp wit, charm and absolute creative talent. He’s an idea guy (a curious one) and will try just about anything once, otherwise the thought of NOT doing it, plagues him. And me, as a result.

2.5 years ago while riding his bike home, a car hit him. A scarier time there never was for either of us. When you’re hit in the face with that amount of reality – it can ONLY change you. Since then Kevin’s become much more spontaneous, fueled with a renewed sense of adventure and craving new experiences. Always the avid mountain biker, he’s recently signed up for the 7-day BC Bike Race this June. I’m so proud of him and his love of life and how much he embraces his ideas and passions.

He’s definitely a good guy to have around. I love how much he reminds me of that, everyday.
Love, Mélanie Kimmett (his adoring wife)

The Proof
01 This is me and my wife Mélanie.  She’s my best friend, the love of my life, a truly phenomenal designer and illustrator and the reason we moved to Vancouver in the first place.

02 This is our cat Charlie, he’s always trying to cheer us up on those gloomy Vancouver days.

03 When I’m not on my bike or in front of a computer you can always find me covered with dirt at our plot in the Oak & 16th Community Garden.  These are carrots from my garden I planted way too close together.  I liked the way they fused together and created an exhibition of this vegetable oddity.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinkimmett/sets/72157624467054559/

04 Enjoying the mind-bending spectacle of Animal Collective on stage at Coachella 2011.  We love multi-day music festivals, this was the 4th Coachella we have been to together. Music is always a part of my day – from when I first wake up to when I go to sleep at night.

05 Friends – check! Discreetly hidden drinks – check! Giant inflated outdoor movie screen featuring the classic film Ghostbusters – CHECK!  More than 2000 people gathered for the second annual Outdoor Movie Night in Yaletown on a 40’ x 20’ BIG screen.

06 I used to work in Toronto before relocating to Vancouver 6 years ago.  I still have a lot of conference calls with the old CBC team so I made this stuffed toy (as an effigy of myself) to ensure the team would never forget me.  He was named Lil’Kev and rumour has it he’s been put in many compromising positions.

07 BIKES! I love to ride.  When we first moved out here I signed myself up to the Summer Gravity Camp in Whistler – 6 days of DH – pure heaven.  I also commute to work, everyday.  When friends and family in Ontario ask how many times a year that is and I say 5 days a week for all 12 months of the year, I still think that they don’t believe me.  This year I signed up for the 2012 BC Bike Race, it’s 30km a day for 7 days all off-road!

08 My office workstation at CBC Vancouver.  I try and keep it nice and tidy – the mirror is so that no one can sneak up to jack me with a sock full of pennies while I’m absorbed in music/design.

The Questions
What neighborhood do you live in?
Just on the border of Shaughnessy.  (Oak & 16th)

What do you do and where?
I’m Senior Designer for the Digital Product Development team with CBC Media Operations & Technology.  We are a small team doing some big work. By exploring the ever changing and emerging media landscape we define ways for the CBC to better serve its audience through digital products and services including mobile, social media, advertising, and user interface/user experience. (i.e. I designed the first EVER CBC Radio and Hockey Night in Canada iPhone apps!)

What are you working on?
At work – Web and mobile apps, Connected Television, Second Screen interface and user experience research.  At home – my new web site, planning my garden, the ever growing pile of magazines and books, episodes of Mad Men/Breaking Bad/Dexter and training for the 2012 BC Bike Race.

Where can we find your work?
www.kevinkimmett.com!  Or you can google my name to see all of my social media endeavours.

Style. Ever difficult to define, always crushingly obvious when it’s bad, often inimitable when it’s good. And Craig David Long has it in spades, effortlessly so.  During his Communications undergrad studies at SFU, he parlayed the success of his street-style blog The Commodified into a year-long online reporting stint for FASHION magazine, whetting his taste for mainstream media in the process. Craig’s departure from the blogosphere was marked by the beginnings of his editorial career with MONTECRISTO magazine.
Yet that’s just the obvious. His sartorial exterior belies his mad predilection for groaningly bad puns or weakness for raiding the crunchy-snack aisle at T&T. Ebullient yet introspective, playful yet very much an old soul, Craig is certainly a study in contrasts. He has a soft spot for grandpa sweaters, patterned shirts, and slim trousers and might very well sell his soul for two fingers of peaty Scotch served in a vintage cut crystal glass. As my ofttime cohort in the consumption of charcuterie and the creation of kickass home-cooked meals, I’m proud to have Craig as one of my best friends.
—Joie Alvaro Kent

The Proof
01 This behind-the-scenes photo was taken by Jennilee Marigomen at a recent photo shoot we did with her for MONTECRISTO. It was a coincidence that everyone arrived wearing a toque that day and Jennilee captured the irony of it. Soon after she posted the image on her blog it went viral, and people have been responding with all kinds of funny comments—the best of which I’ve highlighted on my blog. It sort of speaks to my fascination with social phenomena in fashion. Before working at MONTECRISTO, I used to document street style in Vancouver, though a website I called The Commodified.

02 This is a photo of my living space. I try not to bring design objects into my home unless they have some kind of personal significance to me. Here you see a brass wall sculpture that belonged to my nonna, an old trunk that my dad refurbished, a blanket I picked up in Mexico City this year, a pillow-case that I sewed by hand during a crafting session with a friend, and a wooden candle votive that a family-friend carved for me. The table and sofa are regrettably from Ikea.

03 This is my window sill at the office. Inside the tag attached to the monster toy, Todd, it reads, “Todd puts undue pressure on himself to succeed. It makes him walk to fast.” Though I’m proud of all my accomplishments to date, the last few years have been moving at lightning speed. These little objects—Todd, the plant, the postcard from Hawaii—are reminders that I should also take time to sit back and relax.

04 This is a custom cocktail that my friend and MONTECRISTO contributor, Jay Jones, made for me at his bar at Market by Jean-Georges. Right now I’m really loving the whole craft bartending scene in Vancouver, and Jay can always nail my craving. I think I said, “something earthy, like licorice root and stone fruit,” and he created this delicious cocktail with Chivas 12-year, Pernod, sweet vermouth and plum syrup. Jay and I also share an appreciation for vintage glassware.

05 This is a photo of my 10-year-old friend, Noah. We often like to tease each other, and one day Noah dressed up like me to give me a hard time. Actually, it was a huge honour. Noah is an inspiring kid: he is a competitive swimmer, he’s incredibly intelligent and articulate, he is an avid electric guitarist, a voracious reader, and he has a fantastic sense of humour. I recently brought Noah with me on a sailing adventure, which you can read about in the Winter 2011 issue of MONTECRISTO.

06 This is a photo I took in Paris. One thing people may not know about me is that I’m fluent in French. I’ve studied the language my entire life, worked in bilingual environments, travelled to Montreal and Paris numerous times and I get a huge kick out of French foreign films, French music and, of course, French food. I’ve often felt, when speaking or listening to French, that I was born into the wrong language. Then again, I do much prefer writing in English—it seems to be something I’ve found I have a knack for.

07 Even though I am the acting editor of a regional magazine, where I am fortunate to be exposed to the latest and greatest things in the city, I feel like there is still so much left here to discover. I’m currently on a personal quest for the authentic Vancouver experience. What I’ve discovered, so far, is that it can sometimes be the most obvious thing, like cycling the seawall, which I did this summer with a friend for the first time in ages.

08 An extension of #07: this year I have travelled a lot, for work and for personal vacation. As amazing as all of these experiences have been, there is nothing better than coming home.

The Questions
What neighborhood do you live in?
I live in the Commercial Drive area, but I exist in all parts of the city.

What do you do and where?
I am currently the acting editor of MONTECRISTO magazine, a regional lifestyle quarterly based in Vancouver. I also occasionally write for NUVO and The Business of Fashion and was previously a reporter for Fashion magazine. Prior to all of this, I had a Vancouver street style blog, The Commodified.

What are you working on?
Right now I am actively working on the Spring 2012 issue of MONTECRISTO (mid-March), which has lots of very exciting stories lined up, and am also formulating ideas for Summer 2012 (mid-June). That will soon be underway as well. I’m also working on a story for NUVO magazine about my recent trip to Oahu, Hawaii, where I had an incredible farm-to-table culinary tour of the island.
Where can we find your work??Individual copies of MONTECRISTO are available at Chapters/Indigo locations across Greater Vancouver, or you can subscribe to the magazine by visiting our website. I also aggregate items from my portfolio along with images, photos and videos that inspire my work on my eponymous personal Tumblr, CraigDavidLong.tumblr.com.

Rachael Ashe is a professional artist. This is not a title that one takes on lightly, but it’s something that she’s been working towards for years. Rachael went to school for photography at Humber College in Toronto, but quickly also went in the direction of all things digital – from Photoshop to blogging. Rachael moved to Vancouver in 2004, just in time to be part of the online community of photographers that grew up alongside Flickr, which is where I first met her.

At the beginning of 2010, Rachael left her day job to focus on her art full time for a year. Beyond photography, she has more recently focused on mixed media collage, found objects, paper folding, and most especially altered books. From multiple shows, a healthy newsletter, and her first Eastside Culture Crawl under her belt, the year has been a success. Rachael now finds herself again with a part time day job wrangling online community at Foodtree, a local startup focused on helping people know more about their food.

When you meet Rachael in person, you will notice colour, vibrancy, and creativity – adjectives that equally describe her wardrobe and her personality.
- Boris Mann

The Proof

01  This is Yuuki, my lovebird companion. We’ve lived together for about nine years now. He is the most charming, funny little bird.

02 Boris is my partner and best friend. He’s in charge of all the cooking at our house. Boys are sexy when they cook.

03 Books inspire me, and I’m constantly exploring different ideas around transforming their pages.

04 I love paper. I buy some materials new, but I prefer to work with paper I’ve reclaimed, like old envelopes, scrap paper, or used wrapping paper.

05 This is a deer skull I collected from Boris’ parents place on Bowen Island. It’s fascinating to study it up close and see the structure and details of what’s normally hidden under the skin of an animal.

06 I recently completed an installation at the Foodtree office where I work part-time. We’ve nicknamed it the Treehouse so I decided to make us a tree. It’s made from yarn, pushpins, and fabric leaves.

07 I’m obsessed with streetart, and this is an example of someone’s work I’ve seen quite often in East Van. I came across this on the walls of the Raja Cinema.

08 One of my favorite things about Vancouver is the large population of crows. I never get tired of watching the flock pass overhead on their way back to their nightly roosting spot.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in? I live just off of Commercial Drive near the old Raja Cinema. It’s the quiet end of The Drive but still as vibrant as the rest of the area. I love the excellent food shopping and all the wonderful murals scattered throughout the neighbourhood.

What do you do and where? I’m an artist and I work part-time from a small studio in my East Van apartment. My background is photography but for the past few years I’ve been creating altered book assemblage collage from old books and found objects. I also work part-time for a tech startup called Foodtree, which is based in Chinatown.

What are you working on? At the moment I’m preparing for back-to-back shows coming up in the next three months. I’ve created a new series of altered books featuring owls, which I’m just in the process of framing. I’m also working on an installation of flowers made from paper to show during the Eastside Culture Crawl.

Where can we find your work?
My work can be found online at rachaelashe.com or flickr.com/goddess_spiral. From November 18th to 20th I’ll be opening up my home to the public during the Eastside Culture Crawl, where I’ll be showing new altered books and an installation or two. I’m also a vendor at Got Craft? in December, and have a solo show at Place des Arts in January.