a path no wider than a pencil stroke

new

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:53:00 +0000

20x16"

getting ready for a show that will be at gallery at 129 Ossington, in Toronto

in the month of december

Exhibition at Muse Gallery, in Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:59:00 +0000

la petite souris (the little mouse), oil, acrylic on canvas, 72x48"

Showing new work at Muse Gallery, in Toronto,

from sept. 10 to oct. 1st,

Opening reception : sept. 10, from 6-9pm

(a bit about this series is written down below "A Little Girl I Know")

Sneak Out Plan B

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:57:00 +0000

sneak out plan B, oil, acrylic on canvas, 48x36

bibliothèque

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:54:00 +0000

bibliothèque, oil-acrylic on canvas, 48x28

Flying Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:52:00 +0000

flying machine, oil/acrylic on panel, 36x36

Tomato Red

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:51:00 +0000

tomato red, oil/acrylic on panel, 24x24"

Tumble

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:50:00 +0000

tumble, oil/acrylic on panel, 24x24

Upcoming show "A Little Girl I Know"

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:44:00 +0000

ready for school, oil/acrylic on panel, 24x24"

A little girl I know:

Her name is Bernice.

She is four and a half.

She is good at making treasure maps,

good at taking care of her grandpa,

and good at doing math tests.

And she has the fastest running shoes.

She would like her room to be painted white and salmony pink.

Also,

Going down the stairs

On her tractor
She can fly.

What I have been most touched by recently is the way in which the presence of a little person (in my case, my niece) brings about a new way of seeing the ordinary, and a much greater appreciation of imagination and mystery. Also, how by her not quite knowing what is impossible, sometimes allows for its possibility.

With these latest paintings, I mostly began with images of children’s rooms, continuing my exploration of spaces; our ideals vs. the actual lived in space. These starting points for the paintings were gradually transformed by editing out some elements, covering up, messing up, or scratching away to get some things back, and allowing the paintings to take on a life of their own. With this way of working, the ending point is usually a surprise.

The process relates to the way in which we can have an ideal for a child’s room, more like a showroom, and the contrast with the actual inhabited one, where the presence of a child transforms it completely, bringing mess and life and magic into the space.

Gallery at 129 Ossington, in Toronto, nov. 6-29

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Souvenirs adoucis

36"x36", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

Tangling and Untangling

Lines evoke several metaphors for us: following the line of a story, hanging by a thread, connecting the dots, tying up loose ends. Continuing to explore lines—whether drawn or painted, made of wire or thread, tangled or sorted out, or formed into a grid. They create a rich contrast as they interact with the solid squareness of the boxes and panels.

Gallery at 129 Ossington, in Toronto, from nov. 6-29

Reception: Sat. Nov 8, 1-4pm

Hours Wed - Fri 11am - 5pm, Sat 12 - 5pm or by appointment

http://www.129ossington.com/Galleryat129Ossington_AnneLaureDjaballah.htm

aerial view

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Retracer ses pas / Retracing My Steps

42"x48", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

Some people noticed how this one is different from a lot of the other work, and I think it is partly from that is doesn't really have a lot of gravity, like the view from above rather than one with a horizon line - more of a diagram.

It will be showing at the gallery at 129 Ossington, in Toronto, for the month of november.

how to give structure to memories?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:49:00 +0000

4"x4" sketch

Sortir par la fenêtre

24"x12", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

How it is so easy to change the way we frame a memory , after it happens, a week later, a year later - always needing to give it a more definite shape, or window frame to isolate it from all the other moments that come before and after.

These windows of moments, where the element that stands out most clearly afterwards is the line that creates a path, which moves on into the next moment and then another, and in time forms the arc of a story - the one we chose to tell about ourselves.

ce qu'on oublie

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:27:00 +0000

48"x36", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

on the surface of things and what's below

une histoire qui se forme et qui s'oublie

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:19:00 +0000

36"x36", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

I didn't expect this one to form a pair with the one below until they were placed side by side, and then I saw just how the black block on the left was answered back by the black in "clarté". I had initially intended it to be a pair with the one above.

Snapshots from different stories, and as the frames get shifted, the story becomes harder to read, and it becomes more about the movement, the way things are still connected, but no longer in a straight line.

Clarté

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:50:00 +0000

Clarté, 36x36", oil/mixed media on canvas

Exposition à la Galerie Dentaire

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Échapper aux habitudes, 42"x48"

Fils interrompus et chemins retracés

Trait dessiné, ligne pointillée, fil à coudre ou fil de fer ; la ligne relie un élément à l'autre, suggère un trajet, crée un récit. Elle raconte une histoire.

Lines, broken up, tangled, linking the dots, drawn by hand, made of paint, thread, string or wire, the line connects one place to the next, suggesting a path, and telling a story.

Exposition du 3 septembre au 15 octobre 2008 / Exhibition from September 3rd to October 15th, 2008
Vernissage le samedi 13 septembre de 17h à 20h / Opening on Saturday, September 13th, 5-8pm

1239, rue Amherst, Montréal
514.523.5535

Rebuilding: Show at Muse Gallery, Toronto

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:17:00 +0000

Leaving Well

24 x 24", oil and acrylic on panel, 2008

Taken by the Hand

24 x 24", oil and acrylic on panel, 2008

One Small Piece

24 x 24", oil and acrylic on panel, 2008

Rebuilding;

Thoughts on falling apart and putting back together

Scenes of buildings, mostly houses, have prompted this series: homes that have been destroyed by fires, hurricanes, flooding, even roofs caving in under the snow, and houses under construction. I used these images as platforms from which to explore the process of rebuilding after the loss of a home, be it a physical one or a metaphorical one.

These 3 pieces are part of a show continuing until June 27 at Muse Gallery, in Toronto.

Thoughts on falling apart and putting back together

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Rebuilding, 38"x38", oil/mixes media on canvas, 2008

Lately, I have been fascinated by buildings, mostly houses, ones under construction or ones that have been destroyed by disasters - fires, flooding, hurricanes, and roofs caving in under the snow.

This winter’s heavy snowfall created a whole new landscape. Visually, snow simplifies, "minimalizes", the view is reduced down to the bare minimum, down to bare geometry, or flattened. Colours are at a minimum on a white ground and almost white sky, and what so what stands out most is the lines, such a richness of lines, as if drawn on paper.

This type imagery is compelling at another level also. Home disasters make visible and public what we normally keep as private, hidden "behind closed doors". There is no more boundary separating inside and outside. The construction or rebuilding of homes allows us to see the skeleton of the house, normally kept hidden as well.

In visual terms, both create stark contrasts (light/dark, inside/outside = public/private, surface/underlying structure (house’s skeleton), accumulation/simplicity).

I have responded to this imagery from different angles, using them as starting points from which to explore the question of what we do with the loss of our place of stability and security. Some of the paintings are more like diagrams – a way of laying out a situation abstractly in order to sort things out, to try to see them more clearly. These ones are more map-like. Others use the structure of a home, or building under construction. And then some play with indoors/outdoors, where the initial image underneath was based on an interior, and as that image was destroyed, small windows or shadows of what was underneath still remain.

I have a feeling that whether it’s the loss of a physical home or one’s emotional home/family/place of centering, stability, love – how one deals with the situation can be similar, the only difference is that one is usually kept private, whereas the other is public, often shared by a larger community. There is some freedom in no longer trying to keep up the exterior appearance of order and hiding the private messes.

2 Red Blankets

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:54:00 +0000

36"x42", oil/acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Shifting

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:56:00 +0000

48"x36", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

Morning Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:51:00 +0000

42"x42", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008.

stable

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:48:00 +0000

42"x42", oil/mixed media on canvas, 2008

preparations

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:11:00 +0000

preparations, 36x36", oil/mixed media on canvas

New piece that I have been working on. The idea was to have a piece relating to winter for the Ossington group show, but as I went along I realized that the colors I was using were more spring-like. (was thinking of colors that you seen in snow and sky during sunrise or sunset, but then I began to use turquoise, and it was mixing with yellows to make light greens, really losing that winter feeling). I see it as preparing for winter, getting ready for it by putting away all the good weather and greenery and freshness in storage boxes to be ready for next spring.

I was going to say that I had been tugging and pulling at it, but really I feel like it was tugging and pushing me, and just frustrating me. It is funny how once you photograph it, reduce it in size a bit and see in on screen, you can see it more clearly, get a good overall picture and can forget about the little bits that kept annoying you while working on it. It has been handy to have a camera and computer for that, because before I used to just set a piece aside for a few months till I forgot about it, and then would be able to go back to it with fresh clearer eyes.

plans

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:11:00 +0000

plans: organizing

plans: fix

plans: steady

plans: hanging

plans: in stages

These were all 2x1ft, on canvas. They have been the closest that I've managed to get to doing a series of paintings. Usually I get started on 3 or 4 that I intend to go together, but then somehow they end up straying off in different directions and end up as pieces that stand better just on their own. Maybe the small size helped with this - although I didn't really work on them side by side, but just as a group, going back and forth between each other. Probably having a tight deadline to finish them helped me to keep to one main idea also.

The process of painting, for me, is one of trying to reorganize, figuring out relationships between different elements, detecting patterns that I find in different types of situations, and trying to understand them. It is a good way for me to process my thoughts, and have them be mirrored back to me. I called these paintings my plans, because while they aren't plans for any one specific project, they are about my plans and also how I go about planning (in real life, I'm terrible at planning things out well, in detail, broken down in steps - this series represents well the way I plan things).

conversations (yellow)

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:36:00 +0000

conversations, (yellow)

20x20", acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2007.

available at the gallery at 129 Ossington, in Toronto.

I've been thinking of lines/threads as metaphors for communication, not so much in the technological sense, but in the various often complicated ways that we communicate with each other. Meanings and intentions often get tangled and do not connect, can be delicate, subtle, or loud and obnoxious, and can also be connected to colors (funny connection too, with how we use the term "tone of a conversation" in the same way that we can talk about the tone of a color

I think this painting got a bit lost during the show, because most of the pieces had strong darks or bright reds, whereas this one was quieter.

more window boxes

noreply@blogger.com (Anne-Laure) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:47:00 +0000

It's more recently that I started using thread with small nails inside the boxes, some of them remind me of a connect-the-dots puzzle.