Barbara Cole is a fine art photographer I have admired since my days in Toronto. She creates dream-like imagery of the female form, and over the last ten or so years has been focused on underwater photography.

More videos can be found here.

In her artist talk she took the audience all the way back to the beginnings of her career, and how through luck and circumstances she ended up as fashion editor for the Toronto Sun. Cole told this hilarious story of her very first assignment with the Sun, which was to cover Fashion Week in Paris. An unfortunate miscommunication left her without proper access to any of the shows, so at twenty years old she had to come up with a solution and boldly make her way, or risk not meeting deadlines and failing.

What I loved most about Barbara Cole’s talk was her willingness to admit most of the time she didn’t know what she was doing. Few people will admit to this publicly because it puts them in a vulnerable place, but really most of us don’t know what we’re doing more than half of the time. I wish more people would make this statement so we can all be okay with it. It’s not a bad thing to not know what you’re doing because this is an opportunity for learning. Cole’s solution to her lack of knowledge was exactly this: she simply taught herself what she needed to know.

Much of what was said by Barbara Cole was a good reminder of the value of learning by doing. She has done it for her entire career and it has served her well. As a self-taught artist I sometimes feel insecure about my abilities, as if they are less valid than someone who has an MFA or BFA in fine art. But then I realize even the most educated of artists needs to buckle down and go beyond what they’ve learned in school in order to fully evolve as an artist. I skipped art school (which would not have been a good fit for me) and went straight to the in-studio professional development phase of my artistic career. My work has matured by leaps and bounds over the last few years because of this dedication.

I admired Cole’s work before the talk, but now I think highly of her as a woman. She’s in her fifties, but comes across as a much younger person. She’s had a long and distinguished career, continues to create inspiring work, and explores new aspects of her fascination with underwater photography. Barbara Cole comes across as someone content with her life, relaxed with who she is.

It was refreshing to be in the presence of a confident woman. And perhaps it is this most of all I walked away with from the talk. The idea of not just the artistic career I aspire to, but the type of woman I want to be as I get older.

For your May long weekend reading pleasure, I present a few items you should check out:

• Mixed media artist, Carlyn Yandle, writes one blog post a week about art. Each one is well-written, thoughtful, and insightful.
• Ditto for blog posts written by M.A. Tateishi, another Vancouver artist with excellent writing skills.
• Money Money Money, a series of blog posts by Kim Werker on money struggles for the creative person. It was inspired by a letter I wrote to her.
• A beautiful post about body image and confidence by Vivienne McMaster. It speaks strongly to how women tear themselves down, but can also build themselves up.

Have yourself a relaxing long weekend.

I don’t often find myself in this type of situation because I am a process-driven artist and I don’t have a specific result in mind from the start. I am interested to see how something will evolve as I work. But once in awhile things still go awry.

The two cut paper vessels that I’m sharing in this blog post began life as a single piece of 19″ x 25″ black paper. My intention was to make a large rectangular structure I could hang from the wall. The more I worked on it, the less I liked it. I realized I was happy with the paper cutting but the structure was too boring. It also reminded me too much of a decorative designery thing for candles that someone would buy from Crate & Barrel.

I decided to salvage the situation by cutting the paper in half with the idea I would create smaller individual structures from each piece. I couldn’t leave it as one piece because I’d already scored the paper for folding into a rectangle.

I’d left an uncut edge along one side of each piece so I could attach a piece of paper and create a bottom to the structure. The first strip of cut paper became a wide cylindrical shape. It’s about eight inches in diameter and nine inches at the tallest point.

With the second strip of cut paper I decided to aim for an irregular structure. I had the piece of paper curve around three circles as the bases and wound up with what you see here. It was an experiment, and the end result is a bit wonky but interesting.

As a side note, the paper I used for these was a bit lighter than I normally work with and I think it may be a bit too delicate for creating more structural pieces. Working with black was also a nice change from all the white I’ve been doing lately.

Thank goodness this piece was flexible enough to salvage and transform into something else. I think what I’ve ended up with has turned out to be much more interesting than my original idea.

While this blog remains in wordpress the portfolio is built with Behance ProSite. I was really tired of my work looking bad in the half-assed galleries I’ve had on the blog for years, and really wanted something more professional looking.

I chose Behance because I use their free site to share my work with a larger creative community and the ProSite pulls my projects in from there. I like this aspect of having my work in multiple places at once. The interface is relatively easy to use and the templates are straightforward and simple enough to cleanly show off my work. Check it out as Behance ProSite is free to use until you choose to publish your site.

For your viewing pleasure, find this visual treasure trove of my work at portfolio.rachaelashe.com. Peruse at your leisure, and share it both freely and widely.

Show & Tell is intended to become a regular event at HAWC, with a different speaker each month. The series will feature enthusiastic amateurs to veteran professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds sharing and discussing something they’re passionate about.

The series kicks off with our first speaker, writer/editor/crafter extraordinaire, Kim Werker, on May 21st at 7pm:

Sometimes It Ain’t Pretty:
How the Painful Parts of Creativity Can Be Our Strongest Assets

No amount of you-can-do-it cheerleading can prepare us for the inevitable pitfalls inherent to creative exploration. We’re going to struggle, we’re going to stumble, we’re going to fall flat on our face. The thing is, everyone does. So rather than avoiding failure at all costs, I say we allow – or even force – ourselves to dig deep into it for a while. From an intimate understanding of our relationship with failure we can become stronger, more flexible, less afraid, and more adventurous.

Free tickets and more details on the Hot Art Wet City website. I hope you’ll join us…

Show & Tell
Hot Art Wet City
Date: May 21st, 2013
Time: Doors at 6:30pm, talk at 7pm
Location: 2206 Main Street @ sixth avenue

There was a very broad selection of work on display both in terms of medium and quality but I found a few gems to inspire me.

From Ashes, by Helsa Ahmadi.
(Detail of a larger work)

Grus Americana #2, by Natasha Broad
(Detail of a larger work)

Islah & Her Mother, by Carolyn Lakowski
(Detail of a larger work)

Fine Lines, by Elizabeth Jacob
(Detail photo of a larger work)

Intersecting Space, by Pierce Jordan
(Detail photo of a larger work)

I never went to art school so it’s interesting for me to visit and see the results of four years (?) of art education. I still think self-taught is the way to go, but I’m probably biased…

It’s this musical aspect of the festival that has led me to create more instruments from paper. My friend Siobhan, a musician as well as a visual artist, loaned me a violin and a tambourine to use as reference. The violin proved to be a much trickier object than an acoustic guitar to puzzle out and reproduce as a three dimensional object in paper.

The tambourine was relatively simple by comparison. What I like best about making instruments from paper are the problem solving skills that kick in as I try to puzzle out how emulate some piece of the object normally carved from wood, or made from metal.

I will be making one final instrument for the show, a mandolin. I’m really hoping it will be easier to reproduce than the violin.

Located at the intersection of at No. 1 Road and Moncton Street in Steveston, this is the first scramble-style crosswalk in BC. Carlyn’s design, “was an attempt to weave together the history of the Japanese net-makers and the modern-day marine flavour of this corner of the Lower Mainland using a simple, enduring motif.” I think the results are very striking.

I would love to see municipalities commission more work like this, where the art is integrated fully into the cityscape. I think Canadian cities too often underestimate the importance of public art, but maybe this is in the process of changing.

At the beginning of this week I decided to take a much needed break from social media tools. I sometimes feel worn down by watching other people’s lives on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and all the unwanted noise that comes out of it. I do enjoy using these tools, and often find inspiration from them, but they’re also a HUGE distraction. It’s good to turn down the volume once in awhile, and now was as good a time as any because I have a lot of work to do.

Over the last few days I’ve found myself with iPhone in hand wondering what to do with the thing. By not allowing myself to check Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram I have much less distraction from my phone. It makes me realize just how frequently I look at the darn thing, and use social media to procrastinate or distract myself.

I sometimes wish I could do without these tools, but they play a large role in how I share my work with the world. I’m not sure how I would do this otherwise. They are also the source of connections with interesting people, events, and ideas, so it’s not all bad.

Sometimes you need to step back from familiar things in order to fully appreciate what they bring to your life. And I am reflecting on this as part of break. But until I return to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, I’m going to enjoy a quiet, centred, less distracted mind.

All the photos were taken as Siobhan was touring us around her studio space upstairs from the Ranger Station Gallery. She’s been working on a series of large mixed media paintings on paper and a few smaller paintings on wood panel, all of which are stunning. The subject matter is inspired by some of her recent struggles, and mixes imagery of the natural world and man-made items.

It was a wonderful visit, full of food, good conversation, and beautiful weather. I think all four of us came away feeling very inspired and wanting to get down to work in our own studios.

Siobhan’s show opens at the beginning of June. I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

From the press release:

…Malcolm Gladwell identified 10,000 hours as the “magic number of greatness” in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. The artists featured in this exhibit are working towards 10,000 hours in their own expertise. They are intimately familiar with many aspects of their chosen materials –what they can and can’t do, where they can push them, as well as their metaphoric, communicative potential.

‘10,000 Hrs’ presents a wide variety of mediums from ceramics, to fibre, from jewellery to sculpture and installation work. The show runs from April 15th to April 30th, 2013.

10,000 Hours: Celebrating 40 Years of the Craft Object
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
Date: April 15th to April 30th, 2013
Location: 6450 Deer Lake Avenue Burnaby

As with the previous two words, Create was freehand cut from a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ red card stock.

All of the cut paper typography work is available as a print, iPhone case, and more through Society6.

Click the links below to read the full articles.

Cut Paper Structures – Rachael Ashe

Sway Vision: Imaginary Girl by Rachael Ashe

It’s always a thrill to have my work mentioned on other blogs.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Wisps, 2013 – 12″ x 12″ cut paper in cradle panel

Using the inside of a wood cradle panel as my frame, I sanded and painted it with a light wash of white. I cut the three strips that make up this piece separately from the one piece of paper and all are attached by a tab of paper at the top and bottom. The middle piece is slightly deeper in the frame than the others.

These are just some quick photos so the lighting isn’t quite right, but this way of integrating the paper cuts into the frame creates more depth. This is important to me because I wanted room for the paper cut pieces to cast interesting shadows, which will vary depending on the lighting.

With each new exploration I feel like I’m getting closer to where I want to be with the paper cutting work.

If you love the cut paper typography series I now have three words available on Society6 as prints, and iPhone cases. I really love the cases and may have to get one myself. I’m hoping to make these available in a few other colours, so let me know if there is something you’d like.

Keep an eye on Society6 as I add more work to my shop.

To give you a sense of scale this is an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red card stock, and the letters are between 2.25″ to 3″ high. I create the word in photoshop first, print it out and use this as a template to draw an outline of the letters. All the cutting of shapes is done freehand.

I enjoy trying to form the letters from smaller shapes. It’s actually pretty challenging because I am working so small. I think it’s an excellent exercise to refine my paper cutting technique even further.

Other than the word “Create” can you suggest other short words that would make a good addition to this series? I’m open to requests.

I go a little bonkers taking endless photos of every type of flower I can find. My favorite combination are the pink cherry blossoms against an intense blue sky.

Oh spring, how I love thee!

There are about 100 artists contributing work, and each was provided with a basic wooden kokeshi doll they could customize however they liked. I am very curious to see all of these dolls together on the night of the event.

My doll is eight inches high (we had a few sizes to choose from) and I have decorated her head to toe in cut paper. Her face is cut from white paper, and her clothing and head dress are cut from red paper.

The dress is one piece of paper, while her head is decorated with multiple pieces of cut paper. This was actually her first outfit which I cut to pieces and used a different way because I wasn’t happy with how it turned out (because I’m picky).

If you’re interested in purchasing one of the dolls the silent auction is happening on Thursday, April 25th, from 7pm to 9:30pm. Tickets are $25 to attend and can be purchased in advance online using paypal.

This is Current Swell’s latest release, “I Want A Bird”.

The video was created by the wonderful team at Giant Ant.

Working with volumes of antique books she has meticulously created a staggering amount of paper butterflies using a paper punch. The overall impact of this mass of paper gives the viewer a sense of wonder. It’s really something to see.

Both installations include the original book cover, which is a really nice touch. I would love to create a paper installation on a similar scale someday.

There is an artist talk happening this Saturday March 23rd, and the show continues on until April 13th. Read more about Ruminations of Order on the gallery website.

It’s a lovely little side project of creating artwork using the word Art, and she’s invited people to join her. I don’t normally have much interest in exploring typography in my own work, but the project inspired me to experiment with typography created in my style of cut paper.

I chose a font in photoshop, Tamil NM in bold, made it large enough to nicely fill an 8.5″ x 11″ page and printed it out. I used this as a template to trace the outline of the letters first and then freehand cut all shapes. It was really fun to do, and has me pondering more potential work using type.

If you’re interested in creating your own work of the word Art, check out the about page of Art Is A Way for details.

A few photos taken last week when it was sunny, warm, and felt like spring was about to begin.

With this latest piece I was trying to take a slightly different approach than the previous work I finished last week, but I ended up creating the same structure, just with a different paper cut design.

The variation I attempted with this was to score the bottom and sides to create folds in the paper. I don’t quite have enough understanding about how to do this, so my folds didn’t work the way I thought they should. I was also going to taper the structure at the top and attach it together but threw that idea out the window as well.

I want to play around with structural explorations on their own without doing all the work of cutting paper, just to properly educate myself. But the paper cutting makes a big difference to the integrity of the piece, how it holds together, and its ability to stand.

Just in case you’re wondering, the finished size for this one is 8″ high, 6″ wide, and 3″ long. I hope I can eventually make something even larger.

Taking Up Space

Part of a Bigger Story

I am very happy with the ideas I came up with for each theme. I managed to keep things interesting and creative despite the limited time I had to work on these each day.

This puppy wanted to be in the picture too

Out of Focus

I wasn’t feeling very motivated or inspired before the course began but it was just the thing to get me energized and creating new work. It really pays to shake things up sometimes and take workshops with other creative people in order to seek out a new source of inspiration.

I kept the form simple and made a basic cube with two of the sides left long. I’d had in mind to have these two long flaps eventually connect together but things went in a different direction as I worked.

I chose a leaf as the repeating shape and cut away most of the paper on four sides, leaving the bottom uncut. I decided to contour the top and sides of the box by cutting away the straight edges of the paper. It makes the whole thing seem even more delicate.

I left a thin border of paper around the sides and attached these together with glue. The finished size is about 5.5″ tall, 4″ wide, and 4″ long.

I’m really pleased with this prototype. I actually feel ready to move onto creating finished work.