Paul Octavious

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It snowed yesterday here in Calgary. It made me think of this video by Paul Octavious (whom we featured way back in issue 4) and his project Same Hill, Different Day.  Paul is a prolific and inspired person. Need a lift? View more from Paul:

I've never been to an exhibit like  Ann Hamiltons:  the event of a thread before that had inspired me to no end. So one day I brought my parents and a camera and documented my experience. Music / Sufjan Stevens - Redford ( for Yia -Yia and Pappou) http://pauloctavious.com

A 60sec experiment with the color Indigo. Music John Brion - Spotless Mind

Jennifers

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via SwissMiss 

Stepping back a moment to recall the Jen11 book and exhibition from some years ago... If you know someone named Jennifer—and judging by the graphic above, you do—this small book features eleven creative and talented artists named Jennifer. 

Featuring Jen Altman, Jennifer Bradford, Jen Celio, Jen Garrido, Jen Gotch, Jen Hsieh, Jennifer Judd-McGee, Jennifer Khoshbin, Jen Maestre, Jennifer McNeely and Jen Renninger

More than a million of us were dubbed Jennifer within the span of just fifteen years. From a place of relative obscurity, the name grew on a wave of sudden and unprecedented popularity. We’re starting to learn that the effects of this phenomenon were not entirely trivial. Now as an adult, Jennifer has become targeted as the highly sought after demographic of Generation X. In the business press, we are actually known as The Jennifer Demographic or Jen-eration and are told that “focus should be almost entirely on Jennifer right now as habits of all other segments pale in comparison to hers.” 

Most of us have some desire to feel unique, as though we have some authentic expression that is exclusively our own. So when the culture spins out the next trend based on you and your name, it is difficult to make sense of what is genuine. Maybe one truth that my Jen-eration makes visible is the simple reminder that we act collectively, often without even knowing it. Done with the right spirit, this can sometimes be the only way to act. 

—Jennifer Khoshbin

games night & open house

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Last week, Glen hosted a games design and prototyping night in our new headquarters. For the first time since we moved in there were half a dozen new people seeing the space.

All those glowing windows highlight the UPPERCASE office.

open house this saturday afternoon! 

Locals who would like to visit the new UPPERCASE home and catch up since the Art Central days are welcome to come to our open house this Saturday from 1-4pm. Please let Erin know if you'll be stopping by, so we have a good idea of how much food to have on hand! Families are welcome, too. 

As the sign says, there is plenty of parking just outside the Devenish building.

How to be 98.

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Hal Lasko, better known as Grandpa, worked as a graphic artist back when everything was done by hand. His family introduced him to the computer and Microsoft Paint long after he retired. Now, Grandpa spends ten hours a day moving pixels around his computer paintings. His work is a blend of pointillism and 8-Bit art. Meet 98-year-old Hal Lasko, The Pixel Painter.

Director: Josh Bogdan (joshbogdan.com)
Director: Ryan Lasko Editor/Writer: Josh Bogdan
Director of Photography: Topaz Adizes (topazadizes.com) Original Music: Jarrod Pedone (JarrodPedone.com)
Original Music: Tyler H. Brown (thbproductions.com)

Read the full story on Wired and view Hal Lasko's artwork on his website. 

sequins & voodoo

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Guest Post by Manita Brug-Chmielenska

Have you ever tried to photograph sequins? Let me assure you .. it is HARD! Hard to capture the richness and colour spectrum.. hard to avoid glare.. like shooting into window panes! And hard to shoot over 50 items all the while documenting their every irregularity and still making them look good! But that is what you do when photographing for an Etsy shop.

My friend Dina Knapp, an artist featured in UPPERCASE issue # 18 and her late husband, a poet, were inveterate collectors, amassing an amazing array of outsider and Haitian art.

When Jeffery died in 2010, Dina set about making sense of life and their collections. She decided to say goodbye to the Haitian Voodoo Flags and Spirit Bottles they had collected and hello to Visionary Voodoo, her new Etsy shop.

Dina and Jeffery were first introduced to Haitian art through a show at Brooklyn Museum in 1978. It was a major exhibition that included paintings and sculpture by all the contemporary Haitian masters. Jeffrey, a poet and educator, connected to the pure authentic, primitive quality of the works. Dina, on the other hand, connected to the simple scenes of everyday life depicted in the paintings, and the materials the artists used to express themselves. The sewn pieces in particular resonated for her.

This show changed their life.

Dina Knapp's art and apparel shop is Golden Hands and her vintage shop is called GrandmaBerthas.

Read more about Dina Knapp in UPPERCASE issue 18. 

wips: artist/illustrator Christine Kim

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While perusing the UPPERCASE Work-in-Progress Society pool on Flickr, I came across this photo by Christine Kim. Intrigued, I contacted her for more details. Christine writes, "I'm preparing an origami parade for Nuit Blanche this year. Our installation is called Paper Orbs and it will be up next week." For those of you in Toronto, Nuit Blanche is this Saturday, October 5. "6300 paper orbs are folded and scrunched, ready to deploy. Join our parade at University and Armoury from sunset to sunrise."

Prototype for Nuit Blanche installation : a folded 24"x36" sheet of paper. Photo by Don Toye, modelled by Eunsung Yoon.  

Christine fits the folded paper to model Eunsung Yoon. Photo by Don Toye.

Christine also creates dimensional images incorporating graphite drawings, collage and cut paper.

See more of Christine Kim's work on her website and watch a video here. 

creative career: optician

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photos by Tracey Ayton

For Eyes

Originally published in Issue #17
text by Janine Vangool
photos by Tracey Ayton

Sara Moshurchak is the proud owner of Vancouver’s Granville Eyeland Framemakers, a business that she purchased from her mentor optician, Klaus Sebök, in 2008, after working alongside him for seven years. 

“I loved his eyewear store and saw that designing and creating custom and handmade eyewear was the way I could express my creativity as well. Here was an opportunity to work with absolutely unique eyewear that gives the wearer confidence and pride in their look.”

Known for avant garde designs, Granville Eyeland frames are coveted by famous spec-wearers such as Elton John, Alan Cumming and Steve Martin.

Extending beyond her commissioned pieces, Sara will be releasing her first collection of completely handmade eyewear this year. “Being an optician is the best way for me to work with my hands as I’ve always enjoyed drafting, sketching, painting and architecture,” says Sara. 

The starting point for a custom frame might be a modification of an existing design or it could be an entirely new commission inspired by a customer’s style preferences. After a reference portrait is made and detailed measurements recorded, Sara explores design details such as frame shape, colour, hinge style coupled with the technical requirements of prescription and lens thickness.

Sketches done by hand and physical mockups are all part of the process in creating a new design. Once the design is finalized, the sketch is transferred to the eyewear material, typically cellulose acetate; a plastic derived from natural cotton fibers. 

From a rough cut of the design, the time-consuming process of filing and sanding begins. The frames are assembled and fitted to the customer; once any adjustments are accomplished, lenses are installed and the custom frames are polished. The satisfied customer is owner of a unique, handcrafted work of functional art.

“It is my greatest pleasure to help my clients create their own statements with the frames that they wear.”

 (The print article includes a step-by-step photographic description of how Sara handcrafts her frames. Pick up a copy of issue #17 today!)

mixmates

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Friends of UPPERCASE, Mike and Alma Loveland, wrote in to share a project that they and Melanie Burke have in the works. Mixmates are mixable and stackable wooden blocks with illustrated characters. With cute illustrations and top quality production, it looks like a product that kids and parents will both love. They're halfway to their funding goal on Kickstarter but with 16 days left could use a boost to reach 100%.

Mike included this photo in his message, pointing out the proximity of UPPERCASE magazines with their prototypes!

inventing kindergarten

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Inventing Kindergarten is a book originally published in 1997. It is an intelligent and visually inspiring history on the concept of kindergarten and the creative education of children. When I first purchased my copy, I was interested in it from a graphic design standpoint, such as the design and packaging of the "gifts" (levels of educational tools and toys invented in 1837 by Friedrich Froebel as the first "garden of children".) I actually purchased a second copy and gave it to someone studying early childhood education.

I own a soft cover of the book and shared photos of it back in 2008 on Flickr. Recently, I was contacted by Scott Bultman and the book's author Norman Brosterman who found those images and wanted to use some in their Kickstarter campaign to reprint Inventing Kindergarten. The book has been out of print for some time and the copyright has reverted back to the author. They plan on reprinting the original hardcover version. Find out more on Kickstarter.

kate schutz

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Kate Shutz will be painting live at the New Craft Coalition Spring Show + Sale event. She writes,

"My work is about memory. The past is a deeply personal and resonant place for people and I am always looking at ways to capture these feelings on canvas; immortalize them and make them big. There is both a sense of comfort and awkwardness in my work reflecting the bittersweet aspect of nostalgia. Neither entirely happy nor sad, I try to represent a universal experience that humanizes us.  My source images are snapshots from other people’s photo albums and most recently images from strangers via requests on the Internet. I am especially drawn to photos that are blurry, disintegrating or over-exposed because visually they look so much like our foggy, fading memories."

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the art song project

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At UPPERCASE, we love ephemera. It is not often that we use found bits of paper beyond admiring their beauty and including them in collage. I'm sure many of us are guilty of cutting up old sheet music; I confess that I have taken scissors to some and repurposed them for notebook covers.

For Munich-based soprano Hélène Lindqvist and pianist Philipp Vogler, when they come across old sheet music, they bring the music to life and share it on their Art Song Project website. Illustrated with their own paintings, the couple records art songs and include the lyrics on the site so that visitors can stream the audio, learn and admire obscure—and beautiful—music performed by world-class musicians.

"We're Hélène and Philipp and we are professional classical musicians. We search for unknown art songs in libraries, garage sales and on the internet. Then we record them live and put them on our website for free listening.

We have songs by all kinds of unknowns, and many of them are female composers—writing great music but being "too blonde and beautiful to be taken seriously". We also especially love to feature songs by living composers, who send us their music (we have a few "blonde and beautiful" there as well ;).

Each song comes with a painting and a translation of the lyrics, so it's easy to sit down and listen."

Visit the site and keep it open throughout your day; it will certainly enhance to your mood—and level of sophistication!

type tuesday: Jonathan Boyd

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Upon discovering Jonathan Boyd's work through Flow Gallery's current exhibiition, I'm at a loss for words. wow.

"Jonathan’s work deals with the strange and complex relationships that exist between object, written language and the body. Interested in how language can shape thoughts about an object and its context, his works often being inspired by the text’s narrative."

I believe that some of the letterforms are from typewriters and apparently he has designed a typewriter to type out his own handwriting.