Monday, December 28, 2009

CityCentre Las Vegas marries Organic with Modern

CityCentre Las Vegas Revives Architecture and Brings Fine Art Back to Las Vegas


I recenlty visited Las Vegas, an annual trip for me, my interest this time was taken up by the new CityCentre development beside the grand Bellagio Hotel & Casino on the Vegas Strip. This new development is only about 75% complete, but it already impresses. The architecture is world class and dwarfs the 'adult Disneyworld-like themed' resorts that currently reign on The Strip.

CityCentre is a 'bold' example of what human talent is capable of...with contributions from leading architects & designers; Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, RV Architecture led by Rafael Vinoly, Helmut Jahn, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Rockwell Group, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Foster + Partners & Gensler.


CityCentre will also become the centre for fine art in the city with galleries featuring the 'organic' glass artist Dale Chihuly and Cirque Du Soleil inspired bronze sculptor, Richard MacDonald. Amongst the 5 main structures of CityCentre you will also be inspired and pleasently surprised when you find yourself standing in front of art by Maya Lin, Jenny Holzer, Claes Oldenberg & Coosje van Bruggen, Frank Stella, Richard Long, Nancy Rubins and Henry Moore.

For more info about CityCentre visit the website here http://www.citycenter.com/

Monday, December 7, 2009

Salish Art & Great Coffee Combine to Raise Funds

Fresh Cup celebrates their 10th Anniversary Christmas Blend with Doug Lafortune – Local Tsawout Artist ‘Salish Santa Image’





December 2nd, 2009 – Saanichton, B.C. – Well known local artist and carver Doug Lafortune is putting one of his newest images to good use. This December customers will find Doug’s artwork on the back panel of the Christmas Blend. He recently came up with the idea of putting his new image named ‘Salish Santa’ on packages of coffee, roasted locally by Fresh Cup Roastery CafĂ©. ‘I originally did this drawing over 20 years ago, before the birth of my son Bear and came across it last year as I was doing some reorganizing’, reflected Doug, ‘At the time, I thought that it could be used for a seasonal event at some point’. Timing is everything and with Christmas coming soon the idea of raising some much needed money for the local band to rebuild the Tsawout Longhouse came to mind in a conversation with Jim Townley co-owner of Fresh Cup. ‘I donated a print last year to the Annual Saanichton Community Christmas Event as one of the prizes and Jim said that if I ever wanted to do something with the print to let him know’, comments Lafortune, ’So this year we talked about putting it on the back panel of their Christmas Blend and for every 1 – lb. sold, one dollar ($1) will be donated to the rebuilding project’.

Doug Lafortune was born in 1953 in Bellingham, WA. His parents are both of Coast Salish heritage. Doug was mentored by master carver Simon Charlie of Koksilah, who encouraged him to develop his own unique and distinct style of contemporary and traditional Coast Salish art. Doug’s artwork has sold to private and corporate collections worldwide, including a 30 - foot totem pole that went to Butchart Gardens recently.

‘Christmas is a great time for people to buy coffee as gifts and this is a great way to use the festive Salish Santa image’, smiles Doug, It’s the 10th Anniversary of Fresh Cup’s Christmas Blend so the theme is fitting. ‘I think this is an amazing image and it really reflects the Westcoast lifestyle nicely’, comments Fresh Cup Roastmaster Mel Townley’, ‘I wanted something special to celebrate our 10th Christmas season of roasting here on the Peninsula and this is a perfect way to do it ’. Combing artwork and coffee together is a great way to raise awareness of the important issue of rebuilding the longhouse. ‘This was such a ceremonial part of our community and I wanted to do something to help raise some money’, said Doug, ‘Fresh Cup does a lot of fundraising within the community and we are excited to work with them on this project in addition to what they are doing for the ‘Coins For Kids’ and the Sidney Lions Food Bank’.


For those who would like a chance to win a framed version of the ‘Salish Santa’ print, you can enter the draw on Saturday December 5th at Annual Saanichton Community Christmas event that runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Saanichton Village. People participating in the Christmas Tree Trail will have a chance to win this fabulous prize….and for those who love ‘Freshly Roasted Organic Coffee’ they can take home a small version on the back of the Christmas Blend through the month of December, while helping to raise money for the rebuilding of the Tsawout longhouse.

Cheers,

Jim Townley
Co-Owner - Fresh Cup Sidney
http://www.freshcupsidney.ca/
Featuring The Art of Brandy Saturley & Doug Lafortune

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Luxury Automobiles meet Contemporary Art


The Showroom is now open...a unique business opens in Victoria BC Canada featuring Luxury Automobiles and contemporary art from The Art of Brandy Saturley.

Across from the Save-on-Foods Centre, this showroom will launch with a Grand Opening in Dec. 2009. Until then The Showroom is open Mon-Sat - or by appointment.

More info here...The Showroom 

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Showroom in progress...

A new Luxury Import Car Showroom featuring the Art of Brandy Saturley will open soon in Victoria, BC. Here is a sneak peek..

Thursday, October 29, 2009

'Repose Beloved Creature, Ever Thine' inspired by Beethoven

The Third Letter
Good morning, on July 7
Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.....from http://home.swipnet.se/zabonk/cultur/ludwig/beeim.htm

Chelsea NYC Inspires...

A magical place that inspires and has been a home to many artists, visual and otherwise...

Monday, September 7, 2009

New York City collection on it's way to Kelowna...


Federation of CDN Artists National Juried Show
Art Visions 2009 Exhibition & Sale ~ October 9th - 23rd

This show will be mounted at four adjacent gallery locations in downtown Kelowna, BC Hambleton Galleries, Gallery 421, Turtle Island Gallery and the Rotary Centre for the Arts

For more information, visit the website http://artvisions2008.blogspot.com/2009/08/about-art-visions-2009.html

'NYC Conjures Kiddo' from the 'The NEW, New York Collection' on display at this show.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Licking...and Listening


Licking The Feet of the Penguin














Listen to Shakey's Sermon and Reverse Time

Monday, July 20, 2009

22nd Annual TD Canada Trust Moss Street Paint-In

The Moss Street Paint-In has become the premiere event for showcasing emerging and established artists on Vancouver Island. This was my first time exhibiting at this event and it was a fantastic experience. Over 125 artists set-up their studios on the street for an afternoon of creation, education and inspiration. As an artist I believe my job is to engage the viewer and when the viewer is right in front of you watching your ever hand movement, every motion of the brush, every layer of paint saturate the weave of the canvas, it is an emotional experience shared by both the artist and the art lover. The event was only 4 hours in length but attracted a crowd of over 30,000. An excellent and inspiring afternoon...look forward to next year.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Friday, June 5, 2009

VAAA Gallery Diversity 2009

Annual Juried Membership Exhibition and Sale

June 18 to July 18, 2009 ~ OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 6 TO 9:30PM




















From my Reflections Series - Paper Boats: Green showing at...

Visual Arts Alberta presents DIVERSITY 2009, an annual juried exhibition and sale of works by some of Alberta’s finest artists.

In conjunction with The Works Art & Design Festival 2009, a wide variety of media has been created by our diverse provincial membership for this special occasion–clay and wood sculptures, photography, mosaics, oil, acrylic & watercolour paintings, digital art, drawings, collages and more.

Please come and enjoy. This is the time to start your art collection.

VISUAL ARTS ALBERTA3RD Floor, 10215 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T5K 1M
7780.421.1731 Toll-Free 866.421.1731 email
Gallery Hours: 10 to 4pm, Mon to Fri; 12 to 4pm
Saturdays Closed July 1, 2009. Admission is free, all are welcome.


Thursday, June 4, 2009

Poetic Social Mission in Space

Today Cirque Du Soleil founder, Guy Laliberte from space...

from Cirque Du Soleil June 4, 2009

POETIC SOCIAL MISSION IN SPACE
Watch the press conference simulcast, LIVE from Montreal, in Canada and Moscow, in Russia, on June 4, 2009 @ 09H40 EDT and learn more about this very special social/humanitarian mission performed in space.
The Poetic Social Mission will be undertaken on behalf of the ONE DROP Foundation. ONE DROP embodies the "Water for all, all for water" dream as it fights poverty by providing access to water and by raising awareness of water-related issues as well as of the need to get involved to advance this important cause.
The press conference will be available in rebroadcast that afternoon.
We hope you'll join us for the press conference simulcast, June 4, 2009!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Feed the Soul - Artists give their music/art to raise funds for the food bank


For the past few months Jim Townley of Fresh Cup Roastery has been working with The Seaside Times (formerly The Peninsula Times) and a group of local musicians to promote the live music scene in Sidney. The Open Mic at Fresh Cup each Thursday has blossomed into a worthwhile weekly community gathering. As a result of its success, the musicians and Jim have come together to produce an amazing collection of their original songs. Terry Tobin has provided his sound engineering expertise for the project and together as a group, we are now preparing to launch the CD.

As part of this exciting process, the musicians have all donated the use of 2 songs, which will be featured on the CD and will become available for sale at the end of June (in time for summer parties, boating etc..).

To launch this amazing music project, Jim has organized a ‘CD Release Party’ and has partnered with the ‘Sidney Pier Hotel’ to host this first event on Sunday June 28th…doors open at 5:30 p.m.

All of the proceeds of the CD go to the Sidney Lions Food Bank….

We’ve a tremendous amount of support coming from various businesses on the Saanich Peninsula, with the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce recently coming on board as Community Partner to help us promote the event to the business community.

Tickets are now available!


Our goal is to raise well over $5000 from the sale of CD’s and the launch party...with the second run of CD’s planned to further up that total as the word spreads about the quality of musicians involved.

I am very excited to be a part of this CD lending my Beatles inspired painting 'Passion Gnu Solo' to the cover. A limited edition print of this piece will also be auctioned at this evet benefiting the Sidney Lions Food Bank and I cordially invite you all to attend the CD Release Party event.

You won’t want to miss the ‘Live Sidney Music Event of the Year !’

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Murano Pour Painting

A combination of Pollock and those beautiful Murano glass sculptures...
this is 'Those with 'Twist', Mold the World'

Friday, April 10, 2009

Ethereal Clouds - NEW

The latest two to come off my easel.....below is 'Tongue' and 'Heart'... not on my website yet.















Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Friday, March 13, 2009

For the Love of Cirque


So, by now I am guessing that you have figured out that this is not a ‘daily’ BLOG and that I am having a tough time committing to write every day…so I need to change my page title and try harder to get into the swing of writing about my day…

Today while I was doing some research on-line I came across that infamous list – the one listing the 100 most influential art collectors in the world published by the Guardian in October 2006 – I found the list very interesting and not much has changed since 2006 on this list – perhaps the order, but the players are mostly the same. The thing that shocks me most about this list is that there is was only one Canadian art collector/artist on the list – Jeff Wall –a Canadian photographer who played a key role in establishing photography as a contemporary art form. He is best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. Although I did not know much about Jeff Wall until I read this article, I have come to admire and appreciate the complexity and depth of his work and am proud that this fellow Canadian from Vancouver, not far from where I was born and grew up, has become such an important player in influencing the arts internationally.

You can read more about the 100 most influential art collectors here... http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/oct/14/arts.artsnews1
So, it seems that the centres of the art world are still New York and London and now Beijing is coming on strong.

This brings me to my LOVE of Cirque Du Soleil (French for ‘Circus of the Sun’). Cirque is a highly original and uber-creative entertainment group originated and based in Montreal, Quebec. This group of traditional acrobats, aerialists, contortionists, gymnasts, singers, dancers, musicians….and so on…puts on a ‘circus’ show like no other. I first fell in love with Cirque when I was in Las Vegas in 2006 and bought a ticket to their water themed show ‘O’ at The Bellagio. The show brought out every single emotion one could expect and not expect to experience – I cried, laughed, gasped, wiped my brow and applauded with admiration. What I took away from my experience was a new outlook on life and loads of inspiration; it was like these people had seen inside my heart and my head and put it on stage. I feel such a strong connection to Cirque and it has inspired a few of my recent paintings. I was thrilled when I heard that Cirque had been chosen to design and select visual and performing artists to represent Canada at the 2010 Shanghai Expo Canadian Pavilion – in my mind, no better creative group to create an inspiring experience showcasing Canada’s contribution to the arts in China…stay tuned ;-) More to come on my 'not so daily BLOG'

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

...in a place where everything flows...and it's raining out too!


It's drab and gray out my window today and I am glad for the carpet of green grass in the field below as without, it would be a black and white photo....ahhh, a perfect day to sit down with a canvas and some vibrant colors, listen to The Beatles and dance the day away. Starting to think I need more than a PT manager as I am getting about 5-10 opportunities across my desk everyday and not enough time to properly deal with them all...
The current economy and stories of gloom and doom have chased some of my fellow artists away, but I see this time as a cleansing for the Art World and the world in general...often these periods in past history have shown a drop-off in hobbyists, heavily marketed art and shock art and have brought us some important work by some important artists dedicated to their vision.
I feel a deeper need to create work as a response to the current changes in environment, government and social situations...maybe this is why I find myself re-discovering the music of The Beatles and The Who - looking forward to seeing how this effects the direction of my work.
Hope you are having an inspiring day...wherever it may lead you.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Coffee, Music and Flicks...


OK, so I have titled this BLOG as a 'daily' BLOG but until I get the hang of this, it will be, let's call it my 'quasi'-daily BLOG...
it's been an interesting few days...I got a phone call from a friend that is passionate about, coffee and live 'grass roots' music - he asked if I would be interested in providing cover art for a new CD he is producing highlighting the music of some talented local musicians, I said, 'sounds cool' ...it's a theme that I have been meaning to work on developing for a while. I listen to music while I paint every day and find it inspires my works in so many ways, even some I do not realize until the end of a painting. While my love affair with painting continues to develop and explode, my love for music and for immersing myself in the lyrics, the beats and the rhythms, continues to grow right alongside....
I have a piece called 'Bubbly Toes' inspired by the Jack Johnson tune 'Bubble Toes' an inspiring song with a run that tests your breathing and timing...yes, I gotta sing along and get it just right, memorize all the words and the timing...
With my current immersion in the great tunes of the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and even a little Pink Floyd...I find myself wanting to create as series of work, maybe conceptual, maybe Neo-Pop or Idealistic in nature...I want to take some of the iconic songs which strike a nerve in all of us and translate them with my paintbrush...so I will embark on this journey tomorrow and I am really excited that I am finally going to realize my ideas.
Flicks....well, as mentioned, there would be the odd reference to some of my many addictions...one being films. This weekend I snuggled up with two flicks - a documentary by Bill Maher called 'Religulous' and another film by Oliver Stone called 'W.' about George Bush.
Religulous was an interesting exploration into people's belief in GOD and across several religions...the film was OK, not as funny or as well edited or hard-hitting as I would have expected from Maher, but it did leave me with one impression...there are a lot of crazy people out there and when confronted with common sense - they completely go blank, ignore and walk away in dis-belief...it kinda freaked me out. No matter what your beliefs you have, this film is worth a look...even if it just to examine what your own reactions are to the questions and points that Maher raises.
W. - a film about George W. Bush - it came out a few months before the end of the Bush reign and I have to say that I was truly BLOWN AWAY by Josh Brolin's depiction of Bush and truly believe that this film did not get it's due recognition this past year. The film was good, not great but certainly gave Stone's perspective as he is so well known for in his films....definitely worthwhile seeing, especially now that we are into the Obama era.

Ciao for now...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Inaugural Post

Hey out there,

Well, I am actually embarrassed to admit that this is the first time I have gotten around to adding a post to my BLOG and frankly the very first time I have ever blogged on this site...I have actually blogged on MySpace, but that is ancient history as I have become quite addicted to Facebook.

So, I am a FT artist working out of my home studio framed by big sliding glass doors and a view of a spectacular park and sky that changes at a rapid pace. As I spend my days here creating I have come to pay more attention to the clouds and sky....with my newly added addiction of documenting almost everything with my new DSLR camera, I realize that I should re-visit my times back when I was in film school and set up the darn thing on a tripod and complete a 24hr time lapse documentation of this incredible vantage point and ever changing sky.

With my entry into the world of BLOG you will likely end up learning about my daily adventures with paint, my experiences in the contemporary art market, my travels and my many addictions...

Glad to be here, hope you enjoy!