Interview: Canada's (Aspiring) RockStar Artist

Art and ambition are often one-in-the-same. Art and business savvy is, without question, the California Condor of the creative realm. Through the course of my daily Twitter discourse, I meet an array of talented, passionate people… cue Brandy Saturley. Her paintings rich with imagery...Brandy is an artist with a clarity of vision – a drive to create and promote. read the full interview here. Thanks to Jason BORBAY.

Palm Springs Art Museum

I recently travelled to Palm Springs in search of art, inspiration and gallery representation. Downtown Palm Springs was like a Wild West ghost town when I arrived until I stumbled upon what looked like a deserted building, but was happy to discover the Palm Springs Art Museum. Inside I was greeted with some keen staff welcoming me to Palm Springs best kept secret. It is a small museum, about the size of the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, Canada. The museum houses a small but impressive art collection thanks to donors such as Frank Sinatra and Donna & Cargill MacMillan Jr.  The MacMillan's have donated the majority of their contemporary and pop art collection to the Museum and it is a collection to be envious of...pieces such as Your Dog, by Yoshitomo Nara, Twin 6' Hearts by Jim Dine and Andy Warhol's Brillo Box dress...I was absorbing every minute in front of these amazing pieces I had only seen in print...Perhaps the most impressive or at least the piece that was causing the most unusual and shocking resctions was that of figurative sculptor, John De Andrea. I was admiring a 'Pile' (a pile of bronze Glad garbage bags) when I did a quick turn to move on and found myself staring at a young nude woman, at first I shyly glanced away and then back again in disbelief, was this a mannequin model? Was there a camera somewhere filming me and my response? As I inched closer I noticed a security guard hiding in the corner, watching intently, almost amused by my inquisitive stance. I finally came close enough to lean over and face the woman eye to eye, I noticed no pulse in the neck and she looked quite stiff and cold, then I read the plaque....I had been duped! I was grinning ear-to-ear, what a great experience, and an engaging piece. 'Joan' was created in 1990 by artist John De Andrea - oil on polyester resin with synthetic hair has never looked so real or so beautiful. I highly recommend making a trip to the museum if you are in Palm Springs. There is also a Contemporary Glass Exhibit on now which takes glass to a whole other level of which I have never experienced and was pleasently surprised. Palm Springs Arts Museum Website

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.

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'