Arts & Culture | The Conveyor Belt - A Fashion and Lifestyle Journal

I don’t think you can avoid some sort of existential crisis after a bit of a vacation…3 weeks in Europe, and I to return to the age old questions: who am I, where do I want to make a life, what the heck am I doing with my career, etc. Efterklang didn’t necessarily solve any of those questions for this old gal, but I did have the extreme pleasure of finding these strange fellows saddled up to my bar tonight, and after a bit of joking and chatter I discovered they were from Copenhagen (which, by chance, was on my travel itinerary but I cut it out to go to Poland instead) and, gasp, in a band.

Rasmus was gracious enough to invite us to the show…and what else do you do after weeks of partying abroad but continue the adventure once you return home? Foot wasn’t halfway in through the door before me and my workmates knew we had stepped into something wonderful.

The gushing could probably stop here but I’ll take a paragraph to elaborate on why I want to spread this musical wealth. Mono has been my all time favourite live show since I saw them while I was tending bar in Victoria during my university days. The Japanese trio came off stage after having blown an audience of just 15 people or so to shreds, guitarist lights up a cigarette inside the venue and I begrudgingly ask my manager what to do. He glances over, looks back at me, and says, he’s way too fucking cool, he can smoke inside. So now, something like 8 years later and all the shows I’ve seen since that momentous blip on my live music spectrum, Efterklang has nearly taken the cake, wedging up nicely to Mono in my favourite band dessert pile, despite their differences in genre.

The Efterklang show had inspired energy, audience involvement, a small and obscure venue not at all on par with the band’s talent, lots of clapping (anyone who knows me will understand my appreciation – I clap and tap on every surface available), and the band members are so mind-bogglingly talented that they can simply dance around a tiny stage, swap instruments, and continue on with their joyous and melodic music ceremony. It nearly got so brilliant and amazing that I had to remind myself to stop staring, creep.

Anyhow, I thank Efterklang because not only did they put on a great show tonight, but I’m reminded to be curious about every stranger that I meet. We who may be quiet and reserved in one instance are animated and robust in another.

Buy their album! Though if you have the opportunity to see them live, do that too. I would cross borders, personally.

Published by Terri on September 17, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

“Sad Bear” at TIFF

A fantastically talented friend of mine, Elizabeth Van Allen Cairns, made a film earlier this year with her team of Gentlemen Bandits, a filmmaking group consisting of herself, Joe LoBianco and Taran Chadha – and it’s been accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival (very big deal).

“Sad Bear” trailer from Liz Van Allen Cairns.

You should all write letters to Hollywood asking them to make her and everyone involved in this film huge stars, because they’ll do amazing things, I promise.

In other unrelated news, I am off to Europe for 3 weeks so the blog likely won’t be updated until late September. Sayonara!

Published by Terri on August 24, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 1 Comment

This is East Van: A Community Photo Project

Accepting photos of anything / anyone / anywhere in East Van. A self-published book will be released once all the photos are selected; each image gets a full page with the artists’ name and contact info. No cost to submit, but no payment either.

Sounds pretty cool, and hopefully will represent the broad range of people/places/activities/etc that make this neighbourhood what it is.

Email up to 5 images to submit[at]thisiseastvan[dot]com for consideration before the August 15th deadline, and visit the This is East Van website for additional information.

Published by Terri on July 13, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

Motto’s Final Week in Gastown

Motto began as a distribution company for Switzerland, initially specializing in magazines and growing to firmly support the distribution of independent, artist-published books and zines. A Motto storefront enjoys a permanent residence in Berlin, and also Zurich, but the concept and collection has traveled around the world with temporary shops popping up in cities like Vilnius, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Moscow, Stuttgart, Athens, Seoul, Tokyo, Paris – and for one more week, Vancouver.

The Motto Storefront in Gastown opened May 15 in conjunction with Artspeak and runs until July 22. Weekly talks relating to the general topic of contemporary art publishing have enjoyed a popular run, and Vancouverites have just 9 more days to browse Motto Gastown’s collection of experimental, small run, and independently produced books, magazines, and fanzines. Thinking about all the passion and creativity jammed within bound pages gives me goosebumps. It’s akin to the thrill of browsing through antique books, smelling the old paper and marveling at how language has evolved away from words like “agreeable” and “needn’t” – except with new art books.

233 Carrall St.

Published by Terri on July 13, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

Printmaking on Galiano Island

the studio

I’ve just come back from paradise: 3 days on Galiano Island making art, listening to music, enjoying fantastic and insightful company, boating around with a nearly fritzed Mercury motor to catch a Westcoast sunset, delicious home cooked meals, wood stove fires, walks, wildlife. Simply amazing.

I learned a lot of new things – well, some of these techniques I recall from high school art class, by far my favourite subject, but quite unfortunately and for no good reason I’ve strayed from the area since then – which have sparked a lot of new ideas and directions, both personally/creatively and how this might subsequently feed into my line. Luckily there’s an amazing, patient and talented teacher in Jeremy Crowle, who put me up for these restful and creative days.

Project #1: Pressed Alpaca

I began by knitting a swatch with larry. alpaca yarn:

I inked up one side with black water-based printing ink and ran off 4 prints through the 1,600lb press, two of which turned out great:

Next I moved on to red ink – both of these prints turned out really well, so with the two great black prints and two great red prints I now have an edition of 4.

Project #2: Acetate Etchings

I spent hours etching out a portion of the print of the alpaca swatch (seen above, sitting on the press) onto acetate film. A tracing of a print of a swatch; one project feeding another. This was a painstaking process and by the end of it I had claw hands from gripping this little etching tool, applying pressure to the acetate and hunching over in concentration – but working waterfront during the golden hours of sunset somehow kept me going. And lots of wine breaks.

Applying the oil-based ink to the acetate and rubbing off the excess was another tedious step; it took a few tries to get a decent consistency, where the plate tone wasn’t too strong and the etching relief not too light. Somewhere in the middle I got it just about right:

Project #3: Battleship Linoleum Prints

This was a collaborative project. Jer and I took turns carving 11 lines each, to a total of 44 lines. No rhyme or reason.

Printed black on yellow through the monster press, and after one artist proof we each kept two prints.

Here’s a final closeup of ‘22 Lines Apiece’ taken by Jer:

Destined to be cherished within the protective frames of memory and glass, all of it.

Published by Terri on July 7, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

The Worship Museum

The folks from the newly launched Worship Museum had a little kick-off studio sale just down the block from me over the weekend, and there were lots of little treasures to be found. While much of the product I spied this weekend isn’t yet up online, I’m sure they’ll be updating regularly with new additions.

David Yochim’s drawings (above) remind me a bit of Chad VanGaalen’s animations, what with all the hands growing from unlikely places. Drawing should never go out of style; I aim to start investing in some quality hand-sketched goods to adorn my walls. My neighbour, who happens to be an editor for online arts rag Skewed Magazine, is excellent at leaving me delightfully weird gifts like this.

I picked up this wicked little tank from The Black Cat Audition with all sorts of magical things on it. Asking people which one of the pictures they would get tattooed on themselves has proved to be a fun little game (me: the quill and ink…though the magnet is a tempting second choice). Am now seriously considering getting one of these little iconic gems actually tattooed on myself.

Great jewelery from Sleep Standing Up (pictured above) and Anita Sikma was available at the sale as well – I would have purchased pieces from both of these talented designers if my wallet had allowed for it!

And finally, what’s a shopping excursion without the perfect bag…Ora Recycled Leather Bags convert used leather garments into fashionable and practical satchels. I’m slightly obsessed with the Bobby Bag, pictured above.

Keep your eyes on The Worship Museum for great gifts and knick-knacks weaned from the calloused hands of some of Vancouver’s most talented creators.

Published by Terri on May 18, 2010 in Arts & Culture and Fashion. 0 Comments