Art | The Conveyor Belt - A Fashion and Lifestyle Journal

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

Daniela Edburg’s Surreal Knitting Photos

A friend forwarded me these pretty intense knit-inspired images by photographer Daniela Edburg. Coming off a Tim Burton buzz, I can’t help but associate these grandiose and staged images with Alice in Wonderland aesthetics, conveying a similar sense of intriguing eeriness. The rest of her photographs are markedly darker than the ones I’m presenting, such as the “Killing Time” series which depicts humans as roadkill with mock insides and false limbs sprawled across the pavement.

Having toyed with the idea of doing some “larry.” installations with yarn in various locales and documenting the process and product with photographs, this is a really great example of what can be done with a bit of imagination.

Published by Terri on March 26, 2010 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

CCMA Awards Wrap-Up

The Canadian Country Music Awards were on Sunday and I was at the backstage gift lounge with larry. gc’s for all the VIPs and celebs. Rachel Zottenberg from the grace-gallery was my partner in prime, and despite having a very long day in the lounge it was incredibly memorable and we had a blast.

all photos by the lovely, the wonderful, the amazing Heather Watson – check out her whole CCMA set!

Early in the morning we met Jason Priestley. Yes, Brandon Walsh of 90210 fame. Brian Austen Green was always my favourite but you can’t be picky when it comes to meeting 90210 stars. Jason and I chatted about his daughter’s birthday party, in which they had a petting zoo and an alpaca came along, and he was very impressed that I managed to keep everything for “larry.” local to BC. Heather Watson snapped this photo of us – it was so cute, he got sandwiched in between Rachel and I and had to get on his tippy toes just to reach this height:

walsh!

To be honest I didn’t know who most of the people cruising through the room were. You could tell who the ‘important’ ones were by the number of photographers following them around, and whether or not they had a personal shopper escorting them through the lounge. I’m not one to get too hot and bothered by celebrities, and Rachel told me something her Dad once said to her as a kid…he said if you put photos of people up on your wall, they become idols. And if you idolize them, then you’ll never be like them – but you already are like them. They’re just people.

That being said, I absolutely could NOT resist a photo with one of the Canucks, even if just to give my brothers something to gloat about to their friends. Here’s me (late in the day, right after I had my hair done by celebrity stylist Jami Symons from AG Hair, and swapped into my Obakki dress) with Alex Burrows:

burrows!

I was quickly off to the Factor post awards red carpet reception at the Hyatt, where there were about 1,000 people milling about. It was a bit strange that tickets were available to the public, as the stars were cruising around the room without any segregation at all. Which is nice, but incredibly rare in my experience. Got a few more photos with some of the people I met in the gift lounge, all of whom were so nice and polite and remembered exactly who I was.

From here there were two parties to attend: one at the Shark Club, and the other at the Cellar. We opted to go straight to the Cellar, which was a good thing as the guest list was extremely tight and I was very lucky to get in. Open bar, jam packed with the who’s who of the awards attendees, and intimate performances by some of the musicians.

Here’s a camera phone shot of Dean Brody (what a heartthrob! chatted with him a few times in the evening) on stage:

what a guy

A big hello to all of the wonderful gift lounge attendees and participants I met that day. What an experience!

Published by Terri on September 17, 2009 in Arts & Culture. 0 Comments

video of “larry.” show at grace-gallery

The ever-lovely Vanessa from Next Door Style did a little video blog of the show opening last night. Kris Krug interviews grace-gallery director Rachel Zottenberg and I during the opening last night.

Published by Terri on January 9, 2009 in Arts & Culture. 1 Comment