Monthly Archive: June 2008
26 Jun 2008: New Series: Transit and Transience [1 Comment]
This post features a gallery of the first nine completed images from my most recent digital series Transit and Transience. I created these pieces from April 2007–June 2008.
25 Jun 2008: New Series: Incidentals [1 Comment]
This is a gallery of 16 images from my quirky 2007–2008 series titled Incidentals, which are now available as limited-edition prints.
16 Jun 2008: Visual Arts Summit (Ottawa, November 2007)
This article is long overdue for posting here on my blog. It originally appeared in the CARFAC Saskatchewan Newsletter in January 2008. It’s the final version I submitted to my editor, so there might be a few rough spots. My raw notes for the article weigh in at about double the length of the article. Please let me know if you’d like to see them.
Visual Arts Summit
November 25–27, 2007 in Ottawa, Ontario
The Visual Arts Summit, a gathering of over 450 individuals representing a cross section of the visual arts in Canada, was held in Ottawa at the end of November. The conference featured two and half days of discussion and events designed “to bring Canada’s visual arts sector together.” This was the first time in over 40 years that such an event had been organized.
The main purpose of the summit appeared to simply be to get the various interest groups within the sector talking to each other in an attempt to find common ground. This is in contrast to the usual order of business, where each group tries to get as much as they can in a competition for scarce resources.
The immediate outcome of the summit was the creation of a Collective Agenda for the Visual Arts, a document which outlines the goals and aspirations for the sector. This agenda will be covered in greater detail elsewhere in the newsletter, but the opening statements bear repeating:
Art is the face of Canada.
We, as artists, curators, collectors, dealers, educators and supporters, are united to enhance the opportunities for Canadian art to be created, seen, understood and enjoyed. We came together in the largest gathering of the visual arts in our history, to proclaim the critical role of the visual arts in an innovative and compassionate society in the 21st century. We know what is needed: we call on the governments, nations and peoples of Canada to join us in realizing our potential.
12 Jun 2008: There is no morning-after pill for internet idiocy
I don’t really have time to elaborate, but the title of this post came out of my mouth today in a conversation about online behavioural standards. We were talking about youthful indiscretions (not mine), digital cameras (not mine), and online social networks (not mine), and the combination of which can be embarrassing and/or incriminating. As you can guess from the “not mine” declarations, we were talking in abstract terms, of course.
I’ll repeat the phrase to satisfy my ego. It wants me to win a round of the great internet catchphrase generation game, and this is one statement of the obvious I haven’t seen before: There is no morning-after pill for internet idiocy.
09 Jun 2008: ArtTomorrow (Winnipeg, November 2007)
This is an article I wrote about the ArtTomorrow forum on the future of contemporary art institutions hosted in November 2007 by Plug In Institue of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg. It originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of the CARFAC Saskatchewan Visual Artists Newsletter.
08 Jun 2008: Husk: Chapbook Launches June 18 [1 Comment]
JackPine Press will launch Husk, a chapbook collaboration between Lia Pas (words) and me (images), on June 18, 2008 in Saskatoon. This post includes a wealth of information about the edition, technical details, and a sneak preview of the inside.
05 Jun 2008: Back from the Dead (Again)
This is a long-overdue post that summarizes my major activities and projects for the past nine months.