Some shots I took in a bar in Rosebud, Alberta ...

Some more illustrations I am playing around with - here I combined an illustration of a bird with some organic patterns ...

Here are some pictures of illustrations and ideas I am playing around with ...

"But really, I just want to migrate for the next few years, following warm weather and photographing the train hopping youth of america. I think it's one of the most important, overlooked, and temporary underground cultures of modern times...." Mike Brodie

Hobo style! I really admire the work of Mike Brodie aka The Polaroid Kid. You can see his hobo-esque photographs here.

Below is Mike Brodie's Artist Statement...

Maybe I've just become obsessed with dirty cloth & dull rags, objects that have been touched by a million different hands then set back down--right there--just for me. Things that are made by chance or found on the side of a road, rather than bought or sold. What's a story anyways? Why do people tell them?

My first memory was when I was a year old. Imagine that. Lyin' by a river bed, Arizona is hot in the summer, and even worse when you have an earache. One-year-old with no pants on, screaming and crying like it would help or something, my face bright RED. The blanket I was lying on, made of prickly pear green wool. If that cloth was still around, it would tell you a story. But its long gone, underground somewhere, tired.

I've been shittin' and pissin' for 20 years since that day. Most of the time I miss, but I "make photos" now, valued by some. Who are these people? One of my favorites is still that one my mom took, my dad cuttin' into a turkey like a man--in prison since, my grandma laughin' drunk in the foreground--dead now. I still have that one. As for why, who knows? This is where I am and what I'm doing. Everyone I've ever met is responsible for it, and those eyes of theirs--never blank--always tryin' to focus right there on the pupil. It's always difficult to get a good look at both of 'em. Go ahead and try. You'll just end up starin' right at the bridge of the nose.

The photos. I want people to see 'em just as you'd want to tell someone a good story. Nobody enjoys boredom. And when I'm good and dead, maybe my lungs'll still be around, with some words beneath. Everything comes as a surprise--thank GOD.

Mike Reynolds is an American architect that has dedicated his professional life to ecological and sustainable architecture. He uses discarded items, such as pop bottles and tires insulted with dirt to build his Earthships. With rising concern over global warming, Reynolds has become a pioneer of the green movement, practicing these innovative methods since the early 70's.

Edward Gorey has undoubtedly inspired the imaginations of many artists and especially the macabre-style of Tim Burton. His style is very dark and his stories quirky. Here is a sample of his illustrations.

Some pictures I took around the house today....








Riu Tenreiro's illustrations for the book The Celebration are amazing! I love the simple colour scheme, his quirky style and the story board look of the book.

I also really like the the simple illustrative style and limited colour use of Brandon A. Dalmer's work.

I think public art should have presence in the space it's occupying, and for me public art is most effective when it changes the way people react to it, for example the way they move around a sculpture and how it impacts their emotions and sense of space. I think the sculptures of Richard Serra are an excellent example of how public sculpture can alter a person's perception of space. This video shows the installation of Serra's sculpture garden at the MOMA. The shear size of his work is incredible. It is amazing how he challenges a person's perception of space with such simple concave and convex bends in shapes.

My favourite public art space is the Stravinsky Fountain at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Mayle is my newest favourite fashion. I love the Fall 2007 collection. It is all about layering boxy shapes and legs!

Here is something I drew, dreaming of the west coast....

I have recently finished making some new bracelets and necklaces. A few of them are pictured below. Right now, I am putting gold leaves into all my bracelet designs and trying to work in vintage items as well. I am perusing antique stores for items, and have found such things as vintage buttons from the 40's and 50's and an owl pendant with green rhinestone eyes. The love me, love me not necklace is fun to wear, because I left the chain longer. And as the dial spins around the heart, its reminiscent of youthful wishes.

Graniph Tshirts Store is a clothing company that accepts Tshirt designs from artists. The designs are incredible and can be viewed on their website. They are accepting designs from Februay 1st to March 31st 2008, so I may be submitting one!

Here are some of the artists whose work I really admired from the Graniph Tshirts Store. I linked to their Tshirt designs and to their websites as well.

Rui Tenreiro or here and his tshirt designs

Florence Manlik and her wallpaper and her tshirt designs

Kev Speck's tshirt designs

Karen Ingram and her tshirt designs


I really admire the work of Daisy Fletcher. Her work is so delicate and pretty. I am a sucker for illustrations with birds and flowers. I love that her detailed pencils sketches have splashes of colour only in certain spots, like in the pattern on a skirt, in the flower, or in the birds feathers.

Stephen Crowhurst is an Artist, Illustrator and Surface Designer. His website HELLO HELLO has nice big pictures of his work. I really enjoy his work because he incorporates so much pattern and repetition into his designs.

The Canadian-made ecodesigns of posch inspire me!

They have designed cute handbags using upcycled fabrics and material. I especially love the bird motif on each bag, which no doubt reflects their ecofriendly designs!

Lately, I noticed their reusable wrapping 'paper' biota, which is simply a piece of square cloth that has been printed with terrific patterns and screens of wildlife. Inspired by biodiversity and endangered species, they have printed four different designs, each featuring a Canadian endangered animal. They were inspired by the Japanese Furoshiki wrapping technique. In recent years, this technique has seen a renewed interest as environmentalism has come into the forefront. Here are some simple Furoshiki folding techniques.

“It is extremly useful, to be able to wrap almost anything, regardless of size or shape with a little creativity in folding. When you are done, unlike traditional bags, you can fold it up with a small footprint.”

Furoshiki has the potential to replace grocery/shopping bags, back packs, hand bags/purses, and lunch bags. It reminds me of other Japanese wrapping and folding techniques, such as the folding of origami and the wrapping and folding of kimonos.

Just a little side note...candid photographs make me smile. One group I like to check in on every now and then is the hardcore street photography pool.

I love the city at night!

Here are some pictures I took on my walk home this evening...








I love how everything looks lit by fluorescent lights.

Here is an older picture I took last year in Vancouver...

I love Jamie Rothstein's tabletop designs. She designs for large scale events and galas. She has a unique way of designing flowers-compact groupings leaning in vases. I saw a similar technique used by the floral designer who arranges the flowers for Le Georges V Hotel in Paris.

At the gala pictured below, her floral design is more about instillation, working especially with colour and lighting.


Angling the flowers and repetition are also characteristic of her style as seen below.

I was introduced to Mail Art in College by my drawing instructor Don Mabie a.k.a. Chuck Stake. He collaborated with my drawing class for the Frontier Mail Art Project, which is now collection of the Glenbow Museum. Each of us were asked to make an 8 1/2"x11" postcard showing what frontier meant to us. Here is the installation from 1998.


My favourite mail art project is Postsecret. People are encouraged to mail in their deepest secrets anonymously on postcards. Periodically, Postsecret takes these submissions and turns them into a book.

Here is a postcard and poster I designed for an open house we are having at work, inspired by the 50's, pin-up girls, and gossip. The entire storefront has just been remodeled, so we wanted to work in the theme of a make-over as well.

I have failed to post anything all summer, I have been busy making jewelry, reading and looking into applying for my masters in environmental design. Here are some things that I have been admiring over the past few months...

I made very little art during the summer, but instead made bracelets whenever I had some free time. Pictured below are two of my favourite bracelets. My bracelets are being sold at Capitol Clothing on Broadway.


I have recently fallen in love with French artist Fafi's work!! She has been featured in the last two issues of Nylon magazine. She started off as a graffiti artist, working her way into galleries and now her images are appearing on products for adidas and LeSportsac. She calls her work "girlie art", as the female characters or 'Fafinettes' she paints are extremely feminine and appear in an imaginary world of their own. Pictured below is one of her 'Fafinettes'.


This summer I read two books by Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Becoming a fan, I was interested in his inspiration and style of writing. Similar to his books, Safran's website, the project museum is both visual and non-linear. Foer uses unconventional methods for inspiration, asking participation in different projects. In one particular project, he asked readers to submit pencil-sketched self-portraits, which he later framed to examine at home. I heard one story where he was having writer's block and wrote to renowned authors asking for advise. Most replied with generic letters, but some replied in their own words. I found influence from this in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, where the main character, eccentric child Oskar Schell writes to many notorious people asking if he could work under them. In the first chapter, for example, he writes to Stephen Hawking asking if he could be his protege.

I have been looking for architects and designers that I really admire for their ability to incorporate and concentrate on nature and environment, in both the physical and designed context. Here are three that I have found so far:

Site Architecture, Art & Design

One of my favourite designs is their 2004 plan for a residential building in Mumbai, India. It is a multi-tiered structure with landscaping on each level, inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, including terraces and water features, and maintaining Vastu principles in historic Hindu architecture.

A-Z (Andrea Zittel)

Out of all their designs, A-Z 'Living Units' are my favourite, because of their minimalistic quality. It reminds me of the philosophy of tailoring space to humans' basic needs, similar to that of pioneer-architect Le Corbusier. To deal with housing shortages in urban Paris, Le Corbusier designed 'Immeubles Villas' in 1922 that...was such a project that called for large blocks of cell-like individual apartments stacked one on top of the other, with plans that included a living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, as well as a garden terrace.* Pictured below is an A-Z 'Living Unit'.

Inscape Architecture

For a long time, I have been infatuated with the idea of movable walls, mostly in the residential setting. Inscape Architecture has designed movable walls for the corporate setting. I love that they are glass and allow for natural light to diffuse, while still allowing for versatility in space and privacy needs. This simplicity of design reminds me of the exposed framework and the use of glass to enclose and define space of pioneer-architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Pictured below is an example of Inscape's 'movable walls'.


Inscape Architecture is brilliant at designing office settings, keeping to clean lines and simplicity of materials, and working towards good use of space. Here is another example of their designs, a meeting area and space for filling and storage is pictured below.


*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier

Here are some gallery shots from the That's so Gay III show.

Rachelle Soucy’s Vanitas series uses non-traditional photographic methods, lush colours and intriguing symbolism. Emerging out of the darkened background are not only flowers, fruit and trinkets, but the artist herself. In a way, Rachelle’s work is a slick descendant of the “face-down-on-the-photocopier” self portraits most of us have enjoyed. But by using today’s scanner technology, she greatly magnifies hidden details such as wrinkles and pores on her skin and even miniscule insects which apparently were former tenants of the foliage.

While Rachelle credits Vancouver-based artist Evan Lee and British artist Helen Chadwick with the technical inspiration behind the work, even more interesting is her imagery which alludes to various artistic genres and literature. Rachelle captures the morbid symbolism of 16^th and 17^th Century vanitas still life paintings with wilting flowers, rotting grapes, and an hourglass. The artist herself projects lifelessness by keeping her eyes firmly shut. The vanitas theme reminds the viewer that pleasure is futile and death is inevitable. Despite their foreboding qualities, the images remain undeniably beautiful and hint at a sexual tension. Blushing flower petals rustle open, suggesting a naughty peek under a woman’s shirt, and the flushed skin, tousled hair and parted lips of the artist’s face could be simultaneously interpreted as either qualities of the vanitas theme or lusty indulgences.

I felt that the work’s technique and style could refer to Evergon’s exotic Ramboy series and the recent, collaged photographs of Gilbert and George. I was subsequently reminded of Ophelia, one of Shakespeare’s most tragic heroines, and her mad descent into a watery grave. Most importantly however are Rachelle’s allusions to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland books. Tiny tea spoons, white roses, seashells, and the infamously tardy white rabbit all appear to be accompanying Alice as she tumbles endlessly down the rabbit hole.

Joseph Anderson

Here are the six works I had in the show - Vanitas series

My process is influenced by Vancouver-based artist Evan Lee. In Canadian Art magazine (winter 2006) there is an article on Evan Lee and his scanner pictures. He sets up still-lifes and uses his scanner as a means to photograph these still-lifes. The effects are somewhat reminiscent of 17th Century Dutch still-life paintings, with beautiful shadows. He uses dollar store trinkets, like tacky silk flowers and plastic bugs, making reference to symbols found in many 17th Century still-life paintings.


When I started working on my artwork for this show, I wanted to create self-portraits incorporating these symbols from 17th Century Dutch still-life paintings or 'vanitas' paintings. At first glance, 'vanitas' makes reference to vanity. I am capturing my youthfulness in the photograph, which could be seen as vain, there are other elements in play within the photograph. Typically 'vanitas' paintings are highly symbolic and are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. And it is in these 'vanitas' symbols surrounding my face, like the decaying flowers, skulls, hourglass and seashells, which are meant to symbolize mortality and the passing of life. I am hoping that my photographs show both literally and symbolically like a snapshot in time.


My process of using my scanner as camera was first inspired by Evan Lee. He sets up still-lifes and uses his scanner as camera. I began by scanning objects and then my hands, hair and face. I gradually started experimenting with all the images I had scanned, by combining multiple scans to reveal a larger and more surreal image. By making multiple scans of the flowers, my face and hair, I was able to crop and fit images together to create larger and more dynamic self-portraits. Although the image does accurately capture in fine detail my wrinkles and badly bitten finger nails, I was also able to manipulate it in a way to emphasize other parts of myself, such as my hair. People commented on how long my hair was in some of the portraits, wanting to know if I had been wearing a wig, but it was really just a matter of piecing different scans together to make hyper-portraits of myself.

Rachelle Soucy

Good News!!! My bracelets are now being sold at Capitol Clothing, a women's boutique located at 102-626 Broadway Avenue, Saskatoon (across from the Broadway Roasterie). Keep checking back at the boutique, because I will be adding new items... Here is one of my favourite bracelets!

In June, I have artwork in a group show. Here is the invite (click on it to enlarge) ... go check out my scanner photographs, I am planning on showing three large scale photographs-I want to blow them up as large as possible.