Laura Tetrault

  

ARTspace opened to a capacity crowd, lined up outside the doors on King St W. in Chatham, Ontario. The Chatham Daily News  and Chatham This Week covered the opening detailing the mandate of the new artist-run space. The building is beautifully refinished inside and out, making it a contemporary art space that the people of Chatham-Kent can be proud of.

 

I was very pleased to see lots of old friends and some new ones - the turn out to the opening was amazing. I would be surprised if each one of the 41 exhibiting artist didn't have 10 of their friends attend the opening that evening. Which is a lot of people in a small space! It was nice to see some familiar faces of the Chatham-Kent art world including Sandra VanRaay, Tracy Bultje and Lindsay Beaubien. I would love to give you links to their sites but I don't have them! Which leads me to wonder who in Chatham does have their own website?

 A big THANK YOU to the girls from Fairytales Photography for coming out and covering the event, and providing the photos for this post! 

Photography copyright 2008 Fairytales Photography

 

 

August's Glory  is my contribution to the works on display this month. The gallery is open this June, on Wednesdays thru Saturdays from noon till 5 pm. Please drop by and let me know what you think.

I am happy to report that I was invited to participate in the maiden voyage of ARTspace, the newest venue for art and culture in Chatham-Kent. What is really exciting for me is that this gallery is located in a place where my family and friends could actually visit it without taking a 5 hour plane ride! The painting I am exhibiting is called  "August's Glory". Hope to see you out there!

May 2008

I have done some reorganizing and have decided that this blog will be mainly about events and shows. My other blog Art in Life has tips and tricks for artists and those interested in how art is made as well as occasional notes from me and more personal stuff. Please feel free to check it out also as it will be updated more often.

Currently my work is showing at Parklane Gallery in their 16th Annual International Miniature competition. I am excited to once again be a part of that show. Although I don't habitually create miniatures I enjoy the challenge of working with such a small canvas. The works I am showing this year are...

In the Summer Kitchen  and  View from My Window. In View I am painting what I wish I could see from my window. What would it be like to wake up every day and look out your window to see an array of tropical birds in the early morning light?

 If you happen to be in the neighborhood, drop by Parklane Gallery and see them in person. I would love to hear what you think of them.

 

I'm sorry I haven't kept this as up to date as I had hoped. In January, my husband and I found out that after 4 months on the market we were finally going to sell our condo in Kirkland. What that meant was packing, andplanning and organizing an international move in order for Steve to accept a new position in Ontario, Canada. So between a six month old, packing and planning I have barely had a thought to spare for myself, let alone something to write for my blog.

So  now it is March 7, 2008 and I find myself in my husband's uncle's house with the snow swirling around outside. What a change from the green buds and gentler breezes of Seattle. I have to say that I miss it. But I am adjusting to the changes and today I finally had a few minutes to prep for some upcomming shows and competitions. Although I watched Sleepless in Seattle with just a little more knowledge and a little sadness.

I plan to show in the 16th annual Parklane International Miniature Show. Lately, I am really interested in the every day things in life, tea cups, tea pots, glasses. I am surrounded by the things my husband's late aunt loved. Antiques, family photos, country art... old things, some things that remind me that life is transient and that some items can out last the people and the relationships that created them. What do you do with wedding pictures where the bride has passed away? What if the couple has divorced?  I have been thinking about how I would treat things like this. I can't deny the photos that prove the reality of events that people have shared. There is a sadness that clings to photos and mementos like the dust that I have been cleaning out the corners. Would I destroy items like these in order to get past the memories or would I keep them. Miniature art could pull up memories like this. Miniatures reference the past, full of antiques, photos, items that have outlived their owners. I hope to evoke the emotion of abandoned things.

At very least, I am happy to have things settling, even though we still will move again once we find a home of our own. 

Welcome 2008, blank canvas, year of possibilities and hidden challenges. Year of first steps and all things new. This year holds a relocation for our family, my daughter's first steps perhaps and maybe even her first word. A host of interesting things and the beginning of life as an artist in Canada. It concerns me a little because the opportunities here in the United States are much more well published. But if I have learned something from 2007 it is how to search for information.

The year began for me with the close of the gallery show. I picked up my work shortly after my return from a visit home. All in all, I consider the show a success. I gained some experience for my resume and a huge boost in confidence. One thing I did note is that I will have to find another, simpler way of packaging my work. For some reason the bubble wrap that I used to protect my work was harder to put on the second time. I wonder if fabric covers would be better- but they would also be expensive and involve some time to make them. It would be sad if they didn't return home, but on the plus side I think they would be much more durable and greener than plastic packing materials. I will have to think a little more about that.  These markers are great to look back on and use as spring boards into future endeavors that I fully expect to have to be more aggressive in. I look forward to the next opportunity to show my work and advance my art career. The only thing that I am wondering is how to go about my next submission since we have an offer pending on our house that if all goes as planned requires us to be out on February 15, 2008. Less than 30 days now.

This year holds lots of changes for us as a family and for me as an artist. Not too long now and we will start to see what they will mean for all of us.

I have always felt a connection between instrumental music especially classical music, and my own process of creating work, but it has never been quite this literal before. November has been a month of romance with music. The curves and intricacies of the head of a violin capture my imagination. The carving and shape are absolutely beautiful. Fine instruments are probably one of the few comercial items that are hand made. I love the way the wood glows and the shape and the movement I see in such a small part of a violin, viola or cello.

Violins are one of my most favorite instruments. It is said that a violin comes closest to replicating the sound of a human voice. To me they are passionate and smooth and emotional. They are second in my playlist of classical music to piano pieces. There is a connection to music again for me, since many of my early memories include dancing or listening as my father played Fur Elise and other pieces on our piano at home. Some music always makes me think of him.

So, the process of this work actually began in October, when my husband treated me to a night out to the Seattle symphony to hear Handel's Water Music. Other pieces included Vivaldi and a beautiful viola piece by J.C. Bach. Most of my work is largely intuitive, something will interest me and I will think about it for a while, playing with it in my mind until it becomes something and comes out. In my studio, the hours waltzed out of October and into November accompanied by hours of classical music, not surprisingly heavy on the piano and violin pieces.

One evening when Chloe had gone to bed and Steve was working at home I had a few minutes to play and I was looking through my reference photo file. I came across the photos of my friend's violin that I had taken for "A Song for Sofia" and I knew that my work with those photos was not finished. I had two 12in x 12in canvases ready to go and began to sketch the head of the violin into the squares until I had something I liked. I especially loved the undulating curves of the violin set against the blocky squareness of the canvas. I love the way the brush feels when I paint like this, smooth and fluid, and almost musical in its own way.

While working on these two smaller paintings, I had a need for a large painting to hang in the entry hall of our house. I had a large canvas from school, with problems I had never been able to resolve inspite of numerous attempts. So with a few adaptations, the old canvas I couldn't fix and couldn't throw away got a whole new perspective on life.

In my travels I have been playing with the idea of altered books off and on for the last couple of years. I have completed at least one (which I am ashamed to admit I dismantled since I couldn't store it on a shelf properly - the hardware I installed in it made it impossible to close). Since then I have been collecting smaller, more attainable books to alter! =)

Some part of me likes that I am writing in a taboo place. You aren't supposed to add your own text and illustration to your books - everyone's mom has told them that at least once (or is that just me?)

I am facinated by the pages that artists upload from their sketchbooks and also from altered books. There is a whole series of people who work in this media. Check out Altered Book Artists and ATC artists if you want to see some of the work. I think that it is fascinating to add bits and pieces of your everyday life, napkins, ticket stubs, receipts is fair game. Stickers, coins, beads, necklaces are things I have used as well, as acrylic paints, watercolour and oil pastels. I am working on a project that is in the same family as altered books with a friend of mine. I mail her a postcard with an image, she alters the image and sends it back. I make some changes and mail it back. Its lots of fun and it is always interesting to see how someone else responds to my ideas and visa versa. When we decide it is done I will photograph it and post it for your comments.  Maybe I will photograph the process, so we can all see the changes.

In the meantime, check out these websites to get an idea what the work that journal artists do.

Altered Book Artists

My blogspot has other site links

Artist Trading Cards

ATCs

Over the past year I have been doing a lot of reading and learning and trying to understand how the creative brain works. There are lots of theories but I thought I would include a few of the points that I have found motivational and useful to my own work. The advice is only revolutionary if you put it into use.

1.  Set attainable goals. My goals are small and more immediate than long term, although I do have some long term goals. I aim to submit my work to one show per month, and to complete one new painting a month. That is where my goals stop. I consider myself successful when I have mailed my submission. Everything after that is something I consider a bonus. These small simple goals help me short circuit my fears. My fears immobilize me so if I set a goal that I know I can acheive I empower myself.
2. God is interested in the details of your life and your art. As the Great Creator, He knows a thing or two about creativity and art. If you ask the Great Creator to work with and through you, he will. It is His joy to fire the creativity He has given you.
3. 
4. Be willing to make "bad art". Here again is another small step. Julia Cameron, in her book The Artist's Way, wrote something I found increadibly freeing. She basically said that it is not the artist's job to make capital 'A' art. It is the artist's job to show up and be willing to do the work. Ms. Cameron also suggested that artists should make a "deal" with the Great Creator something like this, "God, I will supply the quantity of work, You supply the quality." Its fantastic to know that not everything I do needs to be perfect Art. Art can and should have elements of play, and it requires a certain amount of experimentation in order to stay fresh.

I will continue to post things I have found interesting or helpful every week. I also hope to post some technique tips for acrylic and mixed media work. The goal is to make this blog not only a personal diary but useful as well. 

 

So, tonight was the big night, my gallery opening. I met one of the other two artists exhibiting in the space. Her name was Veronique Le Merre from Sammamish via San Fransico and Paris, France. Her oil paintings were whimsical and familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. I was intriqued by the red shoe that re-appeared in a couple of her works. In one it look like it was flung off just outside of a picnic blanket. I thought it looked like there may be two lovers sharing the abandoned picnic just outside of the frame of the canvas. Perhaps hiding in a willow tree in a passionate embrace. Sonja Overstreet was also exhibiting her photographs in the show but we were both surrounded by friends and family so I never got the chance to introduce myself.  I am now sitting on the couch basking in the afterglow... which could also be the glow from Steve's laptop.  Even though my paintings were hung in the hall way I was so happy and proud to see my work up on the wall. AND everyone ended up hanging around in the hall anyways. Lots of my friends and Northwest family came out to see the show. It meant so much to me that everyone came out to wish me luck and support my work. WOW - thanks to all you guys who came out - you guys are great!

I can't help thinking that I am making good steps towards a real art career. I have earned the title of artist and it feels good to know that I can do it. I am tired but happy and I will keep you posted on my latest adventures.

Here's to Late nights with Letterman and Perrier!

I have been thinking about what I should write on this page to keep it interesting. Should I publish my journaled thoughts? Perhaps tips and tricks or things I have learned and found helpful from other people. How interesting are the random things that happen in my life?

What I have decided on is to start at the beginning. I will  start where I am and we will go from there.

What excites me now, besides the sun peeking through my window, is the show that I am a part of at Museo Art in Issaquah. There is a thrill when I get to see my work on a wall. I don't think it will ever get old. The show runs November to January and the Artist's Reception is this Friday 6:30 to 8:30. I am not really sure of the protocol for these things. It is a first for me. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!!