Lisa MacDonald - I Made This For You

Lisa MacDonald's thesis work on the act of gift-giving titled I Made This For You had me utterly captivated earlier this year. I was able to see a lot of her process work in the studios and discuss the many layers to her conceptual motivations. I couldn't wait to see the finished works because I knew they would be meticulously executed, as all of her work is. She's turned out to be an exceptional book artist and it's these works in particular that have inspired me, as my own practices have been moving towards the book as a dying art form. An aspiring book artist could definitely learn a thing or two from her.

Lisa's Website http://lisagmacdonald.com/

Personal Blog http://lisamacdonald.tumblr.com/

Book Blog http://thisinparticular.tumblr.com/

The Wilderness Downtown

If you have not yet had this experience PLEASE click on the link below!
I absolutely adore this collective project. It is extremely innovative and sentimental. I revisit it often!
Enjoy!
http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Michael Hussar

Although the majority of Michael Hussar's paintings cause me to wince most of the time, I also find them wonderfully detailed and disturbingly beautiful in an odd and overly creepy way. I don't think I could ever have one of his paintings adorning my hallway for fear of being murdered in my sleep by one of these characters, but I do enjoy visiting them from time to time.

Gummer (detail), oil on wood, 72" x 72", 2002.

Lamb of God, oil on wood, 10" x 23", 2002.

Daddy's Girl, oil on wood, 2004.
http://www.michaelhussar.biz/

Get Out Of Jail Free Card

Get Out Of Jail Free card for Shannon Gerard's Text & Image class last year. Every week we would create artwork, literature or performances based on a different tidbit of inspiration that we had been given. We were allowed a maximum of two Get Out Of Jail Free cards for the semester, this was one of mine.

It reads:
Hey! What do you think this peice of wood wanted to be?
Surely this is not the fate it had anticipated.
Do you think it wanted to be a peice of paper?
Or a really nice bench?
Maybe some mulch in an under-watered garden?
Maybe a rickety old picnic table for young lovers to make out on, and to be covered in graffitti?
Or maybe it was a real prick and wanted to become a sliver in some kids hand?
Or do you think it just wanted to be a tree?
Or do you think wood isn't consious at all?
Well that'd be lonely!

Chief Tukukino of the Maori Tribe

My interest in New Zealand Flax (Phormium) as a versatile and beautiful fibre for papermaking led to me to stumble across this captivating image of a Maori tribal chief, painted in 1878 by Gottfried Lindauer. He is painted wearing a pōhoi ear ornament which is made from the skin of the huia bird, a bird native to New Zealand which became instinct a few years afterwards.

Tukukino, Lindauer, 1878

David Blackwood - Canadian Inspiration

It was an absolute pleasure to meet David Blackwood when he visited us at The Art Centre at Central Technical School to give an artist talk. I was astonished by his work, his etchings in particular. They inspired me to push myself further within my own print work. He was also an amazing storyteller and had me captivated from the beginning. This print always resonated in my mind. I couldn't believe that on the East Coast towns' people used to actually uproot and drag entire houses across the snowy terrain for miles to their new location, sometimes taking months to do so.

Hauling Job Sturge's House, etching, 13"x32", 1979.
http://www.davidblackwood.com/