bone maple series

maple ground smooth

bright moon

yellow cedar

My friend Ange asked if I could make one of these today, and so I did. It's made from hardwood (Maple) and apparently is great for little teethers to chew on.
4" x .75" 14 each + 3 for shipping

parts for mobiles
unused peices of wood
1-3"
1.- each

wooden room/house numbers
red cedar
5"
4.- each

custom family name signs
hemlock
8x11"
50.- each

Red cedar with a beeswax polish.

third

Bernhard Modern

Red Cedar

Scroll Work

second wood project

My second scroll project. I'm hooked, and have already begun on my third with three more waiting in the wings. The inagural session was six hours long, followed by a short break and last night I was out working till after midnight, covering myself in red cedar shavings. It's like getting lost in a really good book and not wanting to put it down. And then, like a little kid, I'm keen to show off each stage to my mentor, who is also my dad, and who lucky for me was still up working on a tapestry, when I needed advice on a repair.

I'm experimenting with various blades and am liking the circular blades for the smaller font, although the ones with teeth on just one side make for easier straight lines. The circular blade will definitely come in handy for free form drawing projects. I have one in mind. Though I do love working with great fonts, and the challenge of keeping the structure strong-- in the case of letters with loops.

woodwork

My dad has been making these signs for the last twenty-five years or so. This summer we've been working on a few wood projects together and he's been introducing me to some of his processes. Using a scroll saw is similar to using a sewing machine, and so I'm picking it up fairly easily.

This piece is a study for a wooden block that will be hang from the sign made for Moses' mom and dad, a few years back.

product design: kimberley francis
photog: morgaine owens

100% silk
for sale 36-

pleased to poste
pairs nicely with songwriter sheree pletts pretty new lullabye

Be Back Tomorrow, by Sheree Plett

It's been such a joy to teach children about the felting process and to nurture their creative process. Here are two of my latest students, with their projects.

inspired by the river stones of andy goldsworthy and the lifelong mosaics of antonio gaudi, i'm excited to begin these felted sculptures and continue them for a long time.

February 5th, 2009

To Do List:

Update this blog.

Yep.  

becoming better acquainted with kiki smith

Born in 1954, a daughter of the abstract sculptor Tony Smith, she was raised in suburban New Jersey, went to Roman Catholic schools and didn’t consider art as a profession. As a child she wanted to be a nun.

Before and after moving to Manhattan in 1976 she worked as a cook, an electrician, a surveyor, an emergency medical technician and an artist’s assistant. Around the time of her father’s death in 1980 she picked up art herself in a serious way. She has not put it down for an instant.

She was largely self-taught and, obviously, fully self-aware. She paid attention to what others were doing, learning a lot from the work of artists like Eva Hesse, Nancy Spero, Leon Golub, Paul Thek, Hannah Wilke and Louise Bourgeois, as well as from her contemporaries in a fringy Lower East Side art world.

She sought technical instruction wherever she could find it and learned as she went. A collaborator and multitasker by temperament, she covered a lot of ground fast. That first gallery at the Whitney encompasses metal, plaster and glass sculpture, drawing, sewing and printmaking. She quickly added painting, photography, bookmaking and filmmaking to her repertory.

From the start her art was of a piece with her life, without being diaristic. The mid-’80s internal organs, and the full-body forms that followed, had sources in her childhood religion, with its cult of relics and fleshly mortification, and sensual saints like Angela de Foligno, who envisioned Jesus showing her his wounds and whispering, “Lella, these are all for you.”

The work was also the product of a specific social and political moment that saw the rise and spread of AIDS. One of Ms. Smith’s two sisters, Beatrice, died of the disease. So did many of her friends. And its trace, while rarely explicit, is omnipresent in the first two galleries of the show.

A couple of days ago, my history instructor Art, told us a story about Kiki's dad, Tony. A deep friendship lived between Tony and Jackson Pollack. One night after midnight, Pollack was close to his end and feeling exceptionally low, even for him. He called his friend Tony. He murmered that he was thinking seriously of suicide. Tony asked Jack what most friends would, where his wife Lee was? Jack said "she's hiding," which was common I suppose for them. She was his wife. And she needed reprieve; shelter from the intensity of Jack. After several moments on the phone, Tony drove to Jack's place and found his friend out in the barn; his studio; lit by a candle. It is very much Jack's dark night, in all senses. He was beyond consolation for a long time; confined by the pressure the galleries were putting upon him; cajoling him into painting more comodities, with drugs and whatever he needed to keep himself under their thumb; churning out more and more and more.
He was done.
He was spent.
He had reached critical mass.
The part of the story i like best is the next part. Jack's despair was beyond reason; beyond words. He needed his friend to woo him back to life without words. Tony offered what good friends offer: action. He lit a cigarette and he poured bourbon and he sat down.

Once they were good and drunk, Tony rose again to his feet, but not to go. In the style of Jack himself, he took fists full of paint and hurled the paint violently through the blank canvas. With the paint came his friend's pain; Jack's anger; humilitation; self disgust; Jack's shame. Jack was too tired so Tony did it for him, and with raw abandon.

Eventually Jack was enraptured and for hours together they violently assalted the canvas; releasing the demons within. Finally after the spectacular war, they collapse onto the canvas in a heap and sleep it off. I'm sure the next morning wasn't pretty. But the fact is, for Jackson, a new morning came. The light of another day shone bright and (probably quite painfully) upon him.

The way Art recounted the story said to me that he knows something about keeping a friend company in the midst of a dark night.

I remember a night my dad stayed on the phone with me for a long time, between the hours of 3 and 5. I wasn't reasonable. I wasn't consolable. I was the weakest and most unlovely version of myself. I guarantee it wasn't his favorite memory. But there he was keeping vigil over his baby daughter, as parents do.

Anyway, I like this story of Kiki's dad. Reminds me of mine, I suppose.

Alannah's pie from her Gramma.

It's becoming tradition to spend the last week of August with my mom and dad. This year was especially wonderful. I drank alot of coffee with my dad. He and I like swapping project ideas. I got to catch up with my big brother Jeff and loved reconnecting with his son and daughter. I enjoyed time with my mom, laughing mostly-- bike riding, napping in the hammock, learning family history stories that happened years before I was born, getting stuck in the mud after dark-which brought on a lot more laughing--and well... we baked and ate Apple Pie pretty much everyday.

one of my tapestry projects

any guesses as to what's going on here?

an idea for my jacquard project

these two belong to one of my dear friends, Alanna Clempson. Alanna is amazing at making beautiful photographs, aswell as chutney and children. There are so many things I LOVE about this image.

a green tea rug--update

here's where i'm at with the rug. it's a much less vibrant green--more the colour of an aloe vera plant. it's coming along.... i'd like to go bigger. the first is 18" x 24" or so.

New project: green tea rug.

My friends Colleen and Sven, sent me this image a year ago. I was so inspired by it then and was pretty sure it would lend itself to a project idea one day. I love the lushness. Am off to scout for velvet or velour, or maybe even a cordoroy, to dye this amazing green hue. Then will somehow work it into a rug format. I see uneven rhythms and gradual depth of shade. Not sure about dimension, but I do know it is sure to feel amazing on barefeet! Stay tuned.

making little rugs.

colour colour so many colours. my hands look like i've been canning a giant crop of beets; but i haven't. such anticipation for next june! something-- so special-- is happening!

irina napping beneath one of my cozy felted silk blankies.

my latest weaving project

icelandic wool, linen, ultrasuede, found willow branches

12" x 36"

untitled

if you'd like to see some of my classmates work just click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16883&id=692821432

okay try now!... this takes you right to me! ;)

http://www.spiltmilk.ca/Spilt%20Milk%20Website/Spilt%20Milk%20-%20JosiahTouque.html!!

sweet friends from afar

i got to spend a couple of days with a really special friend and her amazing little guy.

i love it when little ones find their play in stones.

i still play with them daily, and have little piles of them around...

in the bathroom sink, bowls of them in various places...

maybe something about growing up in a river valley?

The latest entrepreneurial endeavours

One of my favorite things to do to relax is to make these knitted toques. In the past 7 years I'm sure I've constructed over a thousand and it's interesting that they're all out there in the world somewhere, keeping little kids noggin's warm on the toboggan hill or playground.

One of the coolest moments I've experienced as an entreprenuer: I was having a coffee with Phil at eA in Langley and a little girl came in wearing a hat i'd made. It was VERY well worn and the dad said that she had barely taken it off for two years. It's exciting to create cozy wearables that become little kids favorite childhood items.

This past weekend, I participated in the Deep Cove Art Market. My friend Lindsay has just launched her own little company called 'SPILT MILK' and so it was cool to have a buddy take part in the exhibition.
Lindsay and her neighbour have come up with these great images of classic film stars simple line drawings, which are then silkscreened onto tiny tees and onesies.
Some of you might recognise one of the past season's models.
This little dress is my favourite item in Lindsay's line--a little sparrow.

It was a great turn out and we both left with some profits in our jeans.
For more information or to purchase something:
check out http://www.spiltmilk.ca/

if you click on the touque! it will bring you to me!

hanging with the ewings before they become A Rocha-ites.

We came upon a street festival on our rainy walk.

I always like to check out the upright bassists. ;)
We ended our evening with the Beckums (aka Hadleys) for some drinkin and card playin. aida snuggled with ange.

kayaking with melissa