Lumiere Ottawa, 2011

I set up for the Festival early Saturday, and was finished installing my six masks in the beautiful sunshine by 1 pm. Shortly thereafter the skies opened up and we had a heavy downpour. Fortunately, by late afternoon things cleared up and the Festival got underway on schedule. Here are some images of the masks I made for the festival as they appeared in the daylight and then at night.






The crowd that walked through Stanley Park was estimated at about 8000. This Festival holds it's charm with handmade lanterns, candlelight, local visual and performing artists, acoustic musicians and actors. Many come to the Festival in costumes and carrying lanterns.

The grand finale was the spectacular firedancers, whose performance coincided coincidentally with the Lac Leamy fireworks, which could be seen and heard in the background.
I was pleased to meet photographer, Louise Imbeault who took some lovely photo's at the festival and posted them to her website.

Finishing touches for tomorrow's Lumiere Festival --Sat. Aug 20

I put the finishing touches on my 6 masks for tomorrow's festival. When it's all over I'll run a post to show how the pieces look when they are all lit up in the thicket just past the wall along the Rideau River in Stanley Park.





Hope to see you at the Lumiere Festival 5-10 pm at Stanley Park in Ottawa!

Lumiere Festival 2011- Sneak Peak!

I was at Stanley Park this afternoon, scouting out the area where I will be installing the masks that I made for Saturday's Lumiere Festival(photo by Karen Massey)The bicycle wheel chandeliers that I made for the 2009 Festival will be on display as well. There will be music, drama, visual art, shadow puppets, stilt walkers and much more. Bring a lantern or make one on site. This is a free event along the River in Ottawa's New Edinburg, with opportunities to make donations to help keep this unique event going.

Lumiere Festival this Saturday

I've been working away at my series of masks for the Lumiere Festival that takes place this Saturday in Ottawa . I've moved twice in the last five years and have purged a great many items, but was not able to part with a bin full of assorted heat shields. If you've lost part of your exhaust system, or maybe a hub cap in the last 10 years, you might find it has become part of my work for this year's festival. I knew there was a reason I couldn't part with this stuff!

My six masks are nearly complete and I will be working on lighting and mounting them in time for Saturday evening. I'll be posting a few sneak peaks in the next few days.

Lumiere 2011, August 20th at Stanley Park

Lumiere 2011 will be held August 20th at Stanley Park. This will be my third year among a selection of artists that will be creating sculptures for this festival of lights along the Rideau River. This is a photo of my work from last year (courtesy of Andrew Argyle). This year's work is taking shape and needless to say, for those of you who have seen my previous work, it is constructed entirely from found objects (sounds so much classier than junk). Hope to see you there!