Holiday Sweat-er at Cyclogik, Friday Dec. 7 !!!

Yes, it is that time of year already!  On thursday the kind folks at Cyclelogik will be clearing space on the walls of their shop for the annual art show curated by none other than artist and self-described art-pusher, Andrea Stokes.  The opening takes place Friday night and the place is always packed to the rafters (I'm not kidding), so come early and get your Christmas shopping done.  Over 40 of this city's intriguing artists are represented with small and medium sized works for every collectors budget.  Art, bikes and coffee--an unbeatable combo.  See you there!

Refab 1, Dec. 1st at the ReStore

December 1st?  How did that happen?  What better way to usher in the final month of the year, than with blistering cold and a trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore?



Drop off donations for Habitat for Humanity, buy a storm door, drink some coffee and talk to a local artist!


At today's art event, dubbed Refab I  (artists showing work with reclaimed materials in a recycling environment) , I was joined by two fabulous interdisciplinary art-friends, Annette Hegel, and Nancy Green.  I was privileged to spend the day exchanging stories and ideas with these engaging and inspirational folk.







Annette Hegel, a local and international art activist who has done everything (no, really!) , brought intriguing pieces combining miniature figures with reclaimed objects to create arresting environments that challenge ones sense of scale while drawing in political themes.

In Watching the fireworks, tiny white figures sit watching Gaza burning from their perch on a chunk of rusted steel.

Nancy Green, whose show, Variable Change at Zen Kitchen runs until the end of December, is exceedingly resourceful at combining found objects in smart compositions and shows remarkable facility with paint, ceramics and metal while maintaining an art of delicacy. 

 The work Nancy brought to the show included paintings on off cuts of plastered doors, glassed in drawers with birds nests and framed antique bottles with subtle text punched into copper strapping.

I brought a selection of current junk masks, and debuted my 2013 photo calendar.















Thanks to Myrna and the Gang at the ReStore for their hospitality and remember, you can now bring your e-waste to either NCR location anytime.  Look out for Refab II, coming in the new year!

At the ReStore

I arrived at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Saturday morning in the pouring rain, so the planned outside set-up for my work was definitely not going to happen.  After years of being bullied by the weather at outdoor markets, craft fairs and art shows I was very content with the contingency plan of setting up inside the warm dry store with the big vat-o-coffee and great abundance of brownies. 




It was a great pleasure to meet Myrna and the welcoming staff  and have the leisure of setting up my masks here and there throughout the store.
                                                                            
                                                                                       

The masks were right at home alongside the building materials, fittings, hardware supplies and other miscellaneous items that can be found at the ReStore.



After setting up, it wasn't long before I was rooting through bins like a kid in a candy store and making a little pile of things to take home myself! 





While the rain continued to keep the hoards away, I contented myself,  tinkering with an old typewriter that I was determined to take home with me, and which Myrna ended up giving to me as gift for coming to the store--I couldn't be happier!  More and more people appeared as the day moved along, and despite the rain I talked to a lot of interesting folks and lots of drop-offs were made to the E-waste site.  BTW, I believe that both ReStore's in Ottawa are now accepting E-waste for recycling on a regular basis (check their website).
  I was also pleased to meet Stone Sculptor, Uwe Foehring, who is on Staff and also is the creator of the towering e-waste sculpture outside the store. 


Thanks again to Myrna for the invite.  I met some great people, found a new source for art materials, oh ya, I sold some artwork as well!

NCR Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Saturday Sept. 8, 9 am. to 5 pm.

Trust Me, I'm a Doctor

I just took down my work at Zen Kitchen and will be delivering the rest of the sold artwork in the next week.

I was thrilled to get a call from Myrna at the ReStore, inviting me to show my work as a part of their launch for a new e-waste drop off site.  On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be setting up a display of artwork from my Tribal Masks of Urban Culture outside the store.  If it rains, I'll be it inside.  Come by and bring your old plug-in thingys that don't work (we all have them) and make room for some...art?  The NCR Habitat for Humanity ReStore is located at 7 Enterprise Ave. (Off Merivale Rd. in Ottawa).

Visit From an Old Friend

Earlier this month I had an email from Heather Boyd, an old friend and fellow street-vendor of Karen's and mine from Montreal days.  Heather had lunch and visited  my show at Zen Kitchen with her daughter. She made this photo-collage of two masks in the show and wore this mask earring on a necklace (bottom left) that I made in 1989!  I used to cut up old copper plumbing pipes, heat them with a torch, flatten them out and pound designs into them.  The first ones I made were pretty heavy, which probably explains why it is now on a necklace!

I didn't even realize until later that I could buy copper sheets that were already shiny and flat.  I had forgotten that I was making masks from "junk" all those years ago. Thanks Heather!

Heather Boyd is a multi-talented artist who has been making fantastic wire jewelry for years and is fast becoming a you-tube sensation with her instructional arts and craft videos.  Check it out!

“Where the wire is.”
On-line shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/heatherboyd
Website: http://heatherboyd.org/
Blog: http://heatherboydwire.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Heather-Boyd-Jewelry/169083695448
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/heatherboydwire
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HeatherBoydWire/videos
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/heatherboydwire/

The Art of Junk, in the Ottawa Citizen, June 18, 2012

Photo by Chris Cobb of the Ottawa Citizen

Peter Simpson did a review on my show  at Zen Kichen for the Ottawa Citizen (thanks Peter!), which first appeared online on his blog Big Beat, and the following week in the print edition of the paper. Note that the show will run until the end of August.







Also reviewed in the article are two other artists you must check out : the always interesting  Marc Adornato, with 3 simultaneous shows at Shanghai Restaurant , the Daily Grind, and the Hintonburg Public House; and John Sekerka with a collection of playable art guitars at Gigspace.





 The print edition appeared June 18, 2012, with different  pictures.  You can view it here at PressDisplay.com

Virtual Mini-Tour on Google Street View Interiors

Zen Kitchen is now on Google Street View Interiors and as a happy coincidence the Google camera people came just after my show was mounted. Now you can take a virtual walk on Street View and walk right into the restaurant to see Tribal Masks of Urban Culture.










 If you click on the little man icon in the corner of the picture on the google maps page, you can "look inside" the restaurant, pan 360 degrees and zoom in on some of the artwork.

Of Course a Google visit is no substitute  for the real thing, so if you want to get a really good look at the artwork and more than a virtual taste of the fine cuisine you'll have to drop by Zen Kitchen!!!

It's Not Over!!! Chinatown Remixed 2012

(photo by Dave Loan)

In case you thought you'd missed it, Chinatown Remixed runs until June 12, so there's still time to wander over to Somerset West and check out local artists hosted by this neighbourhood's interesting and diverse businesses.

I set up my show on the Friday before opening day at Zen Kitchen.  The vernissage went splendidly, with a steady stream of friends, acquaintances and other curious folk passing through.



Thanks to all who came for your kind words and comments and of course a special thanks to those who added  my work to their own art collections! A huge shout-out as well to all the organizers and volunteers who made this unique event happen.  My only regret was that I was too busy to take in the festivities going on outside along Somerset street!

A hearty thanks to the staff and proprietors Dave Loan and Caroline Ishii for making me feel so welcome at Zen Kitchen and creating such an inviting atmosphere.  Caroline kept platters filled with chipotle hummus and poppadums and gluten free bread for dipping, not to mention pieces of delectable chocolate cake!(see menu).  Understandably, many visitors lingered! Check out Caroline Ishii's on CBC's All in a Day where she serves up a fiddlehead recipe and plugs my show at the restaurant :-)

While Chinatown Remixed will be coming to a close June 12, my exhibit will be held at Zen Kitchen until August 31, so please stop by and see my work and while you're at it, check out what this fabulous restaurant has to offer. (see Restaurant reviews).

Timothy Hunt @ Zen Kitchen for Chinatown Remixed 2012

Tribal Masks of Urban Culture

New work by Timothy Hunt
Saturday May 12, 2012 (continuing until August 31)
At Zen Kitchen,(Stop # 32 on the tour)
634 Somerset Street West
Vernissage: 2 pm to 5 pm
As part of the Chinatown Remixed street celebration

Chinatown on Main St -- Chinatown Remixed 2012

I went a-posterin' in my neighborhood on the weekend.  Here's a taste of Chinatown Remixed around Main Street and the Canal.  It's always bustling around here; Spring is in the air, Market season has begun, bike races, Tulip Festival...

and then a quiet moment on the Pretoria Bridge on Saturday night gazing at the Super moon.
 

Riveting! -- Chinatown Remixed 2012

 My friend Randy Cartwright introduced me to the pop-rivet gun back in Sudbury, when we were working on a friend's rusted out Camaro.  He could fix or make anything and won all possible awards in Shop class from grade 7, right through high school. 

   The hand riveter I use now, I bought at the old Pascal Hardware in Montreal for seven bucks.  In our street-vending days on
Ste. Catherine st., I used it to rivet pieces of hardware to leather bracelets, and it has been useful for making and repairing all sorts of things since.

  It has been especially handy for making masks, like the ones I'll be showing at Zen Kitchen for Chinatown Remixed. A true craftsman like Randy would find a way to hide the rivets, but I like the way they look.  Like my old math teacher used to say..."show  your work!"

Hope to see you all on Somerset St. this Saturday!!!

Where do you find this Stuff?--Chinatown Remixed 2012

One question I am asked most often by those viewing my artwork is, "Where do you get this stuff?"
The odd bits of junk I use to make collage, sculpture, and the masks for my upcoming show at Zen Kitchen for Chinatown Remixed, are culled from here, there and everywhere.

I have a large collection of scrap metal pieces that have fallen off cars that I pick up off the road and throw in the milk crate on the back of my bike on my rides home from work in the wee hours.  Most of these have been sculpted by rust and salt and flattened by traffic.

I am also a collector of bikes and a lot of bike parts make it into my work.  This bike was rescued from the canal--Check out the zebra mussels that have attached themselves to the bell.
















Friends an neighbours who see me at work offer me things from their garages and basements and trunks of cars.


Don't kid yourself, Ottawa is not all tulips and Parliament buildings.  We have our share of nitty gritty vacant lots, dead ends and it is sad and surprising how many things show up in and along the banks of the Rideau River where I canoe with my sons.

We throw out a lot of good things, some of them admittedly obsolete.  When I find beauty and mystery in something useless, rusty, and broken, I take it home and try to make something out of it.

Junk Sketch, May 2012

Chinatown Remixed 2012- Sorting things out

With Chinatown Remixed coming up, I have been hunting and gathering and sorting through my materials for my show at Zen Kitchen, May 12.
I am working on a series of tribal masks for urban culture and in order to get the creative juices flowing , I need a critical mass of objects to draw from.
Once I have the items sorted into somewhat recognizable categories I can begin to lay things out and start to piece them together.The masks change a lot during this process; objects gravitate to one another, grouping together by size, colour, shape and texture. Once a piece feels "right", it is time to drill, screw, rivet, solder and wire things together.

Chinatown Remixed 2012

I'm very pleased to have been selected to participate in this year's Chinatown Remixed. I have been paired up with the award winning Zen Kitchen, home restaurant of Dave and Caroline of The Restaurant Adventures of Dave and Caroline which aired on the W network. My work will be on exhibit for 3 months starting on May 12th for the opening of the festival. Here is Wei Zheng's poster for the event featured on the festival's new website at chinatownremixed.ca


Here is a map of the venues and participating aritists, and please check out the website for a full list of festival events and information on becoming a volunteer.

Junk Mail Post Card #2

Mr Lee's epic search for a pen continues (4"X6" postcard)

Junk Mail Postcard #1, 2012--Happy New Year!!!

One of my resolutions for the new year is to send more snail mail. I make this resolution every year with limited results, so this year I've decided to send out handmade postcards (4"X6") made from recycled bits destined for the black box and post each one here as a record. This first one came out as an abbreviated passport application for Captain Highliner.

Email is an amazing thing, to be sure, but it means that all that comes in the tin mailbox anymore is bills and junk mail. There's nothing like getting a bit of personal mail, so I'll be cleaning up my mailing list and sending these out. Happy New Year and write soon!