The Electric Buffalo and other Metal Anomalies @ the Urban Pear until May 11

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.

Urban Masks at The Linda Street Gallery--Dovercourt Community Ctr.

At the Linda Street Gallery, in the lobby of Dovercourt Community Centre, 411 Dovercourt Ave., until Oct. 23, 2011.

Artist's Statement

Alright, I collect junk. Let's just get that out of the way For over 20 years I have been making art from "found objects", not to reduce my carbon footprint ( a happy byproduct), but because these are the things that inspire me. Rusty nails, bicycle parts, things that fall off cars and all manner of unidentified corroded objects make their way into my carefully selected inventory of art supplies. I'm never sure how I'll use these items when I find them, but each one has a sense of history an purpose that I can't pass up. This series of masks is a continuation of a series that was selected for the Lumiere Festival this past summer. I see them as tribal masks of our urban culture.

Rin Tin Tin

Goalie

Longhorn

Bad Idea

Babar


Erik The Red

Artist's Statement

Alright, I collect junk. Let's just get that out of the way For over 20 years I have been making art from "found objects", not to reduce my carbon footprint ( a happy byproduct), but because these are the things that inspire me. Rusty nails, bicycle parts, things that fall off cars and all manner of unidentified corroded objects make their way into my carefully selected inventory of art supplies. I'm never sure how I'll use these items when I find them, but each one has a sense of history an purpose that I can't pass up. This series of masks is a continuation of a series that was selected for the Lumiere Festival this past summer. I see them as tribal masks of our urban culture.

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.