Adventures of the Month of October and exciting things ahead

Much has happened during the month of October and the very beginning of November.
Let me start with today. Tonight at 7pm is the opening reception of "the out side of healing" which is the exhibition extension of the Nocturne events that happened at Alderney Landing on October 17th. More about Nocturne below.

I was asked to submit my pieces Fragmentation, Re-formation and Wholeness for this show. 

The wonderful Elizabeth Whalley at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts took down my giant fabric installation for me and transported it all the way to Truro, which is where I picked it up. I spent two evenings this week pulling all 4000 left over pins out of the fabric. Then sorted them. And now it will get stored until next time. 

This week I finally got my hands on Emma Fitzgerald's masterpiece "Hand Drawn Halifax" if you are in the area make sure to stop in for one of her book signings. If you don't know about Emma, she is the brilliant artist who drew us a house portrait. Everyone should have a portrait of their house! And if not buy her book! It's lovely and brilliant!

This past Sunday Julie Rosvall and I met Bonnie Baker and Suzanne Gauthier at Main & Station in Parrsboro to hang the third installment of the NS Printmakers' Traveling Exhibition "A Sense of Belonging". We were on a bit of a tight schedule, we started hanging the show at 10:30 AM and had the opening reception at 2-5 PM. But with 4 people we finished easily in 2 hours.

Bonnie & Suzanne hard at work. 

Julie Rosvall making sure the world is informed about the event.
For a much more in depth account of the day and photos and videos of the exhibition check out the blog post on the NSprintmakers website. 

We took a stroll down main street during our stay in Parrsboro and discovered these mysterious doorways between buildings.

After our opening reception finished we stopped in at Art Lab Studios and got a great tour of the space by the lovely Krista Wells. If you are in the area make sure to check it out! Julie broadcasted the visit on Periscope so you can even watch what we discovered by clicking HERE.

During our visit at Art Lab studios one of the artist's Jill Langford had this pinned up in her studio space. I am a fan.

Krista Wells showing visitors her studio space. 

The Big Lift is happening. 

Last Saturday Scott and I walked down to the market at Alderney Landing and got a great view of "the Big Lift" in progress. The MacDonald Bridge which connects Dartmouth with Halifax is currently being redecked. This is only the second time in the world that this has been done. They are replacing the deck of the bridge one piece at a time without ever closing the bridge for more than a weekend or evening. It's pretty spectacular when you look over and there is a piece of your bridge missing. Each piece gets transported underneath the bridge via barge and then lifted up. Read more about the Big Lift here. 

October 17th was Nocturne, the Halifax/Dartmouth art at night festival. The NS Printmakers were part of it this year and we printed with the public at Alderney Landing during Nocturne. Here are two photos of me screen printing with hundreds of people. For more pictures from the event, click here.

On Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) Scott and I hiked part of the Admiral Loop which is part of the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway trail. It was gorgeous and the perfect break from our busy lives.

This month I finished two new mixed media paintings, they don't have titles yet. Though I need to come up with some as soon since both will be part of the Christmas exhibition at Visual Voice Gallery. Both paintings are acrylic and linocut printed on fabric on wood panel. I am sure loving my Kroma Acrylics which we purchased during last years trip to Vancouver.

Scott is flying to BC this month in order to drive our Lithography press Georgina home. It's going to be a 10 day adventure for him and I will hopefully tell you all about it soon. In the meantime we have found a second printing press that is being gifted to us.

This beauty used to be part of Elephant Grass Press in Annapolis Royal. Scott will also pick her up and then her and Georgina will live in our Garage for a little while longer until we find a space to open the Maritime Centre for Contempory Print. If anyone has any other printmaking supplies they would like to donate to our endeavor please let me know Scott can pick it up anywhere in Canada along the Transcanada during his trip across.

Finally, this Saturday I am leaving for Massachusetts. to be in residency at Zea Mays Printmaking Studios for 2 weeks. After that I am giving an artist talk at Hartford Art School and slowly make my way home again.