Studio Design - Pattern Language #200 Open Shelves, #201 Waist-high Shelf

'A Pattern Language' by Christopher Alexander is a collection of patterns found in well-designed living spaces. I applied many of these patterns to my studio design.

Pattern #200 Open Shelves

The Problem - 'Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that you want what is behind something else'.

The Solution - 'Cover the walls with narrow shelves of varying depth but always shallow enough so that things can be placed on them one deep - nothing hiding behind anything else.'

I measured the depth of some of the books and binders I wanted to have in the studio and used that measurement for the depth of the shelves in this bookcase. Likewise in the rest of the studio the shelves depths and the varying spaces between them match the sizes of the articles stored on them. Things are stored only one item deep, mostly.

Pattern #201 Waist-high Shelf

Problem - 'In every house and every workplace there is a daily "traffic" of objects which are handled most. Unless such things are immediately at hand, the flow of life is awkward, full of mistakes; things are forgotten, misplaced.'

Solution - 'Build waist-high shelves around at least part of the main rooms where people live and work. Make them long, 9 to 15 inches deep, with shelves or cupboard underneath. Interrupt the shelf for seats, windows or doors.'

The 12" top of the bookshelf doubles as the needed waist-high shelf where stuff gets put. It also serves as the protective back for the Drawing Centre. Papers won't blow off the desk when the front door is opened.

Drawing Centre

This is where I put the cork mat I made from leftover floor tiles that didn't work on the cutting table. The area is big enough to hold a portable sloped drawing board that I use when doing design work.

Desk Centre

Attached to the Drawing Centre is the Desk Centre and both share the one chair. Underneath there are 2 basket stacks on wheels stored in otherwise unused space. Art materials are stored here and easily accessed from either work area.

Desk Centre

Each morning after I enter the studio, I start work here with some drawing practice and writing in a journal. These 2 activities slow me down and make me focus on what I plan to do that day. I end a studio session here too. I write in the journal  and plan what I will do next day.

Whenever I need extra horizontal workspace I can easily clear off these few things and temporarily free up a large area.The simple L-shaped design gives a lot of flexibility in how the space can be used. 

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation

The Captain

Guipse Bay, place of an early 20-century utopian Danish settlement, now abandoned.

The knitting grows.

I am observing, sketching and photographing the boundaries between different elements.

Ocean Beach - Shed 4, Jacobson Point, Brooks Peninsula

One of the best surfing beaches on the West Coast of Canada, so the book says.

Though plastic is the main type of debris on these west coast beaches we also saw this huge vehicle wheel, the wheel of a plane, and rubber boots from Japan.

The day was a little chilly while the sun burnt exposed skin. 

My solution.

Sketching with water-colour pencil crayons and sea water.

Circumnavigation: West Coast Vancouver Island

By the time we were on the west coast my knitting had grown much longer.

And I was working my way through the pile of stowed books. They included a few about and by Emily Carr because this was the country she traveled through and worked in.

Kerry Mason Dodd's book 'Sunlight in the Shadows. The Landscape of Emily Carr' is full of photographs of places Emily visited. It gave us clues as to where Emily visited and we were able to stop at a few of those places.

Emily Carr, Indian Church', 1927, oil on canvas, 108.6 x 68.9cm. Art Gallery fo Ontario.

photographed from Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall's 'Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo. Places of their Own.'

Emily Carr did sketches for this painting when she visited Friendly Cove, Nootka Island.

We anchored in Friendly Cove, puttered ashore and went in search of the church. We learnt from the resident warden that particular church burnt down in 1954. The above church was built as a replacement 2 years later on a new site further towards the point. It is now a museum for the local First Nations band's collection of artefacts.

Also in Friendly Cove is the Nootka Light Station.

Emily Carr sketched the light station buildings during a later visit, in 1929. 

I found this image in Doris Shadbolt's 'The Sketchbooks of Emily Carr. Seven Journeys.' 

Reading about Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Khalo, 3 artists with intense connections to nature and long attachments to specific places, helped me during the month at sea to look longer and deeper at the water, land and sky that is home and a source of inspiration for my work. As a result, I have a sketchbook of ideas to work with.

Circumnavigation: Things To Do When Not Actually Sailing

Sketching in Roller Bay, Hope Island

Roller Bay, so named because the round stones roll in and out with the waves making such a distinctive noise.

Picking up debris on what should have been a pristine beach. I collected a bag of stuff to incorporate in a work about the world's plastic garbage issue.

And there was always knitting when not required by the skipper to pull my weight.

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation - What I did this Summer

This summer Ron and I went on a big expedition. We explored the island we live on.  Travelling on our sailboat we took a month to circumnavigate Vancouver  Island.

We saw many beautiful sights including much wildlife: orcas, dolphins, sea lions, whales, sea otters, seals, bears, and birds - none of which I was able to capture adequately with  my point 'n' shoot camera.

I got lots of knitting time in. I read most of the books I stowed on board.

I did lots of quick sketches to make me really see what I was looking at.

My sketchbook is full of inspiration and ideas for future works which will keep me busy in my studio over winter.

Articulation 2014 Study Session in Victoria

Each year Articulation does study in a special place in Canada.

This year they are in Victoria researching the maritime history of the west coast of Canada.

Donna climbing up the stairs from the waterfront to the street full of old warehouses, hotels and shops.

Into The Maritime Museum, up in their iron elevator - the oldest working elevator in Canada...

...to the 3rd floor library and archives.

Donna and Leann doing research.

Lunch break at Venus Sophia's Tearoom and Vegetarian Eatery with retro afternoon tea served along side delicious light meals.

Venus Sophia's is in Chinatown, the oldest china town in North America. 

While in Chinatown, Articulation visited Ground Zero Print Studio www.groundzeroprint.com/  owned by Victoria Edgarr and Alain Costaz.

The magnificent gated entrance to Chinatown.

A visit to the University of Victoria's down town gallery, Legacy Art Gallery, where they showcase works from their extensive art collection.

A visit to the oldest tea and coffee company in Victoria, Murchie's.

Murchie's continues to blend their own teas and runs a tea room.

That was Articulation's 1st 2 days of research on Victoria's maritime history.

Writing-Reading-Gardening

I haven't posted for a while because i have been spending a lot of time each day editing my dissertation, this semester's module towards my BA.
Last week i received, in the mail, 2 books from Anne Gott in Calgary. She has been following on my blog the reorganisation of the Victoria College of Art library. She noticed the mention of starting a Textile Arts section and sent 2 books as her contribution!
Aren't there some wonderfully generous and caring people out there. And Anne is one of them.
This Colette Wolff book happens to be on the Book List for the 1st 2 courses i am teaching at the college. It came out in 1996 and there hasn't been another book published before or after, on this particular technique, that comes anywhere close to the quality of this one. There is a lifetime of exploration between its covers.
Every time i use this book i get the urge to write to Colette to thank her. Yes, i need to follow through on that urge.

The 2nd book Anne donated is another valuable resource holding its own. It was published in response to schools in the UK expecting textile art students to present their work on worksheets. Later, when I did City and Guilds courses, work was glued directly onto boards. The expectation for this BA degree program is to fill sketchbook after sketchbook with ideas in a more informal presentation People are now interested in the actual process the artist works through.
You may have noticed an increase in the number of art exhibitions where the artist's sketchbooks are included in the display.
It is interesting how things evolve.
What will be next? I have a hunch about what it will be and i will be using it in my classes.

The other activity that has kept me away from my blog is happenings in the garden. I have been waiting for the fall season to experiment with a method to convert a weedy area back to Douglas-fir natives. I pulled out the blackberry and my husband cut short the rampant grass with his trusty weed-eater blade.

We covered the area with newspaper then a layer of soil/mulch.
I don't know how long i have to wait until i will be able to dig through the newspaper to plant natives transplanted from other areas.
I'll keep you posted on how this experiment progresses.

Exploring Colour by Julia Caprara

Yahoo! My copy of Julia's new book has arrived and it is as inspirational as everyone says it is. It is really a workbook to keep you learning about colour for years to come. I have already got the sketchbook to begin the first Colour School project. I am going to do a study of my favourite colour - a warm blue.
The saddest part of the book is the last sentence Julia wrote,
'I hope that you will have found these chapters useful in mapping your own route for your personal colour journey and will join me again in the future to explore the next stage along the Path of Colour.'
I guess we will all have to continue on our paths on our own. But if we take this book along I am sure it will continue to be an inspiration.

Julia Caprara: Julia By the Sea

Julia's idea of the perfect place to be while working in her sketchbooks was to be warm while sitting beside water. So here are some perfect spots for Julia.

Cuba

Torbay, New Zealand

Vancouver Island, Canada

Just before Julia got sick, she and Alex planned to travel across Canada giving workshops then finshing with a few days beside the sea on Vancouver Island. Julia was working on her colour book and was looking forward to exploring the colours of the Pacific Coast.
If you have ever seen Julia's sketchbooks you would have seen evidence of her special ablity to capture the feeling of a place with colour. She then translated this feeling to her embroideries.

Artawearness IIX Again

I found all of the students' work so thought provoking so I am sharing with you some more images of this year's performance.
A big part of my Opus studies is sketchbooks. I am learning to develop my ideas visually and to record the process on paper which acts as steps towards realising them in textiles. This entry in the performance is by a 4th year drawing student, Jennifer Crighton.

Jennifer has literally brought to life drawings from a sketchbook. One of the interesting things about how these 'creatures' came about is they are a result of 'shared drawings' by a group of her fellow students at ACAD.

Students with 'individually diverse' practices are able to communicate through a sketchbook what fills their imaginations. This collaboration illustrates to me how well ACAD students' creativity & talents are developed at the school.
To quote that now famous quote,
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." Albert Einstein
This is the message in the movie 'The Diving Bell & the Butterfly' and it adds memories to the mix.