bones, wax, and rusty metal things

OK - an update on the fund raising end of things.

We are holding a second fund raiser for CORTEX on June 30th, at Naked Cyber Cafe, 103 St/Jasper Ave.

Here's the Scoop:



TablaRosaCrustacean: An Evening of Multidisciplinary Mayhem

When your mind is a clean slate, anything can happen! Expect the unexpected ... and be prepared to see something new.

TablaRosaCrustacean is a night of music, poetry, visual art, performance art, and video jamming hosted by the curators of CORTEX: a multidisciplinary event.

WHEN: Saturday June 30, 2007
Performances begin @ 8pm

WHERE: NAKED Cyber Cafe
10354 Jasper Avenue

ADMISSION: $5 at the door* (donation) - cash bar available (ID required)
*Funds raised from TablaRosaCrustacean will be used to present CORTEX: a multidisciplinary event, during the Edmonton Poetry Festival this September.

TablaRosaCrustacean features a number of artists involved in CORTEX, including:

Music: John Armstrong Video: kelleY boleN
Michelle Boudreau Philip Jagger
Thom Golub (TBC)* Gary Lee
Don Ross
*(to be confirmed)

Poetry: Philip Jagger Visual Art: Jenny Keith-Hughes
Gary Lee Tedd Kerr
Catherine Owen Sydney Lancaster
Nicole Pakan Marian Switzer

This event also features the opening of a series of 37 photographic self-portraits by Catherine Owen:
An Apprenticeship in Distance: Discursive Self-portraits.


The ARTSHAB fund raiser "The Sweaty Ball" is running the same night at the Masonic Temple just down the street - so Philip and I are looking into the possibility of cross-promoting our two events.

I think it would be great if tons of people came to our event, and then walked down the street, and went to theirs. There's a certain logic to it ... if you look at the name of our venue and the name of their event ... .

ALSO: we are in the process of confirming CJSR as a sponsor for this event and for CORTEX as a whole ... we may be recording parts of the fubnd raiser for re-broadcast, and CJSR will be helping us promote CORTEX in the Fall as well. More details to follow!

So - the looong gap here indicates tht I have been far too busy in ever so many ways, and have not been able to begin to keep up.

All good - but sheesh, what a ride this is turning out to be, this life.

Things progressing well with the CORTEX project - almost all the submissions up from participants now, and lots of amazing work to ponder at length.

Getting ready for the first fund raiser for CORTEX, coming up on May 23rd, co-hosted by the Raving Poets. It's going to be a good night, I think.

Second one will be during the Works - at Naked on Jasper. That will be a blast, I hope. And with a little luck, we'll make some money to finance the show too.

PACE awards coming up in less than a month. Wacky. Who knows?

Have new studio space~~~!!! JOY JOY JOY. can actually get some work done! (need to desperately - not only to honour commitments, but for what's left of my sanity :) )

Set to go for the Works this summer - 13 days in a tent on the square again. Wheeee!
IF the weather's good, it will be a blast.

Got a show confirmed for Calgary in March of 2008!! So I REALLY have to produce for this. Exciting. and in a commercial gallery, so a different market twice over. Will be an interesting adventure.

Going to Winnipeg for the long weekend for a conference. Doing a lside show of my work, and participating in a panel about the intersection of spiritual practice and art-making. Looking forward to this very much. And in a city I've never visited too. Get to see another part of this ridiculously big country of ours.

Working on show proposals too ... come collaborative work with Catherine Owen which is very interesting a challenging. I am finding that being around poets again - through CORTEX, and the relationships that have begin to develop from that experience - that I return t words again in a more direct way. Wanting to write again, as a way to express what I can't through visual media - or in combination with it.

Feeling rusty and old on that score - it's been so very long since I've really worked at writing the way I used to. Intimidating, in the face of such fine talent here. There really are some brilliant writers in this city.

Homefest planning coming along well too. Lots of work, that, but worth it in the face of such flagrant disregard for people's security as shown by the government. It's beyond sad - it's getting scary and not a little sick. The 'prosperity gap' is gettign to be the size of the Grand Canyon - and the powers that be seem content ot keep their heads in the sand, and stay on their side of the chasm.

Yes. So. I've obviously been sitting on a chaise, eating chocolates all day and whiling the hours away with trashy French novels. I wish sometimes, but only occasionally.

I would like more sleep. and much much more time to make art. So it goes.

I had the honor and pleasure of sharing a stage last night with Bassist Thom Golub, at Catherine Owen's 44th Avenue Troubadour's Series (a multidisciplinary salon just starting up in Edmonton). Thom was the musician for this inaugural version of the 44th Ave; poet Douglas Barbour read from a selection if his work, and I presented a talk and slide show on my work.

So - to the point - Thom is involved in Hidden Fortress - and so if you're in Edmonton, Calgary, or Seattle, you should check the concert out when it comes your way.

From Thom:
Hello All,
I'm really excited to tell you about this premiere Edmonton performance of Hidden Fortress. We play each other's compositions as well as pure improvisations. The group consists of Shane Krause on baritone sax/ clarinet/bass clarinet from Vancouver, Chris Dadge on drums from Calgary and Thom Golub on bass from Edmonton. In Edmonton we play at the Mile Zero Dance Landing Pad #201 - 10923 - 101 St., April 12, 8PM doors, 8:30PM show. $10 at the door. For more information on our mini-tour please check the bio attachments below or visit: http://myspace.com/bugincision
http://geocities.com/chris_dadge
http://myspace.com/shanemk
http://myspace.com/standardgreyeditions
Opening for Hidden Fortress on April 12 will be Daedal - a duo featuring David Hoyle on Saxophones, recorders and hurdy-gurdy and Thom Golub on bass. Daedal will feature some of Hoyle's compositions as well as improvisations.


Also check out a video conversation I had with D. Jeffery Buchanan as part of his Sound Of My Own Voice series broadcast on CJSR Monday mornings (er Sunday nights) and on his website at http://asparagusgreen.ca/somov.html. There are many interesting interviews archived here with lots of local artists of all walks, I urge you to check it out.

And for all you Kate Bush fans out there:
π
Sweet and gentle and sensitive man
With an obsessive nature and deep fascination
For numbers
And a complete infatuation with the calculation
Of PI

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity

3.1415926535 897932
3846 264 338 3279

Oh he does, he does, he does
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity
But he must, he must, he must
Put a number to it

50288419 716939937510
582319749 44 59230781
6406286208 821 4808651 32

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity

82306647 0938446095 505 8223... (From Ariel)


... shamelessly stolen image from aenre's live journal.

you know - I have less time now than I did when I was working at the Market. What's up with that??

oh ya ... I've been getting on all the things that have not been getting attention due to work, that's what!

so ... working on CORTEX (http://www.thecortex.ca) in earnest, writing more applications of various kinds for various things (the Works for a tent this summer, an AFA Art Acquisition by Application form), working on a talk for the end of this month, working on a slide show for that, and another one for May in Winnipeg ... got a gig this Satuday at the Powerplant for St Paddy's ... so I'm trying to fit some singing time in too, looking at starting a grant a to fund my work right away here too ... .

Not impressed with this whole daylight saving gig. I miss MY hour (yes it was mine, all mine, and the sleep stealers stole it from me).

Gotta get the taxes done PDQ too. Gah. Well it should only take a day or so to get it all together to ship off to the accountant, which is good - I'm just dreading it.

So it's out there, in print and everything ... the interview I did for the Mile Zero Salon show was published yesterday.

It's a very bizarre experience seeing yourself quoted in an article.

Very bizarre.

It's here: http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=5937

That's all.

My visual art will be featured in a multidisciplinary event hosted as part of Mile Zero Dance's Salon series. The March Salon is entitled "Alter Egos."

Look in my picture gallery in "Upcoming Exhibitions" to see the flyer.

I am excited by this prospect - and a little panicked, since I have work that I MUST finish, and things got slowed a bit (!) by having to pull out of my studio.

Ah well - I shall persevere!

Ya ya I've heard it before: "one door closes, and another one opens" ... but really.

More press. It's getting ridiculous!

Standing in the (seemingly endless) line at the Art Gallery of Alberta this Saturday to drop my submission to the "Free for All" show ... and a City TV cameraman spots me and my work ... and decides to interview me.

I've also got an interview with Vue Weekly tomorrow afternoon - about my work, and having it in the Mile Zero Salon "Alter Egos" in March (9th and 10th by the way).

And then there's the new job. Editing. For a real magazine. Actually using some of the skills I developed in university. Who knew! And what's better - this is an arts-focussed maqgazine (the same on that did a feature on me this past fall - called Alternative Trends. Loving it. I get to do it on my own time, whenever, I like - as long as I get the work done for press deadline, of course. It's not paying all that much, but I'm enjoying it more than other paid work I've had over the last few years, that's for sure. And I think there's room to grow into something more lucrative in time too.

And the door closing part? Well that's less fun, although something of a relief. I quit the Market last week, and pulled out of my studio. All in one day. The place is going down financially - what prompted this was a phone call from the City, looking for the "owner" of the Market. Seems there was a problem with unpaid property taxes ... to the point that the bailiff was going to be called in at the end of that day if nothing happened. Nuff said - time to go. I gather that for the time being everything's been sorted, but it's impossible for me to feel any kind of security in the place, so I had to go. Not really a choice in the matter - if they are shut down by the bailiff, who's to say it wouldn't be a huge hassle getting my art & supplies out of there ... never mind getting paid (which I'm hoping will actually happen, since I'm owed hours and money form painting sales right now). I just really feel for my (former) boss - she's worked so damn hard to make that place go, and has offered the owners ample viable suggestions to make it work - and all they've done is treat her like crap. They never even contacted her once during the entire day when the City had called to let her know what was going on - so she had no idea if she had lost her job that day or not. Unreal. Not the kind of business practices I want ot be supporting with my work.

Still, it's terribly sad. It's such a great building, and I really believe that (with some change in focus) the place could be made viable as a center for arts events and such.

And now I have no studio. This has complicated getting work done somewhat. I'm not sure how it will all pan out yet, but I'm already figuring out how I'm going to manage to make the same kinds of art I've been making for the last two years here at home;at least I'm going to save some money on rent and bus passes for the next while.

Ahhh ... the next phase of the adventure begins.

OH hooooorrayyy ... the AFA Grant app is IN, date stamped, officially received.

DONE!!

I am fried.

Still, I think it's pretty good - hope the AFA does too! I've had some really valuable feed back on it from Todd and Gerry and Alice (which I've implemented), so I think it's about as good as it can be.

SO we should hear in about six weeks.

And between now and then, I've got a heckuva lot to do :) Big surprise.

But right now, I'm going to stop thinking. For just a little bit.

So I downloaded an album from itunes the other day, and have been enjoying it thoroughly ... stupid title, no more than stupid, but some good cuts.

Yes, it really is called 'Bollywood Rocks'... but that aside.

I highly recommend one track in particular - called Mantra (Om), performed by Angaraag Mahanta, Sourain Roy Choudhuri & Zubeen Garg ... a traditional chant, set to a solid bass/percussion/synth/etc line, that I find utterly impossible to sit still through.