Art Scene 13: Night of Artists, Mornings in Sweatpants and Art in Between

Cirque Du NOA poster from Night of Artists website here.

Art Scene 13: Night of Artists, Mornings in Sweatpants and Art in Between

1. The Bleeding Heart is forming a team to walk for the homeless on Feb 21 as part of The Coldest Night of the Year. The walk supports Hope Mission and is part of a nationwide event. I’m looking for my creative friends to ‘represent’. We need both donors and walkers to take part. You in?
2. The Creative Practices Institute (CPI) is a new(er) artist run centre in Oliver. Meet the people behind the centre and the community that has become a part of it at their second Open Studio evening - Saturday February 7 from 4 to 8 PM. CPI also offers professional development workshops for artists. The next workshop, on Feb 17, is on bookkeeping for artists. But I’m sure you have no problems with that, right? Just in case, here is the link.
3. From the local to the international, Sufjan Stevens has a new album coming this March. Carrie and Lowell is being called ‘the return of Sufjan’ - as in, the return of Sufjan with a guitar in his hands and folk in his heart. Not that I minded Sufjan’s experimentations, but so far I like what I hear. 
4. A musician just slightly closer to home has just put out his new record. Aaron Strumpel, who co-wrote the song we featured in last week’s Storm the Perfict Podcast, has just released Bright Star. A video from that album, for Coming After You, is featured at Relevant TV.
5. If you are reading this, you are into discovering great art and artists exploring faith, hope and love. And if you are into that, you’ll be into Image Journal. And there’s not time like the present to get into Image Journal, with 60% off a new subscription.
6. Future Station, the massive 2015 Alberta Biennial of Alberta Art, is open at the Art Gallery of Alberta and sprawls across 3 other venues. Be sure to visit and feel the pulse of contemporary Alberta art. Oh, and watch this video to find out about the real ‘ghost' LRT station that inspired the show’s curator.  
7. Night of Artists is bringing us Cirque Du NOA on March 6-8 at St.Albert’s Enjoy Centre. Experience "Three days of astounding visual art from all over Alberta on display and for sale by some of the finest artists in the province.
   Not to mention galas and daytime festivities full of stunning costumes, choirs, opera, gypsy jazz, country, folk, blues etc."
8. Want to know exactly how to feel miserable as an artist? Keri Smith has 10 ways right here, and the list will inspire you.
9. If you like lists, you should also check out this one from Maria Papova of Brain Pickings - Seven Life Learnings from Seven Years of Reading, Writing and Living.
10. If you are into the bright and the bold, look at this work from Winnipeg artist Yisa Akinbolaji, shared on the Imago blog. Imago describes this as " work that captures a celebratory note as though it is an expression of thanksgiving, an overflow of joy."
11. "I don't know about you, but when I'm in a hurry, I "don't have time" to stop and pick up all the good fruit around me.” - read this whole article on slowing down from The Grove Centre.
12. If you have an hour this week, listen to Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work, being interviewed on the Unmistakable Creative podcast. It’s packed full of good advice for creatives.
13. If you have only a few moments, perhaps you could attempt to meditate in your sweatpants, like poet Stephen T. Berg.

Your Favourite Canadian Artist - It's #artsTalkTuesday for Canada Day!

It's Canada Day, it it just so happens to fall on an #ArtsTalkTuesday this year. How fitting, then, that the Art Gallery of Alberta is free to visit today, and it is chock-full of Canadian art. The question today is simple. Who is your favourite Canadian artist?

If you can, please link to her/his work.

And you are not allowed to say yourself. Oh what the heck, go ahead if you like.

ArtsTalk Tuesday: Museum School with Lyndal Osborne

It's Tuesday - let's talk art. This week, I got to take in 'Museum School' - an Art Gallery of Alberta program for elementary school kids. I also dove into some new Netflix discoveries, spent good time reading and finished some knitting. Not a bad art week, all in all.

But I'll get to all of that in the comments.

What art, media and culture have you engaged with this past week? What would you recommend and why?

Art is best enjoyed and digested in community, so this is our weekly space to have those conversations - to practice discernment as a collective.

So, what are you watching, visiting, listening to, reading, etc?

Where have the arts taken you this week?

ArtsTalk Tuesday: AGA and Edmonton Odes

It's Tuesday - let's talk art. This week, I've been listening to Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton, song submissions, and learned a bit about what it means to be an Edmontonian. I've also paid a visit to Lyndal Osborne's massive retrospective at the AGA. Wow.

What art, media and culture have you engaged with this past week? What would you recommend and why?

Art is best enjoyed and digested in community, so this is our weekly space to have those conversations - to practice discernment as a collective.

So, what are you watching, visiting, listening to, reading, etc?

Where have the arts taken you this week?

Arty Tuesday: Reflektor is on Fire

This week's Arty Tuesday takes us into Arcade Fire's Reflektor and Geoffrey Farmer's 'Spider House' - as well as anywhere you want to go. What arty things have you been up to this week? Art speaks. This is where we stop and listen in community.

Share up to three art experiences you've had this week. A gallery show. A movie. A new album. A piece of theatre. Choose based on one criteria - the art made an impact on you. It spoke. It resonated. It won't leave you alone.

Share in the comments, and comment on others' posts.

My name is Dave, and I'll begin this week.

MUSIC: Arcade Fire: Reflektor

I don't buy a lot of music. That doesn't mean I download a lot of music for free - I just don't get new music that often. There are a few bands I follow closely and Arcade Fire is one of those. Having pre-bought the new album a month ago on iTunes, I was very excited to get my 'download is ready' email. The album has not been a disappointment. I am loving the fusion of electronic beats with organic rhythms. I read that this album bears the fingerprints of travels in Haiti and it's easy to hear the influences in the rhythms alone. I think Arcade Fire have done a masterful job blending their own unique, anthemic style with the joy and infectious danceability they found in Haitian music. This album is a lot of fun! But it is, as all Arcade Fire albums are, deeper too.

I'm still sifting through the lyrics (my life doesn't allow a lot of 'sit down and listen through this' moments). So far, there are many lines making me think. 'Thought you would bring me to the resurrector / turns out it was just a reflector' points to our loss of intimacy and spirituality found throughout the song Reflektor - we've created idols that simply reflect us back upon ourselves infinitely. The line also makes me think of the time I was in the Mormon temple for a tour and saw a room with mirrors on each side, reflecting back and forth into a simulated eternity. I seem to remember some Mormon roots for Arcade Fire (correct me if I'm wrong) so I wonder if that's part of the reference here?

Here Comes the Night Time is chock full of contrasts between the people in the streets and the people of the religious establishments. Indictments against missionaries are here, knocks on televangelists and even jabs at the theology of heaven and hell. But this is not just deconstructive railing. Arcade Fire has found beauty in the sounds of the streets of Haiti, and in that beauty I think they've seen God, and they have noticed how blind to him the Christians seem to be -

"And when they hear the beat, coming from the street, they lock the door But if there's no music up in heaven, then what's it for?"

(see full lyrics with some interesting notes here - http://rock.rapgenius.com/Arcade-fire-here-comes-the-night-time-lyrics)

That line alone could be a sermon.

What's grabbing you on this album?

GALLERY: The Intellection of Lady Spider House

Both of my kids were too scared to go inside this massive haunted house / installation at the Art Gallery of Alberta. I have to admit that opening the broom-handled door that led into darkness and mystery, I was spooked, too.

A haunted house in an art gallery over Halloween sounds like a gimmick, but this installation by Geoffrey Farmer really works. It works as a haunted house, and it works as a fascinating art installation. It is immersive and it is scary. It is impressive and calls out for engagement. It is unlike anything else I've seen, really.

What was interesting for me were the things I was afraid of. There are typical spooky elements, like severed limbs and spiders. But then, there are areas where I wasn't sure I could go. There were no clearly marked signs to go this way or interact in that way, and so I found myself to afraid to be curious in some cases. At one point the path leads under a bridge, through a tiny little tunnel. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was allowed in there, so I went around. My fears about breaking things, including the rules, were rising up and choking me. This exhibit revealed some things about me that I don't like to see.

It is dense and worth more than one visit, so it is good that we have until January 12 to visit the 'house' time and again.

Have you been? What did you think?

Please join the comments below - I'd love to talk about these, or any other art with you this week.