These are dry times. Summer slips away faster than you can catch it – a dime down the drain. The sky hangs damp and icy today. Across the globe, powerful little men toy with the world’s future like it’s a game of chicken. Hurricanes have ravaged large parts of our earth. Families will suffer the effects for years to come. Terrorists won’t let London sleep.
This planet can get so ugly. So broken. So disordered. So many of our mirrors are shattered.
There is order in beauty. A divine order, I believe, but whatever your theology you can feel it. The affirmation of disparate parts falling into place.
Jennifer Berkenbosch’s Cultivar matters because the world needs beauty today. We need to be reminded that there is goodness. There is a solid bed beneath this wild river.
I'm excited to announce a new website, and a video, for Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton - please watch and share!
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Well friends, spring is in the air, summer is around the corner and for me that means one major project; Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton.
We've got an entirely new Bridge Songs website coming very, very soon. In the meantime, today I'm letting the cat out of the bag and announcing our visual artists for Dear Edmonton. Musicians, writers and any other participating artists will be announced later, but here are the visual artists you can expect to see at Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton on June 14!
"I usually paint scenes of the Edmonton cityscape, combining and experimenting with text, found objects and raw textures. My subjects include the idea of “epiphanies” and scenes that dwell on collective mindsets through every day things. I also maintain art community focused projects though “ellipsis” and an ongoing art critique blog, “the CRIT.” . Through these and many other pursuits I develop work aiming to challenge perception of our cities. urbanization and neighbourhoods." - from the Adam Tenove's online bio
Adam Tenove's skillfull paintbrush meets his playful exploration of words in his Dear Edmonton work. Adam has shared at the Arts Potluck in the past, has shown sculptural installation work at our #JusticeYEG Gallery, and we're happy to have him as part of the Bleeding Heart community.
View Adam Tenove's online portfolio at http://ellipsisartcollective.com/artistgallery/
Painting is an important expression of my love for life. Between working as a nurse and raising a family, painting has always been a pleasure. It is a delight to find the individuality of a moment or a setting and capture it on canvas. - From Cheryl Muth's online bio
Cheryl Muth's paintings are alive with vivid colour. Cheryl has displayed work as part of Bridge Songs many times in the past, and we are excited to see how her eye perceives the urban Edmonton landscape.
You can view more of Cheryl Muth's work and order an piece at her website, http://www.cherylmuth.com/
Julie's landscape paintings have been seen in many Alberta Avenue events, like the Kaleido Festival, where she also teaches paper-making.
For Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton, Julie has found beautiful landscapes within the city limits, in places like the Mill Creek Ravine, but she's also captured Edmonton's urban character. And snow.
View Julies vast collection of works on her website, shedrewit.com, where you can also read Julie's reflections on art and faith, and find out where she is leading workshops.
Kayla Muth is an emerging photographer, and does not have a website yet. Too bad, because from the work she has submitted for Bridge Songs, we like what we see.
Her images, like the one here of Edmonton's iconic Churchill statue, capture our city from a unique, skilled perspective.
We're looking forward to sharing new photographic works from Kayla Muth at Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton!
We're excited to include works by multimedia artist Lucille Frost, whose work was featured as part of last year's Works Art and Design Festival.
Here is a video featuring that work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49Fpzif0as
A resident of the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood, Lucille has this to say about her Bridge Songs: Dear Edmonton work;
By making my work abstract it becomes no place and everyplace. I use specific textures and combinations of shapes to form images which are simultaneously familiar and surreal. In each of these paintings I am exploring the importance of a personal connection to a place, the figure in each piece is having a transformative experience with their environment. What exactly is the nature of the exchange occurring is what I allow viewers to decide for themselves, is it a transcendent enlightenment or an aggressive disturbance?
We Edmontonians know firsthand the struggle our climate can entail, but we are also intimately aware of the passion and determination it takes to make our lives in this place. - excerpt from the artist's submission statement
Anywhere But Here might sum up Marcie's Dear Edmonton work best. As Marcie struggles with her Edmonton identity, she wistfully longs for faraway places. But it is telling that these places are imagined and abstracted, more like dreams and memories than representations. Marcie knows that these places are out of reach, at least for now, and perhaps she also knows they are not likely so magical as they seem from afar.
Still, the spaces depicted in Anywhere But Here are lovely to visit, and I know you're going to enjoy her contribution to this year's Bridge Songs event.
You can view more of Marcie's work at http://www.papercastle.ca/html/index.php?p=40
We're so pleased to include a comic from Harcourt House Artist in Residence, Sara French.
Sara's contagious enthusiasm for the local arts scene shines through in her soon to be released Arts & Culture XL newspaper about Edmonton's visual arts scene.
"Sara French experiments with a diverse range of themes and materials. Overtime, her methodology has become a multidisciplinary process that fundamentally involves performance art. " - from the artist's website
Discover the wide range of Sara French's work at http://sarafrench.net/
With a website like iheartedmonton.ca, it is perhaps no surprise that our show includes local printmaker Stephanie Medford. But it is certainly a delight.
You will have seen Stephanie Medford's work at local maker's markets like the Royal Bison. For a while now, Stephanie has been printing iconic Edmonton images onto Edmonton maps, making postcard art.
You should also explore her Sketches of YEG tumblr. I'm a fan of the Dadeo's jukebox.
Wenda Salomon's current photo-a-day project is a departure from her other photography in many ways.
These works are taken on a smartphone - one of the newest forms of camera. Salomons is known for her pinhole work - the oldest, most primitive form of camera. These new images pop with vivid colour and sharp lines, where much of Salomons other work shows muted and monochromatic tones with blurred forms. Those works are far more abstract than these recent shots. Those works are shown in galleries. These one-a-day images are shown on Instagram. Until now.
We're so pleased to show Salomon's Instagram shots in our Dear Edmonton gallery. They may be different in many ways, but they are a testament to the same skilled eye for composition, and the same explorer's spirit that informs Wenda Salomons' pinhole work.
You can view Wenda's instagram work here, and the rest of her work on her artist website at http://wendasalomons.com
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Here at The Bleeding Heart Art Space, we've taken some runs at creative worship gatherings – events where people gather together to grow spiritually with the help of creativity and the arts. Thankfully, we haven't had to do this alone. We've been able to stand on the shoulders of many giants. There is a long and rich history of creative faith. Today, I'll share some of the resources we've encountered on the journey. Hopefully some of them can breathe new creative life into your community and your faith.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Our February Arts Potluck was a really wonderful time, kicked of with Adam Tenove sharing some work, and then heading in many other wonderful creative directions. If you've wondered what one of these things looks like, here's an idea.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
In January, we launched a bold challenge – the Grow Your Art Challenge. It's the kind of challenge with great potential to change you, because it's the kind where you could fail. The challenge is to set an art goal for 2014, evaluate that goal and make sure it is doable, then share that goal with a community that will hold you accountable.
So how are you doing this month?
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Having just embarked on our Grow Your Art Challenge, it’s encouraging to encounter the ambitious, beautiful projects of others. This week’s Friday Finds roundup brings together some of the work that has inspired me, locally and around the world, over the past few weeks.
This new Edmonton mural by local artist Jill Stanton adorns an office wall at FREE, spanning 60 feet, and it is beautiful. Thanks to this video, we can watch as it is created…
http://vimeo.com/84338063
I’ve posted poems by Stephen Berg before, but this one struck me as particularly stunning this week, as I evaluate my own life and direction in the “deep pre-dawn” of winter.
Read “Song in the Deep Predawn” at http://growmercy.org/2014/01/13/song-in-the-deep-predawn/
I’ve really enjoyed a beautiful image from Wenda Salomons every day in my Facebook feed. Wenda’s playful eye captures the hidden beauty, often of decay, in our fair city through her current 'one-a-day' Instagram project.
See these wonder-full images from Wenda on Instagram at http://instagram.com/woowoowenda
This site-specific installation from artist Jason Leith engages LA’s infamous Skid Row in a conversation around justice and dignity. The project website offers this brief, but apt, description, "REDEMPTIVE PORTRAITS OF THE HOMELESS | HOUSED IN A SACRED SPACE ON SKID ROW | DISPLAYED AS A GIFT OF DIGNITY & BEAUTY”.
See the project in the video below, and at the project website at http://sacredstreets.org.
http://vimeo.com/67963856
Craig Goodworth is an installation artist and poet I had the pleasure of meeting at the Glen Workshop this past summer. I haven’t experienced his installation work in person, but I would love the opportunity. Here is a video on Craig’s massive installation, Liminal Ground.
http://vimeo.com/33136256
You can see another video on this piece in its final incarnation, offering another perspective, here - http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/phoenix/you-are-where-you-live.html
What would it look like to do public installation art in Afghanistan? Here is one more inspiring project that centres around art, beauty and justice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwHGpvCy-w
So, big things are possible.
What project are you going to pursue this year as part of our Grow Your Art Challenge?
Also, please share any projects that have been inspiring you in the comments below.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Art speaks. Let’s stop and listen in community. This week we're chatting about Max's monsters, Arcade Fire's dress code, and whatever you bring to the table ...
Take a moment in the comments below to share up to three art experiences that made an impact on you this past week. Go beyond ‘it was good’ and think about art, film, music, books and more that have left you thinking, wrestling, smiling, etc.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
A call for submissions is always a terrifying leap into the unknown. Especially when the deadline fast approaches. Especially when the theme is difficult or narrow. How would artists respond to issues of justice – especially local justice. What type of work would emerge? Would it be strong work? Would submissions function well as art, inviting us into a hospitable conversation and wrestling, or would they be too didactic and ‘preachy’? With #JusticeYEG: The Gallery I felt afraid for all of those reasons, plus the fact that we, Bleeding Heart Art Space, were pairing up with a brand new event, #JusticeYEG, and we could predict little about who would attend and how it would all turn out.
My fears, as usual, were a waste of energy. #JusticeYEG: The Gallery brought together excellent work from 8 artists. Thanks to the Bleeding Heart Arts Lead, Grace Law, the show was a stellar success. Special walls were brought in to hang the work, and three musicians (Darren Day, Venessa B and Passburg) provided ambiance for our Friday night opening. With well over a hundred conference attendees, the Gallery got a good viewing. In the future, I’d love to see the Gallery space open to the public, so that even more people can experience the work. We’ll see what we can do.
Before I get to the work itself, I have to mention this one little thing, because it makes me giddy. We had real-deal vinyl letters for our Gallery signage! This was a first for The Bleeding Heart, and it made me feel all grown up. It's amazing how little things make a big difference. Thanks again to Grace Law for arranging this – it added an extra level of professionalism to already great work.
Now, about that work.
As you entered the gallery, you were greeted by black and white portraits of Edmonton’s homeless community. These were taken by Pieter de Vos, over a 10 year period in the mid 90’s to mid-2000’s. As photographs, they are excellent pieces. As storytelling, they make strong connections to our own lives. It is obvious de Vos got to know his subjects and was able to present them not as some stereotype of ’street people’, but as people with human, touching stories. No sentimentality here, just instants pulled from lifetimes of lived story, stirring curiosity about who these people were, and are, and how we may be like them.
Next was another series of photographs, these part of a larger project called Life Squared that we will be working with next spring. Life Squared pairs seven local photographers with seven parolees, trying to reintegrate into society after a prison sentence. In #JusticeYEG we focussed in on one of these parolees, with beautiful photographs showing that his life is much more than his past. The show can be seen in a special preview this weekend at the Red Ribbon Building. There will also be a discussion panel featuring some of the participants. More info can be found at lifesquared.ca.
On the next wall we encountered another story. Leonard (Lenoose) Martial lived on the street for three decades, and documented life on Edmonton’s streets through a series of photos and short writings. Each pairing of image and text lets us enter that world in a personal, candid way. For our gallery, we had to narrow many pieces down to just nine. An image of a cat emerging from a door sticks out in my mind. In the text, Lenoose reflects how that cat gave him something – someone – to care for. We get the sense that caring for someone else was part of his healing and eventual exit from street life. It’s a powerful image and powerful thought that transcends the street and makes a home in our own lives. You can read a photo-essay from Alberta Views on Lenoose’s work here, on the Boyle Street Community Services website.
Paintings followed the photographs, the first being a painting of the oil sands, in aerial view, by Julie Drew. Next to that was a photograph of multiple crosses by Andrew Bolton, layered dark and deep, washed in the black-earth tones of crude oil. It was interesting to watch these two images speak to one another in the space.
On the next panel was a massive painting of a homeless person, ‘harvesting’ bottles, by Michael Brown. Paired with that image was another painting by Julie Drew, much smaller, of a literal harvest of wheat. A subtext, about our role in harvesting a new kingdom filled with justice, built strong connection between the paintings.
Outside the walls remained two sculptural pieces. At the back was a colourful character, called ’The Wanderer' by Richard ‘Rico’ Reyes, hanging near the wall. This piece offered another reflection on homelessness and its restlessness. At the front was a massive podium by Adam Tenove. Atop a platform covered in what I can only call ‘church carpet’, stood a podium constructed roughly and covered, or fenced off, in metal mesh with barbed wire. At the rear, viewers were invited to step up behind the podium, where a book was permanently carved into its shelf. The corner teased us to ’turn the page’, which was, of course, impossible. The podium is open to many interpretations, but I left with a sense of the rigidity of our Christian positions, and the disconnect between our shouting at others about salvation, and our lack of action in social justice. We often preach from a book, perhaps a Bible, stuck on one page. I think we each have our own favourite pages that ’stick’, blinding us to a fuller understanding of the world, or even our own faith. The fact that the podium was covered in wire surely says something about how our words, delivered from a higher-than-thou position, are often unwelcome.
All in all, the gallery made an impact on me, and my hope is that it got others thinking too. If you have thoughts on any of the pieces, please comment below.
At Bleeding Heart we encourage work that invites us to ‘Stop and listen. Engage. Wrestle.” Work exactly like the pieces presented at #JusticeYEG this past weekend.
Thank you to Grace Law for curating the exhibit, to all of the volunteers who helped bring it to life and for the artists who opened their hearts and made themselves vulnerable in sharing their work with us. Thanks as well to Aaron Vanimere for taking these excellent photos of the exhibit space.
And now on to the next show ...
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You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
When you are proud of something, you want to show it off. Your new home. Your new baby. Your new outfit. Your community. I think of Kaleido Family Arts Festival as an annual housewarming party for a neighbourhood in continual renewal.
Those of us who live in and around Alberta Avenue can see so much potential all year long, peeking out from every alcove and alleyway. It gathers for coffee at The Carrot. It is jamming in the basements of old fixed-up houses. It paints in garages and performs on the Avenue Theatre stage. It smells delicious as a Portuguese bakery and shines brightly coloured as a Glen Ronald portrait. But this potential remains, mostly, bottled and shelved in small separate spaces. And you often have to search those spaces out.
During Kaleido, combustible potential combines and explodes into, well, a kaleidoscope of beauty. For these three blessed days we all get to see Alberta Ave not as she was, and to be truthful, not even as she is yet, but as she will be. There is a long way to go on our journey of revitalization. The path is fraught with obstacles and discouragements. Events like the Kaleido Family Arts Festival remind us that the destination is worth the trip. We can see with waking eyes what is usually perceived only through eyes of faith.
History now knows this to be an event shared with 40 000 people. A very large housewarming party indeed. So large that guests and events are squeezed in everywhere. And this is what makes Kaleido really unique, even for those who couldn't care less about the miraculous second coming of Alberta Avenue. The entire streetscape becomes a stage, with things to see in every direction. Four blocks of street are closed along 118th Avenue and all down the road you'll find sculptures on lampposts, dancers, flash mobs, music raining down from balconies, roving performers, aerialists hanging–or dancing–from buildings and painters collaborating in the alleys. No space is safe from the transformative power of community art.
Words fall short as Kaleido must be experienced first-hand. You must simply show up and be immersed. I usually spend Friday evening meandering down the middle of the ave, mouth and eyes gaping in proud wonder at what Arts On The Ave, the Kaleido organizers have pulled off.
You'll wonder how this could happen, right here in this little old neighbourhood, smack in the middle of this unassuming northern city. We may not have those fabled 'champions' any longer, but at Kaleido, you'd hardly notice, as the same lampposts bearing sports cutouts of a bygone golden age are covered in yarn or grass or photographs or papìer-màchè.
The Bleeding Heart will be caring for volunteers throughout the weekend, and we couldn't be happier to involved.
Kaleido starts this Friday, September 13 on 118th Ave between 90th and 94th streets. An Arts Gala and Street Party kicks things off at 8 PM, along with an showing of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids! At 10 PM, the Aurora Lantern Parade carries lights the darkened streets with handmade lanterns, winding up back at centre stage for a 10:15 concert by San Fancisco alt-indie-pop band The Do-dos. And that's just Friday night.
Oh, did I mention admission is by donation?
Get all the info you need at kaleidofest.ca.
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
Just one week ago, we held our first Arts Potluck. It will not be our last. The invitation was simple. Bring some art and bring some snacks. In my living room, propped up on every chair we could find, 15 of us shared, listened and saw wonder-full art.
I began the night by sharing its inspiration – an event held during the Glen Workshop called The Thomas Parker Society (at least, I'm fairly certain that was the name). A few dozen people had crammed into a rented suite on the college campus where the Glen Workshop was held. We read stories, essays and poetry long into the night. It was beautiful, intimate, moving, and sometimes hysterically funny. It left me hungry for more.
Of course, we have plenty of creative folks right here in our city. Heck, right here in my neighbourhood. We could do this. In our own version, The Bleeding Heart Arts Potluck, the evening expanded to encompass any art form.
TJ McLachlan shared first, with a bit of an extended time and focus, seeing as he was with us all the way from Vancouver's and Emily Carr University. Having worked with TJ McLachlan on some pre-Carr projects, it was inspiring to see how far he's come, how his ideas about what art is and what art does have evolved, and what his grand hopes for future projects are. TJ talked about large-scale sculpture, installed in nature, outside the culturally loaded context of the "white box gallery". He spoke about work that is not a metaphor for something, like 'tension' for instance, but is tension itself, showing us an example of a sculpture whose very materials are in tension. There were some big ideas (should art convey meaning and how?) and some great conversation. We even talked a bit about what it means to be pretentious, or not, and how those of us who label others as such may be the most pretentious of all.
More than all of that, our time with TJ and his very artistic wife Cora was a visit with friends. Community was perhaps the most beautiful thing on display all evening.
What followed – the work you all shared – was a kaleidoscope of creativity. Almost everyone brought something (in one case it was samosas wrapped in swiss chard – some very creative food). There were poetry readings. We heard an excellent concert review of The Replacements. An original song. Ink sketches of the Canadian North. A capella vocal performance. Paintings. Art made in collaboration with children in India. Lego and collage by my two kids.
But here is what sticks out for me.
It's the last piece before my kids – up too late – have to go to bed. Aaron and April Au are with us. Aaron, a part-time player with the ESO, pulls out his violin, stands just outside the circle, and plays Bach. Intricate, incredibly full Bach on a single violin. The sound is perfect. No one moves. We barely breathe. Except my kids. Jack is play conducting and they stifle nervous laughter. But they are listening. I survey the room. We are all listening. We are all realizing, at this moment, just how incredible this is.
It hits me all at once. I've been with hundreds of creative people for an intensive week, hundreds of miles away, at The Glen Workshop. But I don't need to travel at all to experience art, faith and community. I am blessed. I live here, on the fringe of Alberta Ave. Blocks away from this violin virtuoso. So close that here, in my living room, my kids get to experience something I never did. A house blessing. I choke back a few good tears.
Moments like this are why we do Bleeding Heart Arts Potlucks – why The Bleeding Heart does anything at all.
If you were not with us, and now, having read this, wish you were, I have succeeded.
What will you bring next time?
You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.
