Baby's First Commission

The good people at Webcom, a book publishing/printing company in Toronto, recently asked me to make three pieces for their Game Changers event. They were awesome to work with mostly because all my fears about not being taken seriously as an artist were very quickly squelched. The Webcom folks were supportive and challenged me in the best ways possible.

I have an amazing day job that allowed me to take time off to dedicate to the project. More than a couple of times, I experienced the joy and freedom of being able to walk down the street to Ezra's Pound in the middle of the morning for a coffee that I got to enjoy sitting down, in a proper mug and everything. I was that person. It was great. (I might've also ordered a pastry to celebrate being that person.)

Of course, that freedom was accompanied with all the regular angst that goes along with creating stuff for a client. I'm used to that, but my paper work is usually something I only do to suit my own taste. In this case, I worked from detailed concepts created and approved months before, so veering too far off track wasn't really an option. It was really great to have an opportunity to practice such discipline. I'm happy to report that even though it was a week of very little sleep, I actually finished early! Installation/delivery day was quite calm, so I actually enjoyed the process. Imagine that.

All pieces were created out of paper and glue and constructed by hand. I think that Webcom was happy with the results and I'm pleased to say that I am, too.

Webcom logo composed of four pieces of paper.

Within each piece of paper, I cut out tiny logos.
I won't tell you how many exacto knife blades I used.

3D paper sculpture of Webcom's BookFWD Arrows.

The arrows were constructed from 50 folded paper prisms of various stock.
The circular frame was a single piece of card stock, jigged to be 3D.
I'm glad I paid attention in packaging class.

Mobiüs strip paper wreath created from paper remnants.
Each entwined Mobiüs strip was surrounded by hundreds of
smaller Mobiüs strips. It's deep, I know.

It was a happy accident that the paper remnants
Webcom sent for this piece had CMYK swatches on them.

P.S. Any frustration I ever had with just-okay photos of artwork on other's sites is now explained and forgiven, because:

1. Thinking of the best way to photograph one's own work is the very last thing on one's mind, post-installation.
2. Sometimes the lighting sucks, even if the camera is fancy.
3. The digital photography standard taking many pictures of every possible boring angle (though smart and helpful in hindsight) seems daunting when all one wants to do is go grab dinner.

Installation Love

I had such joy this past weekend, with my paper fire escape sculptures in Come Up To My Room at The Gladstone. By nature, I don't like being the centre of attention, so I was really overwhelmed by all the attention I received from friends and strangers, alike.

It sounds incredibly naive, but I was genuinely not expecting the positive reactions I received. In fact, since I do this type of thing for myself first, I really wasn't expecting much from the weekend beyond having an excuse to bring lots of lovely people from different corners of my life together in one, happy place.

On top of all the lovely, kind words from lots of folks, I got tagged by DesignLines as one of their many loves for the design weekend in Toronto. So flattering!

There's also been some neat blog love over at MocoLoco, NotCot, Design Upcomers and SOS Design.

Last but not least, I got to meet really amazing artists and designers throughout the weekend. I have my favourites, but truly, the calibar of the show this year was fantastic, so I don't want to single out any one to your attention, but encourage you to check them all out.

 

 

Come Up to My Room 2011 | Jan. 28–30

I'm crazy-excited to be in the heat of preparing for this design show! I have a small paper installation to contribute and am incredibly honoured and nervous in equal parts to be participating in Come Up to My Room 2011 at The Gladstone. 

If anyone is in town, please come by because I want to see your lovely faces!

{Room by Allyson Mitchell.}

Escape wrapping paper

I still have an amazing amount of joy whenever I wrap a present for, well, almost anyone. But, the sober understanding that most people throw wrapping paper into landfills has squelched my wrapping joy (but not my card fetish, that will never go away). Consequently, I haven't had to buy wrapping paper in many, many years. I do miss going to the store and picking out a pattern that someone has lovingly designed. Here's some fictional wrapping paper, based on some fire escapes I made quite a while ago. Cute repetition always makes me happy.

Wedding Invites

I was lucky enough to be in the wedding party of two dear friends who got married (to each other!) this summer. I had a tonne of fun making their custom wedding invitations and all the other little things that come with. Not only are these two a lovely couple, but they also have great taste so I was extra-excited to collaborate. We decided on a type treatment and muted palette because the two are amazingly well-read and also embody understated elegance without ever being snobby.

Hand screen printed, two-colour cover.

An imperfect heart shape gave the cover some extra depth.

Main invitation.

Info. card: the bride has a way with words
so the copy was adorable!

Thank you cards that were tied to homemade sugar cookies,
which were gobbled up before I could take their photo!

Detail of the type pattern.

The Walrus Illustration

I had the unique privilege of illustrating an article for The Walrus magazine. The piece, "The Indie Rock Swindle" is beautifully written by the talented Alex Molotkow. She examines the Polaris prize and the so-called indie Canadian music scene. You can read it in full here, but might I suggest you support your Canadian writers, illustrators and artists and buy a copy? It's on newsstands now. Or better yet, subscribe!

Conceptualizing and crafting the image was an amazing process, skillfully guided by Paul Kim, senior designer and Brian Morgan, art director at The Walrus. Once I worked through my angst and heeded the wise advice from a friend to "enjoy the process" I was pleased with the result. The experience reminded me of the importance of allowing freedom to explore and play with ideas while they solidify.

The three-dimensional illustration is composed of paper, string, glue, one knitting needle and several late nights.

Found

I found this scrap of a street poster the other day. To me, it's a rad policital statement about mental illness.

For all people, no one is ill.

Vintage Buttons!

I've been MIA from here but, I assure you, not missing from action in general. There is a lot happening that is exciting and new! Right now, I'm researching and starting to play with some ideas for a brand redesign that has brought me, of all places, to vintage buttons.

How freakin' great are these? I'm likely late to the party of appreciating these stupidly amazing pieces. If I ever come across one of these precious little fasteners, I promise I will proudly make it into a necklace charm that I wear at least once a week because, seriously, I never knew I needed a shirt with cigarette buttons until I found this wonderful book. (Source to follow.)

More Chicago collage

I've continued to play around with my Marina City building images from last year. As with most things that I do, the process seems very slow. Unlike the rest of my life, which seems to move quickly at times, I take full liberty to move as slowly as I feel like my personal projects deserve. I'm at a bit of a standstill right now, as I've been working through translating the photo to a collage to a screen print and now am not quite sure how I should finish.

I've learned a tonne about screen printing so far, though! Right now I want to introduce the right amount of depth to the final images so that the image sits comfortably on the plane between real and abstract. Hopefully I'll make some more progress in the coming months and if I happen upon a solution I'm really excited about, I'll be sure to share.

Source photo taken in Chicago last year.

Resulting collage that took what seemed like forever!

Rubylith stencil based on shapes inspired from the collage.

A screen print done with three layers of Rubylith stencils and doodles over the ink.

Brain on the brain

I'm so funny! But seriously, I've been thinking about the brain lately. The band An Horse has a great song (I don't remember the title, I swear that my ipod actually makes me less aware of what and who I'm listening to) with the lyrics "I've had too much to think," which perfectly characterizes my over-analytical nature. Being able to think things through a bit too thoroughly can be inebriating. It doesn't always leave room for free and simple doing. I digress, of course.

One of my more profound thoughts? The brain looks neat. Case in point, this beautiful anatomy book I borrowed from the library and never want to return.





source Human Anatomy by Rifkin, Ackerman and Folkenberg

PS Somewhat unrelated but amusing: My first date was with a boy named Brian when I was in grade six. We went to go see Look Who's Talking, Too with another "couple" and did not touch eachother for the entire movie. Whenever I wrote notes to him, as 11 year olds do, I always spelled his name as Brain by mistake. It really pissed him off.