Bridgeland Christmas Market

Please join us this weekend at the Bridgeland Christmas Market. The show runs from 10am-6pm presenting a variety of wares from local artists. From ceramics and jewelry to paintings and needle felting there is something for everyone!

Merry Ho Ho!

May the grant gods be kind

The past few months have been a busy time for me. I have shifted from my usual focus on studio practice to the practice of grant writing. As Canadians we are very fortunate to have a number of granting bodies devoted to the arts; grants to both individuals artists and arts organizations. Grants are awarded for projects ranging from travel and creation to professional development and equipment acquisition.

The project I have proposed includes a research and production grant. I have been thinking a lot about the cycles of the natural world. A plant's life cycle can be seen in a short period of time from seed, to growth, and then demise. This energy does not leave the earth, it is just transformed into something else. I started thinking about even larger cycles within the natural world, particularly in the formation of the Rockies. Millions of years ago there were mountains, slowly those mountains were transformed into an ocean, and now that same ocean is a mountain once again. I am fascinated in the way that these cycles speak to the interconnection of all living things. The project I have proposed explores these ideas.

Now that the grant is signed and the post mark is stamped. I feel a real sense of accomplishment and look to the sky and hope the grant gods agree.

Baker House Project

This summer I was fortunate enough to work on a collaborative mural project between Prospect Human Services and the Calgary Housing Company; working alongside fellow artist Hannah Poon, as well as a team of adults with developmental disabilities, and tenants of the Baker House. The group came together to create a large scale outdoor mural. The Baker House is located at 222 4th Avenue SW in the heart of Calgary. Next time you are downtown look out for our mural!

A gem in the foothills

Totem outside the Leighton education center














There is a hidden gem located in the heart of the foothills, just 15 km south of Calgary, the Leighton Art Centre. The Leighton Centre was originally the home of the Canadian artist A.C. Leighton and his wife Barbara. In 1974 Barbara Leighton established a school and artist studios, which is still in operation today. Along side the education centre, the family home was bequeathed to the foundation and converted into a museum and gallery. The Leighton Foundation currently offers artist members a venue to exhibit their work as well as access to the vast 80 km property; as a source of inspiration and a space to create in the magnificent foothills landscape. This summer, I have been fortunate to able to spend my Thursdays volunteering at the art centre. Along side one of my clients, I have been pulling weeds, feeding fish, and sweeping up.

Visit the Leighton Art Centre; make a day of it after visiting the Millarville farmer's market!

Tip Your Hat!

"Spaghetti Western: Fornasetti Hat" Lisa Tornack


I am pleased to announce my participation in the 3rd Annual Tip Your Hat event! Tip your Hat, is an auction proceeding fine arts programming for Calgarians experiencing homelessness. The live auction will take place on Wednesday July, 13th, 2001 on Stephen Avenue Mall in downtown Calgary, Alberta during Stampede week. Special guests will model these unique hats designed by This is My City artists. The inspiration for my hat, "Spaghetti Western" came from the designs of the Italian artist Piero Fornasetti. This mixed media cowboy hat uses collage, oil and spray paint to create a surreal dream. http://www.fornasetti.com/

During the royal visit the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge received a hat from TMC artist Jody Williams! One of our hats is now in the collection of the Royal Family, now come down and get yours!

This is My City Arts Society (TMC) is a not for profit organization that uses the arts to create awareness about the issues of homelessness and poverty in Calgary. For more information on TMC go to: www.tmccalgary.wordpress.com or join our Facebook Group “This Is My City Society”

Inspired by Nature

In my home, I recently took on a patio re-new, like my studio re-new of last spring. I purchased new chairs, window boxes, and plants to create an oasis in the city; as a source of inspiration. When purchasing plants for my patio re-new just like painting on canvas, I tried to select different colours, heights, and textures. My favorite planter on the patio is the one made up of succulents. I created visual interest in the pot by layering different sizes and hues of planters together.

While researching plants and container gardening I came across a few interesting websites on how to maximize spaces both great and small.

Wooly Wally Pockets, this company manufactures felt pockets used for vertical container gardening. The way it works is, wool like raw clay pots, wicks away moisture from the soil storing it in its fibers. When the soil is dry, the water held in the pocket's fibres slowing seeps back into the soil. I made my own felt pockets by purchasing industrial weight felt from the fabric store and then grommeted holes for hanging. These pockets are ideal for spaces both great and small and ideal for herbs that like to dry out between waterings.
http://www.woollypocket.com/

An interesting trend in vertical gardening is the living wall. Trailing plants are mounted into vertical grid systems. The creator of a large concept vertical gardens is the French botanist Patrick Blanc. It is seen here on a smaller scale on the exterior of a wine bar.

A colleague of mine was doing some research of her own and turned me on to another interesting way to garden vertically creating "moss graffiti". Moss graffiti uses living moss spores to create words and images, in both indoor and outdoor spaces. By blending a simple recipe of buttermilk, sugar, and live moss; these green works of art can then be painted onto porous surfaces, such as wood, stone, or brick.

What is oil paint?

For those of you new to painting there are many different materials or "mediums" to paint with. From acrylics, oils, and watercolors, to gauche and tempera each of these materials have there own unique properties. For the past eight years I have been working with oil paints. Oil paints are slow drying paints composed of pigment suspended in oil; usually linseed oil which is extracted from flax plants. The key distinction from oil paint and those listed above is oils are not water soluble.

Common pigments used in oil paints can be divided onto two categories mineral salts and earth pigments. Mineral salts include titanium, zinc, and cadmium, these salts create whites and the color hues from yellow to red. Earth pigments have been used for thousands of years and were used to create the first known paintings located in the caves of Chauve, France (see above). The earth pigments include umbers and siennas. Unlike the raw pigments, the burnt varieties are extracted from clays by heating and driving off the water from the clay, leaving behind the charred pigment. Hence the name burnt umber and burnt sienna. Many names for the pigments also come from the places where the minerals were first found. Sienna, short for "terra di Siena" was originally extracted in Siena, Italy. While umber from the Italian word "umbra" meaning shadow, was originally was mined in Umbria, a mountainous region of central Italy.

Why use oil paint and what is the advantage of using oils, over the easy to clean water soluble paints mentioned above? The one number reason to use oils is color and luminosity of the medium. Because the pigments are suspended in oil the color maintains an inner light or luminosity when dried. I have also noticed a richness of color with the medium of oil. With acrylics, the more you blend color the "muddier" the color becomes, however with oil color the more you blend color becomes more sophisticated it becomes. Artists also take advantage of oil's slow drying time; because the painting can be wet up to 10 days (depending on levels of humidity) you are able to go back in and rework the piece. Watercolors in contrast to oils, dry very quickly and can be quite unforgiving.