recuperating

so my week has been pretty hectic. i was busy working, helping out my friends who were participating in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition by running errands and setting up, made up some new necklaces, taught my advanced jewellery class, and went to two weddings. i basically spent all of yesterday in a half dazed/half recuperating state.

i was so proud of my friend Jon - his work looked super fab, and he got a lot of positive responses.

i really liked how he decided to suspend two of his pieces with fishing line. they were much more dynamic displayed in that way. in school, how we displayed our work was always emphasized since a clean and professional display can make a world of difference

my other friend Theresa Duong received Honourable Mention in the student category. she totally deserved it. i've known her for a few years now and her work is always well executed. it's so refreshing to see what she's up to.

a rainy day set up

this long weekend i visited my parents to help them move into their new place. while i was there i was also able to grab my set up photos from the outdoor show from my dad's computer...after a month.

if you recall, the first day of the show was pouring like there was no tomorrow. this made for an extremely unpleasant time unloading my stuff off of Bay street. the police gave us a ten minute limit to unload from our cars, but it was kind of hard to manage since we also had to simultaneously make sure my displays/work/frames/etc remained dry (almost an impossibility).

another problem i encountered was that they moved my booth around without telling me. so i had to hop around in the rain for about 20 minutes trying to find out where i was supposed to set up (allowing my display to soak up even more rain). i was booth 703, but the booths were laid out as 701, 702, 713, 714...which  made absolutely no sense. a good note was that they ended up moving me to a corner booth that was underneath a sheltered area - protecting my visitors and i from most of the downpour.

there's nothing like teamwork.

here is part of "team amanda" on their smoke break. i think jon is scared that i'm going to ask him to do some more heavy lifting.

here is one of our much deserved food breaks across from my booth...didn't want to stray too far!

so much work goes into these shows and i have to do it all over again for Cabbagetown next month. eee!

if you forgot what my booth looked like all done and without the rain you can look at this post again.

enter ocad: some material art and design highlights

as usual, OCAD had way too much to see at its annual grad show. just to see the thesis work of my friends took up almost all the time i had to sight-see.

here are some of the material art and design 2010 thesis students whose work deserves mentioning:

Homa Esmaili's Round Squares was a fan favourite. Her guestbook proves it with both inappropiate and appreciative comments. inspired by her interactions with men, she broke them down into some common stereotypes that were both witty and intriguing.

and some detail shots:

 i love love love Caroline Yu's bearded porcelain cups that were featured in the material art and design sale. why didn't i buy them...

Iris Cho's cutlery about selective eating disorders was also great to see. she had a video on display as well showing people trying and failing to use her utensils. the many-hinged knife, fork and spoon set was particularly funny to watch.

 

Sachiko Burgin's Entwined jewellery series about twinship was another great display with interesting pieces. both her and her twin sister are extremely talented and will be a force to reckon with should they ever team up. Sachiko's display is the kind that I wanted for my own work, too bad it wouldn't have really worked.

and how could i not mention my friend Jon Riosa? his wearable sculptures on restriction were so dynamic that his guestbook was full of outrage that he didn't win the medal.

OCAD's 95th Annual Grad Show

The thesis students at OCAD have been very busy this past week. Displays are being installed and finishing touches are being applied for Enter OCAD - the school's 95th Annual Grad Show. I was helping my friend Jon with building his display today and I'm excited to see it all set up in the end. His work is dynamic, introspective, intricate and definitely worth looking at. 

I hope you all come out to it. There are six floors of work from 12 different programs, and over 500 emerging artists. I'll have some jewellery for sale in room 201 of 100 McCaul, and I'll have my new ring in a collection of rapid prototyped objects outside of room 500 on the 5th floor.