It’s the most wonder-what-to-make time of the year — or used to be, for me. It was all tra-la-la-la-la and glue-guns and glitter puff paint back when I had the 9-5 office job. Messing with sparkle…

Ignorance was truly bliss when I spotted this staggering, large painting at the AGO last month. I didn’t know of the artist, so I viewed it at face value, no back story. It was the only photo I took…

A friend of mine was a little obsessed with cleaning her carpeting in the condo she brought brand new several years ago.  She seemed to be at constant war with her wall-to-wall. I always assumed…

I needed to shed my years of sewing and knitting and general crafting  so I went to art school. No more crochet hooks and embroidery hoops; I wanted to do Real Important Art. But it was only after I…

Like other Vancouver makers , I mourn the latest closures of stores dedicated to those who work with their hands, hearts and heads, for love or livelihood. Last month it was the needlework shop in my…

Coming up with new ideas is typically the easy part for creatives; deciding which of those ideas are just distractions is quite another thing. Self-editing is an important part of the creative…

It’s a tricky business, doing a public-art commission for a private corporation, especially when there are big strings attached to the cash: the thing has to salute the business itself. The really…

I love that emotional collision that happens when faced with a great artwork. It’s that attraction-repulsion thing that sort of mutes the rest of the world for a moment while the ol’ brain tries to…

During my first day of art school , one of the instructors told the auditorium packed with other nervous Foundation-year students that this education would be not just about making the art, but…

You’d think the biggest challenge of artists is deciding what to make. But every artist I know is challenged by deciding what not to make. There are so many competing pursuits that tend to be part of…