New Fun Clothes From Ruby Diego

I'm holding a sale of Ruby Diego Clothing. Monday, December 10 from 5pm - 8pm. It will be held at Gallery 111, 111 Dunlop St. E., Barrie. This is a new gallery and a new location for the clothing show.

Only 2 Days Left

Two days left in this years One Of A Kind Show. Saturday 10am - 9pm and Sunday 10am - 6pm. It's been a good show so far and we want to finish the show with a bang. We still have some "art nests" left and our mission is to sell them all by the end of the show. Tell your sisters, brothers, friends-in-law, everyone you know that you want an "art nest" for Christmas. Your neighbourhood will be the envy of every good house keeping designer, avian architect type around.

See you at the show.

Show

My sculpture show opened last Saturday with a great celebration. A years work finally up on the walls and sitting on plinths. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

Working On New Things

The sewing machine is sitting idle this weekend while Derek and I participate in the Beyond the Valley studio tour in Dundas. There has been a fair number of people through on this the first day. First day when actually there are only 2 days. I like a 2 day show. The same number of people come in 2 days as would in 4 days if you stretched out the show. Right now we are going out for a burrito as a little treat. Tomorrow we will be heading home. Back home to start up the machine and what kind of a dance is Caitie doing.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

New Sculptural Works by Tracey Martin Chappel Gallery, Bracebridge October 20 - November 10 opening reception Saturday, October 20 between 1pm and 4pm

Incubation of Ideas My ideas come from all facets of life. Unfortunately ideas don't come fully formed, they have to linger in one's mind or memory bank. Often it is an interesting observation which is stored in the imagination. The observations will occasionally rise to the surface or consciousness, be thought about and then restored. They will then mix with other concepts to create a new interpretation. When starting a new body of work it usually involves a new questioning of a perceived viewpoint which is then imprinted by thoughts from the memory bank. An artist doesn't want to echo what has already been said they want to make ones own voice heard. Ideas are often changed over time by influences in culture, social circumstances and the basic human condition. Some ideas take a long incubation before becoming a full finished work, others are quick. In my working life I start on my basic concept and I'm open to changes which will inevitably come.

Chapel Gallery Located at 15 King Street in Bracebridge DIRECTIONS From the four way stop signs in downtown Bracebridge (Manitoba Street, Ontario Street, Ecclestone Drive and Entrance Drive) turn east on Entrance Drive. Take the first left, Queen Street. Take the first left again, Muskoka Road South, which will turn into King Street.

The Most Beautiful Buildings in Mississauga

On a recent trip on highway 403 through Mississauga Derek and I saw two beautiful buildings. They are the Absolute Condo Towers. To me they are such a beautiful sculptural form which would look equally wonderful as small elements as they do as large buildings. The shape would make great vases for a bouquet of roses.

Art Crawl

Derek and I took in the Hamilton Art Crawl on Friday night. The Art Crawl idea started last year with an arts supply store owner talking to his neighbours about staying open late one night a month. They chose to do it on the second Friday of the month. The idea grew organically with more and more galleries, restaurants, and local artists opening up their doors to welcome people.

Derek and I were pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm that met us at the venues. Most of the Gallery owners had wine and cheese spreads. The art students on the street were more than ready to talk about their paintings. Several artist co-op studios had bands playing as well as one restaurant who had five young guys playing an assortment of horns. The one on the french horn looked like he was almost having as much fun as the 80 year old guy dancing to the music. Next time we go on the crawl I'm going early so that I can get a seat in that restaurant.

Derek and I have been on many art tours and we have never been to one that was as well attended as this one. From what I am told this past Friday night wasn't as busy as past crawls. I'm impressed. I have heard that the Art Crawl is getting divided up into two camps of thought. One of them is wanting to write up some bylaws, get the city involved and jury the participants. The other side wants to leave things alone and let the Art Crawl continue its organic growth. I personally agree with the second group. Remember the camel was a horse made by committee. The public by their attendance and support will weed out what they don't want or think is relevant and what they do want will prosper.

Clothes worth Wearing

I started sewing with all the girls in my grade 7 class. We walked to the local high school and took the home ec class. I loved it, the sewing part not the cooking, and continued with the program all through high school. In grade 10 I entered a sewing competition and won a Vogue Sewing book. I like to call it the sewing bible. After high school wanting to continue with my sewing I went to Humber Collage and took Fashion. After that I went to Georgian College and enrolled in the textiles and weaving coarse. Many years later (I won't say how many) I borrowed a serger, bought a new sewing machine and ordered fabric. My pattern making skills were minimal but I bought a book and taught myself. The surface design of fabric, the sewing skills and the manipulation of fabric have stayed with me. I have come full circle and am glad to be back.

I start my fashion process by getting back to the Humber College idea of looking at fashion magazines. I looked to see what the trend forecast is and what Marc Jacobs is up to. Favourite pictures of colour combinations, textures, and anything else of interest are ripped out of the magazines and pasted into my sketch book. I find it's best to buy the magazine from the Quicky Mart first before ripping out pages. Initial drawings are done in the sketch book. Ideas are interpreted on the table using my basic block pattern. See home schooling is good. Patterns are drawn, cut out, sewn together in muslin and tried on by Judy. She's such a good model. Always there ready to help. No yelling when I stick a pin into her. Patterns are altered as I go until I like it. I cut out and sew up the final fabric piece and get feed back from Cait. Once everything is a go I size the pattern and I'm off to the races.

Summer Show

We had a fun time tonight at the opening of our summer show at Bohemia. It's great to have friends and acquaintances show up and support your hard work. The work will be up until August 12. Hope you get a chance to go see it.

Artist Statement

Incubation of Ideas..... I am often asked "where do you get your ideas?". My ideas come from all facets of life. Unfortunately ideas don't come fully formed, they have to linger in one's mind or memory bank. Often it is an interesting observation which is stored in the imagination. These observations will occasionally rise to the surface or consciousness, be thought about and then restored. They will then mix with other concepts to create a new interpretation. When starting a new body of work it usually involves a new questioning of a perceived viewpoint which is then imprinted by thoughts from the memory bank. An artist doesn't want to echo what has already been said they want to make their own voice heard. Ideas are changed over time by influences in culture, social circumstances and the basic human condition. Some ideas take a long incubation before becoming a fully finished work others are quick. In my working life I start on my basic concept and I'm open to the changes which will inevitably come.

Sunburns and Other Ideas

Derek, Alana and I set up our show tonight. Alana is the curator, install technician, sales staff and head cheerleader all rolled into one.

Incubation of Ideas

It Was A Rollercoaster Weekend

I'm back home from the show a day early because yesterday was exhausting. We parked the car in the lot yesterday morning and started pulling boxes out to take over to the show when Derek realized we didn't have my 2 clear plastic boxes with all of my jewellery and the cash box. We took what we had over to the booth and I set up while Derek went back to the apartment where we stayed over night. He checked the apartment, asked at the parking lot kiosk and traced every step he made the night before. When he came back to the booth he was so upset he could hardly see straight. We didn't know what to do next. Most of the items I was showing were gone. The booth looked empty except for the big red knitted ball. Soon after Derek filed a police report, he notified a board member of the show committee and told some of the artists around us what happened. The day mercilessly ground on. By 5:00 pm we wanted to go home and just as we started to pack up a couple of board members and a photographer came by and told me that I had won the best sculpture award. How bittersweet. There was a reception in city hall with drinks, hors d'oeuvres and speeches. We left right after. Sunday morning I checked the phone messages and couldn't believe my luck when I heard Hugo the parking attendant's message. Someone had handed in 2 clear plastic boxes and he had found my phone number on a business card in one of the boxes. We immediately jumped into the car and headed to Toronto. I was overjoyed to get all of my jewellery back. I was telling everyone how humanity hadn't let me down. Back home I started going through everything in the boxes and discovered approximately 1/4 of the work was missing. Who ever it was that found my jewellery box must of rifled through it and picked out some favourite things. So this weekend has been very bittersweet. I got validation of my sculptural work and someone didn't steal all of my jewellery.

It Was A Hot One

Up at 5:00am is not my idea of a good start to the day but that was me this morning. A little bleary eyed and ready to go. After a stop at Tim's we hit the highway and I was back asleep. Thank goodness I wasn't driving. We arrived at Nathan Phillips square with lots of time to set up. My sister Ruth showed up with drinks and we were happy as ants at a picnic. Some exhibitors must have skimmed over the hours of operation part of the acceptance letter because several people didn't show up until 11:00am. The big red knitted ball "A Life's Work is Never Finished" attracted a lot of attention. There must of been 30 photos taken of it today and more questions asked of me. People were very intrigued to know if there was something inside the ball. As the TOAE show goes today was a very slow day. It was just to hot for many to venture out. As southern Ontario, Canadians we just aren't use to weather this hot. Let's hope it's a little cooler tomorrow.

A Relaxed Day Before The Day Before

I had a wonderful day today. It's the day before the day before my show and I am almost all ready. Derek painted my shelving unit while I filled preserving jars with yarn. Yarn that was knit, crochet, felted and wound into balls. It was so enjoyable sitting at the kitchen table, BY MYSELF, thinking and working on the Big Knitted Ball project. The house is usually busy with kids, both young and old, and Derek going back and forth to the studio asking me questions. The show for which the preparations are for is the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. It starts at 10 Friday morning so that means a 5 am start down the highway. With the preparations going so well I think I'll be able to get to bed early tomorrow night. Not something I'm use to doing. Almost every other show I've been to I've worked on things right up to the last minute. I think this is going to be a good weekend.

Photo Shoot Today

Derek and I spent the afternoon at Bohemia Coffee shop.

Derek photographed my new clothing line for my web site. I will be selling the clothing on line, at select shows and at my home studio. The fabrics are organic cotton knit jersey, rayon mixes, linen all from Montreal, the city with such style.

I kept looking at the cakes but didn't have any. I have had a nosh of those delectables before and they are remarkable.

I was hoping they didn't want me to help mop the floors when they pulled out the yellow bucket.