The October Poetry Salon at Urban Gallery

Can't believe that I forgot to upload and post the photos and videos from last month's Poetry Salon at Urban Gallery! I did the Facebook album, and somehow did not get around to updating the Picasa album. My bad!

Many thanks to our lovely and talented features Oct 25th at the Poetry Salon at Urban Gallery, Niki Koulouris, Ellen S. Jaffe and Pat Connors, as well as those on open mic, Norman Allan, Catherine Raine, Heather Roberts Cadsby, Trixie Gleason (Margaret), Albert Shepherds (taken from video, his name a bit unclear) and Adam Abbas! Here are a few photos. It was a wonderful afternoon of poetry, hot apple cider and Girl Guide Cookies! - thank you Pat!! And thank you Urban Gallery for nurturing, promoting and supporting this event!

Heather Cadsby was born in Belleville, Ontario and moved to Toronto at a young age. She obtained a BA degree from McMaster University and taught elementary school for a number of years. In the 1980s she helped organize poetry readings at the Axle-Tree Coffee House in Toronto. A co-founder of the poetry press Wolsak and Wynn, for several years she served as a director of the Art Bar Poetry Series. Her fourth book Could be was published by Brick Books in 2010.

The poems Heather read:
0.35 "life drawing"
1.38 "drawing the face"
3.14 "what does she think about when she's up there sitting still for so long?"


Pat Connors' chapbook, 'Scarborough Songs,' was released by Lyricalmyrical Press last year. He was also recently published in Belgium, India, and Timmins. He was literary juror of Big Art Book 2013, a digital project of Scarborough Arts. He recently performed at the Austin International Poetry Festival, Stellar Literary Festival, Blue Coffee Reading Series, and, for the third time, at The Art Bar Poetry Series. He is a manager for the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change.

Pat says, “I am a People's Poet, in the tradition of Milton Acorn and Raymond Souster. I want my work to be read, listened to, and have relevance for everyday people and everyday life. Mick Burrs, who is editing my first full manuscript, likens my reading style to giving my audience a hug.

However, it shouldn't be so good that it reaches only a few people.”

The poems Pat read:

0:00 The Beginning of Forever
1:41 To the Point
3:04 When My Worlds Collide
4:24 Me With You
5:58 Teenager
7:07 Bleeding Blue and White
7:35 Buds
9:41 Order
11:26 Epic


There is more video from this Salon, but the poets probably don't like their videos because there are almost no viewcounts at all. Go here to see what's available.

I took lots of video and spent 3 days and nights editing and applying noise reduction (which renders so very slowly - a 20min video took nearly 7 hours, frame by frame I guess) and uploading - it was exhausting - and then two of the women wouldn't allow me to post their videos. Because of the amount of work these (I guess) fairly boring videos are (no-one really likes the way they look in video and so most of the poets don't promote the Poetry Salon videos), I've decided to stop doing it whole-hog. I've been trying to figure out livestreaming from my iPhone, but so far haven't managed it. I, myself, would like a record in case I ever decide to review any of the poets' readings and so I have to figure something out that works for me without having to go through the all-too-often thankless and arduous task of editing and uploading and all that entails when, hey, we don't look like Beyonce, nor do we have her budget or production team, we're actually pretty ordinary. That's kind of beautiful it itself, I feel.

It was a truly wonderful Salon! Don't get me wrong. My gripe over the video and how much work it is is in no way a reflection of the readings, the poets or the lovely warmth of the Salon.
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Posting the same sketch from a life-drawing session inked in.... #InkTober

Inked sketch of final pose (inked in studio after) - Life-drawing at Bampot Bohemian Teahouse - 19 Oct 2014 - ©Brenda Clews, 18" x 24", 4mm 6B graphite in a Pilot Croquis lead holder, Derwent InkTense permanent ink and Prismacolor NuPastels on Canson 80lb archival cream drawing paper.

I pulled the knees and lower legs way back and inked the sketch in. After, I added a bit of NuPastel. At this point, I am quite satisfied with how it has turned out. The overall composition works for me and the elements are subsumed in it even as they create it.

Tinkering will continue, however... a few things I can already see. I'll include this drawing when I post all the sketches - this will be the most 'finished' one. It was roughly a 40 min pose.

The messy paper and grottiness? I love that! Seeing process as well as the final incantation makes a drawing or painting feel like it is part of the real world, that the artist's materials are still in flux as they flow together to make the image appear as a demarcation of a perception of a figure on the page.

#InkTober
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Posting a sketch from a life-drawing session... when I add other media, it'll change for better or worse.

Original untouched sketch of last pose at Life-drawing at Bampot Bohemian Teahouse - 19 Oct 2014 - ©Brenda Clews, 18" x 24", 4mm 4B or 6B graphite on Canson 80lb archival cream drawing paper.

When there's a nice sunny day and I have time, I'll photograph and post the rest of the sketches - it wasn't a terribly good session for me, though often my disappointment lifts when I view the sketches a few days or weeks later and can see they have saving graces and are not *all *that *bad (aren't we our own worst critics?).

This one was done with a Pilot Croquis lead holder and a gum eraser - I had no way to sharpen the lead, which surely made for a clumsier drawing. I am posting an 'as is' / 'before' photo (shot with fluorescent daylight bulbs) because I'm thinking of inking it and seeing where I can take it. The legs are too long and I am not sure how that happened and wonder if it was using a new tool, the Pilot Croquis lead holder, and trying a new technique, sketching in 4mm 6B pencil and blending to darken with an eraser, that threw me off. Or maybe it's just a drawing that didn't work - and is, therefore, to look on the positive side, a good one to play with.

Of course, I may need to crop those too-long legs off and make the drawing smaller. I'll have to see how it goes.
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Poetry Salon @ Urban Gallery Oct 25, 3-5pm

Please do come out on Oct 25th, 3-5pm, to Urban Gallery where I am hosting another beautiful Poetry Salon.

Ellen S. Jaffe's second poetry collection, Skinny-Dipping with the Muse, was published in May 2014 by Guernica Editions. Ellen's previous books include poetry, a young-adult novel, and a book about writing, all of which have won awards. Her work has been translated into Finnish and published in journals and anthologies. She grew up in New York, moved to Canada in 1979, and has lived in Hamilton for 15 years. Ellen is Hamilton Contributing Editor for Great Lakes Review, a journal for writers on both sides of the border. Her story "Night Lights of Kansas," published in the review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014. Ellen teaches writing with Living for the Arts, and has received grants for writing and arts education from the Ontario Arts Council.

Pat Connors' chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press last year. He was also recently published in Belgium, India, and Timmins. He was literary juror of Big Art Book 2013, a digital project of Scarborough Arts. He recently performed at the Austin International Poetry Festival, Stellar Literary Festival, Blue Coffee Reading Series, and, for the third time, at The Art Bar Poetry Series. He is a manager for the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change.

Niki Koulouris was born in Melbourne, Australia and lives in Toronto. A beer enthusiast, she’s been known to start spontaneous lists, on napkins, of her top India Pale Ales. Shortlisted for the 2014 Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the The sea with no one in it is her first book.

Up to eight Open Mic spots of 5 min each are also offered - sign-up at 3pm.

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Drawings from Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School Reloaded in Toronto, Halloween theme, Oct 3, 2014. #InkTober

Life-drawing @ Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School Reloaded in Toronto, Halloween theme, Oct 3, 2014, ©Brenda Clews, 18" x 24" Inktense black and red blocks with a water brush pen on Strathmore 70lb archival drawing paper. You've seen some of these already....

See photos from the evening at the Dr. Sketchy Blog.

#InkTober

(Zoominess and deepened shadows added for extra Halloween effect! I rather like.)

(the actual drawing)

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Little sketch of Norman Bethune Allan and Waleed Abdulhamid @ The Art Bar #InkTober

It was so dark at the Art Bar last night that I could not see what I was doing - literally, could not see pencil lines on the paper. The water-soluble ink I was using appeared so black there was hardly any detail. Would have been better, perhaps, if I had enough light to see the paper - so I'll have to take a small book light if I go and draw at The Black Swan Tavern again.

Norman Bethune Allan and Waleed Abdulhamid (where the ink wash drawing went later in the evening and the original sketch) @ArtBar-14Oct2014 ©BrendaClews, 11" x 15", Derwent InkTense black permanent ink blocks,  Faber-Castell Pitt India ink pens, Pentalic 130lb archival paper.

#InkTober

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Wild Woman

Tara Clews (my niece) had me flip my hair while she was photographing in front of her green screen and this photograph is the result after I, uh, let's say, manipulated the image myself later at home. :-} Wild Woman.

(Wild Woman of the Antler Tribe.)

(Shhh. Wheeee...... the Original Flying Photo.)