A Vampire Story for Halloween @ The Beautiful and the Damned

direct link: A Vampire Story.

Looks like this video received a 'naughty' rating. Delighted!! (And it ain't the outfit. lol)

One of my stories about a vampire, told on Halloween 2013 at The Beautiful and The Damned, a poetry event in Toronto, Canada, hosted this month by Lizzie Violet.

Many thanks to John Oughton (one of the features of the evening, terrific poetry on time, memory, Honest Ed's and many other surrealities) for kindly videoing my open mic.

Looks like I now have a 4th performance piece to add to my growing repertoire (of now 4 pieces, with their own rudimentary choreographies, costumes, mannerisms, the speech patterns of poetry and prose clusters) . :)

Also, this is the first time I have worn a corset in my life. Don't ask. It wasn't uncomfortable.

I did forgot one of the main punch lines, but we won't mention that. Sheesh.

The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 -photo of the hostess of ceremonies, Lizzie Violet (taken by moi).

The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 -photo of moi, with thanks to Lizzie Violet who posted it on Facebook.

The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 — with Lizzie Violet, Brenda Clews, Philip Cairns and Heather Babcock,  at The Central in Toronto. Photo posted by Lizzie in her Facebook album for the evening.

The Beautiful and The Damned — with an enmasked John Oughton reading at The Central. Photo in Lizzie's Facebook album of the night on Facebook.

 psst. from the video above).
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Sketches @ Life Drawing Sessions

Paris posing at the Art Bar sketching group @ The Gladstone Hotel 23Oct2013, by Brenda Clews, 15" x 11", charcoal, conte crayon, water pastels, 130lb archival paper.

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Sketches @ Life Drawing Sessions

Paris Black posing at the Art Bar sketching group @ The Gladstone Hotel 23Oct2013, by Brenda Clews, 15" x 11", charcoal, conte crayon, water pastels, 130lb archival paper.

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Figure Sculpture, Week 5

Forgot my 'art glasses' - blended tri-focals that enable me to see the model clearly and up close. So I used some off-the-shelf readers that are always in my purse. I saw outlines more clearly without details. This resulted in a serious re-working of the figure. When I viewed the series of iPhone 4 shots I took, I wasn't happy with the results and hence am only showing you one, with a photo filter added. Lol.

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Poet Sketch Series: Art Bar

Alex Boyd @The Art Bar @Black Swan Tavern 22 OCT 2013, 11" x 8.5", graphite, charcoal, conte on 130lb paper.
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Poet Sketch Series: Art Bar

Roger Greenwald @The Art Bar @Black Swan Tavern 22 OCT 2013, 11" x 8.5", graphite, charcoal, conte on 130lb paper.

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Gallery Photos - '5 By 5' Art Show in the Art Bar @The Gladstone Hotel

Here is a slideshow of the pics I've uploaded so far. I'll be adding to this album shortly, but wanted to get it up as time is slipping away.



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Figure Sculpture, Week 4 (4 photos)

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Week 4, still pretty rough draft of figure. She's maybe 16" high, sculpted with Klean Klay.

This Saturday Afternoon! -Invitation to Gallery Opening of '5 By 5' in the Art Bar at The Gladstone Hotel

Hello Lovelies,

You are invited to our Gallery Opening this Saturday afternoon, October 19th, from 1-5pm in the Art Bar at the Gladstone Hotel. Nik Beat will be playing music, and there will be poetry readings (I'll be performing at 4pm). It'll be an even more glorious afternoon with your presence.

'Five artists, five visions. Jacques Albert, Brenda Clews, Jennifer Hosein, Anna Karoliina Koskinen and Greg Nordoff are largely figurative artists whose works explore facets of the strangeness of living in a world that can be inscribed in paint. Their paintings criss-cross realism and surrealism, poetry and myth, theory and what can be evoked of the depths of emotional crisis as it is expressed through the intensity of personal aesthetics.'

Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M6J 1J6
(416) 531-4635

For your enjoyment, a couple of 'off the cuff' short poses that mimic or riff those in my paintings. And I think it would be fun if others wished to pose for similar photos ::smiling::
Hope to see you there!

fondly,

Brenda

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Installing Our '5 By 5' Art Show @ the Art Bar @ The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto

Greg Nordoff's, Jennifer Hosein's, Brenda Clews's paintings (from left to right) installing

My paintings installed

Greg Nordoff installing his paintings, and Jennifer Hosein's painting awaiting installation

Jacques Albert's paintings awaiting installation

Jacques Albert's and Anna-KaroliinaKoskinen's paintings installed

All done! View of Art Bar at The Gladstone Hotel from Queen Street West in Toronto

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Packed and Ready to Go!

Can't believe I'm done! Ready for installation at The Gladstone Hotel tomorrow! All my paintings are stacked, a coat of varnish now dry, corners stapled on for travelling; I put up a price list page at my website and emailed the info to Jacques, who's curating the show. The dog is walked. My walls look bereft and empty of their colourful paintings. As I get these paintings ready for transporting tomorrow, I wonder which ones will come home after, and which ones won't. Art sales in Toronto have not been good overall this year. It's been a tough year for Galleries. Yet I linger over my paintings with love and care. It'll be a terrific show! I can't wait to see everyone else's work! More pics will be coming.

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Life-drawing: Paris Black @ Hittite Gallery on Nuit Blanche 2013

Paris Black @ Hittite Gallery on Nuit Blanche 2013, 7.5"x9.5", mixed media on 130lb neutral pH 25% cotton paper.

I haven't done any life drawing in awhile, and was hankering to do some. Can't really assess the drawing since many artists from the Realist school draw and paint Paris and their work is marvelous. I don't aim for anything close to a photograph, but I do like some likeness to the model. It's if-y here - he's older than he appears in this drawing, and yet anyone who knows Paris and the many drawings and paintings of him floating around Toronto would know who this is.

In one year, since beginning his own group, the Epique Lounge artists group, he was chosen as a top International model by The Louvre and will be posing there at the end of October. And in China he was picked as top model of the year and flown there for drawing sessions.

He's a talented rock star, a brilliant man, an artist himself, and his focus, he says, during the exceptionally long sits of modelling is to focus on the artists doing the very best work they can.

He's a great guy, and a friend.



Paris Black Posing @Hittite Gallery Nuit Blanche 2013 -photo by Luis Arellano

Here's a cell phone pic of the life-drawing event. That's my hand in the lower right corner. :)

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