Little untouched clip from Nuit Blanche last night

http://youtu.be/0nORDGNf1LU

Toronto tonight... a million people wandering the streets in search of art.

(Newspaper-estimated number out on the streets.)

Nuit Blanche, Gap Ecology (Still Lives with Cherry Pickers and Palms), John St and Queen St.

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Ink Drawing #5 #inktober

Ink Drawing #5. October 5, 2014. ©Brenda Clews. 9" x 12", Pentel brush pen, Lamy fountain pen with Noodler's brown ink and Prismacolor Nupastels on Fabriano 100% cotton cold-pressed 140lb watercolour paper.

Ink Drawing #5, pre-colour. 

Yesterday afternoon at Portobello, a monthly poetry and music event hosted by Linda Stitt, my throat began to feel scratchy. At the first break, I went home. Rested. Normally I would have gone to bed early but it was Nuit Blanche in Toronto and I had planned to video... and so out I went, dressed warmly for the cold evening, and did get a few minutes of video that I am very pleased with, did not manage to meet up with my niece, Tara, and her boyfriend, and called it a night around 10pm. On arriving home, my son and his girlfriend were outside and they visited until midnight or so. By then, my throat was starting to rage. Because the virus is settling in for a bout, I cancelled my afternoon at Bampot Bohemian Teahouse where there is life-drawing every Sunday. Fiddlesticks. I treated myself to salmon baked on a cedar board (very yummy). Then grumpily did a quick ink self-portrait. I actually don't mind this one - perhaps because it is not laboured over. I grabbed some NuPastels and added colour - one of the reasons I am ok with this self-portrait is that it is looser, more impressionistic. Working this way was a release and I am relieved to offer an #InkTober 5th of October drawing. Whew.

#inktober
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Ink Drawing #4 #inktober

Two minute gesture poses. Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School Reloaded in Toronto, Halloween theme, Oct 3, 2014, ©Brenda Clews, InkTense black and red blocks with a water brush pen on 18" x 22" Strathmore 70lb archival drawing paper.

I've never stitched photographs before and there wasn't time to learn how to do it for this image - the first 4 are on one side, the 5th is on the back of that paper, and the 6th is on another page (and I'm thinking, with the pencil lines, it must have been a 5 min) - but they make a nice row.

#inktober
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#3 Ink Drawing #inktober

Ink Drawing #3. October 3, 2014. ©Brenda Clews, 11.5" x 16.5", India ink (Pitt pens, Derwent InkTense blocks, Noodler's ink, Daler Rowney acrylic artists ink etc), Moleskine sketchbook.

Not sure what to say. Uhhh. There were moments it almost appeared to be. Might come back to this one later, or perhaps rip it out of the Moleskine, or even get used to it. I was thinking about the ways women are remain constrained in our culture and how unfortunately sometimes they seem to enjoy and even get off on those constraints (I might put the ropes around her body back in). And hey, reality is messy, and so is this drawing. Had... a busy day, rushing out now.

iPhone pic, not so good with flourescent light. I'll discreetly update all these photos when sunlight and time to photograph properly becomes available again.

#inktober

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Ink Drawing #2 #inktober

Ink Drawing #2. October 2, 2014. ©Brenda Clews, 11.5" x 16.5", India ink, Moleskine sketchbook.

Sure I will not be able to keep this level of intricacy up every day the whole month, but each drawing is one that I would not have done before the InkTober initiative, and for that I am grateful.

Fishy underwater boney spiny things, carpel bones drifting, radius and ulna, phalanges.

She, found somewhere... a martial arts fashionista. An Oriental dream.

#inktober

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A Gourmet Poetry Salon: photos and videos

The September Gourmet Poetry Salon at Urban Gallery was a wonderful, warm, congenial and über talented afternoon. Many thanks to Sonia Di Placido and Heather Babcock, who featured, Angel Torres, who had two photo paintings in the show, The Art of Food, and who had a cameo spot, and our open mics, Stemond Pardy, Philip Cairns, Norman Allan, Heather Cadsby and Margaret Code. I also did an open mic spot sharing some prose poems on the theme of food.

                         

Some of these photos are video snapshots and some are from my cell - not enough daylight for good photos... but a memento of a lovely afternoon.

A few of the videos (not everyone wanted theirs public, and the camera battery ran out of juice before the last two open mics, Heather and Norman, who said they didn't want video anyway).



Simply a brilliant poet, a beautiful, warm, kind and friendly woman, and an amazingly captivating reading, Sonia Elisabetta Di Placido featured at A Gourmet Poetry Salon and yes, food! Zuppolone, wine... Her stories and introductions to each of her poems are really interesting. She connects with the audience by sharing explanations, anecdotes, laughter and charm.

1:40 -Zuppolone - Italian Canadians at Table
6:06 -Wine Tasting, after Gertrude Stein's, 'Tender Buttons.' In WWR38
9:33 -Zuppolone - Exaltation in Cadmium Red
11:35 -Doe - WWR38 (Ryerson Journal)
12:16 -Camaraderie - WWR38
13:39 -This Bus Rides North - WWR38
14:39 -American Cliche - WWR38
16:09 -Cadmium Red - Exaltation in Cadmium Red
18:13 -Imaginings -Exaltation in Cadmium Red"



Angel Torres had a Cameo Spot.
An article I wrote on his Geishas in The Art of Food.


Brenda Clews on open mic. direcct link: http://youtu.be/BMZo3vJARcw


Margaret Code on open mic.

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#1 Ink Drawing #inktober

Ink Drawing. October 1, 2014. ©Brenda Clews, 11.5" x 16.5", India ink, Moleskine sketchbook.

This is a large Moleskine sketchbook and the drawings are hard to photograph. While shooting in direct sun helps, they still requires finicky colour correction. I may post ones taken in cloudy foggy days like today, or with fluorescent daylight bulbs, and then re-take them and slip them into the same spots when there is sun and time to colour correct the images.

#inktober
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