Sydney, Australia, 2017

in

This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time creating work in Sydney, Australia in 2017.

Screen Shot 2020-01-24 at 1.35.36 PM.png

The first 20 pgs of my travelogue, check out the whole book.

Jean-Pierre Larocque – Quotable Quotes from a Master

in

I attended the one day workshop at Sheridan College with ceramic sculptor, Jean-Pierre Larocque – who is currently based in Montreal and on faculty with Concordia University. Rather than write up my personal reflections, I thought I would post some of the truisms, advice and wisdom that I captured during the day:

“I cannot abide a blueprint – too much happens in the process.”

“I work a lot from chaos…I need the chaos in there because it speaks of something.”

“Material is an embodiment of an idea.”

“When I pushed away limited to reference to recognizable images, then the images just came.”

“I work from behind the curtain, under the surface, so that the surface looks like it’s made itself.”

“I am outraged by the idea of the nobility of the mind.”

“Sculpture is an experiment in the round.”

“I’m in the business of making ghosts appear.”

“Making art is about love – you work on this thing until you love every part of it.”

“I like to arrive there, but I don’t like to prescribe how to get there.”

“Play is the thing that keeps me coming back.”

–photos posted by permission of the artist.

Transference isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be

in

So I’ve been mucking about with trying to reproduce similar type “mimesis” work to what I did in Denmark – and decided I’d like to go with colour transfers. Friends have tried and true results, but I’m having a difficult time getting a printer to be happy with my very expensive waterslide decal paper.  On the flip side, I’ve improved my Photoshop skills tremendously with a little help from my friends.  The concept is still the same – to ask us to consider the different facets of our lives, and how we live our lives – crazy, high tech, fast faced, or rooted in nature and in touch with our environment….

 

China Unbound @ David Kaye Gallery

in

David Kaye presented my first solo exhibition in Toronto fromApril 2-26, 2015. The works came from and out of my experience of working in Jingdezhen, China the Pottery Workshop in the spring of 2013.

Screenshot 2020-01-29 at 20.33.06.png

I work in two different palettes or “ideascapes”: tonal and primal. The tonal draws on the variegated hues of raw clay bodies, while the primal is based on the colour-wheel’s saturated pigments. My shapes also draw on two opposing ideas: linear curves and basic solid three-dimensional forms; bands of thrown and altered clay, coaxed into kinetic rhythm versus foundational geometry.

Screenshot 2020-01-29 at 20.31.37.png

China Bound is a series of work that reflects the duality of China that I experienced during my artist residency in Jingdezhen, 2013. Much of the country seems intent on aspiring to hyper-capitalism, while at the same time the soul of the country - its tradition - refuses to be quashed. In this series I try to capture what I believe to be at the core of this duality. Placing the forms in asymmetry at the centre of the altered vessels speaks to the caveats placed on freedom and innovation, where tradition is encircled and bursting with new energy.

Mimesis While in Denmark at Guldagergaard Centre for Ceramic Research in the fall of 2014, I started to make my first complex moulds. My objective was to reframe both the individual and society through abstract portraiture, using the vocabulary I developed in China. I aim to challenge us to examine the varied facets of our lives within the context of social responsibility.

Reaching is a technical and intentional extension of a “mistake” that occurred in Denmark. The series of work, though playful, comments on western society’s craving for constant momentum - always striving for something more.

Screenshot 2020-01-29 at 20.33.18.png

Chi is a series of work that has its genesis in my own 18-year transformative journey through the practice of tai chi chuan and chi qong. I designed the original forms upon which the moulds of the yin yang and bagua base were made and worked with the craftsmen in Jingdezhen China who fashioned the pieces. Chi is the energy, the life force in each of us.

Screenshot 2020-01-29 at 20.30.15.png

Essence is the beginning of new work where I move from the macro to the micro, focusing on “soul sketches” of an individual, finding the movement and spectrum of their inner voice.

Screenshot 2020-01-29 at 20.29.40.png

Reaching – colour and the absence thereof

in

Well – I’ve been busy throwing Sheba’s raku clay and slicing it up for “stretching” – some of the results that are readying themselves for the show at David Kaye Gallery next month

 

SOLO SHOW TORONTO CHINA UNBOUND

in

Opening Saturday April 11th, 2-4pm at David Kaye Gallery, North/West corner Queen St. W. and Dovercourt (entrance ON Dovercourt – next to Starbucks).

April 2-26th, 2015

I continue to work through the profound insights I had in China 2013 regarding the abstraction of identity, culture and aspects of society. Work shown will be recent bodies of work, work from my residency in Denmark (November 2014) and work from China. I am asking the public to consider different facets of their lives through the work, considering how each and every one of us can contribute to society in meaningful ways.