The Artist ~ Mind as Tool

What is it that makes an 'artist' an artist?

Must you have been born with an artistic gift, a passion to create? Does the art degree that took years to obtain automatic designate you an artist?
I'd like to think that each of us holds the title. It doesn't begin and end with a degree nor at the canvas, but born in the mind, with a thought or an idea. The mind never ceases to wonder, or at least it shouldn't....least not until death. Even then who is to say it stops?

These 'creative thoughts and ideas' are actually tools...the first tools one needs in order to begin their work. Tools that feel perfect to us, like an extension of our hand. When we create we use our minds making the connection between us and these 'tool' seamless. We automatically know how to use these tools. They are our most internal thoughts. The feel is most familiar. The mind is the most important tool to use in making your art for it is you; your mind, your thought, and your attitude towards making art.

When we go to an art workshop we hope to improve our art making abilities. We might gain a new technique, a new way of looking at things, or improve our skills. We may gain insight through critique. New territory is charted as we venture down different art avenues. We benefit from being with like minded artists and we feel validated by being with members of our tribe. It's often a very exhilarating experience.

But there's also another kind of workshop available to artists. A workshop thoughtfully designed to sharpen and hone your most valuable tool. You. Your mind and the way you look at your art making; you and your attitudes towards yourself, your own work and the world around you..how your environment influences the flow of the process that you come to create. The power of the mind, your first tool that gives birth to new creations!

ART and Ignatian Spirituality

As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.

The above statement is the thought of Fr. Anthony de Mello, S.J. I seemingly enjoy applying this thought to art. People tend to look at a work of art and search for the meaning of the piece. What is it the artist was trying to convey? One must go beyond that approach and look deeper into the art work...each artist has his/her own way of exploring the soul_ the 'spirit' of the work that is evolving. Yes, often a mystery. Thus, can we say the art work only makes sense when you perceive it as a mystery and that it makes no sense when one tries desperately to conceptualize it in his/her mind? Or, can it be said that the art work is a mystery and each one of us sees it in a different light...in which, that 'light' is the mystery unfolded. Thoughts?

De Mello was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality. He hosted many spiritual retreats and was considered by some a gifted public speaker. I never had the opportunity to attend any of his seminars, but friends tell me they were an awe inspiring experience, that de Mello was a gifted charasmatic presenter. Click here to visit his Centre for Spirituality.
His quite controversial paradigm for Catholic dogma is mainly because many of his ideas were influenced by Thai Buddhist teacher and founder of monasteries Ajahn Chah - who, some say, was a kind of teacher to him. Despite the Church's condemnation, his works are popular especially among those interested in Ignatian Spirituality.





*De Mello died suddenly in 1987.
Painting: Acrylic on Canvas, Francesca

Robert Marchand's GARNET WORKS!

Valentines' Day, YES. Red hearts, NO! SPoA offers you

GARNET WORKS

by

Robert Marchand

Feast your eyes on these beauties. Spectacular photos by Montreal area ( Longueuil, Quebec ) photographer Robert Marchand, sets off a fire of prism delight in a spectrum of red hues that any seasoned painter would be in awe of. The colour GARNET is rich in beauty and as any artist will testify, one of the most difficult shades to duplicate on canvas, but Marchand has captured the true essence of this shade in his GARNET WORKS!

When we think of the word garnet, we think deep RED, even though the garnet species are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless...and the rarest of these, a blue garnet. But most of us associate GARNET with the rich blood-colour that warms our senses conjuring up exotic thoughts of far off places. Garnet as colour or garnet as gem, both exquisite!

SPoA loves the surreal effect of the photo above. The contrast of the clarity of green tinged almonds and the prism reflection depicting paint- like feathery brushstrokes. Beautiful!

Photographer Robert Marchand has done something really exciting here. Enlarge the photo above. Discover the 'texture' he's captured! It so much resembles that of a painter's canvas. Gorgeous! How lucky for SPoA to be able to showcase Marchand's GARNET WORKS on Valentines Day!

SPoA hopes to share more of Robert Marchand's photography in the future. We're always searching for that something 'extra special' to bring you. It is the passionate drive and the creative force that sets these skilled artisan's aside from the rest...artisan ship that is most intriguing in newly discovered independent photographers that enter into the world of photography with a fresh eye! Marchand shares not only the title of photographer, but also musician, composer and producer. SPoA feels that an artist is born to create...when you're born with 'art' genes, the list can be extensive!

An artist's life is filled with a deep desire constituting that need to create which never stops...music, photography, composing....and more....it's all there!

Photography by Robert Marchand
Used with Permission

Grotesque Stillness - From the SPoA archives. First pubished January, 2012

CURRENT EXHIBITION @ SPERONE WESTWATER - NEW YORK

Marble Sculpture from 350 B.C. to last week

12 January 2012 through 25 February 2012

A Grotesque Stillness Flirts With Flamboyance

IMAGES:Sperone Westwater, New York

“Marble Sculpture From 350 B.C. to Last Week” at Sperone Westwater includes, from left, “Purity” (2008-11), by Barry X Ball, and older works like the Ionian Greek grave relief, center, from the fourth century B.C., and the late-17th-century bust of a man with a wig.

The tendency of commercial galleries to mount exhibitions of historical material is pushed to rewardingly crazed extremes by the latest offerings at Sperone Westwater. This blue-chip gallery, previously located in SoHo and then Chelsea, has crammed two lavish exhibitions into the four floors of available display space in the narrow, overly hygienic building on the Bowery — commissioned from the British starchitect Norman Foster — to which it moved in 2010.

"The marble show, a wicked romp through a couple of millennia of objects, figures and portrait busts, is riddled with alternating intimations of decadence and purity, the Classical and the grotesque."

FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK OUT SPERONE WESTWATER HERE.

RESOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES/ART

Get MAPPED, it's not too late!

Spring is around the bend and the Cultrual Mapping project is nearing completion. How exciting!

Anyone unsure of exactly what is meant by 'cultural mapping' the following excerpt helps explain:

It is "a comprehensive inventory and database of our tangible cultural assets (facilities, organizations, people, public art, built heritage, and festivals) and intangible assets (community histories, traditions, stories). This process is known as cultural mapping."

We will have a cultural web portal from the data that was collected – a “one-stop-shop” for information relating to arts, culture and heritage resources in Guelph. Anyone who has not signed up or requires more information, click HERE .

Guelph recognizes that creativity, culture and quality of place are major drivers of sustainable community development. A comprehensive cultural database provides an essential tool for effectively leveraging our community’s existing cultural assets.

The Boombox Project

The Boombox Project

by Lyle Owerko

"generate heat, friction and dialogue"

"We're becoming much more consumers and much less creators"

celebrating human life...a celebratory device

artistic metaphor and a cultural metaphor

Check out Lyle Owerko's photography HERE. You'll be glad you did!

Experience Blue!

A night under a sky so blue,
so blue, so blue.

The music, the setting, the emotion....all for a very worthy cause.

I should have blogged about this a couple of months ago, but just came across some of the opening music to this spectacular fundraiser that took place back in October of 2011. It was the major Bell fundraiser for CAMH called "One Night Under A Blue Sky"

You must listen to "MIRROR MASK" by Composer/Producer Robert Marchand (Bobbyfreeze). It was one of the 'opening pieces' for the gala. I would also like to acknowledge that this amazing night was produced by Montreal's Circo de Bakuza under the guidance of Vincent Drolet. Art direction by the very talented Tony Babinski.

As you stare at the top photo and play the music, it will give you a good feeling of what being there was like. Can you imagine? What an incredible audio/visual experience that elevates to a whole new level of performance.

As part of a company group whose a major Bell Canada partner, a friend was invited to this 'blue' gala and said it was most interesting and definitely worthwhile.

You may wonder what it was all about? "One Night Under A Blue Sky" was a big time corporate fundraiser run by Bell for CAMH - Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - and aside from the financial support, the event goes a long way to raising awareness and the understanding of mental health issues. We've become so enamored with our always-on, hyperconnected lifestyles, it's sometimes easy to forget that we're humans and not machines. If you don't think this takes a toll on mental health, I'd say you need a reality check.

From what I've heard the entertainment was a cut or two above Medievel Times. They had two world class troupes, along with several performers covering a variety of expressive modes. Let's just say it was a heady mix of highbrow cabaret, precision dance, performance art, world music and Cirque du Soleil; along with lots of haute coutere, fire, fog and water. See that piano? It was on WATER! The entertainment went beyond description and those in attendance were oooh and awwwed by spectacular music and performance artists.



Congratulations to Bell for getting so much support around such an important issue. If you're looking to take your next big party to the next level and want to add a little spark, you should probably get in touch with Freedom Ballet, Robert Marchand and La Salamandre. Just make sure you give them lots of space and don't leave anything around that easily catches fire. Anyhow, just for a taste, here's a bit of what they had going on - are you thinking Peter Gabriel?




**Photo's were taken by a guest with an iphone. I enhanced them in Picasa.

*** Tony Babinski is a Montreal based writer, creator and filmaker. He has worked with SID LEE since 2000 and is author of Cirque Du Soleil:20 Years Under The Sun, the authorized history of Cirque Du Soleil. Check out Tony Babinski's blog HERE.

***CIRCO DE BAKUZA is a creative agency specializing in events, branding and experiential marketing.We define our work as telling stories and starting conversations. Our creative and strategic services are designed to create universes, create conversation and create ambassadors.

Sailing

It's not far down to paradise...at least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away...and find tranquility
The canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see. Believe me

It's not far to never never land...no reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy
Of innocence again. The canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see. Believe me

Sailing. Takes me away...to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me. And soon I will be free

Fantasy. It gets the best of me...when I'm sailing
All caught up in the reverie. Every word is a symphony. Won't you believe me

It's not far back to sanity..at least it's not for me
And when the wind is right you can sail away...and find serenity
The canvas can do miracles..just you wait and see. Believe me

CURIOSITY

The greatest 'tool' an artist can bring to their work is 'curiosity. Wikipedia defines curiosity, in part as “an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation, and learning.

It's a naturally instinctive need for man to explore. We're all born with curiosity - think of the young toddler constantly asking 'why' and never hesitating to pick up every and anything, inquisitively staring at it. It's sad some lose this characteristic as maturity rolls in. For some of us, the thirst to remain adventuresome and explore never leaves. It becomes an extension of inhaling and exhaling, which for artists is a necessity of life!

In my studio, it's much the same...curiosity, exploring and dreaming go hand in hand as I move the brush from canvas to canvas. Curiosity leads to creativity - it's a wondrous curiosity when you push paint around and just let it flow...letting it dance on a white floor, watching it move around with very little help from yourself....thinking " what would happen if I pushed the paint in this direction or upwards...?" I allow myself to explore through movement of the brush.... swift, slow and curious actions.

Allow your senses to be creative as you explore. Be curious. It's curiosity that pushes the curiosity to be creative. As this emotion represents a drive to know new things, curiosity is the fuel of science and all other disciplines of human study.” And the discipline of art, of course!

From an attitude of curiosity, what will you explore day?

Be Curious. Explore!

The video will take you to the University of Bologna...best part is the last 2 minutes so hang in to the end....you’ll be glad you did!

Absent Artist

Ai Weiwei's Exhibit At Central Park Opens Monday. But Ai won't be attending the opening of his new outdoor exhibit. Read more HERE.

Ai WeiWei reaching for the Dog Zodiac Head at the bronze foundry in Chengdu, China. Photograph taken April 2010, © AW Asia.

VINCENT

A little something for you this Monday morning.



Woke up this morning listening to this. As beautiful as his paintings are, there is a sadness surrounding them when you realize his troubled mind. The mind of an artist can be exceptionally complex and understanding this takes someone just as special - one who shares the same depth with soft understanding.



Do you have a favorite Van Gogh painting? Which one?

Scrapers

This is one of my favorite oils by realist painter Gustav Caillebotte for which I am in awe of his use of 'light' in this masterpiece. This painting is one of the first representations of urban proletariat. Whereas peasants (Gleaners by Millet) or country workers (Stone Breakers by Courbet) had often been shown, city workers had seldom been painted. Unlike Courbet or Millet, Caillebotte does not incorporate any social, moralising or political message in his work. His thorough documentary study (gestures, tools, accessories) justifies his position among the most accomplished realists.

The Floor Scrapers, 1875
Gustave Caillebotte 1848-1894
Oil On Canvas, 102x146.5 cm (40 1/8 x 57 5/8 in.)
Musee d'Orsay RF2718
Photograph RMN (Musee d'Orsay/Herve Lewandowski

His Work Is Dark. Mysterious. It's About Life

BLACK ICE ~ DAVID BLACKWOOD

ON NOW AT THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO ~ a must see!

" There was a dark side to life in Newfoundland, and to life in the small community, to the life in the family. You were aware of dark and light."

David Blackwood

Visit and surf around David's site...you'll hear mesmerizing sounds of the ocean and view incredible offerings. http://www.davidblackwood.com/

An exhibition of the work of one of Canada’s leading printmakers and most popular artists, David Blackwood is on now until June 11, 2011 at the AGO. If you're in Toronto don't miss it! It will showcase some iconic works for the first time, revealing the richness of Blackwood’s imagination and his working methods.

Blackwood has been telling stories about Newfoundland in the form of epic visual narratives for 30 years. To bring this narrative to life, the exhibition will situate Blackwood’s prints in time and space by looking at the history of Newfoundland and the people who settled there. His art explores the timeless theme of the struggle for survival between humans and nature in one of the most exposed and hostile environments on earth. He depicts a town and a centuries-old way of life that has disappeared. His dramas encapsulate class, gender and intergenerational issues that can only be understood in the context of the formation of the landscape, its natural resources, immigration and settlement, religious and political debate, economic and social conditions, and the environmental threat to the survival of traditional lifestyles.

The Burged Whale - A Whale for the Killing

Medium: Colour Etching and Aquatint

Period: Dated 1972

Size: 22” x 16”

He has created an iconography of Newfoundland which is as universal as it is personal, as mythic as it is rooted in reality, and as timeless as it is linked to specific events. This exhibition draws on childhood memories, dreams, superstitions, legends, the oral tradition, and the political realities of the Wesleyville community on Bonavista Bay where Blackwood was born and raised.

Resource: AGO

The Storm of Art

Summer has finally blessed us with an amazing heat wave that should stick around for a couple of weeks. You can hear people start to complain. I'm not sure why, but Canadians love to talk about weather. I wonder if Americans are as obsessed about their weather as we are?

On any given day you can walk into the supermarket or the bank and the first thing people greet you with is: "Sure is hot today!" or "Oh it's freezing out, can't wait till it warms up!" It never ends. We talk about humidity, sleet, rain, fog, the scorching sun, freezing rain, impending snow storms...it's endless! If a storm is predicted enter any supermarket and you'll find people buying supplies as if a famine is about to occur with the idea they'll be housebound for months...even when they live three blocks away. It's getting to the point of ridiculousness and instead of complaininig about the heat I guess you could say I'm complaining about people complaining about the weather!

Heightened Alert I

Acrylic on board, 30 x 30

Speaking about the weather, we would like to introduce the work of Michelle Manley. Her paintings are inspired by environmental phenomena that are both socially troubling and aesthetically sublime. Her severe storms and crashing waves address the concept of 'force' and 'clashes with nature' and illustrate the alteration of weather systems, bodies of water, and land as a result of human agency and waste. She often evokes the form of human anatomy to question and obscure the physcial boundaries between corporeal tissue and the elements, in order to emphasize the inevitable symbiosis of the material products of civilization and the biological makeup of the entire terrestrial ecosystem. View more of her paintings HERE.

Severence
48"W x 36"H
Acrylic on Board, 2008

We're INSIDE! ART gets dressed up for the Summit!

Security is tight, but Stone Parliament of Art is going to take you where you've never been before___behind the scenes as ART gets dressed up for the Summit! It's with great pleasure to showcase these rare photos.

Collaborating with the Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC), curator William Huffman of the Toronto Arts Council organized some 200 Canadian artworks which will be displayed to foreign dignitaries during the G8 and G20 summits. After the fake lake brouhaha, this comes as a better bit of G20 art news.

Installing the draping, MTCC G20

Signage is being put in place.

The Summit Room G20

All Summit Photos by Mary Calarco
Used With Permission.
View more of Calarco's Photos HERE.

G20 Summit Elevators

A press release says,

the development and installation of the Canadian Collection is being conceptualized as a national exhibition – providing an important Canadian, visual narrative for the numerous visiting international leaders. In exchange for its involvement, ADAC Foundation will receive a financial contribution. These funds will form seed capital for a developing endowment within the Foundation, aimed at providing its membership and individual artists with additional professional and developmental resources.

S.P. of Art is happy to hear about this project. It could lead to some quality works getting out there to represent Canada because the people involved generally have many years of art expertise between them.

Cast glass by Taliaferro Jones, Finance Ministers' meeting room #G20

The works which include one of Brian Jungen’s hockey masks and a sculpture of bears – front and back – by Dean Drever hanging in the Prime Minister’s Office, have been specially chosen by Huffman and a crew of 12 people to represent the breadth of contemporary Canadian artistic practice. Also on display in the PMO will be 2 landscapes by Winnipeg painter Ivan Eyre. There will be a stunning Riopelle in the leader’s lounge, and work by Montreal legendary Quebecoise artist Francoise Sullivan. Alongside these will be works chosen by the Ontario Crafts Council.

Françoise Sullivan, Chute concentrique.
Image: fanset8.blogspot.com

Françoise Sullivan, Danse dans la neige, 1948. Photographs by Maurice Perron, gelatin silver prints.
Image: canadacouncil.ca

Mary Calarco, Southwestern Regional Coordinator for the Ontario Crafts Council. Read more HERE.

More on Montreal artist Françoise Sullivan.HERE

Educators Hiding Art ?

The stash includes noteworthy paintings by members of the Group of Seven, nearly a million photographs dating back to the mid-19th century and a pair of 1950s Turbinator hair dryer-chairs, secreted away with the stealth worthy of a spy novel....they amount to one of the board’s greatest educational resources, albeit an untapped one.
Read HERE.



Image:"Dixie Queens" (two schoolgirls at lunch Hadleyville, Oregon, circa 1911), Roy C. Andrews collection, PH003-P954, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299.

Where oh where is that ART?

Noah Charney's fiction novel, The Art Thief.

Click here to watch a video of Charney explaining his book. Noah Charney, twenty-seven years old, holds degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Cambridge University. He is the founding director of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), the first international think tank on art crime. He divides his time between New Haven, Connecticut; Cambridge, England; and Rome, Italy.

Snatched!

In Paris!

A thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist. (May 19th)
The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower in one of the French capital's most chic and tourist-frequented neighbourhoods. Read more HERE.



Image: Jacques Brinon/The Associated Press

Get ready for the all nighter!

Nuit Blanche Toronto: Curators & Artists Announced!

Get ready, Toronto!

This year, the city’s much-loved “All Night Contemporary Art Thing”, Nuit Blanche, takes place on October 2, 2010 from 7 pm to 7 am.

Norico Sunayama, A Sultry World, 2006
Image: Kazuki Suzuki - C Halper Nuit09 ZoneC 327

It should be good, with a great lineup of curators, each of whom will curate a section of downtown. We have high hopes for McMaster’s choice of The Open Ended Group, Anthony Kiendl’s choice of Dan Graham and Christof Migone’s choice of French artist Davide Balula, in particular. And we’re sure Toronto boy Darren O’Donnell (of Haircuts for Children fame) will not disappoint.

GERALD MCMASTER from the AGO will curate the area in and around Yorkville, from Yonge Street to Avenue Road. The artists McMaster features include French artist Agnès Winter and New York’s digital artists The Open Ended Group (Paul Kaiser, Shelley Eshkar and Marc Downie).

ANTHONY KIENDL, Director of Plug In in Winnipeg, will curate the west side of Yonge from College Street to Queen Street West. His exhibition includes a new collaborative work by Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo of the band Sonic Youth, and a new work by the excellent New York conceptual artist Dan Graham.

SARAH ROBAYO SHERIDAN, co-director of Mercer Union, will curate the east side of Yonge from Gerrard Street south to Queen Street West. Sheridan will be working with the United Kingdom’s Ryan Gander and Toronto’s Darren O’Donnell, among others.

CHRISTOF MIGONE from the Blackwood Gallery, will curate the Financial District, straddling Yonge Street from Queen Street to Front Street. Migone’s exhibition features artists such as France’s Davide Balula and Halifax artist Michael Fernandes.


For more on Nuit Blanche, please click HERE.

Significant, Indigenous, Artist, Scholar, Writer and Curator

Image by Angus Rowe MacPherson

Stone Parliament of Art would like to introduce Gerry McMaster, one of Canada's finest and most distinguished artists. You'll be hearing more from McMaster soon! He's just been named as one of the curators of Nuit Blanche 2010 and will curate the area in and around Yorkville, from Yonge Street to Avenue Road. You may remember our picture of this area.

Gerald R. McMaster, a Plains Cree, was born on the Red Pheasant Reserve in 1953. He is a significant figure in contemporary Indigenous art in Canada because of his work as an artist, writer, curator, and prominent scholar. As an artist he works in both two-dimensional and installation media, using humour and irony to convey his comments on colonialism and stereotypes of plains First Nations.














In 1981 McMaster was appointed Curator of Contemporary Indian Art and subsequently became Curator-in-Charge of the First Peoples Hall, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He created such important exhibitions as In the Shadow of the Sun (1988), INDIGENA (1992), and Reservation X (1999). Since 2000 he has worked for the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. McMaster began his education at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and recently received a PhD from the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis. From 1977 to 1981 he was coordinator of the Indian Art Program at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now First Nations University of Canada).








Gerald McMater, November 1985







Colour Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_McMaster
BW Image: HERE.

MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST ~ Mary Calarco, Southwestern Regional Coordinator, OCC.

Last week S.P. of Art had coffee with Mary Calarco, Southwestern Regional Coordinator for the Ontario Crafts Council and our espresso was enhanced with talk about ART, ARTIST'S and more ART! Coffee can't get any better than that! Yes, it's all about ART!

Calarco filled us in on one of the projects she's been busy organizing and it's well on it's way travelling through south western Ontario. In fact, Sunday, March 28th. was the grand opening at The Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST is something you don't want to miss!

So, what is MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST? It's a juried travelling exhibition of contemporary craft that will visit five galleries between March – December, 2010. This exhibit showcases 39 pieces of contemporary craft from makers across Southwestern Ontario. Listed below are the gallery locations where you will be able to view some of the finest and most unique art pieces by Ontario's finest artists. Mark your calender's now.

Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound - RECEPTION: Sunday, March 28, 2-4pm (Pictures of the even seen below.)
Burdette Gallery, Orton May 15-June 20 (Reception: Saturday, May 29, 6-9pm
Art Gallery of Windsor July 10-September 5 (Reception: Friday, August 20, 7-10pm
Greenwood Quiltery & Gallery, Guelph - September 17 - October 30 (Reception: Satruday, October 16 1-4pm)
Station Arts Centre, Tillsonburg November 12 - December 17 (Reception: Friday, November 12 7-9pm)

Grand Opening Reception of MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST
The Tom Thomson Art Gallery

Artists: Vlodek Tydor, Danuta Tydor, Sandra Noble Goss, Mark Lewis, Carolyn Young, Shannon Kennedy, Tanya Zaryski and Steve Irvine.

For those not familiar with the OCC, it is based out of Toronto servicing a membership of craftspeople across the entire province. They received funding for an initiative called "Growing Ontario's Craft Community". This additional funding allowed the OCC to hire three regional coordinators (east, southwest and north) that would focus on the areas outside the GTA (Greater Toronto area). Frankly stated, artists and artisans should be able to practise their craft, run a successful business and connect with likeminded makers without having to make their way into Toronto. Mary Calarco, the newest addition to the OCC team is helping to increase awareness, programming, membership and connect individual artists with other groups/orgs in the region. And it's working! S.P. of Art is impressed with Calarco's enthusiasm and stamina that she brings to this position. We've never felt so energized with creative art craft and artist's in Ontario as we have been since Mary became the new regional coordinator for southwestern Ontario.

Masterworks Southwest is just one of Calarco's high energy projects. She's also busy organizing a craft symposium with Virginia Eichhorn , formerly of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, now Curator/Director of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound.
The details for Craft Practical Symposium can be found online HERE.

Mary Calarco will also be overseeing lectures, workshops, informal meet-and-greets and will continue to visit craftspeople across southwestern Ontario to get them involved. Calarco's long range goal is to plant seeds of inspiration across the region so that grassroots initiatives will take place once this position comes to an end. Like any non profit organization, sustainability is key and without a core group of enthusiastic leaders (be they volunteer, paid or otherwise) projects simply won't progress unless they're backed by passion and determination. And a little bit of cash never hurts either. Ahh, what's that word again? Funding! Stone Parliament of Art hopes to bring you more information about ARTS in Ontario!

We hope you note the locations of MASTERWORKS SOUTHWESTERN! You will NOT want to miss this show!

All Photos Courtesy of Mary Calarco ~ Masterworks Southwest

****Mary Calarco, Southwestern Regional Coordinator
As the newest addition to the OCC team, Mary brings with her a true passion for Canadian art, craft and design. Since graduating from OCAD’s Interdisciplinary Studies program in 1995, Mary has spent over a decade promoting the work of Canadian creators and connecting them with the public. She was instrumental in establishing the online brand for the One of a Kind Show, and spent eight years developing close relationships with artisans across Canada. Mary also has a keen interest in social media and is eager to connect with Ontario’s crafts community online as well as in person. Her position is made possible through grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Henry White Kinnear Foundation and the McLean Foundation. (From OCC HERE.)

***OCC website HERE.

Postcard for MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST front & back. Click to enlarge.