So there is going to be a really cool arts and culture festival taking place this weekend – it’s free and the schedule looks really good with some really amazing Aboriginal artists appearing on panels and highlighting their art. I am very humbled to have a few of my photographs as a part of one of the events.

Check it out and spread the word!

Here is some information about this weekends events:

A Winter Village: Indigenous Arts and Culture Festival

Circadia Indigena, First Peoples’ Art and Performance in Canada’s National Capital, is pleased to announce its first annual public event: A Winter Village: Indigenous Arts and Culture Festival Free and open to all.

This weekend arts festival takes place within the traditional season of storytelling, and occurs during the beginning and renewal of the year’s ceremonial cycle. This gathering will offer exceptional multidisciplinary arts and cultural programming, and will be a platform for celebrating Indigenous winter culture by highlighting the storytelling traditions of First Nations’, Inuit and Métis Peoples. Indigenous storytelling has many forms; Creation stories, history, visions, teachings, news, ceremony, messages, songs, and many more. This gathering will draw on these forms and showcase them through Elders, cultural presenters, and artists in a presentation and workshop format. The gathering will be a space for the sharing of Indigenous knowledge through storytelling, cultural presentations and performances by First Peoples’ artists.

This year we will gather the artists together across three different themes within the Winter Village: (1) The time of year tells us it is the beginning and renewal of the ceremonial cycle, we will share the ways First Peoples’ mark this time with celebration and ceremony. (2) We will highlight our storytelling traditions within this traditional “storytelling time” of the winter cycle. (3) And we will share the beauty of the winter cultures of First Nation’s, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Everyone is welcome to come and celebrate First Peoples’ winter culture through the artistic traditions of First Nations’, Inuit and Métis artists presenting dance, theatre, visual arts, storytelling, film and music. Friday, February 22nd, 6:30 to 9 pm. Saturday, February 23rd, 1 to 9 pm. Sunday, February 24th, 1 to 3:30 pm. Richelieu-Vanier Community Centre, 300 Des Pères-Blancs Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario

See https://www.facebook.com/pages/Circadia-Indigena/407518199307286 for more info.

This past January I had the absolute pleasure of doing a second workshop on learning to make birch bark baskets. I was super excited that the workshop was going to be offered at lunch hours again as I find making the baskets very relaxing and fun. It’s also nice to better understand and appreciate all the effort that goes into making one of these baskets.

We are fortunate in that we don’t have to go into the forest to carefully harvest the bark in the winter, or go out in the heat of summer to dig up the roots to bind the baskets together.

Once I had finished making my basket I had to think hard about what I wanted to include in the design of the basket. I used some rounds from twigs to add small details to the basket – I wanted it to be all natural in color.

On one side (above) I did a turtle swimming though the water. You can see a few small swirls in the top right hand side which I wanted to represent my spirit name which loosely translates into swirling water [at foot of rapids].

On the second side I did sky domes with plants growing. On the left side I wanted to represent wind blowing and the North star on the right side.

I was very happy with the results of this basket and I definitely look forward to continuing to learn how to make them…and maybe get out into the forest to harvest my own supplies.

So I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not that I haven’t been doing things but just got busy with life.

I have been getting pieces together for various local shows and working on new pieces.

I have been busy trying to complete vamps for Christi Belcourts “Walking with our Sisters” project. This is going to be a Commemorative Art Installation for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada. I’ve completed one pair of beaded and silkscreened vamps (I will do a separate entry on my vamps once they are all completed). And I’ve been applying for some different shows taking place in 2013.

I also completed a recent a second birch bark basket – again, I will post photos in a separate entry.

Anyhow, I am going to try and be better about sharing my ongoing projects.

Happy 2013! A year of changes and excitement!

So the last few weeks I’ve been busy working on some new art pieces and photographs for a few art shows coming up. The first one this month is a part of Westfest, the exhibit is “Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art”. I’ve completed 2 new silkscreen and beadwork pieces.

The silkscreen I created is based on the tree in this Brownie photograph. I love the way the branches bend and twist.

My plan was to bead on the leaves to this tree. So using black cloth I silkscreened 2 trees in gold and on one tree I used green beads to create the earthly tree and one in gold to create the sky tree. (This is a hipstamatic picture I took while beading the earthly tree.)

Here is the backgrounder for the event:

WESTFEST Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art

At the heart of Aboriginal art is a spiritual legacy from cultures built on the worldview that all is sacred and we are all relations. First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists will participate in the exhibit Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art at All Saints’ Anglican Church during Westfest Festival Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, 2012. The exhibit brings together art that highlights the relationship between human beings and the natural world. The artwork will be on display with artists present in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, 347 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario.

Join First Nations, Inuit and Metis artists:

· Emily Brascoupe-Hoefler
· Heather Campbell
· Jaime Koebel
· Kirk Brant
· Simon Brascoupé

Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art
June 9 and 10, 2012

· Saturday 9am to 6pm
· Sunday 12pm to 6pm

Location: All Saints’ Anglican Church’s Chapel, 347 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K2A 0E7.

Westfest is a free art festival!

Westfest is a party like no other! Each year more than 100,000 people attend Westfest during our outdoor, three day celebration of Canadian art and culture.

As a FREE multidisciplinary art festival dedicated to showcasing Canadian artists and their work in an accessible and inclusive setting, Westfest fills 14 city blocks with a variety of artistic disciplines, such as music, contemporary dance, visual art, media art, performance art, spoken word, poetry and fiction readings, Aboriginal art forms, children’s entertainment, buskers, street performers, and much more.

http://westfest.ca/

So this month has been pretty busy so far. I went to Comicon and have been working on cakes and some art projects.

I will be adding some postings on my first airplane cake, my new silkscreening and beading projects but first a few photos from comicon.

So I have been working on a surprise for my dad and I’m finally done! You may have seen some of the photos on twitter but here is the whole series of photos.

This is a surprise so PLEASE don’t tell my dad – thanks!

This was part of a workshop held over lunch hour at work. First they give you the form and some cedar root. You create holes in the basket form and then you use halved cedar root to stitch up the side. (It’s harder than it looks!)

You stitch up the side and around the top with a switch of willow or dogwood. You can see on the far side where a double stitch holds where the switch connects – this helps prevent the switch from possibly breaking the root.

To make the lid I cut out a circle and then they gave me a stripe to make the inner lid. Then I did the second switch around the top.

Once I finished the basket I really wanted to think about the design and pick something that would mean something to my dad.

I drew up a bunch of ideas (you can see behind the basket). I wanted to include a bear, which is our clan. I added the North star because it’s in line with ursa major, the big bear, in the sky and another big star to represent the star that is in the “tail” of ursa major. This is a story that my dad used to tell me growing up. I did a border with 2 corn shoots.

On the other side I did a design of sky domes with corn shoots and a cedar tree. Again, aspects of stories that my dad told me growing up.

Here’s the finished basket – as time goes on the design will continue to darken up and become more prominent.

Here’s the finished side.

Okay, so I finished off the top with a strawberry plant and flowers, a star and a whirlpool. These are all symbols that I think represent me and my dad will get it when he sees it. I wrote a little message to him on the bottom with the date.

Special thanks to Chuck Commanda and Janet Lecuyer who ran this amazing workshop – they were so helpful and really helped me with the more difficult aspects of this basket. Now I have to get more supplies so I can make more!

So this weekend I made cakes for my brother-in-law’s 30th birthday. Since he’s an avid footy fan I decided to do a jersey cake. First I made a layer of Nanny’s Chocolate cake and my vanilla cake recipe.

First I shaped my cake into the jersey.

I dirty iced the cake with a vanilla buttercream icing

I did a layer of white fondant in 3 pieces to create the main shirt and the 2 sleeves.

I made a stencil and painted the logo – I hand painted the smaller details.

I decorated the cake with the teams colors and incorporated aspects of the real jersey.

I was very happy with the outcome of the cake. The second big challenge was making a cheese cake, which I haven’t done in YEARS!! I got some advice and borrowed a pan from a co-worker and was very happy with the results.

It was a vanilla cheese cake with a raspberry sauce.

This week I took a Life of Pie baking class in the evening. It’s a quick course that goes over making pastry and then fillings for 2 baked goods. This night it was asparagus and swiss cheese quiche and tart lemon pie. I was excited to get my hands on some pastry, as that’s something I’ve wanted to learn and work on for a while.

When you arrive you get some tea and an apron. The class starts after the store is closed so everyone leaves bags and jackets at the front of the store and then they lock the door once everyone is there.

First we went over the pastry. Kerry, owner, has everything pre-measured and goes through the steps of making the pastry and gives helpful hints along the way. Something I learned – if the pastry is too warm, the fats in the shortening, butter and egg will melt and the pastry will not end up flaky. (So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong!)

Everyone gets a chance to roll out their own pastry shell which you get to take home with you to try with one of the amazing recipes you get, as a part of the class. Above is my first attempt to roll out pastry – I can’t wait to try to tart lemon pie filling to go in it!

Next we went threw the steps to make the quiche filling. Once we finish the filling, it goes into a pie shell and into the oven (we get to eat it at the end).

The highlight of the night for me was the tart lemon pie. Kerry suggested this would be a good at easter because of it’s fresh flavor. She paired it with a blueberry topping, but I think it would go nicely with raspberry too.

The night ends with trying (or taking home) a slice of the quiche and pie. You also get to take home the pastry you rolled out at the start.

I thought this was an excellent class and I would happily do another one.  A great deal for only $25.