Toronto Tea Festival!

Tea Guild Board members conversing
by our Fabulous banners I threw together
With images we got permission to use.
 

Art section!

   Everything went well this past weekend at the FIRST Toronto Tea Festival. As I am on the Board of Directors and friends with Tao of Tao Tea Leaf, I was running around most of the day helping out where I could. I stayed up late the night before to finish my "Tea Grid" finally. It was very rewarding to see it displayed after the long hours doing each section till finish. The only thing I wish I did was have the ability to bring more work. I had a gut feeling at Deserres while getting frames that I should have grabbed one for "Dream Gate" (A large work I finished late last year) and perhaps had room for "Monkey King" which currently is in my brothers room back home (it was a birthday present for when I had no money to spare... I had a bit for paper then attacked it instead).I am planning to feature larger and/or more diverse works. I did not hear if anyone liked my pot watercolour tea work , Guwan yin or the charcoal drawing. I got great feed back for "Tea Grid", the two  fashion girls and a bit for "Song Tea Tools".  Currently from this feedback I have decided to start working on more "Tea Grids". I am deciding if I should do a small edition of prints from this "Tea Grid". I would love to have 15-20 on hand.Anyhow, from the experience of finishing "Tea Grid" I am wondering if I should combine the India ink with Sumi-e ink... Perhaps "Mini- Tea Grid 2.0" will be the test.

Anyhow, from the experience of finishing "Tea Grid" I am wondering if I should combine the india ink with Sumi-e ink... Perhaps "Mini- Tea Grid 2.0" will be the test. 

Happy New Year

    I hope each and everyone of you had a great new year. This year will be great for all of us. Together with the Lolita Vulgar Team, we are working on putting together an online magazine (We are still accepting submissions!). The spring (weather pending at the moment) I will be performing casual chanoyu  for anyone who wishes to participate, more information on this as the season approaches. This year I am going to submit for the Toronto Arts Grant to work on a body of work for Grad School, or rather something that will work me towards it. Hysteria II has changed to a male version, I hope to get my needles into this sculpture series soon. The tests will be interesting none the less.
     At this present moment I am working on sketches for a birthday gift to My dear younger brother who is turning 23 this month. It's going to be a fair size at least over 22" by 20", all ink and perhaps some tea as a stain behind it. Shuuhei (my cat) has been eagerly watching my pencil move the past while, he is just as excited for new work as I am.
           I hope to have your support through this new year. May we work together to make the world a bit brighter through art!

Charcoal?

     I have been a little busy putting things together for some submission deadlines. Writing, documenting, editing etc. Although I was eager the other day to start and almost finish these works.  I am very pleased with the simplicity of them. This "Tea" series will continue for some time to come.
   On a side note I am also going to begin learning Japanese Tea Ceremony starting this Saturday. I am eager to learn "茶の湯” or Chanoyu. The long Zen Buddhist and cultural history interest me  so much it was a must to begin these lessons. There was a book I saw the same day as these pieces were made at Japanese Things (Harbord St, Toronto) which went over the history and context for it, this book will soon become part of my tea book collection.
  I also started two more elongated paintings but they are still being worked on. Building up the tea stain on it is a process I am still learning. These paitings have more colour but will not feature any Japanese writing.
    I have also begun to knit again, reteaching myself basics through a hat, arm warmers etc for the coming winter. Once these skills are back in place I will fully begin Hysteria II. As for the grid, I am working on cleaning my room so I will have space to work on it and other works at the same time. I found an easel near Queen street, so this will be put to good use (Sorry Matt, I'll help you set up my other one in the basement studio).
          Anyhow keep an eye out. A lot of interesting things are going on over the next while. Till next time~

Hysteria- Installation and Opening

 Posting this quite late (better late than never), here are the installation and opening images. Top images are by myself and the bottom two are by my significant other. Please pardon my squinting... I can not remember why I was not wearing my glasses that night.

New work and submission deadlines

Over the next little while I have 2 submission deadlines comming up. The first is for an OCAD University Alimni show next spring and the second is a full proposal for Xspace (OCAD U associated gallery). Slightly overwelming how much needs to be done but do-able.

      If any of you follow my Facebook fan page you are aware of the new work sitting around. Tea infused with a but of a watercolourist feel to them, some small meditations on tea and dao. I hope this medative series continues for quite some time. In addition my knitted series is in the planning stages of a continuation. Alot is going on. Updates may only occur once every two weeks unless there is enough to update earlier. I am organizeing my time for my art and Japanese study. Hopefully what I have learned ends up in my work.

Website designing

Website design used to be easy for my generation. Now after about over 10 years of design neglect, all is lost. Building from the ground up is fun. I am finnaly learning CSS bit by bit.
Other than that I have an interview comming up for Lolita Vulgar Collective, will post details once we figure it out. For the time being if you have any questions e-mail me at bellmanart@gmail.com with "Question- split/gender" as the header.

If you have time today head over to OCAD U for the annual Grad Show. Till next time