Everybody needs a creative coach!

Posted by Luchia on Apr 12, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Everybody gets stuck.   I got stuck.  I was/am working on quite a large canvas, doing a lot of messy things like mixing mud from the alley below and throwing it on the canvas, blah, blah…..well I got to the point where I just didn’t want to work on it.  It was too big and my old take a run at it and ‘keep doing stuff until something comes up’ wasn’t going to work because my surface area was just too big and it would just make me tired without making any progress.

So I did what I needed to do.  I stopped going to the studio.  At the same time I had a large mural project going on at home that was in a similar position (well exactly the same really), and  had been living with that half finished mess for about a year and a half.  Enter my creative coach Rhonda Simmons.  She is a good friend and I was probably the perfect subject for the new short term residence coaching program, she’s developed in Ajijic, Mexico, for artists and people of all levels wanting to excercise their creativity.  I took advantage of Rhondas’ recent time in Vancouver to to inject fresh some energy into my two projects.

The best thing about working with Rhonda was that she somehow took the idea of  two mammoth (to me) projects and made them seem casually ‘do-able’.  I found myself in the studio, and at home, just getting on with it, and it was fun!  Felt like a couple of girlfriends just taking time out to pick up our brushes and play around, but within a matter of days, I had overcome months worth of  mental and physical hurdles and settled back in to work.  Thanks Rhonda!!!

Things just moving along, as ‘She’ becomes ’He’…..

The Cultural Crawl, work continues on………

Posted by Luchia on Jan 27, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

The View From My Window

a painterly look at the illegal entrepreneurial human side of the downtown east Side

What a great weekend! Learned so much – ‘palimpsest’, an early form of communication often on papyrus where the text was whitewashed with milk and written over or scraped off and written over……a process I have been unknowingly using with several of the pieces to embed energy (sans milk this time anyway).

What a great weekend! Learned so much – ‘palimpsest’, an early form of communication often on papyrus where the text was whitewashed with milk and written over or scraped off and written over……a process I have been unknowingly using with several of the pieces to embed energy (sans milk this time anyway). “Making An Impression” , the name one of the guests provided for the piece just waiting for its’ name…….. So much support…… the opportunity to have this work seen through so many eyes, to hear so many ideas and opinions was incredibly valuable……thanks so much and see you at the exhibit, date to be announced in 2012

Making An Impression

the name one of the guests provided for the piece just waiting for its’ name……..

Dogs are Going Missing in Gastown

Posted by Luchia on Oct 26, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

Five dogs have gone missing in Gastown over the past month. They are of course ‘designer dogs’, the ones that some people think will have a high street value. It hit hard. So far there’s been a balance here, a don’t shit where you eat kind of feeling. This has upset many people and for me has brought up my feelings once again about living in a place where the lines are so blurred. Dogs are like children to many people who’s lives are ruined when their beloved family member is taken, not to mention the stress and horror the poor animal goes through when he has lost his family forever.

I had had my own near miss with one of my own animals only three weeks before, my daughter a week before that. I have been walking around with a sickened kind of hollow feeling for many weeks. Revenge, anger. It’s hard not to go instantly to – ‘they’re junkies doing it for quick cash’, because that’s actually what’s happening here. These people need to buy drugs, and some are getting increasingly desperate. Right afterward a little boy was taken from his own bed farther up-country. This was a mentally ill person, who willingly almost destroyed countless lives with his actions.

A comment I have heard several times now with regard to ‘The View From My Window Project’, generally from jaded ex-law enforcement people, is ‘this has gone on forever – what’s your point?’ The point from my perspective, to simply show what I am seeing and feeling. This is what artists do. The point is that just because the mafia held Chicago till 1985 doesn’t mean this is how it has to be forever. The point is that we have choices with what we think and how we express our feelings, and sometimes when we really see something for what it is, we make different choices and things change for the better.

The View From My Window

Posted by Luchia on Aug 23, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

The Everybody KnowsYour Name’ project has expanded to become The View From My Window, and the recent recipient of a Small ArtsGrant!

For me this means the studio willbe a BUSY place over the next six months, as I get cracking to produce the sixlarge paintings with accompanying video footage that will make up the body ofthe exhibit.

The project began two years ago as I wrestled with mypersonal…….. ‘I love Gastown becauseeverybody’s here’ , and………. ‘I wish thedrug dealers below my patio would get lost’, conflicts.

Figuring it out on canvas is what it’s all about, and the idea of the body as a fingerprint fascinates me (thanks Fraser). In Gastown, where everybody knows everybody, we don’t need to see your face to know who you are.

I began working the images of the characters on the street below because of the way they inhabittheir bodies. Self -confident,comfortable, secure.

“Every city has aplace like this, what are you trying to accomplish? What’s the point?”

In the beginning, I didn’t know. I’d seen information saying we were spending a million dollars a day here on social problems, and noticed nobody seemed to be talking about the drugdealers. I was as naive as the next person about the law and how things worked here.

Overtime I came to understand that my location was providing a view, a unique perspectiveif you will, that might be worth expressing.

“Every city has aplace like this, what are you trying to accomplish? What’s the point?”

In the beginning, I didn’t know. I’d seen information saying we were spending a million dollars a day here on social problems, and noticed nobody seemed to be talking about the drugdealers. I was as naive as the next person about the law and how things worked here.

Overtime I came to understand that my location was providing a view, a unique perspectiveif you will, that might be worth expressing.

So far, ‘The View From My Window’, explores a knot in the city, the mouth of the alley behindCarrall and Cordova Streets where locals blend and the rest avoid contact…….

The point? – to open the window, to share what I see every day – a look at the street entrepreneurs of the downtown east side.

Thanks for reading, your thoughts and ideas are appreciated…..

Megaphone Magazine – Paradise In a Parking Lot

Posted by Luchia on Mar 12, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

The Intersections art fence story is in the current issue of Megaphone Magazine , which will be sold by street vendors until the end of next week. There’s a link below that allows you to download the issue as a  PDF file, and a link at the bottom of that page that gets you into the magazine.  Pics to follow as soon as I figure out how to load them onto the site!   My story’s on page 8…..

http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=377bbf05cbe52b276ff648227&id=e45187efd4&e=7af097e6f5

About Me, Or How We Put the Art into Every Day

Posted by Luchia on Jan 26, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

Hi Everybody, thanks for joining us!

This blog is for anybody who’s ever thought, ‘man, I feel like making something today!’

The idea of involving people who wouldn’t normally be involved with art is the big deal here. It might be putting somebody into one of living loft spaces, asking for advice on a project from the Home Hardware guy, or having someone’s mother help with a sculpture project. Even cooking, well really, especially cooking……..

People really are interested, and given half a chance, they get right into it. There’s always a point where somebody gets caught up, and that’s the energy that’s so valuable. That’s what goes into the piece, and then it becomes something really special.

I’m a big fan of outdoor venues for the same reason. There comes a time when the work doesn’t need you anymore, it’s got a life of its own. Putting something outside guarantees a continuous stream of surprised viewers and keeps things fresh.

I love the randomness of it. No galleries, just people walking by turning their heads in a certain direction. I’ve worked with roof sculptures, life sized tree hugging dolls, and right now I have a painting hanging with a group of others on a fence on Cordova Street.

Sharing art this way, as the unexpected event in someone’s day, is what the energy of Art for Everybody is all about.

As a painter I try for this quality with every brushstroke.

In providing Art For Everybody Living Loft Spaces, I’m still amazed at how our customers crave artistic surroundings. Despite extremely competitive rental market conditions in downtown Vancouver, the lofts’ artistic elements, comprised of colourful paintings, sculptures and murals, most often become the basis for acquisition decisions. Once settled in, client’s are often surprised to find themselves taking up paintbrushes, writing songs, pulling out guitars……. in other words, creative spaces beget creative people. We’re not surprised.

After years of mucking around with cement, acrylics and oil, I have recently exploded into encaustics and have taken to offering archival canvas prints of selected works in addition to my original pantings in response to customer requests. Currently I am working with wax, oil and photography to produce a series of mixed media works entitled ‘Everybody Knows Your Name’. The work, which began as an offshoot of a street art commission, has evolved into a personal challenge, an exploration into my own social views and of course, a look at some very interesting bodies.

Luchia Feman is a Vancouver artist living and working in historic Gastown. She is passionate about creating and using public art as a means to encourage thought and exploration, for complex social issues. Outdoor venues are particular favorites, and she has proclaimed rooftops to be the great unexplored gallery spaces of our time.

'The MoonHumsLullabies at Night', Mixed Media, Encaustic on Board

“I create original works, and we also make art affordable by offering select prints on canvas. With art so obviously important, yet still so often viewed as a luxury commodity, we wanted to find a way to make the art accessible and affordable without sacrificing quality or the vibrational effect that was so obviously working, and working well. The good news is that the state of the art reproduction technology renders texture and detail so accurately that in many cases, we find the reproduction to be an enhancement to the original. With pricing at half the cost of an original, it’s well worth a consideration.”

Luchia

Art for Every Body Has a New Home!

Posted by Luchia on Jan 20, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

It’s Time To Get To Work!

The new (to me) Georgia Jackson Studio, is in bella Strathcona, ten minutes from home with a big green lawn for the chihuhuas, a great white empty space to work in and some very talented and welcoming studio mates.

The studio is on the Eastside Cultural Crawl Route which in its 16th year has become an annual, 3-day visual arts phenomenon. More than 10,000 people visit artists in their studios in the area bounded by Main Street to Victoria Drive and from First Avenue north to the waterfront. This of course, is a fantastic opportunity to expose some of the sensitive material I’ve been talking about.

Georgia Jackson Studios

Let the Games Begin…..

Stefan has offered to build a professional work table, so by this week-end production on the ‘Everybody Knows Your Name’ Series will begin.

More exciting news – Art For Everybody will be included in the Artisan Direct New York Show Catalogue for the NYC Red Dot Fair and Art Expo in March 2011.

There’s a Crack In Everything…….That’s How the Light Gets In

(thanks Leonard)