Banff - Day 31

Leaving day - but first Wendy and I got up at 6:30 am to head over to Vermillion Lakes to take some sunrise photographs. The progression of our time on the water...

These photos are taken an hour later, but a day earlier (we went to Vermillion Lakes yesterday but got there too late for the sunrise, but did manage to get photos of other lovely things - and we saw our first pussywillows of the year.)

Yesterday ReBecca and I headed to Johnson Canyon and took our lives in our own hands by hiking up to the Lower Falls on the very icy pathway - we managed to make it back in one piece, so then headed out to Lake Louise along the 1A Highway. This last shot is through one of the main floor windows as the early socialites would have experienced Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier 100 years ago.


And, as souvenir of our time once again, here is the signed ceiling beam to mark our month in the Leighton Artist Colony, Banff Centre.

Banff - Day 29

Spring is definitely here!

The Centre is posting notices that the first bear of the year has been sighted in the National Park, so to be careful on walks. They emerge from their winter dens hungry and there isn't very much food around.

The other sign is the two robins I spotted this afternoon - my first of the year. Although I have been reading on Facebook that other people down on the prairies saw their first last Monday, the 23rd.

Remember this? from Flossie's studio of collected art...


I wrapped it with cotton material that had been soaked in vinegar and left it overnight, and this is what I took off the table...


After washing it and letting it dry, this is the final result. Basically the process is staining with rust - don't you love it?


This fabric will go into my general stash until some future project calls out for it.

Tomorrow is our last full day and I will be taking ReBecca (from New Brunswick, who has never been in Banff before) out for a day of sightseeing.

Banff - Day 28

Sunrise...
My daughter had to be up extra early this morning because she was heading out dog sledding. By the time we got out of the dining room, the sun was just hitting the mountain range down the valley.


Now that the final show is up for the weekend, it seems like things are slowing down around here. Today our main accomplishment was the annual general meeting for Articulation - while everyone is gathered here in the mountains, we had the chance to do some business so the entire day was spent in meeting mode.

But we finished by 6pm and I got to head into Banff with my daughter. Stopped to take some photos of the gorgeous rock faces, and happened to notice wildlife above us. A wapiti (elk) was eating his dinner too.


While in town for sushi, we noticed the sunset on Mount Rundle (Tunnel Mountain in the foreground) and I just had to get this photo from another viewpoint.

Sunset...

Banff - Day 27

I got in a couple of hours in the dye studio finishing off my silk scarves, then headed upstairs to the Other Gallery to hang art for our exhibit. Each of us had one wall to fill with work of any kind, produced while here in Banff for the past month.

The first thing people noticed when they walked through the door was COLOUR!
Here is Jo in front of part of my wall...

ReBecca's wall...

part of Lesley's wall...

Linda and Gloria's work...

and 7 of the 10 Articulation members, dressed in artist black.
Lesley, Gloria, Linda, Ingrid, Donna, Wendy, ReBecca


A group of special friends came from Calgary: Lindley, Donna, Ros, Patti


and my daughter Elizabeth drove from Lethbridge to spend the weekend with me.

We were kept busy for the two hour reception and received lots of positive feedback about our work. Thanks to all who attended for supporting us.

Banff - Day 26

Dyeing silk - ahhhh, love it!

It is so nice to be back getting instantaneous results in the dye studio. I was dyeing silk and viscose devore scarves today and the colour by the end of the day hanging on the lines!!!

But first we had to light the pilot and engage the safety value on the bank of three industrial propane burners - this is not an easy job. It involves a huge wooden mallet, a lighter, your knee and two thumbs. Almost impossible for one person to do alone so we got everyone involved. Here is Wendy manning the mallet to hold the pilot light on...


Lesley and I started the day by using the dyes in their pure colours to test dye samples she had stitched with various cotton and silk fabrics and threads. Here we are mixing the chemicals...


Then the fabrics are heated to a simmer...

And after we finished the samples, I started combining colours and adding my devore scarves to the pots...

I did almost twenty scarves today and will finish the rest tomorrow. These photos do not do justice to the shine that silk has - the lustre is amazing!

But we had to quit for the night early to head out to the CBC Radio 2 concert to hear the compositions (see the March 24th post for details on the composition competition). The five pieces were all amazing and one of the most interesting parts of the evening was how each of the five composers used the ensemble instruments in such different ways - it was the first time I had ever heard a bowl of water being played (amazing); or the inside of the piano (I have heard a couple of strings being plunked but this was even more); and the percussionist was my favourite player (he had half the stage filled with all his instruments, including an old fashioned typewriter). The composer I picked for viewer choice was the one who took home the big pot of money - Andrew Staniland with his piece "Devolution" in three parts. Congratulations to all five of the young men.

Tomorrow we hang our work-in-progress from the last month for our exhibit "Loose Threads" in the Other Gallery in Gylde Hall. Come and join us for our artist reception from 4 to 6 pm Friday evening. The show is up until Sunday night. If you can't make the opening but are in town on the weekend, feel free to get in touch for a personal tour.

Banff - Day 25

Into the dyeing studio in the morning and I printed my deconstructed screen - this time in turquoise blue, yellow, and forest green.

ReBecca got right into dyeing her silk fabric and ribbons. I got her to add some of my shibori tied pieces into her mix, so we will be steaming them tomorrow to set the dyes.


The official press from the Centre describing The Liminal Screen Residency "provides a unique take on video art-based residency programs. This year's theme is the extension of the screen into other media or networks (biological, philosophical, social and other systems). Fourteen International practitioners from all walks of screen-based practice will be presenting new works created during the residency, exploring the spaces and relationships between screen, mind and hard reality." These 14 artists have been around for the past month and today had their open studio tour.

It was an extremely interesting afternoon going from studio to studio to see what 'New Media" artists are doing these days. From (my favourite) temporary interactive graffiti artists... to encouraging public gardens... a shadow maze... an endless black hole... multi-media storytelling to be used at senior centres... to performance art using technological interfacing... This residency was about taking film off of the wall and changing the perception of the viewer. To be able to see so many different installations in one place was great.

These photos are from Erica Lincoln and her project called 'experiments in birding' where she built bird analogues and nest models.

She also happens to be the daughter of one of the Articulation artists, Ingrid Lincoln. Their overlapping residencies were a cause of surprise to both of them but they have enjoyed their time in Banff and sharing the artist life together.

Banff - Day 24

Started the day with Lesley and my neighborhood book club coming to Banff from Calgary (~one hour down the road) for a discussion of the book, tour of our facilities, and lunch. Here is the one photo I got of the group in the dye studio - check Lesley's blog for the front shot!


In the afternoon I was back in the dye studio. Here are the shibori pieces I tied yesterday, along with the white devore silk scarves I will be dyeing over the next couple of days (they are white, it is just the bright yellow table they are laying on!)


I also prepared a screen for another round of playing with the deconstructed screen printing method. Here it is, painted with thickened yellow dye with stencils and stamps embedded into it. It needs to dry overnight, then I can start applying layers of colours to gradually remove this outer coating.


One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the musical event of the month that is generating great excitement here at the Banff Centre.

CBC Radio 2 is sponsoring a young composer competition called Evolution. Five Canadian composers under 35 years of age won the first round and were selected to come to Banff to spend less than one month coming up with a 10 - 15 minute composition to be played by the Montreal group Ensemble contemporain de Montréal+ (ECM+). The date of the concert where we get to hear the 5 new compositions is Thursday, March 26 at 6pm MST - this concert will be broadcast live on CBC Radio 2.

Over the past month we have seen the tension rise in all of the composers as they hang out with residency musicians here at the Centre, been followed around by CBC videographers, write their blogs, and this weekend the ensemble arrived from Montreal to start playing their new pieces and the pace has accelerated. We are all looking forward to the concert on Thursday.

Banff - Day 23

Woke up in the morning to this...

but by afternoon it was like this and major melting happening!

I spent the day in the dye studio today (we are back down in Glyde Hall for another week.) This time I will be focusing on dyeing silks and was preparing my fabrics by tying them with shibori methods using materials I had on hand (dental floss!) Never took a final picture of them as we were rushing off to attend openings by Sandra Hawkins and Flossie Peitsch.

Sandra had photos she had taken in the Arctic in the early '80s and had two series. In one, the photos were overlain with handwriting from her diary pages and were in almost sepia tones. And the other had images of New York City over top of icy blue toned pictures of Coppermine. Both were lovely and almost a dual image tricking the eye, but I must say I was partial to the one involving words.

Flossie came from Australia with nothing and was determined to make art to leave behind - so she titled her work "All Things Temporary" and spent the first part of her time dumpster diving here at the Centre. Her collection has been split into three exhibits 1. Selected 2. Sorted and 3. Sounded and tonight we gathered to see #2.

She had nine parts to her complete work - here are photos of five of them.


But as much as I loved what Flossie had done with her collections, I found myself mesmerized with the micro-images. See what I mean...


Here is Flossie herself demonstrating how part 3 will be added, music recorded using all the pieces found within her studio.