Old Photo Projects....

In October 2005, I did a photo collaboration with photographer James St.Laurent and a local clothing designer, Sandra of Gypsy Circus. I never received a copy of the photos from that shoot until recently.

I love editing photos, partly because I love having perfect results, but also because it's good practice for me and helps me to build my portfolio for photo-editing/image manipulation. I have created another "Before" & "After Editing" photo for you to see what has been changed.



In body art, the person is my interactive canvas.
When I do the style of body painting that I did on Sandra, it's more of a dream of archtypical mythological charactors blended with the present and super-imposed onto the person who gives the painting life & movement. It is a form of story telling, even though it is sometimes extremely conceptual and sometimes vague with abstract results.

The Utter Madness of students....

We live rather close to Concordia University, so every year when the welcome back celebrations begin, it is complete utter madness for two weeks; very overwhelming...

McGill University just had their "frosh" about a month ago, total drunken debauchery; it is quite impossible to navigate the cycling path that goes right through the McGill campus. Normally this part of the cycling path is very pretty, except for when you are trying to get out of the way of students who seem totally oblivious to the fact that there are high speed bikes coming their way. I had so many near accidents even when I was going slow.

Concordia students aren't quite as wild but still they completely congest the streets around the campus and they were just as happy and hyper as the McGill students. It also doesn't help that there is major construction going on right around the heart of Concordia's downtown campus, it's really overwhelming to navigate through the throng of excited students.



Normally during the welcome back celebrations I try to hide out and avoid the student congested streets until things calm down, but this year I was really excited to have two contracts for the Concordia Student Union; one for face/body painting on Sept. 16th, and the other was to decorate & tear down said decorations, at Reggies, Concordia's student pub. I will add some photos later on from the decorating contract.

Chitty chatty distant thoughts...

All photography by April-Anna Bremers

Summertime on my porch....





NEW ARTWORKS

In the beginning of August I decided to make this painting for a friend of mine who moved down to Arizona to be with her now husband; they have had a beautiful baby girl since being there. I considered doing a drawing by hand of the photograph but did not have time since I was trying to send the painting down with friends of mine who were flying to Arizona for conferences. So instead I used the photo-transfer techniques I learned with Melanie Mathews in her class at the Westmount Visual Arts Centre last spring. This is the results of the final painting.

Final Painting...


Earlier stage of the painting...



September and the Autumn is coming..... oh humm....

I have been rather busy lately, yes also with art but that has not been my focus for this summer and this past few weeks; I have become absolutely driven with trying to get into the state of health and physical condition/training I desire to be in. My thyroid went under-active when I was 12 and I gained alot of weight from this, that combined with some other factors as well as personal challenges in my family life, lead me into a way of being & living that was not really ideal. Ten years ago I was a size 18, 4 years ago I was a size 16 and now I am, as of the past month, a size 12 but I am starting to realize I must actually be quite petite, because while I am much much healthier, I still have more weight to loose and more muscles to tone. I am guesstimating that maybe I am a size 9? I am not sure since as an adult I have never been my body's natural healthy weight.

I have, as I have mentioned in other postings here on my blog, practicing a form of internal martial arts called Bagua Zhang for the past two years. But I have certainly had my good weeks and down weeks; but this past year, particularly this past three months I am making leaps and bounds compared to where I was at ten years ago. Now, as of this past week, I have officially begin the very slow process of learning traditional chinese medicine. I dont' want to pressure myself, as I choose to go with the flow, but if I can make it through the process, I would like to eventually become a practitioner of traditional chinese medicine. Not because I have any intention of changing careers, believe me, I will always be a career artist, but I wish to volunteer to help people in need as well as to just volunteer at the Gong-Fu centre to help my teacher because, well, just as a thank-you to life for all my blessings. I am so grateful for this life that I lead and the love and support I am surrounded by.

Story of Stuff

I found this amusing and thought provoking...

Neighbours
Norman McLaren, 1952, 8 min
In this Oscar®-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion ...

In this Oscar®-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower. Film without words.

Halloween Video Portfolio

Little birdie...

This is the little birdie that my cat decided to sit on after it had flown into the window and sat there totally stunned. The photo was taken after it had been sat on (my cat did not seem to be able to see the bird, it was very strange).

"I will work on myself, since the work that I do on myself is going to be the highest thing I can do. As we 'up-level' or raise our own consciousness, we see more creative solutions to the problems that we confront."

-Ram Dass

Before and After Editing....

I am just going through some Halloween photos from a contract I had last Halloween (otherwise known as Samhain in the Celtic calender) and I decided to start editing those images. I am using GIMP which is simular to Photoshop.

The mighty amazing porch of natural adventures...

I am glad my life is interesting; I would be so bored if strange things did not continue to happen to me.

When I got up this morning, (well morning is relative) I opened my back porch door at the exact same moment I hear this "thud" and see a little bird fall down from having accidentally flown into the window. I immediately close the door so my cats don't go onto the porch and discover the stunned little guy who was sitting rather frozen on the wood where he landed.

I am cooking and my boyfriend arrives home for lunch. I tell him that there is a bird sitting stunned on our porch and not to let the cats out. He goes outside, does not see the bird (I admit, it does blend in rather well with the wood) and immediately let's our large male out. I suddenly realize what is happening (our kitchen faces the porch) and go running out there to stop the cat.

Well my boyfriend tries to stop the cat also. The cat gets confused as to which direction he is being herded and instead goes towards the bird. I wasn't sure if he could see the bird though because he seemed to only be paying attention to me and my boyfriend. We are still trying to catch him, he is getting closer and closer to the bird. Suddenly he flops onto the wood and proceeds to lay down on the bird!!

My cat laid on the bird! He sat on the bird! He did not know the bird was there! I quickly and gently lifted my cat, who wined at me, and move him onto the other side of the plants where he just sunk down into the porch, not even noticing the bird! This went on for over half an hour and meanwhile the bird just continued to sit there in shock, but I could tell he was aware because he kept blinking and was watching us. At one point the bird tried sleeping. Eventually the bird flew up into the tree and watched us for a while before flying off into the sky where ever it was he was headed.

My cat used to be almost a hunter; ie, he is known for enjoying hassling the birds and making them fly but I have never seen him try to catch or a kill a bird, but I have seen him hunt dogs. He has brought me living gifts before.

I will post a photograph of the bird later on.