Sunday 24 August 2014

STREETS RIDGE ARCHAN KNOTZ: Seeing with Intention The other day I was at th...

STREETS RIDGE ARCHAN KNOTZ:
Seeing with Intention

The other day I was at th...
: Seeing with Intention The other day I was at the Buddhist Center outside of Tatamagoushe, Dorje Denma Ling. Mary was on a silent retrea...

Seeing with Intention

The other day I was at the Buddhist Center outside of Tatamagoushe, Dorje Denma Ling. Mary was on a silent retreat and I was to pick her up, since we are still operating with one car. I was sitting in a quiet area the sun was warming my back and I was looking through a magazine. Fitting to a place for deep contemplation, I found an article inspiring me of deep reflection. At first glance the article was about a woman who was drawing, teaching herself to draw everything she saw and where every she was. Why? She wanted to learn how to see with intention, she said, it helps her to see. Reflecting on these words I came up with wanting to do the same.
However, I found hindering thoughts. The exposure of sitting and drawing moving people, what will I be drawing, what will I be willing to remember or will I be wanting to move impatiently away. Setting up in my studio seems easy, doing art when I am in the mood for it. However, seeing with intention seems to be a different kind of art. Learning, exposing, relationship with people drawing and then the spectators. Life! Isn't this Life? Entering Life on a different level, not with the quick and superficial click of the camera, rather with a commitment of time and intensity. I shatter when I think of it... surrender... !!

Tuesday 19 August 2014

STREETS RIDGE: "Fair Trade" - Sold!Experimenting - Feelings Overl...

STREETS RIDGE: "Fair Trade" - Sold!Experimenting - Feelings Overl...: "Fair Trade" - Sold! Experimenting - Feelings Overload! I have been experimenting with creating woodcuts and mono-prin...
"Fair Trade" - Sold!
Experimenting - Feelings Overload!

I have been experimenting with creating woodcuts and mono-prints and last Friday my second show exhibiting prints opened in Tatamagouche. 
As a painter and as a print-maker, I need to be inspired by looking at other peoples art, taking an image and making it my own. I have been working hard for this show and was satisfied with the result.  
You may think when creating a wood plate I can print numerous prints from the same plate, frame them and off they go. However, it is not that easy it becomes quite a process to select the 'perfect' print, even though, I may print 4 or 5 one may only be good enough to frame for the show. 
At the show, I wanted to say to people looking at my work, that these "prints" are really one of a kind, forget the term 'print'. Even though, the term "print" means the image can be reproduced but when working with a handmade print from a woodcut plate no print is the same. An ink-blotch there and sometimes adding ink with the brush later makes each print one of a kind.  My experimenting with coffee stained  backgrounds makes them even more unique.
Coming back to the show of last Friday evening. We, the Pugwash Artist Collective, have a great support/fan fair, they came out and applauded our efforts. My gratitude goes out to the people who came despite the heavy rain and fog - Thank You!

Opening at the Fraser Cultural Centre in Tatamagouche, August 15th 2014




Openings are always difficult for me, I never know what to do.Yes, you may think, talk to the people who come but it is hard, I felt vulnerable and spacy on Friday evening, the worst feelings to have at an opening. What to say, when people ask about my art when feeling disconnected to the human race and my feelings. Feelings overload!
So, the evening went on wonderful people commented on my art positively but I seem to never arrive at the Gallery while flying through space (Maybe, I shouldn't have watched all these episodes of Star Trek Voyager recently) .  

"Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind"
"Telling" - Sold!
"Now" - Mono-print
"Then"
  

Wednesday 13 August 2014

STREETS RIDGE: Lore, is approaching fast. The preparations a...

STREETS RIDGE:




Lore, is approaching fast. The preparations a...
: Lore , is approaching fast. The preparations are going well. I found myself getting a little 'anal' about my printing. Which ...





Lore, is approaching fast. The preparations are going well. I found myself getting a little 'anal' about my printing. Which is unusual since I am more the spontaneous type .  However, I may be growing in producing woodcuts and mono-prints. This will be my second show displaying prints. I am very excited about the results. I have been exploring with coffee stained paper as background and like it very much. 

So, today will be the last day I will be picky about my prints. I have a coffee stained background ready for the last print. Then, they will be going into the frames. Tomorrow is the 'hanging', always an intense time. One of our members has lost her mom last week, we will support her the best we can with our love and friendship. 

After the 'hanging' we will celebrate our achievements at Big All's, the local tavern. The best sweet potato fries are on the menu.
Friday at 7:00 pm is the opening at the Fraser Cultural Center in Tatamagouche
makes me always nervous. The prints may have been looking good in my home but when they are hanging in the Gallery it adds a whole new outlook. 

At the opening a sense of vulnerability overcomes me, art is creating, joy, pain, and letting myself be vulnerable.  

Cheers!!   

Sunday 27 July 2014

STREETS RIDGE: Art ProductionOnce a year our Pugwash Art Collect...

STREETS RIDGE: Art Production
Once a year our Pugwash Art Collect...
: Art Production Once a year our Pugwash Art Collective is having an art-show. We meet, we talk, laugh, and eat but finally we vote on a th...
Art Production

Once a year our Pugwash Art Collective is having an art-show. We meet, we talk, laugh, and eat but finally we vote on a theme. 

Usually we write down nouns and verbs on different papers and put it together in a hat. We each draw some and read them out loud. Hopefully inspiration strikes us and we come up with a great title. This time we came up with 'Lore'!

I don't work with title's the best of times, but ' Lore'. Well, it had me stamped. Nevertheless, I set out to work. 


While listening to my favourite music I am creating new artwork.

 Recently I have started to explore with mono-prints and woodcuts. I like the intensity that woodcuts give me and the unpredictability of mono-prints. I think of myself as an artist that likes to uncover emotion hidden underneath the surface and the medium of woodcut and mono-print fulfill these requirements without me having to dissect the subject on the canvas.  

I always thought I would create more art in the winter but the opposite is true. Summer is my time to create art. My spirit sings when the sun is blazing through the window and I am sweating while cutting into the wood plate. 

 After having worked on cutting the image into a wood-plate, I do a first cut, roll ink on the wood plate and make the first print on inexpensive paper. I am examining the result and decide if I have to cut more or if I have to compensate with ink something I have cut away by accident.
 
Drawing and some cutting


First print

Woodcut plate



With the mono-prints it is different, I am still using for the first prints inexpensive paper but the mono-print is one of a kind so even though, I am doing numerous prints as a warmup at some point I will switch to better paper. For this show, I have decided to do again a print by wiping the ink of the plexiglass and printing what is left on the surface. It may be hard to understand. Let me explain in more detail. 

I have a photograph of the object I want to print. Further, I have a plexiglass plate and ink. I am mixing the ink with a slower drying medium (which makes the ink dry slower, not right away, rather than, in a couple of minutes). Then, I take tissues or cotton swabs and start wiping the ink of the plexiglass plate. Basically I am drawing with the tissues and the cotton swabs, till I feel I have the desired result. I have the paper ready and put it on top of the plexiglass plate and rub with my hands the paper so that the remaining ink prints on the paper. 


These two are done the way I decribed it up top. You can see the difference. 

In this blog I will not reveal my new artwork which will be shown starting with an opening on August 15 at the Fraser Cultural Centre in Tatamagouche at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday 15 July 2014

STREETS RIDGE: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax...

STREETS RIDGE: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax
...
: Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax It has been awhile since I have written, nevertheless, here it goes a new eating experie...
Vegan Food Experience in the North End of Halifax

It has been awhile since I have written, nevertheless, here it goes a new eating experience in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mary and I wanted to check out some new food establishments in the city and we came across a new Vegan restaurant - enVie (I have attached a web-link at the end) .

As we were sitting in this small, stylish restaurants and listening to music that to stimulate our senses, rather than, in so many other restaurants insult every sense you have, we looked out the window and saw people walking by with paper bags filled with produce. EnVie is placed on the corner of Charles and Agricola Street in the North End of Halifax. Around the corner is the Local Source which supplies local produce and other local sourced food products (Web-link is attached at the end).

EnVie has not a large menu but a very tasty one. I found it interesting that you can compose a meal entirely of juices. However, we did not. I had a Lentil Burger, lentil and brown rice burger, tomato, avocado, seasonal greens, enVie sprouts, chipotle almond aioli and a kale Caesar salad. If you love garlic go for the kale Caesar, wow! Even though, I loved the lentil burger, the combination with the kale Caesar was not great. The lentil burger has very subtle flavours, where as, the kale Caesar was so dominant. However, both separate were very tasty and satisfying.    

Mary had  the Pulled Jackfruit Burrito,smoky pulled barbecue jackfruit, roasted sweet potato, black beans, avocado, sesame hemp carrot slaw, shredded lettuce, served in a whole wheat tortilla. Mary was not able to eat the whole burrito so we took it home and had it the next day for breakfast, very good and tasty. 

However, we were kind of disappointed not to see any desserts on the menu. The disappointment did not last long as the waitress came and gave us the run down of their vegan desserts. Mary thought the raw chocolate strawberry torte sounded great. I was kind of full and wanted just to try the torte not have half of it, however, I changed my mind very quickly after having tasted the torte. 
With a lovely presentation of green tea came this decadent piece of torte. Oh my goodness, on a walnut crust was this lovely vegan chocolate mousse topped with coconut cream and a strawberry the combination was just divine.

If you are in Halifax and are interesting to try a vegan food experience, enVie is a great place to come to and around the corner is a local source food store with a lively coffee, eatery, bar attached. 

We found this corner in the Halifax North End to have a lovely energy and for sure worth of supporting.

Monday 13 January 2014

The Life that could have been

I have been reflecting on my parents and my mortality and have come to the conclusion that I need to prepare myself in any way I can for the unavoidable in life - death or dieing. I will keep you posted on how I make out.
I have looked at my father's life and created some mono-prints and woodcuts. Let me know what you think. When I read it to my partner she went, "Oh, it is great, but so dark". So, here it goes.



The Life that could have been
Hungary in the late 1920’s, twins are born. 
The father, a loyal country man, the mother not well,
something to do with the heart and the lung.
There was one more brother, however, he died.
Also his mother and his twin brother died - He was alone with his father. 

His father took another wife, and the twin became one of many -twelve half-brothers and sisters.
The Second World War broke out,
 the twin was too young to take part in the fighting,
 he had his own war to fight;
his father defended their home country.
 Defeated ,they were deported from Hungary to Germany.
The twin was a young man by now, what is in his future?


What kind of life can he expect, having experienced the amount of lose he had felt?
Striving  toward security;
he needed possessions  -
identified himself through his possessions.
He was a sensitive young man,
but was there place in his life for this sensitivity.
Hurt by life,
abandoned by his mother,
 not protected by his father –
while feeling alone within the crowed of his half-brothers and half-sisters.
What could have been?
 A twin celebrating his sensitivity, trusting in life and the goodness of people.
Creating meaningful relationships with his children, friends, and half-sisters and brothers.
 Understanding that possessions are not what a person is remembered by.
Taking life by its handkerchief and swirling it flamboyantly around,
 but how could he?


 With his heart filled with sadness and not understanding.
Now, he is living his life out with a diagnosis of Dementia,
 remembering his early years with tears in his eyes.
How hard life can be. 

Thursday 2 January 2014

East Indian Food in Moncton New Brunswick

New Years Eve day, Mary and I decided to go to Moncton, NB. Our first outing since Dec. 21. It felt good to stay at home, not to be confronted with other people. Reflection time. Let the mind slow down.

However, as I said we ventured out on Dec. 31 and enjoyed a lovely meal at Taj Mahal -Flavour of India, in Moncton. Mary and I enjoy East Indian food. I was reminiscing about my journey to India. The smells when landing in Bombay, smells I had never smelled before. Running after my language, taken by a taxi driver who wanted to ensure his fair. Sharing a taxi with two business man. The poverty, mind blowing, families sleeping on the street covered with cardboard. Me, as a white person being the minority. The colours of the market, and the uncertainty of the food quality. Nevertheless, I enjoy the flavour of East Indian food and the Taj Mahal in Moncton is on of the best.

It always fascinates us to see this simple arrangement of a restaurant. It is basically one room (a hole in the wall), decorated in East Indian decor. The waitress was overly friendly, however, she was nearly so over the top that one had no choice but be in admiration of her enthusiasm.
 As the starter we enjoyed  Lentil soup, very delicious. I love soups. This one had a lovely cream texture and was perfectly balance with East Indian spices.
  

As the main course I picked Dal Makhni with Rice (Whole black lentils served with basmati rice) and Mary picked Subz Jalfrezi (Fresh vegetables, green cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, capsicum and green peas. Seasoned and cooked on low heat).


Archan Knotz creates : February

Archan Knotz creates : February :  Every year it happens, February arrives and I have this strong urge ...