Art Farm Blog

Shadow Project

We had a fabulous time at the Future of Community Arts collaboration Saturday Nov 26th at the Woodwards atrium. The shadow project was a hit!  Unsuspecting passerbys were asked for 20 seconds of their time standing still so we could trace their shadow. When they stepped back to see their image, a wonderful moment transpired. Their physical being had been transformed into art! Many people stayed to embellish their shadows and some were happy to leave it as is. All the images were hung up on a clothes line in the atrium for everyone to see.

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Artfarmers Sandy Buck. Eilis Carpentier, Jaqueline Rogers and a whole bunch of sophisticated pumpkin carvers collaborated on a truly mystical Halloween spiral this past weekend. Sandy worked all week on the spiral installation combining Eilis's poetry with fallen alders, Japanese knot weed, metal sculpture and lanterns made from recycled plastic and fencing. Eilis brought her passion for the pagan roots of the holiday to the event; poetry, musings and offerings for the bonfire:

"Halloween is rooted in the earth, the natural cycles, not just of death but of rebirth. It is the day when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. This allows movement for the dead back into the world of the living. It's a day to make the dead welcome but also to be wary of the dead. It’s a day to honor our ancestors: a day to ponder the old dark abyss, the shadows, the things that go bump in the night."

Jaqueline helped Sandy lead the charge with our team of pumpkin carvers at the Arts Building - providing soup, muffins and cookies for the Jack-o-lantern sculptors.

Then nature took over. Saturday evening was overcast but dry, calm, allowing the lanterns room to breathe in the cool October air. Sunday was clearer (even a sliver of the moon paid us a visit) but windier with Eilis's poetry rustling in the wind and the bonfire raging high. Both nights the children ran through the spiral screaming, yelling - then silent, transfixed. The adults gathered around the bonfire. It was a magical evening, one that opened up a whole new side of Halloween. Yes, there is craziness, candy, costumes - but there is also the eeriness of fall, the chill in the air, the beginning of winter.
carvers at work

bonfire

Will at work

It was a mad dash to the finish line (when isn't it a mad dash to the finish line?), but the Rainforest Circus magically transformed itself into a 1/2 hour staged collage of film, dance, music, theatre, sculpture, shadow and more this past weekend.  Video and light designer Scott Tilley took footage from the summer circus, along with Chris Hind's and Jocelyne Chaput's beautiful film work, and created a film experience I doubt the Raven's Cry has ever seen before. Installation artists Sandy Buck and William Christenson built a tree - a tree! - for the stage, out of driftwood, salal, cedar boughs and fabric that doubled as a shadow screen for the return of Katherine Denham's dancing deer. William and Scott both worked on a light installation for Chad Hershler's Ringmaster - a campfire on stage, that made it seem like the Ringmaster had once again been foiled by his nemesis (and love), Helga. Sandy Buck, dressed in her standard black outfit with mask and hair-piece, owned the stage as Helga herself - turning lights on and off, cueing music, making the magic happen. And, of course, our maestro magician himself - Steve Wright - dominated the soundwaves with his original music, soundscapes and all round audio mischief.

Special thank you's to Cat Main, theatre artist extraordinaire, who parachuted in at the 11th hour to turn a collosal heap of ideas into something stageworthy and beautiful, to Ross Powell our stage manager, Doug Proby on lights and Peter Lietz on sound.  And of course: the artistic director of the festival, Nancy Cottingham Powell, for inviting us to the festivities.  It was a treat to take part in another classy showcase of the diverse artistic talent that we're surrounded by here on the coast.

Nestor the Jester

The DOXA film festival (a Vancouver-based Documentary Film Festival) did it first satellite festival here on the Sunshine Coast on the October 1st weekend (yup, it was a busy one!) - and the art farm was invited to participate as a community partner for the closing night presentation of Saint Misbehavin', a moving film about the life of 60's artist/activist Wavy Gravy. It was an honor and privilege to help promote this event as well as this film: Wavy Gravy is an inspiring figure in the history of art for social change, and DOXA is a great BC festival doing everything it can to bring the power of the documentary to regions that don't always get it! Of course, we couldn't resist a little art farm homage to Mr. Wavy Gravy himself.  So... introducing Nestor the Jester, an old friend of Wavy Gravy himself. The crowd loved him, almost as much as the free art bags he gave them. Thanks DOXA Sunshine Coast for inviting us to take part and for providing the coast with some high quality Documentary cinema for a weekend.

Nestor at work

 

Sandy at work

TED talks made its way to Sechelt on the 1st of October - in the form of TEDx Sechelt - and the art farm was there. With a theme titled "the Nature of Creativity", how could we resist?  What a crew and what a day! Amidst inspiring talks, works and presentations from local artists and innovators, including Matthew Talbot Kelly, Giorgio Magnanensi, Jay Hoots, This is It Design, Labrotorio, Kranked and more, artfarmers Sandy Buck, Amelia Epp, Chad Hershler and Raquel J'or For worked on a live interactive installation using the creativity of the 100+ audience members assembled. Sandy worked on an interactive stage all week leading up, building on donated space and materials from our friends at This is It, and along side Amelia, gathered assorted material for a live costume build on the day. Raquel showed up as the performance artist and model. Through-out the morning and afternoon, audience members selected different materials that Sandy then wove into the costume behind a white scrim. With just the tease of movement, the audience/collaborators got to see their material sewn onto Raquel live - waiting with baited breath for the big reveal at the end of the TEDx Sechelt day. Along side, Chad worked with a random gathering of audience's words on "the nature of creativity" - gathering phrases and words that spoke to them. All this led to a spoken word poem read to improvised guitar by producer/artfarmer/musician extra-ordinaire Steve Wright as Raquel modeled the Sandy Buck/Amelia Epp creation on the TEDx stage - a triumphant culmination of one wild and memorable day of creativity and passion. Thank you Steve Wright, Sunshine Coast Arts Council and the rest of the TEDx team of staff and volunteers for putting on such a top notch event. We are blessed to live and work in such company!