Response to the festival theme "Must Art be Appealing?":

Spectacle draws attention. It is audacious. I guess in a way this serves a purpose but in terms of my own work, I am not sure if I can make a ‘spectacular’ piece even though I work large scale. I relish the quiet, thoughtful, and intuitive: presence and movement: an art that conceals the art.

I am drawn to exhibitions like Art Souterrain precisely because they take place in the realm of the everyday—in the places and spaces that people use—functioning in the world in a free space—in the space between the institution and the everyday. The everyday can disarm or lull. Using this unspectacular and unglamorous point as a launch point I want to erase the everyday to leave an illusion of glamour in an unexpected work that will interrupt viewers' visual routines to notice and reflect on the nooks and crannies of the city and beyond.

For me the glamour is that people are drawn to the work, in “the experience evoked...” or created “...in the context of the work”; all that erases the elements of transformation; the hard work, mistakes, flaws, and expense leaving only the illusion.

The chirp of a bird is usually our first sign of spring. We enjoy birds’ natural beauty but often forget that they also important to our ecosystem. Birds are pollinators, seed carriers, and eat billions of insects each year. Without birds, we would not have healthy wetlands, forests, and farms.

It is estimated that 100 million-1 billion birds die each year across North America due to collisions with windows. The design for the windows involves birds in flight in an abstract way abstract way. The focus is on color and reflections. I used dichroic vinyl that has colour-shifting and reflective properties—it is based on the scales of the blue morpho butterflies wing. 

The chirp of a bird is usually our first sign of spring. We enjoy birds’ natural beauty but often forget that they also important to our ecosystem. Birds are pollinators, seed carriers, and eat billions of insects each year. Without birds we would not have healthy wetlands, forests, and farms.

 It is estimated that 100 million-1 billion birds die each year across North America due to collisions with windows.

At Gladstone GrowOp, I hope to raise awareness of the dangerous effects of glass on the migratory bird populations in cities by creating a bird-friendly artwork on the windows of the Gladstone Café.

Because birds vision does not allow them to see glass, FLAP (www.flap.org) suggests that the windows have clear spaces no larger than 5 cm (2 inches) apart horizontally and not more than 10 cm (4 inches) apart vertically in order to create a dense pattern of shapes and vertical lines so that the glass lets in light but projects itself as a solid object—important to deter birds from flying into a window. They are also sensitive to color so color is also a good deterrent.

The bird silhouettes repeated throughout the installation are a play on the hawk silhouettes that are sold to protect birds from flying through your windows. These single silhouettes are ineffective because they do not create a dense enough pattern on the windows.

For more information about my work: www.lunule.com.

For more information about bird friendly design see www.flap.org

Tutu concept: I approached the Tutu Project with the idea to create a sculptural work. Instead of applying the hand-cut vinyl to a flat surface, I wanted to create a tutu of in- tensely coloured sign vinyl, intricately cut away and shaped to reveal the internal structure of the tutu.

video links:

http://national.ballet.ca/interact/virtual_museum/ The_Tutu_Project/#Artists-tab

Rip, Tear, Cut: The Making of a Tutu: http://youtu.be/rjJSSrWuz14

ghost birds in winter is a site and season specific work that captures the beautiful and naturally organized chaos of birds in flight through jagged, snow-covered peaks. The white of the vinyl on the surface provides a stark contrast to the surrounding grayness of winter. In a nod to the shiny promise of spring, a gold disc hangs on the interior wall of the gallery space. The irreality of this vision is cut away to reveal the depth of the gallery space and the every- day reflections of the street in the windows.

video link: ghost birds in winter: http://youtu.be/Kl_3_Ow7AU8        

2013, tensile, hand cut vinyl on glass elevator, Gladstone Hotel, dimensions variable 

In tensile is a delicate web of hand-cut vinyl created for the windows of the Gladstone’s Historic elevator. This work is a quiet homage to a natural process--spider webs are the ultimate drawing— delicate and tensile, intricate and fascinating. 

2009, Inflorescence, hand-cut vinyl on wall, dimensions variable, commission, 
Floorworks/Relative Space, wall height 11ft x 11ft (south wall) and 11 x 17.5ft (east wall) 

I want to engage the physical properties of space and architecture with works that explore form and content (or, form versus content) in a personal way using a mundane, commercial material— sign vinyl. 

At Floorworks, I started with a natural form—a group of flower heads—taken to an abstract extreme. I want the work to transcend its material to provide the instant impact of a huge abstract painting, which at the same time subverts the slow and labor-intensive process of hand-cutting large rolls of vinyl and applying it to the wall. 

*Winner IDS Window Competition, 2009

2009, Orange Solar Moment, Simone Interiors, public installation, hand-cut vinyl on window and wall, 3 by 7.5 feet; and entrance door, 3 feet wide by 1.5 feet high. 

Drawing teaches us to observe and if we were more visually aware in this country, our environment would not be in such a mess. And possibly there might be less crime and violence if we could notice and enjoy what we see." 

Letter published in The Guardian, November 1995 

I want to engage the physical properties of space and architecture with works that explore form and content (or, form versus content) using a mundane, mass-produced material—sign vinyl. The slow and labor-intensive process of hand-cutting the vinyl and carefully applying it to a wall or window subverts the commercial nature of the material. For Simone, I created an abstract work that is a reflection—a moment—of the street in the luminosity of the sun. I hope that this unexpected work will interrupt and challenge viewers' visual routines for a second to notice the nooks and crannies of our city. 

Review Gary Michael Dault, July 5, 2009 

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All the photos in this template are taken by the talented photographer 
Akos Major.

I was asked by Arts Etobicoke to create a wall design for Amnesty International’s Urban Canvas project. Dionne Brand, Toronto’s former poet laureate, was asked to write a poem inspired by Article 13 of the UN Declaration on human rights for the project.  I wanted to evoke the poignancy of Dionne’s words while also showing movement, water, borders, and freedom in a clear and compelling way.

2007, Dream 225, hand-cut vinyl wall, 6 ft H x 4 ft W and Coincidentism (Grateful Head at Dundas and Montrose), hand cut vinyl on window, 7 ft H x 6 ft W, Alley Jaunt, Toronto, ON, public installation.

I wanted to interrupt the landscape by creating a temporary graffiti that seeks to engage with the community and offer a psychic break from the bombardment of media imagery, tagging and other urban mark making that seek to divert our thoughts from the nature of our city.

2006, To You, hand-cut vinyl on fence, 5ft H x 11 ft W, Alley Jaunt, Toronto, ON, public installation.

 This work seeks to create a context for neighborhood dialogue and the “neighborliness of strangers”. A friend translated the poem into Portuguese to better situate the work within the Trinity-Bellwoods neighborhood and to acknowledge the neighborhood’s Portuguese roots. While I was installing the piece, people stopped to chat with me about the neighborhood, social spaces, and community--just the reaction I had hoped for the project.

Making Room @ 224 Wallace, hand-cut vinyl on window, 300 x 254 cm/each window, Toronto,

  ...From one part to the other, the city seems to continue, in perspective, multiplying its repertory of images: but instead it has not thickness, it consists only of a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be separated nor look at each other. Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities Chapter 7: Cities and Eyes: 5

In this project, I am looking at mapping the physical residue of social systems--how we carve out spaces and what that shows us about how we live.

For Bookhou, I created a wall work that needed be in trio with the gallery space, the owner’s minimal and elegant hand made textiles and furniture and satisfy my interest in blowing apart a drawing of a butterfly in flight. The owners’ young son described my work as “the wind” and I thought this was a compliment—I wanted to extract movement and bring it to a work that is essentially still.

For my Art on the Move residency, I worked with 26 grade 4-6 students in Beryl Cohen’s After School Art Club at the Karen Kain School of the Arts in Etobicoke. We worked with themes of the environment, mapping and borders, and life in Toronto over a series of 6 workshops at the school. In these workshops, students created the drawings and collages that I would then use in my design for a vehicle wrap for a Ford Transit van, a new addition to Autoshare's fleet.  I sampled from 16 students' art works and, my own, to create a four-part design for the wrap. Each side is unique drawing.

This project was created for a client who wanted a an installation that would cover 2 walls and bookshelves. I created a drawing that would have visual interest from multiple viewing points in her loft. I also wanted to reflect the client's love of plants while not overpowering the client's subtle design style.

This work is as much about architecture as it is about butterflies, patterning, and biomimicry. The architecture in the historic Glyndor Gallery has such strong presence that I see the work more as collaboration with the site than as a drawing itself.

“The biological term “procryptic” describes a pattern or coloration adapted for natural camouflage. The painting transforms the architecture to mimic this natural form of adaption.” Jennifer McGregor, from exhibition brochure. Public commission.

Review William Zimmer, NY Times, May 12, 2002

Installation views. My painting was based on the Lime Swallowtail butterfly flattened and centered on the canvas to indicate a hope for the unification of Korea, city and country.

One of the most exciting aspects of any city is its diversity--cities are places where we learn to live with strangers. But, the “standardization of public consumption” (Richard Sennett) has caused a neutrality of public spaces rather than one that seeks to acknowledge and expand the complexity of modern cities. I hope that this intervention will create a space of social interaction and engagement in and with the city rather than one of public consumption or dismay. At its best, the project will interrupt and challenge viewers' visual routines for a second to notice what is around them.

The installation will be a simple one. Words and images will be hand cut from sign vinyl and adhered to the wall using the existing graffiti as part of the drawing. In a nod to the local community I would like to print thoughtful expressions such as “Why can't we be friends?" (Hit song from the US in the late 70ís) or “One must always be prepared to learn something totally new. --Ludwig Wittgenstein in English, Portuguese,