This summer Arts Etobicoke was kind enough to ask me to hold an online studio visit with them via Instagram Live.

After months of lockdown it felt like another way to connect up with people and community online, much like my Virtual Studio Parties, and Kal Honey's Virtual Collage Jams (which I co-host).

Studio visits are fun, in fact I love seeing the insides of other artists' studios, what kind of space they have, how they work in them, how they organize them and so on. Not to mention what they are working on in there!

So you'll get to see some of all of those things in my video, which is on Arts Etobicoke's Instagram account.

​Here is a direct link: www.instagram.com/p/CDeniKDpkrE/

It's almost exactly an hour long. In it you'll get a peek at some experiments, a longtime hobby of mine, the view out my windows, what my painting table looks like and plenty more. Plus I answer some questions from attendees.

While not yet up on their website or YouTube channel, I'm sure it will be sometime this fall, and I will update the link in this post once that happens.

​I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know in the comments if you would like to see more.

I was delighted to be featured in episode 36 of Stella's Studio on Camoes TV, a show about art and artists, music and musicians. In it I talked about and showed some of my work, I also demonstrated a process I work with a lot.

To prepare for shooting the video, there was the "excitement" of getting my upstairs studio space looking presentable – not to mention my own self, lol – anyone else here find that isolation has made their appearance standards slip a little?

The studio clean-up was necessary because making a TV appearance during the COVID pandemic is a little different than my experiences in the past. The show's crew could not come to my house but neither could I go to their studio, so I had to shoot my own video segments, which the show then added to with still photos, video effects, and most importantly, editing.

My video skills are rudimentary (better than they were a year ago!) and I didn't have much time to shoot my segments, but despite that, and some resulting technical issues Stella and her team made it look much better than I feared, and I am quite pleased with the result.

Here is a link to the episode:
tinyurl.com/yb53th78

My portion of the program starts a at about the 4:45 mark and lasts for 7 or 8 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it!

Before I tell you about that though, I want to share with you some thoughts I wrote to someone who needed help and emotional support through her distress at feeling unable to focus, unable to work, unable to settle. I feel it too. So many of us do, even if not all the time. So here is what I would like to say to you:

Nothing is normal right now. Nothing. So be gentle on yourself for not being able to work, and for feeling scattered. That is a natural response to feeling the anxiety of our crisis situation and even trauma and grief at the loss of normality.

We humans adapt to amazing things but to stay healthy in the full sense it is important to do gentle things that nourish, calm and ground you. That will ease the transition to the new normal, and you will feel better for it. 

Activities that get you focused on your body are especially beneficial: movement of any kind and focusing on your senses instead of your thoughts whenever you can, or for part of each day.

Do something with your hands, go outside for a walk if you are healthy (and keep your distance from others). Above all, have patience with yourself and those around you... even for the times that you – or they – lose patience :-)

.  .  .  .  .

On March 20, I started holding Virtual Studio Parties online, via YouTube livestream so that anyone with high-speed internet, no matter how unconfident with their computer, could take part.

It’s a no-cost creative gathering for anyone who’s missing the experience of community, is feeling isolated or anxious, or wants to have some gentle fun in the real-time, virtual, company of others.

People have said it's really helped them and it's something they look forward to now.

If this sounds like it might help you, or just be fun, visit my Virtual Studio Parties page.

​Do you have a suggestion for self-care during stressful times? Please share in the comments.
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'Heartspace Hotel' is my surprise solo show for 2020 (I haven't told anyone about it until the last week couple of weeks, because I didn't know about it myself, lol!).

Occupying the third floor of The Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto, an amazing boutique art hotel renowned for its high profile art & design events and exhibitions, this multimedia show features a new combination of my heart-based work seen at my 'Heartspace' and 'A Full Heart' solo exhibitions in 2019, some of which have only ever been shown once, and even a couple of pieces I've never shown before.

Artworks include my longest digital print ever at over eight feet long, shown only once before in March 2019 at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre's Studio Gallery. 

Also: many more prints, three of my large scrolls with giant image transfers, fibre-based work, paintings, abstract photography, and two more digital prints I've only exhibited once before.

The opening reception coincides with the one for the second floor exhibition so it's sure to be a happening evening – hope you can make it!

Opening reception:
Friday Jan 31, 7-10pm
​Artist talk: 7:30pm

Kim-Lee Kho: Heartspace Hotel
at The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M6J 1J6

Front Desk: 416.531.4635 x 0
Dinner Reservations: 416.531.4635 x 7130

What a day! I'm feeling so full of gratitude for the many people who came out for the artist talk and opening reception for my 'Heartspace' solo exhibition at The Red Head Gallery in Toronto.

It was so packed that on more than one occasion I had to act like a bus driver and urge everyone to move further inside to make room for the new arrivals!

Wonderful to connect and re-connect with many familiar faces, colleagues, friends, students, sponsors, and even family!

I gave the group a guided tour through the artworks – so many of which merit a little background or additional explanation to enrich the experience rather than replace the personal encounter – covering conceptual, material and