Two Hearts is a small slice of my ongoing project A Full Heart. In it I explore states of the human heart through: anatomy, form, metaphor, text, symbolism, history, portraiture, and emotional expression, all in a wide variety of media.  

The two portraits on display here are entitled Dark Places, Shifting and Scars (Heart on My Face). Both are photo-digital mixed media images made into 7-foot scrolls using very large film-based image transfers, (done in a single go), applied to Chinese mulberry paper and backed with a non-woven fusible interfacing, with wooden dowels in pockets at the top and bottom.

It’s really challenging to do a transfer print at such a large scale, and demands two pairs of hands to execute. We will be working with this image transfer technique (at smaller sizes!) in the my 4-day intensive the first week of June at Neilson Park: Image Transfers and Contemporary Mixed Media.

The portraits are of Kal Honey and myself (we are standing in front of our own faces), but we are models for representations of human experience. 

This is a nice opportunity to get a close-up look – in daylight! – at a couple of the scrolls that debuted at the 2018 In Situ Festival. On display through Sunday May 12.

Neilson Park Creative Centre
56 Neilson Drive
Toronto, ON  M9C 1V7
Tel: (416) 622-5294

A Full Heart is my biggest solo show so far in my career. Full of recent and brand-new work in various media, it explores the human heart from various angles: structural, emotional and metaphorical.

​I've written a blog post about preparations for the show, click here to read it.

All the details can be found there, but the key location information is here as well.

Cedar Ridge Creative Centre
225 Confederation Drive
Toronto, ON  M1G 1B2
(416) 396-4026

February 8, 10am–4pm
At ArteMbassy Gallery & School in the Leaside area of Toronto (see map below).

Please join me for this full-day workshop: Through structured exercises and personal exploration, you’ll layer, distress, and work into mixed media and images to integrate and reveal contrasting visual material including painting, drawing, collage, transfers, embedding etc. Be inspired and informed by images and physical samples, with one-on-one consultations and group discussion.
Level: adventurous

​For more information and to register:

ArteMbassy Gallery & School
​Julie McMeekin, Director
(416) 998-5045
28 Industrial Street
Suite #219
Toronto, ON  M4G 1Y9
[email protected]

Take 2 is an interesting variation on the annual instructors' show in the main gallery at Neilson Park Creative Centre. 

This year they asked each instructor to select a student (whether from NPCC or not) to exhibit with as a pair. Each of the instructors and the students then not only supplied artwork but also statements that address how each influenced the other. A fun idea!

The results are worth seeing. Helen Jones and I are exhibiting work that is produced digitally or as a hybrid, whether digital originals that incorporate physical media that's been digitized, or physical media that incorporates digital elements. 

Our artworks relate to courses and workshops I have taught, such as: Contemporary Mixed Media, Image Transfers and Photo-based Mixed Media. I will be teaching a 4-day intensive on image transfers in June, as well as Traditional into Digital Studio in the spring term. Click here to go directly to my Teaching page.

I'm pleased to say that two of my pieces have sold so far!

Hope you can make it – see map below for location information.

Here's a sneak peek at the room I will be installing for this year's In Situ II multi-arts festival: Making Space, Making Place.
​
One of my favourite events of all time was the first In Situ festival in 2018, held at the then-abandoned factory space known as the Small Arms Building in Mississauga.

Produced by the Small Arms Society which saved the building from demolition, they were also instrumental in persuading the City of Mississauga to take over ownership of the site (renamed the Small Arms Inspection Building) which means the building is now partially renovated and features heat and running water (and bathrooms!), none of which was true for the first In Situ. Not that that held us back!

When I update this post I will show you a photo of the room I am creating an installation for, happily it's in the old, unrenovated wing – I do so love the decrepit beauty of it!

​Finally, I am planning to do live drawing again each of the three nights from 8-9pm.
​Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: TONIGHT IS THE BIG EVENT! OPEN UNTIL 1:00 AM!
​
Installation starts this weekend for ​​@redheadgallery, a short-but-sweet group members' show that ends with a bang during Toronto's massive Nuit Blanche all-night art event.

You can join the throngs on Saturday September 29 (I'll be there from 5 to 7pm) or have a nice quiet look at the work starting Wednesday September 26 when the gallery will extend its regular hours to 7pm, as well as during regular open hours (12-5pm) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Saturday night the gallery will stay open until 1:00am.

If you've been following this news section or my social media this year then you'll know that being accepted as a member at The Red Head Gallery collective was probably my biggest accomplishment in what has been an exciting year. So...

I'm delighted to be in my first show as a Red Head member!

For more information please visit: The Red Head Gallery

​RED HEAD ARTISTS:
Mathew Borrett, Jim Bourke, Jack Butler, Tonia Di Risio, Teri Donovan, Soheila Esfahani, Leah Garnett, Philip Hare, Gillian Iles, Margie Kelk, Kim-Lee Kho, Ian Mackay, Cate McGuire, Peggy Taylor Reid, Lois Schklar, Sally Thurlow, and Elaine Whittaker

Many contemporary painters are working with an expansive vocabulary of paint, or a distinctly contemporary language, using (and pushing) the properties of the paint, and its application, in varied and unexpected ways. 

Their paintings can really surprise us, offering us rich tactile experiences, a vivid sense of the artist’s hand as well as fascinating optical effects. 

See lots of examples from artists working today – many of them Canadian! – focusing in on their painterly vocabulary and unique ways of working with paint. 

Kim-Lee Kho teaches regularly at Neilson Park Creative Centre. She’s an actively exhibiting multidisciplinary Canadian artist and recovering graphic designer/art director. As a teacher, speaker and consultant, she leads people on adventures in art. 

This presentation relates closely to her own approach to painting and she has taught numerous popular courses and workshops on related topics. 

Her upcoming weekend workshop at Neilson Park, Contemporary Painting: Transparent Glazes in Acrylics, will focus on creating the gorgeous depth, lustre and complexity of layered transparent glazes. It will look at mediums: suitability and how to choose, mixing and dilution, applying and layering, the very different nature of transparent colour and how to combine it with other approaches. 

Experienced glaze painters can also benefit from working on their own projects in consultation with Kim.

For more information: click here