Artistic Spotlight - Shannon Armishaw

I first came across Shannon Armishaw's work while volunteering in Rental and Sales at the Ottawa Art Gallery, and it's been stuck in my mind ever since. Shannon Armishaw, an artist from Ottawa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Major in Painting, makes beautiful artworks and has a real eye for colour. Recently, she had some of her works hung at the Manx on Elgin and her use of pastel colours in those works really brought the Manx alive.

On top of her excellence in painting, she also makes impressive works on glass. At the Invitational this past month she displayed some of her paintings on glass and, with proper lighting, they created some of the coolest effects. At the moment, her artwork is in the permanent collections of The Brook Street Hotel, Personal Pilates Corporation, and A la Envy Custom Couture. You can also check out her pieces in Rental and Sales at the Ottawa Art Gallery. To visit Shannon's website click here. To see her works at the Ottawa Art Gallery click here.

Style Inspiration - Annie W.

Annie, a 15-year-old from Regensburg, Germany, has a flowery style that's got me amped up for spring. With her quirky hats and flower-feather mixes, she's a classier version of hippy - and very French looking too! When asked about her style inspiration she talks about her favourite website - We Heart It - an image bank with everything from clothes to new hairdos.

And we're haven't been the only ones to notice Annie's style. Her style has gone viral with features in the New York Times and Teen Vogue. In the future Annie wants to live in Paris and study in Berlin, a very European dream for a very European girl. To check out her blog click here. To check out Annie's lookbook click here.

Disposable Fun 1

The start of the summer has been busy with photo-shoots and birthday parties. Really can't complain.

Event - Our Streets On Canvas May 24th

The best Canadian skateboard photographers will be showing their work this evening at the Standard bar on Elgin st. There will be a silent auction where the minimum bid starts at 50$. All the money will go to the Make-A-Wish foundation. So, on top of all the cute boys attending, it's also for a good cause. The event goes from 8 to 12 and it's 5$ at the door. What else are you gonna do on a sunny tuesday night? For more info, click here or just show up.

Black Dogs

Black Dogs are a talented folk duo from Ottawa. I had the pleasure of recording them play some tunes recently, here are two of them:

Murphy
Murphy by Black_Dogs

Vices
Vices by Black_Dogs

Join their group on facebook and stay tuned for upcoming shows!

Artistic Spotlight - New Works by Jen Mann

Jen Mann sent over some of her new works and they're really spectacular. Compared to her previous works featured on this site they're a lot more colourful, and it works! When asked to describe her new works she states, "They're called Subconscious vista - which I am planning a show for sometime this summer in Toronto hopefully. They are all dreamscapes, places that don't exist, birds guide the viewer through this spirit world, and help tell the story of the character in each painting. The subjects are mystical, and belong to our subconscious, telling us stories of ourselves, and our own world." She's also working on another series as well about toxic beauty. When asked to describe her new series she states, "They're girls mixed and merged with flowers that are poisonous. It's actually astonishing how many common flowers are toxic." To see her artistic spotlight with The Fashion Press click here. To check out more of her works click here.

Video - The Invitational by Andrew Szeto

Here is a stop-motion video made by my talented friend Andrew Szeto at The Invitational last saturday. Thanks to Jessica D'Angelo and Walker Tamblyn for putting on this great event. It was such a success! Hopefully you made it, but if not check out this video and get a glimpse of the fun we had.

Do It Yourself - Turbans!

After seeing some awesome turbans at Urban Outfitters I decided to try making my own. All you need is a big scarf and nimble fingers, note-mine are not so nimble so ignore the scruff. Anyway, here is a mini tutorial on how to make your own turban!

Scruffy but awesome results!

Book Review - Bad Day Magazine

It's awesome when you find a publication that fits so completely with your lifestyle. Though I've mentioned Bad Day Magazine before, this issue in specific is definitely worth another mention. A few days after watching Somewhere, doing an art history essay on Vanessa Beecroft, studying about Jeff Wall, and planning on how to set up my porfolio website on indexhibit, Issue 10 of Bad Day arrives in the mail, and guess what, it talks about all four. This issue includes interviews with Sophia Coppola, Vanessa Beecroft, Jeff Wall, and Daniel Eatock (one of the creators of indexhibit) as well as Panda Bear, Thomas Persson and Brendon Flanagan. An awesome read for sure! To check out more of Bad Day Magazine click here.

[image credit - bad day magazine]

Artistic Spotlight - Nuria Rius

Nuria Rius, an artist born in Barcelona who now lives in London, started her career at the age of 14. "It all started when I was fourteen years old in my mum’s butcher shop. I started my professional career there, doing the best burgers at the Market, a job that I combined with my studies in Arts." Strange combination indeed but since then she's gone to great places. After finishing her degree, she decided to study photography for four years at the Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya. In 2002 she earned a prize of Lux Junior. Since then she has had personal and collective exhibitions and continues to work as a freelance photographer with commercial work for Wranger, Levis, and H&M.

Her images are incredibly raw though she is anything but amateur. Maybe it's the dirtiness of the hallways, and her ability to show exactly what's there, that makes her work stand out. Her works expose what's behind the gloss but also contain an element of sympathy for her subjects. To check out Naria's artwork click here.

Artistic Spotlight - Johannes Santangelo

I came across Johannes Santangelo's photos on flickr and, though I couldn't find anything about him on the web, the mystery behind his shots made them even more intriguing . He's an artist who really excels at portraits and people in nature. Though he goes by the name "arti_ficial" he really is anything but. His use of 35 mm film and a minolta camera give an authenticity to his already intimate shots and his best work by far is when he captures his subjects in the moment, without pretense or pose. At the moment he runs a photo blog with artist Carolin Walch called Parallel Lives - to check it out click here. To visit Johannes' flickr click here.

Artistic Spotlight - Aëla Labbé

Aëla Labbé, a contemporary dancer and freelance photographer from Bretagne, France, takes mesmerizing folky photos. A lot of her photos seem to look to a previous time and have a deep connection with nature. In terms of portraits, her photos contain elegant movements inspired by her training in dance. As she states, "I see photography as by essence connected to dance, so the body language and its expressive power is an important element… as well as the composition in space (most of the time in the nature) and “time” (with a strong feeling of nostalgia)." Her interest in photography began three years ago, when an injury, and a long recovery, caused her to look for other ways to get back into life and rediscover its beauty. As such, she uses photography to generate and share emotions as well as to escape reality and enter her own dream world.

My favourite photos are the ones she takes of children. In particular, her "Jeanne" series on flickr is somewhat spooky. She portrays Jeanne as a spirit figure and the use of double exposure and eery scenery create a dialogue and story within these photos. To see more of her work, you can check out her flickr by clicking here. To check out her etsy shop, where you can purchase cheap prints, click here.

Event - The Invitational May 14th

[Credit - Ming Wu]

Today is the day! Don't forget to check out The Invitational at Ritual from 8 to 11pm to see new inspiring work by artists such as Jaimie Howard, Jess Petrella, Matt Skuza, Shannon Armishaw, Andrew Szeto, Ashley from Sugarbum, myself and many others. It will be a blast! Click here to see more details.

The Fashion Press - Issue 2

The Fashion Press Issue 2 is officially available for purchase. This issue features cover art by Keita Morimoto and includes work by Erika Altosaar, Jeannie Phan, Yuli Sato, Patrick Kyle, Kristine Moran, Amanda Nedham, Jenny Morris and Nancy Zhang. To preview or purchase the issue please click here. Reviews are more than welcome so tell us your thoughts!

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Event - Hotshotcasino May 5th

On May 5th the boys will be playing at Live Lounge to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the arrival of summer time. The show starts at 9pm. Come eat guacamole and listen to groovy music! Click here to see more details. On a side note, today (May 2nd) marks the final day of Pascal Huot's 100 day challenge. Like I previously mentioned, Pascal has taken on writing/recording/releasing a song every day. It must feel pretty damn good to be done. Congratulations! Click here to check out the 100 tunes.

This photo-shoot happened on a very rainy day. We were limited to stay indoors so we decided to get creative. Thanks to Jack Daniel's, burnt popcorn and RUSH we were able to find inspiration. Check out the sweet video below for behind the scene footage of our afternoon.