It's crazy-ass holiday fair time!

Life is INSANE for crafty artists at this time of year. It's when we pull all-nighters, giving ourselves blisters folding paper, sewing things, and generally feeling overwhelmed yet nonetheless SUPER COMPELLED TO MAKE STUFF. And you, the public, get to find neat gifts for people that are unavailable at any other time, in any other place. So here, in order of appearance, are the many craft fairs and small press fairs and pop-up shops that I will be at in the next month, all with my trusty sidekick JP King close at hand.

1. EXPOZINE. Aka the happiest place on earth. I love Expozine. I love it so much. Last year I got locked out of my house at 3 am the night before Expozine because I decided in the middle of the night that my Expozine table would be perfect if only I went to my studio to get an awesome shelf. I left my house and lost my keys on the way and spent like an hour walking around looking for them before hopping the fence into my backyard and miraculously getting in to my house. And you know what? THAT SUCKED, but Expozine was STILL AWESOME. Such is the power of 300 small press vendors in one room.

Next week: Smart Design Mart...

Exposure Festival

On Monday I am taking off for some fun and sun in Edmonton, Alberta (okay, the Canadian Prairies don't exactly conjure up images of beach weather, but believe it or not Edmonton is one of the sunniest cities in North America, especially in the winter). I'll be making art at the 5th annual Exposure: Queer Arts & Culture Festival. This is my second time exhibiting at Exposure - back in 2008 I showed Hot Topic in a show with Wednesday Lupypciw and Corissa O'Donnell. Wednesday did a performance involving the wearing of high-waisted beige pantyhose - on the outside - earning my eternal respect.

If you're in Edmonton, come out to the Papirmasse-a-thon on October 20, and the panel discussion I am chairing on making big bucks in the arts (well, enough bucks to pay your rent - see event details below).

Here are the posters I made for the festival. You can come see lots of Papirmasse at the closing party, along with drag shows and DJs and dancing!

S A L E !

In honour of my Etsy shop being back from the dead, I've put on this sale. Head on over to www.hellokirsten.etsy.com to score some almost 50% off prints!

My Etsy Shop is back from the dead

My online store took a little siesta this year. Just got too caught up with real life, I guess.

But now it is back in action! Head on over to www.hellokirsten.etsy.com to score some sweet prints. Other items will be added in the coming weeks. The newest addition is this little cutie here, my very first risograph print (I almost sold out at his world-debut at Puces Pop this past weekend - but about half of the edition of 50 are still left).

Live Painting during Pop Montreal

I'm in an Art Pop event that features live painting happening during Pop Montrea! Come see us get our art on.

With Kirsten McCrea, Dewey Guyen, Andy da Silva, Sarah Guindon, Lisa Czech, Tyler Rauman, and guests.

En Masse at the San Diego Art Fair 2011

Did some live painting with En Masse at the San Diego Art Fair a few weeks ago! With the help of fellow Montrealers Kevin Ledo, Fred Caron, Jason Botkin, and San Diego-uhh-ians(?) Mike Maxwell and Kevin Peterson, as well as Argentinian Maria Bedoian, we made 5 giant paintings over the course of the fair. Here are a few random photos of the event. You can see more on my Facebook album of the event, or by checking out the brand new www.enmasse.info!


 

 

New York Infographics

I don't have much to post about as I'm spending a month wandering the streets of New York. My partner and I realized that we could sublet our Montreal apartments and rent a place in the Big Apple for the same price as our combined rent - mind you, we collectively occupy 11 rooms in Montreal (what with two apartments and a studio), which we traded for one room in Brooklyn. Yessiree, 11 rooms for the price of 1! While I am of course enchanted with this city (and our one room here is very nice) I think the 11 to 1 ratio will keep me staying put in la belle province for the time being (we also figured out that we together have 11 years of post-secondary education, which cost us about what 1 year would at the big art schools here, so the 11 to 1 ratio holds true for more than rent).

We are spending the month here wandering around, meeting fellow art dorks, and of course just kind of being in awe of how big everything is. Biking around Manhattan is putting me in touch with my own mortality, and the incredible food and art everywhere are perking up my tired mind.

I've taken my little spare time and used it to redesign the Papirmasse website (just a minor facelift), making it more user-friendly and navigatable. I added these cute little infographics, which were really fun to make. So that's basically this post: I'm in New York, making infographics.

Cirque de Solyay!

The fine folks at Safewalls (an art project curated by Cirque du Soleil that brings the time-honoured circus poster into the 21st century, featuring the work of lowbrow artists like Tara MacPherson, Ron English, and Travis Louis) have invited En Masse to paint in the Tapis Rouge (red carpet) tent at 45 + performances of Totem this summer.

That means that we get to go 7 times a week and paint our brains out for a few hours (in teams of 2). Here's what transpired after the first session (p.s. all photos courtesy SafeWalls):

I've wanted to see a Cirque show since I was a kid. It was pretty rad getting to stroll through the gates and finally see what goes on inside these crazy tents in the Old Port. Yep, this is basically the world's best summer gig.

Check out www.safewalls.org/tapisrouge to see daily updates on what En Masse creates for Cirque du Soleil!

New Screenprinted Shirts and Posters

I love screenprinting but don't get to do it anymore myself because I learned how to print at a fancypants art school with their fancypants equipment and don't have a 5-million dollar drying machine at home (oh UV inks, so pretty, so not DIY in any way!). Someday I will learn how to screenprint the real way - in a dingy basement with a can of latex paint and some noise rock blaring - but until then I will count myself lucky when someone else steps up the plate and prints for me.

That's happened a few times this year, thanks to Threadless and Moniker. Check out the respected designs below.

Deer shirt, available through Threadless! $20. Click here to order.

For this girl-tee (and the one featured above), click here. Also $20.

The print is available through Society6, at varying sizes and prices. Check that out here. Note that this is the only thing in this post not screenprinted. They use a super pro laser printer.

And now for Moniker! The atom bomb print. Girl tank top is taupe on white, $30. Buy it here.

And the guy's version. Black on red! Also $30, check it out here. Moniker is an amazing screenprinting company here in Montreal that prints on garments made in North America and does a lot to support artists, such as the annual Machine Wash Cold/Tumble Dry Low.

And last but not least, a screenprint of my little self-conscious lucha man is available! See more here.

Lykke Li & Grimes Poster

Made a gig poster for the Lykke Li show tomorrow night in Montreal! 3 colour screenprint, 15" x 20", available soon through the Moniker website, or get in touch with me for details (kirstenmccrea -at- gmail.com).

Lykke Li with Grimes, May 21 at Metropolis.

Where Are We Going? Exquisite Corpse

I'm in the upcoming Poplar and Pine show at Latitude 53 in good ol' Dirt City (Edmonton Alberta). Last year's show asked artists to visually answer the question: Where are we from? This year P&P asks: Where are we going?

To help illustrate (err...literally) this idea, P&P is putting together a map in the style of the exquisite corpse. Each artist was invited to make a tile for the map. The only protocol was that we stuck to the four indicated exit points, so that all the maps join up nicely when tiled together.

Can't wait to see the whole thing! Here is my contribution. Where are we going? Clearly down a path of excessive gluttonous consumption...or, in a less metaphorical light: yum! Cake!

This map image is just a taste (boy, I'm on a roll here) of what's to come for the show. Every artist is also making a poster that answers the question. I'll post mine in the coming weeks, and of course if you're in Edmonton, you will for sure want to head down to the show to check out all the entries in real life.

DIY Pipe Desk with Salvaged Door

I've always wanted a really long, thin desk. Somewhere to pile my mountains of pens and paper. A few months ago a door on the street caught my eye. I dragged it home and, with a little inspiration and help from Apartment Therapy and Mary Bicycles I built this beauty using pipes from the hardware store as the base. It's really sturdy and more than big enough to hold my mountains of paper scraps. All told it cost less than $100. If I ever find a great piece of wood I might swap out the top, but I'm really happy with it now.


You can see in one of the photos that one of the legs is a little crooked. Well, one swift kick and it straightened out. I'm sure that's not the proper way to do it, but it worked...


If you want to do this yourself it's really easy. The instructions on Mary Bicycles are great. I bought the pipe at Home Depot but got it cut down and threaded at a smaller plumbing store (I would have bought the pipe there too but they only sell it in 21-foot lengths, and most of the standard sizes from HD worked - it was just the four long pieces that had to be cut from 24" to 18").

Expo Baronesque

My art on nice granite walls!

The beautiful room.

I was at the vernissage for Baronesque, the exhibition to celebrate the first-year anniversary of Baron magazine, last night. It was great! I think it was hands-down the most beautiful space I have shown work in, and definitely one of the best group shows I've been included in as well. All the work was top-notch and very inspiring. A really nice mix of mediums too.

Julien Vallée, Alice Jarry, Marc Dulude, Karine Fournier, Mike Patten, Guillaume Simoneau, Guillaume BD and Josée Lecompte shared the walls with me.

The show is up until May 21st, from 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday and noon - 5pm Saturdays. It happens in the Maison du Conseil des Arts de Montreal at 1210, rue Sherbrooke Est (the beautiful building with huge columns on the corner of Beaudry across from Parc Lafontaine).

Upcoming Shows in April

There's a lot going on this month! Here's a quick rundown of where I'll be showing my work in the coming weeks. In all cases it's in the presence of several other talented artists who I feel honoured to share a wall with.

April 12: Baronesque

I am really excited to see who else is in this show. Local art magazine Baron celebrates one year of operation by putting on an exhibition of local contemporary art. It opens Tuesday, April 12, 5 pm - 7 pm at the Maison des Conseil des Arts de Montréal, 1210 rue Sherbroooke.


April 14 - 17: Papier 11

Papier is an art fair featuring works on paper. It is a rare opportunity to catch most of the city's major contemporary art galleries under one roof, and is, in my opinion, a not-to-be-missed event. I will have never-before-seen original drawings on display at the Maison Kasini booth, where I will also be displaying Papirmasse. If I get a chance I'm going to run off to the Galerie Pangée booth to paint with En Masse.

The Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC) will open the 4th edition of PAPIER at the Place des Festivals, right in the middle of the Quartier des spectacles (coin Bleury & Maissonneuve), from April 14th to 17th 2011.


April 16: Machine Wash Cold/Tumble Dry Low

I can't wait for this one! MWC/TDL is the annual event where the super awesome screenprinting company Moniker puts artist designs on shirts, tote bags, and posters. This year the launch is bigger and better than ever, going down in a fantastic warehouse space in Griffintown. I am putting a free Papirmasse print in 50 tote bags, so make sure to arrive early if you want one! The day kicks off with a free family-friendly portion from 2pm-7pm, and then swings into full party mode from 9pm-3am. April 16th, 2011 at L’Espace Griffintown - 1314 rue Olier in Montreal. $10 after 9 pm, 18+


April 22: No Sleep Till Brooklyn

With less than a month away from their show in Brooklyn, New York at Rouge 58, Montreal based artists Alan Ganev, JP King, Tim Barnard and Regimental Oneton are putting an art show together at Underworld skate shop to raise funds for their upcoming trip and promote their latest artworks in Montreal. I'm putting a few pieces in the show too - probably some never-before-seen large format prints. No sleep 'Till Brooklyn happens at Underworld, 251 Ste-Catherine Street est from 8:00pm - 3:00am on April 22.

And last but not least...

Papirmasse is having an exhibition all month long at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Vermont. The show is up right now, and we will be hustling on down to Burlington for First Friday on May 6, 5pm - 9pm. If you're in Vermont please come say hi! It'll be a fun chance to check out Papirmasse and get a taste of the affordable art project. I am looking forward to eating ice cream, which as far as I know is a mandatory Vermont tourist activity. Check out an article on the show here: http://www.7dvt.com, and let me know if there are other fun things I should check out while I'm down there.

As always, if you come to one of my shows and we haven't met - please come say hi! I love meeting new people and haven't bitten anyone in a long time.

Another Threadless entry :)

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I've turned my latest drawing into an entry for Threadless. It's a giant patterned deer head. The more votes the better, so please stop on by and cast yours if you happen upon this while the contest is still open.

The two detail shots above show the original drawing (at the bottom, with plenty of ink variation), and a 'flat' version of one solid blue. Basically it's a two or one colour print. I'm partial to the greater variation myself - I think it adds depth. I would be curious to hear other's thoughts on this.

Click on the images to see them larger.

Finished Work

I finished this drawing ages ago, but due to a broken CD drive the scan was stuck in la-la land for several weeks. So happy to see the finished product and get a chance to put it up here!

It's just Sharpie on paper, pretty large (about 22" x 30" if memory serves...). Click on the image for a better view.

I've been drawing a lot lately, so there will be more to come in the next few weeks.