Category: Art

Nugget of Awesome Interviews: Christa Couture

I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing a series of interviews with some lovely creative types I want to share with you. Since I’m heading to Alberta this summer maybe I have gold rush on my mind, but truly, each of the women I’ll feature here is a golden nugget of excellence in the career she’s carved out for herself!  Therefore, I am delighted to present the inaugural:

Pocket Alchemy Nugget of Awesome Interviews: eight  interviews with eight inspiring, artistic, self-starting women over the eight weeks of summer. I am proud to call each of them friend and am delighted to share them and their work here. Please note that I am replacing my regular Rearview Fridays posts with these interviews over the summer.

THE INTRODUCTION

Christa Couture. Photo by Jennifer Picard.

CHRISTA COUTURE is my oldest friend — I’ve know her for 29 of my 34 years, truly amazing. And we happen to share a birthday though I’m a year older, which used to see like an advantage but now, well, I’m simply closer to 40 than her, ha ha on me. Christa is awesome, she defies words. Her primary artistic work is music and I often have her on repeat when I’m cooking or sewing making the miles between us fold up. Of course I have to be biased, but honestly, I just really enjoy her music. As a person and an artist Christa’s stories make me laugh til I snort and equally turn me inside-out with grief. Her wit is ferocious, her bravery and trueness are unparalleled.  PS: Christa’s also a great graphic designer. In fact, she designed my logo!

THE BIO

From the start, Vancouver’s Christa Couture established herself as a singer-songwriter with sharp-shooting wit, effortless grace and heart-on-sleeve intensity. Since her critically acclaimed debut album, FELL OUT OF OZ (2005), and her sophomore record, THE WEDDING SINGER AND THE UNDERTAKER (2008), she has explored intimate spaces with a frank confidence that avoids cliché and melodrama. Her “gorgeously intimate voice [is] somewhere between the tough vulnerability of Amy Rigby and the passionate, sophisticated folk of Joni Mitchell” (Pop Matters), while Tandem (Toronto) predicts she “could be the next Canuck to enjoy the success of Sarah Harmer or Kathleen Edwards.” 

THE WEDDING SINGER AND THE UNDERTAKER hit the Top 10 on CBC Radio 3 and won Best Folk Acoustic Album at the 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. Couture was also nominated for Best Female Artist and performed at the awards gala at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, which was televised nationally on CityTV.

After a two year hiatus to have her second child, Couture returned to work with the digital release of two new EPs in June 2011. LOVED featured five fan favourites – a “best of” Couture’s songs from the past six years. LOST included five unreleased songs from the same time period – an alternate arrangement that got cut from a record at the last minute, three songs from a side project that was never released, and an early demo of one of Couture’s first songs.

2011 performance highlights included the Winnipeg Folk Festival, JunoFEST and Aboriginal Music Week in Winnipeg.

This year is shaping up to see this emerging artist take the spotlight with the release of her Steve Dawson produced, third full-length album, THE LIVING RECORD, in September and a cross-Canada tour to support it. Before that, summer 2012 will include festival performances at Aboriginal Day Live, All Folked Up in Montmartre, ArtsWells, Trout Fest and Desert Daze.

Christa’s new lyric video for her song You Were Here In Michigan, the first single from THE LIVING RECORD, was just released. The words and sketching are by her husband, artist Nick Lakowski. It was made with over 1400 photos and a lot of eyeliner!

[vimeo 45080595 w=500 h=281]

Christa Couture – lyric video “You Were Here in Michigan” from Christa Couture on Vimeo.

THE INTERVIEW

Pocket Alchemy Question: Tell me about your artistic work.

Christa Couture: At the best of times I’m a singer, songwriter and performer. That’s where my heart takes me, and sometimes it also pays the bills. When it doesn’t, I also enjoy work as a graphic designer, and as the editor at RPM.fm.

PAQ: what is currently sparking your imagination?

CC: My friends. I have really amazing friends who plant ideas in my mind all the time by also doing what they love and excel at.

Christa Couture at Winnipeg Folk Festival 2011. Photo by Myia Davar.

PAQ: How do you structure and manage your days/weeks/months to get it all in? Do you have micro/macro plans that you stick to?

CC: I make lists. My Google calendar is the big picture guide, an ever updated word doc on my desktop is the ongoing to-do list, and short term reminders get written on scraps of paper that get lost in a pile before they every get to fulfill their purpose.

PAQ:  What is a current favourite resource or material?

CC: Ukulele.

PAQ:  Give me 4 great songs to work to!

CC: Love and Anger by Kate Bush | Felling the Pull by Swell Season | Graceland by Paul Simon | Red Skin Girl by Northern Cree (A Tribe Called Red Remix).

PAQ:  What about your work keeps you up at night (for good or ill!)?

CC: The money it will take.

PAQ:  How has your aesthetic evolved over the years?

CC: Slowly.

THE WRAP UP

Check out the Christa Couture website for more info and links. She’s touring this summer and is so worth the listen, live or recorded. Christa will uplift you and wrench your guts, she will make you giggle and sigh … it’s a great ride. I’ll personally be watching her live on July 8th in Regina, SK during the 5th leg of my cross-country tour de family. So excited to see her in a city that belongs to neither of us! 

Twitter: @christacouture

Facebook: officialchristacouture

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Check out the other Nugget of Awesome Interviews:

July 13th: Lindsay Zier-Vogel

July 20th: Bess Callard

July 27th: Quinn Covington

August 6th: Michelle Silagy

August 10th: Siobhan Topping

August 17th: Jennifer Dallas

August 24th: Susie Burpee

Rearview Fridays: Folk Art Eggs, Pysanka-styles!

I made this pair of folk-arty pysanky for my mom about 17 years ago. And she still has them! They dried, they didn’t rot, amazing. I was super-duper into folky-hippie-arty suns and moons at the time as you can see! I couldn’t believe it when I saw them at her house a couple of months  ago. But I should back up and tell you how I learned this Ukrainian art form in the first place …

When I was almost too old to for summer camp I went to a day camp that blew my mind. We got to be pioneers for 5 whole days at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village! I did it for 2 or 3 years I think, and then I worked as a volunteer ’cause I was too old to be a camper but I really wanted to be a pioneer at least once per summer still. And then I worked as a leader of the program, because I could not get enough of being a pioneer! I still love a good historic site, but the UCHV has never been topped for me. If you’re ever in the Edmonton area, you must go, it’s an unforgettable experience. You will be forever moved by the tenacity of the settlers of Western Canada and the richness of the culture that the Ukrainians carried with them over the brutal miles of untamed Canada.

Here I am at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village on the old ferry, circa 1996. Can you think of a more beautiful place to work and be? The town site is in the background.

Honestly, those were some of the best days of my life. Both campers and program leaders (along with the interperters there) dressed in historically accurate clothing. For the ladies that meant brown cotton stockings held up with penny garters, cotton bloomers and slips and drop-waisted cotton print dresses. And to top it off, hustkas, the colourful, flowered woollen headscarves.

We became members of the families in the farm and town sites, we ground grain, “shopped” at the old store, fed animals, made meals from scratch, fetched water, rode in wagons and old cars, smithed tiny horseshoes, weighed grain at the elevator, dipped candles, packed ice in the ice chest, pumped gas at the hand pump, sent out Morse code messages at the train station, went to school and church (there are 3 varieties on the historic site there!) Can you think of a better way to spend a summer? I cannot. It was the best summer job ever.

And each week we made Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs. Witness Susan in heaven. Beeswax melting, pots of dye waiting, delicate eggs ready for art. We worked from traditional Ukrainian patterns, though none of mine have survived. I did get my own kystka (if you scroll down in the link you’ll see beautiful eggs and then some lovely hands working with a kystka), the tool for drawing with heated beeswax on the eggs.

Each pysanka is made with a process exactly like batik. A layer of beeswax is drawn on the egg to seal in the white of the original surface, then the egg is dyed the lightest colour you want (traditionally yellow).  Next a layer of wax designs over the yellow seal it in, then it’s dyed orange, draw, dye red, draw and so on through to black (or whatever your darkest colour will be). Then all the wax is heated and wiped away and a colourful egg appears, its magic, alchemy really! For these eggs I evidently drew the entire piece on the white egg and then layered the dye colours.

And lastly, you really should check out the Giant Pysanka in Vegreville, Alberta. Happy weekend!

Rearview Fridays: Clothesline (an art book!)

I haven’t posted a Rearview Friday for, whoa, five weeks now! Oh dear. Well, there have been all sort of adventures and emergent situations and I decided it’d be okay to give ’em a rest for a while, just didn’t mean for it to be so many weeks. And I miss my Rearview Fridays! So without further ado, I offer up a project from 2006 that I made with my oft-collaborator Lindsay Zier-Vogel.

It’s a book called “Clothesline.” Lindsay proposed the idea to me, a wordless art book that she’d bind and I’d make little clothes for. Little? I love little! Making my own clothes? Correct. I love that too. I said yes.

I remember having a lot of fun sewing the tiny slip skirts, pants, shirts and dresses. figuring out the scale for the frames, deciding on colour and fussing with the tiny seams. And they all work — tie or clip or snap. Because that is how I roll.

The book looks charming on a shelf, zig-zagging along. I have to find a place for mine (hmmm, maybe the mantle …) Clothesline is bound accordion-style with ribbon seams and each page is a paper-clad frame for the clothing pieces.

Clothesline was displayed at Toronto’s Type Books in its basement gallery during one of Lindsay’s installations of her hand-bound book creations.

There are only three copies of Clothesline in existence! Though I discovered one more set of tiny clothes while cleaning out an old fabric box a few days ago (I must have made four sets), which is what inspired me to dig this beauty out to share here. So if anyone wants to commission one, and Zier-Vogel is in the mood to bind one more …

Velcro Baby and Love Letters with a 4-year-old

A love letter “posted” in a bike basket full of flowers. All photos in this post by Lindsay Zier-Vogel, the Love Letterer herself!

 

 

I haven’t written specifically about the kids or the mothering in a while. We are truckin’ along and I am riding the ever shifting balance of being home with two energetic, gorgeous boys. Gene is now 9-months-old and he is suddenly Captain Velcro, meaning he’s stuck to me like glue every waking moment. He’s utterly content if he’s on me, but the minute I try to leave — and by leave, I mean to go, say, get the mail or make some lunch, something innocent and necessary like that — he’s panicing, weeping, wailing piercingly, heartrendingly. He falls asleep clutching a handful of my breast in case the food source should try and sneak off whilst he’s at rest! He’s realized in earnest that I can disappear and that he doesn’t know when I’ll be back. And this consciousness has led to paranoia on a grand scale! Of course it’s normal and good and I’m so glad to see him evolve, even if sometimes I find myself trying to go pee with an infant stuck to me, which is no easy feat. I surrender a lot these days and just lie on the floor or in bed and let him satellite around me, maybe fold laundry or read but often just be there (at the cost of cleanliness or order in the house, but this too shall pass!) We have lots of giggles and gazing sessions together and he continues to charm me silly.

Then there’s Rudi, now 4 years old. He’s suddenly so grown up! He’s still got his powerful will Will WILL intact but I am finding that the near constant butting of heads that we’ve been playing at for the past few months is easing up. He is more independent than ever, he makes his own toast now and is so proud to “make breakfast!” He is a little more logical, a little more worldly. He can wait when I ask him too, knowing that it won’t be interminable. And we are starting to have little moments of, for lack of a better way to put it, hanging out. As mom and son rather than mom and toddler. I take him out once in a while without Gene because even though I’m with both boys all day, my attention is divided and Gene usually gets more of me. So I jumped at the opportunity to take Rudi to go Love Lettering last week with my friend, the indomitable artist Lindsay Zier-Vogel.

Choosing his Love Lettering materials carefully.

The Love Lettering Project is a community arts project bringing love letters to strangers. Lindsay’s been at it for eight years now and gained all sorts of local and national attention last year. The project grows by leaps and bounds each year and I “love” it (a-ha-ha). This year, she’s setting up at various community events, inviting people to write a love letter to something they love about their city and then leave it anonymously for someone to find — which will surly brighten the days of all involved! Rudi and I went to The Avro in Toronto’s East end for PAL-SAC‘s (Post A Letter Social Activity Club) night hosting The Love Lettering Project. We chatted, he had water in a pint glass, worked diligently on a love letter to The Secret Park (which is near our house, but I can’t say where exactly, what with it being Secret and all) and chatted up the locals. Then we went for burnt-marshmallow ice cream at Ed’s. It was a good night!

Working oh-so carefully on his Love Letter to The Secret Park in Toronto. I love the white finger tips on his left hand!

I loved being able to chat with Rudi without the divided attention necessary when I’m  solo with the two boys. We are so much calmer together when we’re alone together. I think there’s a lesson in there for me somewhere! I’m sure it has a lot to do with my tension level. I am constantly amazed by what mirrors we are as parents. Rudi so often reflects how I am, and he’s got keen senses, because I can’t be faking calm, he’ll still pick up on the turmoil underneath if it’s there. So cheers to one-on-one dates with 4-year-olds, with sons, and cheers to love letters. And to velcro, can’t forget the velcro …

Love Letter accomplished and sealed. Now time for delivery …

Pitching our Encampment Tents

My regular dance collaborator and dear friend Brittany Duggan invited me to join her in creating two tents for The Encampment by Thomas and Guinevere. I probably didn’t need one more thing to be involved in but oh, this has been so inspiring and intoxicating. And I have to share what we’ve come up with!

Unravelling Powdered Wig, detail shot (part of the William Powell tent). Modelled by Brittany Duggan, made by Susan Kendal. Tyvec, staples and scotch tape, 2012.

The Encampment (Toronto Version 2012) has been commissioned by City of Toronto for the War of 1812 Commemoration and Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity. It’s an art installation that will stand on the grounds of Toronto’s Fort York National Historic Site during Luminato from June 8-17. The Encampment will stay up at Fort York until June 24.

For The Encampment, 200 tents are being pitched to reflect the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Inside each one is an artistic interpretation of someone who lived and breathed during that period. It’s fascinating to walk around and see the care, curiosity and creativity rendered by the collaborating artists.

Our Anne Powell tent.

Brittany signed up to participate in The Encampment a while ago and has done an enormous amount of research on our two historic figures. That’s when she invited me to come along, brainstorm and create — um, that’s my favourite!

The historic people Brittany chose for us to interpret in our tents are:

Anne Powell (born in Montreal in 1787, died at sea in 1822)

William Dummer Powell (born in Boston in 1755, died in Toronto in 1834)

Our William Dummer Powell tent (with Brittany Duggan contemplating the work).

The Toronto Public Library’s Digital Archive has a beautiful drawing by William Dummer Powell showing proposed buildings at Caer Howell (the family house) from the 1830s. It’s location is listed “n. of Queen St. W., w. of University Ave.” If you know that area of Toronto try to stop and imagine it as bucolic as this, I am amazed at how different things looked 200 years ago! the image is in the public domain so I’ll include it here along with the link above, courtesy of the TPL:

Rearview Fridays: Wedding Recipe Book

When I married Adam in the fall of 2003, I knew that I wanted to do something handmade and and not too kitschy. I decided recipe books would be sweet and doable for 70-odd guests. My friend Lindsay Zier-Vogel had been making hardcover art books for a while at that point and taught me how.

We filled the pages with recipes from a lot of the important women in our lives, moms and grandmas, aunts and godmothers. And it was very appropriate since we had a potluck wedding, which was best borrowed idea ever, cost effective and perhaps more important, it lent a real sense of community to the event, people went all out and made beautiful contributions for the dinner.

I had a great time with myself, picking out paper and working late nights in our cozy basement apartment, typing, paginating, measuring, cutting, stitching and gluing while Adam coached basketball. If he didn’t know before, that project must have showed him just how serious about handmade-craftiness his lady was!

Almost 9 years later I still use our wedding recipe book regularly, it sits on the shelf with our other recipe books and boxes. When I open it I see the names of women near and far, here and gone who are dear and essential to us and I can conjure them by cooking up a little goodness from their own kitchens.

The Veggie Vag Mug!

VEGGIE VAG MUGS!?!? 

That’s right, now you can order your very own Veggie Vag mug!

After a recent post about my editing/writing trio and our fictitious company Veggie Vag a number of people said they loved the mug so much and wanted one. So I thought I’d make them available on CafePress. Now you too can drink your coffee in … style?! And you’ll feel the eternal love of the Veggie Vag and our faithful Dane. Much respect to Veggie-Vagger Christa Couture for the inspired design.

Rearview Fridays: Juliet doll (best H.S. Eng. project ever)

This may be the oldest project of mine that I ever manage to feature here on Rearview Fridays! It’s a doll I made for a high school project, circa 1994. I remembered her when I featured a couple of other dolls I’d made a few years ago on a recent Rearview Fridays post. I can’t believe she’s in such good condition and that I’ve managed to carry her with me all these years.

May I introduce, Juliet Capulet:

In Alberta’s grade 10 English curriculum, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was par for the course. I had as awesome English teacher, Mr. Young, hands down the most inspiring teacher of my high school career. He was a great juxtaposition of art and jock. He’d been a wrestler in his youth, injuries sustained made him walk with a roiling gait, and he had these giant forearms. He was also passionate about basketball, running a huge national invitational basketball tournament every year. On the other hand he taught English, was the head of the department, and ran the school’s Shakespeare Club (of which I was a member of course). And he was utterly passionate and practical about language and stories and history.

Every year he assigned one project where we could do anything BUT write an essay. Our teenage-minds were blown! It was an arts high school, called Victoria Composite High School at the time and we were exploding with creativity. The excitement was palpable for this assignment in the 10AP class. I think I learned more about Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet and their times because of this project. I researched clothing, costumes, hair, payed close attention to the details of the play. One girl made a dance film, monologues were performed, a guy even forged a sword. Forged a sword! I made a Juliet doll — shocking, I know.

As I look at her today, I am amazed at my 16-year-old self. I started with a basic Waldorf doll, which I figured out myself by looking at other ones. I remember being so proud of how her eyes came out, painting lips and irises with such care. I picked natural fibres like cotton, wool and cotton velvet, dyed the fabric for her skin with tea, did a lot of the stitching by hand. Her hair is black cotton yarn, thick and waist-length. I crocheted burgundy lace for her dress, I even crocheted a snood, a freaking snood! I want to squeeze my overachieving, unstoppable self from 1994, tell her that she’s awesome. That she shouldn’t take the next 16 years to really feel comfortable in her skin because she’s great, extraordinary as is.

Juliet has a little lace and cheesecloth slip that ties at the back, it’s so sweet and innocent. Her dress is rich and heavy and closes with hooks and eyes at the back. Then to top it all off there’s a secret pocket under the top layer of the dress with a wee foil dagger and a corked foil vial, which, of course, has green beeswax in it so if you uncork it you see “poison”. Of course. Cause I like details. Ahem.

Mr. Young really believed in me and encouraged my shy, unsure self to trust my natural writing abilities. I am still surprised that I ended up working as a writer editor and administrator at a magazine for over 10 years without planning or training in that direction, but I think a lot of it has to do with some seeds of trust and inspiration planted in me by Mr. Young. I am forever grateful.

I’m also amused to remember that I simply am a creative creature, it’s who I’ve always been and who I am delighted to continue to be.

Cheers Juliet. Thanks for the memories.

Man-gifts and tag progress

April has been rife with birthdays among our family and friends. Including my husband Adam’s. We’ve been together for 11 years now, so while he’s easy to buy for in some ways (scotch is a good go-to), the creative lady in me always tries to do or get something crafty and handmade for him, something special and unique, unpredictable. I’ve made flannel pants with a cool basketball print, knitted iPod cases, sewed an amp cover and so on. But honestly, I find man gifts tough. I was stumped and running out of time this year, so I perused Etsy! I found a fantastic blacksmith named Benjamin Westbrook, and his shop hammeronsteel, who forges lovely, simple, rough-hewn bottle openers. Amazing! I was sold! And Adam loves it (hurray, victory!) so I had to share in case anyone else out there is struggling for an awesome man gift.

I got the opener personalized with Adam’s last name and the dates of our boys birth. It’ll be a keeper at the cottage in the summer for long lazy days full of sweaty beer bottles, dirty, content kids and that true far-from-the-city quiet that’s not really quiet at all!  Sigh.

— — —

I continue to work towards opening an Etsy shop of my own with a projected opening date of August this year. I’m waiting to build up some stock, get my tagging and mailing and tracking, etc all organised so I can hit the ground running, and do some fall craft fairs too. Also to spend Gene’s whole first year without a bunch of hard deadlines since I have the grace of a maternity leave.

That said, I got an order for my, ahem, awesome Burp Pads from a friend and I thought I’d take the opportunity to design and make some product tags when I sent her order out. Here they are drying from being stamped. I had to go with a pocket shape of course!

I used clear labels to put the product info on the back of the tag. It’s my first time using them and I am in love, they look so clean and profesh!

And lastly, I made little Lavender Ravioli Sachets to include in my orders as a thank you. Lavender feels like the right choice with baby things, so calming and great for keeping clothes and linens fresh. Even acts as a natural moth repellant!

One thing that I love about receiving orders from Etsy craftspeople is that often they will toss in a memento or small sample of another product. It’s memorable and sweet and I love the neighbourly feel it gives as a recipient. So I’m going to join the ranks, and it’s a great way to use the ends of flannel that I hate to toss!

Rearview Fridays: Knitted Organs

Today I think it’s time to share another knitting project for Rearview Fridays, 3 dimensional internal organs! I made them as costume pieces for a dance I choreographed last year called Organ Stories. The story of the dance itself will be  one for another Rearview Friday, I have to upload some video and want to give the dance it’s due here. And these organs deserve their stand-alone own entry.

This first shot is of The Uterus, with me and dancer Krista Posyniak getting organised for a rehearsal in June 2011. I was super-duper pregnant with Gene!

Inspiration: The Heart

In 2009 I knitted an anatomical heart for my husband for Valentine’s day, which he thought was weird, but I also like to think he secretly loves that I do such things! I sought out a pattern online since I didn’t really know where to start and was amazed at all the anatomical patterns people had come up with. Here’s the heart pattern I used, it’s by Kristin Ledgett of The Knit Cafe in Toronto.

I also knitted a heart that year for a wee boy named Ford, my friend’s son who was in hospital with complications from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Sometimes when I’m at a loss when those I cherish are in a hard spot, making something is the only way I can think of to show my deep love. I pour my thoughts and goodness and hope into my hours of work, and I hope, I believe, that the object carries the weight of that love. Ford is no longer alive, but I’m glad my knitted heart sat beside him and his mom, who is so dear to me, for a while. So this piece is especially tender for me.

The Lungs

I chose 4 organs that I’d make short solos about. The dancer spoke about facts and emotional associations of each organ and then danced a little organ-specific solo — like a lecture-demo on physiology through dance!

Here are the lungs, they tie around the neck and have super-strong earth magnets on the back that stick to a blouse with magnets sewn into it. I developed my own pattern from a few different ones I looked at online, but I didn’t write it down since I modified as I went, argh! Ah well, there’s next time.

The Uterus

This one made me giggle as I made it. And it was great when people would ask me what I was making, particularly because I was obviously pregnant while I was knitting! It was a highly appropriate organ to be knitting in my condition. I worked directly from a lovely, easy to follow pattern on Knitty by MK Carroll. I’ve also made this as a gift for my midwives, the lovely ladies that saw my boys into the world. Best midwife or obstetrician gift ever!

The Brain

The Brain I concocted myself. I used a great little Blue Whoville Hat Pattern as a base, though I modified a lot of things, made it bigger, alternated knit and purl for the earflaps so that they’d be more smooth than the original and did away with the ribbed band in the original.

Then I made miles and miles and miles of i-cord that I sewed onto the hat like a brain. It was fun to tell people that I was knitting my brain, have them look at the looooooooog cord, scratch their heads and walk away wondering about my sanity … but my plan worked! Here it is:

And lastly, I leave you with a shot from the performance of Organ Stories in July 2011. Here’s the slightly frazzled Professor Posyniak with her spectacles on and her Judy covered in organs. You can see the magnets sewn onto her blouse that the organs stick to for each solo. She was just finished lecturing about the brain and was about to dance it, which as mentioned before I’ll share in video form on another day:

This photo by Andréa de Keijzer, the dancer is Krista Posyniak.

Happy Friday everyone, hope that you’ll never look at your organs the same now that you’ve made it through this post …