Tag: Lindsay Zier-Vogel

Nugget of Awesome Interviews: Bess Callard

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

Bess Callard and her son Edwin.

BESS CALLARD and I were students together at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. We were in different years but I remember watching Bess dance. She had a simple, efficient, calm and sophisticated way of interpreting, she was arresting yet subtle. I think those qualities have travelled with her into her graphic design work. Her charming custom name art graces my sons’ room and her Everyday Objects Calendar graces my kitchen wall, giving me a smile as I walk by and reminding me ever-so-pleasingly of the date. Bess’ blog offered inspiration in my own blogging start up, and I am excited to see how she and shifted from one professional artistic passion to another while negotiating independent work in the midst of early motherhood.

THE BIO

Bess Callard is an illustrator, graphic designer, and sometimes dancer. In 2006, after a successful career in contemporary dance, she began the transition to the world of design.

Going back to school to pursue her new passion, Bess attended The School of Design at George Brown College in Toronto before she had the opportunity to move to Europe. Bess spent three years living in Vienna and travelling throughout Europe.

While living abroad Bess found she had the time and freedom to explore what she was most passionate about and founded her children’s illustration company, English Muffin. English Muffin offers beautiful, fun and educational prints and posters for kids. It was through this venture that she honed her skills as an illustrator and made her initial foray into entrepreneurship.

Upon returning to Canada, Bess was offered the opportunity to illustrate for the online magazine Pure Green Magazine. Since then the magazine has made the leap to print and Bess is an integral part of the design team. Pure Green Magazine is available across Canada, the US and Europe and currently publishing its third volume in print.

Originally from Toronto, Bess is currently living with her husband, new baby boy and miniature pinscher in Montréal.

THE INTERVIEW

Pocket Alchemy Question: Tell me about your artistic work.

Bess Callard: I am an illustrator and graphic designer. I create prints and posters for my children’s illustration company and illustrate for a quarterly publication, Pure Green Magazine. 

PAQ: what is currently sparking your imagination?

BC: I recently had a baby boy and find my inspiration and imagination wrapped up in him. It’s a joy to watch him discover the world around him and I love the adventures he takes me on. As a parent I don’t think one can help but see the world through the eyes of your child, the beauty in the simplicity of colours, shapes and patterns is something we’re both very interested in these days.  

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?

BC: Oh, Susan, what a question for a new mom! I used to work off of a handwritten daily to do list, I’ve tried online to do lists (my favourite being Teux Deux) but there’s just something about being able to make changes on the fly and apply my own scribbles and notes as the day goes on that I can’t let go of, and, crossing things off is the best part. I would have long-term plans, projects I’d like to accomplish and goals for the shop. It is really important to have at least the next three months planned out when working in an industry where seasonal holidays and themes are so important. These days however, my son Edwin is my fulltime job, and I try to take care of small projects while he’s napping or asleep for the night. It really is a one-day-at-a-time operation around here now.

Bess’s serene, simple work space.

PAQ:  What is a current favourite resource or material?

BC: I love the paper I print on. It took me a long time to find 100% recycled paper suitable for high quality printing, but I did it! The texture, look and feel are just perfect for printing English Muffin prints on.

PAQ:  Give me 4 great songs to work to!

BC: These ones are on my “get your butt in gear” playlist:

Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’ by Mayer Hawthorne | In Spirit Golden by I Blame Coco | Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine | Dance Dance Dance by Lykke Li

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

BC: I love a new project and the anticipation of starting work on something new is usually what will keep my mind busy as I’m trying to fall asleep. Figuring out a tricky design problem or thinking about how best to convey an idea, especially when I’m working on layouts or illustrations for Pure Green Magazine, will also keep me up.

Some English Muffin pieces by Bess Callard.

PAQ:  How has your aesthetic evolved over the years?

BC: I think it has evolved to become more “me”. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten braver and more confident in expressing my voice and ideas. I’m less concerned with what’s “on trend”, and what others in my field are doing. It’s great to be inspired by your contemporaries but I’ve found that my favourite illustrators and designers are the ones that have developed their own style. I strive to stay as true to my own artistic voice as possible. 

THE WRAP UP

There you go, Bess Callard/English Muffin, a solid favouite! Bess’s English Muffin blog  is so worth following — I particularly enjoy her recurring perfect pairs. Check out her work in Pure Green Magazine (and support a new magazine, hurray!) or look to her shop for wonderful maps, prints and custom name art using her original alphabet.

The English Muffin Shop on Etsy

Pure Green Magazine

Twitter: @BessCallard

Facebook: English Muffin

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Check out the other Nugget of Awesome Interviews:

July 6th: Christa Couture

July 13th: Lindsay Zier-Vogel

July 27th: Quinn Covington

August 6th: Michelle Silagy

August 10th: Siobhan Topping

August 17th: Jennifer Dallas

August 24th: Susie Burpee

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 …

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.

Veggie Vag: where make-believe and pratical collide

This post is in praise of the dreamers and creators. The brave ones and silly ones who still play house and superheros and make mud pies when they’re adults. It’s also a little love story to 2 great friends of mine …

(L to R) Christa Couture, Maria Kendal, Susan Kendal, James Kendal and Lindsay Zier-Vogel at Susan's wedding in September 2003. Photo by Rhya Tamasauskas. Christa, Susan and Lindsay are the charter members of their company Veggie Vag. As far as we know this is the only photo of all 3 of us together since we are rarely all in the same place at the same time. What a shame! We'll do a shoot next time we're together. Though we are all very young and foxy in this one ...

I am fortunate to be surrounded by folks who are bursting with imagination, the kindred spirits that Anne of Green Gables was always keeping an eye out for. There are 2 such friends with whom I am having a most excellent, ongoing “practical-make-believe” adventure — Christa Couture and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, wonderful women and artists in their own rights, musician/designer and writer/book-maker respectively ( check them out, they are extraordinary).

And what is our awesome practical-make-believe game? We have a “company” called Veggie Vag. It sounds just rude enough that it makes us giggle, hard.

We even have a logo that Christa, in a fit of procrastination, sass and hilarity, used her graphic design skills wisely (?!) to create a few months ago:

Veggie Vag started about a year ago. You might ask, is it about vegetables? Or, is it about vaginas? Both would be fair questions. Veggie Vag is not really about either, other than the fact that we’re all ladies. And we do like veggies. It’s really mostly about editing. And being friends across miles of space and life. And being hilarious to ourselves.

We were all busy with applications, building websites and so on (the usual) around this time last year and were often editing for each other, enjoying getting the value of 2 perspectives on our work. We started to joke that we were like a collective. Then we decided we were a collective, which meant we needed a wicked acronym. Christa came up with both, she’s the most clever of us, hands down. VEG was first, it stands for “Virtual Editors Group,” which was funny and accurate. But then she said wouldn’t it be more awesome if we were authors — well, Lindsay actually is an author — then we’d be the “Virtual Authors Group,” ahem, VAG, which was infinitely more funny than veg. Put them together and we are really, virtually (as it were) the unstoppable Veggie Vag!

The cool thing is that between the 3 of us we’ve edited grants and “About” pages and difficult emails and cover letters. I got an amazing logo by being a member (thanks Christa!) and we’ve all  had a lot of success with the things we’ve edited for each other. Not only do we have this ah-mazing faux company together, we are quite useful to each other. Keeps us in regular contact too, which is brilliant!

Here’s what my co-founders have to say about Veggie Vag:

Lindsay Zier-Vogel: The Veggie Vag is an editing machine, a sounding board, a safety net and cheerleading squad. It’s a place to daydream and blue-sky and hammer out details. Every grant and proposal and project description that passes through these diligent hands is all the better for it. It’s a thoughtful and hilarious editing collective that keeps three of us closer than I ever could’ve imagined. Whoopi, Cate and Julianne should be so lucky to play us in our biopic …

Christa Couture: What started as occasionally asking friends for editorial advice grew into a collective, not quite formal, but steadfast and dedicated, of three women supporting each other’s work. My own work is better for the input of the Veggie Vag, and I love being up to date with, if not also being helpful to, the work of my co-Vag-ers. The Veggie Vag is friendship and artistry combined — a team of writers, thinkers, brainstormers, schemers, planners and best of all cheerleaders … cheerleaders in yellow pant suits and berets. Or spandex. Depending.

[IMPORTANT ASIDE: With “yellow pant suits and berets” Christa’s referring to Je M’appelle Steve, a brilliant YouTube clip we at Veggie Vag like to watch over and over til we cry with laughter. The more you watch it, the funnier it gets.]

Veggie Vag even has an assistant! His name is Dane. Dane Joseph McKellen. He’s fabulous. He’s shower fresh even at 4pm. He anticipates our needs. Dane shows up with a latte just before you realize you need one. Dane reminds you of impending deadlines and copies all the grants. Dane keeps extra mascara and tampons in his desk drawer. Dane orders Thai when you’re working late. Dane put fresh flowers on your desk and clears the boardroom air with aromatherapy.

I could go on and on about Dane, he’s a gem. Dane even has a twitter page, of course, @daneofalltrades. If you’d like to check him out, drop him a line to tell him he’s doing great or ask for some wardrobe advice, do it! But don’t try and lure him to your company, he’s ours and is as loyal as the day is long.

I got mugs made for our 1st anniversary this month. Dane reminded me that it had been a year since we named ourselves and signed the lease on our excellent, 2,800 square foot downtown Toronto loft offices. He suggested that mugs would be particularly classy. I agreed. And every morning I drink tea and think of my Veggie Vag ladies, standing by should I need some extra eyes and perspectives. Or a laugh. Or commiseration.

I am a dreamer. I love imagining and make-believing and creating — so much so that artist and creator became my profession, it seemed inevitable and obvious to me from a young age. I choreograph and dance, I make and inhabit worlds and ideas of my choosing and construction. I sew and craft, imagining and creating what I hope or suspect might work in fabric or paper.

I also spend a few hours teaching creative dance to wee kids each week, which allows me to gallop as a horse, swirl as a wind storm, dart as a fish. It’s a space to remember the fantastic, immense imaginations we are born with. That we have the capacity to believe the impossible into all-sorts-of-possible at our start, but often squelch or embarrass or forget that faith right out of ourselves.

Cheers to make-believing, even, or perhaps especially when you’re an adult. That’s it for this Veggie-Vagger, over and out.


Super Birthday Cape!

There is a birthday in the wings at my house. On Saturday Rudi turns 4!

I rarely get to my sewing machine to make 1-off projects for my own kids anymore. But I really wanted to make him something by hand from me for this birthday and a cape seemed the obvious route to go since he’s super-duper into being SUPER these days. So I burned some midnight oil and made a pattern, and it’s on it’s way to being done:

A slippery sport-jersey side with a giant, super R-for-Rudi “R”:

And a navy cotton side with an outer space patch for my “planek” loving laddie. I hope he never learns to say planet. Planek is so very cute.

Give me a half hour with this baby tonight and I’ll have the hem done and a collar with fastener made. Then the wrapping begins. And the excitement mounts!

—

A few weeks ago, Rudi was wondering how to write his name, so I showed him. And he worked so hard to do it, I had to take a picture! What a wonderful revelation to find the letters that make your name and to be able to make them with your own hand. He’s so proud. Shoot, I’m so proud! Here it is:

And then my clever, amazing, ultra-productive friend Lindsay Zier-Vogel took that first scribing-of-the-name and …

… wait for it …

… embroidered it for his birthday! Rudi is delighted, I’m verklempt. What a profoundly simple, special gift  idea, thank you Linds. And here it is, being shown off by the just-about-4-year-old hands:

Rearview Friday: Costume Dolls

I was talking about dolls with a friend last night and my mind wandered in it’s dusty reaches to recall some of the dolls I’ve made in the past. I think it’s time to share these little ladies for today’s Rearview Friday!

I made them, wee versions of us, as a gift for my co-choreographer Lindsay Zier-Vogel on the premiere of our dance work Edith and Eliza in the spring of 2006. The dolls are based on Waldorf dolls (that’s right I was a Waldorf kid! And I have a deep sentimental fondness for these little dolls with the simple faces). If you want to know more about Waldorf dolls, I found a lovely how-to here by Amber Dusick, who also happens to be the brilliant lady behind Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. I am a big fan. You probably should be too.

Anyhoooo, back to the dolls: in addition to sort of looking like Lindsay and me, the dolls are dressed in tiny versions of costumes from 2 of our collaborative dance projects, seen in full size and context below. As you can see they each have an envelope. This is because part of our creative process for Edith and Eliza was to actually write and post letters to each other as “Edith” and “Eliza”, fictitious war brides we created to develop a story behind the dance. Some of the text from these letters was woven into the soundscore as a narration. Each letter snaps onto the dolls hand and actually has a wee letter in it. Because I am awesome. And obviously humble. But seriously, it was a really fulfilling creative process. The the doll making was a cherry-on-top project in the fun department.

The dances that the doll’s costumes were made to honour:

Susanne Chui and Jennifer Dallas in Whistling Matilda, a dance film by Rhys Brisbin, Susan Kendal and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, 2004. Photo: Linsday Zier-Vogel.
Susan Kendal in Edith and Eliza by Susan Kendal and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, 2006. Photo: Ted Zier-Vogel.

And lastly, our lovely selves with the dollies. Just before we went into the theatre for the premiere. Edith and Eliza and the costume dolls were the last major dance and crafty-sewing projects I worked on before becoming pregnant and a mommy. Feels like a lifetime ago, but not in a bad way. Just a “huh” way. Life was so utterly different then!

Susan Kendal and Lindsay Zier-Vogel outside the Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto. Showing off the costume dolls just before the premiere of our work Edith and Eliza, part of the Series 8:08 Season Finale, May 2006. Photo: Andrea Roberts.

Cheers to art, all kinds of it, making our lives so full. Happy Friday folks.

Rearview Fridays: Dresses for Cedar Stories

In August of 2001 I had my first professional gig as a dancer. Freshly minted from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program, I felt a 50/50 mix of apprehension/excitement about life in dance. The choreographer and employer was my dear friend and regular collaborator (to this day!) Lindsay Zier-Vogel. [ASIDE: you should check her out, her writing and crafting and sheer verve are intoxicating. I’m sure she’ll come up on this blog often! Her Love Letter Project is particularly awesome.] The piece was called Cedar Stories.

I costumed Cedar Stories, resulting in some of my favourite original costume work to date. Lindsay actually still wears one of the dresses around socially!

We found some fantastic fabric that stretched in all directions but was somehow not spandexy. It was dark green on one side and light on the underside, which was fun design-wise. I measured and drew and patterned up a storm. And the costume-faeries were with me because they worked like a charm, timeless.

Cedar Stories was performed in fFIDA (aka the now defunct Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists). I shared the stage with 2 fellow students from The School of TDT, Jennifer-Lynn Crawford and Kate Holden (centre and left respectively in the above shot) — both women who have gone onto active, inspiring careers as dance artists. The music was live, a cellist named Rachel McBride. Her skills were remarkable and haunting, it was magic working in studio and on stage with her.

Lindsay and I got to know each other at The School of TDT. I actually remember her choreography at a student coffee house before I really remember her. It may or may not have been to Ani DiFranco!  She’s got a rare choreographic sensibility. I still remember running backwards in a big arc in this work, feeling rather kamikaze, imagery — such as a hand gesture mimicking the way Chestnut leaves fold down. A pair of my Fluevog shoes also featured in Cedar Stories, I think I had to toss one behind my back, and I may or may not have clocked another dancer at some point *ahem*.

I’m not sure if there is video footage of Cedar Stories available, 2001 being the dark ages before little digital gadgets with more memory than I can conceive of were readily available. I don’t even think we have photos from the actual performance. But I do have these backstage pics. And great memories.

Oh, 2001 was also the summer I met and fell in love with a boy named Adam. Now I’m married to him. Still in love, actually way more than I was at first blush. ‘Twas a good summer!