exhibition opening | annabelle marquis

lowercase gallery is now live!

admission is always free!

visit the lowercase gallery

lowercase gallery is an online exhibition space in which i curate collections of inspiring artwork. the gallery is designed in such a way that visitors will feel as if they are walking through, admiring art on the walls. new art in the gallery will be installed bi-weekly. i encourage you visit often, and to share current exhibitions with your friends and followers.

lowercase references my penchant for lowercase letters. but more importantly, art is lowercase. in my world, there is no such thing as "Art." art does not have to be high brow, discriminating, confusing or alienating. in my work, i encounter people who are frightened of art, claim to know nothing about it, and even refuse to enter a gallery. well, you can enter this gallery! there is no judgements here, no sales pressure and you are not expected to find a deeper meaning if you don't want to. the only intentions this gallery has are to inspire you, fascinate you, and beautify your world.

it would mean so much to me if you tweet, blog, or facebook this little online gallery. in the meantime, i'll work on some social media buttons!

i am delighted to introduce the gallery's inaugural exhibition - a solo show featuring the incredible up and coming montréal artist, annabelle marquis. enjoy!

musings | falling in love with art

*come back soon for the grand opening of lowercase gallery!*

once, when i worked at the robert langen art gallery while doing my undergrad at university, i fell in love with some art. i didn't know it was love at first - but i would stare at this artwork* and become totally entranced by it. i used to get up and just wander by the pieces, admiring the intricate layers and clever use of materials. i even went so far as to look at the price book to look up the cost of a specific piece. of course, i was young, and the thought of buying something so large (and yes, expensive) was completely foreign to me.

but this is how i know it was love. a year later, the artist in question (bonnie lewis) came up in conversation and when i went home to google it, i felt the same as i had a year before. you know - i just had that feeling in my stomach, my heart and my throat. like butterflies and not being able to breathe. it felt as if i might burst with happiness. and so, i took out a loan and made it mine.

now two years later, it's happened again. don't get me wrong, i'm a one man kinda gal, but when it comes to my relationship with art...well i'm a bit...promiscuous. when i first saw this work by annabelle marquis...i thought i might have died because it sure felt like i was in heaven (look! i wrote about the experience here!). but i left. i had to! we have a wedding to pay off and that's the responsible thing to do. but love...that wicked mistress. i went back a month later and put down a deposit. 

and now, khroma is home with me for christmas! joy to the world! because of the christmas tree, i had to move around a lot of our art. so i put this piece in the bedroom temporarily. but everyone night when i go to sleep, and every morning when i wake up looking at it - i'm just so happy! so it may just stay there!

this is how you know when to buy art. when your heart beats fast, you feel nervous in your stomach and your throat closes just slightly. when you go home and you can't stop thinking about it. when one viewing leaves you feeling bouyant for days. when you worry that someone else will get to it before you (goodness no!). then you just make it happen, and you make it yours.

* i worked right in the gallery space - a fact which has it's ups and downs. half of the galleries i've worked at have been like this - others i worked in the lobby at the front desk. the "up" being that i am literally surrounded by the art, which is awesome. the "down" being that visitors probably don't feel entirely comfortable because i'm there.

snail mail | baby shower invites

below are some baby shower invites i made for a good friend of mine who is expecting in the new year. i know - they aren't really your traditional baby shower invites. i truly debated whether i should include images of babies, strollers, bassinets or girly things.* but in the end none of it felt very "her" so i went with something that is (in my eyes) just a little more chic.

i'm including a screenshot below of the actual invite. i love the way all the fonts turned out don't you? i'm going to play around with that for when i introduce wedding invites to my shop.

*she's having a girl - yay!
p.s. on a totally unrelated note - i got a curling wand and am so excited to try it!

sunday seller | hive & honey

this past month, i had the pleasure to meet* kaelah from little chief honeybee and hive & honey. rarely do you come across someone with such intense style and personality! she's spunky, super creative and passionate. in her etsy shop she sells adorable little pieces like the ones below. in my quest to make my hair look like this, i have purchased** the first bow - isn't it pretty??

shop hive & honey

* and by "meet" i obviously mean online. lol - is there any other way nowadays?
** oopsie - how's that gonna jive with my sunday sin?

isavirtue | new blog design

welcome!

i'm delighted to introduce you to the new isavirtue blog design! it's a little softer and a lot more fresh. isn't it funny how you start to feel lackluster and it turns out all you need is change? this blog is my new haircut, and it feels good. thank-you so much to dana from wonder forest who did the re-design!

there's a lot of changes and fun stuff that i will be introducing as well. i've fiddled with the isavirtue blog schedule and this is what came of it:

monday | snail mail mondays (letters, packages and mail art)
tuesday | musings (first tuesday of the month is an art crawl)
wednesday | what i made (my own stationery creations)
thursday | personal project (currently: fifty-two projects)
friday | feature art fridays (artists who have inspired me recently)
saturday | anything or nothing at all (every other saturday is exhibition openings)
sunday |  sunday sins / sunday seller (great etsy sellers and indie artists)

i'm also very excited about these new additions:

about/f.a.q. | this is new to my blog. it's not normally my style to be so forthcoming, but i think this page will really help you to get to know, me, my blog and my shop.

lowercase gallery | opening on tuesday december twentieth, lowercase gallery is an online exhibition space in which i curate collections of inspiring artwork. the gallery is designed in such a way that visitors will feel as if they are walking through, admiring art on the walls. new art in the gallery will be installed bi-weekly. i encourage you visit often, and to share current exhibitions with your friends and followers. learn more about the gallery here!

art crawls | on the first tuesday of every month isavirtue hosts an art crawl. normally an art crawl involves wandering from gallery to gallery within an urban core, but in this instance it involves a link up. i invite you to link your blog to mine every tuesday and share about art work or an artist that you have discovered. bloggers will "crawl" from blog to blog and enjoy beautiful artwork! i hope you participate as i am very excited!

let me know what you think of the new blog design and new features!

feature art | valerie roybal

how beautiful are these pieces by valerie roybal? roybal uses bits and pieces from discarded books and magazines to create these perfectly balanced works of art. the various sections of colour and the multiple layers make them complex and pleasing to the eye. i love art that incorporates emphemera from the past. i like to imagine the how each sliver (antique post cards, handwritten letters, recipes, reference materials and thrift store textiles), represents a sliver of someone else's life.

valerie roybal

fifty-two projects | project nineteen

this is project nineteen of fifty-two projects. for more completed projects, click here.

project nineteen | write down the story of the best night of your life...more along the lines of past events that aren't so easily identified.

alterations | this is not so much a series of events within one night, as it is a very precise, very embarrassing moment that i feel changed my life completely and sent it in a wonderful direction. and to get technical - it was really more early evening rather that "night."

on march thirteenth, two thousand and five, i called my husband. except that he wasn't my husband yet - far from it. he and i had come from the same home town and had worked in the same mall together. for years we flirted, we fussed, we fought, we never even really dated - unless you count that time he made me cry and then took me to a movie.

but after all that, a week before march thirteenth, my best friend told me that he'd been asking about me. it had been months since he and i had talked - a conscious decision on my behalf because he wasn't "ready yet."

after she'd told me that however, i couldn't stop thinking about him. so i called him. and i invited him to come visit me at my university. he wavered, but he sounded like he wanted to come. i said "how about tomorrow night? he said he that he had to be in bed early because he was traveling for work tuesday morning. i said "how about tuesday?" and he said "i won't be back from my trip yet." and so i nervously suggested "wednesday?" and he said he had a prior commitment. i paused, took a deep breath and, feeling like a fool i offered "thursday night?" he said he had to work late. i knew i should stop that this point. i could hear my mother's voice in my head saying "katie, don't chase boys. let them chase you." but i couldn't help it...with a profound sense of sadness and exasperation evident in my voice i took one last chance and said "how about friday night? if you work late you can come here afterwards." i wanted to die inside i was so embarrassed at my own desperation.

i think right at that moment we could both feel the significance that his answer held. i feel as though we both knew, on some deep level that if he said no, that would be it forever. we would be finished and i would never get up the guts to try again. on the other hand, his saying yes would mean that our relationship would finally begin.

he said yes.

and for the last six years, we have celebrated our anniversary on march eighteenth.

what i made | deer, deer and more deer

i'm like the frank's red hot sauce lady - except i'm not elderly, and instead of hot sauce it's deer. but regardless "i put that s*** on everything!" okay jokes, but i told you i was going to put this deer on every product i had!

shoppe

mail art | black and white wallpaper

i was so delighted to get this awesome piece in the mail last week. my friend shawna used her wallpaper to create the envelope.* i've learned that wallpaper, because of it's thick, water repellent quality, it's actually kind of ideal for enevlopes! i did try it once and it was a little tricky to fold it into place and to get it to stay there. also, when i stamped on it the ink didn't dry - but if you want to protect something in a pretty way - this is the way to go!

she also included a large set of acrylic stamps for my birthday. when she was visiting in september she had just bought these stamps and i fell in love with them, and one rose in particular. so she searched high and low for another set to send me!

which now means i can make more of these...

* don't worry, it was leftovers - it's not like she pulled the paper off the wall for me! if anyone is that desperate for paper, please let me know and i will send you some!

sunday sins | miscellaneous spending

as part of my quest to "give it up and get better" i'll be giving up something naughty for two weeks at a time, in the hope that it will have some sort of lasting effect and i'll continue to refrain from it on some level. for more sins, click here.

money art by hanna von goeler

as an update on previous sins, i am only taking the elevator half of the time that i used to. unless i am carrying tons of stuff, in a big rush, or not feeling well, then i take the stairs. yay!


in regards to my sin from the last two weeks (late night snacking, no snacks after nine o clock), well by golly i don't think i have attempted something so difficult...ever. if i had to grade myself on how well i did, i would give myself a c+. you see...there was berries. one day i asked j to get me a bag of these little red berries that i like. he forgot, so the next day he made up for by bringing home the whole bag. what i mean by this is that he said to the owner of the shoppe - can i buy the wholesale bag that these come in? so basically it was raining berries for a whole week. we tried to regulate them...but i would find myself munching on them late into the evening. 


and some nights, i just didn't get home until 8 or 9. or i wanted to wait until my husband was done work at 9:30. which means sometimes we didn't have dinner until 10 or 11. but that's our life. 


so it wasn't great, but it certainly created an awareness. and from now on i'll try to ask myself when it's 10:30 and i'm wanting a nibble - if i really want a nibble, or if i'm just bored.


okay, the next sin? miscellaneous spending. this is going to be hard as well, but it's really important. especially now, as the holidays approach and i find myself...struggling. i'm going to be very conscious of where all my money goes and that i'm not throwing it away on silly little things. snacks, drinks, jewelry, trinkets and fast food will go into hiding for the next two weeks.


cross your fingers for me...