the big isavirtue birthday giveaway week!

on thursday, november tenth, i will officially climb over the hump of the twenties and turn twenty six. i can hardly believe how quickly twenty-five flew by and now it's already gone! to celebrate the hump, i'm doing a week full of giveaways. in addition, all items in my shop will be 26% off all week (with the code BIRTHDAY26) and my e-course will also be 26% off! (already discounted) all winners will be announced on friday, november eleventh.

sunday seller | a favorite

lately i've been noticing just how much of a font snob i really am. i'm not all technical about it (although i do get a serious kick out of this kerning game), for me it's more of a visual thing. when i see comic sans or lucida handwriting, i find myself wanting to curl up in a ball and cry.

certain fonts just rub me the wrong way - mostly because other people don't seem to understand that fonts are exactly like words, and clothes, and everything else we use to non verbally send a message nowadays. fonts say something - and it's not necessarily what the words on the page are saying.

so needless to say i'm totally in love with these font cards by a favorite* on etsy. not to mention they double as puns so this card creator is truly after my heart!

be sure to come back later today as i will be posting the list of giveaways for my big birthday contest this whole week!

shop a favorite

* sooo hard to spell that the american way, my fingers keep tripping!

an isavirtue christmas

thoughts on | behaviour in art galleries

when i was in university i wrote an essay about behaviour in art galleries. i can't quite remember what class it was for, but it had something to do with people and architecture and public spaces. eventually that subject is what inspired my thesis.* probably because it has always been an issue that has perturbed and fascinated me. without realizing it, the essay i wrote was biased because i was solely concentrated on public galleries. public galleries are spaces in which the art is free to view, or if it is not free, then the visitor makes a conscious choice to pay money to see it. however, they may still be intimidated. i used to think the root of this fear came from the fact that people felt like they were expected to understand the art.

**

here is a quote from my essay: "when there is few to no people in the gallery, a visitor cannot look to their peers for hints on how to act [around the artwork]. hence, they revert back to the behaviour they believe is expected of them."

in my "make art a part (of your life)" e-course i expanded on this type of behaviour: "there's no doubt about it, art can be intimidating. have you ever been to a gallery and found yourself standing in front of a piece of wildly inexplicable contemporary art, feeling totally awkward? you don't want to embarass yourself by not 'understanding' the piece. you're not sure what you are supposed to be thinking and you have no idea what to do with your body!"

my solution to this is two part. one: spread the word that galleries are fun, and that you don't have to "figure out the art" or know anything about art at all! you can just go in and enjoy looking at beautiful images. two: fill the gallery with people. once this occurs, facades are dropped and people become engaged with both the people and the artwork around them.

however, now that i work in a commercial gallery, i realized something i was missing before. the money issue. people feel uncomfortable in (commercial) galleries because they are afraid that someone will try and pressure them into buying something. and frankly, that sucks. because yes, although it's very important for these types of galleries to make sales, i like to think the majority of us still love art and want to share it with the world.

maybe i'm totally off base. what i do know is that last week i saw a man cup his hands around is eyes and lean up against the windows of the gallery and look inside so hard that his breath left condensation on the glass. he practically kissed the wall in order to have a peek inside. the kicker? the door was wide open just two feet away. and this week i saw two gentleman stand on the literal precipice of the door step and look inside. they both stood there for an inordinate amount of time, but did not come in.

i know that these people are scared of something. something that holds them back from entering this beautiful world of art.

so please don't be afraid. there is so much to fall in love with and if you shed your inhibitions and anxiety, i guaruntee the experience will brighten your day!

*the way architecture and curatorial decisions affect the same traveling exhibition.
** funnily enough this photograph was actually staged. these people do look far too comfortable and that doesn't match the reality of how people are within a silent, mostly empty gallery space.

feature art friday | jonathan lewis + me

when i worked at the kitchener-waterloo gallery, i remember seeing a picture of artwork that was just a series of lines. something about the simplicity and organization of the piece attracted me and i knew i wanted to try the same thing. call me a copy cat, but in all fairness, i've seen various versions of this style of colourfield art over the years. case in point: these wicked colourful barcode style photographs by jonathan lewis. what's neat about lewis' lines are the way they blend into one another when you look closely (oh, and the titles! respectively, sweethearts, dots and jelly belly). the line piece i painted a couple years is the last picture below - i think it's probably one of the most therapeutic things i have ever done!

jonathan lewis

fifty-two projects | project forty-two

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

project forty-two | take some chopsticks from your kitchen drawer, and, along with twenty-five dollars cash and a chinese take-out menu, seal them up in an envelope. mail off the envelope to one of your currently unemployed friends, your college aged kid brother or sister...

alterations | we've been trying to find our collection of chopsticks for ages now. but to no avail. so i switched it up. because also, i'm not going to send cash in the mail. i mean, i love the postal system but i'm not a chump.

my little brother just moved to a brand new condo in toronto on bay street near the queens quay, the sky dome, union station and the distillery district. oh, did i mention he's right next to lake ontario?? well, if that's where dropping out of university* gets you, then goodness only knows why i suffered through all that education. well, to show him there's no hard feelings,** i made this envelope and included this mcdonald's gift card! unfortunately there's only twenty bucks on it...cause that's all i had ;)

* sort of. maybe he's finishing part time, it's anyone's guess. big tech nerds are in demand so he jumped the school ship.
** despite the fact that he's like, living my dream.

what i made | two kinds of treats

yesterday we had a stationery party at my friend's house. she kindly offered to host the party for me which worked out well seeing as i don't even have a table... i took full advantage of her dining room table by arranging my stationery and baked goods all together. it was a great success and i met some lovely new ladies. below are some pictures of the things i made*

* disclaimer - those gorgeous mini cupcakes on top? i didn't make those, a friend brought them!

jewelry chooseday | blackbird studios

remember when i posted about these amazing ceramics by blackbird studios? today i wanted to showcase her jewelry. i'm not really one to collect too many artsy tchotchkes because i worry they won't all look nice together. but jewelry...well i'm always collecting that. you just can't have too much i say!

shop blackbird studio jewelry

envelope templates | trace, cut, score, repeat

one hundred and fifty-nine envelope templates. the most i have ever completed in one grouping. i'm concerned i have some version of carpal tunnel syndrome as my right and left hands have intermittently been going numb but hey, don't they look pretty?

thoughts on | synaesthesia

a couple of weeks ago i was reading this blog and i came across the term "synaesthesia" (or synesthesia). the author asked "how can heather be a brighter name than george? how can a calendar surround you?" it seemed entirely normal to me. i thought, "i know exactly why it's brighter! and of course a calendar can surround you. the reason heather is brighter is because h's are orange, and e''s are red, whereas g's are black! and my calendar obviously surrounds me, it's like a racetrack and i'm in the center." 

okay, crazy right? it's even crazier for me because i assumed everyone thought this way. synaesthesia is when multiple senses come together. for example, when i hear sound, i see colour and space. others, when then hear numbers see visual maps or associate them with personalities. and a very rare few, hear words and taste it on their tongue! 

when i was little, i used to ask my friends "what colour is december?" and most of them, without fail would say "red" or "green." and i said "black." because in my mind, it is. just as september is very red, february is undoubtedly green and june and july are various shades of orange. part of this has to do with the fact that certain letters for me are certain colours. f's are always green and j's are bright orange. "friend" is green, "foe" is green etc. and when i think of days, months and years i don't just think of it, and i don't imagine a traditional calendar. i literally feel myself in the space of time and can "see" the years, months or days ahead, in varying patterns.

i have trouble imagining how others think of these things, if they aren't experiencing what i am (what do you mean march isn't on the other side of the track and it's not blue??). but on the other hand, i suppose it's hard for you to know what i am seeing/feeling. below are some quick drawings of how i envision thing like a year, a week, a decade, the alphabet and numbers. and give me your feedback on how all this sounds to you or let me know if you have a certain degree of it.