Our heritage
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Paul Tanner
After completing a four-year jeweler/goldsmith apprenticeship in only three years, I spent 10 years working professionally as a goldsmith, creating a variety of standard and custom jewelry pieces. I then went to The Vancouver Film School and completed their one-year 3D animation and visual FX program. I’ve spent the seven years since then working in the video games industry as a character artist, working for such studios as Electronic Arts, Disney and Ubisoft.
In addition to my “day job”, I sculpt and make jewelry on the side, and continue to study sculpting and anatomy by taking a number of classes, including one at the California studio of the renowned American figure sculptor Richard MacDonald.
In addition to my “day job”, I sculpt and make jewelry on the side, and continue to study sculpting and anatomy by taking a number of classes, including one at the California studio of the renowned American figure sculptor Richard MacDonald.
Matt Klein
Matt Klein is a Vancouver artist who has enjoyed painting the western landscape for more than 15 years. Not limited to the subject of landscape, he also enjoys the challenge and rewards of painting the human figure. With a colorful, "painterly" style leaning toward impressionism, Matt creates his realistic subjects with loose, textural brush strokes, giving the paintings a vibrant, modern feeling. Finding the beautiful, abstract nature in everyday objects and scenery is what Matt lives for as an artist.
Classically trained at a French "atelier" style art school in Boulder,Colorado, U.S.A., Matt developed a classical art foundation that serves his realistic tendencies. He has studied with many renown U.S. artists including Quang Ho, Scott Christensen, Kim English, Michelle Torrez, Robert Liberace, Sherrie McGraw, Kevin Weckbach, Robert Spooner and Chris Groves. Matt also loves to teach, and is currently organizing a landscape painting course in Vancouver. (click CLASSES on the home page).
Classically trained at a French "atelier" style art school in Boulder,Colorado, U.S.A., Matt developed a classical art foundation that serves his realistic tendencies. He has studied with many renown U.S. artists including Quang Ho, Scott Christensen, Kim English, Michelle Torrez, Robert Liberace, Sherrie McGraw, Kevin Weckbach, Robert Spooner and Chris Groves. Matt also loves to teach, and is currently organizing a landscape painting course in Vancouver. (click CLASSES on the home page).
Friday, October 22, 2010
Suzy Stroet
Suzy Stroet was born and raised in Vancouver and continues to live and work in the city. She is an emerging artist whose work focuses on people and how they interact with, and inhabit the spaces they create.
Suzy received her BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2003. She also studied art at the Universidad Polytechnica de Valencia as an exchange student in 2002. In 2005 she graduated from UBC with a Masters in Library and Information Studies. During this program Suzy completed a practicum at the library of the National Gallery of Canada.
Most recently Suzy has exhibited in the group show “ Queertopia” as part of the Queer Arts Festival at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. In 2009 she coordinated and participated in a show entitled “ Resilience: Out of the Shadows” at the Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice. Suzy has also shown work at Rhizome in 2007, at the Queering Femininity Conference in Seattle in 2003 and at the Universidad Politechnica de Valencia in 2002.
Her paintings are representational to varying degrees. Her figurative work focuses on how people present and view themselves within their communities and the larger communities that they are a part of. For example, the paper doll explores being feminine within a queer community and being queer within a larger community where straightness is assumed. Her representations of spaces are of human made places but act as landscape by creating a space for viewers to imagine themselves inhabiting. Her work addresses the ever-evolving nature of human made places and the tension between physical, digital, social and emotional spaces.
Currently Suzy works as a librarian for the Vancouver Public Library and spends the rest of her time building her art career.
Suzy received her BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2003. She also studied art at the Universidad Polytechnica de Valencia as an exchange student in 2002. In 2005 she graduated from UBC with a Masters in Library and Information Studies. During this program Suzy completed a practicum at the library of the National Gallery of Canada.
Most recently Suzy has exhibited in the group show “ Queertopia” as part of the Queer Arts Festival at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. In 2009 she coordinated and participated in a show entitled “ Resilience: Out of the Shadows” at the Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice. Suzy has also shown work at Rhizome in 2007, at the Queering Femininity Conference in Seattle in 2003 and at the Universidad Politechnica de Valencia in 2002.
Her paintings are representational to varying degrees. Her figurative work focuses on how people present and view themselves within their communities and the larger communities that they are a part of. For example, the paper doll explores being feminine within a queer community and being queer within a larger community where straightness is assumed. Her representations of spaces are of human made places but act as landscape by creating a space for viewers to imagine themselves inhabiting. Her work addresses the ever-evolving nature of human made places and the tension between physical, digital, social and emotional spaces.
Currently Suzy works as a librarian for the Vancouver Public Library and spends the rest of her time building her art career.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Ellen Scobie
The smallest unit of life is a cell, the building block of all living things. Each cell contains the cell genome, or DNA, which stores information. In reproduction, DNA is replicated and passed on to off spring so linking generations.
My digital paintings are the off spring of my photography. I capture the landscape digitally, recording images in pixels. Each pixel is a capsule of information analogous to a cell containing DNA. I use these cells of information to create something new, digitally recombining pixels from a myriad of images. I am fascinated by the ability to mutate and transfigure digital data in endless ways in the service of image-making.
Intended to be experienced on an emotive level, these interior landscapes may evoke past remembrances or an undefined sense of the familiar or a new, yet somehow appealing,expression. I work hard at developing a visually rich surface, using image fragments plucked from time’s continuum, reinvented to suggest the possibilities of a new narrative.
My digital paintings are the off spring of my photography. I capture the landscape digitally, recording images in pixels. Each pixel is a capsule of information analogous to a cell containing DNA. I use these cells of information to create something new, digitally recombining pixels from a myriad of images. I am fascinated by the ability to mutate and transfigure digital data in endless ways in the service of image-making.
Intended to be experienced on an emotive level, these interior landscapes may evoke past remembrances or an undefined sense of the familiar or a new, yet somehow appealing,expression. I work hard at developing a visually rich surface, using image fragments plucked from time’s continuum, reinvented to suggest the possibilities of a new narrative.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Guzin Taskirand and Beata Kacy photography project
Concept by Beata Kacy
Eight months and three weeks pregnant I had an urgent need to capture my state in an unusual way. Swollen feet, heavy boobs, protruding belly button and growing abdomen i felt like something not belonging to this world. To capture that moment I was looking for unusual environments, where gravity feels different. I found water the best medium to memorize those moments...peaceful, slow, whilst feeling close to what my baby is feeling while we where both emerged in "fluids". The whole process felt like a bonding project for us.
Execution -by Guzin Taskiran (camera) and Beata Kacy (edits)
With a simple underwater camera, some clothing from the local Thrift store, diving weights attached to my legs and a diving flashlight, my friend Guzin Taskiran and i entered the swimming pool with few expectations of success. To our surprise we loved the result. We managed to capture the moment of peace and happiness, light and delicate movements. After the pool adventure all the pictures went through my freeform creative digital processing to emphasize the moment plus removing all traces of what was a public swimming pool :)
Eight months and three weeks pregnant I had an urgent need to capture my state in an unusual way. Swollen feet, heavy boobs, protruding belly button and growing abdomen i felt like something not belonging to this world. To capture that moment I was looking for unusual environments, where gravity feels different. I found water the best medium to memorize those moments...peaceful, slow, whilst feeling close to what my baby is feeling while we where both emerged in "fluids". The whole process felt like a bonding project for us.
Execution -by Guzin Taskiran (camera) and Beata Kacy (edits)
With a simple underwater camera, some clothing from the local Thrift store, diving weights attached to my legs and a diving flashlight, my friend Guzin Taskiran and i entered the swimming pool with few expectations of success. To our surprise we loved the result. We managed to capture the moment of peace and happiness, light and delicate movements. After the pool adventure all the pictures went through my freeform creative digital processing to emphasize the moment plus removing all traces of what was a public swimming pool :)
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Roksan Kohen - new studio member
I started to express myself creatively through fine arts at a very young age. As I had both talent and interest in this area, I attended workshops and drawing lessons so that I could develop my talent. All through my primary and secondary education, my objective was to study arts at university level.
After graduating from MSGSU , the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, I had the incredible opportunity to work as an artist and an art tutor as well. Since then, free of deductions, my life is full of observation, challenge of creation, fun in my own way and I thoroughly enjoy sharing my passion with my students and others.
After graduating from MSGSU , the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, I had the incredible opportunity to work as an artist and an art tutor as well. Since then, free of deductions, my life is full of observation, challenge of creation, fun in my own way and I thoroughly enjoy sharing my passion with my students and others.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Open Doors Project
Please join Octopus Studios during Open Doors Project on July 31- August1. Open Doors is collaborative project led by the Powell street Festival Society and the Japanese Canadian National Museum. Founded under the City of Vancouver's Japantown Revitalization project, the Open Doors initiative is to commemorate the divers histories of 300 and 400 blocks of the Powell Street neighborhood.
Monday, April 12, 2010
New Classes at Soigne in Octopus Studios
Were you always amazed with intricate wire chains and do you wonder how they are made? Then It is time to explore new skills, using only a few tools, Soigne wire chain course will introduce you to 10 different styles of chains and wire jewelry without soldering.
Perfect for you to learn how to make your own jewelry at home with only a few tools. After this 4 hour course, you will be able to produce jewelry with wire and make your own designs using various styles and techniques!
Contact us for dates and time, we will accommodate our schedule to your needs.
More info under the link: http://soigne.ca/about/wire-chains/
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Octopus presents Ernest Swanson
Ernest began engraving in 2004 under Haida jeweller, Jim McGuire. In 2005, he started carving wood with Christian White and his cousin, Jim Hart. This same year, he also won an ‘Emerging Artist’ award from British Columbia’s Alliance of Arts and Culture. In 2009, Ernest graduated from Vancouver's Northwest Coast Jewellery Arts program under established Haida/Kwakwaka'wakw artist, Dan Wallace. Recently, Ernest has been working on a large pole with Jim Hart at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Octopus presents Ellen Scobie
Artist Statement I am interested in extracting specific moments from time’s continuum and using them as building blocks in a new narrative – the creative of memory as an inventive activity. Pixels are both the medium and the content of my artwork, each pixel carrying with it information from its source, a photographic capture. I use pixels as I would ink or paint in developing an optically layered and visually textural work. The digital camera may be a relatively new artistic tool, but the tradition of photo montage, practiced by artists for decades, is at the foundation of my art making.
Biography
Ellen Scobie was born and raised on Vancouver Island. She attained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History from the University of Manitoba where further training in lithography introduced her to the process of fine art printmaking. She continued her art studies in England at the historic London College of Printing. After several years in Spain, Ellen returned to the West Coast where she experimented with a wide variety of media and techniques. All of these influences have shaped her current artistic practice of digital photo montage. The artist has one daughter and lives with her husband in Burnaby, BC.
Biography
Ellen Scobie was born and raised on Vancouver Island. She attained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History from the University of Manitoba where further training in lithography introduced her to the process of fine art printmaking. She continued her art studies in England at the historic London College of Printing. After several years in Spain, Ellen returned to the West Coast where she experimented with a wide variety of media and techniques. All of these influences have shaped her current artistic practice of digital photo montage. The artist has one daughter and lives with her husband in Burnaby, BC.
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