Our heritage

Our heritage

Monday, December 19, 2011

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Vancouver Sun in Octopus Studios






http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Photos+Paintings+multimedia+peculiar+instruments+display+Culture+Crawl/5738686/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/regional-news/Electric+guitar+made+fishing+tackle+view+Culture+Crawl+studio/5738641/story.html

Luthier Kim White has fashioned an old fishing tackle box into an electric guitar.

He made the first one for birthday present request for Brad Barr of the Montreal band, the Barr Brothers (the video is online at YouTube - bit.ly/s3iFUD).

He also turns old tin chocolate boxes into electric guitars and makes ukuleles out of old cigar boxes.

His work, made under the name Hobo Nation Guitars, is on display at Octopus Studios at 393 Powell Street in Vancouver as part of the Eastside Culture Crawl, which continues today and Sunday, Nov. 20.

The event allows the public inside the studios of 300 artists to view their work.

More than a dozen artist share space at Octopus, ranging from painters Luchia Feman, Kelly Cairns and Travis Watters, to textile and jewelry maker Beata Kacy, who also does underwater portrait photographry (undersee.ca).

Culture Crawl is expected to attract more than 10,000 people this weekend to artists' studios.

The event began 15 years ago with 45 artists in three studios located in Strathcona, one of the city's oldest residential and commercial areas.

A directory of studios participating is online at eastsideculturecrawl.com nhall@vancouversun.com

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Electric+guitar+made+fishing+tackle+view+Culture+Crawl+studio/5738641/story.html#ixzz1eGXADuaX

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Interview with Jessica Werb from Straight

http://www.straight.com/article-540081/vancouver/space-invaders

Recently, an unlikely group of people sat around a table in Octopus Studios at 393 Powell Street, discussing their work and shared artistic headquarters. Among those present were a pro wrestler, a university administration assistant, and a game designer—as well as a couple of jacket-sporting Chihuahuas. A scene out of the homogenous sitcom world of Friends, this was not.


At the Eastside Culture Crawl, mixed media defies definition

But in the cutthroat world of Vancouver artist studios, where space is at a premium, diverse groups of individuals who might never cross paths otherwise are sharing close quarters—and making it work.

“As artists, it’s tough to get your stuff out there and it’s tough to find affordable space,” notes part-time painter Travis Watters, who has rented a studio at Octopus for the last six months. A tanned, beefy guy who also makes a living as a pro wrestler under the stage name Ladies Choice (slogan: “the man with the plan and the golden tan”), he quietly sips a cup of tea as he describes his experiences of working in the Vancouver art world. “We’ve got to have strength in numbers,” he continues. “And it’s good people here, you know? It’s nice to have a kind of a space where you can meet and see other people’s work.”

Watters is one of the 12 artists at Octopus Studios who will be participating in this weekend’s Eastside Culture Crawl. But as Beata Kacy, the part-time multimedia artist and full-time software designer who runs the studio with her partner, leathersmith Nik Palmer, explains, there are 18 individuals in total working in the 3,000-square-foot space.

“We started five years ago with eight—that’s why we called it Octopus,” notes the Poland-born artist, who works in jewellery, textiles, and photography. “But then the recession was kind of happening and we noticed that people started asking if they could share spaces with other people to cut the cost. So most of the time we do have spaces with two people.”

According to Jeffrey Boone, executive director of the Crawl, the days of the solitary artist working in a spacious, light-filled studio are fast becoming history in Vancouver. “There’s been so much change, and there’s pressure on real estate in the city from every sector,” he observes. “As always, artists kind of get into the cheapest available real estate, and that is the stuff that’s being bought and flipped.…We keep hearing of people who are sort of subletting space in order to, I guess, reduce their own costs or to make ends meet.”

Wanting a space of her own to work in is what spurred Kacy into taking over the small building that became Octopus Studios, and while she initially worried about her ability to fill it, she’s found it to be in great demand from artists such as Luchia Feman, who joined the studio six months ago.

Feman, a painter working in a variety of materials, says she was forced out of her space at Georgia Jackson Studios at 505 East Georgia due to a renoviction.

“It was a great studio, but we had to move,” she recalls. “I looked at, I think, five other places.…And I came here and Beata said, ‘Oh, you know, it’s first come, first serve, we don’t get into this process.’ And I was like, ‘Right on!’ I don’t want to have anything to do with these elitist groups who are checking you out and seeing if they like you or if they want to be with you. I just want to be able to do my thing and basically be left alone, you know?”

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Welcome Zinnia Hertland



Zinnia Heartland is a multidisciplinary, mixed-media artist. She has lived on PEI, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. She calls East Vancouver home.

Zinnia began her fascination with urban and rural landscapes at a very early age. Through her many moves as a child she developed a method of mapping out and exploring the environment around her in order to connect with the new place she was in. She was given her first camera at age 14 and has been taking pictures ever since. She brings her camera along on many adventure near her home in East Van as well as on her travels to places near and far.

Her photos capture neglected spaces, places left to their own devices; places that have developed on their own, places that inhabitants engage with lending each place its own unique colour.

Her mixed-media art work is a visually engaging combination of paint, collage, found, objects and photographs, a living document of where she has been. Her work takes you along, engages you in the process as she unravels the places has traveled to in her life. Zinnia actively maps out her life through through art and adventure and hopes to inspire visitors to create their own places to unfurl.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Luchia Feman

The most interesting development for me over the years has been my continued passion for what I call ‘comfortable bodies’. I’ve noticed that some people and ‘things’ are intensely at home in their own skins. When successfully incorporated into sculpture or painting, the essence of these unexpected shapes and forms feel good to look at regardless of the circumstances.

Currently I am working with acrylic, oil, wax, and photography to produce a series of mixed media works entitled ‘Everybody Knows Your Name’. The work, which began as an offshoot of a street art commission, has evolved into a personal challenge, an exploration into my own social views and of course, a look at some very interesting bodies. After years of mucking around with cement, acrylics and oil, I have recently exploded into encaustics and have taken to offering archival canvas prints of selected works in addition to my originals in response to customer requests.

Luchia Feman is a Vancouver artist living and working in historic Gastown. She is passionate about creating and using public art as a means to encourage thought and exploration, for complex social issues. Outdoor venues are particular favorites, and she has proclaimed rooftops to be the great unexplored gallery spaces of our time.



Friday, May 20, 2011

Welcome Tracy Matthews

Tracy Matthews has been a glass artisan for over 18 years. After a long break of raising her son, she is now back with a new found passion for all things creative. Tracy creates jewelry out of glass, enamel, broken shards of vintage plates, buttons and anything she considers pretty. Hence her business name VeryPrettyThings. She sells her work on her ETST site http://www.etsy.com/shop/veryprettything or at Arts off Main on 28th@ main st. http://www.artsoffmain.ca where she is a co-owner/partner. You can also contact her in person at veryprettythings@hotmail.com







Friday, March 4, 2011

Megan Davidson

Meagan was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Most recently she was working out of the Gam Gallery. Meagan has been an artist since she could first hold a brush, focusing on Make-up Artistry (meagandavidson.com) for many years before she devoted herself to the fine arts. Now studying at Langara College she hopes to continue in the direction of Interaction Design. Meagan has an active role in Vancouver’s Art community, and focuses her free time to her studies and volunteering and fundraising for community outreach programs like AIDS Vancouver.
Meagan’s Artwork is ever changing, and currently she is moved by how idealized identity, consumerism, and self-respect are connected. Working in mixed mediums, you will always be able to find something provoking, interesting, and moving in her work.



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Welcome Carmen Larsen

Carmen Larsen was born in the city of East London in South Africa in 1982 and moved to Johannesburg at 9 where she lived until the age of 14. She then immigrated with her family to Vancouver, Canada. She most recently worked from a studio located in the Gam Gallery (www.gamgallery.com) Carmen has an eclectic background in the Arts and Creative fields with professional experience in Design, Event coordination, and Marketing. Carmen works part time in Marketing for Joel Berman Glass Studios, an Architectural glass company founded and manufactured in Vancouver. Her educational history includes diplomas achieved through various Art institute’s and programs in Vancouver including The Vancouver Film school and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, as well as a collection of independent creative projects with marketing consultants, photography studios, fashion designers and professional artists over the last 13 years.

Her work as an artist is heavily inspired by her ongoing fascination with philosophy, ancient studies, symbolism, mysticism, metaphysics, abstraction, transformation and reforming of objects. Carmen works in a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, photography, writing and wearable designs. Her newest work is derived from a profoundly more personal approach and raises awareness of critical social issues. Carmen possesses a strong passion for community and social work and views art as a medium by which to evoke compassionate thinking and stimulate change. She is active member of the Arts community and is involved in many fundraising and awareness initiatives specific to the Women of the DTES and those exoeriencing a life with and around mental illness. Recycling and rebirthing of objects and materials is a common reoccurrence in her work in any medium. Her work embodies an overall eerily dark yet romantic sensation, through feminine, surreal imagery and intensely saturated colours. Her paintings and drawings consist of many detailed layers, organic textures and rich gel glosses creating visual depth.

www.carmenlarsenart.com
www.carmenlarsen.blogspot.com





Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Welcome Cam Reid

Reid grew up in the Comox Valley, developing his artistic abilities and passions at an early age. He went to art school at the North Island College - Emily Carr University satellite program from 2006 to 2010, achieving his BFA and excelling primarily in painting and printmaking throughout his time there. He currently works with ideas surrounding the human experience of time and memory: subjective time, memory recall, and false memory are common recurring themes in his work. These works are manifested in paint on canvas, and in drawing installations utilizing etched plexiglass and digitally printed plastic film. Reid recently won first place at the Victoria Emerging Art Awards in Victoria, BC, and currently shows there regularly. Reid is currently represented by the Victoria Emerging Art Gallery.




Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Welcome Lisa Dawn to Octopus Members

Lisa Dawn M. is a 2010 graduate of Emily Carr University. She has chosen to work with porcelain because it is a material with equal qualities of strength and fragility. It requires care, patience and undergoes extensive transformation during its handling process. It has history and memory.

All of her work is available for commission and collaboration – all of her buckles, pendants, textiles and sculptures are one-of-a-kind, but she is able to make replicas that are near identical, but still original, if you see one you really like.

Lisa is available for public, private and commercial work. If you see something you like, or have an idea for a piece and her style fits your idea, contact her. She also supplements her artistic endeavors through the film industry as a props maker.
She welcomes people to her studio if they are interested in her work or have any queries.