Pacific Mall Walk

This walk was a class excursion that, I am sure, scarred us all in one way or another. Whether we each suffered from the actual humiliations/fears from preforming our works or from the unwelcoming atmosphere of the people and security... or a combination of them both, we each lost a little piece of ourselves this day. The Pacific Mall is the Largest Chinese Mall in North America and is known to be a rather nifty tourist destination. However, our class did not go there to shop.. it was strictly business.  We were all assigned the task of creating a finished work for each of the following:
Walk #1: A collection
Walk #2: A Walk Against the Plan
Walk #3: An Action


Walk #1, My collection
Guests in my Life

               For a collection we each had to assemble a deliberate, unusual collection that reflected a significant aspect of the place and its inhabitants. 

For this work I decided to collect signatures. I walked around the mall and anyone I passed I would politely asked if they wanted to sign "My Guest Book." This way I was bringing attention to the people in my life who I usually pay little attention too. No one really notices the people that you walk by in a day but they are nonetheless there. Through this project I was giving them a voice and a name.

However, I struggled with receiving signatures due to the odd nature of my request in a place where my race was a minority. I am sure there was much skepticism towards me in asking people for their signature and living location. My requests were turned down 50% of the time.   

 Additional Thoughts

 Usually guest books are left stationary and are placed on a table near the entrance of a institution or w/e but I thought it would be interesting to have a traveling guest book, despite me being the guest.



Walk #2, My Walk Against the Plan
Malls are designed with a very deliberate plan, to steer visitors in a prescribed way, and to compel them to perform prescribed behaviors. Create and preform a walk that disregards or goes against the plan!
For this work I looked at the mall plan layout of the first floor. It was funny to see that all the stores in the mall were laid out in a grid- like pattern; organized with letters and numbers. This made the layout look more like a board game than a map. With this notion I printed out 4 mall layouts and formed a game of battleship out of the grid.
I was going against the plan since I was not walking at all, or even using the layout for its actual purpose.
 I must also make note that I had a great time on the three hour bus ride home battling Jocelyn for rein over the seas. Better luck next time tho. HA! 

Walk #3, An Action
Preform a single gesture, stunt, act, or non-act.

Short and simple. Paul, Jocelyn and I all had a tea party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLbeJH7Vq6I&feature=player_embedded

Zavitz Gallery

So yah I just had to post this! I was at the Zavitz gallery for the opening on Wednesday and thought it was great!! Compliments of the artist Vikki D.  

                    Do you see a resemblance?? lol 
                              Awesome.. I know.

☟   Here also are some other Homer creations brought to life! ☟

Culture Day

Since I am doing an internship at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre this year I had the opportunity to volunteer for this years 'Culture Day' events. Here are some Photographs of the events which took place!!

The Guelph Tapestry

For this activity the people of Guelph were encouraged to bring in items that were flat enough to sew onto a tapestry. Each item was to represented something important in the community or something important to that person in particular. The end goal was to have a time capsule of objects that reflected the people and places in the community. Objects ranged from photographs, poems, postcards, tickets, utensils, buttons and felt creations that could be made from the materials the museum provided. 

This was a fun event which ran all day.
I got to meet many people and feel for once that I was actually a part of the Guelph community. 

That's me

Human Quilt: A Community Portrait Photograph
Another event which was happening was a community portrait.  Here the community of Guelph was welcomed to come out to be photographed collectively by Dean Palmer, one of Guelph's best photographers. Everyone was arranged on a large black blanket and a photo was taken from above. There was also a photograph taken of everyone surrounding the inukshuk. 

The End Result!

 Late Night Lantern Tour
 This was probably the highlight of Culture Day. At 10:00pm Dawn Owen took a small group of people on a lantern-lit tour of the Sculpture Park which surrounds the Art Centre. This was a great experience since you got to experience the park and sculptures in a whole new way. It was great hearing all the stories and walking by the light of our little lanterns.

Drawings and Things that Look like Drawings

I just thought I would share some photographs I took from the art opening of 'Drawings and Things that Look like Drawings' in Zavitz on September 28, 2011

This was a group show of University of Guelph Studio Art students; past and present. The show consists of a dynamic spectrum of mediums with a liberal exploration of the boundaries of where drawing starts and finishes.

Artists included were:

Sonja Clark

Mel Coleman

Danica Evering

Yusuf Rahmaty

James Donnelly

Jen Weber

Nick Savlani

Angela Drystek

Sarah Walterhouse

This is Jen Weber's painting, she is a good friend of mine and has produced some amazing works. Please check out her website!

http://www.jenweber.ca/

The Bear's Grand Return

I just thought that I would let everyone know that Guelph's unofficial mascot has returned!

The 'beloved iconic bear statue' that has been part of the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre as well as the heart of almost every student and Guelph resident has returned!

The bear for years stood along the sidewalk at a popular bus stop location and received quite the attention. I constantly saw the 7 1/2 foot bronze statue dressed up in some kind of costume or holding various objects within it's outstretched paw. It's various costumes ranged from Santa Outfits, Tutus, jerseys and birthday attire. This bear was much more than a statue but also a fun bulletin board.

So ... it was a shock when one day the bear completely disappeared. 

There was an amazing buzz that arose from it's absence and numerous emails were sent to the Museum questioning its where abouts. 

Its disappearance was the result of some rowdy admirers that had knocked the bear clean off his concrete pedestal and damaged its bronze hide. However, the rowdy group was so upset they confessed to knocking it down and apologized. 
Nonetheless the museum had to ship the bear off for repairs. But due to it heavy weight and rather large size it took a long time to ship it, fix it and get it shipped back.
 

BUT THE BEAR IS NOW BACK...and hopefully for good! 

>>>    http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2011/07/the_return_of_t.html   <<<

The Crime Scene.

Re-installing.. welcome home!

The grand unveiling of the bear will take place on October 1st at 7:00pm!! during the MSAC Culture Day Extravaganza!

The Grand Unveiling

 October 1st 2011

In this photograph you can see the cars that pulled over to witness this event!





✂ Here is a video Clip of the Unveiling! ✂

Some after photos

Mushrⓞⓞm Scavenge!

It has come to my attention that there is indeed a secret world within our world, that I have never seen before. The world of mushrooms. 

Never did I think that I would be participating, let alone loving, the activity of mushroom foraging. But nonetheless I got to experience first hand what this interesting activity was all about. And yes it is an activity that appears to have been going on for some time now. Just look at some of these websites!

http://www.fungitobewith.org/

http://www.myctor.org/

http://www.nsmushrooms.org/2011-mushroom-foray/

http://www.fungiforays.co.uk/

These 'mushroom walks' consist of groups of people armed with baskets, walking through the woods collecting mushrooms they find. These walks are usually lead by a guide who knows a thing or two about mushrooms and educates the group on the different mushroom species, names, origins and whether they are edible or not.

 Here our professor is informing us on how to pick mushrooms and how to be conservative! Our guide is the man with the camera, Chris Earley, The Arboretum's Interpretive Biologist and Education Coordinator with his honours undergraduate degree (BSc.) in Zoology from the University of Guelph and a keen naturalist interested primarily in wildlife and natural history.

Camouflage to the Extreme! 
Before our walk even began, our guide made a fascinating discovery!

Behold, the BIRD-POO CATERPILLAR
>You have got to be kidding me right!!!???<

This little guy is the master of disguise and disgust. He literally fools his enemies by pretending to be bird poo.
However, despite his ugliness now, he will turn into North America's Biggest Butterfly
The Swallowtail Butterfly!

 

(image taken from google)

Into the Woods We Go

Our First Find

It's a Dandy


 Finds of Mine

 HA, Love this one.. nature was trying to hide it from me.. but I found it!

 Is the large knife overkill?

 Fact: This is not a mushroom
(sneeky sneeky)

Mushroom Power

Here is a video of our professor, Diane Borsato successfully removing a mushroom from it's tree-home, despite the fight it put up!

>After about an hour and fifteen minutes of scavenging we all returned to the place we started<

Baskets of Joy

Basket of fruit mushrooms

Once we had all arrived back, we began to place our findings out on our professor's nice white car hood! Here we were all pleasantly surprised at the array of wondrous fungi we had found!

I absolutely love this photograph! not just because of the wonderful array of mushrooms but because our professor is comparing 'real mushrooms' to a student's tattoo of mushrooms. Epic.


A Surprising Find

One student actually stumbled upon a animal skull, later to be identified by our trusty mushroom guide as belonging to a raccoon.

Skull Education

Here is a short clip of Chris educating us about the raccoon skull!


Some VERY Interesting Mushrooms We Found
Check it out!!

 Dead Man's Finger

 Poisonous Dappling

 Witch's Butter

 Pink Chewing Gum Mushroom

 Stinkhorn Egg

 I can't remember the name of this one.. but I am sure it's great like all the others

I never knew the name of this one but look... a slug friend!


Mushroom Education

Here is a video clip of our professor talking about some of the mushrooms we found, sorry it's hard to hear!

Overall this mushroom walk was a blast! It really goes to show you just how much you miss in life when you don't take the time to look... I never knew there were so many different kinds of mushrooms out there! And this, I'm sure, is only a few of the hundredths of species there is. Nonetheless, I know that a walk in the woods will never be the same again.
> I am defiantly hooked on mushrooming <

Additional Thoughts
This walk has made 'mushroom hunting' a new hobby of mine and I hope in the future I can attend many of the group mushroom forays and start my very own documentation and scavenging scrap book!!!!



On the Way Home
So once our 'mushroom day' was complete, instead of walking the same way back to school; along the highway, Paul (student) and I decided to walk through the arboretum back to the school! A more adventurous route.

On our way not only did we see even more mushrooms but also this:

We also stumbled upon a patch of 'Touch Me Not" flowers

These flowers have little bean pods that hang from them and when an animal walks by these pods literally explode and the seeds fly out... therefore animals help spread this flower around.

Here is a quick movie of me snapping a pod!
Watch the seeds fly!