—John Lennon

…

From the moment we are born,
the world tends to have a
container already built for us
to fit inside: A social security
number, a gender, a race,
a profession or an I.Q. I ponder
if we are more defined by the
container we are in, rather than
what we are inside. Would we
recognize ourselves if we could
expand beyond our bodies?
Would we still be able to exist
if we were authentically
‘un-contained’?

~~Paige Bradley~~

(wherever)

I usually only try to feature design, art, initiatives, ideas, quotations, and work by others that I feel is good, edifying, or exemplary in some way. Today I’ve succumbed to passing on a selection of pretty awful tripe… more here, if you have the stomach for it.

“Thanks” to my friend Marie-Aline Oliver… please accept my apologies. 

New York, New York

Chilean-born artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz seeks to create works “that can remind people of their mortality, invite them to look again at their lives and question their daily routines.” His obsession with the dichotomies of life and death are present in his sculptures, public art works, consumer objects, furniture, and even fashion…

—Thomas Merton

Victoria, British Columbia

Prolific art director, designer, illustrator, and poster-proficienado Andrew Lewis is conducting the first Summer Poster Workshop from 6-10 August at the Vancouver Island School of Art in Victoria. This follows similar workshops Andrew has held in El Paso, Texas and Bogota, Colombia. You can find further details here.

Best wishes, my friend!

(sustainability quotable | unknown source)

Winnipeg, Canada

Andrew Valko has made himself the laureate of disconnected encounter: the master of incomplete ceremony. Almost without exception, his paintings and drawings are episodes in an ongoing fragmentary narrative in which we are obliged, as viewers, to fill in the details of a story that he only hints at. Valko knows that viewer and voyeur are close in meaning. These radiant paintings glow with a sense of golden unhappiness. On the basis of this new work, Andrew Valko legitimately anoints himself the master of the ambiguous gaze. —Robert Enright

I met Andrew when he graduated from a two-year program in graphic design in the late 1970s… his illustration skills were exceptional. I offered him his first job (actually, he was our first official “employee” at CIRCLE) which lasted all of six months. He was clearly cut out for a career in capital “A” Art, and I wished him nothing but the best. We’ve stayed friends over the ensuing decades, and I’ve had the privilege of commissioning his painterly talents for a number of different stamp designs we’ve created for Canada Post. Andrew is one of the most focused and consistently hard-working painters I have ever encountered; combined with his exceptional talents there was never any doubt that he would achieve great success!

All paintings shown above are ©Andrew Valko.

See titles of works (and many, many more) here.

—Oscar Wilde

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

My girlfriend Evelin Richter has been busy getting ready for the 11th Wave Interlake Artist’s Studio Tour, happening on two fun-filled days (9 and 10 June) this weekend. A selection of her iconic ceramic sculptures will be on display, as well as smaller fired pottery ware, jewellery, and curios. Her studio What? Clay Art & Curios is number 13 on the tour — see you there?