In the Studio and Beyond: Coffee Break Conversations is a free Zoom Meeting series running in September and October 2021.
Coffee Break Conversations was formed in 2020 in response to the isolation caused by COVID-19, and after a pause it was re-started in 2021 to provide a venue for artists across BC to connect, share information, and learn from each other. The group welcomes CARFAC BC members as well as any BC artists without membership, but starting in the fall of 2021 members will have registration priority. There is a maximum of 20 participants allowed.
The program is coordinated and facilitated by interdisciplinary artist Laura Bucci (Coffee Breaks Coordinator). She can be reached at coffeebreaks.carfacbc@gmail.com.
If you would like to receive reminders of upcoming Coffee Break sessions, send Laura an email to the address above to be registered to the Sunday Newsletter (runs until the end of the program).
Fall 2021 Schedule
(All sessions are on Tuesdays 10 – 11 AM, except for the November 9th session, which is at 11AM. Please use the registration link provided below for the November 9 meeting.)
Live captioning enabled for all sessions
September 7 – Kelsie Grazier on developing her research praxis in a month-long Remote Research Residency with Access Gallery and Arts Assembly
Kelsie Grazier is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. With an emphasis on gestural brush strokes and fine lines, Kelsie paints to communicate the complexities of Deaf identity and cultural histories. She studied painting at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She obtained her Masters in Deaf Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and focused her research on global perceptions of Deaf identity. It was during this time that Kelsie, born with a mild hearing loss, suddenly became deaf. She returned to her art practice to explore her connection to a linguistic minority culture that is rooted in silence. http://www.kelsiegrazier.com/
September 14 – How to work with a Virtual Assistant with Laurel Karjala
CARFAC BC member Laurel Karjala is a painter based in Nanaimo, BC who also works as a Virtual Assistant (VA). In this session, Laurel will share with us how working with a VA might free up time for your art practice. She will share the pros and cons, how to look for a VA and the steps for a successful working relationship with a VA so that you will have more time to create. There will be time to ask lots of questions. http://laurelkarjala.com
September 21 – Interdisciplinary artist Cassidy Luteijn on her Nature of Painting series, an ongoing project as part of a Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create Grant
CARFAC BC member and emerging artist Cassidy Luteijn is an interdisciplinary artist whose primary work strikes a balance between painting and sculpture. She is interested in pushing the conventional confines of painting and explores this through work that takes on its own presence in the gallery in a sculptural way. Her work invites the viewer to consider various aspects such as the purity of shape and form due to its reductive nature. Inspired by artists such as Angela De La Cruz and Tammi Campbell, her work emphasizes a consideration of colour and embodies formalist undertones. Her studies in both art history and psychology factor into the conceptual themes of her work where she explores human experience. Cassidy graduated with a BFA from the University of Victoria in 2020 and was recently awarded an Explore & Create grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. She will talk about her current series, Nature of Painting, a project she has undertaken during her CAC grant. Cassidy lives and works on the traditional territory of the Matsqui and Sumas First Nations (Abbotsford, BC). https://cassidyluteijnart.com/
September 28 – Copyright Visual Arts on why you should copyright licence your work – CANCELLED and Rescheduled for November 2nd
October 5 – Yuri Arajs on Creating Opportunities to Exhibit Your Work
Join us for a lively discussion with artist Yuri Arajs who is also the Director/Curator at Outsiders & Others and the Gallery Coordinator of The Gallery at The Cultch, both in Vancouver. Yuri brings twenty years of experience working in the non-profit arts & culture sector both in Canada and USA. The conversation for this session will be focused around ways that artists can create opportunities to exhibit work while addressing the question ‘where do you want your work to be?’ and how sometimes high expectations can hinder our progress.
Outsiders and Others is a not for profit arts society with a focus on bringing non-traditional artists to the forefront. This includes outsider, folk, self-taught, visionary, intuitive, and artists with disabilities. Outsiders and Others operates a gallery at 716 East Hastings Street and a window-gallery at 938 Howe Street, both in Vancouver.
http://www.yuriarajs.com/ | https://www.outsidersandothers.com/
October 12 – Social Media with CARFAC BC chapter President Linda Williamson
CARFAC BC President Linda Williamson will share some tips on using social media, including how to be social, developing a list of hashtags, time commitment around social media and calendarizing the process. This is also an opportunity for participants to share their own tips and strategies, to ask questions, and to get some new ideas.
https://travellingcatstudio.wordpress.com/
October 19 – Kerri-Jo Stewart: How I got into the Art Business in Central Asia
Kerri-Jo Stewart is an award-winning artist and photographer whose work has been included in international exhibitions and published in a variety of newspapers and books. She is always seeking out new ways to capture the outside world through her camera and is adventurous in her exploration into long exposure, pinhole and other techniques to create unique imagery. Kerri-Jo also enjoys sharing her skills by acting as a mentor to aspiring photographers.
In Stewart’s words: “I’m interested in how we see the world around us. My goal is to develop a style expressing my unique vision grounded in a profound curiosity about our assumptions and how they affect perception. Adding paint and texture to my photographs allows me to explore my own perception with experimentation and inquisitiveness.
Through my experiences in the military, science, and technology I’m inspired to step beyond reality capturing time and space in two dimensional work. What assumptions are we making based solely on visual perception?
Movement intrigues me. An image simplifies reality to a single moment that cannot be perceived by the human eye. I want to capture the unperceived transience and explore what is real. Any change in time is movement. Using camera motion and long exposure, a moment is captured showcasing the character of that moment in a unique way, highlighting what is perceived but not normally seen.”
October 26 – Collaboration and Alternative Exhibition Venues with Pippa Lattey and Denise Holland of Parking Spot Projects
Parking Spot Projects, located at 8 East Cordova in Vancouver, was a temporary, one year exhibition and project site run by Underground Assembly in 2017. Pippa Lattey, Denise Holland, and Juan Cisneros, who together shared an underground studio, organized as the Underground Assembly and collaborated on a few projects including Parking Spot Projects. PSP provided a space at no charge for emerging Vancouver artists to share work or host events. Lattey and Holland will talk about PSP, how it was made possible, the benefits and challenges in collaborating on this project, and how collaboration might be done to support one’s peers.
https://dhstudios.org/ | https://www.pippalattey.com/
November 2 – Copyright Visual Arts on why you should copyright licence your work
Copyright Visual Arts / Droits d’auteur Arts visuels (COVA-DAAV) is a not-for-profit copyright management society providing Author’s Rights administration for professional Canadian and Québécois visual and media artists. COVA-DAAV negotiates the best conditions for diverse uses of an artistic work by institutions, businesses and individuals: the USERS. It provides Users copyright licenses allowing them to use artistic works created by its members. COVA-DAAV Executive Director Marcia Lea will walk us through the benefits and the process of working with COVA-DAAV and will answer any questions you may have. https://www.cova-daav.ca/
Please Note this session is still on Tuesday but at 11AM to 12PM
November 9 – Using traditional methods to promote your projects or sell your work
This session does not have a presenter but will instead offer space to share how you have promoted or sold your work using traditional methods and how you have connected those efforts with social media. Laura Bucci will share a successful experience she had with traditional media and we hope that you will bring your own examples of what has worked.
If you plan to share your experience, please email Laura at coffeebreaks.carfacbc@gmail.com and let her know, so that we can make space for you to speak.
Register here for this session.