In progress...for my upcoming show in 2013 with the City of Ottawa Public Art Program: Ligaments and Ligatures. #LAL13. Textile organ sculptures with word association to diseases. it's going to be quite a show.
Mum's Birthday
Its my cool mum's birthday today! Happy Birthday Ma! Hope you're having a super day!
Pink Pants
One more IPhone/blog test post. I bought a bunch of pink pants for a sculpture project and exhibition next year. #LAL13
2012-08-29
Test blog post. Charlie the cat sleeping. Too cute.
Test Post
A quick test post to my blog from my iPhone.... Now how do I add a photo?
SKIRTS and SHIRTS at two SPRING events!
I've been busy sewing seams in my studio on my spring 2012 KBergmans.com Clothing Line. This spring is all about cute, frilly SKIRTS and pretty, easy-going SHIRTS. Of course, there will be some shrugs and sweaters in the mix for the cooler days (...its Canada, afterall :) All KBergmans.com Clothing are unique, One-Of-A-Kind, Handmade, a mix of new fabrics and upcycled material, easy-wearing and machine washable. Save your pennies and bring your cash to two Spring events!
Hintonburg's ArtsPark at Parkdale Market, Saturday, May 26, 10am-5pm, www.hintonburg.com
The New Art Festival, Booth 11 South, Sat June 2 and Sun June 3, 10am-5pm, www.newartfestival.ca
WOW Removal at Fieldwork
A time-lapse video of WOW removal from the Fieldwork site. Please excuse the slow start, the somewhat blurry focus (not recommended to watch in HD), the bug on the lens, the low quality video and the abrupt ending (we were not aware that the batteries were low on the camera, and it went into power save). But its a decent How-To of taking down your giant W. O. W. made of tarp and stuffed with hay that has been installed in a field all winter, should you ever come across this situation. Many thanks to everyone who works with Fieldwork and the take-down day: Susie, Richard, Chris, Erin, Jason, Chris, Cam, and Barb!!!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys-sla3WfKA]
Ignite Culture: The Phenomenon of the Lost Mitten on YouTube
Thank you to @IgniteCulture and Jenn Nelson for having me at their event on March 8 in Toronto. Here's my talk on The Phenomemon of the Lost Mitten. Go Ignite Culture!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8MQmhlLpIM]
Ignite Culture "captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on a diverse range on topics, all on the theme of culture" So you have 5 minutes and 20 images that change every 15 seconds and you speak about a topic you are passionate about. I had a great time preparing for this, and had fun presenting. Its a little difficult to see the images that were shown on the screen behind me, but just imagine a bunch of pictures of mittens, sleeping bags made of lost mittens, and the mountain of lost mittens, of course! Thank you the @JamesFolwer @rkopfensteiner @dipnah and LNK for moral support!
Lost Mitten Mountain
One last weekend to take in the Lost Mitten Mountain at the NCC's Blizzart exhibition at Confederation Park, part of Winterlude 2012. We all have the experience of losing a favorite mitten or glove. It is a common experience we share in a winter climate and we process the mitten’s disappearance through the stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression (in the case of a special mitten) and finally, acceptance. The symbol of a mountain is inspired by the actual number of mittens and gloves that are lost each winter: one could really build a mountain out of these lost and loved items. By losing these mittens and gloves, the public has made a communal contribution to this project.
Can you guess how many mittens it takes to make the mountain?? play on Twitter with #blizzart and #winterlude
Media Stories on the Mountain of Lost MIttens, WOW! THANK YOU!!!
And Thank you to the NCC for supporting this project!
AMAZING!
follow me on twitter @kbergmans
Art Art Art 2011 Re-cap
I am a huge fan of Year in Reviews. I love reflecting on the year that Has Been and looking forward to a New Year with fresh enthusiam. 2011 has proven to be a year of many art endeavors, some planned and well executed, some taking on a grander scale than anticiapted, and some art travel to the wonderful-art-land of Banff.
This year has made me appriecate that much of my art career is instable and constantly in evolution. There are no certainties and I have a constant striving to move forward, take on new challenges, and get up each day to pursue this murky, mystifying, undulating path and create some kind of order to it (likely to be colourful and fluffy)
I have fixed up my web site with a pile of photos from this year. These here holidays may be a good time to take a look-see at what I've been up to over the past months. There's also a blog post at the Fieldwork site. The word sculptures in the field are holding up just fine...they'll be up till April 2012, so if you're heading to or from Toronto this winter, take the senic Highway 7. The field is only a 5 minute drive off of the highway, and worth the slight diversion.
2012 is bringing a re-visiting of the Lost Mitten Project. I'm sewing up all the mittens I collected in 2001-2004 to build a Lost Mitten Mountain/Montagne de Mitaines Perdue. It will be exhibited at the NCC's Nothern Passion Nordique exhibition in Confederation Park during Ottawa's Winterlude in February. It nice to re-connect to my past project and make use of the mittens I collected.
I wish you the best for the remaining days of 2011 and look forward to many new endeavors in 2012!
At Banff Center Residency
I'm working as a Banff Artist in Residence from Oct. 7 until Oct. 28. The view from my studio is amazing. Will get lots of work done here. Bliss!
Go see my giant HooHa at Fieldwork
Guest blog post on the the Fieldwork site. More pics coming soon! Enjoy the field!
FYI: *do not climb on the sculptures*
Online review at Frontenac News. SWEET!
Working for Feildwork
I am working on something BIG for my upcoming exhibition at feildwork opening Sept 11. It is an outdoor, site-specific, experimental art gallery in a feild just outside of Perth, ON. I am working on a giant W in this photo...well not excatly working on it, but trying out its dimensions. Scale is something of a challenge for this word work. As is material: I am working in tarps. The installation will be out all winter so it needs to durable and weather proof. What have I gotten myself into?...
(Photo credit: Jenny McMaster)
Text-ing at the City of Ottawa Public Libraries starts tomorrow!
Its going to be a few hours of letter pillow fun at the St.Laurent Library tomorrow, Wednesday July 13 from 10:00am-Noon. Come and 'write' your favorite word, rest or lounge with the letters, take pictures, upload and share! Text-ing will be making appearances at other libraries over the next few weeks. Follow the link below for locations and schedule:
Text-ing at the City of Ottawa Public LIbrary is brought to you by the Community Arts Program at the City of Ottawa.
ArtsPark and The New Art Festival and...
Spring for Spring!
Text-ing at Hintonburg’s Artspark
In collaboration with the City of Ottawa’s Community Arts Program, Text-ing will be presented at Hintonburg’s ArtsPark as a public intervention from noon-2:00pm on May 28, 2011. Text-ing has appeared as public interventions, a pangram, text messages, and general pillow play since 2007. In a time in which text messaging is a direct and common form of instant communication, Text-ing as a sculptural project is a much appreciated diversion in our relationship to text. The public is invited to manipulate the pillows to form words, rest or lounge with their favorite letter, and take pictures. Watch for Text-ing to appear at City of Ottawa Public Libraries in the summer...word fun!
http://www.hintonburg.com/
The New Art Festival
I will be at The New Art Festival with my KBergmans.com Clothing Line: cozy, comfortable, handmade and one-of-kind garments. Each item is unique and will soon be a wardrobe favorite. I will be located at 2 South Pathway. TNAF takes place Saturday & Sunday June 4 & 5, 2011, from 10am to 5pm, Central Park (just off Bank St, south of the the 417), in the Glebe (Ottawa). See you in the Park!
For more info and a map of the site, please visit http://artinfoboy.org/ or find them on Facebook!
Chinatown Re-mix
I have a pillow word (Mandarin in Mandarin) at Shanghai Restaurant for Chinatown Re-mix. This exciting community event is causing a buzz in the city. With over 40 artists exhibiting in unconventional spaces, its worth taking a walk along Sommerset Street and taking a look at the local talent to be found in the city. A walking tour map can be found at http://www.ottawachinatown.ca/. Chinatown Re-mix runs from May 15 to June 15, 2011
new work: "Award Winner"
I made a new wall work recently entitled 'Award Winner'. I have a fondness for those ribbons and awards one might get for show jumping, or dog grooming or sometimes for an art piece. This work takes that idea little further. A friend gave me the crazy background fabric and I knew I had to something with it. I made all the little 'awards' and love the bits that dangle off. It is fun, shiny, sparkly and functional: the black feather boa is removable for any boa emergency and the flower second from the left is removable and wearable as a hair clip. Love.
Metal Cutting
We bought a steel bed frame and it was too big to fit in the house. So we rented a compound mitre saw with a metal cutting blade and cut that bed frame apart. I ilke the sparks.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S6NOZKSSWI&w=480&h=390]
JACKPOT!
I am taking a little trip later this month and I thought I needed a new purse for good luck. Can you guess where I might be going? I've had this sequence-y piece for ages, (it was from an thrifted t-shirt, how impractical?!) and have been trying to figure out how best to use it. Obviously, I need to turn to my trusty clear vinyl and finally sew a zipper (I try to avoid those). I'm super pleased with the way it turned out. Its nice to work on a small project with good results. JACKPOT!
Pics and Links
Here's a link to pics of my show in at the MVTM Almonte. It came down last weekend. It went really well, and now all the work is back at the studio. Its always a funny feeling when a show is over...there's a 'what's next' feeling. Its also a strange time of year, this january business, because the year is still so new and unsure of itself.
This was one of my favorite pieces from the show, the says Mandarin in Mandarin. I have now hung it on a wall at home, suitable for upcoming Chinese New Year. Cheerful! Here's to 2011!
Guest Blog Post, Show Review, and Idle Hands
I recently wrote a Guest Blog Post on Local Tourist Ottawa and here is an Article By Desmond Devoy on my show at the MVTM in Almonte.
If you need to get to a craft show this weekend (Sunday, November 28 10-5) for a little shopping, head over to Idle Hands at Patrick Gordon Framing at 160 Elm St, in the Preston/Sommerset area. It was a huge hit last year and I'm hoping for a repeat performance.
