Happy Times at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

Just a quicky post today to pass along some of my favourite finds at the TOAE (on July 6-8, 2012 at Nathan Philips Square) - the show was amazing and worth braving the weather to walk around it! We met so many great artists, and all of them also turned out to be really lovely people :)

I'm pretty sure if I'd had an infinite budget, I still could have spent it all! With a far-from-infinite budget, we made a very hard decision and chose this little beauty by Charlene Serdan to come home with us:

It looks awesome in our kitchen in this old golden frame we had!

Here, in no particular order, are some of the artists I loved the most:

Mark Gleberzon - had these amazing multi-media pieces full of vintage finds, really beautifully put together. He also has a gallery in Cabbagetown that I can't wait to check out..
Soyeon Michelle Kim - makes beautiful whimsical dioramas that reminded me a bit of my Alligator Pie book from when I was a kid..
James Wardhaugh - glass artist, beautiful colours and nice clean shapes
Adam Colangelo - makes these fantastic "quilted" pieces out of copper - amazing textures in the turquoise and orange pieces
Silvia Taylor - arabesque-inspired shapes in glass, with copper fused onto them
Julia Hepburn - fairytale-ish (and somewhat dark) little sculptured scenes in boxes
Pamela Mingo - awesome paintings on archival maps of Toronto, using really beautiful colour combinations
Pauline Thompson - at first glance her worked seemed deceptively simple, but the longer I looked at the  layers of "scribbles" ("love" and "joy" written millions of times) the harder it was to look away...
Will Ruppel - amazing glass pieces, especially loved his little sprout with all the roots showing underground (and we had a lovely chat with him and his mom - all artists should bring their moms to shows with them!)
Patti Harris - has been collecting vintage watch-makers cases, and filling them with vials of treasures and themed collages in the lids (also had a lovely talk with her about art)

We also had the pleasure of seeing lots of artists we've already met at other shows, but always love to see again :)

Tanya Kirouac - does beautiful encaustic paintings, layered with secret bits of music and full of garden imagery
Lori Klassen - juicy and sensual paintings, mostly of women, flowers, and fruit
Maureen O'Connor - amazing photographer, really beautiful and graphic images of beautiful derelict and abandoned spaces
Charlene Serdan - another great photographer, soft and dreamy images of flowers and farm scenes (and the artist responsible for the lovely magnolia image we bought a print of, above)

Anne Renouf - lovely semi-abstract landscapes and seascapes

Suzanne Ernst - photo-based multi-media, her whole booth feels like an ideal daydreamy Sunday
Clayton Haigh - amazingly textured glass pieces
Laurie Skantzos - beautiful paintings that I can't even describe full of life and colour (looking forward to photographing them in the near future!)
Michelle Mendlowitz - gorgeous ceramic pieces with awesome hits of bright orange to surprise you

It was such a great day and I smiled all the way home :) The world seemed suddenly like a much more beautiful place than it had seemed only a day before - I love how great art can do that to you, can lift your heart and put a skip in your step :)

Thank you so much also to all the lovely artists who were so generous with their advice about transporting, packing, displaying, and protecting artwork for outdoor shows - I am currently knee-deep in preparation for my own first show at the Queen West Art Crawl at Trinity Bellwoods Park this September 14-16! A special thanks to Suzanne Ernst for the advice to "just go ahead and apply" in spite of my doubts about being "ready enough" :)

xo
Jessica + Norman