World Pinhole Day

On April 24 f/action members embarked on Winnipeg's Exchange District for some much overdue gallery hopping, which included Nathalie Daoust's controversial 'Frozen In Time, Switzerland' at Ace Art gallery, Susy Oliveira's inspiring 'Your face, like a lone nocturnal garden in Worlds where Suns spin round!' at Platform gallery, and a very special camera obscura installation created by Andrew Milne and Sarah Anne Johnson housed temporarily in the lobby of 286 McDermot ave. The life sized camera obscura was created for World Pinhole Day which took place on April 25, 2010. It was pitch black when we first walked through the doors but once our eyes adjusted we were introduced to the magic. Reflecting on all the walls and floor space were the surrounding buildings outside. "A camera obscura (Latin for "dark room") projects an image from the outside onto a flat surface inside, through a pinhole. The external scene is reproduced, upside-down, with color and perspective preserved." We spent a good 30 minutes in there reveling at the wonder of it all. Shown below are some long exposures of our visit along with some shots from Susy Oliveira's exhibit at Platform Gallery.






Posted by Ailsa Dyson

The joys of a creative work life

There are a lot of things I never imagined I'd be doing at this point in my life, one of them being self-employed and being my own boss. Not that I like bossing myself around (I do have a weekly to do list that gets drawn up every Monday morning...), but it is nice knowing that everything I do is because I decided to do it and I believed it was a good thing. It's also really nice being creative in the work I do - being a photographer not only takes creative ambition as a shooter, but also in designing my own business plans and practices. Every day is different, every shoot is different, and every person I photograph has something new to offer and share.

Being inspired by the people around me is something I deeply appreciate and hope to never take for granted. For example, my fellow f/action cohorts have been a great source of encouragement and inspiration. It's been an amazing ride getting to know their work and seeing their creativity evolve and grow throughout the short years I've known them.

Another thing that I really enjoy about being a freelance photographer is the freedom I have to schedule my days. A really good friend of mine is a self-employed artist who spends a lot of time drawing and creating stories. Recently, she created these adorable little plush critters and has been selling them online. She needed photos of her work for her online store, so I had the pleasure of spending the morning with her, chatting, sipping on home-made lattés, and photographing her work.

You may have already heard of her, these wonderful little animals are from Natasha Boone's imagination. She's super-talented and is always entertaining on her blog. You should check her out!



Posted by f/action member, Gabrielle Touchette.

Melodies on Mercredi!

We just wanted to officially let you know that f/action has another exciting art opening coming up next week! The West End Cultural Centre (http://www.wecc.ca/) in Winnipeg has asked f/action to help them launch a new program of monthly collaborations between local music and art!

As many of you know, we love music and we love collaborating with musicians, so... next Wednesday, we will be teaming up with local musicians Brett Nelson and Kipp Kocay for a great evening of music and art at the West End Cultural Centre! The program, called Melodies on Mercredi, involves bringing new artwork into the WECC on the first Wednesday of every month. The first Wednesdays will be the official art opening for each month, and the artwork will remain on display inside the WECC all month long for concert-goers to enjoy.

We are so pleased to be involved in the debut of this series! For those of you that missed the INTERVALS exhibition in December, some f/action members will be displaying their Intervals series again. And in the spirit of the venue, Ailsa and I will be showing many photographs taken of live acts right at the WECC! My photo of Ida of the Magnificent 7s (posted last week) will be among them.

We hope to see you out at this unique event - set to become a great WECC tradition!
Here are all the details:

Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Doors: 7:00 pm
Shows: 7:30 pm
Location: West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg
(If you don't know where that is... well, you should!)

www.wecc.ca/site09/performers/mom_feb3.html

Posted by f/action member, Dallas Ludwick

f/action collaborates with the ArtStrong Ensemble at the University of Manitoba

Music and art filled St. John’s Chapel at the University of Manitoba on December 4th & 5th with my art collective’s latest show: INTERVALS. The ArtStrong Ensemble collaborated with f/action to create a beautiful experience of sight and sound based on the theme of time and space. After months of planning, rehearsing and preparing artwork, the show came together quite delightfully. We were honoured to have our artwork on display amidst a very talented duo of harpist Olivia Ritchey and flutist Sara Hahn. Here are a few photos from the event. Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed the music and artwork. We got some great feedback and are excited to have come together to make it happen! Thanks also to Olivia and Sara of ArtStrong – we had an amazing two evenings of beautiful music.

Duncan McNairnay’s photographic series titled Zoom.

Ailsa Dyson’s photographic series titled 2:30 AM.

Gabrielle Touchette's photographic series titled Suspended Expectations.

Dallas Ludwick’s photographic series titled Lacunar Amnesia (Gaps in the Record of Memory).

Dallas, Ailsa and Duncan – f/action members.

View of Olivia’s harp from behind Dallas’ artwork.

View from the balcony during the art viewing.

Audience members reading the program notes.

Sara and Olivia introduces us to the music.

Inspired conversations during the intermission.

Sara and Olivia of the ArtStrong Ensemble – playing a Sonata by Marjan Mozetich.

The performers and artists of INTERVALS: Ailsa Dyson, Dallas Ludwick, Sara Hahn, Olivia Ritchey, Gabrielle Touchette and Duncan McNairnay. Photo credit: Liane Bergen.

Olivia explaining how she plays her harp.