art world expo

Ofer Samra-Actor Turned Painter

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I believe Art is about being open and allowing life ideas, color, nature, people etc. to go in. Together, with the Artist’s passion, interests, feelings and point of view, a unique personal art is created.

about

“Since early age I was watching people, animals, nature. I was very curious and interested. Always asked about the nature of behavior.

Born in Israel, moved to the states in mid-eighties, Ofer pursued acting ( Role of “Yusef” in “True Lies”). ”It was there in acting classes where we talked about painters”. That’s when the “Art” seed was planted.

“With painting, I’ve learned to express body, mind and spirit. After studying work by Caravaggio, Egon Schiele, Magritte and Picasso I found figurative work as the main tunnel to express life, passion, emotion, strength and character”.

Ofer’s most recent Art Exhibit was on May 14, 2015, at QART.COM Gallery in Marina Del Rey, California. The Exhibit included a large variety of Ofer’s latest work.

Pioneering New Experimental Art Project Seeks to Create Music that Mimics Human Speech

Composer Kenn McSperitt is working on an ambitious musical art project that involves basing orchestral songs on human speech. This pioneering new method, which he has deemed ‘phonetic composition’, means that pieces can be created that mimic the way that people talk. McSperitt melds phonetic science, phonological features, and spectral analysis of speech sounds to produce this truly unique experimental sound. This is art at its most unique and inventive.
McSperitt is currently attempting to finance a CD containing 2 large multi-movement works in the style of phonetic composition. He is using the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in order to do this. The album will be distributed by Centaur Records, a label in the Naxos distribution family, which has already agreed to help to get it on the shelves. It will feature 50-60 minutes of new music for chamber orchestra.

This is a truly original project, involving one of the most creative musical-art concepts of the last decade. Perhaps it could herald an era in which the lines between speech and music are no longer as defined, and rousing speeches can be translated into compositions that are equally stirring and memorable. It seeks to question the very nature of music, and blur boundaries that were previously set in stone.

Early Bird Tickets Close in 10 Days!

We are excited about our 6th annual event on Friday, May 13, 2016 at our beloved Science World. Join us for “Glamour Noir”, an evening of art, fashion and music. Dress code is RED, WHITE and BLACK.

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$25/TICKET UNTIL FEBRUARY 29, 2016

$50/TICKET MARCH 1, 2016

Special 6th Year Event Features:

100+ Artists!
Vendors: Painters, Photographers, Jewellery Designers and much more will be onsite showing and selling a collection of their best works. All original, all unique.

Lala’s Art-Click on the Image to see more!

Catalog Launch: Fashion Show
Fashion show by Nancy Perreault, one of BC’s most interesting designers. Nancy has worked with hundreds of brands and is an expert designer whose experience ranges with work for brands such as the BC Lions, Bacardi, Coors, Kokanee as well as costumes for exclusive events such as the Vancouver Olympics. Please visit her website for more information: Nancy Perreault

Food Vendors!
We are pleased to offer unique LOCAL BC foods by culinary experts. Savoury and sweet, treat yourself to experiencing some of the local foods that will be available at the event this year.
Elena Krasnova Patisserie and Hot Arusha will be just some of the fabulous foodies attending!

Click on the images to learn more about Elena and Hot Arusha!
World Famous Body Painting Competition!
Always a crowd favorite and not to be missed!

Learn more about Little Monsters Studio by clicking on the photo!

Live Music & Performances
Kara Lockwood
The Strangest Days

Silent & Live Auction
Unique Pieces: Over 50 pieces of original art work from artists who are participating in our event!
Hotel Packages, Things to Do Around Town, Beauty Packages, Travel Excursions, Services from local businesses and much more! Live Auction will take place on main stage at 10:00PM from artists who will be live painting at the event. Watch as artists create their masterpieces and then bid on them after they are finished!

All proceeds from the live and silent auction benefit Make and Break Arts Foundation to support facility rentals for exhibitions, arts programs for children and adults, mentorship for youth employment programs and opportunities for local and international artist development.

Art World Expo | 604 999 6166 | artists@theartworldexpo.com |
http://www.theartworldexpo.com

The Recreation of the Kachkar

The Recreation of the Kachkar

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Fans of intricate sculptures will be pleased to know that plans are now underway to create replicas of The Kachkar. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Kachkar, it is arguably one of the most intricate sculptures ever created. It was over 30 years in the making, and its origins lie in Armenia, where passionate and ambitious artist Hratch Karapetyan began work on a stone carving to memorialize his late father. He soon found that he had got lost in a plethora of ideas, each the more elaborate than the last. The piece he had envisioned grew into much more than initially imagined, and became the most ambitious sculpture ever created. He carved a sculpture that represented the pillars of Christianity: peace, strength, freedom, and infinity, overseen by the Virgin Mary, the mother of all Christians.

Karapetyan’s work left those who saw it in awe. A new project currently being financed via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter aims to recreate his masterpiece. Sculptor Roy W. Butler will be creating a smaller, handmade reproduction of the Kachkar, which will then be copied. ‘There’s no way you can really experience it until you do see the piece in person, and we’re going to try and capture as much of it as we can in the reproduction,’ says Butler.

This campaign is intended to be a means of giving the sculpture to the masses. Whether the replicas will be as ornate at the original remains to be seen. Irrespective of whether or not this is the case, this is doubtlessly an ambitious project that should appeal to every art lover’s sense of challenge.

20 Tips on How to Market Your Art Work

by Monika Blichar

A large majority of artists that I work with throughout the year tell me the exact same thing. “I just want to paint, I don’t want to learn how to market. I want someone else to do that for me.” While that is a great goal to have, the reality is, if you don’t promote yourself, no one will. Period.

Over the years, I have been able to get quite good at spotting trends, meausring statistics, and learning new tools to help promote my own work and also my projects. I can say that even though technology is constantly changing and new platforms are emerging all the time, once you have a basic idea of how to promote effectively, you will see some great results that will make your art career THAT much more successful.

Here are my top 20 tips on how to market your art work. If you enjoy, be sure to send this post to a friend and connect with me on my varied social media platforms. I love to help artists grow and by sharing, you can help others succeed too!

1-Be Consistent. Share on your networks on a regular basis. Your networks are like storefronts, make sure they are not empty for long periods of time or you won’t get any visitors!

2-Be Positive. No one likes a negative nancy on social media or at events. Remember that you are the FACE of your brand as an artist and that you will attract positive customers and affilates if you are positive, enthusiastic and energetic about your work.

3-Engage with Your Followers. When your followers comment on a post or share your newsletter, be sure to thank them or respond in a timely fashion. This makes your followers feel as though they are really becoming a part of your community and in turn, they will help you share and engage when you post.

4-Offer Tips and Education. Offering tips on “HOW TO USE GLAZES” or releasing a video of yourself creating art to help other aspiring artists engages other in your work. Think outside the box when you release tips, how can you help your audience?

5-Create Good Content. No one will keep reading if you post boring, out dated or irrelevant content. When was the last time you kept reading a boring book or watching a bad movie? Think about it.

6-Cross Promote. Who can you cross promote with? The art supply company that you shop at? Another artist? The restaurant where you sell your work? Be creative and work with others to create cross promotions that will help both parties gain followers and fans.

7-Be Real. Don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t. Be yourself, everyone else is already taken….

8-Share your WIPs. When you are working on a piece, be sure to share your work in progress. It’s interesting for others to watch HOW you create.

9-Learn How to POST effectively. Schedule time to analyse your website stats and find programs that help you measure and post on social media. I use HOOTSUITE. You can check it out FREE FOR 30 DAYS by visiting my affiliate link here:

10-Experiement. Not all your marketing will be online. Be sure to take advantage of local community boards, schools, events and fairs. Donate to auctions, offer different services like painting murals or doing art cards. Experiement with your work and the market.

11-Contests. Everyone loves winning! #winning

12-Giveaways. Reward your fans by giving away tickets to an event, prints or cards. The investment that you make into giveaways will bring you more returns when your winners or fans feel appreciated. #everyonelovestobeloved

13-Sales. When you make a sale, be sure to share on your networks that it has sold. If you have sold something in a show or restaurant, be sure to practise a RED DOT for a few days so that others see you are an artist who sells. Some people are strange like that…they will ONLY buy if you demonstrate that you are successful in your sales records. (Be sure to keep track of your sales too-this will help you later in your career.)

14-Customers. Take photos with customers or ask them to take a pic with your art in their homes. Share on social media or even print pictures for a portfolio you can share with potential customers in your studio.

15-Affilates. BE AN AFFILIATE for other companies. Whether you promote products, software or events that you are using or exhibiting at, creating an affiliate income stream helps you share products, services or events you love while earning money for sharing. (Yes, you can make residual income by promoting other people’s products or services so long as they give you or you sign up for your own affiliate code!)

To sign up to be an Art World Expo Affiliate, visit: BE AN ART WORLD EXPO AFFILIATE!

16-Brands You Use. When you think of all the tools that you use, be sure to refer the useful ones with others so they can take advantage of great tools too! Sign up for an affiliate link first and then promote that link to people you think might like it too. For example, we use Freshbooks for our accounting software and when we recommend it, we share our affiliate link here:

17-Share Other People’s Work. Your fans and followers will appreciate you sharing because it will introduce them to new people and other areas in your industry, but because if they are really interested in your work, they too want to see what’s going on in your creative journey. This also helps you cross promote with other artists which helps both of you build bigger communities!

18-Inspirations. Post things that inspire you as an artist. Nature, fabric, old tires. Memes. W H A T E V E R. Show your audience how your mind works and don’t be afraid to open up.

19-Professional Development. Be sure to post when you are enlisted in professional development realted to your career. A painting retreat, specialty classes, or workshops are great ways to show your audience that you are always trying to improve your craft. If you are intersted in travelling to Europe with me this summer, please visit: Painting Dreams Art Tours Info (Our next info session is February 5 at my studio and gallery in North Vancouver.)

20-Participate in Events. Last, but not least, whatever kind of art or craft you practise, be sure to participate in events in your community or outside of it. Paint live on stage at a fashion show, organize an open studio at your space, enroll in events where you can set up an exhibit in your city or others. By far, the most effective way to sell your art is to be available in person so that you can share your story and why you do what you do. Make sure you participate in at least one event each quarter.

If you enjoyed these tips, be sure to share the love with other creative people you care about!

Have a question? Follow me on Periscope and ask questions during my live broadcasts! https://www.periscope.tv/MonikaBlichar

Monika Blichar possesses a B.A. from the University of Victoria with a major in English and minor in French. She has also successfully completed the post degree teaching program and is a member of the BC College of Teachers. She is fluent in English, French, Polish and basic Spanish. Her love for culture, languages and artistic pursuits continues to grow as she develops her own creativity and imagination through her varied interests in the art world.

This post is sponsored by Twin Peaks Construction.

Ticket Giveaway!

All you have to do is #artworldexpocontest on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with your favourite Friday the 13th or noir character and you’ll be entered to win! TWO TICKETS will be won each Friday until the show! Good luck!

Weekly Giveaway!

The Illusionist: An Interview with Carolina de la Cajiga

by Alyssa Laube

“Annitya” will be up for auction at the Art World Expo. Proceeds support Make and Break Arts Foundation.

Carolina de la Cajiga doesn’t call herself an artist but an “illusionist and interpreter”. To describe what she does in photography, sculpture, and painting, she explains “I create illusions by transforming my ideas into something tangible”.

Her vision is different than reality, she “adds or removes from what is there” in order to feel satisfied with the finished product. In her Portraits of Canada and Canadian Divas series, she replaced hair with flowers. In Post-Modern Glyphs, she removed the backgrounds surrounding her subject: cable knots. What used to be behind – buildings, clouds, trees – was digitally cleared away in order to obtain a clean image with only the knots visible. “My goal is simple: to represent what I see in my mind. “It’s all aesthetics, beauty,” said de la Cajiga.

Over the past few years, her work has been focused mostly on photography but, as anything she does, it is her own kind of photography. Her most recent series is “shooting dynamic light that lasts atto seconds (the smallest unit to measure the speed of light).” De la Cajiga takes hundreds of shots and carefully picks the ones she believes have the most potential. What follows is a multi hour-long process that turns those photos into de la Cajiga’s vision for the piece through the use of various methods and computer programs. “The result is a photograph that asks the audience to question whether [parts of] it ever existed -what you see is not what is, but what your mind sees… “The more of these shots I process, the more complex and intricate the images are turning out to be.” Not finding a term to describe her technique, she coined the word “Katharosgraphy” from the Greek Katharos = to scratch, to clean, to purify, and Graphy = process. Coincidentally, Katharos also means oak tree which is what Cajiga, her last name, means. At the Art World Expo, she will be exhibiting this series of work.

Many of her other works also play with altering reality. The series, City In Flux, is based on illusion and “bend[ing] architectural protocols”. Here, she twists and morphs Vancouver buildings. In What If ? she places Las Soldaderas (“civilian women who made significant contributions to both the federal and rebel armies during the Mexican Revolution of 1910”) into other important events throughout history. Even in her photography of everyday life, such as Construction – Workers, Lifting of Backhoe, Invisible in Neon, and Rain City, she added or deleted components that are unidentifiable to the public eye. Only de la Cajiga knows what did and did not exist in the moment when the photo was captured. The audience is left to wonder.

Carolina will be part of the “Love in Any Language” exhibition at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver, 1414 Argyle Avenue, West Vancouver, February 2 – 21, 2016. The opening reception will be February 2, 6 – 8 pm, and Meet the Artists is on February 6, 2 -3 pm.

You will also be able to see her work and catch up with De la Cajiga at her new studio at the 195 Pemberton Studios bustling artist community in North Vancouver.

Take a look at Carolina de la Cajiga’s collections yourself on her website. Better still, see them in person at this year’s Vancouver Art World Expo. She is in the process of finalizing a new website, http://www.delacajigafineart.com, to display the Katharosgraphy artwork. Stay tuned!

To Etsy or Not to Etsy-Check out Morphingpot Art Studio!

As an artist, there really are a million and one ways to promote art for sale. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Youtube, Periscope, Snapchat are just some of the the social media platforms that you can use. The list is endless when you think about it! Today we want to look at a shop on Etsy from Morphingpot Art Studio. While the craze for Etsy may have started several years ago, as seen in this shop, it is still an amazing way to sell and feature work to potential buyers and fans from all over the globe.

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Meet Isabella Pavanati, who studied painting at the Art School in Milan; Drawing and Artist’s Book at the Graphic Int. School in Venice and Sculpture techniques at the Sculpture School in Treviso. She loves Jazz and Soul Music is a vegetarian and loves animals (but not as food :)).

“Hello and welcome to Morphingpot Art studio, the Etsy s hop of artist Isabella Pavanati. Here you will find a large selection of my unique and whimsical sculptures, folded book art, head planters, wire wall frames, wire wall art, paintings and so much more, all made by hand here at my studio in Treviso, Italy.

I also love custom orders, so please feel free to convo me to discuss any custom art projects you have.

Thanks for visiting!”

Want to find out more? Check out this shop’s About page.

Feature AWE Artist at MAB Art Studio-Marilyn McKee

by Monika Blichar, Owner and Producer Art World Expo

I first met Marilyn Mckee in 2010 when producing the first of a series of events; now known as Art World Expo produced in Vancouver and Toronto. Drawn to her talent in jewellery making back then, I knew that she was a treasure and kept my eyes on her. I think back to all those phone calls I made to check in over the years and wonder at how she could stand me asking about her art and progress. I wasn’t a customer after all; just an agent and promoter keeping tabs on her. Through my eyes, I knew that she was something special. I am really pleased that I kept in touch as today, she is the first feature artist of 2016 in my studio and gallery in North Vancouver.

If you haven’t met Marilyn, I will tell you that behind the stunning pieces is a truly wonderful woman who is not only a talented artist but an accomplished professional, mother and community member. Marilyn McKee is a member of the Tsit Gitanee (Eagle) clan of the Haida Nation, whose roots are from the islands of Haida Gwaii; world famous for its natural beauty and talented artists. Aside from creating, Marilyn is an active mother and grandmother and contributes to the community regularly. She is currently the President of Raycam Community Centre; the only community center in the Lower Mainland to offer free programs for kids and adults. She has been with the organization for over 10 years and has done everything from leading art projects to sewing 50 Halloween costumes.

Since a child, Marilyn has always had an artistic ability. Even when asking her about her work and photographing her for this article, her childlike joy and wonder shine through in her smile and in the way she talks about her work. She is at ease with her imagination and an innocence about her talent has stayed within her spirit. She is inspired by traditional stories and moulds them into her art with a modern twist, incorporating Celtic design, Fairies and mermaids amongst more traditional Northwest Coast elements. Her most popular are the Fairies; which are breathtaking in both jewellery and paintings to say the least.

As an artist myself, I feel privileged to have seen her art evolve into an array of beautiful works ranging from jewellery, drums, and paintings. I look forward to sharing our space with her essence this month; not only because of the beauty of the works but also to see an another artist’s work through my eyes and through those of our visitors.

Unafraid and experimental with her work, MAB Art Studio & Boutique Gallery is pleased to have Marilyn McKee as the January 2016 feature artist. Her use of many unconventional methods in her artwork result in a fresh look at the knowledge and richness her Haida culture.

For more information, please visit Mab Art Studio

All pieces featured are listed in the Facebook.

Thank you to our sponsors BLUSH Vancouver Magzine and Twin Peaks Construction.

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Happy New Year to All!

This year has been an incredible one with so many new adventures into the Art World! Thank you all for your wonderful support, enthusiasm and of course, creativity! In 2015, we saw an amazing amount of expansion and growth.

Our first expansion was starting a new event in Toronto this year. It was truly an amazing event especially since we met a tremendous amount of aritsts, sponsors and community players. The calibre of artists in Toronto is wonderful to see and we are grateful for all the artists who participated. We are also looking forward to hosting the 2nd annual Art World Expo in Toronto and are inviting artists, galleries, and organizations to participate! If you are interested, or you know of an artist or group who would be, be sure to share our website!

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Our first Painting Dreams International Art Tour to south west France with a group of artists to the Dordogne area. What a wonderful opportunity to work with artists as well as experience French culutre, history and arts. The tour was not only incredible, but a very rewarding experience for Art World Expo as we made some amazing connections that will surely last a life time. Our second tour is scheduled for July-August 2016 and we are travelling to both France and Poland in conjunction with the European Capital of Culture in Wroclaw, Poland. If you are interested in a 12 day tour to either France or Poland, be sure to visit Painting Dreams Art Tours Info. We would love to see you participate in this international trip this year!

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A big huge thank you to all of our artists, sponsors, affiliates and volunteers for making 2015 one of the most memorable years to date! We look forward to 2016 and wish you all an abundant, creative and inspiring year ahead!