exploring our search for connection...

isolation box

2009-12-13T19:27:00.003-05:00

Hans Haacke Isolation Box , 1983

photography by annalie young

how do you cut an onion?

2009-12-12T19:34:00.004-05:00

photography by annalie young

shanty

2009-11-12T16:09:00.004-05:00

photography by annalie young

Journeying. a labyrinth.

2009-11-10T19:19:00.002-05:00

in between

2009-10-20T08:14:00.002-04:00

workshop of project by hideki kawashima and myself.

not a wide enough lens to capture the whole thing in one shot... written on opposite walls.

looking back.. installation sept 2009

2009-10-20T08:08:00.002-04:00

xy: generational dreams

2009-04-30T16:43:00.005-04:00

These are samples of the larger collection from the call-out to members of generation x and generation y to write their dreams. I juxtaposed them with the architectural designs from a book published by The Canadian Morgage and Housing Corporation published for their parent's generations.

photography by annalie young

waiting room

2009-03-04T11:23:00.007-05:00

people were invited to wait.
they could drink coffee
read stories of people in vancouver's downtown eastside
wonder, possibly interact with the strangers in the room...

currently showing

2009-03-01T19:53:00.002-05:00

show: february 27 - march 8
vernissage: march 4 7pm-10pm

death to art without content

2009-02-08T16:03:00.005-05:00

2009-01-31T16:31:00.003-05:00

chairs and waiting

2009-01-19T11:19:00.003-05:00

i've found a new one that i'm slowly becoming consumed with. exploring this idea of the spaces we wait. being someone who doesn't wait well - i want to.

2009-01-19T11:09:00.003-05:00

waiting for you

waiting for someone

how to make a friend

2009-01-13T23:17:00.002-05:00

mediating moderation

2008-12-03T13:03:00.003-05:00

when i lost a bunch of weight a number of years ago i remember the amazing feeling of being able to fit into everything. until that point clothes that i liked and fit were few and far between so i was in the habit of buying anything i found that looked good on me. it took a few years to get all of that under control.
now i'm a full time student and all my work outside of school work is also creatively oriented. and i find myself in the same place - i am used to creative ideas having lulls between them but they are coming at a constant pace. and i'm not quite used to not acting on them so i never manage to slow down as i keep getting a new idea and needing to do something with it.
in a few years perhaps all this too will be under control...

shades of white

2008-11-25T16:43:00.003-05:00

come... and see photos

2008-10-30T19:16:00.009-04:00

Photos posted on flickr and on facebook

objects for "being constructed"

2008-10-22T15:57:00.004-04:00

views from my window

2008-09-17T10:03:00.001-04:00

in progress

2008-06-25T19:42:00.002-04:00

it's nice when i find myself actually painting at my studio. (even if i can only take blurry pictures of it - it's still nice)

2008-06-22T16:45:00.005-04:00

i love white. this year i painted my room and all the furniture i've found white. i love artwork with amazing contrasting colours - bright colours showing through black - corals, turquoises....
but my own painting has not had this contrast. and in a number of pieces this year i've created these white blocks that look almost like veils or screen over parts of the work that is already quite transparent and light. so, when my instructor installed some white fabric and lights for us to paint she figured that at least i would be satisfied with the assignment.
and the result has been almost impossible to photograph and goes unnoticed when it became the only piece of work i've been able to put up in my space this year. and posted here it does nothing. but, the result feels like it captured something for me.
since this was finished in april i've been trying to work with the same palette. and i keep painting over what i've done - not something i often do.

book 10: threads of belief

2008-06-15T18:27:00.004-04:00

solitary tasks

2008-05-16T02:19:00.003-04:00

some days i go to my studio to scrape paint off my palette. even with my large razor designed for paint scraping purposes this is a slow job. on good days the areas i have cleared become covered with new mixed paint. today i got to the studio; it felt like a start.

still life

2008-04-19T18:37:00.001-04:00

stories

2008-04-18T18:44:00.010-04:00

i worked on these for a long while - wanting subtlety in the work - the stories veiled. but, thus far i am not yet aware of how to visually reflect on these stories in that way. and so this finished work is much more graphic than i had hoped.

and still i'm learning that it is not communicating as much as i might hope. so - i will continue to work on these and continue to work on learning how to talk about them.

words and meanings: shades of grey

2008-03-31T12:11:00.003-04:00

Book 8

an exploration with my typewriter, dictionaries, and the photocopying coloured paper in black and white; attempting to find something in the definitions of the words i struggle to use and struggle to understand. the words that can hold so much but often get assigned so little.

a desire for declarations.

2008-03-14T20:14:00.008-04:00

sometimes - always - i wonder what i believe. faith in something bigger was not a choice in my younger years - is it now?
i want it to be.
some times.
the 'some' gets longer and longer.

is it time to leave the word christian behind?
the bullshit that surrounds this must be separated from.
i've been trying redefine this word for long times.
maybe now i need to cut it off.
and with disdain look at the pieces.

but i have never been able to do anything black.
or white.

only grey.

what do i do with the ropes that have tied me to all this?
the small fragile threads still exist in me
- yet -
they are not as easy to break as i might like.

exposures: book 7

2008-03-01T15:06:00.005-05:00

a month of playing around with this - drawings in class converted to others within my studio - converted again - pieces of canvas painted - photos researched - cutting - gluing -
finished: repeat-repeat-repeat-

process. fucking process.

2008-02-23T01:19:00.003-05:00

so, i know what i'm going to be when i grow up.... but then days like today i look at my work and wonder if anything exciting is really happening. maybe the stuff i painted 2 years ago had more to it. what am i trying to say - do i need to say anything - am i saying too much - i can say or not say whatever i want - the corner of my studio where my paintings pile up really don't care. maybe i really need to head back into youth work. honestly, i'm pretty good at it.
i think i'm entering into the process - learning to trust that as i start to paint somethings become clear and some need to fade away. but maybe it's just a trick i'm playing with myself.
i think i'm searching, discovering - but maybe i just want to believe that so badly that i can't create space for other alternatives.

maybe some day i will figure something out and then just be in it - not need to constantly question - not always having to doubt. maybe i will have one answer in one small place in my life.
maybe then i can stop smoking.

hoping. inspiring. questioning.

2008-02-15T16:49:00.003-05:00

new angles of sameness

2008-02-15T16:48:00.003-05:00

2008-02-15T16:46:00.005-05:00

secret narratives

2008-02-15T16:45:00.004-05:00

dealing with changes - tragedy and hope lurking in the transparencies?

2008-02-15T16:34:00.007-05:00

the melancholic state of january

2008-01-22T14:15:00.003-05:00

the new year: looking back wondering if anything actually existed - looking ahead wanting to see hope - trying to find something in this moment
and so 8 small paintings - the first work created in my studio. a place already bringing me life.

2008-01-13T14:24:00.001-05:00

and sometimes in my drawing class i'm actually happy with the results...

2007-12-26T14:18:00.000-05:00

jesus, oh jesus i don't want to die alone

2007-12-05T13:23:00.002-05:00

something has felt like it is missing - the deeper connection with a piece that leaves you feeling unsettled on some level when engaging with it. this is my attempt to take what i've been learning and connect it with thoughts i struggle with - the thoughts that are easier to push aside. my hope is to create space in my life in the new year to engage with these thoughts - without the space these can defeat me. and so i've held back from the questions i came to montreal to explore.

2007-12-05T13:00:00.001-05:00

collage of a model and the painting developed from it.
i am enjoying bringing together the style i have discovered through my previous assignments into a format i have used in my previous work. something is connecting for me.

the search

2007-11-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

As I move away from what’s known I enter a life of searching - I’ve left the places with answers but refuse to leave meaning. I am in the struggle of defining this in pictures without a lot of contrast.
This little book contains my preliminary thoughts on this subject – and in the spring will be nearer completion of a larger work on this subject.

conversations from different directions...

2007-11-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

...can lead to the same place.

it can start with the expressions of what feels like emptiness in your life. and yet - that moment where they become a conversation you now have company along a journey. then you see the emptiness become a fulfillment - one outside the definitions of where fulfillment derives from.
these are the conversations where you have to pick up the words you have heard; hold them; display them; make sure that they transform you.

book number three

2007-11-04T18:27:00.000-05:00

every party and group event i've been to since i moved i manage to only see people in the boxes their clothes, their choice of joke, what they are doing puts them in. i don't want to be in a box. so, i leave early because it is better to feel lonely when you're by yourself.
so i asked what to do with the boxes?

academic assignments continue...

2007-10-19T15:52:00.000-04:00

4 of my series of 5. for the past 4 months i've been playing with ideas of home and will see if these pieces fit into something bigger in the future. perhaps they will be abandoned in the brown bag in the corner of my room they are now occupying.

school work

2007-10-19T15:49:00.001-04:00

the biggest canvas i've painted on. i was surprised both by my style and what can result when i'm forced to work through the difficulties that come up

exercising: the self portrait

2007-10-18T12:26:00.001-04:00

...spending a month drawing without looking at the paper. and i love the lines that are produced. and i see the details in the faces nearby, up close with a different clarity. i am looking at the spaces existing between my hand before it touches yours, the shapes created. exercise becoming habit.

book: the second one

2007-10-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

the process of creating both art and yourself - perhaps they are not two seperate entities. the processing of your life and the documentation of pieces of it seems to be yet another symbiotic relationship

2007-08-19T12:42:00.001-04:00

this upcoming saturday this will be transferred to it's permanent home on my right shoulder...

2007-08-17T00:57:00.000-04:00

i love little books - the look of something not professionally published where art and text come together. i love that i get to use my typewriter when i make them. i love sitting on the floor with the pages strewn around me with my glue stick, scissors and paintbrush until my back is so sore from bending over the work that it is a few hours before i can fully straighten it.
in my effort to try and bring text and visual stuff together, as a way to document some of my processes, and in an effort to include my friends in it all i will be attempting to create one every month and sending them out.
i don't love colour photocopiers - actually i don't love how hard it is to line things up on them. and they cost a lot too. but, i think i will learn to like them more with my next book. i have a better idea of their limitations now. and i usually find beauty within the limitations of things.

little books begin...

2007-08-11T19:46:00.000-04:00