Claire Grady-Smith

Please join us at 99 York Street on Wednesday, March 7th, at 4pm, to find out more about joining a local arts initiative. Our collective idea is loosely based on the idea of spontaneous, guerilla art production in Kingston, Ontario: “surprising art in surprising places”. We are interested in more local art in restaurants, poetry reading in pubs, theatre on street corners, installations in laundromats, and a website where artists can pitch these and other ideas for collaborative projects. Our collective will include musicians, writers, painters, videographers, city workers, business people, concerned citizens, and social justice activists. We are still in formation, and don’t yet have a name! Join us to talk further.

Dear Kingston artists,

My name is Claire and I am a local visual artist. I am trying to start an arts collective that is dedicated to relationship-building projects between local artists and other members of the Kingston community – business owners, landlords, city officials (those who control or have access to spaces in Kingston).

I have a zygote of a first project in mind, and I am hoping to form a committee that can help shape the idea. The basic premise is to create a window decal for businesses who support local artists. This sticker would say something along the lines of “We Support Local Artists” in English and French. I am imagining that this would spark an oral culture of awareness about local arts events: once a store or restaurant has a sticker, patrons will eventually start asking what cultural events/exhibitions take place in the establishment. If business owners are unsure of how to support artists, there will be a blogspace for them to look at other examples, read profiles of artists, and find out what kind of projects and collaborations are seeking a space.

For the moment there are a couple of interested businesses and a few artists interested in being profiled on the site. I am hoping to find a community of committee members, volunteers, and artists, and once this is established, funding will be sought from CFKA and CKAF.

Please let me know if you are interested in coming out to a meeting to discuss the idea.

Thank you very much!

This exhibition, in Verb Gallery (85 Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario) is a collection of recent works, but includes some pieces from earlier years. Works in this series are themed around the concept of “aberrants”, a bilingual word meaning that which is abnormal or unusual. In medicine, the word refers to tissues or organs which are found in unexpected places. The Aberrants in this show are both celebrated and made vulnerable through exposure. Signs of physical and psychological torment stand in as metaphors for the ostracism of all who are “aberrant” in the eyes of a dominant/dominating culture.

OPENING NIGHT: Thursday, January 19th, 7pm.

As an art history student, I became a little obsessed with the relationship I had to famous works through my art history textbooks. I found the small reproductions of paintings charming, and the details of large paintings often stood alone as compelling pieces in their own right. I started painting these, as if the small images in the texts could represent something that existed in that size and so was no longer a reduction of an original. In this way I obtained, for myself, a sense of a piece’s “aura” despite the fact that I’ve grown up in Canada and have never seen the originals. I have created tiny reproductions of Klimt, Monet, Da Vinci, Modigliani and Hopper. The pragmatics of modern living are such that I sell these for $30 each.

I then started painting famous faces, again as strategy to collect and contain greatness in a way that was personal and precious. Here is an example of how I work from a photo to create a miniature version of John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Frantz Fanon, Janis Joplin, and Martin Luther King Jr.

After seeing my work, many people commission a portrait of their loved ones, however. These are $40 each, but $5 off for each additional piece (up to $10 off max). For examples of these, see my Paintings page in the above menu, and click on the Miniature Portraits gallery. My email is available on the Contacts page.

The Fat Goose flew last night. It was a whirlwind of happy shoppers, smiling vendors, amazing video art projects put together by Maayke Schurer from Modern Fuel, and incredible music brought by CFRC djs. The evening was enhanced by vegan and non-vegan delights provided by vendors, which went well with the rum-filled egg nog being sold at the Renaissance Event Venue. Thank you to everyone who came out, and a special thank you to those who have contacted me today about portrait commissions. The Fat Goose is still air-borne, my friends! Get your order in soon for Christmas present: Miniature portraits for desks, mantelpieces, or boats. Don’t miss upcoming events – subscribe to this blog today.