Archives: art

Last Saturday we headed down to Christ Church Cathedral on James North for the holiday edition of the Maker’s Market.

I love how this church actively partakes in the monthly art crawls. Every month, for the crawls, they open their doors to the public by playing host to the outdoor Maker’s Market as well as some super cool and often experimental musical acts that take advantage of the amazing space and acoustics of the Cathedral.

The Maker’s Market on this particular Saturday was definitely abuzz. Lots of people were making their way around to check out the goods and pick up some potential Christmas and holiday prezies.

Among the many local artisans and vendors Matt Jelly was there selling his Hamilton cards, maps, buttons and t-shirts. We picked up a set of downtown Hamilton cards in 3 different silkscreen printed colours. Matt’s table was hopping as people snatched up their neighbourhood maps. We finally bought our Corktown neighbourhood map too.

We also stopped by Lisa Pijuan-Nomura‘s (aka @girlcancreate) table. She had an assortment of goods and artwork ranging from calendars, notebooks and buttons to vintage paperpacks.

Lisa is a mover and a shaker and a definite do-er. She organizes a variety of arts based events in the city from a story telling series at The Staircase to The Quarterly: A Night of Live Performance at The Pearl Company.  Lisa is also organizing an upcoming event called Handmade: a holiday art and craft sale. So if you’re still looking for a unique Christmas gift or a little art head to James North Art Collective at 328 James North on Sunday, December 16th from 11am-4pm. There’ll be fine art and crafts from over 30 different artists.

There’s something quite humorous about wielding a hammer in “The Hammer”.

I recently renewed my annual membership at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and couldn’t help but notice this great installation by Hamilton artist Simon Frank.

The hammer, with an embossed pine tree, is hung on the large wall of the front entrance of the AGH.  You can swing it as you like into the drywall.  The overall effect is the creation of a forest of hammered out pine trees, or as the title of the work states View (from the escarpment). I love it!

 

October’s art crawl has come and gone but it just might have been my favourite one of the year.  With all the hoopla of the Supercrawl over it was nice to see this art crawl so chill and low-key.  It always seems like in the fall and winter the crawl crowd seems to mellow out, which I secretly kinda love.

During last week’s crawl I stumbled upon three new gallery spaces, one of which has become my new favourite Hamilton gallery.

Located at 27 John Street North, the Nathaniel Hughson Gallery just recently opened in the space that Wishart advertising agency formerly occupied.  It’s a great addition to the expanding Hamilton art and gallery scene.  It keeps me optimistic when galleries start reaching beyond James North especially onto this particular stretch of John (between King William and King Streets). I have big hopes for this little drag on John North -so much potential!

David Hind‘s metal work above the door of Nathaniel Hughson’s Art Gallery.

Another piece by David Hind inside the gallery.  I’m a really big fan of his work and of his collaborative projects with the collective the Aluminum Quilting Society.

There were many other fantastic pieces of artwork in the gallery from several established Ontario artist including local Hamilton artist Christina Sealey.  The works of art exhibited ranged from painting to sculpture, including functional pieces of furniture. It is definitely worth a visit, so add this to the list of galleries to check out at your next art crawl, or better yet take a looksy if you’re in the neighbourhood.

Next we popped into Manta Contemporary at 51 King William, which is another new gallery slightly off the beaten James North track.  I loved the playful exhibit From Cardboard that they had in perfect time for Halloween.

The exhibit consisted of wonderfully crafted masks made from none other than cardboard.  The idea behind the exhibit is to sell the pieces (masks, costumes and props) -for Halloween of course! The works that sell will be replaced regularly by new pieces that are being created on an on-going basis until October 31st.  Super fun! If you need a unique costume now you know where to go.

As we continued on King William I noticed this subtle installation projected onto Delta Bingo Hall‘s wall from Baltimore Café.  It was like a giant old full moon all soft-lit and glowy. Loved these surprise discoveries during this art crawl.

My big fav of the night was a 5 piece blues band (out front of Christ Church Cathedral) consisting primarily of elderly gents.  Their aged voices were just as fun and sassy as they needed to be to draw a crowd.

The last gallery discovery of the night was another newish space that we were lead to by a series of arrows chalked, taped and painted on the sidewalk leading off of James and onto Barton. I don’t remember the name of the gallery but it was quite non-descript with a fairly young crowd checking out the artwork. There was some electronic music and sound equipment set up, which implied that there’d likely have been a show, however we didn’t stick around for very long. I’m not 100% certain but I believe this space is called HAVN -”a multi-modal node for the development, exhibition, documentation, and dispersal of sound, images, and ideas” -sounds interesting.

Great to see the continued development and expansion of the art scene in Hamilton!

Alas, I did make it out to Supercrawl, and I did not end up having a Supercrawl baby.  The baby has yet to arrive, but yet another Supercrawl has come and gone.  I missed Supercrawl last year so I was happy that over the weekend I was feeling pretty good and energetic enough to walk on down to James Street and check out how things have grown and progressed since the last Supercrawl I went to two years ago.

Here are some of the photos I took as I walked down James.

I just have to say that despite the line up of many fabulous musical acts my absolute favourite band of all of Supercrawl was a band I’d never heard of before named Bombino! A friend we ran into mentioned that this band from Niger would definitely be worth checking out and as we were heading home we sort of stumbled upon the start of their set.  They were so worth sticking around to listen to and watch -a combo of disco, funk and West African music. Here’s a little clip of what you might’ve missed…

 

 

 

 

Our second shop stop on Cannon was to non other than Relish Vintage!

Sometime ago when Downtown Bike Hounds had just moved to John Street, I blogged about the soon to open Relish Vintage (see that post here).  Since Relish opened over a year and a half ago, I have of course been by the store many times but had yet to do a blog post (and I did want to do one!).

So after Kristin from I Heart Hamilton and I visited O’s Clothes we decided we’d pop into Relish too to share some of our love for the shops holding it down on Cannon Street.

Store owner Katherine Hollands has a good eye for vintage finds and for selecting fabulous items from unique local designers.  The store carries such a breadth of items that all seem to complement and work perfectly together.  Relish has everything from refurbished vintage furniture to classic vintage dishes, greeting cards, wallets, bags and beautifully crafted Canadian made and designed clothes.

Relish is often my go to place for when I need to find a unique gift for someone. I’ve bought a beautiful leather wallet, greeting cards, and a set of awesome Christmas cocktail glasses.

My friend Lindsay (of Hoot Furnishing) refurbished the desk on the right with a chalkboard top -selling for $75!  Both desks are perfect for the back to school season.

I also love the artwork that is for sale at Relish.  The artwork on the photo above and to the right is by Sarah Holland.  Her 4×4″ oil on canvas paintings are $25 a piece.

Stop into Relish sometime there are always new things coming into the store.  Say hello to Katherine you’ll likely see her in the store with her newest little addition to her family or with her adorable dog.

You can also follow Katherine via her blog Be Enamoured or on Twitter @RelishHamilton.  Relish is on Etsy too -you can check out the on-line store here.

Loved touring the local shops and spots again with Kristin from I Heart Hamilton.  You can check out her post here.  Can’t wait up to explore together again Kristin!

*Relish Vintage, 6 Cannon St. East, 905.973.8269, W-Sat 12-6, Sun 12-4

 

I’ve been noting the little subtle pieces of street art that have been popping up most recently throughout the city.

I love the classic Hamilton red-brick.  We have a few Hamilton bricks in our backyard -they’ve helped in the making of our little mini back patio. When the Century theatre was torn down we managed to snag a few of them (it was literally a sea of red Hamilton bricks after the demo). Every time we walked by we’d pull a couple of bricks through the demo fence to carry home for patio making.

 

I’ve been especially adoring these sewing themed bits of street art.  The Singer sewing machine, fabric sheers…  Has anyone else seen any additional sewing related pieces on walls, perhaps a giant bobbin, button or spool of thread?

If you’d like to see the documentation of ChildisHeArt artwork stop by here.

On a recent hot and sunny weekday Steve and I decided to do a mini day trip to St. Catharines’ old downtown strip.  To be truthful I had not been in St. Catharines since I was a little kid and the only thing I remembered about the city were its 1970′s suburbs and that huge bridge that crosses over the Welland Canal that makes you feel like you’re driving right up to the sky.  I’d never been to the old downtown St. Catharines and I was pretty excited to take a looksy.

St. Catharines’ downtown is capital O-L-D (for a Souther Ontario city).  According to Wikipedia:

The area was originally known as a storehouse for goods at the crossing of an Iroquois trail over Twelve Mile Creek. Curving Indian trails formed the foundation of the downtown streets as they appear today. Among them remains the largest and most historically-significant of the city, St. Paul Street.

Unlike many planned North American cities whose downtown streets run in a straight grid-like line St. Paul Street curves and meanders along a little ridge mimicking the winding rivery creek that used to run behind it.  There’s no creek back there now, but there is a highway.  This is just my guess as the only indications that there was an old running river was from some old writing I noted on the side of current artsy occupants of Bang On hair salon‘s building that says that it used to be an old flour mill -presumably powered by the current of the river that used to flow behind St. Paul Street?

In any case, our first stop on our mini trip was the  Niagara Artists Centre, which I had been wanting to visit for a quite a while.  It is not by any means a monstrosity of a gallery but similar to the 1-2 room gallery space of  Hamilton Artist Inc.

Artist Jared Charzewski‘s exhibit Salvage Swell was installed in the back gallery.  It was awesome! His sculpture was made up of piles and piles of used clothes.

*Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St.Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.641.0331

A few doors down was vintage clothing store Out of the Past -I know, I know Hamilton has one too but this one is the numero-uno original and I loved it! The prices were so right, and there was such a great collection of items for both men and women.

*Out of the Past, 340 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.288.6007

The next place we happened upon was a real treat.

The Write Book Shop is one of those bookstores that you can get lost in for hours and hours and still have a stock pile of rainy days banked to come back for further exploration. They had two floors plus several back rooms of books ranging form rare antiques to classics, children’s books, books on Ontario, history, crafting, cooking and sewing. You name it they have it.

*The Write Bookshop, 285 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.684.8426

For lunch we stopped in at a vegan restaurant/bakery/café called Rise Above. I first heard about this place via the folks at Mjolk and it looked so good that we decided to check it out for ourselves. The lunch was great and so was the Bill Murray painting exhibit (Still Murray by Grant Redman) but my favourite part of this stop were the vegan donuts. Yeah, it IS possible -vegan donuts!  AND they were good.

You can read more about the creator of these vegan donuts -Kyle Paton here.

I would love for both Kyle (owner of Rise Above) and Bruce Worden (chef or Rise Above) to open up a fresh and contemporary place like this in downtown Hamilton. Can’t you just picture it in one of the storefronts of Treble Hall?

*Rise Above, 120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 289.362.2636

I was reading that similar to Hamilton downtown St. Catharines was rampant with one-way streets. In effort to rejuvenate the core they converted their one-ways to two-ways and low and behold look at the new businesses opening up. I’ve even heard rumours of the rerouting of the Niagara Wine Route so that it will eventually pass through St. Catharines’ downtown. Gotta love good city planning and investment in the downtown core!

Overall it was a great little day trip to St. Catharines. I think that it has something going on, and besides I’m always up for a new place to explore.

 

This month’s artcrawl is going to be a good one!  SO many things going on;  Steve and our talented friend Jamie Lawson both have their solo openings tomorrow night, there’ll be the super-fabulous vintage dress sale that White Elephant is hosting, and CBC Hamilton will finally have their official doors open for the crawl too (yay)!

Some sneak peaks…

Steve’s show is called Straits, and is amazing!  It features new 2D and 3D works using mixed media, metal, and routered wood.  His show will be up at b contemporary gallery at 226 James St. North until June 2nd.

Up on the 3rd floor of 126 James St.  North, be sure to check out Jamie Lawson’s exhibit Albedo in Sylvia Nickerson’s Open Studio.  His work is looking fab, and he will also have some prints for sale to adorn your lovely walls.

To get your one of a kind 1940′s-60′s vintage dress you must check out White Elephant’s Dreaming of Dresses -vintage dress sale!  They’ve got the combined super-power forces of Ottawa’s Victoire, Hamilton’s Peacock Chic, and Toronto’s Love in the Afternoon to put on the best vintage dress sale you’ve ever seen!

With the quickly warming weather this art crawl is sure to be a busy one.  I heard that last month the count was 6000 people!  Well done.  If you do plan to stop by the crawl it runs form 7-11pm and please remember to bring a non perishable good to Cannon & James North (specifically baby formula and baby food)!  Help your community!

 

The AGH held its annual Spring Art Sale from May 3rd to May 6th.  The sale featured work from 50 artists (local Hamilton artists and artists from the surrounding GTA) exhibiting artwork varying from painting to pottery, jewelry and ceramics. I went and checked it out over the weekend for Doors Open Hamilton.

Of all the amazing art on display I was immediately attracted to a ceramic piece by artist Lana Filippone.  I adored her dainty and sweet creations and wanted to take each one of them home with me!

This work is from her series “Dwelling on a Whim” -playing off the theme of “childhood daydreams”.  The artist describes her work as having it all: “bunnies with tree houses on their backs, to grumpy birthday party guests-of-honour”.  Adorable!!

I see these pieces going perfectly along side high-tea, and crumpets.

 

 

 

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of finally checking out 270 Sherman – the old Imperial Cotton Mill in the north-east end of town – which has been transformed into artist’s studios and other creative spaces. The area has a real historic industrial Hamilton feel and I was intrigued by the neighbouring buildings.

I wondered a little about how 270 Sherman came to be what it is today and had heard a rumour once that someone from the Zeidler family may have bought the building.  FYI – the Ziedler family own both 401 Richmond and The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.  The transformation of 270 Sherman into a creative space would then all make sense, knowing that 401 Richmond is a transformed industrial space that is now home to artist’s studios and galleries, as well as various other creative workspaces.  And The Gladstone is a refurbished boutique hotel that supports the Queen West art scene with gallery exhibitions, Come Up to My Room, and numerous other artistic events.  Hmmm… I wonder.  The rumour was recently dispelled as I learnt from a reader and staff member from 270 Sherman that in fact the building is locally developed and managed by The Crerar Group from right here in Hamilton. Sorry for any perpetuating of false rumours!

In any case I loved the 1900′s turn of the century factory -what a fabulous space!  According to its history Hamilton was apparently not just a steel town but also a garment and textile town too with a multitude of textile factories spattered throughout the city.  In the building there were still remnants of the former factory: old worker’s lockers, patches on the hardwood floor where the workers and factory machines treaded, and the steel plates on each of the steps leading up to the factory floor boldly embossed with Imperial Cotton Co. Ltd. 1900.

I was also really excited to check out the TH&B (2) exhibit that was being put on in the old factory space of 270 Sherman.  I wasn’t living in Hamilton for the first TH&B but had read about it, and so I was super excited to kill two birds with one stone by seeing the building space and opening night of TH&B2 all in one go!  The opening was amazing!  A great show of support for the arts from local Hamiltonians.  A bus load of folks from Toronto’s OCAD even came for the opening night.  It felt so good to be a part of something like this, and to know that there ARE great artistic things happening in this city.

I enjoyed the exhibit and the building so much that I wanted to check it out again in the day light for Doors Open Hamilton.  Here are some of the day-time photos of the exhibit and the building.

The night of the opening behind David Hind and the Aluminum Quilting Society’s piece there was some live aluminum quilting going on.  The artwork above is actually the front of a mini enclosed workspace, where artists were working to etch and engrave steel plates live!  It was pretty cool. Throughout the gallery space and the opening you could hear the industrious muted sound of metal being ground and worked.

The TH&B2 exhibit is on until May 12th.

 

*270 Sherman Ave. North, 905.547.8256