Gillian King: mud music mastery madness

Hey guys! My apologies - come summer with its warm weather I've found my priorities askew and my brain working in a much slower pace - not necessarily a bad thing - in fact I think it's necessary to try and give yourself fewer deadlines every once in a while... With that said I've been at the Winnipeg Folk Festival since Wednesday! I went out with my girlfriends for a weekend of folk music, beer, camping and sun. I can't quite remember but I think I've been going for about five years now. It's a hard thing to describe to someone who's never been so in a random train of thought I'm going to trail off about it to give you an idea....

Sea of tents - little villages - muddy bodies - The Weakerthans - trading posts (a friend of mine traded a puffer for a Hustler?) - streakers in the campground - giant bicycles - folk workshops - handmade villages - The Duhks

- vegan kiosks - tie dye - Cat Empire - body painting - piercings - nipple tassels (not this year but a few years back) - coffee mugs - Big Rock cider and Grasshopper beer - mussels served at 3am - Arrested Development - sandal and ring tans - pyramids - portapotties - lobster like burns - Andrew Bird - people on stilts - naked hippie showers - folk fest babies - dreads - tarps - fire dancers - glow sticks - drum circles...

This is really just the tip of an iceberg but it'll give you an idea... So after five days of camping and some very greasy hair I'm back in the city and back to reality. I will for sure have photos to share but unfortunately have to wait until they're sent to me - so soon!

A few things going on art wise...

I recently participated in The Children of the World Art Auction for my second year. I painted an abstract landscape with the theme 'Through a Child's Eyes' that was auctioned off to raise money for women and children who were affected by the Rwandan Genocide. It was great to go to the event for a second year and always a good feeling to be apart of a good cause!

I've also just started advertising for the new SOFA (Students of Fine Arts) Gallery at Edna Fedya Restaurant that I'm curating. We are now accepting submissions for monthly shows by current or former students of Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba for September 1st 2010 so check out the submission requirements on our facebook page if you're interested!

Currently at the Gallery right now is Ryan Trudeau - were were in painting class together this past year and will be doing our painting theses at the same time next year! Ryan also just installed a mural in the tunnels by the Dafoe library at the U of M! Here is a sneakpeak of the pen and ink drawings and etchings he has up right now:

I'm always so astonished by Ryan's work - his pen an ink drawings take him up to a month to make. His paintings also never cease to to amaze me with their realism from afar. I would have no patience for that - I'm more of an instant satisfaction kind of girl rather than painstaking realism... Deep respect...

Anyways if you're in the city you should come to his opening - for info and directions check out the facebook invite!

My studiomate Kara has also got herself a blog! Check it out here!`

Ok I feel like that was a significant amount of peddling...

More random updates since it's been a while - I went to my first ever wedding - Shoshana Coodin's! The F-Holes (a local band) played - it was amazing :) And as expected, lamewad me, I definitely cried during the speeches...

Darrin and I have also been cooking up a storm lately! The veganism is going well so far - I think its been two or three weeks? I've been piling the hemp seeds on my salads and sandwiches for protein and Darrin and I have been grabbing recipes from Vegan cookbooks like Vegan Yum Yum, Veganomicon, and How it all Vegan. Here are some photos from my favourite meal so far... Vegan Yum Yum's Sweet Chili Lime Tofu - incredible and I highly recommend it - I think if I were to die tomorrow it could be my last meal...