06Jul 2023 by DebbieleeMiszaniec
Earthly Delights: The Party Ended Too Early

Earthly Delights: The Party Ended Too Early

Earthly Delights, The Story Behind the Painting, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?
Welcome to the second instalment of a series of blog posts going more in-depth into the thoughts and ideas behind each of the paintings in the Earthly Delights series. You can read the first instalment here. The series is based on my experience navigating health and diet culture as a long term participant. You can read the full background by following the link to that blog post below: Project Background: You can read more about the project background here. On the other side of Reader Rock Gardens, separated by an iron fence on the peak of the hillside is Union Cemetery, founded in 1890 looking north and west across the bustling centre of Calgary. A Story As Old As Time pictures the fence that divides the gardens from the cemetery,…
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15Jun 2023 by DebbieleeMiszaniec
Earthly Delights: A Story As Old As Time

Earthly Delights: A Story As Old As Time

Earthly Delights, The Story Behind the Painting, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?
A Story As Old As Time, 24" x 30" O/C, Debbie.lee Miszaniec Welcome to the first instalment of a series of blog posts going into the thoughts and ideas behind each of the paintings in the Earthly Delights series. The series is based on my experience navigating health and diet culture as a long term participant. You can read the full background by following the link to that blog post below: Project Background: You can read more about the project background here. Tempting Fruit, 9"x12" o/c, Debbie.lee Miszaniec I began this series thinking about the link between love and hunger, two of our primal drives. I was still thinking about gardens as a pseudo natural space after having painted a small homage to Bosch in Tempting Fruit (2022), and I…
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08Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Project Announcement! Earthly Delights – 10 Still Life Paintings in Places

Earthly Delights, Events & Announcements, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?
Preliminary Drawings, & me on location taking reference photos. I’m on location here taking reference photos at Reader Rock Gardens in Calgary for my new project, Earthly Delights - 10 Paintings of Food in Places, funded by an individual artist project grant from Calgary Arts Development. As some of you know from reading earlier posts about the development of my Cravings series, I (intentionally) lost more than a third of my body mass in the last decade. Despite the many health benefits, there are other physical and psychological results of this journey which continue to make maintaining a healthy weight a challenge. Earthly Delights is about exploring that journey through the genre of still life painting. This project juxtaposes the still life within places to speak to the dilemmas presented by our…
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30Jun 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

How To Prepare Your Art For The Show.

Art Sales, Uncategorized, Working Artist
Well the 2022 Calgary Stampede Western Showcase is a little over a week away and I have six oil paintings going into the show! So the task now is to make sure my art is show ready. Strawberry ShortcakeMaple CookieLemon BarCupcakeCinnamon RollButter TartPaintings in the show!Each are 5"x7" o/c $250 framed. So what goes in to getting art "show ready"? Painting finished, varnished, framed & ready to hang, with 3 points of identification on the back! Well, in case you have a show coming up and are looking for tips, I'll share my tips with you today. Finish the Art! Make sure your paintings are finished and dry enough to handle being out of the studio and in the real world (Duh, you say, but this can sometimes be a…
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03Mar 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Repeating Art History: Influence and Allegory

The Story Behind the Painting, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?
Sisyphus Jelly Doughnuts, 24" x 20" O/C, $1600 CAD Although the image above is of my most recently completed painting, Sisyphus Jelly Doughnuts, this is not a blog post that comes to any conclusions or announces any new events. Actually this one is just about some of the research and influences I am looking at as I journey through my current direction in the studio. Obviously some of my research involves baking or buying delicious treats to use as still life props. Definitely a bit of a conflict of interest going on here. However for the most part, being an artist and talking about the psychological effects of long term caloric restriction through art means I am doing a lot more research into art history than into recipes. To begin…
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19Dec 2021 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

The Covid Chronicles & Cravings Paintings at Arts Aqui

Uncategorized
Do you love shopping local, visiting physical galleries, and seeing new art in person when you collect? Well then I have good news for you! I've just framed up and dropped off a couple of my Covid-19 drawings and Cravings paintings at Arts Aqui in Calgary. A Good ShepherdGuardiansButtertartNanaimo Bar Let's show our local galleries some love! Stop in, view the art in person and build your collection. Arts Aqui hours are Tue – Sat: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and they are located at: 1909, 34th Avenue SW (Marda Loop) Calgary, AB T2T 2C2 Canada
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18Dec 2021 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Limited Time/Limited Edition: A Fun Money Holiday Promotion

Art Sales, Events & Announcements, Uncategorized
It's better than an NFT: you can actually hold it in your hand. Better than cryptocurrency: a truly limited number of coins, less damage to the environment, and again, you can hold it in your hands. What is it? It's Fun Money: Unwrapped, a limited edition of 10 hand painted signed and numbered sculptures. Fun Money: Unwrapped. Sculpture. Edition of 10. 2021. 4.5"x5.5"x 1" And guess what? While valued at 95$ CAD each, this is a numismatic offer you can get in on for free for a limited time only. For the holiday season, now until January 1st 2022, I am partnering with Abstract Art Canada (whom I introduced you to last month) to give away 1 of the edition of 10 with each purchase of one of my paintings…
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14Jun 2021 by DebbieleeMiszaniec
Why An Artist Should Write Project Grant Proposals (even if you never get one).

Why An Artist Should Write Project Grant Proposals (even if you never get one).

Uncategorized, Working Artist
I just spent the last week after taking down our exhibition for the Medium of Exchange Collective show, Process, writing a project grant proposal. It's the second one I've done this year and I will likely write at least one more. I have probably written one a year for the last 10 years. Although I am getting faster they still take me a while to write, and I have never gotten one. So, given my terrible track record (no one is going to be hiring me for grant writing services anytime soon) why would I continue to write them? Once upon a time I wrote them for big projects that I could not accomplish without taking time off from my day job. So they were always written for projects to…
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03May 2021 by DebbieleeMiszaniec
We Need Help Planning the Closing Reception for Our Show Medium of Exchange – Process

We Need Help Planning the Closing Reception for Our Show Medium of Exchange – Process

Events & Announcements, Uncategorized
In light of increased Covid-19 case numbers and increased public health restrictions here in Alberta it seems unlikely we will be able to physically welcome you to the gallery for our closing reception on the afternoon of May 20th 2021. So since we are all new to this virtual event thing we would like to ask for your help deciding how, where and what to do in lieu?  We have a brief 3 question survey below and would appreciate your feedback. We’ll share details for the event once we’ve had a chance to discuss the feedback. Thanks! Take The Survey Here
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03Nov 2020 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Tricks & Treats: October Review

Uncategorized
Trick or Treat, 12"x16" o/c, $950 So Halloween is over and we have 2 weeks to see where it takes us in regard to new Covid-19 cases. Trick or Treat is my latest instalment in the Covid Chronicles saga of paintings this year. I was quite anxious about this holiday, it is so hard for us to disappoint the little ones, but no one can be sure who is passing along the Covid Apple in this rendition of a Halloween Snow White fairytale. Is the little old lady giving it to Snow White, or the other way around? Is the child transporting it from one house to another (all unintentionally of course)? It was good to see all of the creative approaches people took to carrying on with Halloween traditions…
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