One Life Fine Art Blog – Page 11 – Blog of Canadian Fine Artist Debbie.lee Miszaniec, BFA

16Mar 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

A shiny medal from Feedspot:

Anuj Agarwal, the founder of Feedspot, contacted me recently via email to let me know they have selected my blog as one of Canada's top 25 art blogs. Feedspot ranks a number of different niche blogs in Canada according to search engine and social media popularity as well as quality and consistency of posts. They also refresh results weekly and offer to send updates from top blogs direct to subscriber inboxes. Cool, thanks Feedspot!

09Mar 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

This Weekend! March 10 -11 2018, Canada West Artist Drop In:

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting

Canada West Artist Drop-in Heritage Park Historical Village, Gasoline Alley Museum. Journey of A Lifetime Exhibition (January - April 2018): Saturday, March 10, Sunday, March 11 11:00 AM-2:00 PM FREE with paid admission to Gasoline Alley Museum [caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="242"] A Level Playing Field16 x 20 O/C[/caption] The Canada West series are a group of oil on canvas paintings created by artist Debbie.lee Miszaniec. The works revisit early 20th century Canadian advertising posters that were intended to encourage immigration to the Canadian West. Each painting interprets the source image through juxtaposition, modification, or both. Debbie.lee is a life-long painter, a student of art history, culture and society. Visit the Journey of a Lifetime exhibit and join the artist for a session of informal dialogue and gain insight into this colourful…

16Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Event Announcement: Mini Artist Talk/Tours

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/C[/caption] This is a quick announcement to let you know that March 10th and 11th 2018 between 11 am and 2 pm I will be at Heritage Park's Gasoline Alley giving mini artist talk/tours about my Canada West paintings and how they relate to their exhibition, Journey of a Lifetime. The talks are not posted to the website yet, but will be free with admission to the exhibition. Find out more about the exhibition here.

09Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Dime Novel 1907: Revisited

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_289" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Belle of the Brawl(formerly Dime Novel 1907)12 x 16 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Last week I talked about my reasons for revisiting a painting, so I won't go into that much here. What I will talk about, are the changes I made to this one, and why. Amoung the many funny things I could be entertained by in this antique image of the west, one of the things that kept happening as I looked at it, was my increasing identification with the contested object of the narrative. The bull is trussed up and appears to be at risk of being re-branded by cattle rustlers. Our hero and heroine have happened upon this scene and have rushed in to defend the bull from the cattle rustlers. But they are…

02Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Dime Novel 1903: Revisited

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_286" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oh Zee, What Did You See?(formerly Dime Novel 1903)16 x 20 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] This painting might look familiar. It was Dime Novel 1903. The funny thing is, I often paint something because it is a longer form of thinking about the thing. There is something there that I need to get to the heart of, so I need to chase that thought down through the act of painting it. Sometimes the thought keeps circling after the painting is 'finished,' and I need to revisit it. That is the case with both of the Dime Novel Paintings. I will talk a little about Dime Novel 1907 next week. So what was it about 1903 that brought me back? I was fascinated then as now by the conflicting…

26Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Sunflower Seed Paintings 31 – 36

The Sunflower Project, What's the Big Idea?

These six sunflower seed paintings are the first for 2018, and the first of thirty I was able to purchase materials for, thanks to the honorarium from Taking It Global's Wish 150 Mosaic project. Thanks Taking It Global! In honour of the new year, I decided to take these six back to basics with black and white, and to explore active words which might give us thought about how we want to be in the new year. Root has already gone to a good home. I am sure the rest would also like to find their homes! Go here to learn about the project and sign up to receive one free, or donate to ensure we keep this project going!

19Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Sunflower Project 2017 Review

The Sunflower Project, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_269" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wish150 Alberta MosaicDetailAcrylic on Panel[/caption] One year since I started the Sunflower Project, to encourage lovers of art and of life to share their gifts with the world. This has resulted in 30 paintings completed for the project, 18 of them with the assistance of donated funds from supporters. 25 paintings have been mailed, my gift, to people who have signed up on the web site to participate in the Sunflower Project. And then, the project grew: Taking It Global and Wish 150 invited me to contribute a piece to the Alberta Mosaic. The detail above is from the panel I contributed to the mosaic, and is based on the Sunflower Project. The Mosaic was unveiled in Edmonton at the end of October, and there are…

16Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Event Announcement: Journey of a Lifetime

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/C[/caption] I am pleased to announce that the seven paintings in my Canada West series, which centre on themes relevant to immigration, will be on display in conjunction with the exhibit The Journey Of A Lifetime. The Exhibit is on display from January 23rd - April 22nd 2018 at Heritage Park Historical Village. It is built around the last surviving colonist railway car in Canada and is partially sponsored by BMO. I have included my Artist Statement relating to the Canada West series below: ARTIST STATEMENT To judge the past by it’s advertising literature, one would assume that immigrants to Canada were a fairly homogenous, and privileged, bunch. The Canada West series explore that assumption. The Canada West series are paintings…

12Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

100 Rejections 2017 Review

100 Rejections, What's the Big Idea?

I aimed high early last year when I decided to work through my fear of rejection by taking inspiration from Jia Jiang. My goal was to accumulate 100 (art related) rejections over 2017. So how did that work out? First off, I would like to say that I only got 1/3 of the way to my goal this year, sending out 34 applications. Of those, 6 were accepted, which works out to a 16 or 17 % acceptance rate. So I actually accumulated 28 rejections in 2017. Having got a slow start during the first half of the year I had to apply myself from the last half of the summer by applying to 5 opportunities a week for the rest of the year to meet my goal. That proved…

05Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

2018: School’s out Party’s over.

Art Lessons, Art Parties, Working Artist

Hi again. I know, I know, 2 posts in one week? Madness! On New Years Day I like to look back over the past year and think about what has worked, what has not, where things seem to be going and what new things I would like to explore in the coming year. Sometimes sacrifices must be made to allow other things to grow. So, in order to put more energy into the studio, including some interesting projects that showed great potential for growth in the last year, for 2018 I am discontinuing offering Art Parties, Art Lessons and Artist's on a Mission programs. I guess I'll have to get new business cards made soon then.