21Apr 2020 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Studio Life & Covid-19: Part 4

Events & Announcements, Sketchbooks, Uncategorized, Working Artist, Youtube Channel
While the weather and the news had its ups and downs in the outside world, it was another busy week in the studio. As an artist who is perpetually in isolation, there is never a shortage of things to get done, even while others post about not knowing how to fill the hours suddenly vacated by their jobs. However, it can be difficult to motivate myself to actually get things done as some projects seem to be futile when their fate is currently unknown due to all the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Such is the case with my preparations for The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Art Show. Currently we have no news one way or the other on the fate of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede this year, so…
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06Apr 2020 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Studio Life During Covid-19 Part 2

100 Rejections, Events & Announcements, Sketchbooks, The Sunflower Project, Uncategorized, Working Artist, Youtube Channel
So it is another interesting week as we see the progress of the Covid-19 crisis on the global stage and I have continued to document it in my Covid 19 series of drawings I uploaded the final instalment of Kathleen and Quinnton's Wedding Painting to Youtube last week, so here together for the first time are all three videos so you can see the process from start to finish! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAvrhEIE4vA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXvYwDDWsyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmUOiHw0x5k Each video represents one day of work on the painting. So why are the lengths so different? I'm recording the time-lapse video's using my iPhone, so I need to press stop periodically to adjust the number of dropped frames per session. In the shorter ones I stopped recording less frequently. So it appears I am a super fast…
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16Mar 2020 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Time to Plan (your Art Show) for Better Times

Uncategorized, Working Artist, Youtube Channel
As I write this today it seems half of Calgary is shut down to limit the spread of COVID-19 and the shops may as well be for the amount of stock left on their shelves due to panic buying. My daughter's university practicum is cancelled, putting her educational plan in limbo, and I am worried about the safety of my mother and her husband on her upcoming trip to Calgary from out of province. They are in the high risk category for complications if they were to get sick. So although I think my household could handle the illness, I will be following the suggestions for social distancing and hand-washing. I am doing that so my older family members don't get sick, and so I don't have to self-isolate and…
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05Feb 2020 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Thoughts on Over-painting (oil)

Uncategorized, Working Artist, Youtube Channel
I just didn't have a passion for the project anymore. The inspiration did not work out and I was not stubborn enough to invest more time in making it work. So wasteful to abandon high quality* canvases in this time of thoughtful consumption, so I repainted them with fresh inspiration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImfXs3W7rp4 Of course there are considerations for overpainting canvases: Is the original completely dry? If you're considering immediately repainting a painting you will have to worry about the dry rates of the underlying layers, oil and solvent contents of those layers and how it will effect the new painting. Is the painting fresh enough that you could just scrape the whole thing back? If not I would strongly suggest waiting until the painting is completely dry so at least you…
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15May 2019 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Sunflower Project: Community Collaborations

The Story Behind the Painting, The Sunflower Project, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?
So last week I told you about the new painted utility box I contributed to the Marlborough community. I also mentioned the references to the sunflower project that I included in the design. Here would now be a good place to include some images of a couple of the other boxes from the project. These artists agreed to let me contribute a sunflower seed to the designs of their boxes, symbolically taking part in the project and growing it further to take root in the Marlborough community. Thanks Sharon Fortowsky and Ashley Oshiro for hosting the Sunflower Project in your projects. Hopefully we can collaborate again soon! [caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="225"] City of Calgary Painted Utility BoxAshley Oshiro(Detail with Sunflower seed by Debbie.lee Miszaniec)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_362" align="aligncenter" width="142"] City of…
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01May 2019 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Art In Transit: Installed! (plus bonus Inglewood art)

Commissions, The Story Behind the Painting, Uncategorized
You may recall I posted last spring that the City of Calgary was interested in reproducing my little painting,  Pancake Breakfast, in the large, on glass for the 17th Avenue BRT project. Well here is the finished project! [caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Pancake Breakfast, Reproduction of glass, Installed[/caption] I really like where it was situated, close to the Blackfoot Diner in Inglewood. When the former owner, Edna, was alive, she was known to give free meals to the homeless on occasion, so the placement of this symbol of Calgary hospitality seems appropriate. What do you think? Speaking of Inglewood and the Blackfoot Diner, (two, or rather one in another, places which meant a lot to me growing up in Calgary,) here are a couple paintings I did a few years…
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24Apr 2019 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

The Motion of Shopping : Opening Tomorrow!

Events & Announcements, Uncategorized
Opening April 25th 6 - 9 PM Women's Art Museum of Canada, AB Chapter, Edmonton My painting, Security ( 20" x 24" oil on canvas), will be on view for the first time to the public for the duration of this show. If you are in Edmonton don't miss this opportunity to see the real deal up close and personal. [caption id="attachment_345" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Securityoil on canvas20" x 40"Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption]
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28Apr 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Art in Transit: Pancake Breakfast

Uncategorized
[caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pancake Breakfast 9 x 12 O/C by Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Last week I was contacted by the City of Calgary, regarding the selection of one of my paintings to be enlarged and reproduced permanently on one of the transit shelters for the 17th Ave SE BRT public transit development. I am super excited to be working with the City on this and can't wait to see what Pancake Breakfast looks like enlarged and in the public space! I will make sure to take and post pictures when this goes ahead.
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10Jul 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

SPAM!

Uncategorized
Okay, I know I have been away since March 13th, and if you have posted a legit comment on a post since then, I am genuinely sorry that it will not be read or posted, however 2800 pieces of spam are a little much to expect someone to sift through in order to find the one nugget of authentic human contact in my inbox. I skimmed the posts as I marked them spam, but for the most part they were neither specific nor relevant to this blog. So, if you would like to have your post actually read and responded to, PLEASE make sure that it is specific and relevant, and is very obviously so. There are so many generic spam posts that are clearly copy and pastes, saying how wonderful this…
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19Nov 2016 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Your Greatest Masterpiece

Uncategorized
YOLO. It's a contemporary cliche, but it's true. Today my uncle passed away. He was only 54, but hadn't been truly living in years. He was fixated by demons of passed emotional hurts and locked in a battle between the reality of morbid obesity and the ideal of universal body acceptance. Eventually this struggle came to be his personal identity, until it imprisoned and conquered him. There was so much more to him than his size. He was outspoken, a true big personality, who wasn't afraid of being contrarian or ruffling feathers. He loved cooking, technology, vehicles and movies. When he was young he loved to draw. He had an intense need to be close to family. He took in relatives for years at a time, and made nearly daily phone calls to his…
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