Small Pond Trading Cards, Part 1

To celebrate six years of Small Pond Arts and our upcoming Season 7, we've created a set of 77 trading cards* featuring some of the characters and scenes that have made Small Pond a very special and magical place.

Unlike the fake-but-fun DVD Box Set from last year, you can actually (probably...more or less...I guess) print these out if you really want to have physical cards** to collect and trade with your friends (we're not printing or selling them, so have fun!).

I based the design of this set very closely on the second (red) series of trading cards Topps made for Star Wars back in 1977. The red-bordered Star Wars cards resonate with me on a very particular nostalgic level (so do the orange-bordered cards), and having them as Small Pond keepsakes (even virtual ones) makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I even tried to recreate the low-quality photographic reproductions by severely degrading our photos, and I wrote captions mimicking their enthusiastic style. The images were chosen carefully to give a good overview of the first six years of Small Pond, but there's not really a chronological or thematic order.

These cards will be posted in small groups for the next few Sundays, reaching completion the day before our Season Seven Silobration (May 23) where we unveil our new silo banner.

SEE PART 2

SEE PART 3

SEE PART 4

*77 cards including the Title Card (which isn't numbered).

**I didn't prepare anything for the backs; you have my apologies.

Jubilee

Since painting means so much to me, I wanted to make a big deal concerning my 25 years of painting (from the awkward but enthusiastic baby steps in the first few years to the full-blown intensity of recent years), and, inspired by Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977, I've been using that name to commemorate this, my own Silver Jubilee.

My celebrations took on various forms, but I started with a bit of history/reminiscing over on my own painting blog:

In Part One I recount the very first steps of my introduction to watercolour painting and the artists that inspired me to explore this strange but beatiful medium.

In Part Two I talk about my growing interest in portraiture and I shared a couple of my novice paintings as well as some of my more current portraits to show that I've made some progress over the years.

Part Three is about the year I decided to get more serious about getting a better understanding of watercolours by painting one picture per week (spoiler alert: I ended up painting 63 that year).

In Part Four I tell the story of my accidental initiation into painting in oils and the medium's lasting hold on me.

Taking place on Facebook and also mentioned in Part Five on my blog, I gave away five watercolour paintings at random –because you're supposed to give gifts for an anniversary, aren't you?

Scheduled to take place during this Jubilee, I did another painting marathon in November which, after last year's marathon, I didn't think I'd do something like that again, but after my 33 on 33 project this spring, I felt I still needed to learn more about Prince Edward County, so County 101 was conceived.

Five years ago I did a big watercolour to celebrate my 20th Anniversary, so, because I love painting so much, I wanted to paint one large picture (featuring the same model) to mark the occasion, which, at the time of this posting, is about 75% done (detail below). Working in oils this time, this one has an element from my very first watercolour back in 1988 but does not, unfortunately, have any of my matrix patterning anywhere...

Detail of currently-untitled
25th Anniversary painting
(in progress).

When that's finished later this week, I'll attend to the four new paintings of my Tourament of Shadows series which are prepped and ready for painting.

Will I take a break after that?

No –in fact, I plan on kicking it into a higher gear –there's a lot of painting still to be done!

Two Year Anniversary Give-Away!

Today marks two years since Milé and I moved to Small Pond Arts.

Smooch!  Picture taken at the Big Splash

Time is a funny creature.  In some ways two years seems like a long time; we’ve accomplished so much, and I think Milé and I have both been deeply changed by our new life.  But two years isn’t really all that long; after all, it’s a measly 730 days.

Here’s some of the things that I did in the last 730 days:

• Moved from downtown Toronto to a farm

• Bought our first home

• Renovated and furnished this old house

• Started a small business 

• Learned to drive

• Learned to grow abundant glorious food in our garden

• Buried a time capsule

• Produced four community festivals

• Had my puppets in an art show

• Taught shadow puppetry to kids in 5 communities

• Sewed two giant silo banners (with help)

• Met a couple hundred new people, made a lot of new friends

• Wrote/directed/performed four puppet shows

• Helped make jam and pickles

• Traveled to Labrador, Northern Ontario, and drove to Arizona and back

• Was in local newspapers and magazines 24 times

• Started teaching myself to play the concertina.
• Made about 30 puppets

• Hosted a dinner party for 50+ people and threw some killer parties

• Made two mobiles – one of bones and one of sticks

• Led four community workshops
• Facilitated dozens of artists in residence... and fed them all

• Started a blog and wrote 34 posts.

Now I’m not trying to brag, but I feel like that’s a significant amount of stuff.  And honestly, I’ve been working pretty hard, but I haven’t been killing myself.  I could have done more.

Milé did a whole bunch of other stuff, too, like painting tons of paintings, having art shows, stiltwalking around Picton, and becoming one of the most famous mustachioed men in the County. 

A lot of people ask how we did all this. How did we make a life for ourselves that seems to most people like a crazy dream?

Well if you have a crazy dream, guess what?  You can actually do it.  Well, probably. But it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes fearlessness. Courage. Support of your friends and family. Hard work, obviously. And a little bit of foolishness. I've never really felt afraid that Small Pond wouldn’t work. You can't fear failure if you want to succeed.

I could be yours.

***CONTEST DETAILS***

Now it’s your turn.

We want to know what you’ve done in the last two years.  What are your accomplishments?  What are you most proud of?

Tell us in the comments section below by 7 PM March 15, 2012 and you could WIN one of these great prizes:

First Prize: A custom oil portrait of you or someone of your choosing by Milé Murtanovski

Second Prize: Yeti puppet (pictured above) by yours truly, Krista Dalby
Third Prize: Two CD's from our friend, Arlene Bishop: Snarky Girlpop and Begin Again.

One entry per person. We’ll post the winners here on March 15, 2012 by 8 PM, as selected by random.org

It's time to toot your own horn. Good luck!

Magazined

So Small Pond Arts is featured in the 2011 summer issue of County Magazine. Neat! It's quite a substantial article --and look at that cover! (read more about that painting HERE)

At left is Krista with the big blue hands of a future giant puppet, and at right is me doing some gardening. Basically, business as usual at Small Pond.

LEFT PAGE: clockwise from upper left: my portrait of Ted Maczka from my recent Field to Canvas series; me in my studio/gallery, grinning like a doofus; me and Krista sitting in our outhouse; and my portrait of George Emlaw (also from F2C).

RIGHT PAGE: clockwise from top: Krista with her Punch & Judy puppets (and me sneaking a smooch); my watercolour painting of a skull on Yupo plastic; my oil painting, Fuel 2; and my portrait of John Nyman (also from F2C).

Top to bottom: me and Krista next to our main sign; Krista posing with out giant puppet, Bacchus; and another shot of me looking cheeky in the my studio/gallery.

Left page: another watercolour painting on plastic (which I'm using in my own blog's header. Right page: me inside another future giant puppet, our sugar shack guy (and in the background, our famous Silo).