self-portrait

Here I am. 

Sarah

So here we are, the second installation of  this tentatively titled project.

This week I present to you

 Sarah Kilpack!

Sarah is a woman of many hats. Actually, one of the first times I met her she was dressed as a massive, walking rock. Like this huge, exceptionally realistic papier-maché rock was one of said hats, and it was amazing. Sure, she studied a little bit of everything at NSCAD, but right now she's got good things going on in the heart of Toronto. She's one of a small group of artists and curators who are taking over and transforming one of the oldest standing buildings on Spadina Ave into a gallery+event+garden+etc space. In the past, Sarah was (an intensely private sketcher and film dork but is now becoming more and more interested in any kind of socially engaging work, which is a pretty nice transition if you ask me. 

Kilpack is savvy with herbs and tinctures, environment + costume design; she always has some interesting concoction or stone or other neat thing to tell me about when I see her. These days Sarah spends a chunk of her time volunteering or training with various community driven organizations such as The Stop and you can find her at Double Double Land one Monday a month, making sure the monthly comedy show Doored runs smoothly. 

 

Brette

Hey, hi! Nice to see you.You may have noticed that I don't often blah blah here, but I thought I would take a sentence or two to let you know that a new, yet-to-be named, long-term portrait project starts now. Yes yes, I make portraits all the time, but you'll now notice brief and informal profiles about the women pictured. 

Get to know these women and their work. 

Shall we begin?

This is Brette Gabel.

You may have seen her here before. I think she looks a lot more serious in these photos than she is in life, but here she is, looking pretty mellow at home. She's a friend and a maker hailing from Regina but has lived and worked in Toronto for a while now. Actually, Brette was planning her wedding while finishing her MFA at OCADU and just exhibited her IAMD thesis show at 2186 Dundas West. You can see her beautiful work (quilts! installations! video! BG does it all) here and you might even run into walking her cool dog Ozzy in Toronto's East end.

This last photograph, I think, is an expression that is more "Brette". She's got some ascerbic wit, a pretty dark sense of humour, and what I perceive as a very no-bullshit, inherently feminist outlook on life. Until next week...

Oh yeah! If you're a woman (self-identified, that is) living/ making/ doing in Toronto and want me to make your portait/ be a part of this project, leave a comment with your email and we'll make it happen.