SUNDAY BAZAAR "The Action of Light"

Bill's Daguerreotypes collection

It was a sunny day when we had our first-ever SUNDAY BAZAAR! The whole month of May is the official photography month of Toronto, so naturally this SUNDAY BAZAAR is about photography. We have invited Bill Grigsby, the Director of Reactor Graphic Studio, to organize a two-table showcase of his Daguerreotypes and Ferrotypes collection. Bill was busy renovating his cottage up north so unable to attend the event. He left us two tables full of beautiful images of people, taken when photography was just invented.

Sally Ayre's Cyanotypes


On the other side was Sally Ayre's wonderful, delicate work of Cyanotypes and VanDykes printed on silk. Sally has been working with these alternative processes for years, gathering ocean memories from her childhood spent in Newfoundland. She has recently moved on to using the Japanese hand-made Hosokawa paper. Talking about Washi, here is Nancy chatting with Sally about the coming Washi Matsuri (Washi Festival) taking place from June 5th to 30th. Last year's big Washi Summit was a success and this year's will be of a smaller scale to keep the momentum going. There will be several exhibitions, workshops and special events. Check out more information from the website:
http://www.japanesepaperplace.com/goings-on/events.htm

A rich, diverse tapestry

Another highlight of the SUNDAY BAZAAR in May was unique buttons hand-drawn by Tomio Nitto. Here is the proud owner Alan Shapiro - he owns a portrait of his Leica M4 (as a button). He mentioned to me that he carried his Leica everywhere and seldom used his digital camera. In the midst of analog, digital, film, pixel, physical, virtual, tactile, intangible... artists seem more comfortable now mixing and matching whatever methods or mediums that suit them. Tomio uses a brush as a camera, Jacquelyn uses a camera as a pen, Cher uses a pin-hole and prints digitally, Sally scans her images and prints traditionally, JK combines images with graphic elements, Bruce puts his images in digital frame, Lulu and Patrick silk-screen their images on T-shirts... a world of confusing languages knitted into a rich, diverse tapestry.