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Man of the Month – Jeffrey Boone

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Hi all!

Here’s the next posting of my Man of the Month series on the brilliant Jeffrey Boone.

These interviews highlight some really amazing men who are making a difference and using their creative edge to do what they do best. They have been chosen because I’m impressed by their contagious spirit, creative thinking, and the opportunities they bring to the world, plus how they reflect infinite possibilities back to the rest of us. If you haven’t already checked out previous men featured, like Like Detheridge, click on the Man of the Month link in the side bar and scroll down through the pages to check them out.

There’s also the fabulous women featured on my Woman of the Month blog.

November’s Man of the Month is:

Jeffrey Boone

Here’s a little bit about him:
Originally from Newfoundland, Jeffrey Boone moved Vancouver in 1999, and has worked with a number of arts festivals and organizations including the Vancouver Fringe Festival, the International Writers Festival, Axis Theatre and Ballet BC; and between 2006 and 2010 ran a commercial art gallery representing emerging artists locally and internationally.

He has volunteered on the Boards of non-profit arts organizations in Vancouver and in his native Newfoundland including the Contemporary Arts Society of Vancouver (www.casv.ca) where he has served as Programming Chair and then Board Chair.

Jeffrey is the Executive Director of the Eastside Culture Crawl: an annual 3 day free event, now in it’s 15th year, during which more than 300 artists, designers, craft-makers, potters, jewelers and furniture-makers open their studios to the public. It’s a rare opportunity to see the spaces where so much is made by hand in East Van.

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What does it mean to you to be creative?
Being creative for me is finding solutions that engage others to achieve common goals.

What triggers your creativity?
I get excited by problems to which I can see sustainable solutions that could result in realizing potential on an ongoing basis.

What hinders your creativity?
Sloth, avarice and a lack of imagination.

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
I’m finding planning toward developing a nonprofit artist studio building to be a really wild ride with a steep learning curve! So exciting!

What does being bold and provocative mean to you?
Thinking beyond the scope of you own life – if you want to have an impact you have to think of something that will go on beyond you, something that will have benefit beyond your own lifetime.

What’s next for you?
Sleep. It’s 11:30PM and I’m going to the gym at 6:00AM

And here’s two things Jeffrey is inspired by:

I’m inspired by selfless contribution to community minded initiatives….. oh, and the backside of Blackcomb mountain on a powder day!

Thank you Jeffrey for going beyond!

To hear about the next Man of the Month, follow DollyFaye on Twitter!

Posted in Man of the Month | 2 Responses »
Tags: creativity, Eastside Culture Crawl Society, Inspiration, Jeffrey Boone, Man of the Month

Man of the Month Before – Luke Detheridge

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

October’s Man of the Month is:

'Inner Clown' - Nelson, BC Photo by: Erin Leigh Pasternak

Luke Detheridge

Here’s a little bit about him:
Luke Detheridge is a performance/interactive media based artist, currently living in Vancouver, BC. Raised in St. Catharines, Ontario and fueled by his love of motion picture, he journeyed west after high school for film education. After graduating Capilano University for set decoration he re-immersed himself into education focusing on his BFA from Emily Carr University. Since then he has explored his craft of various types, earning him noted roles as a set decorator, costume designer, performer, interactive media artist and child educator/entertainer.

His contributions include: regularly teaming up with Holopath Productions, setting up interactive installations at the ‘Shambhala Music Festivals’ Aug, 2007-2011.

Child education with ‘A Bright Red Crayon’ in combination with Vancouver Science World and Maker Faire focusing on alternative energy installations and recycled craft workshops 2009-2011.

Event organization, stage design and installation, performance and open learning workshops with ‘Gropp’s Gallery’ 2009-2011.

Luke continues to maintain a practice of interactive costuming and sculpture for the past 8 years, which have attributed to numerous awards, scholarships and public swarming and enjoyment.

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What does it mean to you to be creative?
We create, everyday of our lives, our story, our journey. To be creative is to act upon that which inspires you to create. To allow our perspective of reality to diversify, expanding and encompass alternative ways of living and our relation to others. Co-creation is something to strive for, it brings out the best in us and asks us to rise to the occasion of something far greater then just our own creative ideals.

What triggers your creativity?
Smiley and excited faces. When I see wonder in people’s eyes and their minds churning, it stokes my fire! I love to energize the public and enhance community with my art, while inspiring the individual with their own acts of creation. It’s a cycle that I am happy to take part in, which influences the focus of my art towards illumination and celebration. I also dream big, especially with costuming, pushing my own physical and creative limits. I find that costumes have a considerable way of bringing out what I like to call ‘child eyes’. I feel especially happy providing a dynamic and visual stimulating touch to this city.

What hinders your creativity?
Social constraint is right up there, I see more laws being passed restricting personal freedom, irresponsible forestry and oil expansion, and the condition of the earth changing. That tends to bum me out a bit. In those disempowering moments I try my best to except the state in which everything is and in turn, deepen my purpose within it. I hold courage and love, for the future, and I feel privileged to share my journey with so many beautiful people.

Ork Costume debut at Aedan Gallery’s opening night of “Aliens and Monsters” October, 2009

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
Burning Man. To any burner, that statement sums it up. To everyone else I invite you to take part in the experience and find out for yourself.

I traveled down to Burning Man for the first time in 2007. Blake Shaulhauser and I, as well as a few others from the Cosmic Elves camp, designed and built a 3 story tetrahedral hammock village. A week in Black Rock City, Nevada Dessert, truly changed what I thought of as a possibility for interactive installation. As well as giving me overwhelming examples, left, right and centre of the beauty of a loving community and positive social change. I left with something to reach for, in life, in art.

What does being bold and provocative mean to you?
Having the balls to stand up for what you truly believe in, alone if necessary.

Video of a 16′ Snake-Creature made from 50 milk jugs…’Illuminatus Draco’ as part of the Maker Faire, June 2011

What’s next for you?
I plan to continue working with fellow artists and community groups, as well as expanding upon installation and costume productions into festivals, art, theatre and film. I will continue to explore and to challenge myself where ever my journey takes me.

And here’s a video that inspires Luke’s creativity:

Terence McKenna – Free Your Mind

Check out Luke’s website.

Many smiley face thank yous Luke, you are a social positive!

To hear about the next Man of the Month, follow DollyFaye on Twitter!

Posted in Man of the Month | No Responses »
Tags: creativity, Inspiration, Luke Detheridge, Man of the Month

Woman of the Month Before – Marina Szijarto

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Presenting October’s Woman of the Month:

Marina Szijarto

Here’s a little bit about her:
Marina Szijarto is a Visual and Celebration Artist with a diverse and eclectic arts practice who works within the medium of Theatre, Dance and performance (Set, Costumes & Poster design) and Community-engaged Rites and Celebrations.

She is the Art Director/Designer at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery’s ‘All Souls’ event and Creative Director of ‘A Midsummer Fete’ a community celebration at Colony Farm Regional Park.

Marina has been exploring the artist’s role in rites of passage (specifically death, funerals and mourning) for the last 12 years and has pioneered the use of Shrines to honour the dead in Vancouver community based events.

Marina has received 2 Jessie Richardson Awards, plus 7 nominations for outstanding costumes design, set design and mask/puppet design within the Vancouver professional theatre community

Originally from England, Marina is now blessed to live in a beautiful heritage floating shack on the mighty Fraser River with 2 little dogs, a large fluffy cat and a lovely human, surrounded by plants, birds and good neighbours.

Marina has a degree in Fine Art Embroidery, has previously been know to belly dance on stilts and play a little with fire. When she grows up she would, amongst other thing like to be a milliner for drag queens & little dogs, and travel the world making flower mandalas.

And here’s how she answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What does it mean to you to be creative?
I see everything I do as a form of Creative Alchemy. I am passionate about the ongoing work of mixing creativity (both thought and form) with community and environment. I feel bringing beauty, function, laughter, ritual and art into (hopefully) everything I do is how I want to live. I have observed that making connections, fostering creativity in others and looking for creative solutions to social and global issues does make change, and a much better place to live in.

What triggers your creativity?
I love learning new things – new mediums, new ideas, new practices. Those who know me well will be thinking about how I have “my latest obsessions’! The interesting thing I have found is that these obsessions, then move into just becoming part of my creative makeup and slowly shift into what I am working on, or at least help inform the projects.

This year I have been studying collecting and making plants and herbal medicine with the Urban Herb School …and have just signed up for a woodcarving class this fall!

Researching images or cultures/time periods etc for theatre and events is fascinating to me. I have come to learn about many things that I wouldn’t have come into contact with because of ‘having’ to for a project – why else would I study what people wore in Persia in 1860, and what the political climate of the time did to what different characters in a play would then wear!

I also like to work creatively with others, especially people whom I can ‘play with’ in the aesthetic and conceptual realm. The energy that sparking and playing creatively together can produce is amazing – time disappears, and magic happens!

What hinders your creativity?
Being or feeling isolated. On the other hand, being overwhelmed and too busy can also hinder my creative process – I guess it is (as usual!) about balance! The mixing of right brained work and left brained work in a project can also be tricky and can make the creative process be a bit harder to click into.

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
I have noticed that when I am able to be connecting with others and ‘in the zone’ of feeling curious, interested, free, happy, creative and friendly, that beautiful adventures unfold. That synchronicities and amazing connections happen, and so wild journeys can occur just walking to the corner store and chatting with neighbours, or teaching a shrine building workshop – as well as traveling to small villages in Guatemala to meet textile artists, or Trinidad to ‘play Mas’ during Carnival with some incredible artists. It’s all a state of being, and how we connect together…now if only I could remember to do that 24/7!

What does being bold and provocative mean to you?
What an appropriate question coming from Ms Dolly…the Queen of Bold and Provocative!

I feel that being bold and provocative has changed for me over the years. I am at present interested in being more of a ‘gentle ARTivist’ in the sense that maybe in the past being Bold and Provocative meant making giant puppets and being on stilts as Ms Demeanour (my drag queen persona!) “Queen of White Collar Crime”, blowing kisses at the police during an APEC rally in 1997. Today I think being bold and provocative is more along the lines of seeing all beings as family, creating beauty wherever one goes, noticing the sacred nature around us and living peacefully moment to moment, while working for social and environmental change.

In comparison, the stilts are of course easier to pull off!

What’s next for you?
As I live in a Slough with a woodstove, the next thing today is chopping firewood and getting things ready for winter in this floating converted net-loft.

Project wise, We (Paula Jardine and myself) are gearing up for the 7th annual All Souls event at Mountain View Cemetery this coming October – a project near and dear to my heart that is an honour to be able to work on.

I am also making a piece of ‘Edible Fashion” for a Sustainability/food security conference at the Roundhouse this fall.

I am planning on continuing to develop a relationship with the natural world, by working with the AILN (Art Is Land Network) in Vancouver, hopefully getting into a community garden, continuing studying herbal medicine and maybe getting hold of an essential oil still (if my obsession hasn’t shifted to something else by then), so I can literally do some creative alchemy!

And here’s an article and a few websites that inspires Marina’s creativity:

An Interview by Anna Wilkinson, Celebrating Life and Death: All Souls at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery

Green Museum Website

Plant Based Medicine Website

Urban Herb School Website

Thank you Marina! For the colour and energy and light and beauty and all of it!

To hear about the next Woman of the Month, follow DollyFaye on Twitter!

Posted in Woman of the Month | No Responses »
Tags: creativity, Designer, Inspiration, Marina Szijarto, Woman of the Month