366 DAYS OF COLOR was an online exploration of color in my surroundings for the purposes of Colorography. For each of the 366 days in 2020 (a leap year), I selected a Pantone color based on photographs of my daily experiences and documented them on Instagram.
Pictured here is a summary of the 366 colors which I will now use as a toolkit for my timeline and family tree designs. Colorography is a line of unique objects that tell a personal story, through color. See more here.
Ever since coming across Josef Albers’s pivotal book Interaction of Color, I have been compelled to explore color theory, environmental color design and the idea that colors of the natural environment may be permanently altered because of climate change.
FOLLOW ALONG AT @366daysofcolor
Colorography is a line of unique objects that tell a personal story – through color. Combining color and biography, the intent of Colorography is to create beautiful gifts that will honor the legacy of you or your loved one for a significant occasion.
The Timeline Scarf is a creative version of a family tree – one based on birthday colors. It tells the story of your loved one by incorporating the names and colors of family or friends, significant events and places lived. The Timeline Scarf celebrates the legacy of a special person for their significant birthday, anniversary or momentous occasion. Ideal for Mother’s Day!
Printed on 100% silk. Lightweight + machine washable, at 40cm x 182cm (16"x72"). Also available as an unframed print on giclee (pictured below), half-size at 20cm x 91cm (8"x36").
Price: $195 Cdn including tax and shipping. Turn-around time is 3-4 weeks.
TO ORDER: Fill out a survey HERE (and be prepared to do a little homework!)
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Your Family Pillow is a graphically designed and personalized home decor pillow for your family. Ideal for groups of 2-8, Your Family Pillow features the names and birthdays of everyone you consider family (including pets!). There are two design options to choose from: square or abstract. The square design is organized with colors displayed from oldest to youngest on the front of the pillow. The abstract design (pictured) is different every time - so you know your pillow is truly one of a kind. Both designs include colored stripes on the back arranged in calendar order with birthdates displayed (mm/dd).
Printed on super soft and durable velveteen, washable and made with a YKK zipper enclosure. Sized at 18” x 18” (45 cm x 45 cm). Pillowcase only.
Price: $75 CDN (including taxes) and FREE shipping. Turnaround time is 2-3 weeks.
TO ORDER: Fill out a survey HERE (and be prepared to do a little homework!)
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The birthday colors are determined by my project @366daysofcolor. See more here.
FOLLOW ALONG: @366DAYSOFCOLOR
<Gradation> was the winning design for the “Create Your Path” mural competition hosted by the City of Toronto’s Street ART (StART) program in 2017. The 12,000 sq’ artwork is located on the West Toronto Railpath across from the Bloor Station of GO + UP transit.
<Gradation> transformed a banal building facade through a series of successive colour changes – painting 14,508 cinder blocks individually and distinctly in variations of blue and green – in order to better integrate the building into its adjacent landscape and create a dynamic mural as varied as the movement of its surroundings.
The vegetation adjacent to the wall played a key role in the overall design. The paint formed an outline of the existing trees, shrubs and vines growing on the wall to become a “growth marker” or means to monitor the progress of vegetation over time.
The region of West Toronto Railpath has always been a route of conveyance – historically as a portage route (called the “Carrying-Place Trail”), then a railway and now as a recreation trail – and continues to be a path that knits together varying neighbourhoods of the city. The Mohawk term <toron-ten> meaning “the place where the trees grow over the water” refers to this past and present history by informing the colour progression of this art installation.
Check out this mention in the Toronto Star.
Check out this mention in BlogTO.
See Friends of West Toronto Railpath for more info.
Connect this project to the Mural Map of Canada here.
Photography by Dale Wilcox www.dalewilcoxphoto.com
Follow on Instagram: @wtr_mural
GLOW is a dynamic art installation that creatively explores the subtleties of light and shadow using luminescent cord. Located at a neighbourhood bar in the Junction Triangle (Toronto), this window display enhances the soft qualities of light formed by the venue’s namesake, The Gaslight.
The front windows of the building are filled with a web of luminescent cord focusing the view on an elevated lantern. Arrayed in a geometric pattern evoking beams of light, the cord illuminates from an installed black light. The spill-over of light from busy Bloor Street and the adjacent intersection also illuminates the cord intermittently and creates curious shadows that permeate through the venue.
By day, the artwork forms a complex visual display. By night, the luminescent cord is activated by its dynamic surroundings. Referencing the gaslight as a welcoming beacon, GLOW creates an ambience of warmth and respite, to invite pause and participation.
Intended as a temporary installation for the Toronto Offsite Design Festival 2017, the artwork is now on permanent display.
www.todesignoffsite.com/event/glow/
Photography by Joanne Schwindt
SEASONS OF BEING
This intention of this project was to celebrate colour and diversity with the design of a permanent artwork of a Christian church in Toronto.
The artwork uses acrylic panels in particular colours that align to the liturgical year, as a historical nod to the tradition of stained glass windows. Overlapping in two colour groupings, the panels represent specific seasons of being: green/white/gold (for passive growth) and purple/blue/red (for active preparation). The artwork uses light to highlight specific colours at different times of the year.
Due to the pandemic, an “at-home” mini-installation was created for each member of the congregation. Coloured plexiglass pieces fit into the staggered grooves of a reclaimed wood base and the plexiglass are to be rearranged for each liturgical season.
Overall, the artwork intends to enrich worship by deepening the congregation’s understanding of the liturgical year through the visible presence of colour.
2020-2021
In collaboration with Karen Zwart Hielema, OAA
This project is made possible through a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.
First two images by Joanne Schwindt Photography Inc.
The back patio of a neighbourhood bar in the Junction Triangle (Toronto) needed some vibrancy on a dominant concrete wall. This project was a study in colour combinations using an electric palette.
Using the cinder block as the organizing element, the artwork introduces a WAVE of colour in ocean-like hues. The colour burst sweeps over the existing fence and patio hardware and tumbles down the rear steps.
A welcome place for a refreshing drink :)
2019
Following the success of the <GRADATION> mural (Toronto), the building owner commissioned me to design and implement an artwork for the two loading doors on the north side of the building, which were prone to graffiti.
As a play on the larger mural, I decided to inverse the colours and refine the colour palette with more subtlety and finesse. The horizontal lines of the folding metal doors exposed the colour gradient at a different intervals. The inverse colour scheme allows the viewer to experience different colours when passing by the loading doors (variations on green) or larger mural (variations on blue). Since installation, it has become a popular selfie spot!
Following these two recent mural projects, I now have a Working-at-Heights and Elevated Mobile Platforms certification and am comfortable operating a 60’ boom lift. A few things I never pictured myself doing :)
2018
Mural assistance provided by Pete Ellison. Check out his fantastic work at peteellison.com
A local developer was looking for signage and wayfinding strategies for their renovated building in Toronto. I designed exterior and interior signage to increase visibility in the primarily residential neighbourhood and put a fresh face on a tired office building.
The interior wayfinding signage was created from blackened steel plate with cut-out numbers and backlit with LED lights. The wall was painted to match the accompanying artwork and create a reenergized and inviting lobby.
2018-2019
“water wuz here” was a process-based installation that visualized the momentary presence of water in the urban landscape. For four days, the plaza surface at the Dufferin amphitheatre (Toronto) was soaked with water and, as the moisture evaporated, hand-drawn chalk outlines traced the edges between wet and dry. These contours of moisture were intended to reveal and memorialize the process of evaporation and allow the viewer to consider a product of this perpetual but nearly imperceptible process.
The exhibit allowed the rare opportunity to explore process as well as product. This installation focussed on subtle hydrological processes at work within an environment that is continually pressured by increased storm intensities, decreased permeability and related stormwater management issues. “water wuz here” was a slow motion and visual revelation of water’s presence in the urban landscape.
Temporary installation for “Grow-Op: Exploring Landscape and Place” at The Gladstone Hotel, April 2014.
Lecture for the LUMINATO Festival’s event “Tomorrow Talks” at the McMichael Gallery in June 2014.
Publication in World Landscape Architecture magazine, June 2014.
Concrete – asphalt – wood – plastic – trees – soil – granite – stone – gravel – sand – water – steel – aluminum
Typically, the materials experienced in the landscape are hard. Public parks are designed for play and for gathering, for sport and for leisure. But they are not programmed for softness, coziness and one element that separates inside from outside: comfort.
What if a park could include elements of comfort, softness and texture?
The purpose of “Textured Landscapes” is to design and install soft interventions in a park in order to introduce alternate textures and provide elements of comfort into the public realm.
This is an unrealized design idea, looking for a home.
In collaboration with fellow Landscape Architect, Amy Turner
2017
A fallen tree decomposes slowly in a forest; the grooves of its bark deepen and hollow. Now positioned horizontally after years of standing tall, it rests and releases - giving itself back to the earth. The contours of its decay are knit together with a garland of dried baby’s breath that acts as a burial shroud. By highlighting its aging lines and state of deterioration, the lifeless tree is memorialized and celebrated.
Baby’s breath (gypsophila spp) has long been associated with floral arranging practices and used to symbolize purity, innocence and everlasting love. The embedded meaning of this garland and its material appears suggestively out of place within this natural setting. At question is this intervention act, and whether we are above or apart of the anticipated progression of decay. By applying culturally significant practices and materials to landscape settings, the artwork celebrates the natural process of decline that occur around us - constantly, continuously and nearly imperceptibly.
Garland was a temporary installation completed in High Park (Toronto) spring 2017. The tree was selected for its size, beauty and location - surrounding an emerging forest floor.
Photography by Susanne van der Kleij
This planting installation entitled “From Brown Spots to Black Eyes” was completed at an office building in Winnipeg in order to enliven the setting of its large yellow sculpture.
Persistent problems with the surrounding grass necessitated a reduction of mowed areas. Rudbeckia fulgida (Black-eyed Susan) was planted in a sinuous pattern according to the existing brown spots. On one side of the plants, the grass was to be mowed regularly; on the other, the grass left to merge with adjacent forest.
The existing “Suncatcher” artwork was complimented by the perennial’s colour and texture.
2004
