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NEWS ARCHIVE - 2008
October 3 2008 - Sim gives paper at Montreal art history conference
The Inaugural conference of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative was
hosted by Concordia University in Montreal from October 1 to 3, 2008. Sim
was one of the presenters at the conference, and gave a paper
titled From "Looking For Maud" to "Art & Artists in Exhibition: Vancouver
1890 - 1950". The paper was a condensed version of how Sim started to
research artist Maud Sherman and then went on to put together a comprehensive
index / dictionary of artists exhibiting in Vancouver prior to 1950.
The paper was well received, and sparked a number of conversations during the
conference. There were almost 40 papers presented over the three days, and a
very interesting time was had by all. It was great to see all the different
projects that people were working on, including some work by Jaleen Grove
that was very similar to Sim Publishing's Art & Artists project, except
that the focus of her project is Canadian Illustrators.
Many thanks are due to the art history staff at Concordia University for all
their work in arranging the conference, and ensuring that everything went well.
Another two updates to ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION: VANCOUVER 1890 - 1950
have been published. Release 1.25b was issued August 5th, with additional
artist biographies and artworks listed. A small number of additional "tweaks"
were made leading up to issue of Release 1.25c, which was taken to Montreal for the
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative inaugural conference.
The image above shows a partial screen capture of a three-dimensional CAD drawing,
an initial study to reviews ways of visually presenting exhibition records. In this
case, each block floating in space represents an artwork exhibited in a given year by
one artist, in this case Maud Sherman. Presented like this, the artist's exhibition
record is instantly understood, and can be compared to other artists exhibiting
work at the same time, or aligned so as to compare exhibition records when the
artists were at the same age. This is one of the methods under consideration for
extracting statistics from ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION: VANCOUVER 1890 - 1950
in an upcoming release.
August 2008 - Sim wood engraving published in AMPHORA
Three years after being commmissioned to do a Printer's Mark engraving for
the Alcuin Society, a project inspired and funded by the noted Vancouver
philanthropist Dr. Yosef Wosk, the print was issued in AMPHORA, the
journal of the Alcuin Society. The engraving was printed by Barbarian Press
in an edition of 500, and tipped into each copy of AMPHORA along with
a description of the meaning of the printer's mark, as well as an extremely
short biography of the artist.
This print is the fourth in a series of commissioned engravings. Although the
first three prints in the series were each featured full-page in the centre of the
journal, with a page of text facing, this print suffered greatly at the
hands of a poor editor. It was stuffed onto the bottom of a single back page,
with the hacked-down text crammed above it on the same page. Ironicallly, this
didn't seem to be necessary due to lack of space - the issue was one of the smallest
ever printed by the Society (in over 40 years), and another page or two
would have been grand. Even a larger font would have made it easier to read
and fluffed it up a page or two. Perhaps a lack of ideas precludes
a meatier and more interesting journal from this editor.
Unfortunately, the editor did not give the artist the opportunity to sign
any of the prints, which the others artists in the series had a chance to do. The
only ones to suffer from this stupidity are the members of the Society who would
have otherwise received a signed print tipped in to their AMPHORA, although
it is also a needless slap in the face to Dr. Wosk. The whole presentation of this
print in the series is poorly done, especially given the mandate of the Alcuin
society. I am happy to hear that the self-inflated editor (a.k.a. the "shadow
over Amphora") will soon pass for good from that position.
On the bright side, the prints were done beautifully by the folks at Barbarian
Press, and the few I've been able to see (and sign) so far looked great! Thank you
Jan and Crispin! If anyone reading this has a copy of the print that they'd like
signed, please contact me regarding the simplest way to do so.
Special thanks are due to Dr. Wosk for his generosity and vision, and for giving
artists this opportunity to be creative.
July 2008 - three new drawings completed
In preparation for sending some artwork up the coast to the Flapping Fish
Gallery at Egmont, three new pen and ink drawings were completed. Refer to
Drawings for images of these drawings.
July 2008 - Burnaby Art Gallery to host show of Maud Sherman paintings
An exhibition of original artworks by early Vancouver artist Maud Sherman
(1900 - 1976) is being planned by the Burnaby Art Gallery. The show is
expected to be on display at the Prittie Library (Burnaby Library main branch
at Metrotown) from November 2009 to January 2010.
A major update to ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION: VANCOUVER 1890 - 1950
was issued on March 15th. A number of copies have already been mailed or
delivered to existing owners of the project.
A large amount of additional information was added in the past three
months, including a number of exhibition catalogues listing over 1,100
artworks, 120 new artist biographies, and numerous clippings, references,
and images. Refer to ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION:
VANCOUVER 1890 - 1950 for more information about the project.
January 2008 - Sim Publishing donates AMPHORA to Alcuin Society
To aid on the ongoing good work of the Alcuin Society, Sim Publishing
donated an almost complete set of the Society's journal AMPHORA to
the society. A large number of the issues were acquired by Sim Publishing as
research material for the commissioned article on the journal's history,
published in the 40th Anniversary issue.
The value of the collection was appraised at $1,100.00. The Alcuin Society sells
back issues of the journal individually, or as a complete set if possible. This
donation will allow them to easily put together another complete set for sale.
January 6 2008 - Best wishes for a happy New Year!
Best wishes to you and yours in this New Year, and all success for your
projects and endeavours!
December 2007 - January 2008 - Books and Printing exhibition
The West Vancouver Memorial Library 2nd Annual Books and Printing
exhibition was taken down January 4th. Instead of the original 1 or 2 artist
books originally intended for the exhibition, space was allowed for Sim to display
one artist book, four limited edition prints, three original drawings, and
the original cover art for The Canadian Industrial Reader from 1928.
Seen above in the photograph are
left to right, top row:
Looking Away,
Lifting 808, Coast
Range, Flowers
left to right, bottom row: Savary Haikus (artist book),
Cheakamus Salvage, Wreck,
Eucalyptus.
The exhibition was curated by The Alcuin Society.
December 2007 - January 2008 - Malaspina Printmakers Society Christmas exhibition
Malaspina Printmakers Society annual Christmas exhibition is down on January 6th.
Sim had three prints displayed in this exhibition, Flowers,
Coast Range, and Snow On Elms.
Sim Publishing has been adding more information to its flagship
project ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION: VANCOUVER 1890 - 1950. More
than 150 files are new or updated since Release 1.24 was issued in July 2007.
Additions include 6 more transcribed exhibition catalogues listing over 360 artworks,
numerous new artist biographies, and various other updates including more
images and references.
It is intended to issue Release 1.25 of the project when another few exhibition
catalogues have been transcribed.
Please refer to ART & ARTISTS IN EXHIBITION: VANCOUVER
1890 - 1950 for more information about this project, which is available
only on CD-ROM for $249.00, directly from the publisher.
December 15 2007 - Angleman Christmas card published
Following the completion of the Burnaby Art Gallery Christmas card, we didn't
have much time for the annual Sim Publishing card design. The idea for this card
was sketched in 2001, but was not used then. Production of the card went quite
quickly, with colouring the lights by hand on each card being the most time
consuming part of the project.
December 10 2007 - Burnaby Art Gallery Limited Edition Christmas card completed
The limited edition block print Christmas card commissioned by the Burnaby Art
Gallery has been successfully cut, printed, and delivered to the Gallery. The
edition of 50 prints will be sent by the Gallery to their Patrons and the
Artists who exhibited at the Gallery in 2007.
Continue to 2007
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