Amber MacGregor - Artist

I thought I would share this little snippet of our show Gumball Satellite that was captured by Efren Quiroz for exhibit-v here in Victoria. It features both Kyle and I talking about our work and a look at the show itself.

"The Winnipeg Alien" is feature in some paintings in this 2 artists show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAqHhxFW4uE&list=UUV4eaoyvilFQdKShsSYMsdg

A huge thank you to Efren Quiroz for the exposure and the opportunity to talk about our work.

What We Allow ©2014 Amber MacGregor

Listing to Starboard (in progress) ©2014 Kyle Labinksy

Hi Everyone, 

My Husband Kyle and I have a show coming up at Gallery 1580 in Victoria BC, and you are invited!

The opening reception is on Saturday October 4th from 6-9, only a couple of days away! the show continues weekly Tues, Thurs, Fri and Sat 12 - 5 until October 28th.

Please feel free to share our invite

We hope to see you there

All the best

Moon Portrait 1

12"x12" ©2014 Amber MacGregor

There are changes afoot in my little studio. I have moved my easels and painting table over to the other side of my studio and put a table and sewing machine in pride of place on the window side.

So after some reflection, several months actually I am renovating my Etsy shop, and making it a craft only sale venue. I will be making an entirely new line of items to sell in my shop. No big clues yet on what will actually be for sale there but it will still be Moon influenced.

I have started selling art prints through Society 6, this enables me to take advantage of their onsite printing facility so that I am freed from having to print and mail items myself, which can be a very inefficient process. Their art prints are all printed on archival 100% rag paper with pigment inks which is pretty fantastic.

Well the Fall is almost upon us. I hope that whatever changes are afoot for you in this new season that they are positive in nature and bring you closer to where you want to be in your world!

Onward!

I am in the midst of preparing for the Fernwood Art Stroll, a local artist studio tour here in Victoria BC.

It makes me realize the true extent of my difficulty with organization. Today I will sit down and write out all the things that are still left to do and then decide their order of importance. I have four more days before the Stroll. Better late than never I guess.

I wonder if it has to do with my particular way of thinking that makes it so difficult to focus on the task at hand? I often say I have the attention span of a small woodland creature, but really a squirrel or mouse is very task oriented, they find food, water and shelter, they avoid danger, they care for their young, they get a good sleep. 

So off  I go to make my list and get that last bit of stuff completed. I'm going to make those four more sleeps count too, so don't call me late, I'll be sleeping.

I wish you all well with your organizing duties and hope that your creative lives can thrive in whatever manner you choose to do them.

Cheers!

Portrait of Io (with plume) ©2014 Amber MacGregor

It's been a while, since I last put fingers to keyboard and wrote a little bit about what's been going on in my studio and in my world.

There has been so much horror recently in the media, the horror of watching our government sell off our natural resources to the great detriment of all living things while muzzling our scientists. The horror of watching the BC teachers union fight against the villainous attacks of the Liberal Party and their anti-union agenda. The horrors of gun violence in the United States and over seas. The horrors of the military-industrial-complex and it's ongoing agenda to profit, profit, profit from slaughter.

How do we continue to find joy when there is so much horror? I think about what Ghandi had to do to release India from the iron rule of colonialism. How he didn't resort to violence because he knew there was a better way. I think about the world that Martin Luther King Jr. lived in and worked to better and how difficult it must have been for him to find his centre of love amidst all of that hatred and misunderstanding that surrounded him. 

So that's what I've been considering lately. How people find their true soul of love when they feel like they are in the middle of a firestorm of negativity. I am doing my best to let go of doubts and fears even ones that I have held since childhood, even the small and silly ones. I hope that it will change my life and the way I see things for the better and that I won't slip back into old habits.

Artists are creators of difference, we must not allow governments, or fashion, or deep seated fears to separate us from the truth and from each other. We create difference so we can make lives better, not just our own lives but the lives of others. We give the gift of our artistic insight through our work. Make ART to make change.

I wish you all joy in whatever art you make, in whatever voice you sing in, in whatever way you find the love to continue, and make good in the world.

Like this swirling group of heads the effect of a virus on the brain can be most dizzifying.

I've been getting back into the studio lately after just such a virus. Who knows where they really come from, generally I would just like them to go away. Thankfully mine is on the outs at present. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Though I have to say, what with fevers and my daughters fever dreams a virus can bring up much fodder for creativity. In a feverish haze my daughter told me staring intently at her hands that we had to get the yellow thread off of her fingers so we could build it a house... She also has fascinating dreams about giant peaches and gremlins. If only we could paint out these dreams, and make those bizarre and fascinating hallucinations into decipherable images. I wonder if you painted them, if they would cease to be frightening, or if it would only make matters worse by reminding you of the terrible fear you felt when you were having the original?

Fever dreams. What do you do with yours?

I hope everyone is getting back to feeling healthy, and finding ways to make sense of things. I'm hoping to be back in the studio a few more days this week...now that my Man is having fever dreams too we'll see what we can mine from this experience and hope nobody kicks anyone in their sleep.

Be well all!

Early in the spring have you ever felt like your brain was trying to process too much information all at the same time? I always consider this to be a spring fever of sorts. Not the sort that makes you want to dash off with anyone you find vaguely attractive but the sort that makes one day soaringly madly, and most wonderfully light headed and the next perplexing.

Lately every day seems to bring a barrage of new information, some of it fantastic and amazing some of it nondescript, some of it devestating, but always too much of it and always nowhere for it to go.

Sometimes working in the studio is like this too. There seems to be no end to the ideas and no way to use them all or connect them in any meaningful way. That's when I try to slow things down and take stock of where I want things to be heading. 

Today I took out some of my old books, a book on Egon Shiele, a book on Arthur Rackham, a book of butterfies from around the world. Having to concentrate, even briefly on something other than the noise going on in my head seems to quiet the barrage into more of an orderly flow.

Then I get down to painting. Working in a series seems to help too. Because when I'm overwhelmed I tend to want to paint everything all at once and that doesn't seem to work very well for actually getting things completed...ever.

So here's to finding some flow that is comfortable, and getting some productive art made, thoughts completed, writing finished, whatever it is you want to be doing.

I wish you all the best with your spring fever, however it presents itself, I hope you find the productive value in all the extra energy it seems to provide and don't get bogged down by any adverse effects. 

Hi All, 

I'm wondering how others are gearing up for their creative practise for this new year?

I feel like it's time to really get going on some serious painting. However I also need to go out there and make some money this year. it's been amazing to be free of out of the home work commitments for almost a year, however the money has pretty much run out. So, I have to knuckle down and get some kind of a regular money making job. I have been looking for work the whole time I've been off but work hours don't really work for parents, I'm sure any parent can attest to that. The 9-5 just doesn't work well.

At any rate I will be spending 2014 trying to balance parenting,art making and money making. We shall see what comes of that. 

I am postitive that this will be a year of transformative positive change in the World. I hope I can document and express some of it in my work.

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2014. Keep striving for good!