July

Birds in Paradise!

Birds in Paradise at the Urban Farm of Spryfield!

It was a hot ride, but the beautiful destination was incredibly worth it! We set up in the serene setting of the Urban Farm after getting a great little tour from Kat (the coordinator there) and took a few breaths to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature and to climb the amazing tree in which we were going to install our mobile. We taught participants a variety of origami bird patterns which we folded using 'waterproof' mylar that we had spraypainted in different colours and patterns. We also gathered twigs to paint as added natural elements and made hoops from branches found around the property. The components were installed among the branches of the tree, and although it was difficult to capture on camera, the result was so pretty.

Thanks UFS, for a lovely evening and thanks everyone for coming out to participate!

Come Weave With Us!

On July 17th the Art Bikers got to be guests at Spryfield Urban Farm's 'Evening in the Garden'! We spent a relaxing evening creating natural weaves using branches for looms, twine, and lots of beautiful yarns, strings, and fabrics. The end result was a fascinating collaboration by entire families and gardeners of all ages. When we were finished we hung the large and colourful creations on the Youth Garden fence. Come check it out at the Spryfield Urban Farm, and while you're at it, buy some of their delicious produce!

Magic Day

The 16th was MAGIC DAY!! It was our first Monday at Ardmore Park, where we'll be every two weeks from now on. Everyone who came to do art with us turned out to have magical powers, so it worked out really well! First we made magic wands and tested out some spells (everyone knew lots of them)! Then we wrote down and illustrated our spells in spell books, and drew what our magical familiars would look like. Finally we were ready to test out some potions! Every wizard chose two magical ingredients, like Frog Spit and Beetle Eyes or Worm Guts and Diamond Dust, and mixed them together to create an explosive, bubbly, magic concoction! ALAKAZAM!

Placemaking Halifax Intersection Repair

On July 14th, the Art Bikers visited the Placemaking Halifax Intersection Repair project at the corner of Northwood and Black St. This amazingly collaborative community beautification project was co-sponsored by the 4Cs Foundation (the Art Bikers' parent foundation) and was a huge success! The Art Bikers were honoured to be invited to do some chalk drawing on a side-street while the intersection was being painted. We drew the longest hopscotch in the world (101 squares!) with some very creative helpers!

North End Community Garden - Weaving Edition

Friday the 13th turned out to be a LUCKY day for the Art Bikers because we got to hang out some with some cool guys and gals and create some creative interpretations of the North End Community Garden! Everybody wove their own garden plot using lots of amazing different textures and fabrics, then learned how to felt whatever vegetables and fruit they wanted to be growing in their plot. The finished plots (with veggies attached!) will be sewn together, to hang as a beautiful community tapestry in the North End Community Health Centre. With the games we played at lunch, some dance moves and swivel-chair races, cheesy pizza and salad fresh from the Community Garden, it was a perfect day!

3D Film-making!

On Wednesday July 27th we joined up with Youth Net during their Media Camp to do some filming in 3D as well as stop-film animation with the youngsters. We are just editing the footage now, but here is a sneak peek!

Youth Project!

The Art Bikers had such a fun time hanging out with the great people at Youth Project in preparation for the Pride Parade. Thanks for having us, and congrats for winning 'best community float' in the parade!

Annual Newcomers Welcome BBQ

Saturday July 16th the Art Bikers brought their trailers of paint, fabric and other art making goodies to the Newcomer's Picnic held this year at the Commons. People created banners with their answers to the question "What feels like home?" Later we hung all the banners among a nice patch of trees by the picnic area creating a community-created installation that reflected many people's memories and aspirations regarding "home".

Fisherman's Cove July 1st Canada Day

Visiting Fisherman's Cove in Eastern Passage is an annual community art day for the Art Bikers. This year we took the Advice Exchange to the community, for people of all ages to share advice with one another.

ARC:HIVE

The weekend of June 25th and 26th, the Art Bikers brought their community art-making magic to the Point Pleasant Performance Series offered by Eyelevel Gallery. The only community arts activity at the event, people passing by or attending the performance series got involved with creating art and participated in ARC:HIVE- a gathering place of souvenirs, found photos, and maps collected and "manufactured" to inspire stories. We provided participants with hand-sewn notebooks to draw and write in, and once they had filled their notebooks, they could show and talk about their work to the video camera in 'The Brain' - a suspended sculptural "room" could be entered and that housed a video camera. We'll get that footage up soon!

Tons of great stuff was made + shared that day. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Canada Day @ Fisherman's Cove

The weather was really on our side today! The sun was out the whole time we were hanging out at the Fisherman's Cove Canada Day festivities in Eastern Passage. We had two activities in mind when we got there, and each of them really developed into some great interactions: the octopus and the new Canadian flag.

Using a lot of similar techniques and approaches as our previous 'faces' project, we used paints and pastels to cover every piece of scrap wood that we brought. Once everything dried, we put everything together onto some long strips of wood that we used to shape the legs. The legs were attached to the octopus' head.

The sheet we had prepared for the sheet started out looking something like this (you can see just a few marks so far):

We used masking tape to make the outlines of the current Canadian flag. Once the tape was on the sheet, all we need to do was cover it with colours!

This was a great project to run alongside the octopus activity. If someone wanted to participate for a short while, they could use pastels to make a few marks in a few minutes and then continue on to other activities and attractions. Because the flag was a collaborative activity, no matter how much or how little someone contributed, the flag was better for it. A few people would come back again and again over the course of the day and they always commented on the great progress of the flag. The final reveal was documented in this video:
[sorry- we're having some technical difficulties with the video]

It's such a great sight to see the masked lines pop out of all the colours.

All of that sun also made for some great photos. Check it out!