Andrew Maize is currently beginning to clean out his studio after a year long residency at the NSCAD Community Studio Residency Program in Lunenburg NS.  Andrew Maize is an art educator at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, The Makery, NSCAD University and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He is a coordinator of the White Rabbit Residency and Festival since 2011 and is an active member of the Lunenburg Art Gallery and the Red Clay Studio Society. He graduated from NSCAD University with a BFA in 2011.

www.andrewmaize.ca

Learning about the opportunities

Two years previously, I had wanted to apply to the mentorship program and drop out of school, but alas, I stuck with it and became a member of VANS in my last year of school. I kept learning about interesting opportunities that were coming through VANS, and I decided it would be a great way to stay connected to an arts community after school. Since then I have participated in the Southshore members Group Show at the Lunenburg Art Gallery, as a panelist on exhibiting in Alt. Venues and exhibited the (i)Pad 3 in the Corridor Gallery. VANS plays a key role in connecting artists together and offering opportunities for sharing ideas, creating dialogue and offering resources to it’s membership – VANS is like the cat lady that keeps us all around, sometimes offering shelter, feeding us or just giving us a pat on the back.

Our lives are not as limited as we think they are

My influences are many, in the beginning it was Jackson Pollock, or more specifically Ed Harris playing him. I turned on the TV just as Harris was dripping paint in the now famous style and was so inspired that I went downstairs, found an old canvas and just started to make a mess. When I made it to NSCAD 10 years later, I began to get influenced by my teachers and the artists that they introduced me to, such as Hans Haacke, Marcel Duchamp, Tino Seghal and Mierle Laderman Ukeles to name a few. I then experimented with various mediums including electronics, sculpture, ceramics and performance. I am influenced by the nature of the materials, and as of late I am curious about the memory in repurposed thread. Also this quote: “Our lives are not as limited as we think they are; the world is a wonderfully weird place; consensual reality is significantly flawed; no institution can be trusted, but love does work; all things are possible; and we all could be happy and fulfilled if we only had the guts to be truly free and the wisdom to shrink our egos and quit taking ourselves so damn seriously.” – Tom Robbins (Author)

My challenges are my successes and vice versa.

I have been very fortunate to have found some work in teaching, arts programming and organization. Jobs have included teaching as an Art Biker and at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts and NSCAD, coordinating the Ok.Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival in 2010, and coordinating for the White Rabbit Arts Residency and Festival since 2010. As many people know, working in arts in these capacities is very rewarding, but also can be quite taxing. These are often contract based jobs with a-lot of volunteer hours go into making them work and they can often be cancelled at the last minute. Your emails will follow you wherever you go, you must learn to let them be. Finding the time to maintain a practice between volunteer, contract work and bread-and-butter jobs, as well as applying for grants, shows or projects is a challenge. So it goes, I’m not complaining, just learning.

Language and Boundaries

I don’t know how to describe my work, here I am fumbling for a metaphor, an allegory, some sort of poetic pun. My work plays in language and with boundaries. It’s often some simple little event (the birth of a pun) that inspires, the moment that a light clicks on and I say “Hey, what if……” I’m curious about the transference of energies, the obscenity of obsolescence and consumption, and inspired by craftsmanship and the possibilities and processes of working with materials. These concepts find their outlet in the variety of mediums with underlying tones of humour, the ready-made, institutional criticism and repurposed intention. Collaboration and a social art practice is also a major aspect of my work. In this vein I have collaborated with friends on the Misc. Marching Band in 2010, the Art Builders Collective and I founded the Lunenburg Kite Fliers and the acorn collective inc.

Juggling

I am currently working on a variety of projects in the studio. One part of my practice is set on developing and building different kites. I have found great inspiration and potential in this simple yet functional technology. I founded the Lunenburg Kite Fliers, a kite club for all ages, and I am learning a lot about sewing, teaching and sharing the art of kite making. I’m also building a suit of armour out of cardboard. I bought a really great staple gun that is fantastic for cardboard, and have been building a bunch of masks and puppets. I’m starting the Joustice League, bicycle powered jousting for cardboard knights. I share a studio with two painters, and this has got me inspired to revisit this medium, something that I did profusely before I started art school. I just learned to juggle last week, and this too, is very exciting.

The visualization of sound

I am working on a second installment of (psycho-cymatic), a project I did for Nocturne in 2010. This year it will be happening at Ok.Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival in Sackville NB this week, August 1st at 7pm in the Black Duck Cafe. I’m excited to revisit this project, and see where it goes after two years of being away from it. (pyscho-cymatic) brings together Rorschach psychodignostic projective testing and cymatics (the visualization of sound), comparing accepted medical science and the magic of tasseomancy or fortune telling. We are also having an end of year show at the residency on August 22nd. So I am gearing up for that. In terms of future plans, I am staying in Lunenburg, where I will continue a studio and social art practice, all the while soul searching to figure out how I can live this life. As well, White Rabbit is going to be really exciting this year we have some great artists and some exciting things in store for our public celebration on August 17th. After that I have a few days to prepare for our end of year show at the NSCAD Residency on August 22nd, at 7pm in Lunenburg.