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I’ve Been Busy! Let me catch you up!

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It has been a busy summer and fall is continuing this trend with lots of artistic goodies! Let me catch you up on the action!

 

My printer winning bicycle image of Bride Christina.

Photography Update: Photolife Magazine

 

Photolife printed one of my photographs in their August/September issue as a part of their Showtime theme: trees. In the same issue I was chosen as an “Emerging Photographer” for 2012. This is a huge honor! I was one in 15 Canadians selected for this distinction (and the only photographer selected from Alberta).

Then, in the October/November issue of Photolife Magazine I was the winner of the Showtime theme: Bicycles. The award: an Epson Artisan 837 printer.

 

This is one of the winning tree images selected by Photolife Magazine. This photograph was taken on a mountain in New Zealand.

Writing Update: Walk to Remember

 

On September 29, 2012 I was the keynote speaker at the Walk to Remember to a crowd of nearly 2,000 people who gathered to celebrate their dearly loved children lost due to miscarriage, stillbirth, early infant loss or SIDS. It was an emotional day as I was remembering my own sweet Zachary who died shortly after birth two years ago. The event organizers asked me to speak after reading my blog Wanted Chosen Planned. You can read my speech in my post: “Walk to Remember Speech by Alexis Marie Chute.”

 

With this fine art photograph I was named an Emerging Canadian Photographer by Photolife Magazine.

Writing Update: 3 Day Novel Contest and NaNoWriMo

 

I spent the September long weekend locked in my office (with my newborn) writing a novel during the 3 Day Novel Contest. While others were outdoors enjoying the end of summer I worked three long days typing a full first draft of my debut novel. It’s a romance in essence but, as all good stories, is full of twists on the standard love story.

I loved the 3 Day Novel Contest so much that I have signed up for NaNoWriMo which stands for the National Novel Writing Month which begins today! November 1st! This time I am trying my hand at fantasy and am raring to go. My characters are coming to life in my mind and I am thrilled to tell their story. Stay up to date with my progress on twitter (@_Alexis_Marie). Stay up to date with my NaNoWriMo progress here on my Alexis Marie blog and on my Artist Reborn blog (where you can find my posts about my 3 Day Novel Experience).

 

This is an example of my wood sculpture that I will be developing while Artist in Residence at Harcourt House.

Art Update: Harcourt house & Kiwanis Gallery

 

As of today, November 1st, I am the 2012/2013 Artist in Residence at Harcourt House artist run center here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This is a wonderful position for an artist as the gallery will support my artistic endeavors for a whole year. What does that mean in practical terms? I will have a private studio at Harcourt House while I develop my body of artwork, give me opportunity to teach and at the end of the year the gallery will host a solo exhibition of my work. My show will be installed next October and I will give an artist talk at the opening reception. Please contact me if you want an invite to the opening.

I recently got word from the Kiwanis Art Gallery in Red Deer, Alberta that they will be mounting a solo exhibition of my fine art photographs in their 2014-2015 line-up. The exhibition will feature images I took leading up to and following the death of my son Zachary. The images document the life of my family as we spend almost two months at the hospital trying to save my son and the devastation that follows his death. It is an emotional collection of photographs but one that speaks to the heart and the resilience of the heart. You can read about my experience at Wanted Chosen Planned and how I found art to be a tool for healing at Artist Reborn.

The Quiet Rebuild

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This post was first seen on my blog Wanted Chosen Planned as it relates to the rebuilding of my life after the loss of my son Zachary. I featured it there to encourage those who have lost a child to experiment with art (of all kinds: painting, photography, journal writing, etc.) as a means to find healing. I re-post it here as my hope for this blog is to bolster the weary creative spirit within us and to turn our frustration, fear, and failure into the artwork and creative writing that we were born to bring forth. 

“The Quiet Rebuild” © Alexis Marie Chute, Wood Sculpture 2012

I have been making sculpture although I am not primarily a sculptural artist. I find the use of my hands in the tactile nature of my recent artwork very soothing. My art has been focusing on the idea that we create our understanding of the world in many ways. When my son Zachary died, my world crashed down. Like a forest burn by fire, I was brought to ash, literally. It is fitting that my artwork uses wood, both natural and manmade. I find this particular piece, “Quiet Rebuild” particularly therapeutic to look at. It reminds me of where I am at, rebuilding my life in a different time, a simpler, basic time where my expectations of the world have been brought into check.

I rebuild my life and my understanding of the world from the burnt forest, atop a humble piece of wood. What I make of my life at this stage is truly of my own invention and each fragment of my understanding of the world comes together in an awkward balance but feels right in the face of everything I have endured.

Art is a personal and unique expression. It may not bring you the answers you search for but it can help you understand the questions you are asking. I encourage you to experiment, play and create like a child. Healing often does not arrive in the way we expect.

“The Quiet Rebuild” – When death comes and takes, it changes us who live. When we see this life as it is, the impermanence of all we hold dear and yet our ability to continue on, to love and value what truly matters, then we rebuild our soul with these lessons, changed yet whole.