Dope Design

Dope Design EPK

2008-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

MJB just put together a movie of album art Carylann has produced over the last 10 years mixed with music visuals used by Delerium on their last tour. It's meant to be a little sampler of the work Carylann has done and to give an idea of the kind of work Dope is able to do. We want to start doing a lot more motion visuals for bands to use wherever and however they like. Music videos these days get more play on youtube, veoh, myspace and aol than they do on TV, so it makes sense that performers think of putting material out for their audience using these great forums.

Fans of Delerium might particularly enjoy seeing some of the motion visuals used on Delerium's last tour. It's sequenced using the track Innocente, with Leigh Nash singing. There are some different takes on what was proposed as album art for her release Blue on Blue, as well as covers and alternates for such groups as: Genika, Id Guiness, Loverboy, Lemonchill, Front Line Assembly, Diva Destruction, Fornequiem, Fauxliage, Weed, & State of Grace.

Snap Show Opening

2008-03-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

Snap Gallery Show Invite

Ca in front of her paintings

The Snap Gallery opening last Thursday was great. I was very interested to see the work of the other artists. 14 of us were given poems by curator and Snap Gallery director Barry Dumka and asked to make something in relationship to it. My poem was Pre-Raphaelite Pinups by Elaine Equi. It goes like this:

No one is saying how it came to be this way.
Sex is and is not part of the picture.

Too many people
wearing too many clothes
thinking too few things.

The wallpaper is the real center of attention,
the figures mostly background music.

There is a rhythm to their eating.
One contemplates his wine,
another drinks it.

I never noticed it before,
but that angel's feet are on fire!

It's a penitent's head
they've pasted on a voluptuous body.

Why, she's practically an insect herself.

Look how many worlds are woven
with the silly-string of the Fates.

The wheat field was like a drive-in movie
for the shepherd and his date.

The berry-boy offers his handful of red
to the gray little girl.

It's all in the fold,
the fertility dance of being draped over...

One could panel a library
with the grain of her hair.

Can't you see I'm just a poor,
blind, accordion-playing lesbian?

Do not disturb the visionary butterfly
at work in me.

The heretic wears a pretty demonic
apron and crown,

while Medusa's blue hair net
tangles even the trees.

A squirrel, a robin:
an army of innocence
waits to molest a young girl -
asleep and unaware.

But isn't every story an allegory - every house strewn
with alchemical symbols like these?

Ach - but that rainbow is loud!

It’s a great poem - I love it. I particularly zeroed in on three verses for my work:
1. Why, she's practically an insect herself.
2. One could panel a library with the grain of her hair.
3. Do not disturb the visionary butterfly at work in me.

It was very interesting working this way - responding to poetic imagery, doing my own thing with it. I want to do more experimenting with this method, so I’m looking around for poetry to inspire me. I love how the poem Barry gave to me has qualities of 19th century poetry, but it is totally modern in its sensibility. This makes it very much in line with the sort of thing that I like to do with my own painting and other visual work.

Thanks Barry for inviting me to be a part of the show.

The show continues until April 14 at Snap Gallery.

SNAP IS LOCATED AT:
190 West 3rd Avenue Vancouver BC
info[at]snapcontemporaryart.com

music bc shmusic - march 19 2008 @ the biltmore, vancouver, bc

2008-03-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Dope Design went to the Music BC's Shmusic networking event at the Biltmore last Wednesday night. Composers, performers, producers, radio djs, promoters, designers (like us) and etc. all congregated for an opportunity to meet with one another, have a drink, take a chance at winning a door prize, and generally get a little sense of the vancouver music community.

There was both a structured and an unstructured version of the shmooze. The structured version had people line up to speed network (like speed dating) at 4 different booths with industry representatives (management, A & R, etc.) from Warners, EMI and the like, and hand them demos or get their advice. There were two sessions of this, with a small break in-between. The unofficial version of the shmooze was everybody just milling about and chatting with whomever about whatever. Which went surprisingly well. A lot of times you can go to these sort of things and end up not meeting anybody new. You can just hang out with your own entourage or play the remote witness to the whole thing. But it was not like that at all. We all met and spoke with a number of people we had never met who were interesting and interested in the possibilities of the vancouver community. Of course, we did also hang out a bit with old friends and had a few drinks.

It's a testament to good organization on the part of Music BC that this night was a success. Not everybody got in line to do the structured networking thing, but just the fact that it was going on seemed to get everybody in the room into the spirit of the thing. We didn't do the structured networking, but the nice thing about the break was it offered an opportunity for an informal conversation over a beer with some of the people who had generously offered their time. So we elected to go with the unstructured networking and met some very nice people, some important people who we're looking forward to working with in the future, and we found out about a few things going on around town that look interesting.

MJB, who's relatively new to town, met Mark Bignell from adio Bandcouver and checked out his show and website, which is a great resource for finding out about local indie bands. Mark presents live music on his show radio Bandcouver which airs on 102.7 fm CFRO every Thursday at 2:30. Checking out his website - www.bandcouver.com - led also to the Independent Music United Productions website - www.imuproductions.com - which provides a comprehensive listing of band performances in live venues around town, and gives a short description of each of the bands. We're very excited about going to the Media Club this Friday March 28 to check out Paint, Downtreader, Cinderpop and The Hermit. The Hermit are friends of ours and we're really looking forward to their show, and we’re also curious about the other bands on the bill.

We'll let you know how it went.

cheers

Snap Gallery Show & Opening

2008-03-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Art Director, Carylann Loeppky, is part of a cool group show that opens on Thursday March 20th @ 6 PM. It's called Versus: Art & Poetry.

15 different artists were given a selection of verses from poets and asked to interpret them. The show calls it "versus" because it's about the contrast between the written and the visual expression of the poetry - where poetry is a sensibility and not just a thing.

The show is at the Snap Art Gallery, which is located at 190 West 3rd Avenue in Vancouver, BC. It runs from March 20th until April 14th. The opening is from 6 PM until 10 PM.

"There are a lot of amazing artists involved in this show, and I'm very happy to be amongst them. I've got about 9 paintings that I'm showing (and selling) ranging in sizes from 2 X 2 inch to 21 X 16 inch."

"I hope you can come out and have a look. I'll let you know how it went."

- ca