Toronto Craft Alert

QUESTIONS FOR CRAFTERS: Genevieve Jodouin

Interview and photos by Sara Titanic

Describe the process of creating your work. What is involved for you to make one of your pieces?
Once I’ve come up with my initial idea for the piece, I take many photos that will act as reference for my drawings. I’ll then draw all the figures in the piece, as well as the decorative and background elements.   I draw everything on tracing paper so that all the layers fit together. Once the drawings are done I’ll move from my apartment to Open Studio where I’ll expose my images to my screens and print them, one color at a time.  There’s also lots of other prep work involved such as preparing my screen by coating it with photo emulsion, tearing my paper down to size and mixing the perfect ink colours.

The hardest part for me is always coming up with an idea that I love and then getting the photos just right so that the right emotions are conveyed.  I aim to capture the sentiment of quiet moments shared between two people, and the tensions brought upon by romantic relationships.  The prints I create are filled with decorative patterns derived from many sources such as Japanese patterned paper, William Morris wallpaper and textiles, and various other home décor books, magazines and websites. I rework these patterns and include them to relay a feeling of domesticity within the prints and also to provide a youthful, vibrant edge to my images.  At times, romance is blatantly implied by the use of roses and hues of reds and pinks, in other works colours and patterns are subdued to make way for the narrative within the print.

What projects are you working on? What do you have coming up?
On March 20th, one of my pieces, entitled Together (22”x30”), will be part of the Timeraiser Auction being held at the Fermenting Cellar in the distillery district.  It’s a great event where art is auctioned off for volunteer hours, rather than money. I’ve been participating in this event for four year and I’ll keep submitting work as long as they’ll have it!

I’m also starting to plan for my next solo exhibition at LE Gallery which will be in October 2010, in conjunction with Printopolis which is the international print symposium presented by Open Studio. I’m not sure what I’ll be showing at LE yet, but you can count on lots of screenprinted floral patterns and romance, as always.  It’s going to be a busy fall!

I’m also constantly thinking up new ideas for products to sell on my Etsy shop and at various shops that carry my work. I’ve got a handful of card designs for different occasions and I’m building up a collection of screenprinted wooden jewellery. You can find my work at various shops around the country including C1 Art shop and Kid Icarus here in Toronto and the lovely Victoire in Ottawa. For a full listing of where to find my prints and wares, visit my website.

What are some of your favorite spots in the city?
Tealish for tea, the Magpie for drinks, Utopia for great vegetarian food, Le Gourmand for the best walnut chocolate chip cookie, the outdoor skating rink at Harbourfront, although I haven’t made much use of it this year…  401 Richmond and its roof top patio, and the Beguiling for comics and graphic novels. 

When are you most productive?
I’m definitely most productive when I have upcoming deadlines.  My best ideas always come to me when I’m under the gun, although the trick is to try to get work done before it gets to that point. I definitely work at a steadier pace if I have an exhibition coming up.

What’s your current obsession?
Baking grilled cheese in the oven, watching Lost with my boyfriend, floral patterns, vintage wallpaper, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, The Tick, browsing on Etsy, this book ,listening to Jenny Lewis, Charlotte Gainsbourg and the British band, Slow Club. Oh and I’ll always be obsessed with screenprinting.

What are your thoughts the Toronto Art/Craft scene, compared to everywhere else you have experienced

Whenever I’ve been to other big cities with clearly defined art scenes, i.e Chicago, New York, Berlin, London, even Montréal, I’ve mostly visited major museums rather than smaller commercial galleries or artist run centers. There are of course exceptions to this, I’ve spent hours walking through the Chelsea galleries in NY and was very excited to visit both the Edinburgh Printmakers Studio and the Glasgow Print Studio on a recent trip to the UK. These were definitely more intimate experiences.

For the most part though, if I’m visiting somewhere, that’s what it feels like, a visit. So what I like the most about Toronto’s art scene is that I’m familiar with it. I know which galleries I like and what to expect from them.  It’s also exciting to be able to see friends’ work on display, to be able to say “I know that guy or girl” and actually mean it.

Was your art school experience positive? Tell me more about how it affected/influenced your art?
I went to art school here in Toronto at the Ontario College of Art and Design.  I really enjoyed my art school experience. I moved here from Ottawa, so part of the thrill was being able to explore the city and get to know Toronto a bit better.  The printmaking faculty at OCAD was very supportive and the focus was definitely on the technical aspects of printmaking. That’s where I fell in love with screenprinting and that’s probably why I enjoyed the experience so much.  I also met many of my closest friends at OCAD, which was definitely one of the biggest perks of art school for me.  OCAD is where I developed the style I work in now, that’s where I started working with wallpaper and floral patterns.  It’s also where I first experienced art related deadlines and learned to manage my time and juggle many projects at once, which is a skill that I’ve been trying to perfect since and which will keep serving me well I’m sure.

Any last words?

If you ever want to learn to screenprint, let me know, I’ll teach you! Thanks for reading and see you around.