January 29, 2010
Tyler and I first met Becky Johnson (of The Sweetie Pie Press) and the Reverend Aitor (of The Misanthrope Specialty Co.) in June 2008 when they showed up at our door during one of their epic North American tours. They had a bottle of bourbon and very quickly became two of our favourite people. The crafty pair have been orchestrating such tours for the past 4 years. Their monumental trips vary both in length (1 to 6 months) and distance (they claim to have driven from Toronto to the west coast and back 3 times) and include activities such as participating in craft fairs, making various in-store appearances as well as Becky hitting improv festivals as one half of the comedy duo Iron Cobra. Becky first found out about All Citizens through her friend Jen Anisef who runs the Toronto Craft Alert. With Jen's encouragement she read my blog and contacted me about selling her 1" buttons and neck warmers in our teeny tiny art shop in the middle of nowhere. Serena: I heard the firs... Read more.
January 20, 2010
Hello! I'm currently in the process of transcribing a roundtable discussion for my next post. Transcribing is hard! Why didn't I learn to type in highschool? Here's another look back at awkward rural acclimatization (via Going Rural). February 5th, 2007 Both of my parents are from California and because of this, while growing up, mexican dishes were always in regular rotation. For me, quesadillas/burritos are a dinner staple as much as pasta and I'll whip one up for lunch quicker than I would a sandwich. Where am I going with this? Living in a small rural town has taken a lot of adjustment. One of the biggest adjustments revolves around grocery shopping. I've never been much of a cook, but in Vancouver it didn't matter since Amy's Kitchen was always there to save me. We used to live blocks from a large health food store. Organic fruits and vegetables were always plentiful and when I felt lazy there was always Annie's Mac and Cheese! No ... Read more.
January 12, 2010
Janet Manderscheid is a self-taught doll maker and master of the art of transforming recycled materials and "metal from the local junk pile" into garden sculpture. This past November I had the opportunity to meet up with Janet at her home in Bruno where she gave me a tour of her outdoor art and landscaping projects. During our visit I also learned a little about her extraordinary doll making expertise and toured the ground floor of a doll house that she'll be building over the winter. Please follow the link below to see photos of her work and read text excerpts from her biography, "Endless Dreams". Warmest Regards, Tyler ... Read more.
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year Marcel Prefontaine!
With all the LED and compact florescent high tech that usually illuminates my night life it was a real treat to ring in 2010 with friends in their backyard work shed under the glow of gas lamps and candlelight. The December 31st minus forty degree wind chills and Mr. Bobby Bendig's burst water pipes were no match for the well stoked wood stove and good company. Over the past few years we've discovered that Bruno Saskatchewan is not only home to some of Canada's finest broomball players but to many talented crafters, artists, poets, musicians and writers. Part of the All Citizens agenda is to provide space for local creative types to display, exhibit and sell whatever it is they do and make. Marcel Prefontaine has had carvings, drawings, and paintings in our shop from the very beginning so he'll be the first, among many fine Bruno citizens, that we proudly introduce to you. AC: When did you start making art? MP: Since the definition and perception of art is ... Read more.
December 21, 2009
Another look back at the humble (and humbling) genesis of All Citizens. Originally posted in Going Rural. Happy Holidays Everyone! July 22. 2006. When we moved here there were two things that stood in the way of us staying: finding work and finding a place to live. Pretty essential stuff and it has not come easily. I am currently on Employment Insurance and received a nasty call from a government employee three weeks after we got here. We were dealing with the horror that is our septic pump and hadn't determined if we could actually stay, and if we did stay where we would live and thus where we would look for work. The fellow who called me was not impressed and made me feel like we had made a mistake moving here. We decided to look for work in and around Humboldt and hope that we could also find a home in the same area. We both have BFA degrees, which are worthless as far as gainful employment is concerned (a situation that wasn't much better in Vancouver). We also o... Read more.
December 12, 2009
All Citizens is very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute a photo-based installation to the Home & Away (& In-Between) show curated by Tara Bursey in conjunction with City of Craft 2009. The work on display includes a large photo of the All Citizens/Senior Citizens facades set alongside a grid of twenty-one 8"x10" photos showcasing things sold on consignment in the shop. Items range from Bruno-made tatting by retired school teacher & cowboy poet Bernadette Greuel to Toronto-made photocopied drawing zines by Jason McLean. The photos (all shot against black velvet and framed in shadow boxes) represent a wide range of approaches and attitudes towards art and craft. We originally produced this installation, along with a time lapse DVD projection and a book based on Serena's blog Going Rural, for the exhibit IN ESSENCE... curated by Amber Andersen in March for The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba. Home & Away (& In-Between) includes work ... Read more.
December 4, 2009
November was an exciting month in our little town of Bruno. The Town's program manager for Recreation, Culture and Sport invited local artists (myself included) to take part in "An Evening with Family and Friends" visual art, music and poetry night at the community hall on November 20th. I displayed two large scale (94"x36") digital colour prints that depict architecturally augmented stationary freight trains inhabited by a small group of horticulturists. The prints were pinned to a long wall next to table displays featuring an assortment of drawings and wood carvings by Marcel Prefontaine and pottery by Bergit Pulvermacher (I'll add photos of the work to our flickr page soon). The $5 admission also provided family and friends with all you can eat brownies, black forest cake, muffins & cookies. Oh, and then there was the fresh stawberries and chocolate fountain! If this wasn't enough culture and creativity for one evening, senior citizen, award wi... Read more.
November 25, 2009
I maintained a diaristic blog during our transition from big city to small town prairie life. I called it Going Rural. Here's a look back: October 26, 2006 Tyler and I went to another auction yesterday. We didn't enjoy it as much as last time. First of all, we left late and neglected to eat a proper breakfast, which would haunt us later. Then we got a flat tire on the way there. By the time we finally arrived we were pretty punchy. We became grumpier as we realized that we were in the middle of nowhere and all there was to eat were burgers and junkfood (neither of us eat meat). We filled up on chips, chocolate and pie and drank coffee to keep warm as we waited for the items we were interested in to come up. It took forever. It was very cold. We were standing in mud. Thankfully we didn't leave empty handed. We purchased a coffee table and bookshelf for $2. However, we spent $12 on junkfood. Next time we're packing sandwiches! ... Read more.
November 17, 2009
My apologies for not blogging sooner but things have been a little busy here in Bruno lately. Last week I started a new job right across the street from All Citizens at Prefontaine's Custom furniture and cabinetry. On my first day, Ron, my boss almost cut his thumb off! I had to race him (no fear of speeding fines as there are no police in Bruno) to the nearest hospital in Humboldt about 35 KMS east of town. I'm happy to say that Ron and his thumb will be fine. In other news around town, the weather has extended the harvest!!! I've been told by people in the know that its extremely unusual for farmers to be combining this late in the year. Last night the local church held its annual Bazaar so almost every living soul in Bruno was at the town hall eating turkey and mashed potatoes. This might explain why last evening's All Citizens concert featuring Vancouver's Language Arts and Emily Grist + Toronto's Gravity Wave & Peter Project was poorly attended. Act... Read more.
November 16, 2009
Whenever I tell people that I co-own a shop in rural Saskatchewan they assume that I'm from there. I'm not. Tyler isn't either. In fact, neither of us knew a goddamn soul in SK when we decided to make it our home. As I child I had driven through the peculiarly symmetrical province en route from Alberta to Manitoba and vice versa (let's explain this by saying I'm the child of divorce). Tyler, on the other hand, had previously visited Saskatchewan twice: first in 1991 while on tour with the hair-metal cover band Neverland. Years later he made a second trip to attend his cousin's wedding. The latter visit made a significant and lasting impression. So much so that it directly led to us moving there 7 years later. Tyler had a dream. His dream became mine. We had been living together in Vancouver. We were both graduates of the Emily Carr Institute of Art. We lived hand to mouth in a city steadfastly aligning itself with the rich. We were poor. We ... Read more.
November 7, 2009
Hello Broken Pencil readers! Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Tyler Brett and Serena McCarroll, co-founders of All Citizens Shop. We will be your indie artist in residence throughout the upcoming winter months. You can find out more about us at these online locations: All Citizens Going Rural Tyler Brett Serena McCarroll We will be back soon with more bloggery! Warmest Regards, All Citizens Above Image: Class Conscious 1" button (Karl Marx quote) by Chris McCarroll. Available online through All Citizens Shop. ... Read more.
All Citizens
Former Vancouver residents, artist/musicians and collaborative team, Tyler Brett & Serena McCarroll founded All Citizens in April 2007. All Citizens currently exists as a consignment shop, music venue, exhibition and community market space in the town of Bruno Saskatchewan (population 600). The name "All Citizens" is a play on the name of the building next door, Senior Citizens, and is a proclamation signifying the shop's function as an all-inclusive art work in progress. All Citizens is a space for artistmade zines, books, music, videos, films, prints, buttons and more sent in from all across Canada, and is a home base for tatting, embroidery, cowboy poetry, pottery and wood carvings made locally in Bruno. All Citizens embraces the unexpected, uncanny and surprising possibilities inherent in juxtaposing the contemporary with the traditional and the periphery with the centre.
All Citizens is one of Canada's smallest music venues with room for about 18 audience members. To date they have hosted concerts by Bob Wiseman, Geoff Berner, Miles Howe and Maxim, The Phonemes, Laura Barrett, Calvin McElroy, Doug Hoyer, Charlotte Cornfield, The Keys, Sara Ciantar, Miss Emily Brown, James Lamb & Richard St. Ongl, Julie Doiron, The Darcys, Pat Lepoidevin, Sean Ashby, Scott Cook, The Gruff, Racoon Suit, Flora, Great Bloomers, Paschel and Dahl, The Dana Wylie Band, John Wort Hannam, Feral Children, Gobble Gobble, Octoberman and The Abramson Singers. Each and every group or soloist performing at All Citizens has been awarded a much-deserved cross Canada tour award. All Citizens has worked in collaboration with artist Biliana Velkova and the Mayor of Bruno to award Bob Wiseman and Geoff Berner with the key to the town and to have June 7th declared Julie Doiron Day.
In March 2009, 21 photographs representing a cross section of items on the shelves at All Citizens were shown at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba as part of the exhibit "In Essence" curated by Amber Andersen. In the exhibition catalogue, Andersen describes how the work in the show was derived from site-specific practices based in Saskatchewan and how, when removed from their context, the "works could easily represent 'small town, anywhere' in what is traditionally considered the Canadian prairie."
Serena McCarroll received a BFA degree from the Emily Carr Institute of Art in 2002 and is currently an MFA candidate at Ryerson University. She has shown her work in galleries across Canada and beyond, including Paved Arts (Saskatoon), The Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), Antisocial Gallery (Vancouver), Trianon Gallery (Lethbridge), Eyelevel Gallery (Halifax) and TCB Gallery (Melbourne, Australia).
Tyler Brett received a BFA degree from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001 and an MFA degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2009. He has produced art and music independently and in collaboration with Tony Romano as T&T at galleries such as the Oakville Galleries, the Or Gallery, Museum London, Ottawa Art Gallery and Clint Roensich Gallery (Canada), NEON Gallery, Stockholm's Kulturhuset (Sweden) and VTO Gallery (England).
Throughout the winter, Brett and McCarroll will blog about this community, creativity and culture as Broken Pencil's indie artists in residence.