Sunday 10 December 2017

Helene Lacelle, Genevieve Betourne & Peter Evanchuck at the ART HOUSE CAFE

ahhh the snapOFtheCENTURY

here we be 20minutes ago with Genevieve curator/co-owner
of theARThouse
notice art piece behind isn't it MARVELOUS

snap by ALEX (inmirror)

Friday 24 November 2017

Peter Evanchuck's MARVELOUS OTTAWA Collaboration with Helene Lacelle - XMAS Fundraiser at Ottawa School of Art

we had a pile of art,  on the south walls, west walls and east walls and H’s sculptures on stands . 
that’s me leaning on CATHY BRAKE, curator/coordinator of Gallery - on my first after 5pm. outing in Ottawa for perhaps a year - 


OTTAWA SCHOOL of ART XMAS FUNRAISER  SHOW/SALE
23nov17 opening 5-8p.m. show on 'till 10 Dec.'17

hope u guys get to do something creative today

photoBY PeterEvanchuck at Ottawa-art-GALLEY 23nov17 XMASartSHOW


Saturday 21 October 2017

A GNAT BEGAT - Peter Evanchuck's POEM GOES TO the 2017 VENICE BIENNALE

The Venice Vending Machine ( DISPENSING FREE ART )project is a “collaborative, participatory, inclusive live art public installation”, conceived by Venetian artist Marina Moreno. Its aim is to question the role and the value of Art in our society, whilst aiming to promote emerging artists alongside some famous and established ones. It creates an intriguing game for the participants who feel compelled to enjoin and involve themselves in a dialogue that the artist Marina creates in posing the question:

“How Do You Value Art?”

Since the first Venice Vending Machine installation, it has involved over 250 artists from all over the world and has attracted professionals such as curators, art historians and art collectors while extending the possibility of an encounter with people that normally would not be interested in “Art”.

The Venice Vending Machine Edition 5 will run from the 14th to the 22nd of October 2017 from 11.00 a.m. to 17.30 p.m.
@ the Giardini della Marinaressa (Seychelles Pavillion) Riva dei Sette Martiri Venice
Private view @ Palazzo Mora, Venice on the 14th October time TBC.

Wednesday 11 October 2017

IMAGE ARTICLES - Community Gardening & Adopting Parkette



how sweet it is - bldging fence few days back 80' of it 6' high in 8' secitons - not bad for a guy almost 80 and living with cancer - terribly sore back caused by hole in spine/cancer - hope all goes well today with markings and radiation


here i am a week back in backyard tearing down fence i built 25 years ago and with Helene's help building a new one in 8' sections on the flat then lifitng into place and topping with squared lattice attachement - now all up
including the trellises that i hand make from cedar strips cut from 1x6" by 8' NB cedar boards

great to have learned/developed these building skills - making our homes beautiful with creative designs hand build by HELENE and I - a big deal for us - i.e. it's like 'living art' 

so many people think art is something on a board hanging on a wall but in fact it's in our everyday lives - living among beauty is living among art i.e. aint' that grand folks

ok off the get my cancer radiation markings .... then 5 days of intense radiation - to kill spinal cancer development - hope all goes well and i get at least another 5 years of life

as said in ALICEinWONDERLAND 'so much to do so little time'

Tuesday 12 September 2017

FAMOUS FACES FAMOUS PLACES - LIFE of PIE - PETER EVANCHUCK & HELENE LACELLE

LIFEofPIE this mornHang
'famouspeople/famousplaces'  &  'ARTneverSLEEPS'
by that dynamic duo
HELENE LACELLE & PETER EVANCHUCK

enjoy
(hippies, dwebs, noodleBOYZ, hipsters, famous people welcome, byob)

photo by Peter Evanchuck - HELENELACELLE & BHATboy at PIE

Monday 24 July 2017

The LONG's and SHORT's OF MY LIFE

FILM DIARY - PETER EVANCHUCK

THE LONG's AND SHORT's OF MY MOVIE LIFE

After more than a decade absence from my filmmaking life, I returned to create with digital - not easy for me to learn, not easy for me to do much after a decade of fighting my cancer and near death surgeries and problems. Not fun but in many ways a very dramatic learning experience and proves my great affection for creating.

Due to a major decrease in energy, memory and strength and massive changing times old school film folks like me had to give up or learn the ‘new school’ way of digital.

Many filmmakers I knew gave up since they could not learn ‘new school’ or they turned to other creative pursuits like photography, art, writing…. even sculpture. For various reasons they did not see the magnificent opportunity digital offered the low budget/no budget artist/filmmaker/videographer. 

Digital is the holy grail of independent filmmaking. One with equipment can basically make a movie totally alone from script to screen for peanuts. They just have to burrow into learning something very new, very complex and very competitive

In the 80’s I was one of about 30 feature filmmakers in English Canada. PLATINUM came out at the Montreal Film Fest to original reviews since it was not a common way to make a feature or to structure a feature – I found myself with Jutra, Agoyan and MacDonald on panels fielding questions – heady days as the saying goes. Around that same period I was editor/publisher of MOTIONmagazine highlighting Canadian film.

Since dramatic ‘longs’ (features ) were my past interest, I headed in that direction with digital but my illness curbed that notion since long days, exhaustive schedules and dealing with numerous people put me back on the cancer list.

Of course my love of creating using image/words never terminated.

I thought that an easy alternative was docs and even easier is my style of shooting: reality as it shows up on location: no artificial lighting, no scripted scenes, no producers telling me what to do, no agencies involved. Just the creative moments of making/creating ‘art’ …. Raw Art - the best kind.

After doing some promotional/industrial projects to learn and make money, I swung into making LONG docs with BACHELORS. Of course, I overshot my diminished abilities and doing a cross country dramaDOC put me back on the cancer list. Tests revealed a rise in blood count and a lesion was detected in my brain which simply put means, the end of it all.

The lesion proved to be dormant and detected in 2006 during my original scans. The new oncologist had made a mistake.

These experiences put me on a path back to photography with my partner Helene Lacelle creating a new style of embellished photos called MARVELOUS REALISM in a way taking from the famous Mexican style of MAGICAL REALISM – things went very well and we had fun back into our lives as well as unique ‘art creations'.

Then, back to digital movie-making when EUREKA the light went on and I swung into the dreaded SHORT doc. And like most fears proved to me an awakening rather than a hinderance of higher creative workings.

Since both shoulders suffered torn rotator cuffs/tendons and required replacements, I could not lift my CanonA1s so I bought a very light tiny PanLX7 – basically like all modern cameras a still cam with HD video. This proved a great easy tool to make SHORTS without pain then came the PAN770 another full HD camcorder. ( I tried PANfx1000 4K but not for me at this time )

Since that early SHORT on NIAGARA FALLS , I included my love of solo kayaking to combine solo KAYAKING with SOLOdocMAKING recently completing several shorts using both (shot around Chipman our new homesweet)

I have found my grail – from LONGS to SHORTS and Peter's SHORTS are getting shorter ….must be something to do with being an elder mmm??

P.S. after putting BEAUTIFUL BACHELORS on hold Helene and I bought a Featherstone nobel prize winning Plastic PIG for a pack of smokes and thus began CANADIAN PIG GIRL IN WONDERLAND, a new movie - but designed to be shot when i could with minimum actors and marvelous scenery/scenes/places - a sad tale of redemption and discovery of how a girl lost herself and found her voice through her friendship with a pig - starring of course Helene Lacelle.

Tuesday 7 March 2017

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME ... YEP SORT OF FORGETTING ABOUT MY BABBLING - HERE'S A BIT OF AN UPDATE



On location under the Bank Street Bridge in Ottawa " Canadian Pig Girl in Wonderland " ( Luka Lawford, John Lawford, Sabine Modder (ANGEL OF HOPE) Director Peter Evanchuck, Matt Lawford )

This story also appears in the NEW BRUNSWICK Filmmakers Co-operative 

NBFC Weekly Friday E-News 


well since i last wrote anything lots have happened but what's on my mind lately is how we elders who have never given up , survive and what's the benefit of endurance.

well recently two items have made me 'keep the faith' of creativity in my life.

KEN LOACH's recent feature 'I DANIEL BLAKE' is right at the top of his dramatic skills - putting on screen 'real' people living 'real' lives. Reminds me of the early days in Quebec Cinema and in English Canadian Cinema with features like 'MON ONCLE ANTOINE', 'BAR SALON', 'THE BEST DAMN FIDDLER', 'GOING DOWN THE ROAD' and many others from that era. This is where our documentary tradition overwhelmed our sense of pretending drama into 'real' drama, real tragic events lived by real people - at least in those days that skill was almost normal for so many exceptional directors/filmakers. These features were 'lived' not invented with fake twists and turns catering to an pretend audience.

On that list of 'real' movies with the Canadian documentary 'feel' is Gordon Pinsent's 'THE ROWDYMAN' shot in Newfoundland, Pinsent's home province, near and around his home area of Grand Falls/CornerBrooke. Gordon lived that movie and told the real story not inventing fake news stories as silly some would 'trump' up.

Recently a documentary on Gordon's LIfe by Brigitte Berman 'THE RIVER OF MY DREAMS was screened at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and opened at a few theatres across Canada. It catalogues a actor/writer/director's life and sums up how 'never giving up' has made both Pinsent and Loach ikons of the silver screen.

These two octogenarians not only are surviving old age they are thriving in it creatively despite their health setbacks. 

I DANIEl BLAKE is without doubt one of LOACH's best movies with harsh stories about contemporary British persons facing difficult times in a changing world they they can't manouver well. It's about older age told in such an honest and real manner that the viewer can 'feel' the hardships faced by a recently laid of worker stuggling to find meaning in his 'new' life.

Berman's homage to Pinsent gives us Gordon despite recent hear death experiences the fullness of this man's creative desire never to give up but reaching into his 90's with future hopes and dreams like a river that always flow forever streaming into the ocean of a full life.

All that being said, i have to admit that i've departed from my docs to create a new almost feature length ( formerly short movie ) movie called 'CANADIAN PIG GIRL - in wonderland'  Which i'm shooting digitally like a documentary i.e. real untouched locations, one camera recording a scene no script, no meetings, just going along developing it as we creatively 'feel' what should be added organically. And that's one secret of docMaking putting it together organically - i.e. 'keeping it real'.