FALL 2016 - Acquisitions / Experimentation / Social Entrepreneurship
Updated: Nov 29, 2020
October 3, 2016
Recent Artwork Acquisition – Nordstrom, Inc.
On a recent trip to Vancouver to attend a memorial service, in celebration of the life of my aunt, Anita Sorensen, I had a chance to catch up with my big brother, who lives in San Francisco. With the sun gloriously shining down on us, my other aunt took the two of us around to visit some charming neighbourhoods. At one point we stopped by Winsor Gallery to view my paintings and take in the show that was up in the space. They encouraged us to go check out the upscale Nordstrom department store, where two of my paintings had recently been acquired and were on display. It was a treat to once again see these works, OV and Icarus’ Burn to Shine, in their new homes, especially in the company of dear ones.
Experimentation This past Fall, I enrolled in 2 Intermedia Art classes at Concordia University, with the intention of developing my practice by being more informed and familiar with the newest ways of making art. ‘Programming for Artists’ is a studio course that incorporates programming tools into one’s own art practice, and gives an overview of Electronic Arts and New Media. I plan to apply the knowledge I am learning in this course to a project I’ve been researching with a filmmaker and tech specialist for close to 5 years. And to balance all that computation and programming, I’m also taking a ‘Performing Arts’ class, that investigates performance as a form of social and artistic intervention. I hope to apply the knowledge learnt in this class towards my recent humanitarian initiative, ‘Food for Thought for the Homeless’.
I also partook in a series of Master Classes in Media & Performing Arts (curated by Kakim Goh) at the OBORO New Media Lab. The roster of guest speakers are of the highest caliber, including actress, Mylène Dinh-Robic, the award winning filmmaker, Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze), the amazing DJ, Kid Koala and the Chinese Shadow Puppetry specialist, Annie Rollins.
I’m excited to be exploring how being interdisciplinary in my practice is allowing me to have better potential in acknowledging and tackling the contemporary world’s increasing complexities.
Social Entrepreneurship – Food for Thought for the Homeless As the weather chills down, a fourth ‘Food for Thought for the Homeless’ outing is being prepared for December. I am aiming to put together at least twenty food/care packages, however with helping hands perhaps we can exceed that number and distribute much more to those on the streets of Montreal come Christmas time. If you would like to contribute items or food please contact me at veronsorensen@gmail.com or at 514-239-8403. If you have not seen the Nomad interview around this initiative, and would like to get a better idea of what is involved in it, click on the image below to view the video…
I would like to acknowledge Toumaj Ansary for the wonderful work he did with his mission to help the Montreal Children’s hospital and those living on the streets. I received his words of encouragement and comradeship when I began to distribute food/care packages. I was so looking forward to meeting him, but it sadly was not in the cards. He suddenly passed a few months after our initial communications and now lives on in Le Foundation pour Toumaj. He is remembered and deeply missed by many.