BUMP Roadworks

My first open artist call acceptance of the year came through this week, right after I got a rejection. I’m being very selective with open call applications this year. I’m looking for opportunities that align with my values and what I want to do, and organizations that pay artists enough to make these potential projects sustainable.

Red=in progress. Orange fill=waiting to hear back. Yellow fill=successful. Strikethrough=rejected

The call I got into is BUMP Roadworks! I’m painting four 3’x10’ road barriers that’ll be distributed around Calgary. Mini murals, if you will. This is the second time I’m working with BUMP Festival since I moved last October (the first project debuts in spring/summer 2026, I’ll post once that’s public), and I’m very excited to create more public art in my new province!

I got some of my pottery class pieces fired, and I like how this birb-less one turned out! Where the raw clay shows is where I painted on wax

Concepts are due in two weeks, which is a tight timeline (with four double-sided barriers, I have eight canvases to fill). We start painting on April 11th, and I’m already poring over colour chips! My work brain thrives a bit on chaos and deadlines…it’s hard to shake.

Did not like how this turned out - blue glaze on blue slip. But you can still see the birbs!

Aside from this new project with BUMP, I’m juggling several artist efforts lately:

• Securing sponsors and writing grant applications for the pilot Canmore mural festival in August

• Writing grant applications for my personal projects

• Testing out patterns for Feather Friendly’s Artist Series

• Drawing a little private pet portrait

• Drawing pages for a risograph-printed anthology by @happenstancecollective (my Vancouver collective)

Sketch options for the pet portrait! The ears in the middle option need to be flipped

I’m missing a few other things (can you tell I can’t focus on just one pursuit). It’s a nice balance of writing, spreadsheets, and drawing. I’m really looking forward to painting outdoors again. It’s exhausting but so much fun, and gets me far away from this screen.

That’s all today, looking forward to sharing my progress on BUMP Roadworks!

Until next time,

Ann

Bonus Mo doodle from two years ago: How Mo met her snow leopard husband