DIY Gorse Under Eye Mask

If you are in the UK during lockdown you might have noticed that the air is filled with coconut peachy wonderfulness from all of the gorses that blankets the landscape. Gorse is a yellow-flowered shrub of the pea family and is a native plant to western Europe and North Africa, it has these thick thorns that hurt like a mother when poked. In my research, Gorse doesn’t have any apparent medical properties but healers in the 1930’s thought that gorse could be a cure for people with feelings of “great hopelessness” and “despair” and Bach Flower Remedies wrote that “Gorse is for those who have suffered much and whose courage, as it were, has failed; who have lost the heart to try anymore.” If Gorse doesn’t help cure your hopelessness and despair during these unprecedented times then you should know that you can also make wine out of gorse but that is for another time.  

This coconut-vanilla-peachy-goodness is like liquid gold. I have been splashing some into my bath, I have been using it as a perfume and i’ve even froze the liquid in ice cubes to jazz up some sun tea.

 

Recipe 

1/2 cup gorse infuse water

2 chamomile tea bag

¼ cucumber 

20 cotton rounds

Reusable ziplock bags or Tupperware

Step 1: gorse infused water (1 litre of gorse flowers to 1litre of filtered water and let it sit in your fridge for 24-36 hours). Once infused you’ll strain the flowers out and compost them, or you could boil them to make a yellow dye to paint with. 

Step 2: Throw gorse water and tea bags into a small pan and slowly heat until it is hot (don’t bring it to a boil) and let It sit for 20-25 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags and toss the tea bags into the compost. 

Step 3: Blend gorse chamomile water and cucumber and place it in a shallow bowl.

Step 4: cut all-cotton round in half and cut the straight edge to make a crescent moon shape.

Step 5: soak cotton rounds in the mixture for 15-20 seconds. 

Step 6: lay flay in your reusable ziplock bag and try your best not to overlap the eye mask. 

Step 7: Store in your freezer!  

Step 8: pull a pair of under-eye masks whenever you want a little spa moment and let it thaw a little before placing under your eyes. 

Step 9: be completely cured of hopeless and despair!

I might make a separate account for this kind of content so let me know if you are interested in joining me on a naturalist guide to beauty and self-care! I am always on a journey to be more conscious of the things I put on my body and reducing my harm to the environment.

Cheers!

Honey Pot Review

"Antiques, Blush, Character Home, Desire, Exotic landscape, Fainting, Garter, Heathcliff, Iron Gate, Jewelry, Kisses, Loss of Control, Matriarchy, Old Hairstyles, Protest, Robin’s Egg, Seduction, Titanic, Unconscious Mind, Vase, Waist: the alphabet as imagined by RBC Emerging Artist Award winner Natasha Jensen. Her exhibition Honey Pot, currently showing at Five Art & Merchandise is a visual découpé of selected terms from her master list of muses exploring the semiotics of the constructed female fantasy."

Check out the rest of the article here!

http://www.akimbo.ca/akimblog/?id=1373

HONEYPOT at FIVE AM ART AND MERCHANDISE

If you live in the Calgary area or visiting the Calgary area from June 15-July 15 2018 please check out my solo show at Five AM Art and Merchandise in the East Village! The show consists of five new pencil crayon drawings which I am very excited by.  If you like blushy flowers in full bloom, rococo aesthetics, and double entendre then I think you'll like this show!

HONEYPOT

609 Confluence Way SE, Calgary, AB T2G 1C3

Hours: Thursday-Saturday 12-7PM

https://www.fiveartandmerchandise.com/

HONEYPOT1Final (1).jpg

RBC Emerging Artist Award at Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions

Back in April 2018, I had the honor of receiving the RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions for my work as an artist and my contributions to the Calgary arts community. It was a bittersweet event filled with the arts community that I've grown to love so much and close friends who I spent the entire event making silly faces in between the speeches.  For two months I had to keep the award a secret which was devastatingly difficult for me, I don't like keeping secrets especially good ones. I did cheat and tell my friend Christina who lives in Scotland about what was happening in Calgary and about how nervous I was about the whole thing. She was my dedicated secret keeper and I am so grateful for her patience for my neuroses.

Here is the write up about the award!

“The Emerging Artist Award was established to recognize up-and-coming, Calgary-based artists. The award recognizes that a thriving cultural community includes artists who choose to live and build their careers in Calgary from the onset. The intent of the award is to bring recognition and awareness to outstanding artists in the early phases of their careers.”

The best part about the awards ceremony was my place of work Arts Commons found out about me receiving an award the day before and surprised me by getting my parents tickets so they could experience the event. They even hosted my sweet parents at the Arts Commons table and got them name tags and everything! My parents felt very VIP treat and thought that this is what working in the arts is like every day. 

Another great highlight was I got to take photos with our beloved Mayor Naheed Nenshi who was once vote the world’s greatest Mayor! When we were taking photos I giggly said that it felt like we were taking prom photos together and Nenshi said that everyday feels like taking prom photos for a mayor. I thought that was cute.

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Anyways! Sometimes life as an artist is spending a copious amount of time alone in a messy studio having no idea what the fudging fudge you are doing so the few moments you have to be championed by your community and peers is unbelievably special!

<3 <3 <3

 

Five AM Art and Merchandise (October)

Five AM Art and Merchandise is located in the East Village of Calgary, Alberta and is hands down one of my favourite galleries in YYC. Five AM is a "gallery, shop & studio committed to finding unconventional methods of bringing contemporary art and creativity into people's lives." From artist designed goods, exhibitions to special events 5AM is definitely a welcoming breath of fresh air with their mix of contemporary art and commerce. If you can't make the opening on October 20th the show will be up till November 5th so grab a coffee across the street and check them out! 

https://fiveartandmerchandise.com/

I am thrilled, honored and totally intimated to being invited to participate in this group show with some of Calgary's most prolific artists. The concept of the group show was that each artist would be paired with another artist and then they would create a portrait of each other simple as that! I was paired with comic artist Jillian Fleck whose work and friendship have rocked me to my core for years. Jillian is such a humorous and complicated person I wanted to do something that captured both of those traits that make Jillian who she is. I also wanted to make a portrait that was inspired by my animation influence which is currently dominating my studio for the past year. 

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In animation, there is this technique that animators are obsessed with (me including) called a "smear" which can create some pretty bizarre drawings! A smear is a depiction of movement in a single frame to create a burst of speed. Often times a smear will create a blur effect in a single frame of motion. In my drawing  "Smear Campaign of Jillian Fleck," you'll get a little taste of this bizarre effect that smears can create. 

http://jillianfleck.com/

See you on Friday! 

HEATWAVE!

 

Swoon! Heatwave's opening last week at RANDM Collective was such a blast and a half! It was an incredible experience to be showcased with some of my favourite illustrators and artists in YYC to explore the theme of love in the 21st Century.  It is a sexy, sweet and bold show that Lyndon Navalta curated so please check it out before it closes on September 29th!

Lyndon and I sat down with Kelsey the brilliant and dirty mind behind Thecummentary to talk about the exhibition and our individual pieces! 

https://thecummentary.com/2017/09/22/heatwave-art-show/

Photos were taken by Lyndon Navalta and Mike Kerr

HEATWAVE

Hey, everyone! 

I currently have some work in a lovely group show called Heatwave curated by Lyndon Navalta at RandM collective in Calgary, Alberta. It's a steamy little number so please check it out before the last day of the show on September 29th. In the meantime checkout this amazing digital poster Lyndon Navalta created for the show! 

XO

NFJ