Nathan Veldhoen

If you are living in Vancouver, or even worse out in the fraser valley, the heat has been intense.  Worse yet if you don’t have an air conditioner or 2 or 3 girls waving a fan, I bet sleeping or working is tough.    After tonight I am pretty sure I’m grab myself and air conditioner, but in the mean time I’ve been using this.

The Ice Bowl

Lucky I have an ice maker on my fridge, so when I have been working at night I chuck this bowl of ice under my desk.  ( im sure an ice block from the store would almost be better–last longer too)   Works ok, not the greatest but definitely feel a difference.  I also remember reading somewhere if you chuck this same bowl in front of a fan, it helps to cool a room.  Try it, especially if you work in a hot little office or studio beside a computer that pumps out hot air!

While I was in Calgary I was able to spend my last day getting in a good size run.  The weather was amazing so it made it pretty easy to get outdoors and enjoy the sun.  I was lucky enough to stay at a place that was a near the Glenmore Reservoir, so I made my way over.  I was told it was about a 20km tour which felt a little shorter but none the less, one of the better paved trails I’ve ran.  The scenery was amazing, with high up views  over looking the reservoir on the north side, to rolling hills out in the country and ended off with a  quick run thru of heritage park.

Heritage Park

Feeder into the Reservoir

Shot from Glenmore Trail

Added a bit more to the fridge.  I think I am done, for now…

I get a call from my pops saying he wants me to come with him to pick up a fridge and freezer from my grandmps neighbor.  I was like ah ok.  Well all this shit ends up at my house.  Free none the less but more shit to move once I sell the house.  Here is a project that turns more shit into a fun little project.  Kinda always wanted to draw on a fridge…

Tools for this project

Da Fridge

Boom!

Pretty solid weekend in Calgary, AB for our big art show.  Had great weather and the drive went pretty good.  We also didn’t have to haul too much art home since we got rid of some inventory while we were there.  Not too much to say but it was pretty rocking and the morning came too quick.  I think the show finally got shut down around 2:00-3:00 am, somewhere in that area.  Good space, and a pretty good location.  We hope to have future shows there, so stay tuned.  Pictures below are taken by Grubbe. check his flickr out!

Winding down.

Outside looking in.

Showtime

Dealin

www.theartprojectonline.com we added a new front page artist to the site…check it out.

We got in Thursday night and hit Artlife Friday afternoon to hit the walls with our Art.  Things turned out really well, and the space was amazing for our little show.  I still have to get show images up but here are some shots of what we had to deal with as well as some of the set up to get the show ready.

Store Front Friday Afternoon

The Space before we started hanging.

My Shit on the Wall

Getting things in Place...

Artlife is located  at 1312 1st SW Calgary Alberta Canada.  Website is here.

Gearing up for the big show tonight at 8 in Calgary, arrived in Calgary last night at around 7 after some craziest from the night before.  Wednesday night we had a lot of work to do, from getting everything packed up, to me trying to get my three pieces looking right.  I had some issues in the beginning but got everything ironed out by the time the midnight bell sounded.

I tried to show most of the process of how I got to my final product.  The last step was probably my favorite, after nearly lighting my house on fire.  Wasn’t the best idea to play with fire on a dry treated wood deck.

The Glaze test

Extending the piece on the plywood

Glazing the photo to the plywood

After it has dryed

Framed and Flamed

After doing some running around Saturday morning, picked up a few friends in Vancouver and headed up to meet up with others down in Squamish.  The group we met up with was up there for a month to climb.   Since the crew and I didn’t climb, we found a local lake and spent both days jumping of cliffs and soaking up the sun.  We drank a lot of beer and did a lot of jumping.

The name of the lake slips my mind but it was pretty warm and seems like it would be a good one for some open water swimming.

Little dive--Someone rock climbing in the back.

A group Beer Jump

Group of guys hanging out on the rock

Saturday got the best of a few people...

The Dam at the lake

Spent my Friday night going for a run with a group from the Running Room. It was absolutely amazing running the 16km trail around Hayward Lake in Mission. The list of things to check out along the way:a floating bridge that your walk across, a good sized water fall, and the dam the the end of the lake. There are many different spots for a good picnic lunch, as well as swimming spots including a bridge to jump off. You run over countless mossy bridges, little streams, and hike a number of different staircases. The best part of this run is the scenery, almost the whole trail wraps around the lake.

7km marker-There is a parking lot pretty close to the falls.

We did it in a about an hour and 40 minutes, the guys said the average is about 2 hours.  All shot shot with my crappy blackberry camera…

I scored a free case of beer at the beginning of the week. There was a reason why I go it free, its Rickards White…not a huge fan, wheat ale brewed with orange peel not a great combo. Its a bit too bitter, for someone who likes a  dark beer or  more honey taste, don’t bother even trying this guy.

In correlation with the upcoming art show in Calgary on Friday the 17th I am chucking up a free high rez wallpaper image of my trip down in Oregon Coast  . I will also attach a full rez image as well that can be downloaded and printed off at a maximum of 24×36 inches. Which is pretty freaking huge.

Oregon Coast

high rez image here–right click and save.

wallpaper 1280×1024

Finally my patience of waiting for a free or super cheap hot tub paid off.  The best part of this is how it got moved and placed on to my deck.  Six dollars sayz my neighbors think I am crazy…read on..?

After digging out  80 loads of a dirt hillside and making more room for a few trailers at a trailer park we found a hot tub in one of the neighbors backyards hidden in the back.  After inquiring, the owner wished to get rid of the tub for a few hundred bucks.  So……… game on.

Here is a shitty video shot with my blackberry of lifting the tub onto the trailer….

Hot tub at my house on a dump trailer

Tools to get it off the trailer

This was the longest part after I figured a way to unload it by myself. Getting the spare tire off the trailer so the tub wouldn't catch on it...

Test Dump to check my angles. (tub still strapped)

The rig for the tilt and dump of the tub.

Off the trailer and just need to pull the truck ahead.

Bam. I placed all the 2x4's on the ground so I can push it into place on my own.

Boom, Still have to hook up and make sure I didn't crack the freakin thing.

Flexisonic will be rocking our show down at Artlife in Calgary on July 17, and these guys have made an absolute gem of a mix.  So good that I will probably be listening to it on loop 6 times for the drive from Vancouver to Calgary.  Check out there site for the mixtape.

LINK!!!!

If your in the Calgary area while we are there look us up on the 17th.  I am scrabblin to get my art in gear for this one-Game on…

Also check our the groups listening ear on the rest of their blog.

Spent my weekend up in Tulameen, British Columbia,  3 hours Northeast from Vancouver up the number 3 highway.  Tulameen can also be accessed  from the Highway 97c, Coquihalla Connector Highway.  It was a very warm weekend with a large group of people gathering at a friends cabin a few blocks form Otter Lake.  Lucky we had a boat and a few quads to enjoy while we where up there.  We took  full potential of this area.  This is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots to go in the summer for many reasons.

1) its an all year round spot if you enjoy sledding in the winter, and quading in the spring and summer

2)lake is big enough for wake boarding with multiple boats.

A Ski before the Sun Goes Down

3)small community

4) corner store with everything in it, including liquor, gas, ice cream, a restaurant for when your hungover, and fireworks.

Canada Day Boom

Here is a web cam of the store.  We spent one day hangout in front drinking beers on there supreme outside seating.  http://www.tulameenbc.com/map.html

5) the rope swing

Last years shot from the Rope

We did some early Canada day drinking and fireworks, while some of us got on the boat for a ski.  Water was warm enough not to wear a wetsuit, so that also meant that it was go time for the rope swing.

I was also able to grab some night time shots of the outdoor rink that they have up there, even found some pink skate gards that where left from the winter.  check out my flickr.