Love and Money Artist Profiles: Stephanie Cormier and Steven Tippin

Steven Tippin is a glass artist living and working in Toronto, Ontario. He is currently a board member and the Ontario representative for the Glass Art Association of Canada.

Tippin received his Undergraduate Bachelor degree in Printmaking and Sculpture from the University of Guelph in 2002. He returned to school in 2005 to study at the Glass Department of Sheridan College where he tried to incorporate the mindset of printmaker and sculptor. He has recently returned home to Toronto after studying for his Masters of Fine Arts degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

From his The LUX Artist Statement:

"...The LUX lounge had glassware made for them that featured the bar's logo on a sturdy and simple cup. The students of the two nearby universities often stole these cups to use in their homes. I thought that it was a strange type of ritual that I should probably experience while studying abroad. But I wanted to do it in a different way.
I began stealing the cups from the bar and modifying them by sandblasting imagery similar to the bar's decor into it. Once the cup was completed, I would smuggle it back into the LUX lounge and leave it unannounced on the bar or on a table. I used the same stealth returning the glassware as I did stealing it..."






















Stephanie Cormier was born in Montreal, Quebec, raised in Barbados in the Caribbean and is based in Toronto, Ontario. Her practice includes photography, video and sculpture installation. Cormier “sculpts, draws and paints” with everyday materials and uses objects that are either plentiful and recycled or conversely nostalgic or obsolete. She enjoys giving these humble objects a new and honorable context. Her work also often involves community intervention attempting to create a more nurturing communal public experience. Stephanie studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design where she completed her BFA. Her work has been exhibited across Canada as well as in London, England and New York City. She has earned several national grants and awards and her work can be found in the Carte Blanche Photographers Book.

"...This new work comprises three components and introduces an effigy representing one of the matriarchal gods of the Anti-Logo League Girls. The fabric used to create this effigy was purchased at a thrift store and specifically chosen because it still carries a label identifying its previous owner. For the Anti-Logo League Girls these are important clues to an identity of those who came before. They celebrate these “anonymous” names and create their inspired mythical deities. In the photograph, the deity takes on a wig-like form. The sculptural elements are made from this same fabric and created in the spirit of Victorian Mourning jewellery where decorative mementos were crafted out of a deceased loved ones hair. The smaller multiples will be sold to support “Reconceptualization”, a belief in reuse, repurpose and rediscovery.

At the end of this project I will do some detective work to find the “Christine Maila” who donated her used blanket to the thrift store. I will give her some documentation of the project and ask her to choose a charity to donate the money raised, thus completing a cyclical and altruistic gesture. Foundations exist today in what seems like an ego-based system of "who’s who" of the elite. My intention is to undermine this system by creating a foundation honouring benevolence and an everyday citizen whose donation of a blanket has inspired this project."

Love and Money opens at the Ontario Crafts Council TOMORROW from 6-9 pm, and runs from December 16-31, 2010.

Images, from top: Steven Tippin, The LUX, Stephanie Cormier, The Christine Maila Foundation medallion multiples