Our own Sue Merakian, a STAR Company Bookkeeper & Administrator, muses on making time and space in your own life to revel in your creative spirit.

As an early birthday present, my mom recently sent me a cornucopia of professional-grade water colour supplies; sheaves of heavy, soft paper, tiny tubes in myriad hues, and oh the brushes…from big fluffies to the tiniest spotters, and everything in between. Masking fluid and special erasers. A huge white tray waiting for pools of potential.

I was in eleventh heaven. I couldn’t get to them for a couple of weeks, but finally I had a whole day to devote to the exploration of the new medium. Most of my dabbling has been in oils; and though I love how easily they blend and the multidimensional possibilities of palette knife (and fingers), they don’t lend themselves to spur-of-the-moment creativity, or quick clean ups. How great is this, I thought, grabbing a simple jar of water and some paper towels.

Very quickly I discovered that these innocent pastel washes were possessed of some malign spirit. They dripped. They splattered. They oozed outside the lines. The paper pilled, swelled, and warped. The brushes kept dipping themselves in my coffee cup instead of the water jar. An hour later I was feeling more than a little frustrated. Clearly, a new approach was required. I decided to stop striving for a masterpiece, and start experimenting. Sheets of paper fell off table and piled up like damp leaves at my feet. Four hours went by in about a minute. It turns out that painting with water colours is all about turning rude surprises into I-meant-to-do-that. It forced me outside my artistic comfort zone, and to lose my perfection frame. Oh yes, some of the paintings were truly scoff-worthy. But three of them were amazing (if I do say so myself). The best part was how completely different these pieces were than anything I’d ever done before.

Like most people, I try to avoid looking foolish or incompetent. But I’m starting to wonder how much that protective instinct has limited not just my creativity, but all areas of my life. It is said that we should do one thing that scares us every day…

…tomorrow I’m going to make a pie crust.

Our own Sarah Hopen has been invited to present her smart, useful and inspiring workshop…

‘The Creative Entrepreneur: Making it Work’,  at next week’s Small Business Arts Forum.

The workshop is part of a one day conference presented by Enterprise Toronto.  Sarah’s workshop explores key challenges for creative entrepreneurs and the important questions you need to ask yourself as a business owner.

We attended the event last year and it turned out to be a great opportunity for networking and brainstorming with other creative types.  It’s all free and it’s jammed with workshops and seminars all geared to artists and creative business.

This year’s keynote speaker is iconic contemporary Canadian painter Charles Pachter.

The Enterprise Toronto: Small Business Arts Forum happens Tuesday April 24, 9am-4pm at the North York Civic Centre.  We hope to see you there!

A passionate meeting of the minds…or at least both sides of our STAR Company brain.

Our number-crunching financial management side and our art/culture-soaked side collide to bring financial support to creative people via our newly created STAR Fund.

We are stoked to announce that the recipient of our 2012 STAR Fund is world music singer…       

Aviva Chernick

This year we are excited to announce that half of the proceeds from our STARRY Nights House Concert series will go to the performing artists and the other half will be used to help establish the STAR Fund, a grant designed to provide the small funds that make a big difference in an artist’s career.

That could be money for creating a CD, framing for a show, money for living while working on creation, funds to develop a website, etc.  It’s hard to find resources for the small things and we are hoping to make a contribution to the Toronto arts scene by funding the little stuff through our STAR Fund.

To find out more about our STARRY Nights House Concert series…..scroll down to the next post.  We’d love to share a STARRY Night with you!

Bookkeeping and house concerts….odd bedfellows you say?  Maybe so, but we are top-notch culture-soaked number geeks!  We do both pretty darn well.  But don’t take our word for it…come and join us for some house-spun culture and be on the lookout for any flying numbers!

Springtime at STAR Company means lots of delectable things….and one of our very favourite things is sharing our STARRY Nights House Concert series with you.

This spring marks our 3^rd season of STARRY Nights.

Our house concerts are small, intimate, totally casual, bursting with creativity and,..they’re lots of fun!  If you’ve never been to a house concert, but you’re  curious and can’t quite picture it…here’s what a STARRY Night looks like….a small group gathers in a lovely Roncesvalles area house. We munch on some  lovely snacks, enjoy a beverage or two, hang out with friends new and old.  Then sit back and enjoy the performance.

Past STARRY Night performances have included singers, author readings, contemporary dance,  clowning,  performing playwrights and more.

This season we’ve got three fabulous artists to share with you:

Saturday April 28 at 8pm with Soozi Schlanger

Soozi Schlanger – ‘cajun queen’ and lead singer/fiddler of famed Swamperella, has embarked on a solo journey of song writing ; singing her own heart-crafted stories.  Candid, intimate, satirical…this show is a must see for anyone with a love of poetry and a voice that (as one old southerner suggested, while patting his shirt pocket) “hits you right below the cigarettes”.

Click here to purchase tickets to  Soozi Schlanger’s STARRY Night concert.

Saturday May 26 at 8pm with Alison Wearing

Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter - Alison Wearing’s story of growing up with a gay father. Woven through music and imagery, this monologue moves from Alison’s carefree childhood to the moment she learned, at age twelve, that her family was a tad more complex than she had thought.

Alison Wearing is the writer/performer of two award-winning one-woman plays and has performed to critical acclaim across North America. Alison is also the author of the internationally bestselling travel memoir ‘Honeymoon in Purdah – an Iranian journey’.   Alison performs in theatre festivals, concerts and literary events across North America, as well as leading writing, performance, meditation, yoga and dance workshops.

Click here to purchase tickets to Alison’s STARRY Night performance.

Saturday June 23 at 8pm with Judy Marcelline

‘Home is Where the Heart Lives’.

Judy is an actor, writer and director extraordinaire.  She will perform her original theatrical work entitled ‘Home is Where the Heart Lives’.

Check our STAR Company Facebook page for info on purchasing tickets for Judy’s STARRY Night show.

Sustainable Creativity – Tools and Tactics for Personal Resilience and Financial Clarity

Presented by STAR Company CEO Sarah Hopen & Career Coach Anne Carbert

Two group workshops and two one-on-one finance / personal vision sessions. Sarah joins forces with Anne Carbert, Career and Transition Counsellor to help you manage your financial demons while offering a strong dose of inspiration that taps into your strengths and rekindles an energizing business vision.

As an artist or creative entrepreneur, it can be easy to lose sight of your original intention and feel overwhelmed by financial worries. Do you know your financial goals for your business? Have a good sense of your growth prospects? Remember why you started this crazy business in the first place? Some concrete financial planning will help and it’s not as daunting as you think.

Saturday April 14 & May 5, 2:30 – 4:30pm

At the Centre for Social Innovation – Annex