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Harold Sikkema — artist / educator / designer / communicator

  • Traversals
    time-spun trails
    AVAILABLE NOW
  • Cloud Storage
    sky spirals
    ORIGINAL COLLECTION
  • Rock Bands
    ribbons of stone
    ORIGINAL COLLECTION
  • The Last Supper
    a lens based ritual observance
    PHOTO SERIES & PERFORMACE
  • COVID
    March 20, 2020
    I created a tool to chart COVID-19 case-doubling time per-country with chart.js, based on...
  • GrowOp2020 at Gladstone Hotel
    March 10, 2020
    I’m part of an exciting exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel from March 12-15,...
  • Photo: Propeller Gallery
    Drawing Unlimited at Propeller Gallery
    March 9, 2020
    I was grateful to participate in Drawing Unlimited, a recent juried show at Propeller...
  • Millennium Trail
    Trail of Tales
    August 5, 2019
    Whilst enjoying fine beaches (and wines) around Sandbanks Provincial Park this summer, I cycled...
  • Half Life
    October 25, 2018
    You have always and only ever been in the middle of things
  • Processing Nature: SHSM Workshop at HCA
    November 30, 2017
    On November 30th 2017, I ran a workshop with high school students from HWDSB....
  • Cloud Storage Workshop at Hamilton Public Library
    October 30, 2017
    In connection with my Cloud Storage exhibit this month - I also held a workshop at...
  • Spiralize Photoshop Script
    October 11, 2017
    This post is about a Photoshop technique to create spiral images from wide-proportion rectangles....
  • Cloud Storage
    October 2, 2017
    I'm pleased to introduce a new body of work, entitled "Cloud Storage" at Gallery4...
  • ReptileChoir
    November 25, 2016
    NOTE: This post is adapted from a paper that I submitted towards the completion...
  • Rock Bands (Spoken Word)
    November 15, 2016
    As part of my Rock Bands exhibit at HAVN in November 2016, I created...
  • entanglements
    November 11, 2016
    Entanglements is a short film about stray plastic (caution tape, shopping bags, packing materials, etc.)...
  • Choral Interventions
    November 11, 2016
    "A choral performance/presentation where multimedia interactions occurred between rock formations, humans and other creatures"...
  • Rock Bands at HAVN
    November 4, 2016
    I'm happy to invite you to Rock Bands, an exhibit featuring a new series...
  • A Compendium of Books
    September 24, 2016
    The written word makes it possible to understand more deeply who you are and...
  • Sing, Pan, Code: Enhancing Audience Engagement Through Choral, Algorithmic, and Photographic Crossings
    August 31, 2016
    In 2016, I completed a major research project towards the completion of my MA...
  • A Strange Bird
    August 5, 2016
    This post is dedicated to my Mother, Coby Sikkema. Thanks mom! My parents recently returned...
  • PeaceWeave
    July 18, 2016
    PeaceWeave is a collaboration with art students from McMaster's ART 2PG3: Contemporary Approaches to Painting....
  • Salon Jacques 17
    July 17, 2016
    On Sunday, July 17, 2016, I presented my work at Salon Jacques, an artist...
  • Blogging at BARC
    July 6, 2016
    I'm grateful, this July, to have been offered a guest-writer opportunity on the Bay...
  • Sedimentary: Performing at LIVELab
    April 7, 2016
    NOTE: This post is adapted from a paper that I submitted towards the completion...
  • Port Rates: Encountering the Face
    March 9, 2016
    The face is, in and of itself, visitation and transcendence. —Emmanuel Levinas For whom do the...
  • Self ease
    February 24, 2016
    Haters heap scorn on the selfie, lamenting this ubiquitous start-up genre as quintessentially narcissistic....
  • Street Views
    February 3, 2016
    This photo series constitutes my response to a prompt from Robert Hamilton to create...
  • tactic tactic
    February 2, 2016
    In January 2016, I organized "tactic tactic" a group exhibition together with Dr. David...
  • The Last Supper
    January 9, 2016
    Explore the Photo Series This post is a companion piece to The...
  • Alternative Worship Spaces
    December 10, 2015
    James. N. Allan's freemasonry notwithstanding, Hamilton's weeds still worship with adequate space and light....
  • Quiet Time
    November 6, 2015
    We live on a magnetic planet. And for this, be grateful! Thanks to earth's...
  • Creative Constraints
    October 22, 2015
    Whilst brainstorming about topics for Multimedia Research, I realized that whiteboards, though interesting, might...
  • disfigure it out
    October 10, 2015
    It wasn't what I was anticipating for October's art crawl, but when Andrew McPhail asked whether I'd...
  • and behold, all is vanity
    August 14, 2015
    I'm a real bird! Tweet! Tweet! —@Teutul "I'm a real bird! Tweet! Tweet!" A pithy pet epithet?...
  • Inceptionist
    July 11, 2015
    Google's neural network spends a lot of time looking at fuzzy creatures (dogs, mostly)....
  • In, Out, Up, Down
    June 30, 2015
    Neither the carriers of a Christ-yoke, nor the navigators of heavier spiritual paths, ever quite escape the...
  • Cedar-Apple Rust
    June 4, 2015
    With the month of May having expired, I picked up my Gyres artworks from...
  • Happy Birthday (Mister / Darling)
    May 22, 2015
    When airplanes (in literature and song) fall from the sky, there is liable to...
  • Gyres Opening
    May 11, 2015
    https://youtu.be/i4752qrlIZE
  • Dregs and Legacy
    April 20, 2015
    Dregs. Leftover (cocoa) bubbles in a cup. Satisfied traces in a swig-wake. Just accidental patterns? Or...
  • The Hidden Holy
    April 18, 2015
    On the heels of Scrapin' the Wasteland, Stephen (my gracious host) introduced me and...
  • Gyres in Jordan
    April 16, 2015
    Jordan Ontario is nestled in the heart of Niagara's wine growing region - and...
  • Cormorants at Cootes
    March 25, 2015
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8vGI6ROqmU
  • Canada Geese
    February 17, 2015
    Moving water does not readily solidify. And so even as frozen pipes fail to deliver...
  • Scrapin' the Wasteland
    February 2, 2015
    scrapin' the wasteland Earlier this year, my friend Stephen Svenson hosted "Scrapin' the Wasteland", an evening...
  • Institutional Memory
    December 24, 2014
    If you're familiar with Cardus, you'll have come across an issue or two of...
  • Silver Planets
    November 27, 2014
    What happens when you hang your world on imagination? This past summer, Phil, Rob, Julia...
  • Movers and Shakers
    October 31, 2014
    It's tempting to don a skeleton on one of the few days of the...
  • Making Little Planets
    July 16, 2014
    I had a great time at Art Forms Youth Art Studio this week, making little...
  • DEVOTIONS - Essay
    May 1, 2014
    This Essay was first published as part of DEVOTIONS, an exhibit curated by Bryce...
  • The Patriarch
    December 26, 2013
    Father Christmas remembers (in spite of frostbite) not to slouch in the company of guests. But...
  • Pacts and Impacts - Essay for LANDSCRAPES
    February 8, 2013
    This essay first appeared as part of my LANDSCRAPES exhibition at the you me...
  • Salvation
    December 24, 2012
    If salvation is to rise again "in the faces of our children, and in...
  • if you believe...
    December 18, 2012
    If you believe this world is slated for destruction anyway, what motivation would you...
  • history and fiction
    December 18, 2012
    History is the fiction we invented to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and...
  • dregs
    December 18, 2012
    In 2011 I made a Christmas card out of coffee dregs. It involved a...
  • in a mechanical universe...
    December 18, 2012
    ...is it absurd to talk about the birth of a star, since "birth" is...
  • Reading Genesis
    December 18, 2012
    Reading Genesis without knowledge of ancient languages, ancient history, archaeology, and philosophy is like...
  • If you were to represent God as a human, what would he look like?
    December 18, 2012
    The occasion for this question today is its appearance this week in a sermon...
  • radical redemption
    December 18, 2012
    Re - deem: to "deem" again e.g. I deem you worthy. I dub you friend I assign you...
  • whom do you love? what do you believe?
    December 18, 2012
    Most people that I've met hold at least two kinds of commitments: commitments to people commitments...
  • the act of faith
    December 18, 2012
    Allow me to deconstruct your world for you. It will only take a second. Faith...
  • don't spend your life...
    December 18, 2012
    ...it's not currency
  • what do you call a ten cent toss?
    December 18, 2012
    paradigm shift
  • if anything matters, everything matters
    December 18, 2012
    I understand this maxim to mean that in order to rightly value my own...
  • what do you call a robotic lumberjack?
    December 17, 2012
    axiomatic
  • both, and
    December 17, 2012
  • an artful journey of faith
    December 17, 2012
  • judge the cover by the book
    December 17, 2012
  • transformation
    November 24, 2012
    Not so long ago, people were displaced, families disrupted, battles fought, and arguments heated,...
  • pretence
    July 3, 2012
    We are all profoundly pretentious when we act as if our story of the world...
  • Rainbow
    June 27, 2012
    With Oreo having triggered a lovely ruckus earlier this week, I note - tongue...
  • Providence Reflection
    June 26, 2012
    There's a unique privilege that I enjoy, in renting a room next-door to a...
  • Varney Speedway
    June 26, 2012
    Onomatopoeic stroke of adversity sprung from a brush loaded with layers and layers and seasons...
  • sacred reason
    June 13, 2012
    Which form of reason do you consider sacred. Your own reason? Western reason? If...
  • Marx and Foucault
    June 4, 2012
    Crude Marxism says "there is the base and the superstructure, and there is nothing...
  • montreal poem
    May 21, 2012
    Gotta get some bearings today, feel like I'm coasting. with ease, through this journey now. Like I...
  • my soul
    May 19, 2012
    My soul, do not seek eternal life but exhaust the realm of the possible --...
  • McLuhanisms
    May 16, 2012
    When you enter the church through the backdoor you don't have to first swallow...
  • Cradle to Cradle Design
    May 7, 2012
    How do we love all the children of all the species for all time? stewardship...
  • posit
    April 29, 2012
    Adam and Eve are like the square root of -1: posit that they exist, and...
  • Colours do not fade
    April 29, 2012
    Colours do not fade but rather are obstructed by blocked inkjet nozzles, killed by camera...
  • I mend, I lift
    April 28, 2012
    "I mend broken machinery and articles of iron; I lift heavy objects." Iorek Byrnison, armoured...
  • Move: AN UPWARDS JOURNEY (Overview)
    April 23, 2012
    I've been working with Tom Smith at SML Solutions to produce my digital tapestries...
  • Don't be afraid
    April 8, 2012
    Don't be afraid its only me The door wasnt locked If only we could trust each...
  • Western Seeker
    March 9, 2012
    If you have to wait until your "Western Seeker" mode becomes outmoded, and uncool,...
  • I have no right...
    February 25, 2012
    ... to rebel against a tradition or to improve upon it until I have mastered...
  • The final arbiter
    February 25, 2012
    The final arbiter (of truth) is individual conscience and power of reason. A man...
  • pragmatism
    February 21, 2012
    Occham's razor favours the simplest solution. Water favours the path of least resistance. People prefer the...
  • certainty
    January 30, 2012
    Why are we convinced that in spite of the complexity of the world, our...
  • restorative justice
    January 30, 2012
    We should base justice on creating restoration, by addressing root causes of problems. This...
  • exile
    January 18, 2012
    Peter Enns compares Adam's banishment from Eden to Israel's exile, in this mind-expanding talk which I...
  • Hatch
    January 12, 2012
    oh conniving incubator direct your brooding righteous anger to devise an assassination plot for greed See Also:...
  • As far as the east is from the west...
    December 28, 2011
    ...so far has been the journey of the Genevan tunes. The Turkish psalms of Polish Hugenot,...
  • Salvage Something
    December 24, 2011
    "The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation." Excerpt from T.S. Eliot, "The...
  • Flesh Word
    December 15, 2011
    Flesh Word straddles the interface between idea and action. It's a kind of language...
  • tentative
    December 13, 2011
    Tense sensitive quietly siezed by the day, waits, receives, depends, endures (inner) drought, takes taken-for-grantedness for granted beams intentional...
  • limits
    November 30, 2011
    Instead of looking at your limits as something bad, see them as blessings: gifts...
  • restless
    November 27, 2011
    Be still my soul the universe is on your side, and will defeat all your enemies and...
  • a pity party
    November 25, 2011
    Theistic evolution, when followed to its end, may lead Christians to question the authority...
  • Space, Shape, Soul
    November 24, 2011
    Coordinates: 27.818124,-15.767749 This beach lies just to the west of the harbour in Mogán in...
  • breaking up
    November 22, 2011
    What I represent to her now is failed relationship, ample weight for sinking, and pacified potential, dragged...
  • true or false?
    November 21, 2011
    True or False: To truly understand it, You have to try it. True or False:...
  • plain and simple
    November 17, 2011
    No matter how hard I wish for plain simplicity, the world I live in...
  • For You
    November 11, 2011
    As a child, I listened to a lot of Christian music. I did not...
  • flying solo
    November 8, 2011
    In certain church subcultures, strength is derived from emphasis on marriages and family. That...
  • on CBC haters
    October 27, 2011
    So I get this random email criticising CBC for airing Katy Brand's Big Ass...
  • barmeno
    October 11, 2011
        I discovered this typeface today on the side of an "Adamson Lawn Care" trailer...
  • Ambrogio Lorenzetti
    September 30, 2011
    Corrie Kessler's mother has a print hanging in her house. It's Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegories of...
  • higher criticism
    September 29, 2011
    Does higher criticism proceed solely on the basis of anti-supernatural and rationalistic presuppositions? Or...
  • pure and elevated
    September 22, 2011
    I found this ambitious quote from A.W. Tozer: The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian...
  • paradoxicreed
    September 7, 2011
    God Although God is an entirely human construct, humanity is also a divine construct: and...
  • divine worm?
    September 6, 2011
    If Jesus ever sang or read Psalm 22:6, did he mean it? If he really...
  • reflections at grundy lake
    September 3, 2011
    This is quite the place. Sandwiched between two lakes - each offering a unique...
  • the universe in my debt?
    September 1, 2011
    Giving comes back like a well sent boomerang. And tithing is unstoppable. But can I really...
  • Raindrops
    August 16, 2011
    6-year-old me didn't need to know the author's name, although the gold-coloured Newberry medal...
  • Swam
    July 20, 2011
    There's a particular kind of memento mori that leads one to peaceful acquiescence in...
  • Eden, Zion (Rev. 2)
    July 5, 2011
    The bit in brackets is not a scripture reference. "Rev. 2" is a designation...
  • The Velveteen Rowboat
    May 29, 2011
    These words herald a story told elsewhere. I'm telling it there because I thought...
  • Spuds
    March 11, 2011
    Is there life after shelf life? After shelf death, is there redemption? If dinner's not your destiny you grow...
  • Domestic Blues (1/6)
    February 19, 2011
    I love housework. I don't always do my chores on time, but when I...
  • Swords and Ploughshares
    January 14, 2011
    While for the generals Montcalm and Wolfe, "Québéc Citadel" might have connoted heavy artillery,...
  • Palimpsest
    November 17, 2010
    Whether or not I did my dishes well, the microsopic remnants of yesterday's fair may well...
  • Reflexshadow
    September 27, 2010
    Large Size When candle-light cavorts through wine's red iridescence and frolics on the clean white...
  • Asclepias Gyre
    September 7, 2010
    Large Size When I discovered (several weeks after having constructed this mound of milkweed and...
  • A Motivational Poster
    September 1, 2010
    Translated from the dutch, this phrase means "persevere, boy!" For me it carried particular weight...
  • Leman Tree
    August 11, 2010
    Stretch out your limbs to where the light is and you just might graze...
  • Reformed String Camp
    July 14, 2010
    On Sunday evening I attended a concert performance, put on by the Reformed String...
  • a Mandelbrot Maxim
    July 8, 2010
    It strikes me that Mandelbrot's maxim might just as easily apply in a moral...
  • Oster Itch
    May 6, 2010
    Large Size Yesterday a man with a gas-powered steel-brushed broom cleaned the slab of concrete that...
  • Operation Provident
    April 16, 2010
    Large Size Confederation Park, Stoney Creek: the edge of earth and water, the place where...
  • Future Enterprise(s)
    April 15, 2010
    Large Size A little branding mistake or a cute irony? The missing 's' is alright...
  • Drift Plastic
    April 15, 2010
    Large Size Blue: shovel, pencap, part of a mini frisbee, hook, plastic bag, crushed mini...
  • Spirit Breath
    April 5, 2010
    However dry is bone or stone or dust, vivacious living water percolates through corpse-reviving Spirit-breath: (re)animating...
  • Father, Virgin
    March 17, 2010
    Large Size Father Colonel Lieutenant Francis Patrick Duffy is not the Patrick in whose honour...
  • White Things
    February 26, 2010
    Large Size This week's snowicane has apparently failed to make it far enough inland to...
  • Headless Chicken
    February 19, 2010
    This is a self portrait of sorts. Lately I've been completely in the web...
  • Jesus Christ: For Spiritual Droughts
    January 26, 2010
    I've been inspired by zazzle stickers. I decided to do a few of my...
  • Jesus: Stains Out. No Doubt.
    January 26, 2010
    I've been inspired by zazzle stickers. I decided to do a few of my...
  • every Man's god
    January 8, 2010
    According to Google, "every Man's god is"... 1. his highest ideal 2. what he attaches the...
  • Lo how a Rose
    December 25, 2009
    Large Size On this Christmas evening, I want to reach out and connect with all...
  • The Everlasting Father
    December 1, 2009
    Apparently you can now get competing quotes for an eternal relationship. I wonder if...
  • November
    November 30, 2009
    Large Size Dream with me in warmer grey and white beneath this dreary misery. Discover nuance...
  • Ladybird, ladybird
    October 29, 2009
    Large Size Forever etched into my consciousness is a rhyme I heard as a child...
  • Oak in the Round
    October 28, 2009
    Large Size Perhaps more interesting than the question "Which way is up?" is the Paradox...
  • The Nature of Natural
    October 27, 2009
    Large Size This is plagiarism. I stole the idea from Natalie Jeremijenko. Of course, I'm...
  • Blind
    September 17, 2009
    If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit. --Jesus Large...
  • Blue and Yellow
    September 17, 2009
    "And you never would have thought in the end, How amazing it feels just...
  • The Way Of All The Earth
    September 12, 2009
    Buy Prints I've produced a consumer: a polylithic monster of batteries and baby birds. I gorge myself on the swirl...
  • Hippocampus in Context
    August 19, 2009
    Until we have a place in which to breath, live, and thrive, we are...
  • Hippocampus
    August 4, 2009
    This little empire of driftwood and debris is unconcerned with paradox or Christianity. It sweeps and...
  • Oceania Mural
    July 8, 2009
    No matter what your job is, you're always serving someone else's interests. When I...
  • Mylar Redemption
    July 3, 2009
    Mylar Redemption - Large Size I dislike most swimming pools, not because of the chlorine,...
  • Hamilton Waterfront Wingfest
    June 11, 2009
    Sporting a perimeter of forests, marshes, horse farms, and used cars (for-sale), Campbellville Road...
  • Turtle, turtle
    May 25, 2009
    I love the blend of tension and unity that happens when flora and fauna...
  • visual theology IN CONVERSATION
    May 1, 2009
    Conversation was the thing I valued most about showing on James North, as well...
  • Reanimate
    April 14, 2009
    The miracle of resurrection is (on a microscopic level) the re-arranging of particles, animated...
  • Creature One
    April 8, 2009
    Creature One greets you with a wistful smile... a glance of simultaneous apathy and...
  • Wind, Earthquake, Fire, Whisper
    April 8, 2009
    There is a sense in which my current theme, visual theology tires me out....
  • love lavished
    March 6, 2009
    Harm not done is quite another thing from love lavished. "Do not harm your neighbour...
  • New York
    March 3, 2009
    Miss statue waving her metal flame doggedly this first of March (whose weather Februarian remains) scorns this rusted,...
  • visual theology
    February 13, 2009
    I create spiritually-themed images that fuse the qualities of traditional art with the freedom...
  • Tree
    January 28, 2009
    It's wonderful to reminisce over an old painting, and to look at it with...
  • There is a River
    January 17, 2009
    With a temperature in Ontario hovering around 20 degrees C below zero, there isn't...
  • Reflections over tea
    December 31, 2008
    These holiday weeks have been a wonderful time of reflection. And now I have...
  • Rejoice!
    December 27, 2008
    Take a walk to clear your head of all the tinsel. Leave behind the mittens that you lose. Ponder anew the...
  • Fifty Stems
    December 14, 2008
    The Fifty Stems series is process art, in which the Ontario October becomes more...
  • Fallen; Risen
    November 28, 2008
    Critique - New Space - McMaster University In response to Fall; Rise, I've been privileged...
  • Fall; Rise
    November 18, 2008
  • give and take
    October 27, 2008
    I take and take and click and take and take and have forgotten how to give a...
  • creator without capital
    October 21, 2008
    Having instilled in His creatures the same creative qualities whereby He Himself made them,...
  • Curtain
    October 16, 2008
    There was a moment, while Christ hung on the cross, that the temple curtain...
  • Pencil Eraser Shavings
    October 16, 2008
    The delicate collected remains of erased pencil marks, and the rubbery interior of...
  • Decayto
    October 8, 2008
    Lately I've been experimenting with painting on a whiteboard with dry-erase markers. Here's a...
  • Pentecost
    October 8, 2008
    The speaking-in-tongues that we find in Pentecost is a reconciliation of the divided linguistic...
  • Babel
    October 8, 2008
    In response to humanity's proud attempt to build a tower to the heavens, the...
  • bridge building
    September 30, 2008
    Although I would probably be quite happy to confine my artmaking to the Canadian...
  • hello again
    September 8, 2008
    As my mind begins to settle back into the Canadian reality, I have to...
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Harold Sikkema - LinkedIn Profile
design portfolio

art collections

  • Traversals
  • Cloud Storage
  • Rock Bands
  • Peace Weave
  • Street Views
  • The Last Supper
  • Photographs
  • i am curious
  • DEVOTIONS
  • Sous Sol
  • Overtones
  • Domestic Incidents
  • Landscrapes
  • Westbound
  • Murals
  • Early Years
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