Burnt Toast Studio

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Burnt Toast Studio, founded in 2000, is an independent artist collective hidden away in the Highland Park district of North Calgary. The five original members, Alden Alfon, James Jensen, Edwin Herrenschmidt, Lee McKay, and Doug Jaap, first met in 1993 while studying printmaking at the Alberta College of Art & Design.

The five artists studied printmaking together at the Alberta College of Art and Design from 1993 to 1996. Their cramped and dark assigned studio space, in the basement of the college, was known to all printmaking majors as 'the Cage.' During those years strong friendship developed between the studio members, as well as an artistic camaraderie that created cross-influence and led to collaborative works. Many students and instructors who were at the college for this period may remember some people hoisting a loaded toaster 15 feet up the wall in the printmaking hallway, and letting the toast fly. This actually happened pretty often. You can guess who was responsible.

Throughout the College years and for a few years afterwards, the Burnt Toast members produced a newsletter called Acid Bites and Solvent Fumes. This publication was a forum for rants, critiques and issues pertaining to the struggling printmaker.

What makes Burnt Toast Studio special is the preservation and continuation of an atmosphere in which the members can be part of something larger than themselves. They create artworks together and apply for shows together. The members are at the centre of their own micro-movement, in which they explore screenprinting, etching, woodcut, mixed media and also papermaking, painting and sculpture.