Vancouver Artist Kaden Harris’ Work Featured at Miscellany Finds Pre-Christmas Shopping Event

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Dec. 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Handcrafted electric kalimbas and desk accessories by Vancouver artist Kaden Harris will be featured at a special pre-Christmas shopping event on December 7, 2013 at Miscellany Finds, an East Vancouver resale boutique in the Hastings Sunrise neighborhood. Miscellany Finds will open the doors of its East village location at 2615 East Hastings Street on December 7, 2013 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. for the event, enticing gift-buyers with arts and craft items from several local artisans, plus designer clothing, accessories, jewelry, handbags, shoes, and more. Harris' work will be available in the shop through December 25th.

Harris is donating a portion of his sales to Miscellany Finds, which is operated by a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide life skills and employment resources for women in transition. Says Harris, “I’m an East Van old-timer. This is my ‘hood, the women who operate and shop at Miscellany Finds are my tribe, and I support Miscellany Finds because they work to  support the more vulnerable members of our community.” You can learn more about Miscellany Finds by visiting them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MiscellanyFinds.

Harris is also inspired by the thrift shop’s motto, “responsible re-consumption.” “There’s a whole lotta scrapyard in everything I do,” says Harris, whose work is assembled from castoff industrial artifacts scavenged from East Van's scrapyards and laneways. “The large desktop containers featured at Miscellany Finds are constructed from sections of crumpled old 3” copper drainpipe  I found, sitting unloved, at the bottom of scrap pile at Capital Salvage. It had been removed indelicately, so I spent a considerable amount of time at the buffing wheel restoring a brilliant copper shine to the exterior of the tube. Then I bodged it into 3”, 4” and 5” containers with hardwood lids.” The lids, constructed of red oak or walnut, are topped with vintage brass gears, escutcheons, washers, knobs and other old hardware, giving the pieces a retro or Steampunk vibe. Smaller containers in the same series are constructed of copper plumbing end-caps.

Harris’ electric kalimbas are also constructed of similar materials. “I love the sensory impact of walnut... it looks good, it feels good, and working with it makes the whole workshop smell like autumn.  It's  decent tonewood, too,” says the artist, who is also a well-regarded percussionist and drummer in the Vancouver music scene. His finger pianos are constructed of walnut, with salvaged brass and copper, and tines cut from Zildjian B20 cymbal bronze. He electrified the instruments with handmade pickups built from deconstructed electronic window alarms. “The wood finish on the container lids and kalimbas is my top secret homebrewed walnut wax,” says Harris. Like all of Harris’ recycled and repurposed art, the hand-rubbed wax finish is also “eco-friendly,” especially compared to the high-VOC finish on most musical instruments.

About Kaden Harris

Hastings Sunrise resident Kaden Harris is a writer, musician, and visual artist. The author of ‘Eccentric Cubicle: Office Accessories from a Parallel Universe’, available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596510543, Kaden combs East Van's scrapyards and laneways for castoff industrial artifacts and artfully repurposes them into strange and useful objects. Kaden's kinetic sculptures, musical instruments and otherworldly mechanisms are included in the collections of Gemini award winner Celine Godeau, Canadian science fiction writer Cory Doctorow, and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Kaden's next EP will be released by Schtum Logic Records later this month, and features 6 tracks of his improvisational electronic percussion performances. You can find Kaden's work online at http://www.kadenharris.com/store.