A New Talking Head

This was a lot of fun to make, this was my very own Count when I was about 6 and I am always happy to use it as a puppet with the kids ( not myself alone with the lights off or anything un-American like), as it is still around and comes out pretty often in the basement play time ( with the kids, not myself alone... you get the idea)

Shout out to Heidy Marsol for her blog, Hye's Musing on popular culture, movies etc
please have a look: 

http://hyemusings.blogspot.ca/

Loop Blog

Hey 

Here is a copy of a little interview thing I did with Sandra Smirle for the Loop Blog, when I look at these photos, I am shocked to see how neat the studio looks...I really have to work on that, anyhoo, have a peak: 

a visit with Eric Farache

How do you navigate the art world?

Alas, that is very hard nut to crack for myself at least. Loop has afforded me the opportunity to raise my own profile but to be honest, I don't know where I put my decoder ring to really get a lock on the art world. Like many other artists, I have tried group shows, facebook pages, Saatchi Art profiles etc., I am not sure how that helps really. 

Last year, I was in the The Artist Project, and that seemed to introduce my work to a entirely different group of people, frankly I am always trying to figure that out. 

 

What themes seem to reoccur in your work?

Sexuality and fantasy have always been a theme in my work for the past 10 plus years. This sexuality can take on many forms, there was a sexual ambiguity to my older GIJoe toy photographic work. My more recent watercolours ( like in my Loop show Life Lessons and Quixtopia explored sexuality of boys as they become men and confront the ideas of fantasy vs. reality.

I am fascinated about the facades we project, whether our sexuality is, in essence, a truer more naked version of our personality or another kind of mask we wear. Our personality/psyches are so complex, I try to figure out what causes people to act the way they do and sometimes, I try to discuss that on watercolour paper.   

What is your biggest challenge to creating art?

  
At this moment, the biggest challenge for me is carving out the time for art, I have a 2 kids under 4, there is not a lot of time left for artistic practice or what Woody Allen summed up as the desire to  "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. And then see if I can get them mass-produced in plastic."
So I tend to work in fits and bursts, the challenge is continuity and to maintain interest in ideas from one break to the next. I seem to work in a naturally split way, between painting and photography and now comics, the challenge can also be to stick with one thing till it is completed before moving on. 

What are you currently reading, listening to or eating that is fueling your inspiration these days?

I have this graphic novel I started years ago that I have committed to myself ( and now you dear reader) of finishing, so I keep looking at different graphic novels and various old comic books to contrast what I am doing. I had really racked up some library fines when I noticed this massive book, called the "someday funnies' at Riverdale Library. It is a collection of comics about the 1960s that were complied in the 1970s but the editor could not get it off the ground for another 30 years, it was just terrific story telling often in very small space. The pace of my novel is fast and so is the speaking voice, it is in a kind of first person so I noticed some of Dylan's personal story telling seems to stick in my mind when I am working.

I am also very influenced by coffee to be honest, I have about 3 americanos or macchiatos a day. I am far too easily found at Jet Fuel or Rooster Coffee House, I need to work on that. 

Do you have a day job - does it influence your practice?

It allows me the luxury of paying for some things so that is an influence! I have worked in commercial photography for almost 15 years now (...egad)  I work often as a photographic assistant, which basically means running computers, taking care of lighting ( or more often then naught, getting in the way...) I started working with photography after including a photographic component in my final of my MFA, it got me intrigued and I kept at it. Digital started soon after and by 2004, I was already pretty sick of the technical pursuit. So, my photographic work with the Holga non digital 'toy camera' is in essence a reaction to my day job, wanting to do something different, less precise and more fun. 

Thanks Eric for your studio peek!

To know more about Eric's work visit

www.ericfarache.com

vagabondchic.blogspot.com/

http://www.loopgallery.ca/loop/E._Farache.html

You can also check out the Loop Blog here: 

http://www.loopgallery.ca/loop/E._Farache.html

and catch more of the updates of all the other members of Loop and what they are up to.

Thanks again to Sandra Smirle

Mini Moi in Montreal

Winter is coming,  I will be showing some of the Talking Heads work at Gallery Youn, in La Belle Province.

Yes, Juno Youn, that art impresario is organizing a fun winter show.  if you plan to be in Montreal this winter, bring some long johns and come to the show!

Other artists include the amazing photographer Richelle Forsey, for all things Forsey, please look at her website


Here work is quite varied, but much of what she is doing lately is abandoned spaces like this little gem we have at our place

She founded the TLR club ( Twin Lens Camera) and they produced this book, Modern Canadian Interiors

I love that title.



I shot only a few abandoned spaces myself, main one being Whitby Mental Health before all the structure were torn down.

here is a photo I shot with some painting i did on top.

Courtesy: The  Skelton-Magner Collection

Mini Moi, at Gallerie Youn, November 12th to December 21st.

Book Covers For TCAF Application

Made these book covers for my Toronto comic art festival application form, These covers are slightly altered to give an example of the kind story telling inside them.

This Took Me By Surprise!

I got an email back from the fine people at The Artist Project (which I will be part of February 20-23/2014) They mentioned something about my work on the website, I went to look at what they were talking about...This was a nice surprise to see!

Still working on new work for it as well.

All the galleries have not yet been loaded to their website, I will make a link later so you can see the variety of artists who will be there for 2014.

Upon Seeing My Painting Again

We went to a friend's house for a great dinner a few weeks back, this piece is theirs now, from my 2011 Loop gallery show, Life Lessons.  Looking at these characters again, I was struck how the central character reminded me of one of my mom's strange Moroccan wives tales. 

The story is about, on the surface, about a woman who can't stay home, even naked because she is a busy body. But on another level, I think the story was about female sexual curiosity. 

Amazing how you paint something, and with time another layer of meaning comes through, even to the artist. 

Anthropomorphic Work

There is a new show at the Gardiner Museum about animals, I hear these bad boys are going to be there.

The Gardiner Museum

Comic Book

Finally getting some comic books finished, some of them are little 8 panel ones, I hope to have those done in the next week.

I really have to thank Willow Dawson, Graphic Artist par excellence. She is a Toronto based artist who taught a terrific class at U of T this summer, I took it and I think it has really pushed me to get some of my work to cross the finish line.

Please check out Willow's work

As for my comics, I will post them as they get printed... here is a tease, panel 1 from my mini comic- Immigrant Fathers Are Drama Queens

Peace in the Valley 2013

Swing City

This is a piece from my Loop Show, Quixtopia, yes I made up a word for my show. I was thinking about the castles we build in the sky (utopias) that are utterly unattainable. To be clear I DO NOT mean  the way the Star Wars gang were seeking a safe haven in Bespin cloud city. More the way a white haired psychic in Calcutta said to me, " you make all these castles in the clouds, and, (imagine sounds of the traffic dying down at this point) when you come back to reality, you have no more energy to put these plans in action...."

heavy man, heavy.

Swing City, watercolour on cotton paper, 22x30, 2013. 

This piece was very influenced by original Spiderman cartoon.

Art at harbourfront

Saw this piece by Marigold Santos on the weekend, terrific stuff.

I chose to load this pic as Annie kept getting in the way of the other painting.

Very large and engaging work.

The show is called other worlds, all the work is strong.

Guys caught in the Rain

These 2 Japanese guys were caught in the rain at Rooster Coffee House almost a year ago, they had great jackets for it though.

Here is the video of the drawing being made:

Sketches using Wacom Inkling

Here is a drawing I did about a month ago of Mimi sleeping. I used the Wacom Inkling, I am trying to use it more, I am still not used to drawing with a ball point pen. 

It is a hybrid of digital and analogue, I drew it in my sketchbook and it gives me a digital file that I can import into illustrator etc- I am still working on that part. 

Here is a little movie of the drawing process:

I will put some more up in the next few days.

Upcoming work/Ideas

I have been trying to get back into the studio and I have this very specific couple of ideas that I want to get to- One of them is an image of the Lovers card from the Tarot deck, specifically the Ryder set.

Like all of the cards, there is a great deal of stuff going on in the picture, I want to play with that a bit.  

Not that I know much about the Tarot deck. 

Back in the 90s though, I was back in school for my masters at the now defunct Bretton Hall University, my room mate, the good Stephanie (long story) was working on these large paintings of deck, creating her own interpretations of them. I don't have any images of her work but I do have some sketches I made during these epic late night drawing sessions ( she would routinely dye her hair with greens and reds from this brand Manic Panic -Live fast and Dye-your hair  It stuck with me. All fuelled by consuming large quantities of chocolate covered espresso beans, me with my long hair....It is right out of an episode of Portlandia) Here are some of those drawing/paintings-

We emailed recently, and neither of us has had a chocolate covered espresso bean since.

A Thousand Cuts

This is a painting from April of this year, I made a couple in this series as part of my RBC paintting entry.

They weave historical and personal elements together. The surface of Birch wood panel becomes part of the piece and I was thinking of the school tables I used to draw on in grade 5, scrawling LED ZEP, STONES and AC/DC in deep HB pencil, until I was caught and had to clean 40+ tables after school.

Here are some thoughts I had about it at the time: 

This plain white business shirt, is a memento of a personal violence against me, at times I re-interpret my memories, re investigate them as a victim, as a villian and as a participant, but what is truth, that has long seemed to shift away to emotional response.

I am fascinated by the subjective nature of truth, memory, how history itself is a collective memory constantly being updated and changed, restored and changed again by the participants and the interpreters.

This piece, A Thousand Cuts, has many different tensions and contradictions contained within it. The title itself can mean the ancient chinese torture, as evident by the destruction of this garment, or it could be something more mundane and bureaucratic.

The painting itself is static but the lines of the piece have a nervous care and detail style to them. , indicates a fullness, the lines seem been painted in intense style, the business shirt lies in tatters, it can suggest an end to a paternalistic system, echoed by the figure in the background or it can be more nuianced.

There is a tension in the piece, the business shirt, a symbol of something highly functioning is broken down. The symbol of something quintessintially masculine has a femenine shape to it. 

There is a tension between the figure in the background, perhaps one who would wear a shirt like this, the destroyed shirt and the confrontational way the figure gazes to the viewer.  

Monotypes

The prints were made in 2000, when I went back to my university for my graduation ceremony. I was not supposed to be using the facilities as I was all but graduated so it devolved into a cat and mouse game of me printing then hiding when the head of the program was looking for me. They would go around the studio centre, I'd grab my stuff from where I hid them, and make another print.

A tad bizarre process really. I'm trying to make prints about solace, loneliness and longing and I'm running around like a 5 year old, cutting shapes out and planning images in my head as I would hide in individual studios, washrooms etc.

Painting from 2011

Painting from this porcelain thing I loved when I was a kid, we got it on a trip to Andorra, classic European tchotchkes, for sure. Arm have all the pieces....somewhere.

Talking head original

I guess I was mulling this type of piece over a long period of time, I have made some images of fashion tzars with one liners, I found this in a notebook from 7 years back, it is quite similar to the Talking Head content.

Heraldic symbols

I love things like this, I spotted this at u of t. They are a short hand that is meant to communicate so much.

Maybe they are so great now that we have lost so much of the meaning of the symbols and they are just viewed stylistically.

I was looking at St. Malo's coat of arms, it's like a ermine or ferret w a swishy neck scarf! Awesome.

Painted in 1994

There is so much I can say about the subject of this portrait. So much in fact, I'll say nothing.

The canvas was made at a time I was really broke, I sewed several pieces together, and gesso'd it heavily.

If memory serves, I was savaged in my class critique. I was interested in colours and textures and from here I moved in to really subtle toned paintings- I guess some of the last of my figure work before painting empty spaces.

Boxed treats

Saw this on my street.

Beautiful design

I should have taken the book, but I already have enough damp books at home.

The image is just terrific.

New new

As many of my posts are occupied with, here is something I found interesting in my pile of junk.

Just the optimism of this statement seems so odd in today's world.

Hey! a great review in NOW magazine for my current Loop show. You can read it, NOW Thanks to everyone who has supported me with getting this show ready, and opening on time. Thanks for the support from my Sarah and our baby sitting Grandma/Meme team and the copious amounts of Coffee from Jet Fuel and Rooster.

Paint the Halls

Watching people and making drawings on the walls of the hospital, I guess that place is torn down now.

Large Japanese inspired folio

Boy, this was a pain to scan. The paper is 100 years old, I picked up this leather bound workbook in New Brunswick like a million years ago- wait obviously less than a million years ago as the book is only 100 years ago, I got it in 1997. Anyhoo, with the leather spine recently broken, time to use it for painting. It worked well too as I painted little sections at home on double paged sheets and then glued them together after. This painting is in part inspired by the Japanese series of woodcuts that show images of the heroic japanese Soldier saving a baby. As a dad, I guess the images struck a cord.

Paint the Halls

Fundraiser at women's college hospital, the place is being torn down and rebuilt. Toronto is certainly changing. My friend Margaret Cresswell was one of 75 artists who painted on the walls in a kind of 'paint off' Personally, hospitals are creepy places and to distract myself I took to sketching the patrons on the walls with a sharpie

The Selby

I may be the last person to see this, have you seen http://theselby.com/ ?

It seems like an interesting site that shows artist studios, this guy Todd Selby goes into peoples spaces and shows you the dynamic environment people create in.

Check it out!

Self portraits

Looking up from my kitchen table at the studio I was confronted with these two self portraits, I put the second one there to get out of the way of cleaning this week and did not really think about these 2, side by side- tucked in the frame of a queen portrait, you can see the details in her dress.

They are both pretty sombre, the one on the right was done in silver point on toned paper in 1994, the one on the left looks like 2007 in a perhaps not too happy a mood.

The start of something new

I've been working a lot in the last few months in the studio, and as a result seem to have done less posts, doing more tweets (@ericfarache) around my last show at the artist project. Anyhoo, I'm trying to forge something new these days, a bit a similar content but a different approach to the paper, going to try and really play with the whole space...which is ironic that I am posting a picture of this unfinished piece as it is mostly white space like my previous work- I'm playing with some abstract elements too.

Next stage

Well dropped a whack of paintings at the framers, I am looking forward to getting those back, it's amazing to see your work transformed somewhat by the frame.

Getting ready for the artist project- Holla!

here is a little study from today:

Agonizing

Anyone who knows me, knows that I really cannot stand star wars, Lucas etc

But I have been working on this painting of Bobba Fett for the last little bit, Cripes it's one fine detail after another!