Martha's

Jet Fuel by Night

This is an image I shot a few months ago when I was borrowing a friend's tripod, at that time I was working on/thinking about a series of images about parliament street itself. The way in which the shops are changing and how alive the area is at night.

Later on I went for Pho out on Gerrard East and came across a renovation of chinese fruit stands which, due to the reno, old signs from the 40s like "Martha's Delicatessen" were now visible. I have shopped at this place for vegetables countless times without knowing that these old signs were hidden from view, or for boot repair or a Paint and Hardware store that boasted "Lead Paints"

March 25th, 2008...Waiting at some office

I have some vague memory of drawing this while waiting in an open office, but it is vague.

And Lastly...

I asked John on Monday why he looked all cleaned up, "Went to Mom's for Easter buddy" you can see the clean fresh face of Mr.renovations. John has been loads of late night work at the shop, and he is more of a morning person.

More Images

James, Model Wrangler Esq.

James, is a student who was integral to the photo shoot. He is the one who brought everyone over to the coffee shop and organised all the 16 year olds, without a taser or lasso.

I think he is a regular at the Jet, just not in my time zone.

Goals

I cannot say we ( 4 photographers in total) took the shots with any one idea in mind, but there are ideas of optimism and the promises of youth.

Bright lights of Tomorrow

All the students looked like musicians, new bohemians or whatever.

More Images

Johnny yet Again

Here is johnny as per, smoke a going. We have looked at different ideas for the anniversary, images of the recent renovations, but this idea of the sweet 16 stuck.

Stefanya

This is one of the photographers, Stefanya who is also a Tattoo artist.

sixteen year olds

The students who came out and were generous enough to donate their time to 4 photographers.

Jet Fuel 16 and Counting

Jet Fuel has its 16th anniversary "kegger" on April 1st, a true evening of tom foolery and debauchery. To this end, the theme is sweet sixteen and we took photos of local 16 year olds, under the watchful eye of Johnny, the proprietor of Jet Fuel and enfant terrible of the espresso world.

Here is a classic image of Johnny, up close and possibly too personal.

Marker drawings

Drawings at some impromptu party I was not interested in

I cannot add anything to that

Experimenting in Inks

Working in this sketchbook, I first started to play a great deal with Inks. Looking at these beaten-up old toy heads, it is really fascinating. These things came from a high quality toy factory in Hong Kong, this level of quality maybe only exists today for precision computer parts, and I know they are all made from the same injection mould but they all seem so different. Toy insiders say that the original head was based on the JFK.

Inspired by Old Masters Sketchbooks

Sketchbook images

I was talking to a photographer friend the other night about pictures and her recent work was about dolls. She was talking about the way she felt that these characters had been given such life by being posed in front of the camera. It made me think about my GIJOE work that has been an interest of mine for the past 10 years.

Here are a few examples of some sketches from awhile back

Guy reading the paper at Jet Fuel, March 6th, 2008.

I love this sketchbook, I got it at Muji London in 2006. They don't seem to have the same quality anymore.