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.