Summer, and the Making of Plans

First off, two new pieces. I'm not sure if I'm really happy with them. I kind of told myself "today I'm going to make two pieces and I'm going to update the blog". They felt a little forced to me, but it's not a bad thing to push myself to make new work whether it works out perfectly or not. It did feel good to work on something again.

Summer is (shockingly) drawing to a close. I know everyone says and everyone feels that summer goes by really fast but it's true. It flew by. And that's okay. I'm looking forward to cooler whether, cozy nights, and enjoying hot coffee outdoors. It'll also be nice to sleep under blankets again.
That said, it wasn't a bad summer. The above picture was taken two weekends ago at the CNE and features my (and my best friend's) favourite ride - The Zipper. There's nothing quite like being strapped into a metal cage and spinning in every direction. You can hear the bolts straining to keep parts of the ride together and it crosses your mind that there's nothing but a few lazily tightened metal pieces stand between you and certain death. There's that and deep fried oreos, which I also had for the first time. Nothing says "a weekend well-spent" like carnival rides and deep-fried things (that shouldn't have been deep fried in the first place).

Now, back on the subject of how excited I am for autumn and the next few months in general. The main reason is - I'm moving! The year spent in my little bachelor has gone by fast and while I do love it, it's gotten a little too small. The place I'm going to be living in is brand new and offers much more space - so much that I'm going to have a whole separate room for studio space! In anticipation I've been looking at interior design books and blogs while putting my new place together in my head. Below are links to a few of the blogs I've been frequenting lately:

Design Sponge


Remodelista


 Apartment Therapy

Until next time.

New Work, Rocket Popsicles

I was excited to get to work on two new five-by-sevens today. I got to break in a brand new sketchbook! When I went to scan the images, I found that the seven inch height includes the space above the perforations, so I've shortchanged everyone by about half an inch, but it'll have to do. 

I've been having a rough time trying to stay sane in the heat, but the flipside of that is that I had the entire weekend off and though it's hot out, the weather has been quite nice (even nicer if it were ten degrees cooler). I've decided to list three of my current favourite ways to keep cool - all of which have been put into use today.

 First of all, these! (image)

Watermelon - I could easily eat a whole one in one go. And also - not pictured - Rekorderlig Wild Berries Cider. It's just about perfect. (The Elderflower is also very good).

Until next time.

Don't Look Down

These two images are my submissions to this years Square Foot Show at AWOL Gallery. As indicated by the name, all work is 12" x 12" and mine are both on wood panel. I also picked up a brand new 5" x 7" sketchpad, so I plan on getting back to this blogs original purpose soon.

If you're in Toronto and want to check out the show it runs from August 4 - 19 at the AWOL Gallery at 76/78 Ossington Ave, just north of Queen St. and the secondary location is the Twist Gallery at 1100 Queen St. W. Hours are Wed - Sat, 12 - 7 and Sundays 12 - 5.

Up and Away

What have I been up to lately? Not a whole lot. I've been suffering through the heat here in Toronto. I love the character of my old fourth floor walk-up, but I do not love it's lack of air conditioning. People shouldn't sweat when they're trying to sit on the couch eating freezies and watching television. My poor cat has taken to hiding under the couch to escape the heat.
The best thing I did to get myself away from the weather recently was spending a week in the UK. The ticket was somewhat of an impulse buy back in April and I spent the second week of July in London and Belfast. Aside from the perfect weather (15 and rainy!) and the wonderful company, both London and Belfast were beautiful and a week seemed much too short. 

 As far as making new work goes, I finished my submission for The Sketchbook Project, Limited Edition (side note - the 2013 Project is currently open). I was inspired by the work that I did at OCAD with comics and zines and this book features more text and copied images than much of the work I do. I love the ease, small size, and relatively low cost of doing this type of multiple so I'd really love to make more booklets like this and self publish. The image above and three below are pages from the book. All pages are on my website here.

books, sunshine, and cold medicine

The comic books class I was taking is now over. The last day was Saturday - and it was great (the class, not the fact that it's over). Our final project was a small book, a staple-less eight page book that folds out to reveal a single poster-sized image on the inside.
It was a tough one for me. I suffered writer's block for the entire three weeks allotted to work on the project. In the interest of pushing myself out of my creative comfort zone, I wanted to do something narrative. The work I do doesn't really tell stories so this is something I wanted to explore. It didn't really happen. Below I've posted the front cover and first two pages.
I am happy with how it turned out and I really like the format. I want to do more. The size is manageable and the printing costs are relatively low.





On another note, I'm fighting off a cold which always happens when the weather is finally nice. Seriously. It's beautiful in Toronoto right now. 20 degrees outside and sunny and here I am, on the couch, halfway between sleep and stupor. Oh well.

To see more images of the book or should you want to maybe get a copy for yourself, check out etsy.

Leap Year

Pictured above are three of the pages from my recently submitted sketchbook project. I was glad to get it done, but like most things in life, a little let down by the outcome. I'm looking forward to starting my Limited Edition book though - and I have high hopes and lots of ideas for the finished project.

So, what have I been up to for the last two months, aside from not contributing to this blog project? Not much. The holidays were a whirlwind, yet at the same time quiet and relaxed. Despite the complete lack of snow (and a real winter, for that matter) I'm looking forward to spring with some exciting plans and possible big changes in the works.
I've also been back in school (kind of) - taking a continuing studies class at OCAD. It's been really great being back in class, with structure and deadlines. I forgot how much I miss that part of my life and with the availability, variety, and relatively low cost of this type of thing, I can't wait to do more.
The class I'm doing is on graphic novels and comics, which is great for me - on the artistic side of things, I've long been incorporating text into my work and making sequential and narrative work seemed like a natural progression. I've also studied comics in an academic setting which was really, really fascinating but didn't give me a chance to use what I'd learned to actually produce work. This class, taught by Fiona Smyth has perfectly combined those interests.

I'll post work from the class soon, as well as new work produced on the side. I'm also planning on overhauling my website a bit and looking for shows and other ways to get myself out there a bit more. I'm drowning in artwork here in my tiny apartment and I want to find a way for people to see it.

So, for now, I've got work to make and a sunny day off to enjoy.