the show

this is the solo show. i have been working mighty hard and highly recommend you come visit me.
if you live in Toronto you will probably run into one of these. they will be everywhere.
details for the opening are as follows.
click here for facebook event

Start Time:	Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 6:00pm
End Time:	Friday, April 23, 2010 at 12:00pm
Location:	sleeping giant gallery
Street:	789 dundas st w
City/Town:	Toronto, ON

merry hairy xmas

hello friends,

first of all i would like to wish you all the best of the best that these holidays have to offer! if good happenings could be measured in rice i would wish you all... a lot of rice! tons even! sacks and sacks of delicious rice, brown, wild and brown!

well, my family and i usually do the whole christmas getup on the 24th, making the 25th a more chillaxing day or relaxing adventures. as such i am in my lair writing this blog-o entry. i've been enjoying the last days of the year very much so. nice gifts i have received! i'll tell you about that some other time...

ok so TODAY was odd... it was like no 25th before. i woke up pretty late, after about 3 "breakfasts" i sat down to some tele. which led to sitting while watching MONSTER TRUCKS (no clue whose idea that was), a show on PRIMATES and others on the DISCOVERY network, paired with some wine drinking and empanada eating. here are pictures illustrating such:





here are 2images composed of some sketchbook scanning! sketchbooks are so fun, im so glad i have finally learned the importance of keeping a "book" opposed to scraps of paper that get lost and wrecked.


as i type this i am watching Mike Mignola's THE AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD. a definite for any Mignola fan! the art is great and although it is very short it is packed with so much of what makes Mignola stuff super amazing fantastic i love it.


much love to all. more rice and best wishes for the new year and the days remaining in this one! xoxo.

time machine-o

greetings!

soon to be seasons greetings i suppose, though really i do not know what that means. but anyways... the other day i was at SLEEPINGGIANTGALLERY at the reception for Different Strokes for Different Folks, i was talking with fellow artists Jacob Hughes and Mark Burnham. for obvious reasons the conversation turned to age, to the fact that Jacob was 17, Mark 32 and myself 24. three different generations in the same place at the same time. which got me thinking about what i was up to at 17, because sometimes to get a better idea of what the future holds one has to look into the past.
after taking a trip back in time in my amazing time machine i came to realize that although much has changed much has remained the same. many themes and subjects have stayed with me through the years. the more evident ones are as follow; figures, teeth, angel wings, outlines, white figures, superheroes, muscles, distortion of said figures, and darkness. haha looking at this short list i can't help but feel like i should have many more issues than i do (i got none baby!).

at the moment i don't care enough to dig up pre-highschool images so we wil make do with these:

these two images here are from gr.11. it was the first time having to create a "series" of work. for whatever reason my series was on phobias. above we have fear of public speaking and below we have fear of being alone. its pretty crazy looking back into old sketchbooks. i had "meanings" and "reasons" for every element in the paintings. haha and as much as they suggested i avoid outlining things.... i clearly couldn't help myself.

these two here are from a much longer series that came up from a strange dream and metaphors class i had in... first year at OCAD i believe. so i was... 19? i really liked these and stuck with them for a bit. the first one came before OCAD i think, while i was messing with some paint in trying to be a "rougher" painting... i think thats where the buildings came about. the one above here is actually the first piece i ever had in a showed outside of a classroom. it was for a square foot show. which was really open to anyone but it still made me feel very special. especially when i saw that little red dot on the wall beside it haha. good times.

ok so now we come to the present. which all began with much smaller ink on paper drawings in a 4th year class with Ed Pien. the idea was to challenge ourselves by working like one of the artists he showed us slideshows of. i think i actually went with Ed's approach to some of his works which was to begin with a random stroke of ink on the empty paper and draw from it and with it. my first reactions was to draw from inkblots but to draw superheroes. so i had a batman here, a superman there. Ed saw potential in it and told me to keep trying but to not use copyrighted images that the world recognize as such. which led to small random images which ithen decided would be fractions of stories, as they were based on random titles i pulled from books. eventually i tried out mylar as it would allow me to use layers much like i do in Photoshop. time passed... and here we are. the image above is actually one of the first mylar pieces that i regarded as a success. it remains one of my favorites and is the image on my business cards! the image below is much more recent and is currently in a juried show at StationGallery in Whitby.
the current series is doing pretty awesome for me. people seem to like it. which of course is all i can ask for haha. but as any good artist knows, i can keep doing the same thing for only so long. already its begun to evolve in leaps and bounds, at this point i can only guess where i will go. as much as i hate it... i think the plan is to go BIGGER!

black and white and hurting wrists.

i have been drawing. which in my case is another way of saying that i have been thinking.

and oh how the wheels in my head have been turning! ( a dangerous pastime) i know! now i have gone and derailed my train of thoughts... so i will grow a new one.... i have been sleeping on the floor lately as i have turned my bed into another table to allow for producing more and larger work in regards and preparation for the upcoming (eventual) solo show. the solo show which initially was to showcase my series of ink/mylar pieces may become something else now... i have been thinking much about it and about my work in general and have decided that it would be wrong for me to have my other "side" sitting on the bench while the inks score amazing slam dunks for the team. as such the idea of having a..... dual show of sorts springs to mind. a show featuring me and myself. larger inks exploding with colour and abstract elements alongside smaller, tighter pen drawings of skulls with birds and madnesses.... know what i mean guvernah?

solo show aside... i have been reading more, which is another way of saying that i have been absorbing more. which has led to the reigniting of my desire to be publish in every way possible. i have been writing stories... well... novels... well... really they are chapters.. single chapters from books that i will never write. just a random chunk of something more. no ending or end. just a part of a story arch that will never see the light of day. i wish to publish a book of these. but then... why not add art to this book? poetry too! oh man!!!

i have begun a comic... again. the difference is that this one isn't being overthought. it doesn't have to be because it will be including much of other comic ideas that never left the foodcourt. it will be funny, random, superhero action, ironic, silly, amazing... really everything i want to do just mushed into one long story that currently has no real ending. it should be good. really.

i am losing focus as i type as i am unravelling everything i am mentioning in my thin-skulled head. i will leave you with some drawings. such are the drawings i wish to include in solo show. such is the style of art the amazing fantastic mystical comic will be in... because this is how i draw now. and it makes me happy.

on another note... my lil brother's birthday is coming up. no clue what to get him! what do you get someone that has money you dont... who is terribly impulsive and unpredictable at times... what do you get someone who in your mind deserves the best of everything this world has to offer?.... stupid kid.... i'll just get him a gift certificate haha... or something.

pieces of string

so i have been kind of busy lately. not too busy mind you, but just busy enough to get away with saying that i have been busy without feeling bad for lying. yea i don't like to lie.
i have been busy with art show, art making, drawing, hanging out with amigos, family, and Jessica the girlfriend. im sure at some point i had this blog all played out in my head with amazing deep phrases and metaphors alike.... but i am currently drawing a blank, and will instead post pictures! which is really the main reason i started this blog to begin with.

couple weeks ago i drew this thing. some days after i got around to colouring it. after many variations i went with this one. yep.

couple o' days ago i went to my nephew's 2nd birthday party. i wanted to bring a small sketchbook in case i feel the need to doodle, but couldn't find any. so i made this one out of an old invite i printed way too many of. its fantastic! i need to make more.

i've been sick for like two days now. got to some drawing. this is a drawing that i will eventually colour of me walking my dog Chester.

i drew this right after i drew the one above. it reminds me of the other day that i was at my friend Shivani's place and we got to doing quizes about what kind of animals we would be if we were animals. i think i ended up with horse, porcupine, snake, and mountain goat. crazy.


i have been very lucky to have my girlfriend at my side these past days. shes been doing a lot of running around back and forth with me. she's pretty... okay. i guess. haha. i don't really know whats going on here. the circles on her head are a halo... kinda. i dont know why i drew it in. maybe its because shes an angel!! haha... she will most likely not like the halo bit.
man, i miss having school lectures.
oh the drawings the boredome would inspire!