random studio shots

I've been working a lot on my studio since I got back to Toronto, making the space as usable as possible, throwing out or giving away all the junk that has been cluttering up my studios over the years.... I was going through some old stuff and I found these photos of my old spaces, and was reminded of how disgusting I used to be.... My spaces we always filled with garbage, sometimes over a foot deep... and not just paper and art supply clutter, serious garbage like food, trampled CDs, broken bottles... Here are a couple examples of what I'm talking about, but they are pretty tame... In it heyday my studio was depressing to just look at....


That's Andrew in that second photo, he must be 18 or so in it... Somewhere along the way I've changed it seems... My space is generally pretty clean these days... Well, the washroom is still pretty disgusting, but my workspace is usually pretty slick... Anyway, this post might be really boring, its just going to be a bunch of photos of my space, some work I finished before the holidays, and some work I have on the go right now for my upcoming show...

Ok, here it goes...

A little drawing I've been working on...

A larger drawing I've been working on, incorporating some of my older imagery...

I can't believe I'm still working on this... For anyone new to the blog, this is a big ballpoint pen drawing I've been working on... Its going to be a grid of 20 000 butterflies when I'm done with it... I really can't believe I'm still working on it, its been on the go for well over a year now, and I've working on it nearly every day... And not just a little, often I wake up and work on it straight through until bedtime. Almost...done...

A small drawing I recently finished.

A little pile of drawings on the go.

My wall of photos of animals doing it.

The bedroom. Andrew and I share it... Somehow it worked out that Andrew gets the bed and I get the couch... But the couch is pretty comfortable...

An airbrush portrait of me.

One day Andrew and I had a disagreement, I left the studio, came back, and the drawing I was working on looked like this...

The toilet. All the dinosaurs are wearing party hats.

The bath tub.

The food shelf in the kitchen...

We had a broken down smoothie truck blocking our window for over a year... One day we looked outside and it was being hauled away! We have natural light now!

Three mylars I sent to France...

Those are the last 3 mylars that will be available for the next couple of years... I owe a few to a friend of mine; they will take over a year to make... I won't make any more until those are completed, and after that I might stop doing them altogether...

Ok, thats my studio.

One more thing, I've noticed that a lot more people have been reading my blog and commenting and emailing me and stuff... I just want to put out there that I really appreciate this. When I started my blog it seemed like I was the only one who ever read it, and that kind of sucked. So again, thankyou to everyone for reading and commenting and all... It really does mean a lot to me... I've been trying to update more so there is more new content.

Ok, bye.

Random studio shots...

So I just finished the work for the Berlin book launch last night, and I feel good. About a week ago I wrote on here that I thought I was going to fall off my chair and die from the hours. As it turns out, it wasn't the hours, it was a lung infection... But I got medication today so hopefully I'll be tip top by the launch on the 28th...!

Here are a bunch of random studio shots from the last couple of weeks...

Andrew and Daniel building a wall:


My close bud/soon-to-be Holistic Nutritionist Connie Kwok:


What my desk looked like last night:


Nicolina with a bunch of orders to be shipped out:


A bit of a painting:


A painting:


A bit of a painting:


The camping cot I've been sleeping on in the studio:


My studio:


Andrew:


A half finished drawing:


Ok, so once I get all of the Berlin work scanned, I'll post it up here...

Show flicks and the hidden basement

Rose sent me some flicks from the opening...here we go. They are mostly crowd shots or shots of me, and I don't think anyone wants to see too many photos of me...






This is me looking really surprised at something... The girl in the back is Patti, one of my best buds... She works across the street from my studio and always brings me coffee or gatorade or company...




This is my friend Rose who took all of the photos, except this one I guess... No, wait, I think I borrowed her camera and took them myself... I can't remember. Oh, Rose and her friend Steph run a company together, you should go to the website and buy things... www.p0isson.com Oh, I see that they have a blog now too...

http://p0isson.blogspot.com/

I'm not good with computers and I don't know how to make hyperlinks...



Hmmm...what happened this week? Oh, Nicolina worked her first shift as a paid studio assistant, except I didn't have any cash to pay her, but I'm good for it...or rather I hope to shit I'll be good for it within the next couple of weeks... uh, sorry Nicolina, you are important to me...

Look how happy she looks:



Then Nicolina cleaned my studio and found a bloody tooth on the floor. My first reaction was to check my mouth, but it was all good. Then I thought maybe it was Andrews from when he got hit by that car, but I saw the teeth he lost and neither looked like this... So Nicolina found a bloody tooth on the floor, and we have no idea where it came from...



A couple of friends from across the hall came over and said they found a hidden basement in the building. This was very exciting news, I've been in the building for about 3 years in total, and I never heard anything about a hidden basement... So we explored it:








So after all that walking we found an old office with rotten cans of coke in the fridge. And there was a desk and in the desk we found 2 big boxes of condoms, and an unopened bottle of chocolate body...stuff. I don't know what its called, that stuff that people put on each other and have sex with it... Chocolate body paste? Lotion?



Beside the desk there was a little hobbit sized door that lead to a scary dark corridor with ladders to climb:







I also drew a bunch, But I haven't finished any of the drawings yet, I have a few on the go at once, getting some small paper drawings ready for the Toronto Internation Art Fair, which is in late October I think...

Oh, I sent 5 pieces to that Strange Brew show in Seatlle that I posted the flyer for. Two of the pieces I sent were small watercolours, 4" x 6"... Its the first time I've really used watercolours, uh, I'm not brilliant, but I wanted to post them in here for some variation... The scans look pretty fucked up, this was from before we calibrated my scanner... They are brother and sister Coral Gnomes...



Ok, thats all I got for now...