rewind pt5

This is an old post that I started but never finished cause I couldn't get to a mac to upload photos from my camera onto...

Since I've come back to Canada I've:

- Lived with my parents long enough to finish some work for the Armory:






Here are some pics of the installation at the Armory... I didn't make it down there in person, thanks to my buddies Shauna and Brett for the photos...




Thats Zak's stuff on the right hand side there, I really wish i had a better shot of it...

- Set up a new studio in Toronto:






Here's my studiomate Tami, the room is split down the middle...She's got that red-eye thing going on in this pic... Wait, no, the picture is black and white. Why is this picture black and white?


This is the view from the fire escape, the studio is on the 8th floor of an industrial-ish building...


- Taken in some Jello Wrestling:






- Slept on a lot of couches/floors/other people's beds...










I've also drawn almost non-stop, i've posted a bit, and I'll keep posting more...

On the Road of Knives

I finished my new On the Road of Knives page... again, it's a little small, so click on the image...


It's a little bit sexy, check out all the action here:

www.roadofknives.com

I'm sleepy and I can't figure out how to make that a link, just copy and paste it...

Pick of the Harvest batch 4

I'm in a group show on April 13th at Thinkspace Gallery in LA. Theres a million artists in it so hopefully it will just turn into a giant makeout session.

The postcard is below, heres a link to the gallery: www.thinkspacegallery.com

The postcard image is too small so check out the link.



Also, here are some more sketches that I did in the Specola in Florence... the first one was done here in Toronto since I got back... I just finished it last night. It's a little easier to see if you click on the image...

fact file 1

JAWCULAR-FACED FOWL

Appearance:

Quite large as far as birds are concerned, the Jawcular-Faced Fowl stands much taller than all other predatory fowl. Incapable of flight, it relies on its powerful stubbed legs for transportation. These stilt-like limbs lack stability, so its long muscular arms are used as anchors during times of conflict. The feathers are generally light blue on the belly and range from dark blue to grey on the backside and tail. A distinguishing feature of this creature is its lack of eyes, which forces it to rely on its other senses to survive.


Temperament and Social Behaviour:

The Jawcular-Faced Fowl is a solitary creature and has a reputation for being a fearsome predator and murderer . If two males find themselves in close proximity, a fierce battle will surely ensue, determining who will reign over the territory. Females are not territorial and are usually less temperamental; however, in defense of her young she will demonstrate herself to be the most fearsome of foes.


Diet:

The Jawcular-Faced Fowl is the strictest of carnivores, battling and devouring any creature that may come its way, regardless of the victim's size and temperament. A male will even devour his own children if they are found unguarded by their mothers. Generally, the Jawcular -Faced Fowl will hunt at dawn and dusk, preferring to rest its large body during the warmer hours of the day.


Mating Habits:

A male Jawcular-Faced Fowl will wait for a female to enter his territory, and then attempt to impress her through a display of incredible feats of strength. If she shows interest, the intercourse that follows can be more destructive than the battling of males, and has been known to wipe out entire hamlets. As violent and brutal as they are, these encounters rarely end in one of the partner's deaths. This period of extreme excitement is followed by a longer period of extreme calm. The partners will cradle each other for several hours, after which, the female will leave the area to build a nest, lay her eggs, and raise the young on her own.


Life Cycle:

The Jawcular-Faced Fowl hatches from a large mushroom-coloured egg that has an incubation period of 21 days. A mother lays one egg every 5 to 7 years. The youth is raised by it's mother for approximately 3 years, after which it will set off on its own. It is difficult to determine the length of the natural life of these creatures. They begin to show signs of old age after 30 years of life, but will usually be killed by younger and stronger birds at the first sign of weakness.

Political Affiliations:

A few of these creatures have been known to enlist within the ranks of the Great Flock where they usually take on the role of front line juggernauts. One legendary individual even became the star pilot ofthe Great Bear Guardian. Most, however, prefer to live solitary lives in the wilderness.

good news

I just got some good news, the centerpiece from my September NYC show has been acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, its now part of their permanent collection. I'm pretty excited, its got that "dream come true" sort of feeling to it...

In other news, I'm still homeless but I finally got a cell phone...

rewind pt4

Ok, so this will be the last recap, except for the next recap, which will just be what I have been doing since I got back to Canada. These recaps are wearing me out, cause I'm doing stuff and drawing things that I want to post now...

OK, so during Christmas we went to Rome and then Paris. A couple of days before leaving I came down with the flu, so we didn't get to see much of Rome... Our hotel was 2 bus rides away from the end of the subway line and I didn't have much energy, so I did lots of this:

And shitloads of this:

Here's Carolyn feeling sorry for me:


I was feeling a little better by the last day so we went down to the Ruins for some sightseeing.

I'm on a really weird computer right now, it looks like a dismembered laptop nailed to a wall and it's piggybacking on someone else's network, so its uploading images really strangely.... That last pic is so screwed up, but it also looks kinda neat that way...

I was super excited to see the Colosseum, I watched Gladiator twice in a row before we left Florence to get pumped up for it. I practiced some wrestling moves, I wanted to buy a stuffed lion and slay it to expose my supreme killer instincts to the other tourists. By the time we got there my stomach felt like hell, but I was so excited to be there that I tried my best to ignore it. Here's the face that I would give to my opponent if I were a real Gladiator:

It would fill him with feelings of fear and inferiority to the point where he would know to the deepest depths of his soul that his ultimate doom was upon him. But the Gladiator Face was too much for my sickly body; tensing my muscles that way must have pulled something in my bowels because 5 seconds after this photo was taken, I knew to the deepest depths of my soul that I was about to shit my pants. The washroom was a total mess, feces piled everywhere so I sprinted out of the stadium... Into the washroom of a fancy restaurant, and the day was won.

And thus ended my first legendary appearance in the great Colosseum.

We took an over night train to Paris, and stayed there for a week. I really don't know what to say about this stuff, we had a hotel, we took walks, we drank some alcohol... it was fun! Our pics are very much "couple photos"... just photos of us so we could have them when I went back to Canada, so I won't subject you to too many of them... This one makes it very obvious that Carolyn is way more attractive than I am...

And this is me in line to get into the Louvre.

The lineup was crazy there... If you ever go there, don't wait in line to by a ticket, go to an HMV store and buy one there and you can go through a separate entrance to get in... The lineup is way shorter there but way more intense, like the most multi-cultural mosh pit of all time... I was a little disappointed with the Louvre, I didn't see a single albino Opus Dei member... I broke my glasses during my going away party before leaving Canada, so museums were tough, I could barely get a grasp of what was going on.

Ok, thats it, now lets get on with the art already...

rewind pt3

The day after the fair I got a ride to the airport and flew to Florence Italy. I had just spent almost all of the last 5 years drawing, usually between 14 to 18 hours a day, so it felt great to get rid of my apartment and studio and leave. I packed some clothes, a few books, and enough art supplies to last a couple of months.

I didn't really take too many photos of Florence, my camera was acting funny, but we bought a disposable camera at some point, so I scanned some of those.... They look a little weird, I guess my scanner needs to be calibrated... Here's Carolyn, I think this is just down the street from our place...


You can see the mopeds on the left hand side, they are everywhere in the city. In Toronto I always thought mopeds were goofy looking, some dude speeds past you on one and you just want to clothesline him or something, but in Florence mopeds look all tough and badass somehow, I can't really explain it. Guys wear really feminine jeans there though, with eagles stictched into the butt and weird bleach stains and shit, I never really got use to that, its like a city of boyband members... I was talking to Carolyn a few days ago and she said that she got hit by a moped, it was bound to happen sometime, they tend to drive pretty crazy there. Luckily she's mostly OK.

Heres our place, it was huge, we shared it with two great guys from Carolyn's school, they were really welcoming to me... Carolyn took these photos when she first moved in there, a few months before I arrived, so its pretty empty looking...



Right across the street was the Specola, the oldest taxidermy museum in Europe, or maybe it is the largest, I can't remember. It was founded in 1785, most of the specimens are about 100 years old. Basically the place is a giant zombie-animal warehouse. The gums are rotted away and the eyelids are gross. In some cases wounds were not sewn up properly or fingers rotted away, so there are exposed bones. The place rocked my world, I got an open pass and drew in there almost everyday. Here's some photos from the museum:

And heres some scans of the sketches I made. I did lots of birds, I'm really getting into drawing them, I mightuse some of these for an upcoming Road of Knives page:

Carolyn set me up with a makeshift studio in the dining room. I played around with some acrylic and watercolour on paper and a couple of larger mylar pieces. Once I get that work scanned I'll post it on here...

Hmmmmm...thats all I have to write about Florence. It was a great trip with lots of fun stories, but I won't type them out here, its not the same without photos anyway. Two months of relaxing, drawing, and thinking. Oh, we took a trip to Rome and Paris during Christmas, I'll post some pictures in the next (and hopefully last) recap...