Leland & Friends

Dear Everyone Who Reads This Here Blog:

I have a show up for the month of July! I just got back from hanging the thing and am exhausted but happy to see a bunch of work up and in frames (one of the most satisfying parts of creating art, methinks).

The show is called "Characters" and contains 19 of my Victorian watercolours - here's one of them:



If anyone wants to visit these Victorian dudes and ladies, just pop on over to Poor John's, which is at 1610 Queen Street West (in Toronto). Hope you'll be able to stop by!

An Ice Mummy Of My Very Own

As promised, I painted me a painting inspired by Mr. John Torrington (see last entry for more on him & his amazing face). I've never created a piece of art that actively creeped me out while I was working on it (being in the studio alone? DID NOT HELP), but I love the way he turned out.

Here are some low-quality photobooth shots of the process (all done in one sitting) - he's not quite done, but is pretty darn close!













Now I want to make art inspired by other mummies - I think the Tollund Man is first on the list.

Petty Officer John Shaw Torrington

While reading my current book (Helen Humphries' Afterimage), I was reminded of a tale that captured my imagination as a child. The story (click for a pretty good summary of the events) of Franklin's third expedition into the Arctic held all the drama and tragedy of the most engrossing novel, plus there were the mummies. I was fascinated by mummies of all kinds, but the faces of the buried sailors from Franklin's crew were particularly intriguing. The cold preserved their bodies to an incredible degree, so much that the mummies still had their eyes nearly intact.

This image of young sailor John Torrington is so haunting, it's no wonder that, after nearly 15 years it has never left my head. As soon as I read the passages in Afterimage that referenced the Franklin expedition, I got the urge to draw him, and I'm quite happy with how the sketch turned out:



I'm considering bringing some tragic, frozen sailors into the cast of my next show, so this most likely isn't the last you'll see of John and his ilk on this blog (in fact, I expect you'll see a watercoloured sketch of this very piece quite soon).

Ah, nostalgia - sometimes you're ever so useful for inspiration!

A Whale of a Tale

According to my beloved Paper Place (and its mysterious cousin, the Japanese Paper Place), this June is all about washi (click for Wikipedia-based learnin'!). I had the pleasure of attending a lovely washi workshop a few months ago at the Japanese Paper Place, and, having learned about promptly promised Freedom Clothing Collective I'd make a piece for their washi-inspired exhibition.

Being a master procrastinator, I left the actual creation of the piece until the last minute, but I'm mercifully happy with the final result. It's in line with my current nautical obsession - here's a shot of the watercolour background, pre-shadowboxing:



And the finished piece (photo taken in the GORGEOUS garden that's attached to the building in which my new studio lives...mega-super bonus, guys)!



The shadowbox is 5" x 7", which means this here ship measures approximately 1" in length...



...while the whale is just a bit bigger at 2.5" or so.



Both of the washi items were hand-sewn with gold embroidery thread, which was stressful (thankfully the paper is impressively strong and resists ripping pretty darn well), but ended up giving an appealing atmosphere to the final setup (I like to think it's slightly reminiscent of the handmade dream-scenes in Science of Sleep, though that may be wishful thinking). Once it was finished, I also realized it reminded me of one of my favourite prints by Canadian printmaker David Blackwood:

I swear the resemblance wasn't purposeful, but the end result, which is kind of a kid's book version of the print, certainly amuses me!