Pigeons & Pigeons & Whales

Once again, my overdue update shall be concerned mostly with school, seeing as school is my life these days (in a good way still, don't worry).

Some recent work:

The final piece for my colour class - the bird morphed from a falcon into a pigeon and got quite flashy. The teacher seemed to be a fan as I was working on it in class, which is always nice.



Some shoddy photobooth images of my first major drawing assignment. I hope to have some scans of this someday, as I was thrilled with how well the project turned out. It was a storyboard documenting a day in the life of a pigeon (from the pigeon's point of view).






The final frame, which was my favourite. In related news, drawing buildings takes 500 years (or approximately 12 hours for the whole assignment. Ouch).

In non-school work, all I've done lately has been a wash for some whales.





I promise it is not nearly so neon-pea-soup-green in person (though I think one more, browner wash might be necessary).

Now back to class! Onwards & upwards!

Schoolwork Proof

It seems as if every time I go to update this blog I am (a) prevented from posting any new personal-art due to school assignments, and (b) liable to go on and on about the stacks of crazy, amazing assignments I'm being given. After a few false starts, it finally occurred to me I should probably show off some of the aforementioned pieces of schoolwork. As my fifth week of first year starts, I've gotten some results I feel happy posting on this here art-blog, so without further ado, two samples of my school slog!



Above are my four favourite layouts from my second typography project. We were given five words (flight, gravity, expansion, force and radiation) and were to create paste-ups that expressed the meaning of the word through the shape/setting of the type. Yes, the above were all done by hand with each letter cut out individually. Yes, it took me zillions of hours (thankfully I enjoyed about 80% of those hours).



This one's a project that's still in the rough stage, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far (I've never been much good at drawing in Illustrator, so this one's been a challenge...so many wobbly lines!). It's meant to be four stages of a falcon's dive, which will, in part two, be merged together to somehow give the graphic illusion of movement. Or something. I'm still figuring that part out.

Along with the above assignments (and many more), I've found the time to get a bit of work done on the planning stage of the companion book for my February show, done a bit of writing, and finished what might be the biggest piece for said show - please enjoy this crappy photobooth progress shot from my last session working on it (yes, I have misplaced my camera somewhere in my apartment, why do you ask?).



As soon as I find said device, I shall update with a shot of the finished piece, as well as a few other artworks I've managed to get done. I swear, there is progress being made on things besides schoolwork!

Look Inside

Just a quick update before I get back to my heaping piles of homework (school is kicking my butt in the best way possible). Finally got around to scanning in the work I did while I was up at the cottage and thought I'd better toss at least one piece up on this here blog while I had a moment.

The following is the first anatomical animal (of about seven) I've completed:



It's a flightless Galapagos cormorant, carefully dissected and examined by R.W. Brackley after it was given to her by a traveling explorer-friend. She completed a number of similar dissections during her early career as an amateur naturalist, most interested in the contents of each creature's stomach, which sometimes contained extremely unusual objects (in the case of this particular bird, a fully functional pocket watch).

Months Apart

Hey guys, where the hell did the rest of August go? One moment I was happily posting about Seahouses, the next I was wandering around the halls of OCAD feeling like a kid again, all concerned with finding my classes and getting my textbooks and homework and other academic things.

I suppose spending the last ten days of the month up at my cottage, where time becomes seriously abstract and is mostly defined by the presence or absence of daylight (we're electricity-free up there), helped the last of the summer sneakily slink away. Happily, that escape from the city proved quite productive, as I spent the first half working at least five hours a day on painting and writing for my upcoming show.

Here are some (shoddy photobooth) images of three of the finished pieces:








(Cameos by my studio-mate Erin & my ridiculous face.)

Now that I'm back in civilization, my life is all about finding my balance. The intensity of art school, with its piles of homework, still has me a little unsteady, but I'm simultaneously thrilled to be taking classes that cater directly to my artistic and design obsessions (particularly typography. So delicious). I'm only on my second week, but right this moment, I'm pretty sure I belong here.

Oh, as an important side-note, I now have an official date for my next solo show! It'll be opening on February 3rd, 2012 at Freedom Clothing Collective (the same gallery as last time). I'll obviously be adding many more details as the months creep onwards. Keep an eye out (though not literally. I don't want to be responsible for any personal injuries).

Houses of the Sea

Fair blog-readers! Hello!

Not only do I have another preview of a piece for the next show, this post also includes a (draft-style, unedited) excerpt from the writing that will be accompanying the artwork in the companion book for the exhibition. Below is my first finished seahouse and the first paragraph of Brackley's journal entries on the subject of these mysterious marine formations.



"A fortnight ago I was speaking with an ancient sailor who, due to the terrible volume of chatter suffusing the pub in which we sat, misheard my question regarding types of seahorses in the region (I had been told by a colleague that this island was a rich source of unusual creatures, particularly seahorses). The old man did not answer straightaway, but beckoned to me to lean in closer, thus exposing me to his uniquely horrible breath, which smelled of anchovies and ale. When I had bent my ear nearly against his moustache-covered mouth, he whispered that he would take me out that week to show me the proliferation of mysterious seahouses that grace this sliver of the seas."

The entry goes on to describe the fascinating architectural and biological characteristics of the seahouses, but you'll have to pick up the book in February to find out what those are (one thing I can tell you, those houses aren't as sweet and innocent as they appear!).

AntlerBirds & Workspaces

Phew. The full weight of summer is resting its humid elbows directly on my city, making it hard to work on anything (all I want to do is lie in front of my fan and/or curl up inside my refrigerator), so I don't have a ton of work to update with at the moment. Instead, I'll post a trio of strange birds I painted a few months ago AND show off my now-set-up studio workspace!

#1: BIRDS. WITH ANTLERS.


Temminick's Tragopan


Another sort of Tragopan (can't remember the exact kind)


Blood Pheasant

None of these birds have antlers in real life (if only), but every other detail on 'em is straight from nature. I'll never get over how perfectly weird the world is.

#2: WORKSPACE!

I've been installed in my (happily shared) studio for just over two months now, and it's starting to feel like home. Adjusting to working in a new, non-apartment space took a few weeks, but now I'm in love with the spaciousness, the artistic environment (courtesy of my studio-mates) and, for the summer, the fact that it's a cool basement (extra-super-bonus!).

Here are some images of the space and my segment of it:


The view from the other end of the space (where we'll have some lovely hand-printed merch for sale come the fall), looking towards the work area. Yes, that is a beautiful printing press.


The left side of my area - shelves full of supplies, plus my two-headed black swan perched happily in his new windowsill home.


Desk! Having this much tabletop space is INCREDIBLE (at my apartment I had about a quarter of this).


Bulletin board detail - finished pieces, pieces in progress, inspiration, etc.

And that's that! I'm off to visit the afore-described space right now, as there's a painting that needs finishing before this weekend!

Buford's Big Cameo!

My gallery, Freedom Clothing Collective, has put out a lovely summer video lookbook (even fancier than a photo-lookbook!) and my friend Buford B. Bartleby, Strongman Extraordinaire, has a wee cameo - look for him in the background during the last half of the video:

FREEDOM CLOTHING - Summer 2011 from Freedom Clothing Collective on Vimeo.

Buford is also for sale in the FCC online shop! How thrilling!

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!