Happy Holidays!

Well, exams are done (not that I actually had any) and I've been back home for a week or so now. Very glad to have finished my final projects and take it easy for a bit. I had been meaning to put up some images from my last few projects but I have been very distracted.

This is my final screen print project, in various stages of completion. The final images being it installed on Queen St, just west of John St. With the help of some good friends (MUCH THANKS!) we made a bunch of cardboard, 3D letters that spelled 'Freedom From Want'. I had a hard time nailing down the idea for this project, but finally I decided on confronting consumerism it's self. I also thought it was timely that Christmas is coming up, but I wanted to install something that would confront shoppers in the act. I was reading about this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Freedoms and if we're supposed to be free from want, how come our biggest holiday is based on buying stuff? And how come success is measured in dollars? And why does everyone buy so much stuff all the time, and how come advertisements sell us desire instead of informing us of product?

Sadly the installation didn't last very long, although the nails holding it in place are still there. If anyone knows where the letters went I'd love to know.











I think I've got more pictures kicking around, but I don't know where they are yet. I'll renew my search soon, as I'm still fighting a cold.

Listening to:
(this time dedicated to Laura and the inclusion of track titles)

Emalkay - When I look At You
Matthew Good - Hospital Music (saw live, twas grand)
Moneen - The World I Want To Leave Behind (also saw live, it was awesome)
BBC Radio 1 - specifically the Rob Da Bank show and sometimes Annie Nightingale
Amnesia Amnesia - The Eating Disease (also saw live, don't miss em!)
The Kinks
Latino Health Crisis
Brand New - Daisy (live+Glassjaw=AWESOME)
Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute
FLYING LOTUS - The Reset EP and LA (SOOOOO GOOD!)
Mother Mother - Also saw live (good month eh?)
A Tribe Called Quest - Best Of

The Faces

Aloha,

So as one could imagine, I've been keeping busy. Finished this screen project recently and had been meaning to post something for a while. Each of the four layers has been printed on transparent duralar, 9"x9", the idea being the viewer is intended to rearrange the order of the layers. Bone represents spirituality, muscle physicality, skin personality and the mask society and it's constructs. Although we are all always composed of these things, different layers take precedence in different circumstances. If you're at the hospital, you are likely to be regarded by your physicality first - if your sick, healthy, etc. Or at a place of worship, one might have their spiritual side exposed with their social, physical and personal selves underneath. Or maybe the spiritual side would be exposed at the hospital?

This project was an 80% success, in that it didn't print exactly how I had intended due to some unfortunate miscalculations. Overall, however, I'm quite content.






Listening to:

The Clash
Eels
Lovage
Handsome Boy Modeling School
Cursed - Two
Ohbijou - Swift Feet For Troubling Times
Beck - Guero
Nation Of Ulysses - Plays Pretty For Baby
Nightmares On Wax - Mind Elevation
The Herbaliser - Blow Your Headphones

Remember remember...

...the fifth of (updating your blog) November.

Well, I have been keeping busy. I finished a print today, which was very pleasurable. Then I saw 'Where The Wild Things Are', which was also pleasurable.

That didn't come out right. It was a good movie, not what I was expecting. I suppose it wasn't as Disney as I'd expected it to be. Good though, 3 of 4 stars from me.

I don't have any good images of the prints I finished, so I shall photograph them tomorrow. But I will include one of the layers from it, which took a lot of time but turned out well.



Listening to:
Ricky Gervais Podcasts (amongst his other works)
Dizzee Rascal
Converge - Axe To Fall
Bjork - Volta
The Miles - Blood On My Blazer (Excellent!)

So much for regular updates...

Aloha,

Very busy week. Make that weeks. Lots of time spent on an essay and Thanksgiving. However, I'm pleased to report that I have successfully made roast duck, in light of less productive printmaking attempts. I've been working on this screen project for ages, but it doesn't want to be finished. If it's not one thing its another.







Listening to:
Mother Mother - Hayloft
Bloc Party - One More Chance/Intimacy
The XX - XX
The Herbaliser - Blow Your Headphones
The Slew - 100%
Nightmares On Wax - Mind Elevation
Roots Manuva!
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

Work In Progress

Aloha,

In trying to keep this blog updated regularly I'm going to have to include some work in progress.


My floor isn't normally this messy. And the mess that is usually there isn't as nicely laid out. This is prep for a collage/screen print for my Screen Printing class. I've been collecting as many news papers as I can find from recycling bins throughout the subway every day this week. It's a gross idea and feels really weird to be snooping through waste on the platform with people giving you weird looks. But overall, it's been pretty good (no diseases yet!). I'm really looking forward to turning this one out.




This one, if you can imagine it turned 90 degrees clockwise, is for my digital print class. Right now it's a combination of ink and collage, although I'm really not sure how I like it. It's due soon and needs a lot of work still, so I'll just have to make it good some how. Playing it pretty close to the influences on this one I'm afraid. Can you guess who?



PS: Please pardon the low quality photos. It IS almost 3AM and I didn't want to dig out my camera and stuff. Still pretty good effort I think. All things considered.

Listening to:
Roots Manuva (So good!)
Dizzee Rascal
Wiley - Wearing My Rolex
Dan Deacon - Build Voice
Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven (awesomely lame)
Brand New - Daisy
The XX (purchased because the cover is rad, turns out to sound great)
Moneen - The World I Want To Leave Behind (still great!)

MOAR

A few more highlights of last years efforts. Not that great, but sort of interesting.

The Empire Stikes Back!

Or is this more of a Return Of The Jedi? Naw, this post is definitely not the climactic ending of a saga.

Also there's no Ewoks.


I'm back! Or rather, I've decided to continue posting! I'm starting 3rd year at OCAD, still in Print, and figured it would be a good idea to keep up with the ole blog and see what happens. My busyness/distractedness/summer/lost-the-cable-to-my-camera/broke-my-scanner stopped me from putting any images up here for a while, and aside from that, whats the point right?

Above are a few pieces from last year, hopefully more to come now that I've got a fancy new scanner!

PS:

Listening to:

Moneen - The World I Want To Leave Behind (went to CD release show, AMAZING)
Hunter - 4
Tricky - Maxinqaye
Goldie - Timeless (on casette!)
Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
Art of Fighting - Wires (because it was half off at Value Village and had cool artwork)

PANCAKES!!!

Welllllllll This has been a pretty insane week. I'm it won't seem as insane later, but right now it feels pretty rough. I've spent pretty much the whole week working on an essay and it's finally finished!!

On a side note - http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/ AMAZING!

As for art, I have not made much recently, I tried pastels yesterday, it was fun but messy. I suppose the last prints I made were for the Emily Carr print exchange. In total, an edition of 66! CRAZY! The most I've ever made, but for the most part they look great.




Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I can get some intaglio prints done in the next few days as well.

Cheers




Listening to:

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Bloc Party (saw them, it was fun!)
Calvin Harris
Gang Of Four
The Fall Of Troy
Descendants
Tycho
Number Girl
The Smiths

Mostly Asleep

Aloha

So far it has been a crazy week. Loads of work, plenty of me being untimely and sleeping badly. So more or less the usual. Friday evening promises to be eventful and fun however, so salvation comes.

I've been really busy with lithography this week and have successfully printed the icon of a big idea I plan on developing when I have the time. In the summer I want to make a zine as sort of the handbook/bible for this notion, but for now, just symbols.



The idea came to me just as I was falling asleep one night, as most of my ideas seem to. I've been watching lots of dystopian films (Children Of Men, Wall-E, Watchmen) and reading about social and artist trends and revolutions of the 20th century and a number of recent traumatic events have all lead me to lose faith in the future. I guess these things have made me aware of a lack of faith in my generation. I don't think kids my age, a bit older and mostly younger, are at all like the preceding generations. The internet, video games, literature, movies/TV, art, popular and not-so-mainstream music, the news, ugh, so much (I'm really tired and am having a hard time articulating my ideas) have all lead to what I think is a significant distancing of us from reality, older generations and any semblance of real life.

Ugh, I know that when I reread this in the morning it's going to be embarrassingly terrible, but who reads this anyway?

My point is: my generation is marred by psuedo-nihilism, cliche cynicism, immaturity, fragile emotional states, extreme desensitization, moral neglect and corruption, self-centeredness, laziness, stupidity and a host of other physical and social ills. I don't want to sound like an angry priest, bigoted old man or hypocritical/niave/idealistic art jerk, but there are a lot of problems created by my generation and many we will inherit which I think will be detrimental to an extant that I don't care to fathom right now. The current economy, environmental salvage and sustainability, some kind of moral standards overarching all social, religious and cultural establishments are all a inspirations of this idea. I think that to boil down the solution it comes to compassion and thought: heart and mind. Thus the phrase that came to me in that semi-conscious state so many weeks ago: OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS.

It's something of a play on words and has no punctuation, and I think embodies the spirit of the ideas I want to propegate. I'm sure I sound really wishy washy, socialist and pretentious right now, but well, maybe I am.

I'll elaborate on this when I am less exhausted and don't need to be in class in 6 hours.

Oh, also I've been working on this up until this week for my digital printmaking class. It's a mix of ink, spray paint and digital printing on wood. Or psuedo wood anyway, that compressed stuff.





Cheers

Hooray!

Ok, not that much to say, but I printed those shirts in time and about 12 of 15 turned out to be usable. Hooray! Plus my presentation and explanation of the assignment went over seemingly very well and stimulated much conversation. Hopefully lots of thinking too. Hooray! Plus I was told that I was one of the better presentations, so that is expecially nice as class presentations have not been a high light of my past. I gave away the 10 shirts I brought to class, plan to do more for the next Printmaking fundraiser around the end of the month. Also my etching and litho having been coming along, although there is always more to do.

In other news I saw Watchmen today. It was really good, although I left the theatre with mixed feelings about it overall. I read a review somewhere saying it was too true to the book to stand on it's own but not true enough to be the book brought to life. A weird grey area. I'd advise to go see it and read the book, or actually do that in opposite order. If anything, the movie sums up and simplifies the book (basically) into 2 hours what took me a few weeks to read.

HOORAY!

Burritos, Laundry and Subways, Oh My!

That about sums up what I've done today. Not as productive as I wanted to be. Not that bad though. I've got a lot on my plate this time of year. Alphabot is playing a show at the Horseshoe Tavern on Thursday, excited/nervous for that. Most reputable venue I've ever played in.

I've got a lithograph to be working on but have no idea what I'm going to do yet, something involving a wash and possibly colour. I forget how to do both but I'm sure I'll figure it out.



I think I'm going to do a run of ten shirts that look like this for a class on Friday. The idea behind this is that it's something of an 'anti-graphic-t-shirt-t-shirt'. There are SOOOOO many awful graphic T's these days, things like www.threadless.com and Bluenotes have commodified something that punks and rock bands wore as symbols of their 'counter culture-ness'. Now its completely over-the-counter-culture and all the originality is gone. So this bold, simple design, with echoes of human anatomy, is intended to be a middle finger to graphic t-shirts everywhere.

Hey I'm pretty good at that. Although it is late and I think I'm just rambling.



Here is part of a chine colle print I've been working on. I'm clinging to a theme for as many assignments as possible right now. Something that isn't complete bull but also looks neat so I don't spend forever contemplating what to do for each assignment.



These 'Super 8 Birds' are something of a visual metaphor of how humans frequently (if not always) react to cameras. See Kodak Courage http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kodak+courage. Once someone pulls a camera people become more courageous and try to be funny or acrobatic or silly. We try to impress this little machine, or who we think will be seeing our antics later. Same goes for security cameras. We treat them like there's a guard or a cop or something really threatening right there. The consequences of potential actions dictate our behaviour: fear. But it's just wire, plastic and a bit of glass. Weird huh?

There's more to be explored on this subject, for now I'm mostly just playing with imagery and trying to work out some kind of personal aesthetic. I've been told that you're just supposed to do what you enjoy and what ever happens is your style, but there are some really cool things I want to try and experiment and push my work in the direction of. Oh well, you can't learn unless you make mistakes, right?



Listening to:

Mikey Dread
CYNE
Ratatat
Leadbelly
Deadmau5 - Random Album Title
Benga - Diary Of An Afro Warrior
The Beatles - I'm So Tired
Tom Gabel - Heart Burns
The Verve - Urban Hymns
........I recommend all very highly

Aloha

Well, I guess I'm a blogger now. It's official.

I don't expect I'll get much traffic, that's fine, I don't have much to see on here yet. But if you're reading this, thanks!

I created this blog for a weird reason. I guess more of an experiment than a reason. I want to objectively see the artwork that I produce, as I am an art student, and see how that affects what I do. Right now, I don't think I make enough or particularly great work. Hopefully being able to see quite clearly what I've made over time I'll be more motivated to be productive!

Here goes nothin...