Street Painting, Sunny Days, and Alternative Comics!

ALTERNATIVE COMICS in the STREETS! HEY APATHY! The sun is shining and the temperature is rising, and soon it will be time to hit the streets again! A major part of my monster comics and art is the inclusion of my unique brand of street intervention. Each spring and summer I pack up my gear and head out to the public walkways to display, discuss, and create my artworks in front of and interacting with the general public. This aspect of my artist's process has proven invaluably influencial and entirely particular in the development of my visual vocabulary. Improvising all my creations on site allows me to experience the people and the metropolis in a manner unparalleled by the studio environment. On the street things actually happen, I derive imagery and story-telling from the strange and unpredictable occurences offered by the pedestrian and commuter traffic. For example some one might approach me and engage in dialogue concerning their own life and times or the latest newsand the exchange becomes a muse sending me off in new directions otherwise unimaginable. As the only professional street artist in the entire city of Toronto, these moments of inspiration permit me to express and examine not only my personal concerns and interests but those of the community and even the globe. Monday mornings are notoriuos for attracting tourists to Queen St. West as no one who actually lives here ever wakes up before eleven. For the better part of the past six years I have worked full-time on the sidewalk and gathered an unbelievable wealth of information regarding the lives, motivations, and goals of others. This year I won't be working the streets on a regular basis, but will still be performing at numerous outdoor and comic book festivals as the time has now come for me to combine and  document the extensive research accumulated over the years. I will certainly be performing some more public interventions ( as I miss it dearly and can almost taste the reflecting sunshine on the concret) but will be more selective and reserved in my presentations, simply because it is really difficult to produce sustained artworks, such as comic pages, out doors. Enjoy this beautiful day Toronto and any where else it might be sunny right now!