Alternative Comics HEY APATHY!

HEY APATHY! more stories I'm drafting for the website...

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS PAGES. "Attack of the City Monster!" As the spring weather rises, the streets fill once more with seeming endless hordes of bizarre citizens of “The GEAR“. As a result of the bursting excitement, an underlying force beckons. Made up of all the cars, wires, people, and actions of the city, this unseen preternatural sensation adopts form. Composed of the aforementioned denizens and complied by means of an indescribable energy, a giant b-movie type creature rises from the concrete enveloping all affairs metropolitan. The unstoppable personification of the monstrous metropolis reaches up with it’s gargantuan extremities only moments prior to the opening of it’s ominous eyes. In the middle of the chaos, the beast grins with side walk stone teeth, as it excretes a blackened boiling ectoplasm tar from each make shift pore. Beware, for this is the Attack of the City Monster!!!

This 30 x 40 inch pen and ink drawing was made on location at Queen St. and Soho, downtown Toronto during my street performances fall 2005. Of particular interest to this study is that it was the first sustained pen and ink drawing I had attempted since I started working as a public performer. Most of the street art was made instantaneously and utilized a predetermined rapid gesture technique for the crowds scenes. The quick and sporadic process was designed for live painting displays in which the audience could witness the entire creation in a matter of minutes. This detailed deviation differed drastically in both the technical processes and result.

Contrary to the spontaneous spectacle works, this artwork took approximately 150 hours to complete. I was determined to pay specific attention towards each individual character in the drawing. Rather than quickly blending the masses into impressionistic crowds, as I had often done in front of large audiences, each and every figure in this piece is fully rendered and has a complete back story all of their own. For the first time intricate inclusions of watch faces, facial features, and unique fashions could be identified within the imagery. I intentionally omitted one character’s facial construction in the lower left hand corner knowing that I would eventually make a limited edition print of the image. I have since produced the full size poster and hand drawn unique features in the blank space for the entire edition.

Life as a street artist is never boring as I am always meeting all kinds of people for all over the world, but am also subject to various elements which do not effect the studio artist. While I was creating this drawing a German couple travelling offered me $500 for the piece once completed. They returned to Queen Street everyday of their visit to check in on the progress. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for them it rained on the last day of their vacation(the last day of the process) and they where unable to purchase the scribble. I had raced to complete the parable in time for the modest reward but I didn’t have a phone, never mind a website, back then and the clients and I were unable to locate each other. I said fortunately for me because similar drawings have since sold for 5 times what I almost let this one go for on the streets and I’ve decided to keep this urban creature feature for my own collection as it is by far one of my craziest pieces. see more at http://www.heyapthy.com/