HEY APATHY! The Inkmobile

Alternative Comics The Inkmobile

A little internet fun with the folks at Whitechapel.The truck was made by Mr Fred G. and posted with a blank side panel for left for the rest of us online arts people to fill in. I prefer interacting with real people but really enjoy some of the online communities, especially in the winter when there aren't many people wandering around.  Here's another one for the whitechapel remake contests ( it's just for fun no prizes except conversation).

Comic Drawings for Kids

HEY APATHY! COMICS ONLINE

Another busy day at the animation stand. Strange week this is leading up to the holidays. I’ve had a bit of human things to do, such as brunch with the family, some gift making and a small amount of shopping. The drawings posted here are for my 2 year old nephew Darroch.  He get’s a kick out of identifying the things in the pictures. These will get cut out and scattered throughout his gifts. Nevertheless I maintained a solid work schedule and should get a lot more done before I start touring dinner parties for the festive season. So far I made 110 animation stills as well as  a bit of drawing done with the goal of making it to 150 and finishing the weekly webcomic before Christmas. Otherwise the primordial vascular and clawed limbs protruding from beneath my bed at night have not been able to find me when I am under the covers and I think the cat has figured out a way to get rid of them. Life is good. VISIT HEY APATHY.COM

Alternative Comics Halloween Masks ...

Alternative Comics Online 

 WHEN THE MASKS COME OFF

It's almost time for all the witches,

wolves and creeps to show their faces.

With each rising and racing moon,

more and more people are revealed as ghastly ghouls,

Come the Sabbath, 

and all it's holy praises.

 Landing late in the week this year,

 the gathering has excuse to begin early,

so the streets are half transformed with fear

 and will be worse for the better in mourning.

 After a full and busy and proper life,

 suffocating behind masks,

we finally have a call to breath,

for the children have all crashed.

 Fallen from sweet toxins

they are all out like the light,

 so no one will be the wiser

when the masks come off tonight.

Also check out the latest WEEKLY WEBCOMICS! (which are not written in ryhme, sorry can't explain?) 

Alternative Comics UPCOMING EXHIBITION! Ink Drawings/prints at URBAN SPACE

HEY APATHY! COMICS ONLINE

12 x 8 Foot INK DRAWING

will be included in upcoming exhibition

Urban Space 401 Richmond Nov 1/2010

To quote one of the great(est?) philosopher’s of recent times, “ GREAT GOOGILY MOOGILY!” I just started to relax following a long season of exhibitions and was preparing for a solid month of grants writing when out of nowhere I’ve got another show. Since February 2010 I have done 8 exhibitions including outdoor festival performances, comic book conventions and a simultaneous street performance and video installation at two locations during Toronto’s Nuit Blanche festival. That schedule worked out to be almost one show every month, all of which were convention style, meaning I had to transport all of my work, set up a portable gallery and tend the booth for two- four days. The Buskerfest was particularly exerting as it lasted for four 16 hour days in a row. Now that the busy season has past I was looking forward to some reclusive studio time and was glad to have the street gear in storage for the winter. Though as it turns out, not for very long.

At this time of the year the aspiring artist is generally chained to his/her computer conjuring proposals and budgets for the upcoming grant deadlines. My first submission is due on the 9th of Nov. followed by a few more applications due at the beginning of Dec. There for I had set in my mind to focus exclusively on these essays and forms over the next few days. The time so far has been divided between a lot of brainstorming, (though I know exactly what I intend to develop artistically at this stage it is more important that I cater the phraseology of said project to best suit each of my requests for funding and the councils reviewing those requests) and some preparatory paper work. I’ve had to make no small amount of inquires in order to ensure I create a proper budget and resume. I am still trying to get some answers out of the Toronto Arts Council, which is basically the only thing holding back the process right now. Tomorrow I’ll start the writings, likely between 6-9 pages worth depending on how much the conceptual approach differs from grant to grant. For example an animation might be more appealing to one council as a narrative film for festivals while another would prefer that same project to be called a media installation and shown in a gallery. Nuclear or Nuculear is still nothing but trouble.

As my obviously fragmented and slatternly expressions in the above block of text might suggest, the grants writing process is rather consuming and requires both extensive amounts of time and concentration. So just as I’ve initiated the rewiring of daily mental faculties and physical tendencies from creative production and performance towards academic and bureaucratic nightmares, I get an invitation to do a show, this coming Monday. While this has thrown me for a bit of a loop and surprise, especially considering the inexplicably short notice, the experience has proven improbably timely despite might current workload. Although I have to dig back into my storage unit and prepare another instant exhibition, this one will be in a public gallery space and this sudden connection has actually assisted me in the granting process.

One of the pending bureaucratic nightmares involved in the grant submissions is the inclusion of an authorized note of exhibition. The Councils expect the artist to have a gallery or space booked for the completion of the proposed project ( which ironically can not exist yet according to most grant regulations). This letter of confirmation has always been a struggle for me because I am a completely independent force with no gallery or representative to vouch for me and almost all of my shows are juried/ booked in the early spring. This means that there is no way for me to know if I’ll be accepted or to obtain the necessary letters until late spring when the results of the applications are released. Amazingly enough my meeting today about the upcoming show also resulted in a booking for next fall and subsequently the important letter of confirmation that I so desperately required.

Not unlike the unusually circumstantial obtainment of an exhibition space at a time when such an acquisition was vital, so to was the oddity of how the situation came about. A few months back I left a giant shared office studio located at Richmond and Spadina, just beside 401 Richmond (a giant Art Complex here in Toronto) in order to focus my studies on animation. Since I’d no plans of producing any original artworks this year ( and quite possibly ever again) in favour of small computer based cartoons and comic strips, I had no use for the grand studio and retreated to a home set up using the money that would have paid for the rental space to upgrade my animators electronics. I had some concerns about the relinquishing the commercial space but it has been one of the best moves I ever made.


 Shortly after leaving the studio I received a call from Urban Space, a major gallery located in the 401 Richmond Street complex. The gallery asked me if I could do a live performance at the main entrance of 401during this past October’s Nuit Blanche festival. Due to logistical reasons  (I RALLY WANTED TO WORK QUEEN STREET) I offered them my animations to project on the exterior of the building instead and the installation turned into a great success. So almost instantly upon my exodus from the shared studio which overlooked the professional building, I had moved into a bigger institution. Mind you that move was primarily symbolic as it was really just my projections that were being featured for a single night, but that night looks better on my resume (and in person) than 5 years of dealing with passively aggressive Machiavellians posing as young artists and studio mates.

The Nuit Blanche projections ran simultaneous with a live painting performance I did independently under a tent gallery on Queen Street West. These two events marked the end of my exhibition season and resulted in the slight moment of relaxation I mentioned at the beginning of this entry. Coincidently my symbolic entry into the 401 Richmond Street Building lasted for about as long as my rest period as I received yet another invitation by the Urban Space gallery, only this time it was to book two exhibits inside the gallery and (GASP) get paid for it. Earlier this afternoon I went down to gallery to see the space and confirm the exhibitions. I’ll be hanging some work in a group show this weekend and will have the entire space to myself in the fall. Pretty cool.

I think I may wait until tomorrow to discuss the group show, it only has three artist including me, and is going to awesome as well as an honour. I will however give a little credit were it is due and close this off explaining how these absurdist developments came about so suddenly. I got an email yesterday from a long time patron/collector Max Allen and though I’d no idea where or what the show was going to be I know Max’s style and was certain the exhibit would be intelligent, provoking and important regardless of any commercial viabilities and my tight schedule these days. It turns out that Max, already the founder and curator of the Textile Museum of Canada, radio producer and long time art collector just became a managing curator for the Urban Space Gallery at 401 Richmond. As one of his first duties in the new position, Max procured a showing of art about cities, in particular a comparison of physical and financial provocations regarding New Orleans, Detroit and Toronto and just like that my symbolic entry into one of Toronto’s most respected Art’s building transformed from a symbolic one to fully developed physical working relationship.

In delusion, er conclusion, I touched on a number of small topics here that require further explanation but have pretty much covered the basic sequence of events which occurred between Oct 2- 26 which have resulted in my first gallery showing in over two years and more importantly I am rambling out many, many words these days just to flex my essay-writing muscles which are going to be put to the test during the next few weeks. more at http://www.heyapathy.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS A Robotic Romance

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

In this part of world, a strange as it is, there is little room for anomalies and everything is pretty much the same. All the houses are similar, the cars and the schools. And since the library only has online books now a days there is little left to remind us of the past. There is however one odd piece of land north about an hour drive through the suburbs from the city. Up there the whole landscape has been developed into homes with the bizarre exception of a few tiny acres. Surrounded on all sides by new homes and backyard fences sit’s a little farmland untouched and still used. An aging old man gets up every morning and works in the fields as though nothing has changed. He doesn’t care that all our food come from laboratories nor does he mind that he is able to produce very little. It seems that it is the habits and chores that he loves and has stuck to his calling for longer than I remember.

The man rarely leaves the grounds except for a Sunday mass and breakfast. Only a small convoy of trucks have ever entered which transport his goods to the hills. No developer, nor lawman, or even a guest was ever welcomed into his small private land. That is until recently. Lately the farmer has been seen relaxing a bit in the company of a young woman. Rumours have it they met at the diner after church. She was a charmer and apparently from a family of farmers so the old man was taken and took up a friend. Within weeks of her presence the farm started changing, the grasses grew longer and certain area’s turned unkempt. The farmer and the lady were seen more often in town and the eventual marriage came of little surprise.

After the wedding the farmer resumed his regular chores while his young wife seemed to scold him secretly and spent all her time on the phone. It was a hot sunny morning when the situation had escalated and the whole town had known of the newly weds incredible fight. Witness, and there were a lot of them given the houses around the farm, saw the women running across the fields yelling after the man as he near unconsciously ploughed. She was citing certain legal phrases no one else could understand and the farmer snapped out of his daze looking fearful and angry. That is when the accident occurred. His wife fell forwards and landed close to the plough which caught her hair violently shaking her about. When the farmer pulled her out there was no blood, nor bodily damage but her face had removed revealing a mechanical shell! The wife was made of metal and wires! Nothing more than a machine! Some of the witnesses claim that she even had electric tentacles under her false wig of human hair.

Nevertheless the couple have been in court ever since attempting to sort out the details of their inevitable divorce. It would appear that with out prenuptials the robot women is entitled to the farm though the farmer has taken up arms and refuses to finalize the divorce. At best he may win half the land but these proceedings get quite complicated and his case is a rather difficult one as the laws of robot right are still vague and open to interpretation. But for now the farm is quiet and still sitting in place. The farmer is tending his fields and the neighbourhood is watching curiously and wondering if the new houses destined to grow beside them will be bigger and better equipped than the ones they already own.

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics G20 is almost out of Toronto

After a long week of random interrogations and a heavy handed police presence the city of Toronto finally hit the protest in the streets this weekend. Though I’d seen nothing intimidating whatsoever from any protestor the imbeciles in black eventually showed up with vagrant and violent force. By Saturday night three cop cars had been ignited and some windows were smashed by small groups of moronic macho imbeciles under the guise of political cause. The television had a field day and I felt like I was living in a war zone, until I turned it off and went to see things for myself. The streets were certainly quiet but the bars were open and people were about. There was shopping on Queen West only a block from the flaming auto. The city was not in nearly as much of an uproar as the images made it seem and I could quickly gather that they were isolated and not reflective of the whole.

 The majority of the crowds were simple, musical and peaceful but the minority of vagrants simply put everyone at high risk. The cops stepped up security rounding up over 600 people who were mildly detained in makeshift prisons for a brief time. ( I bet they are all honoured by the capture and boast merrily about how much better they are than those who didn’t get caught). I saw cops arresting regular partiers as well as peaceful protestors which only helped make the matter more extraordinary in reports. However there was little excitement in the actual streets were most people stood apathetically in jest holding camera’s/ Lokk at the press footage twice and you’ll notice that the aggressive clips total in a number less than 10. Primarily the same two or three incidents were recycled over and over giving the effect of mass hysteria when the crazies were but a few. The other note worthy analysis is that in each scene of violence the crowds are not rowdy only spectators and the cops are nowhere to be seen. For all the billions of dollars spent to irritate Torontonians all week nothing could stop the all-mighty black-bloc-heads. In fact only a single report of the police preliminary actions fruited the seizure of questionable weaponry.

 I myself was searched four times but they never found a thing. On top of that the police, as frightening as the tele makes them look, seemed scared, confused, and disorganized bubbling around bothering innocent civilians. Even in their large grouped black line ups of sheild, clubs and helmits, I could see that they were people and some of them appeared baffled. Others seemed over zealous but either way they have a lot of brainwashing to do before these guys can hold their ground with the telepathic observer. Nevertheless the small, insignificant and utterly useless acts of violence have not only turned the politicians into heroes but they have initiated an argument for the induction of a military state. If you are trying to fight the NOW, wearing Halloween costumes and acting like the Prime Minister’s puppet is probably not going to help. In the short time after the cop car burned the arrests tripled and I saw with my own eyes that many of them had nothing to do with aggression or even protests but the detainment of innocent civilians was now justifiable in light of the idiots dressed in black.

visit http://www.heyaathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Web Comics and Stories

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

 

HEY APATHY! Is an ongoing artistic investigation into the metropolis, the monsters, people and the mechanics of being. In the earliest artworks the city is announced as an ominous gear spun by an endless sea of faceless denizens. . Since that time I have executed an unconventional interview using street art and public interactions to uncover the true nature of the urban landscape. The online catalogue follows my seven year quest featuring illustrations, comics, murals, performances and animation strung together as a narrative adventure. As a result of my experiments the story of the gear has grown and changed much. Today the metropolis is still rendered as a giant machine, only now it is all the different characters, not anonymous cogs, who fuel the machine!

MONSTER COMICS is a web comic following my misadventures on a freelance assignment for a strange mystic named Weird Blackbeard. Blackbeard is a patron of the arts knowledgeable of all things unusual who commissioned me to do some surreal portraits early last year. The job proved extraordinary nearly costing me life, limb and possession but it was worth the fiasco to get all these cool drawings….

SURREAL COMICS is a collection of illustrated stories and correlated strips featuring tales of the unknown. Morphologically relevant satirical dreams regarding alien encounters, distorted monsters and the sudden appearance of rooms which should not be.

STREET ART Chronology 2005 Part 3

 HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics!

During my first season on the Queen West (2004) I was basically the only practising artist amidst a sea of artisans and jewellery vendors. However as a result of my success, exposure and personal recommendations the street soon filled with fine art. Painters, illustrators and photographers quickly joined the parade as Queen St. West became a hub of adventure and a happening spot for local exhibitors. On any given weekend as many as 20 artists set up shop all around me and the life force and energy was breaching unknown heights. At first the growth was exciting and I felt overwhelmed with creative inspiration yet as I mentioned before the exhilaration led to many difficult situations. The city by law enforcers took note of our activities and perpetually swept the streets clean. It was brought to our attention that our activities were illegal.

MONSTER COMICS street performance

Almost every Saturday morning the officers would come down and threaten us with tickets and seizure of our goods. To our benefit this quickly cleared out most of the jewellers and artisans as they hadn’t a leg to stand on as most of their products were not hand made. We often found ourselves packing up shop and hiding in local cafes until the City of Toronto trucks disappeared. As soon as the coast was cleared we would return to the streets and start up our productively creative activities once more. Eventually it got to the point were this would happen more than once in a day so we were forced to confront the police and attempt to stand our grounds. Fortunately this bold action was met with some leniency as the officer’s gave us instructions on probable means of gaining licences. This information led us to 112 Elizabeth Street, the former bureau for Torontonian Municipal licensing. The officers in that building attempted to turn us away but eventually granted us the same permits one uses to busk. Technically this prohibited the sale and display of our artworks allowing only for performances and the collection of donations. However having discussed the situation and followed their advice the particular enforcers working on Queen Street let these permits pass. For the rest of the season most of us operated semi-legally using the 25 dollar buskers license as a sign of respect. The by-law officers let the permits pass and we no longer felt intimidated and worked free from despair. Interestingly enough only a handful of artists actually acquired these permits yet the officers seldom checked in on the rest.

Having stumbled over one of the streets major hurdles the act of public exhibition became stress free but for me the problems had only begun. Now that we were legal a new war had begun as I found myself perpetually hounded by viscous completion. The reason I say viscous and not healthy or competitive is because several new street vendors started taking aim directly at me. The first such encounters were in regards to my spot. There are unwritten rules regarding ones set up location, however the truth be told the situation depends on somewhat of a first come first serve ideology. Midway through my second season performing I’d carved out a nice little spot for my self underneath a large tree. There was nothing particularly distinguishing about the location when compared with the other’s but like all a creatures of habit I’d taken to a liking to my concrete home. I was clearly the most successful artist on the block and by some strange psychology many other’s attributed my sales to the spot. On numerous occasions I’d arrive to find one of my “colleagues” set up under that tree. They mostly argued that the spot was the best though I as one of the few who had purchased the permit I generally had little trouble reclaiming my land. To avoid the aggravation I was forced to set up early each morning knowing full well that my competetors had aimed to steal my position, not only physically but in terms of recognition.

The situation elevated as those same artists, who I’d introduced to the practice, started imitating my artworks as well location. More and more black and white images started appearing on canvas’ once dawned with color and at least three other street vendors started drawing with hand made bamboo pens. I saw heads split in two with word bubbles citing “This keeps happening” right beside my exploding heads which spoke out phrases like “not again!”. I tried to ignore it but the situation reached new apexes and I was forced into confrontation right out in the streets. On one occasion I actually had to drag another artists paintings across the sidewalk were I put them beside mine and embarrassingly pointed out the exacting details of the compositions. In another instance I arrived extra early only to find one of the artist, formerly of color work, had spread a large sheet of white paper in my regular location and was drawing building with ink. This may all sound bizarre but I ended up confronting and obtaining confessions from numerous artists as well as collected samples of the imitated artworks which I've chosen not to include in any publications for various reasons including good taste.The entire situation became unbearably frustrating but through determination, perseverance and by waking up really early in the morning I finished the season successfully despite the absurd irritations.

Toronto Skyline Ink on Board Sept. 2005

All this frustration aside the majority of the work brought to the streets was fresh and unique. Many of the artist celebrated individual triumphs and impressed and contributed to the little carnival which continued to grow  into major attraction in the city of Toronto 2005. The entire ordeal both good and the bad pushed me in positive and innovative directions so that by the end of the summer I’d revised my display and expanded my drawing techniques. At the end of the season I stopped painting rapid live performance artworks and sat back to sum up my discoveries through a series of extremely detailed pen and ink studies. Had it not been for the copy-cats and criticisms I might not have been so determined to push the artwork in new directions. Between the Sept. and Oct. of 2005 I made 33 intricate illustrations which were reproduced as prints replacing all my small hand-drawn artworks included in my street art exhibitions. To this very day these drawings, which took as long as 150 hours, remain as some of my favourite artworks in the HEY APATHY! Collection.  (street art chronology continued tomorrow season three 2006)

The City Monster ink on board Sept. 2005

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS STREET ART PART 2

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Early street art displays continued from yesterday...

While being courted by several reputable collectors and galleries I repeatedly encountered two unusual trends. On one occasion a patron reneged on a large scale purchase after I refused to join him in his apartment for a private dinner. Similar motivations presented themselves in the galleries as I recall being pawed at and offered Champaign and narcotics during various early morning business meetings. The galleries that I was in talks with also had a tendency to request that I recreate drawings that sold well in the past only not as installations but in small marketable series. The combination of these bizarre social formalities and the creative restrictions led to my preferences of self representation and public exhibitions. However in hindsight I can see that these people were primarily attracted to the magazine attention and were not interested in the art. Since that time I have met and worked with many incredible gallery curators and who have supported me only the most honourable of intentions.

At the same time that I was exhibiting in the galleries, I was also experimenting with public venues. I displayed my artworks at the T.O.A.E. in both 2002-2003. The large scale outdoor festival presented an entirely different audience and approach from that of the art galleries. Thousands of people strolled through the exhibition. There were people from all over the world and of all walks of life. The show offered an incomparable opportunity to interact with many people, most of which had never even been to a gallery. I found this experience extremely inspiring and I met many amazing characters, from little children to Grand mothers. I don’t recall making any connections to the outdoor festivals and performing as a street artist at the time, but the outdoor festival interactions certainly prepared and inspired me to experiment in the streets.

It wasn’t until the spring of 2004 than the combination of a these past experiences and a new set of circumstances led me to display my art on the street. For the first time since 2001, I was unable to secure a winter exhibition space and was no longer eligible for the College’s scholarship competitions. I was hanging out in Kensington Market pondering what to do about my financial situation. I was out of house and work when I met some people who sold jewellery in the streets. Co-relating all my weird thoughts I instinctively asked if I could join them. I put a scrap of black cloth and a hand full of small drawings inside a little black box I could carry in my hand comfortably while riding a bicycle.

My first attempt was on Bloor street on an Thursday or Friday afternoon. My friends did very well selling pipes, and jewellery while I myself didn’t sell a single thing. I wasn’t to discouraged though and the street jeweller told me that the other spot was better. The following morning I went join the other vendors on Queen Street and the scene was entirely different. There were tonnes of people, other buskers and many vendors. The weather was perfect and there was lot’s of energized activity. I met a whole bunch of weirdoes and sold enough art to go back. I worked every weekend through out the summer of 2004 earning enough to get by, by drawing pictures in the sun. In these early experiments my display featured scribbled monster comics and creepy surreal roach humanoids accompanied by the occasional crawling pig’s head. continued tomorrow...



 more drawings, street art and murals at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Soul Devouring Leech Friends

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Like most people in the world, save for an elite group of likely the most intelligent of beings, I have accumulated many friends and acquaintances over the years. However the names and number of these people seem to be in perpetual shift. The problem occurs as one becomes entangled in patterns and the true nature of the "friends" rears it's soul-devouring leech head. Not to say that this is always the case, but it take all sorts of a----les to burn the world down. Why would I dwell on such a horrific topic? It all started with a simple telephone call.

The phone started beeping (remember when it rang?) and on the other line was one of these so called friends. Granted this person has not been entirely evil, in fact on several occasions he has proven quite supportive. Yet despite all of these favours or friendly encounters the hairs on my neck instantly took to alarm. Here we go again. Without hesitation nor forethought I knew what was coming for this particular friend only calls me to boast. It is the strange pattern which struck a strong chord in my mind and set me on edge as I answered the call. While the soul sucker leeched some new braggart delusion I drifted into my own world in a soliloquy of doubt. Why I tolerate such untimely intrusions? These sorts of people are not really friends. Sure I've known them for years but the patterns are simple, the only time they call me is when they've some amazing success. And the truth of the matter the stories are not meant to be shared nor incite joy in the occurrence but only to cut me down, compete and belittle  for absolutely no good reason or at least of no benefit to me. Now I expect this from my enemies and tenfold from other artists but from someone with my home phone number is absolutely absurd! Cut me down and belittle me in insecure attempts to prove something!

Anyways I've wasted enough energy on such ridiculous matters so I interjected on the boasting a told this person with out a second thought "Get out of my life and don't call me again!" Wow that felt good. No more insidious evil soul sucking troll leeches are going to latch themselves to me under the guise of a friend. They may be coy, may be sneaky, and often bare gifts but if you listen to you instincts  the leech can be made right away. It also seems easy to fall into routines but with a swift simple gesturte your world can change. So to churn the negative into an opportunity I am warning you to be wary of friends with black oozing hatred and creepy sly remarks who cause you nothing but aggrevation!

see some more pictures about how evil people can be