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.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS HEY APATHY CHARACTERS

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

I've been working on animation stills and website stuff for most of this hot and humid blaring overcast day. I want to add a page describing the comics characters but didn't get that far with all the other things I had going on today. So although my body is tired, the caffeine is still in my brain so I'll ramble off some of these background stories here befor I go to bed....

From Top Left

Audubon the Tracker. Audubon was once a mighty forest ranger. He protected the vast resource and it’s obscure and dangerous inhabitants known as the green forest. For many years people tried to destroy the land Audu was sworn to protect. No fire, nor disease, nor diseased poacher could tackle Audu and his team. No the land stood strong until the hands ofbureaucracy reached out and destroyed the woods. Since the fall of the green forest Audubon has found himself a new home in a cybernetics repair shop in the City of Gears.

Junior the Mechanic. Junior is an ingenious inventor and master of cybernetic technologies. Mack has made advancement far greater than any other known to public or military. Amoung his greatest inventions are detachable cyber-limbs and man operated battle droids. However despite his potential Junior also spends his days working in a downtown computer repair shop.

The Old Man. The Old man, and proprietor of the repair store, likes to walk around the streets using Juniors mechanical creations, but is in fact confined to a wheel chair without the innovative assistance. The Old Man, like all old men in comics, knows more than he's ever saying and has some of the most interesting fables to share with his guests

Samura Wakayama is a wandering Ronin in pursuit of a giant mechanical eyeball. Various smaller mechanized monstrosities pester Samura on his quest, but determined to track his enemy the Samurai treads on. Stumbling into the old man's repair shop, the loner gets mixed up in a strange plot and many secrets are revealed.

Argenta is a witch and the daughter of the Old man . Argenta, as all witches these days, practices her art through the computer. With an indescribable ability to communicate and manipulate people through the machines, Argenta born of dignified lineage, only uses her powers for good.

The creature at the bottom is a giant Billboard mechanized sentinel. These monstrous mechanics are scene in increasing numbers roaming and policing the streets of the Gear.

I'll refine these and hopefully post them over at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/ tomorrow

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Line Ups to Nowhere Now Here!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Nightmares from Nowhere

 Perpetually obliterated by futureless and mundane routines, a large group of strange denizens crowds together forming a line. Each lost little soul waits patiently for advancement as the world all around them fades to a white out and fills endlessly with flies. Decorated with obscured and misplaced blackened orifices the crowds wallow in anonymity.

The bleak conglomerated hypnotic conformity briefly subsides as the result of a distracted young citizen who inadvertently holds up the line. Boisterously exposing his amorphous and teeth ridden malformed chest cavity, the foolish adolescent initiates agitation through this breach of social etiquette. Unable to concentrate on the holding his place in the line, the daydreamer opens his mouth, as to yawn, and begins to spit flies. Once again his deviant behaviour is reprimanded by the pushy and passing members of the now moving line.

After what is deemed an eternity, the anticipation suddenly subsides. "NEXT" bellows aggressively from a figure just ahead. In an instant the subject snaps out from his mesmerised and insect infested contemplative regurgitation. The receptionist, a tall refrigerator type looking marvel wearing radiation proof gloves ands showing only his blackened teeth, demands a numbered ticket from the next person in line. Astonished the young pupil bursts into retaliation angrily declaring that he'd heard nothing of a number system and had already been waiting forever. With the authority of an occupying force, the receptionist conducts the lost and mistaken individual back to the back of the line.

As he walks slowly into place, and his senses fall depleted, the tiny little teenager sifts off into dreams. In the visions he recalls having had been here before . This white backdrop, the mutations, and the line up itself all prove horrifically recollective and in a despairing moment of weakness, he bows his head in defeat. As the line keeps on creeping other members resign in similar fashion . No attempts at escape nor the prevention of flies, nor any unusual observation is transmuted as sound. One by one the people forget, regret and accept, turning first into monsters and then to machines.

 

 

I spent the whole day fixing photos and writng stories for my website. This one is going part of an old horror anthology that I made. I've finally scanned and corelated the pages so you can see the whole comic at www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/surreal-monster-comics.html  

ALTERNATIVE COMICS ALIEN INVASION

HEY APATHY ! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

AFTER THE HARVEST...The communications came like none any of us ever imagined. There were no vocal sounds, no translators, no telepathy, not even in dreams. It was like everyone, everyone still alive that is, had known it as common knowledge since generations past. We all knew how easy it had been for the extraterrestrials to over take us and we all knew of their mocking narration.

With sciences far advanced from those here on earth, the aliens had spotted our third rock telescopically approximately 200,000 years ago. Despite their superior equipment the images took longer to return than initially expected. However, by extraordinary marvels of deduction the beings were accurately able to predict man's evolutionary coarse. Although the flight to planet earth would last millennia by our calendar, our attackers had planned to face man as you see us today, a fully evolved, intelligent, organized and potentially destructive creature.

Their method of assimilation would require much subtlety for a radioactive planet would prove of little use to these sentient vegetations. The strategy was as follows, first they would hide under the earth’s surface and infect our crops. A chemical agent was produced capable of removing all nutrients from our menu. The affected supplies would look brighter or bigger, and prove highly addictive. These cosmic intruders would also introduce new habit forming potions and rituals. These vices would provide vast and extraordinarily pleasurable experiences upon consumption while secretly proving depressive and fatal.

Once the masses were physically diminished, the populace was to under go a widespread mesmeric plague. The second stage of the invasion involved the transmitting of singular and reductive reasoning in all modes of our media. Through excessive exposure to repetitious sounds, light sources and demeaned typeface, the human mind could be reduced to incompetence. The final initiation before conquest was to then turn all men against each other for divided planets fall. This they planned on accomplishing by allocating our wealth inappropriately, depleting our resources, and inciting racism through propaganda.

Once all this was achieved, our visitors could grow unstoppably enormous, sprout from the grounds and settle right in. While their predictions were amazingly accurate in regards to our physical progress, even these humourless creatures laughed when they arrived. There was no need for caution nor extenuative plans! The beings were not required to brood underground whilst painstakingly softening and poisoning our health. Nor were they inclined to subversively infiltrate landside to fret with our minds. No, in one single movement, extraterrestrial vines the size of New York fell from the sky. These terrible monstrosities simply took over the globe and there was nothing to be done! We had already well prepared ourselves for the almighty harvest!.

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

Alternative Comics CUSTOM LONGBOARD!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Skate board!

The city is a giant gear propelled by all the weird and crazy people moving through it! Over head the ominous SEEING TOWER watches as a giant billboard robot attempts to annihilate a tiny super hero! Fiercly flying forth with Eyeballs on his cape, Studabaker Hawk retaliates representing humanities lost in an increasingly technological empire! This black and white monster comic was hand painted directly on a prototyped custom made longboard last fall. The design was produced by the up and coming Toronto skateboard company Longboard Living and has just gone into mass production. We got the first proofs of the reproduced limited edition board this weekend and they look crazy. More details on the availability of the product as we work them out. I guessing the board will be limited to 100 printings and will be sold by both Longboard living and at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/.

 HEY APATHY! MONSTER LONGBOARDS first two proofs of the series at the longboard Living studio. These were done on wood decks but the actual product will have a white background.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS NO POST TODAY read why ...

HEY APATHY! NO ALTERNATIVE COMICS TODAY

I must apologize in advance for the following dog-ate-my-homework type excuse but there will be no blog post on this the 18th of April 2010. Although I awoke refreshed and complimented by a beautifully shining morning, my regular artist's rituals were interrupted by the most peculiar event. When I stood up, thirsty yet enthused, I noticed a glimmering pool of a opaque liquid had spilt across my bedroom floor. At first I assumed that a bottle of white book binding glue had toppled in the night. Slightly frustrated, as I forgot to hydrate my self, I set forth to examine the damage and potentially clean up my mess.


As printmakers and painters, and carpenters alike all well know, an upset bottle of glue across wooden panel floor can be disastrous. If the glue has settled, the likely hood of removal is certainly nil. I knelt down to touch the puddle and was instantaneously taken aback by the depth at which my fingers had submerged. While the substance sat only millimetres from the floor, I easily fit half of my hand into the now inexplicable spillage.

In my less than alert state, only just out of bed, I was barely able to process the occurrence. Inhaling a combination of shock, surprise and alarm within a singular breath, I felt a sinking depression of the senses as of one who is malnourished upon receiving the most traumatic of news. Instinctively I pulled back my moist covered hand when the white sopping ooze lifted whole in it's shape and flew up with my arm engulfing the room. All at once I was surrounded by an odourless and tasteless air constituently heavy not entirely unlike a gelatine or white glue. For a second the atmosphere was suffocating but as the substance filled my lungs, and then all of my airways, I was overtaken by a sanctifying calm.

I floated, or sank, through the thick globular nothing for a duration which felt as rapidly exasperating as the passing seconds of a movie montage spanning millennia. I heard the sounds of many keyboards tapping when a minute blackened orifice opened in the opaque space out in front of me. First a hand reached from within, then another and another exited the shapeless salutation. The figures peeled back the thick liquid white and the sounds became louder.

Before me were thousands of people all morphed one seething tar soaked entity, each individual barely coherent except for the nature of their tasks. In one clustered area of the mingled anomaly there were people eating, and people preparing the meals and people preparing the animals for the meals. A crowd of onlookers gathered and gawked, even cheered at the slaughter, while other slaved like an army and others still gorged. In another region of the glob people were building things and simultaneously destroying them. There were liars and thieves, and saviours and scholars all curiously defined by their meaningless chores. People-ish forms laughed and danced and ran and typed . Oh how they typed.

Many words in many languages could be seen sprouting out in mingled fonts only to be enveloped by the blank tar periphery. Lost almost as soon as initiated, thousands upon thousands of stories, communications, essays, and articles, appeared and disappeared along the gelatinous surface of the weird white air. There were many, many, many blogs. All of the texts were jumbling together simultaneously complimenting and refuting one another. Most of the information blended and blurred in the atmospheric pudding. A handful of these writings stood out from the storm. Their authors received much celebration and adoration from all districts of the seeping strange form. Their words were boldly animated and appeared larger and clearer than the rest. But alas of these few, even fewer had anything to say.

I heard the sounds of ten thousand radios mixing repetitions with ads. The terrible static beat and faceless harmonies turned my ears in unto themselves. A snippet of every horrific tune ever written set a torturous train of thought to work on my psyche. The experience could only be likened the time when one has an unwanted melody playing over in ones head but cannot remember all the words, and thereby is trapped perpetually cycling only a most irritating half-chorus. It was like that, only it was every song that had ever pestered me all mixed into one. For a brief moment the amalgamation of noise cohesively recited a line from Tina Turner's Private dancer.

At this I was broken. For the first time since observing the inside's of the goo, I was stricken to panic. I tried to scream, tried to swim. tried to claw my way up but the sounds just got louder and the amorphous pile of humanoid figures drew nearer. I could feel the black fleshy bubbles and the gripping of hands on my ankles when, with a sudden jerk, I fell out of the space and into the thick swamp public nebula. Politicians were screaming, and children were screaming! Advertising executives were laughing, purely white people chinked filled glasses with indulgence, and young soldiers trained for battle. Long monotonous rows of hands trapped in singular motions produced boxes upon boxes from nowhere that other hands grasped for and instantly unpackaged. The opened receptacles were then discarded and subsequently collected by another line of figures partaking in a similar, yet entirely unique, repetition. Mediocre celebrities built a fortress in the desert separate from the glob and teenagers ate celebrity magazines which in turn caused them to vomit up their used souls. I saw artists abrasively rubbing their faces against such magazines, yelling "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" and I watched a film crew violate the verse of magnificent authors who'd died without fame. The overall affect of the grotesque embodiment left little clue as to distinguish the cries of horror from those of ecstasy.

Then I saw the technologies. My only excuse for not having already noticed must have been the suddenness of the entire experience for each and every one of these people-forms was equipped with a device. Varying in shapes and sizes from miniscule to monstrous the technological malformations seamlessly protruded from all surfaces of the blob. I looked up from the center of this thing I can never truly describe, to see all of the mechanizations were moving, not out of place but in a passing as a serpents scales do when breaching the surface of a dark heavy bog. The direction of the slither pointed towards a glowing bright light as of that of the heavens. However something deep and ominously inside of myself warned against that the light for it was not my salvation but of something indeed quite the opposite.

I fitted in panic thrice that of my first bout but the resistance seemed only to attract attention from the blindingly hideous glow. I struggled against the agitated black tar of humanoid forms and robotic tentacles but cold gain no ground. I knew not even what ground I'd hoped to gain? This was my last thought before the enormous screen of flickering fluorescence swallowed me whole.


Once again I was alone and surrounded by white. Only this time I dare not open my eyes for the brightness penetrated so fully my eyelids that I could already see as clearly as day. Everything went silent until I heard a deep bass voice speak up from within the farthest recess of that space and my conscious. " WHY? ". The articulation was unmistakable and mockingly perverse. In my mind I had answered, but the thought was so fleeting that I cannot recall it. The result of this forgotten response set the omnipotent presence into infuriated laughter. The laughter ensued and expanded shaking me all around. As the trembling exemplified the bellowing turned to coughing, then choking and finally resolved itself as a combination of choking and gasping. I can only guess that wherever I was, was probably the stomach of something and that the combination of my consumption and the laughter had resulted in that something's indigestion. I felt sporadic convulsions and was propelled upwards by an invisible ,yet tangible, sea of pebbled acidity. This burning reverse-fall lasted for about 5 seconds before I found my self standing back in my bedroom. For a brief moment my clothes felt damp but I soon realized otherwise. I looked to the floor but could find no evidence of the adventure.

My nerves have now settled, and after drinking a considerable amount of water I have decided to pass the experience off as pure fiction. I am, however, tainted by retentive images of the typography which had been written all over that unusual spilt glue tapestry beneath my bedroom floor. Only now, in my recollections, the words all say "WHY?" and I’ve come to realize that at present there are far more of these words than the world will ever need. Besides it is late and I am exhausted and have many tasks for tomorrow’s morn, so there will be no alternative comics post from HEY APATHY! today.
visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics in the City of Gears

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics illustration

Day in and day out each passing moment twists and spirals throughout the routines of the metropolis. Each individual experiences a cyclic revolution of activities designed to progress not only the private but public existence as well. Like an intrinsic web the insurmountable occurrences, no matter how miniscule, weave together affecting one another maintaining an unknowable balance. With each alarm clock, meal, commute, and exchange the city grows perpetuating enveloping the madness of the masses. The architecture takes the shape of an enormous gear as the infinitely rotating cast of unique and unusual characters continue to fuel the machine...Welcome to the City of Gears!

"THE CITY OF GEARS" 20 x 30 inch ink drawing is one of the major symbolic expression in the HEY APATHY! mythology. When I first started the series I would draw the city as a black ominous gear engulfing the horizon over an endlessly anonymous crowd of faceless bubble people. Upon completion of the initial body of work I pointed up to one of the large crowd scenes and told a small audience that one day I would fill in all the faces To be totally honest I wasn't even sure what I meant by that.

It was about 3 years later, after performing in numerous public venues including renegade street art display in the downtown core, that I started to identify the hordes as unique individuals. By means of constant public interaction I started to gain a better understanding of the functioning of the metropolis. instead of a nihilistic conglomeration of superficial and commercial ideologies, I started to recognise the metropolis as an unbelievably vast culmination of minute experiences and actions. the good, the bad, and the homogenized all rolled into one amazing forum equally hope-filled and apocalyptically pessimistic. At the end of my second year as a street artist I sat down with a fine tip and some illustration board and penned this updated drawing of the City of Gears. visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS in SPACING MAGAZINE

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics in Spacing Magazine!

I did an interview with Chris Bilton over at the Extempore Studios and few months back and finally saw the results this past weekend. It was pretty cool talking to Chris. Chris has been following the HEY APATHY! mythos for many years now. He really new his stuff and had done a lot of research regarding my development as an artist. The article turned out really well and the magazine is awesome. There were also some interesting quotes from Kelly McCray, a really big-time art dealer in the Toronto scene, which was kind of nice. I found it a little weird that the article stated that I  won an award from MOCCA when in fact the afore mentioned honour  was from David D'Angelo, one of the curator's of the MOCCA not the institute itself. Other wise I thought the article was awesome. I posted the cover of the magazine and a little bit of the story, but you'll have to go out and buy a copy to read the rest. Highly Recommended amd not just because I'm in it!

P.s. It was about 30% here in Toronto today so I took it easy and sprawled out in Bellevue park reading tonnes of E.C. Shocksuspense stories including a few Bradbury adaptations. I tell you this stuff is great and I never fail to crack up, even burst out into laughter, when I get to the last panel! Even the freelance illustrator deserves a day of luxury, rest, and shocking tales once in a while!

BLACK MAGIC PRACTICAL JOKES #669

(a little EC homage)

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

Alternative Comics Commissioned Jazz Portrait

Gary Bartz alternative comics portrait

I was posting the progress reports on this commissioned comic portrait of saxophonist Gary Bartz a week ago or so and eventually , as often happens when one is busy, I forgot all about the painting. I finished the ink drawing and delivered it to the client last Friday but just discovered the snapshot this morning while cleaning out my camera. The entire drawing took about 7 hours to complete but the work was spread out over a 10 day period as I had a number of more pressing tasks to complete simultaneous with this commission. At any rate the drawing is part of a series/style I invented depicting some of my favourite jazz musicians, each caricature is made up of a New York cityscape complete with little tiny people spiralling through the urban chaos. When I listen to this music I always get a strange visual sensation likening my imagination both to the tribal roots of the forest and the concrete and bricks of the big city. I hope that the artworks represent that same mysticism derivative of the improvisations played by all these magical musicians.

Ok, Gary Bartz is one of my favourite players but I'm going to do this any ways... The coolest alternative music performance of his career ( and one of the craziest of all time) was when Gary played at the Isle of Wright with Miles Davis. I know, I know, nobody wants to be remembered for playing with Miles because they all went on to create their own musical landscapes but the fact is that the shadow cannot be overthrown. I suppose it's a sort of curse catch 22, like a Mafioso king anyone who played with Miles was pretty much a made man in the world of funky jazz, however they are all also pretty much destined to be remembered best for their work under the sorcerer. (Wayne Shorter, who has worked with a vast number of musicians including Art Blakey and was the band leader for the chart topping Weather Report, still advertises as the saxophonist from the Miles Davis Quintet) So sorry for the reference Gary but this playing was sick...

Gary comes in at the 3 minute mark and you ain't never heard anything like it !!!

(warning make sure your cat is not in the room)

for more ink drawings visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics Apathy, Despair, and Secret Rooms

apathy & despair covers from the HEY APATHY! online comics

So yet another diligent day at the drafting table. Spent all of my working hours on the commissioned toy design project and have finished the first stage of the process which involves several variations on the character's costume and features. The next step will require some discussions with my employer and a final draft of the figurine. Upon completion of my work I decided to go for a late day stroll and noticed a peculiaity previously unseen in the stairwell exiting my house.

Where as I was certain that there were only six units in the building, each occupied by individual tenants in ,  came across a seventh door in the middle of the hall. How was it I hadn't noticed this before? The door was impossibly situated along the steps and left little room within the structure as to accommodate any sort of compartment behind it. I decided to press my ear against the entrance (as strange as it may seem) to see if I could determine whether or not this was yet another apartment.

The door flung open and six dark figures were sitting around a reasonably sized room filled with computer equipment. One of them glanced in my direction. He had a strange curly moustache, like the kind one might associate with a stereotypical artiste, and was continually typing into a computer as an endless feed of paper rolled out from the printer beneath his feet. His eyes turned red in the dim light then he spoke out in a jolly voice "You have a really cool password". I don't know why but I am certain he was referring to the code I use to protect my computer files. Immediately following this brief discourse, one of the other figures stood up cutting between me and the strange scenery. With authority the figure grasped the door and said "this is official business." The door slammed in my face abruptly but without as sound.

When I returned from my walk I could not find the room, and in fact the entire architecture of the house seemed once more logical as though no such room could have ever existed. I chose not to inquire further in to the matter as I clearly must have  succumb to some sort of temporary intervention of the imagination. However upon I arriving in my own lodgings I found a brand new video game system and a set of virtual war programs sitting beside my desktop. I disposed of the gaming system and all though I have no intention of investigating the whereabouts of that room, I fear that I may see it again.

 

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

A FASHION SHOOT TURNS MONSTER! HEY APATHY COMICS

A behind the scenes look at the essence of fashion from HEY APATHY! monster comics. In these panels we see the models, already decorated for the event, undergoing the final transformation before show time. A group of occultist cannibal aardvark humanoids slurp the insides out of the runway hopefuls, thus creating the intellectual necessary to look good under the lights. It's almost time for the shoot! Scenes from my ongoing mythological comics adventure which will be posted at http://www.heyapthy-comics-art.com/ as I complete it. I spent the whole weekend lettering pages but failed to get them posted yesterday as I had hoped. I'm still having difficulties rendering and resizing the text so that it remains legible on the screen. On the brighter side of life, I just found out that there are still booths available at the Toronto Comic Con at the Metro Toronto Convention Center this June and put together my application this afternoon. For some reason I though the big con took place in the fall and am very lucky to be able to apply at such a late date ( I missed booking two of these shows this year already!)

LIFE of An ARTIST STREET MURALS

Kensington Market Street Art

HEY APATHY! I spent almost the entire day working on-line. The fiasco which has become my life (as an artist) was enveloped by resizing and uploading images since 8 am this morn. I have been trying to apply online for the 2010 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition for a couple of days now. Unfortunetly I had to wait until yesterday to get in contact with a staff member because we just had a long weekend here in Canada. Nevertheless the crew over at 401 Richmond running the T.O.A.E. is incredible and all my queries were answered first thing following the holiday lay off. So I proceeded to prepare my slide list and support materials only to discover late last night that I did it all wrong and my images turned out to be way to small.(Oh there is never a dull moment in the life of an artist.)Following my uploaded defeat, I gave up on the application and worked on some sketches for the remainder of day.

Today, however, was a new day! I completed the resizing and uploading in record time without a single glitch and I suppose I got into it and carried away. I just kept uploading and resizing and uploading and resizing and only a few moments ago ( it is now 14 hours since I started) came to a standstill having completed about 5 new pages for my website. I am building the damn thing myself so don't expect too much on the technical side but I think the curation of my madness could not have been handled by any one else. Check out my updated MURALS page at www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/MURALS.html . I uploaded all the image and text links today so there a new galleries within the gallery. I'll try to get the essays explaining the significance of each mural on there tomorrow but for now I am very,very tired.

Toronto Garage Mural Acrylic on Brick 2007

Life of a Canadian Artist

SUBMISSIONS!SUBMISSIONS!SUBMISSION. Today was a day of buearocratic paperwork. Alas the life of an artist is not all killing monsters and blowing up buildings. Sometimes us creative folk actually have to do work. Especially those of us without representation, so it goes. Fortunetly for me my organizational skills are starting to come together and I've much experience in the feild. The result being that these proposals get easier each time ( and subsequently increasingly profitable). This is a particularily busy time for the paper work as a number of the events I take part in annually have deadlines falling between Feb 15 - March 1. I sent a few things out over the web today including my Nuit Blanche application. Last year I did a live street painting & musical performance on Queen West. This year I'm going to try and get you guys to do all the work as I hope to install and conduct a sort of open canvas workshop in the same location. Truth be told I sick of drawing pictures and if I can get someone else to do it all the better! Just kidding. Actually the most exciting part of all my public performances and interventions has always been the interaction between my self, my art, and the audience. I thought it might be interesting to try and break the boundaries between artist & viewer through a more interactive performance this year. It will defenitely be interesting and very likey quite messy. Here are some samples of the kind of work I have to put into these proposals.

Floor plan foor a 10 x 20 ft. Multi-media Public installation:



The proposals also require visual support material of past projects. This one's from the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition:

CANADIAN ART, THEATRE & LIVE PERFORMANCE!

HEY APATHY! Here are the first pics in my "life of an artist" blog. I've got two little amateur press publications going on in here. The first, which I haven't updated in a while, is my "ONLINECOMICBOOK" journal. That title is dedicated to a behind the scenes or directors commentary if you please, of all my comic book experimentation's. That blog is only going to list the HEY APATHY! comic book pages, revealing the motivations, inspirations, and secret codes behind the sequential artworks regarding the city of gears. I'm posting all my comics chronologically starting with some strange stories from 1999 on twitter and am using the blog to attempt to justify myself (my imaginary psychiatrist's orders...) The online comic also includes new autobiographical pages in order to contextualize and tie all the short adventures together. The last posting was in June 2009, but I am going to start up again full-force next week. The last eight months or so were spent trapped inside a computer in a near futile attempt to create a build-you-own style website. Now that the site is reasonably complete I can actually get back to work on the mythos. check out the first volume on my website.

This new diary is going to document all the other aspects of my artistic endeavors. Not only do I create comic books, but I am actually an active investigator, performer, fine artist ( whatever that is) and amateur musician. In this blog I am going to try and document the 3 dimensional aspects of my life as a Canadian Artist. Not to say that anything I do is actually interesting or even of the slightest importance, I just enjoy writing and figure the more I practice the better I'll get. This author/auteur aspiration actually started out on the streets where I discovered that the explanation of my work seemed to effect the audience equal to and often more than the visuals or drawings themselves. I am now attempting to translate the spoken word aspect of my performances into paragraph form on the new website/graphic novel and have come to realize that it is no easy task. Anyways bare with me as I attempt to replace my ers, ands, ands ums, with subsequently, incongruously, and quite possibly a number of of other sagacious verbal abnormalities.

LIVE PAINTING & THEATRE at the PASSE MURAILLE

Here's some pics of me painting at the PASSE MURAILLE live theatre for the performing arts this past Tuesday Feb. 9/2010. The theatre had a cocktail party, silent auction and live dance/play performance fundraiser in which I was asked to perform and donate my artwork in support of the amazing venue. I was set up in the main lobby and got to work on this little cartoon landscape around 6:30. The entire painting was finished in just under an hour and auctioned off to a patron named Jane after a modest but fruitful bidding war. I had actually met Jane a few years back while painting out in the wild (Queen Street West) and instantly recognized her. Jane was very excited to have found me and said she had been looking for me on the streets but feared she would never see me again. I'm glad the painting got a loving home.

Almost Finished! The auction, and painting was from 6:30-7:30

The amazing thing about doing these performance artworks is the fact that I actually get to interact with people, sharing opinions and ideas in a manner unobtainable in the studio or gallery setting. I always find that although many people could take it or leave it, those who actually approach me end up getting (and giving) a somewhat mystical experience and exchange. One of the onlookers, whom I had never met before, was absolutely amazed at my creative process and told me that "it is the theatre, music, and arts that make the rest of the world bearable" I don't think I've ever received such a high compliment in all of my days.




Another fellow called me a "fake" and attempted to accuse me of being a Kieth herring impersonator. I told him that Herring's artwork and approach were extremely influential to my minimalist performance pieces and that I truly respected and honoured the lineage but hoped to always add my own brand of Gothic metropolitan pessimism to the paintings. His shoulders relaxed and he replied " Yeah it's fun, but effective". I call this "talking zen" and truly thrive on changing skeptical opinions about not only what I do but about life in general. I promise you HEY APATHY! is much more than a parody, it is a means of communication, education, interaction and of hope.




As well as the praise and degradation, I also find the providence of experience in live painting unlike anything I have ever known or studied. The ability of the paintings to connect with peoples of all ages and of all walks of life is incredible. I have sold t-shirts to homeless derelicts and been a guest at some of the worlds most revered dinner tables as a result of my mentally unbalanced campaign. The Passe Muraille event was a rather ritzy one and everyone wall dressed to kill and the scent of perfume drowned out that of the champagne. I always end up meeting and associating with the servers, the performers, and the honoured guests and never feel out of place or class regardless of the spotlight or otherwise. The laughing lady in the red (first photo) is Olivia Chow, former Toronto city councilor and member of parliament. She came up to me after the auction to congratulate me on the piece and was rather amazed at how quickly I was able to produce the work. The man in the snazzy coat is Chris Bell (second picture), a member of the board of directors at the theatre and a true patron of the arts in his own right. Chris has been an integral contributor to the HEY APATHY! project for many years as he financed my first website as well as the amazing Wollesely street mural ). Chris also saved my a- before the show. I was running late and made a few mistakes in preparing my supplies for the event but fortunately Chris was more than willing to provide the necessary transportation to get me & my paints to the show on time. We had to put some paints, a stretcher, easel and paper into his classy convertible but Chris was more than willing to take the risk. Luckily nothing was spilt or damaged inside his beautiful automobile. THANKS CHRIS, Jane, Aviva, and all the other folks who made the Gala a roaring success!