Alternative Comics Street Art and Performance Video

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Just finished putting together this video of street art, performances and mural painting. The video will be projected tomorrow night on Queen Street West as an unofficial part of the 2010 Nuit blanche celebrations. Officially a selection of my animations will be included in the outdoor installation taking place at the main entrance of 401 Richmond Street ( a huge arts complex featuring galleries, studios and office stuff.Here's the write up for the video:

HEY APATHY! is an ongoing investigation into the monstrous metropolis. In the earliest works the city was announced as a giant gear propelled by an endless sea of faceless denizens. In order to best understand the phenomena in question I developed a particular artist's process involving outdoor festival performances, public murals and street art. By means of this unconventional interview I have since talked to thousands of people from all over the globe and of all walks of life. As a result both the artworks and myself have evolved immensely. Today my comics still depict the city as an ominous gear, only now it is up to all the strange and unique characters, not anonymous cogs, who fuel the machine.

This video features several timelapse documentations of my live performances and graffiti work as well as a little animation. Artworks 2002-2007, video by Slavek Smeigel and Craig Boyko. Experimental Soundtrack by Narsen Osutei, Mark vanZyl and Mike Parsons. All new surreal animations, weird comics, and cursed contemporary art at  http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/



Alternative Comics Animation Stills

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

Still plugging away at the apparently endless ( unlike the finances) pile of drawings for the new animations. Also found some time this week to get the next pages of the online comic ready and handled most of the bureaucratic chores which bog down the unrepresented artist.

Alternative Comics

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics GERM WARFARE

HEY APATHY  SURREAL COMICS

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the quality of my blog posts have been directly related to our strange Torontonian weather. During the summer heat wave I found it difficult to spend time at the computer but got inspired again as the temperatures cooled to a reasonably wam level. However since that time things have been topsy turvey and the temperatures fluctuated between a hot humid forty and a cold wet 25 several times during the course of one week. And like this journal, I was heavily affected by the weather. I have been so sick, fevers, coughs, conjestion, joint pains, you name it. This is the first time I've brought the fever down enough to actually type something. Damn it's tormenting to be ill when there is so much work to be done. New Surreal webcomic post tomorrow regardless of my health.  

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Magazine

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

Made this logo for the HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics Magazine. I've been posting all my new works from 2010 on my website in a sort of chronological yet haphazard manner so now that the year is almost up, I've started to clean up  the webpage and decided to turn it into a Weird Tales style magazine. The magazine features a weekly webcomic, a series of ink drawings entitled Creature Visions and 13 illustrated stories ( I think there are 7 unedited ones postde so far). Thought it would be fun to present t work as such.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Interiors #3

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A potted tree and the robot gardener.

Alternative Comics Creature Visions

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

aLTERNATIVE COMICS Amorphous Glob Drawings

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A little Amorphous Globular Macroverse portrait I did today based on the characters and themes from the 13 Stories and upcoming Surreal Comics weekly. I've been a bit frustrated with the fuzzy edges I've been getting from my sketchbook drawings so I thought I try a nice piece of drawing paper today just for fun. The image was easier and for the most part crisper than the recent doodles I've been posting. However I hit a big draw back when transferring the image to the digital world. Unfortunately the way the ink sits on the high quality paper causes a glimmer when I scan the work. By the time I've sorted out the contrast and glare in the computer the damn thing gets pixelated and loses it's fine edges any how! see more HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Stories

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Since my primary attention is currently being given to the development of an extensive hand drawn animation (sponsored by the Ontario Council for the Arts) my current artistic practice is rather repetitive and mundane. It takes at least thirty similar drawings to make a character move for a couple of seconds, so you can imagine it can be days of work before the concepts or technique evolve even slightly. However to keep my imagination from slowing to a factory like pace I am producing a number of short comics in my sketch book on the side.

These comics are turning out to be really fun. I have often kept a comic-sketch book as a means of stream of conscious expression. The idea is basically to use up a sketchbook entirely with comics so that the completed book could be presented as a work of art ( wouldn’t that be funny?). I tend to use a single page technique wherein each page is a whole strip or series of funnies. The cheap sketch book works well because it eradicates any intimidation freeing me of all preconceptions of what the drawing should be. I know that these cartoons have to be done quickly and are on low quality paper , therefore I needn’t bother with planning, revisions or technical fidgeting. The work just really let’s me explore my weird brain, letting whatever happens happen and try to figure out what it’s all about later.

I’ve done this experiment at least four times in which I produced two volumes of STUPID COMICS, a tastelessly twisted homage to Crumb and the underground comics movement of the sixties, three issues of DOWN, a surreal creature feature about men as monsters as well as machines, and a large graphic novel entitled THIS DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE. For the most part these books are compiled of single panel or page cartoons involving specific thematic and technical explorations using an unplanned free form approach. One of the most interesting aspects of each of these projects is how that despite being entirely unscripted and often plotted as individual parables, the books always end up stringing together chronologically to reveal a hidden narrative. I say hidden because one, the larger story-arcs are not always easily apparent and two, because I didn’t even realize I was writing them at the time.

The panels I’ve posted today are about the Mad Scientist and his two strange Assistants. The Mad Scientist started about a few weeks ago in a single page strip wherein he experiments on himself. It was just supposed to be a silly short comic but oddly enough the character has perpetually resurfaced. The Mad Doctor, now with two unidentifiable medical assistants, seems to be meddling in the affairs of some of the other characters. I don’t really know why yet or what the purpose of these re-occurring characters, but I’ll admit Im kind of interested in the outcome my self. Can’t wait to get back to the drawing board tomorrow so I can find out what happens next...

more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Ornamental Talismans

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Most of the day was spent hovering over the light table and animation stand, although I still did some comics sketching in the park and finished these little ornamental talisman's designed for wrap around like on a mug or a biohazardous chemical waste cannister. From top to bottom the symbology is as follows; the machine as being, the black arts, the face of the metropolis, a surreal incident, and life and death in the city of gears.

Alternative Comics Another day at the public office...

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics!

Just finished up another Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. The show was a bit slower than previous years as we lost Friday to rain, had to compete with the World Cup final and quite simply that tourists don’t come to T.O. anymore. Having said all that I still had a great time and met hundreds of people and nearly talked my head off. The highlight, as I mentioned yesterday, was meeting all the kids and it was nice to see people from Queen street and new faces as well. Oddly enough I only sold one painting but the comics, prints and t-shirts put me on par with the success of other years. I consider this a real accomplishment because it takes a lot of small sales to make the kind of money one get’s for original artwork, but in the end I did well and was really excited to be moving the books. Many people were really excited to get a copy of my third comic despite the fact they had already read the first two. Anyways the story that sticks out most in mind is my conversations with Braiden, one of the neighbourhood kids. Braiden used to come and see me at least once a week out on Queen street when I was still there regularly performing on the streets. I put him and his dad on the back cover page of HEY APATHY! Book Two and gave it to them a few weeks ago at the comic convention. He was really excited but had a small request. “Put me in a comic!” asked the little crazy kid. “You are in the comic” I replied and showed him the picture again and he said “ I know about that, but I want to be inside the comic!” I laughed but totally understood what he was saying and we spent about a half hour going through my sketchbook together. I love the public festivals and all the unique experiences but it’s back to work in the studio tomorrow and on with the animations… more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS The Billboards and the Violinist

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

The city is a giant gear propelled by all the strange people moving through it. On the right a large female model is trapped on the face of a towering commercial skyscraper, her billboard belly partially assimilates and annihilates young women by way of a subliminal force. The ominously flickering screen engulfs the mind and bodies of it’s victims intrinsically drawn into a vortex of unobtainable dreams. The gears spins on. Fortunately one potential target has developed an immunity to the advertisements prowess, in a small apartment on the left a girl is learning to play the violin. The music, read from alchemic notations, surrounds her with an indescribably majesty protecting her from the devious destruction of the world and chaos all around… more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.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.

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Alternative Comics G20 from the streets...

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

Today was a very quiet one in the neighbourhoods and main strips of downtown Toronto. The G20 has reaped a previously unheard of force of police security and surveillance through out the streets. Over the past few days I’ve encounter and been interrogated by numerous bike police. There are unmarked vans circle around all the parks and cop cars every few minutes. The city has really slowed down as both noticeable decrease can be scene in both pedestrian and automobile traffic. Today however was entirely uneventful. I strolled around and read in the park and not once did I witness or encounter any signs of official intervention.

There was, of course, for the first time this week a scuffle resulting in one of the most grotesque slapping noises I’d ever heard as a fist flew sluggishly, yet all powerful, into the face of an unsuspecting target. The two had been play fighting but the game obviously had escalated. It appeared to be over when the hard cheap shot came. Admitingly I’d taken alarm to these folk nearly an hour earlier but assumed that local security would get them first. I also knew half way through the fight exactly what was going to happen when the playing was done. These guys wreaked of trouble, though not in any relation to the protests of the summit, but alas there wasn’t a sole cop to be seen. I suppose the rally got out of hand because the foot patrol so demonously overwhelming Kensington and surrounding areas patrol of late was clearly called to another location…

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ALTERNATIVE COMICS What lies beneath the brickwork ...

HEY APATHY! Alternative comics

A strange deviation lurks beyond the metropolis' shadows breeding and brooding in the darken alleys and sewers. Though still unassuming yet a certain times visible, these weird horned malformations reek of diabolic intent. A alchemic concoction constituently designed of a unique intermingling of the physical and intangible is slowly formulating a new race. The bacteria necessary for these creatures inception is common and harmless to those without contact. The rotting foods, wasted containers and used toxins normally found in all garbage when left to culture in dark and damp places contain the necessary fluids for the ensuing development of a most frightening enemy. However these fermented and macrobiotic organisms of decay are uselessly inanimate with out the inclusion of certain rituals and would likely only fester in unkempt corners and unfiltered sewer ways.

The rituals involved are on their own much more devious and as a rule cause great harm to any involved. Through any act of malicious aggression, violence or depravation the chemical environments may be well prepared for the birth. Following even the most miniscule of horrific occurrences the air and area of the location becomes stained. A telepathic residue changes the scene’s composure leaving unseen markings viable enough to incite change. In instances of extreme devastation the psychic residue may be so extreme as to force those who enter the premises unknowingly to re-enact the previous terrors despite clear and sane histories free from violence. The rituals do not require such escalated events to proceed as almost any act of hatred will suffice in the change.

It is the unique mixture of these, our excessive physical wastes and intrinsic motive and acts of cruelty, which have completed this new formula of probable destruction. As garbage is left unattended in the darkest corners of the city, so to do these corners nurture evil acts. From the most insidious crimes of man against man right down to terrible self inflicted and addictive injuries are seething through the un-trodden pathways, alleys and underground tunnels. Most of these atrocities have been ignored by the people and press while those which have been acknowledged have since been deemed social acceptable. Yet despite the mass denial and inexplicable justifications, the spell has been cast and a change will soon take place. The accumulative fervour of all these negative acts is breeding and brooding in the development of a new race. With horns on their heads they have been witnessed quite seldom but rest assured in unrest for an army of evil is growing behind the unlit brick work in the monsrous metropolis known as the City of Gears…  more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-at.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS an artist's statements

HEY APATHY! Surreal Artworks

Another attempt to explain what I do in 500 words or less, okay it's late and I'm bored but I think this will still prove valuable...

HEY APATHY! Is an ongoing artistic investigation into the metropolis, the people, and the mechanics of being. Using a combination of fine artworks and popular mass media I have developed a visual vocabulary expressing a stern yet optimistic warning towards future days. The entire project, initiated in 2001, reads as an extended narration involving ink drawings, murals, gallery installations, comic books, publications, street performances, video and animation. By way of this interdisciplinary and increasingly public process I’ve determined a vehicle for discourse suitable to both the gallery connoisseur and viewers of all ages. The validity of my life’s work will be examined through a brief analysis of the project’s history, cultural significance and current explorations.

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

In the initial drawings (2001) the city was announced as an ominous gear powered by an endless sea of faceless denizens. At that time I was working out an introverted artist’s studio and envisioned the metropolis as a nihilistic conglomeration of misdirected superficial and commercial ideologies. In order to better understand the phenomena in question I developed a uniquely extroverted artist’s process through which public presentations, performances, interactions and interventions would help resolve my inquiries. Since that time I have used the public forum to initiate exchanges with peoples from all over the world and of all walks of life. With each passing year I learned more of architecture and others as reflected in the ultimate progression of my works. Today the city is still rendered as a giant gear, only now it is fuelled by all sorts of strange individual rather than anonymous cogs in a machine.

Urban Arworkst and Large Murals

The primary objective of the “HEY APATHY!” artworks is to produce a commentary simultaneously intellectually provocative as well as accessible to viewer of all ages. In order to best achieve a dialogue amongst broad audiences I have assimilated various technical approaches. Equal attention has been given to the development of sustain studio artworks and to the production of multi-media and accessible artworks. By experimenting with various presentation techniques, and one on one interactions my artwork delves into humanist themes introducing unsuspecting pedestrians to alternative ideas usually reserved for gallery walls. Through the inclusion of street performances, animations, and comics, HEY APATHY! is capable of communicating to an inclusive audience of all ages, races, and walks of life.

HEY APATHY! Public Exhibitions and Street Art

To the artist interested in initiating mass dialogue the possibilities of multi-media artworks facilitates necessity. In my most recent studies I have developing a series of videos, comics and art books suitable for both online presentation and gallery exhibition. I am currently creating a new hand drawn animation sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council in which over 300 fully rendered stills will be compiled on film. The idea being that the finished artworks will be prepared as a wall installation to accompany the film. The unique and extensive project travels through 13 short vignettes recounting the evolutionary narrative expressed throughout my art works including imagery developed between 2001-2010. The completed project will not only extend my technical vocabulary but will further my attempts to reconfigure popular culture, fine artwork as a sophisticated yet accessible conversation. The “HEY APATHY!” endeavour continually exposes a humanist ideology crossing the irrational barriers which segregate one man from another retaining much significance universally and decidedly Canadian. (Damn 541 words but close and better luck next time!)

HEY APATHY animation sample from FLIES HOLES AND ROACHES 2002

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ALTERNATIVE COMICS Castles and Vines

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

The metropolis development pinnacles at new heights, mastering the art of industry and finances as well as control. Devouring all thing known as natural the machine like city excels in production creating endless empowering new consumerist devices. Castles reach to the sky while kings reach inhuman wealth all of which is derivative of the planet below. As new products are made available they become utterly desired by way of a mesmeric promise of unobtainable gains. The masses partake in endless rituals, travelling endless road ways, and transposing seemingly endless substances for what they believe is their own gain.

However the long forgotten, yet still trotted and pillaged, gigantic orb known as earth lies restless in watch. She watches as they steal her lungs the giant trees, as they strap concrete over her pours and cause explosions in her skin. She sees them as they drain her emotions, the great sea, and when they replace her waters with depressive malformations. She feels it when large tubes pierce her vascular system sucking out her black blood with out the tiniest remorse.

It is highly unusual for one to perpetually sustain such harsh blows, yet mother nature has patience and time on her side. She is willing to wait for her enemies self undoing and knows of new vegetations and the storms which will ensue. And in the slight chance that man won’t destroy itself in time, she can feel the infectious meteor’s pull despite it’s still great distance. So with her calmly relaxed dreams she closes her eyes causing several earthquakes and envisions future days. In her sleep she sees vines growing higher than the sky washing away the castles and obliterating the paved patches all over her face. In the fantastic foliage, putting the finest rainforests to shame, she envelops the patterns of interwoven time. Therein the greats green tapestry lies her most joyous of dreams, as tiny liquid droplets imprison the remaining human beings. .

more HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Metropolitan Castles

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS!

The magnificent metropolis has developed to an unmatched pinnacle boasting towering castles and systems of mass production. The denizens are influenced by controlled basic necessities and through the use of magically flickering and utterly unobtainable fantasies. By means of their servitude progress and wealth are in abundance and the prosperous city is ever growing sprouting concrete extremities out in every direction and across many distance lands. Functioning as an enormously intricate vascular structure the road ways provide the city with all the necessary provisions. To and from an apparently endless source trucks travel with the resources empowering the metropolis’ hunger and strength.

 

Though psychologically detached from world of rock and soil the castle rely heavily upon the earth to survive. Asides from the oxygen and water given freely the planet also harbours multiple secrets which are not as easily sought. In fact the skyscrapers, the servants and the vehicle are all dependent on the earth’s blood as the primary fuel source permitting the endless consumption but mother nature protects her life force with deadly defence. The blood although quit useful when handled properly is seething with toxins best left beneath the ground. However in all our ingenuity man has managed to extract the fluids sacredly horded under ground. But as with all things human error is destined to occur as one of the large blood tubes has recently failed.

 

Exploded in retaliation the pipes has burst forth seeping an environmentally fatal curse upon sea and land. The black liquid gold is quickly turned the colour of death as a seemingly unstoppable plague devours entire gulfs. Many animals and ecosystems not mention financial sectors have been crippled or extinguished by the devastating ooze. Fear not young metropolitans for the castles will still stand and likely feel little of the terror resultant of the catastrophe. And besides it is known that this disaster can be easily remedied since those responsible determine the most appropriate means to profit from the supposedly insignificant horror.

more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS STREET ART CHRONOLOGY 2008

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

I spent the fall and early winter of 2007 preparing for a large scale drawing installation. The show opened on the first of December and ran for an entire month at the Resistor Gallery on College Street, Toronto. The new years cold month were spent at the Kensington Market studio producing a series of 3 extended and extremely intricate pen and ink drawings. I returned to the street for my last full time season during the late May of 2008. In this my final year I had mastered my performances. I had overcome territorial battles, imitators, city by-laws and perfected my display. However despite conquering many of the streets obstacles there was one battle which could not be won. The 2008 street season proved to be one of the most gruelling of all as Toronto was swamped with unseasonably wet weather.

Last Street Drawing The Corner of Queen West & Soho

Though it was my practice to produce smaller detailed drawings during the week cumulating with weekend performance extravaganza’s the was not a single live painting produced on the streets in 08. The warm weather came late after a harsh and cold winter and was dampened by constant thunder storms and rain. In fact it actually rained every single Saturday and almost every Sunday for the entire spring and summer that year preventing all my public painting. The weekdays weren’t much better as I found myself perpetually closing up shop midday to avoid being drenched. Business was great when it was sunny but the clouds were relentless. A picturesque example of my street art that year is the image of me and two customers trapped under my umbrella waiting for the storm to pass so we can close the sale. I produced approximately 30 15 x 30 “ detailed pen and ink studies including my last street drawing depicting the landscape around me. Frustrated by the rainfall I found the season more contemplative than progressive and decidedly started illustrations regarding my evolutionary course. The diptychs explored comparative imagery of similar landscapes drawn in my initial hieroglyphic style and my more modern comic book renderings respectively. There were not many crowds and nor live paintings in the streets and having done some final analysis’ I decided it was time to move on.

CITY OF GEARS from a far and from inside.

Fortunately and fatefully cosmic at the same time I as the streets were fading I received three invitations to work at gala events. I painted at a huge fundraiser at the Don Valley Brick Works and at a Queen West Gallery Event, followed by a commissioned clothing design for the Art Gallery of Ontario and a performance in the storefront window of Toronto’s Hudson’s Bay Company Store. All the cards were lining up for me to move on as I found my street art exhibits landing in the most unusual of places. While the outdoors grew less friendly and workable due to the poor weather, many new doors were opening up and welcoming me inside.

The City Fish! HEY APATHY ink drawings 2008

I had expended much energy trying to work around the awful weather and found that my time was more fully consumed by this irritation than by the act of creation. I stopped working the streets in Sept of 08 though the transition was as natural as necessary as I’d already spent the better part of the season indoors. Feeling satisfied with my investigations I resided to start focussing on certain more detailed and sustained projects which could not be made in the streets. Not only did the rain dictate the amount of work being made but so to did the wind, dirt, and bird droppings which often plagued the streets. The life span of an illustration board being worked on in public is approximately three days. After this time the dust and moisture begins to take it’s toll. The tree I depended on for shade and shelter from the elements also had a tendency of releasing particles of sap across my papers. Therefore any drawing had to be completed quit quickly so as to be wrapped protectively under plastic before the streets ruined the piece. This meant no sustained artworks and absolutely no comics for such projects require pristine environments for production.The rain also played a huge part in determining the work for if the skies looked threatening I had to work on a small scale. No brushes or wet inks could be used on such days and as a result I worked exclusively with technical pens through out 2008.

THE CITY MONSTER!

 

In the fall I resigned and retired from my full time venture in the streets and decided to pursue the development of the HEY APATHY! comics. Having learned many things about architecture and others I set up my studio to start my surreal memoirs. The new comic book series would be a simultaneous exploration of my true life experiences and the mythological illustrations I created on the streets. The goal being to share my experiences of strange interactions with my sociological symbolic superhero drawings. Even though I was now well researched and certain that I’d learnt all I could from the public venue, I knew that I would miss the constant exchange of ideas so I started to plan ahead. Instead of working the streets I started booking a number of public festivals ensuring that I would perform at least once a month throughout the following year. Today I am still working at numerous festivals while simultaneously maintaining a ridged studio schedule. The result has been more comics and animations but no of the stories could have possibly sprouted with out the 5 years worth of investigative interventions which I performed in the streets.

more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS AT TORONTO COMICCON

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics at Toronto Comic Con!

 

It has been over a week since I last found time to scribe my ridiculous notions in this little journal. Fortunately the lapse was not the result of any fit of malaise nor the result of any injury but rather induced by an excited distraction. I spent the better part of last week. the entire weekend and then some working on two simultaneous exhibitions. Having unintentionally double booked showings this past Sat.- Sun. my father and I split the chores and attended separate shows. He took the fine art up to Ottawa while I attended the Toronto Comic Con Fan Appreciation event at the Metro Toronto Convention center. 

 

The comic festival was awesome and I met hundreds of people while performing a 4 x 8 foot live ink drawing (shown above). It was really fun to share my alternative comics philosophies in a venues primarily dominated by the mainstream. The live painting was highly regarded especially by the younger audiences as I made a bunch of new short friends who kept coming back to check my progress. The painting featured a giant city of gears propelled by a whirlwind of all sorts of crazy people. Like all of my performances, the drawing was heavily influenced by the surroundings and the city was transformed into a monstrous mecha-creature. But do not fret for the skies are quickly filling with various super-heroes soaring towards the beast and ready to save the day! The entire drawing took two days to complete and was done simultaneous with constant story-telling and discussions making the experience one I'll never forget.

The second day of the show was particularly busy as a result of the incredible Fan Appreciation promotion. The Comic con charged a $10 admission fee but in return each person received a $10 voucher good at any of the comic book retail booths. I thought this was great especially in comparison to most conventions which cost over $20 just to get in. The place was packed right until closing and I was happy to see several old friends from Queen West as well as many, many new ones.  

Toronto Comic Con!

Me and Venus Cat getting ready for the weekend shows.

While I was working away at the Convention Centre my Dad was doing the same up in Ottawa at an Outdoor Exhibition. His show went really well and he had tonnes of stories. It was really wild to hear him talking about all the different people that he'd met. He sounded very much like I do when I've just finished a good show and I am really happy that the experience was as enlightening for him. Thanks for your help Dad way above and beyond anything I ever expected. We won the emerging artist award at the festival and my father managed to move a number of ink drawings as well as merchandise. 

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