ALTERNATIVE COMICS Street Art Chronology Stories from 2005 part 2

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics STREET ART Chronology

The street season of 2005 pushed my artworks and presentation techniques in all sorts of new and innovative directions. In the earlier part of the season I switched from using my hand carved bamboo pen to using a brush. At first this transition was primarily for filling in large black areas, but the swift fluidity of the brush soon replaced the pen for all of the work. This new instrument permitted me to make faster and larger drawings which were much more exciting for the audience to watch. I also started producing small framed artwork which were simultaneously more marketable and the perfect paper weights to prevent my drawings from blowing down the road. The artworks steadily grew in speed intricacy and size so that by the end of the summer I was using up about 20 x 12 feet worth of the city block.

The first day of live painting (described earlier in yesterday's post) included some bamboo pig heads, monsters and robots. The poster sized artworks each featured a single character and were made entirely with the clumsy bamboo pens. All of these drawings, although unique depictions, were based on previous designs I’d exhibited in the galleries. As the summer moved on I continued to explore similar imagery only using the brush. The drawings got a bit more simple but could be made incredibly fast. At first these images also mimicked and expanded on my older designs but before the mid point of the season new monstrosities started to appear. More and more human depictions were directly resultant of my interactions on the street.

HEY APATHY! 30 x 40 ink on paper street drawings

STREET ART 2005 4 x 6 foot Transformation Scrolls

As the imagery changed so to did the format. The 30 x 40 inch poster sized ink drawings grew into extended 2 x 4 foot animated narratives, the to 4 x 6 foot large format paintings. The sequential scrolls featured strange transformations of man into monster, animal and machine. The large images started to revisit the metropolis and the ominous gear from my first series only now the examination was drawn from the vantage of the street. The faceless cogs and anonymous creatures now presented themselves as a amazingly diverse crowd. Each individual depicted in the artwork, though still alienated, had a story of their own. In the final weekend before the summer closed I completed a 10 x 15 foot large mural of Toronto. The image featured a military attack on an armoured hero inspired by a short work by Kurt Vonnegut. The artwork took three days to complete created primarily with brushes but detailed extensively with my old bamboo pen.

10 x 15 foot "Death of a Hero" Toronto Mural.

 (Duct taped to street wall with my duffle bag in the left corner)

Like the size of the artworks the crowds too perpetually expanded. A larger number of onlookers were taking interest and I was moving a lot of art. The small tool kit was a thing of the past as my display now overflowed 2 large duffle bags with an additional large roll of paper. In fact I found my self making inopportune mission biking to the dollars store to restock on frames. At first I would spend the mornings making small brush drawings but soon the demand was keeping me up most of the night. It got to the point were I was making batches of fifty brush monster drawings more than 5 times a week. Of coarse where there is action the is usually trouble and it became evermore difficult to avoid the bi-law consequences Continued tomorrow ...

more street art at  www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/monster-comics-street-art.html

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/