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 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

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

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 Street Art Chronology 2007

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics STREET ART

       

The 2007 was by far my most exciting as well as one of the shortest in the five year experiment. Having the luck of a profitable Christmas, I passed the 06 -07 winter indoors working on the pages for HEY APATHY! Book One. At the time of the March holiday, which often started my spring performances, the weather remain vicious but I was content to remain inside until midway through May when the spring finally sprung. I dove right into my new large location across from the Silver Snail and started painting enormous murals at a previously unmatched pace. Every weekend of good weather I made 10 x 12 foot ink murals live on Queen Street West. The new drawings were the biggest of all my performances and could be created in as little as 3 hours. The new season, new location and new performances generated new success.

      

Weekend Performance Painting on Queen Street West

           

I had used the area out front of the Black Bull Pub across the street from the Silver Snail for about a month the previous winter. The location held many advantages including shade, space, and the inability for other artist to intrusions but I knew that there would be certain political grievances ahead if I was going to maintain the spot. First of all the location was often used by a seasoned professional who is famous in Toronto for his enormous chalk renderings. However I was aware that he’d primarily relocated to a busier corner in front of the Eaton Center. I hadn’t seen the Chalk artist on Queen for at least 8 months so I had little concern of offending his seniority. Oddly enough on one of my first days in the new spot I returned to my table to find a set of earplugs sitting mysteriously by my pens. I had already started wearing plugs on the street as a result of experience and had a strange inclination that the gift came from someone else who was aware of the noise. I instantly thought of the chalk artist, the only other person who could possibly know how noisy that corner is over the course of a day. Obviously this is purely speculation but I like to think that the ear plugs were a sort of permission or changing of the guard giving me the approval to occupy the space.

               

ATTACK OF THE CN TOWER! Ink Drawings from the streets 2007

                

Though I never actually encountered the chalk artist I did run into territorial problems with another vendor over the space. For the first few days of the spring a sculptor named John started to compete with me for the space. He would come over a start yelling but I’d argue with my licences which I could tell at a gaze that the apparently derelict sculptor did not possess. One morning he actually picked up my table and smashed over my head and shoulders while I was knelling down to unpack. In another instance I had plaster shattered all around me and my work. Eventually through much peaceful negotiation John and I resided to accommodate each other and share the large space. Some how we made friends and enjoyed a very peaceful comradeship though the space was not fully ideal for two. Fortunately as my business picked up John too had some good fortune selling several sculptures at gallery rates and he retired early giving me the whole space. Despite our vagrant introductions, I am still good friends with John-Paul who ultimately proved the old adage that you can’t tell a book by it’s cover.

Working on some small canvas' during he weekdays

            

By the second week of the good weather I was running a tight ship. No one else disturbed or distracted me and the show went on full force. The CN Tower turned into an eyeball and heroes fought endlessly with villains. The city was a gear and it was being spun by all kinds of people. During the week days I worked on small canvas’ which were selling from $300-500 and in high demand. On Saturday’s I would paint large performance murals gathering enormous crowds and painting up a frenzy. I addition to the Queen Street performances I also did 6 paintings at various P.S. Kensington Car free Festivals totalling 27,10-12 foot ink drawings for the duration of the season. One of these incredible feats was captured in a time lapse video by photographer Craig Boyko. Entitled 3.5 hours with Mike Parsons featured a 10 x 12 foot depiction of the city of gears created one Saturday afternoon out on Queen Street West.

             

Live Painting at Kensington Market Street Festival

                   

Having worked as hard as I could and near perfecting my street art I retired for the year on the 1st of September. In a short 4 month season I’d actually talked to more people and sold more paintings than in all of my previous years combined. Instead of $10 sketches, I was selling paintings and my full line of merchandised comics, t-shirts, and prints were always running out of stock. My performances were becoming powerful as I attracted more and more onlookers and most importantly of all the summer weather was immaculate. At the end of August I booked an exhibition space for the first time in years, and retreated to the studio to develop 7 new pen and ink canvasses.

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Street Art Chronology 2006 part 2

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Street Art

Part 2 continued from yesterday

The 2006 season lasted well into the fall with a brief relapse in good weather in time for the holiday season. Following the Edward Day show and the Cambridge Galleries Solo Exhibition, I continued to work on the streets performing weekend murals and working on pen drawings. The weather remained friendly until late in October and I happily held regular hours on the sidewalks of Queen West. It was an incredible experience to sit comfortably out doors in the fall as I witnessed the city change seasons and faces. All sorts of new people had arrived from all over as new students and new businesses started their year. The leaves changed slowly but assuredly though the temperature remained seasonably remarkable until the sudden November winds.

MONSTER COMICS STREET ART 06

Without warning the streets turned cold and uninhabitable, the likes of I’d not seen for near two years. I returned to my studio satisfied for the season and decided to work on HEY APATHY! Book One. However the monstrous gusting passed rather quickly and the dampened weather recuperated in time for the Christmas shopping. I got back out on the street mid-way through November and found the holiday season worth weathering the colder weather. I would work until 7 each night with a lantern after dark. It was certainly getting colder but business was booming as many a weird drawing went off as gifts.

The most unusual occurrence erupted during my winter street art exhibits as the weather took a strange yet welcome new course. The winter let up and the sun started rising beaming temperatures in the low teens reminiscent of spring. For the last two weeks of December I set up a 12 x 12 foot display on Queen Street West across from the Silver Snail and painted giant pictures under a beautifully sunny and windless sky. It was as warm as 10 degrees Celsius and the streets were consumed by pedestrians more than in all my previous encounters. It is a very rare occasion for Toronto to experience such fine weather during the busiest shopping event of the year and every one took advantage. Including me, thanks to the unseasonable warm and dry climate I was able to do live paintings all throughout the month of December. It was like fourteen busy Saturdays all strung in a row. I never met so many people nor received such excited reactions, especially those from the younger awestruck viewers. Following a two week long street art extravaganza I finally retired to my studio for the winter and started putting together the artwork for my first HEY APATHY! Comic. The weather stayed relatively mild for the better part of the winter but there was no way I was going back out on the streets until spring. more at HEY APATHY!

 

Cover of HEY APATHY! BOOK ONE/13

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Street Art Chronology 2006 part 1

HEY APATHY! Alterantive Comics at P.S. Kemsington 

Street Art Stories 2006

continued from ALTERNATIVE COMICS Street Art Chronology 2005-06 part 4 As the summer picked up so did the heat., in every sense of the word. The temperature rose as did the crowds and once more my performances were proving successful. I had expanded, uncontested to a full 10x14 foot display featuring a complete line of prints, large murals, and t-shirts when simultaneous success brought forth enemies both new and old. While I successfully exhibited the works at the T.O.A.E. and was invited to take part in a group show in one of Toronto’s best galleries, at the same time the celebrations caused me more by-law hardships while working on the street.

 

By the summer of 2006 I had developed numerous and practiced techniques for my live painting performances. I had stop detailing the images with bamboo and focussed entirely one brushes using the wooden handle end instead of the pen. 4 x 6 foot Monsters and spiralling metropolis spewed across the paper in a matters of minutes. The images involved several characters from the 2005 ink drawings including the Superhero, the Samurai, the Machinehead and the Evil eye. I worked out on Queen Street on a daily basis while performing on the weekends and at several P.S. Kensington Car Free street festivals . Numerous midnight missions were also made landing graffiti style cartoon decapitations all over the city.

 

Live Painting at the T.O.A.E.

The street drawings were starting to gain recognition and were successfully shown at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. The weather remained cordial throughout the entire weekend and the open air festival proved unbelievable busy. On the first day I painted a large set of character faces which I proceeded to cut and frame for the Saturday sales. This was a process I had repeated almost daily while exhibiting the work on Queen West. At first I would make ten or twenty of these scribbled monsters and they would last for a week but by 2006 I was making at least that many each day. Eventually it got to the point were I would set out a 4 x 6 foot scroll and draw 50-60 characters in a rough grid as a performance and hope the supplies lasted. Fortunately or otherwise the character performance at the T.O.A.E. was the last batch of small hand drawn artworks I ever made. I replaced my 8.5 x 11 “ selections with digital prints after the exhibition.

4 x 6 ft. Character Performance and Selection of Prints

 

I talked to adults and children and people from all over the world. I even met people who spoke only other languages as the show is a huge attraction for tourists and collectors alike.One of the most impressive encounters I had at the outdoor exhibition was my introduction to the curator of the Edward day gallery, Kelly McCrey. The Edward Day gallery is one of the most highly respected of fall the Torontonian establishments. Kelley invited me to take part in a group exhibition and I was proud to accept his incredible offer. The HEY APATHY! Street drawings were reaching new heights both technically, professionally and most importantly in terms of interactions.

 

Having travelled many drawings since my introverted studio days I really started taking to engaging the crowds. Every drawing had a story and I was talking to more people and drawing bigger crowds. Of course, like before, the attention attracted grievances . A neighbouring and fully licensed jewellery vendor took offence to my success and started perpetual reports of my “inappropriate” activities to my old friends the by-law enforcers. At first the by-law officers let me pass with my buskers license but the jeweller persisted. He even made false reports of illicit behaviour resulting in visitations and fruitless searches by the actual police. Eventual the by-law officers, after numerous complaints from the vendor, told me that my license was not fully legit. They got me on a technicality which states that the busker cannot actually put articles on the city walk ways. After several repeat encounters, in which I was always sent off of the streets, one of the by-law officers told me that he found out more about the licenses and that there was one I could get. I followed his instructions immediately and found myself fully licensed and back on the street.

 I lost almost two weeks of the summer battling with the vendor’s complaints and despite my full license I moved a safe distance away from that jeweller. It occurred to me that all the attention, my music and madness may have been quite problematic to his business so I tried not to hold any lingering hatred for the man. However I soon realized that the bout was indeed personal as the angered jeweller was quickly horded by drunken street people and musicians who occupied my vacated spot near the vendor for the better part of the following two years. Amazingly no matter how loud, how drunk, or how large their group expanded, I never saw the jeweller file another complaint?

Street Art Queen West 2006.

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