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 Surreal Webcomic

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Busy week in and out of the comics laboratory. I've been pounding away at the animation but had so many other odds and ends that  time is slipping by fast. I did a lot of research ( with the aid of my father) into getting proper prints done. I haven't been able to meet the needs of my customers because of various technical difficulties regarding print production. However this past week has been really successful and I've been able to find a few really nice prints at various price points. I got some glossy posters done, which will probably sell for less than $60 and some really high quality arcival giglee prints. The giglee prints aren't cheap, but damn they are striking. I am really happy with the work and will be making up a couple of new editions next week. This weekend is the Nuit Blanche festival so I also spent many hours editing the animations and music which are going to be projected on the front of 401 Richmond Street. I'll also be performing /projecting out on Queen West as an unofficial part of the program. The worst part about editing was that not only do I not know what I'm doing, but I installed a brand new video editing software in my computer that was totally awesome, until it crashed my system. Nothing, not even my documents folder, would work properly until I uninstalled the new system. That was a rotten 6 hours. Nonetheless I got the weekly webcomic finished and posted. The prologue or first vignette, is now complete. So that's one exhausting week with many other things still unresolved I move forward towards Saturday's exhibition, an entire night, from sunrise to sunset, of live painting and projected animations in the middle of the streets. OTHER STREET ART EXHIBITS

Alternative Comics a frankenstein story

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics Self Portrait.

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

So I’ve been into some books as of late, just something I always promised myself to do but never had the time. As I’ve tread through the pages of some of the most wondrous works, Kafka, swift, Dostoesky and Orwell I’ve noticed an alarming trend. The hero ( a mockingly absurdist titile) is always a social misfit, a trouble unable to coexist in a world of false faces, weird logic, and the devious empowerment of high society and government. The hero always exposes the fraudulent world representing humanity, hope, and generally common sense. However, as I’ve already mentioned, these heroes are misfits.

In almost every case we, the reader, are brought to identify with these abnormal visionaries and learn to be sympathetic with their outsiderness. We, the reader, learn from the heroes follies of the problems of our world. We learn about good, evil, politics, control and we see the problems in a new light. A light which inside each of our isolated existences appears to make sense. We understand these miscreants and we understand the worlds they preside in as if they were our own. Didn’t you feel the cold grey hard cinder blocks being piled around you as you enjoyed 1984?

Herein lies the dilemma. Can we all really be Winston Smith, the Idiot, or Meursault? I mean these books sell, more than that, they are immortal, they are read in schools, they are everything. and everywhere. But if that is the case how can the world still be a the beck and whim of the diabolical demon? How can we keep on keeping everything down if we alll understand the outsider? It perplexes me to think that anyone who has read these books is anti-sympathetic with the hero, yet have these works had absolutely no effect on our behaviour? Are these works beautiful for their collective expression or are they merely celebrated in jest as of the words of madman. Maybe the are appreciated simply for being completely different, insane if you will, from the standard thought processes related to the human condition.

It is just a little paradox running through my brain right now. How can so much intellectualism be awarded merit yet so easily disregarded in practical terms. All the best literature runs the same vein. They all say the same thing and they are all proffering warnings. Warnings that seem to be lost along a shelf of dusty books. At least Orwell’s work won’t make it to the next generation ( copyrighted off of kindle as far as I know) so they won’t have any excuse for nt undstdn @ txt or subtxt. Anyways I feel as many of those characters did and I’ve spent all my time working towards a better existence. Mostly because I am crazy but also because I’ve nothing better to do with my time. Ps I’m going to try to approach this subject again but really wanted to see what would happen if I started randomly jotting some points on the subject)

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Webcomic

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

I can’t believe it’s almost October already. Two days ago it was 30 degrees humid and warm all night. Today it is fall. The wind is howling the nice temperatures are hiding with the sun and we are all that much older. Without getting too morbid or macabre ( giggling already)I can’t help but to repeatedly envision my final breaths and I  feel closer  and more terrified of them than ever before. The end of the summer will do that to you. Working hard despite the ominous premonitions and got another page of the surreal comics up as well as this little promo drawing. I wouldn’t really call this the cover because it only took a few hours and was drawn in my sketch pad. I’ll take some time to do a real cover someday maybe when it’s not so cold out but hopefully before those horrid, gasping, conscious and absolutely enlightened last breaths…



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.