Édition spéciale: Les Galipeaus

Hiya folks!

Well, once again, I feel the need to start off by apologizing for being so sporadic in my blogging.  But hey, keepin' busy is my middle name, and as I've mentioned a zillion times: school ('nuff said).  Apparently my brain has gotten bigger in the last little while because I've been getting some ridiculously good grades this semester (and I've always gotten good grades, so if I say they're ridiculously good, well, yah, we're talking Powder-style brain power).  I'm only mentioning this because these grades are making it that much harder for me to say that I will ever fully dedicate myself to making art.  Just too many things I love to do!  Even though, hands down, art is by far the most fun for me, I do get a lot out of scholastic life.

But enough about that!  Today I just wanted to put up a little commission I did over the break (oh yah, remember how I said there were 2?  well here is the second one).  It's a depiction of my friend Paul G's family with their dog Niko.  The whole thing is in the style of these guys.  Paul provided me with pictures of his siblings when they were kids, and a few of his parents then and now.  The position/look of the dog is actually a combination of three different pictures, which I literally cut and pasted together to give myself and idea of placement/proportions.  There isn't much to say about this one since I've already made a post about this series.

Except what I will say is: buy my art!  I still have some dogs left over from the art show that need homes.  BUT I will be giving some away to the Children's Wish Foundation for an auction on February 4th... so get 'em while they're hot!

I've also been working on a pamphlet for CHUO (Ottawa U's radio station)... and am so stoked about it!!!  I don't get many "graphic design" jobs, and am glad that my photoshop skills weren't too rusty!  That should be ready for print as of thursday so keep your eyes open if you're around campus, and I'll post a copy on here.

Well, that's it for now.  Surprise Surprise, I've got some reading to do.  The life of a student is much too predictable.  

Ok that's it for now!

Until next time...

xoxoxo

-P.

P.S. I took the picture before signing the work.. BUT DON'T TRY TO PASS IT OFF AS YOUR OWN YOU GREEDY, BRUTISH, NASTY, AND RUDE HUMANS!

More Barrier stuff!

ink on paper

Aaaaaaalright!

So I just finished the rest of the Barrier cd art.  My friend e-mailed me this week asking me for a few more things.  I'm glad I squeezed it into my schedule (i.e. crawled out from under a pile of books) to get it done because he seemed to be saying they'll be printing it all pretty soon!  Exciting!

I can't wait to see the final product and I'll make sure to post some pictures!

So if you don't remember, a few posts down is the cover art.   The tree stump is meant to be printed in the spot where the cd will be.  I love it when I lift a cd and discover a whole new piece of art under it.  I think it will look great with the tree stump.  Note that I had already mentioned (in the previous Barrier art post) how obsessed I had become with the idea of the passing of time.  The lines of a cut tree-trunk is a great symbol of this since each line represents a year gone by.

When I had finished drawing the (tedious) lines of the stump I remembered that sometimes tree stumps have these sorts of gashes in them.  I decided to add some and (in the spirit of the passing of time) give it a sort of clock-effect, with the gashes as the hands.  It's not meant to be particularly obvious, but if anything it should tap into the types of associations we make sub-consciously.  Unlike typical hands of a clock, they are crooked and multiple, which is in an effort to demonstrate the reality of time: not a singular calculated line but a much more complex and on-going interaction between past and future (which we understand as the present). 

It also seemed to me like these gashes were reminiscent of cuts- irreparable wounds caused by humans against nature... As if the single huge transversal cut wasn't enough of a reminder of the  human imprint on nature.  So basically, keeping with the theme I had discussed previously.  

The second image is for the back of the cd.  I was asked to draw a birdhouse in the corner and have the song titles laid out in the middle in the same font as the cover.  I don't know if I can call my hand-writing a font, but it was weird thinking about writing- only when I think about it does it look completely different than normally!  So let's just say it took a few tries.  I thought the idea of a birdhouse was fittingly ironic- a miniature version of human shelter- the irony kicking in when one starts to wonder why a bird would need to live in something that looks like a house when it is capable of creating its own shelter.  YET that was my initial reaction, other thoughts came to me, like the idea that maybe the birdhouse symbolizes humans seeking to live harmoniously with animals?  I'll have to ponder that one some more...  Definitely an interesting idea. 

Ok I should really get back to my European Continental Literature essay...  But first, a tomato sandwich!

Until next TIME! xo

-P.

P.S. A reminder that the art I've posted here was sloppily arranged to give the impression of cardboard- but I promise it will look much nicer when it's all done properly!  Ooooh that reminds me!  Thanks to a friend in montreal I will be getting some real 21st century art-making/fixing programs!  VERY excited!  

Back to Basics/ pour Iain

12x18, ink on canvas paper

9 x 11, silkscreen on black cotton t-shirt

Ok so it's been a whole 10 days since my last post.  The reason for this being that I had neglected some readings in order to have everything ready for the show and as a result have found myself spending every spare second trying to catch up with school.  

For anyone who doesn't know me personally, I'm a third-year student at Carleton University in the Humanities program with a double major in Sociology.  You might be surprised to find out I'm not in a visual arts program of some sort.  I decided to go into a non-visual arts program in order to learn about humanity in a way that would (hopefully) inform my art.  

I had always thought I would study art in university.  But that's simply not how life has played out, and while I've been extremely busy with school and work, making it really difficult for me to actually work on my art.  I've had to repeatedly convince myself that I'm not "not doing art" I'm just doing something else for a little bit".

All this to say that the exception to this school nonsense is commissions!  That's right: friends in need of artwork for anything from flyers to album covers to t-shirts (shout out à Iain Impro flyer style).   These small "jobs" have truly been the most welcome requests, as they gave me a reason to let my creative juices flow.  (and I am aware of how lame it sounds to need a reason to make art, but that's the reality and let's face it reality can be pretty damn lame)

So anyhow, I've decided to post some of the simple drawings I've done on request.  The first one is for my friend Finner's band.  He e-mailed me last night asking me to call him (an e-mail entitled URGENT) when I called him I found out he needed a shirt design a.s.a.p.  So I got to work when I came home from school around 4:00 and just handed it to him a few hours ago.  That's pretty efficient if you ask me!  Finner knew exactly what he wanted (which I find extremely helpful when I'm asked to draw something).  The design is for his hardcore band Smart Mouth and he sought to reference some of the bands he's found most influential by means of a Halloween-inspired shirt where people are wearing masks of the emblematic logos of Gorilla Biscuits, the Misfits, Danzig and Integrity.

The second drawing was for the Carleton University chapter of the Ontario People's Interest Research Group (commonly known as O-PIRG).  They are a great bunch of radically minded folks who put on great workshops and events so I jumped on the chance to create the shirt they would be selling at Rad-Frosh (the radical alternative to the unappealing regular Frosh, namely silk-screening and bike-repair workshops instead of bar hoping).  In this case they gave me no instructions for the design other than "it should be radical and attract the eye".  So this is what I came up with.  The version of the image I have posted is actually a picture of the shirt itself.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the smaller details showed up (namely the greedy business men/women running away).

So these are  two of the latest commissions I've done, but I will be posting more of the earlier ones soon... As well as the ones that are one the way! woohoo!

'Tis all for now!xo

-P.

In The Name of the LORD

4.5 x 6.5, ink and Pantone Marker on canvas paper

Alrighty, first off, the vernissage went really really well!  So glad to see so many familiar (and not-so-familiar) faces.  From family to friends to strangers, the evening was spent in the company of great people.  I met some folks that I hope to hear from and am so glad I got to speak to some new and interesting people!  So all in all a success! (Oh, and of course, I managed to sell some works which is definitely a plus!)

The works I've decided to post today are the last from the show that I have yet to post on here*... My Dino-Popes and Big Baby J series.  These ink+pantone drawings were done around 1:00am out of a need to step away from my paintings just a few nights before the art show and, much to my surprise, they were some of my most popular works!  I attribute their popularity mainly to a combination of the subject matter and placement of the frames (see above photo).  

The message is fairly straight forward: papacy = prehistory.  Now for the slightly more subtle nuances: the way the works were placed had it so the popes were turned towards Jesus (who was also a dinosaur of course) in a way that emphasized their devotion to/praise of this single figure, as well as the symbol of the cross.  My main inspiration was the over-ornamentation/decoration of popes, which is in direct contradiction with one of the most basic Christian beliefs, namely humility, which is most easily exhibited externally by means of the simplicity of one's clothes.  The papacy has always been known for its extravagance, from the concentration of wealth in Rome to the mere outfits/costumes/hats of the popes.  Even though the idea that the people's money goes towards lavishly decorating a pope and his buildings in order to better praise the LORD seems like a reasonable argument to some, my feelings regarding the papal figure are not so optimistic... to say the least.

I've always felt there was something fishy about the idea of a religious institution organized and kept up in a political manner in the sense that the most "popular" participants are voted into different offices, ranked hierarchically from Pope to Cardinal, etc.  AND yet still consider themselves a source of legitimate authority by claiming divine ordination.  Maybe I lack faith in humans (or simply in general) but I have a hard time believing that that the type of charisma required to become/be elected as Pope is much different than the kind required to become a successful politician... UNLESS of course you believe that this one man's particularly appealing charisma was given to him BY GOD so that only he could possibly become the intermediary between earthlings and an all-knowing, all-being and eternally unified God existing outside of both space and time.

At this point I feel like my rant might be slowly moving down a slippery pope-bashing slope.  So in order to keep my sarcasm to a minimum and my blog somewhat intelligent, I will conclude in a quick, clean and fashionable manner.

SO, in conclusion!  While Hegel believed that history had reached its pinnacle before the end of his lifetime in 1831 (meaning human existence had achieved it's end-goal of freedom, which in turn meant that progress was no longer possible), Marx believed that until humans still participated in/contributed to oppression our existence would continue to consist of "pre-history".  It is that belief that informed my choice to portray the papacy as a group of prehistoric symbols of oppression.  And if you simply can't find a link between the papacy, the Roman Catholic Church and oppression, please, PLEASE e-mail me and we'll figure out a good time to meet up and talk about this over tea.

Ok, take care folks!xo

-P.

*Except a few more dogs.

Une vie de chien/ pour Paul

11x14, ink and paper 

Here are a few of the drawings I'll be showing at Invisible Cinema/ the Wurm Gallery this friday (September 26th).  These were really fun for me to do because I got to remember how enormous dogs feel when you're really young.  I played on that idea by showing little kids playing (or even sleeping) around and on the over-sized dogs, whom are at once watchful, dignified and loving.

T-minus 5 days until the show! xo

P.S. the paper is actually white.. it has this nice creamy color on here simply because I don't have any way to properly scan these images.. Such is life!