laser hands and head waves

This is what I make when I try to trick my brain into thinking I'm in a creative mood. I'm not. 

But it does help a little. Also it's not done.

As per usual here, my collection of collage material is fairly sparse, so for this one I resorted to a picture from the right wing newspaper that's given out for free at my school. It's an art school, and they give out the religious and the right wing newspapers. Backwards?

My studio has a serious lack in terms of any kind of table/surface to work on, so this is my set-up: 

a muskoka chair for me, a school chair for my pens, a stool for my laptop and a typically green 

parisian portfolio as a lap-desk. Seems to work juuuust fine.

Postcards from Paris

Some more postcards from the early 1900's that I altered and sent home to Toronto, these two feature the Gare St. Lazare and la Grande Roue set up in the 15th arrondissment. 

Siamese Twins

"Well!" He cried. "I can't tell which is Jack and which is Joe!"

Earlier this year before I left for Paris I made this little shadow box piece for my dearest friend and detached siamese twin Niomi. The twin image and two lines of text float on some foam-core, the rest is collaged with old graph paper, dictionary clippings and other odd scraps. The siamese twins are inflicted with bacocortical hyper brain content syndrome (details of which can be seen in an older blog post). 

Siamese Twins (detail)
Mixed Media, 2011

Livre d'Arrondissements

I collaged the cover of my little Paris map book so I look lest touristy and feel more comfortable whipping it out on the streets. Also I needed a project to get me into the swing of things. Considering the fact that I brought almost zero art supplies with me, it was a good little challenge. The other day I treated myself to a new pad of tracing paper, and some glue. I also decided that I'm done with the vogue I bought for my plane-trip across the pond and it has now become one of my few collage materials.

collaged live d'arrondissements; 2011
tracing paper, vogue magazine, sticky note, whiteout, scotch tape, pen and marker.

Travels with my Aunt

Today I went to Shakespeare and Co. to spend a little time in the library upstairs reading. I ended up sitting on a bench in front of a bookshelf of fiction in the section of authors last name beginning with 'G'. After being unable to settle on a book to peruse, I had browsed many titles, and decided that maybe I wanted to write something of my own instead. I ended up making a few poems with two rules:

1.) Each line of the poem must be one book title
2.) I must not add any extra words of my own.

This process feels much like collaging - I like that I am not accountable for the content and simply the arrangement, and since I'm not an experienced poet (or a poet at all, for that matter) it takes the stress out of it and makes me a little less responsible for the outcome. If you look up any of these book titles, you'll find that all the author's last names begin with the letter 'g'. If not - they were badly shelved.

Travels With My Aunt

the past must alter,

travels with my aunt.

spirit of time and place,

limbo,

the glorious adventure.

inclinations, 

for special services.

the promise of joy.

wheels, 

from noon till three,

the giants eye,

corpse in a gilded cage,

under the greenwood tree.

I think I would like to take these weird book title poems and illustrate them in hilarious ways. The poems alone feel a little too humourless...

bevel gear

A postcard-sized paper collage on board, I started it last night and finished this morning! 

Made with some of my favourite collected bits of dictionary illustration.

'Bevel gear'
paper, ink and glue on mdf board
4" x 6"

Cartography

'Cartography'
Etching on zinc plate w/ chine colle

Bacocortical Hyper Brain Content Syndrome

The following images are X-Rays taken from an altered book project titled 'Bacocortical Hyper Brain Content Syndrome'. The subjects in these images suffer from this rare type of hyper brain content - as evidenced by these scans.

never forget who you are!

a self portrait.

Model Rabbit

John Milton has owl eyes for you

Before: John Milton. Why John Milton, what strange eyes you seem to have. Also, why are you hooting?

 After: Turns out John Milton = owl.

'i'm taking your eyes john milton'

The Seven Contrasts of Colour

The Seven Contrasts of Colour

Accordion Book Work

Mixed Media, 2008

get out of my head