Connectivity

A recent piece for the New Jersey Institute of Technology's magazine. I worked with designer Claude Skelton on this cover assignment. Data management can be tricky - the objective is to unify information from various disciplines (environment, bioscience and technology) smoothly and efficiently.

I received a call from Manny Velez at the Wall Street Journal for a feature called 'Anatomy of a Song'. After throwing around a few concepts we agreed using my mechanical collage would be a good way to convey the idea.

 

Funny Because It's True

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

- Mel Brooks

Is life a tragedy, or a comedy? Which defines your life most truthfully? We all deal with tragic elements in our lives but at what point would you call your life a tragedy? If you can laugh at life's set backs, then you've got a good recipe for a comedy. Most of us would agree.

I had the pleasure of illustrating this debate for an article by Terry Teachout for the Wall Street Journal. Comedy tips the balance. Tragedy throws a hissyfit. Fun stuff!

 Got a call from art director and all-around great guy David Bamundo. Thanks, Dave!

Another juicy assignment crossed my desk last month, a series of spots for Alberta Venture magazine, the Seven Deadly Sins of business. We all walk the line, balancing our impulses of anger, pride, lust, gluttony and the rest, sometimes on a day-to-day basis (if you freelance, you will definitely relate). Getting the right mix is the key to success. I threw just about everything into the series. Thanks to Kim Larson for sending this my way!

 

Sometimes I get so caught up in working and playing that I forget all of the things I have worked on lately. Nice to have some quiet time, now that the kids are back in school, to sit down and put everything back together. It was an incredible summer, but I also had some really fantastic assignments. More to come.

Loco

Crazy. It's not every day I am handed a manuscript with leeches, steamrollers and exploding heads. Not to mention a portal into another dimension. I love working with Irene Gallo at Tor.com. So many amazing writers. I've had the priveledge of working with Charles Stross and John Scalzi. Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling teamed up on this ripping, high-adrenaline sci-fi adventure. Desperate times call for desperate inventions.

I am not going to try to describe the story further, other than to say - check it out! Give it a read, right here.

Sketches:

 

I really liked the kissing leeches, with flaming lips, but we agreed the best sketch had a more human element to it. Working with sci-fi is like getting out of a car after a long ride. It feels good to stretch your legs and have the freedom to move in new directions.

Project Projector

Our local theatre, the Regent, is a local landmark that has gone through a remarkable transformation this year. It was remodelled, upgraded and given a complete interior renovation. In a small town like ours, it plays an important role in creating community, and it's always a nice treat to walk down and see a live event or a movie. Plus we get Cinefest films straight from the film festival circuit. In Picton, we are really fortunate to have a thriving main street, and the Regent is one of its anchors.

I was asked to create a piece for a fundraiser with the goal of purchasing a state-of-the-art digital projector. I decided to invent my own projector, not modern or digital, but very, very enthusiastic! The fundraising committe provided a letterbox frame to the contributing artists, so I took on a collaged frame as well.

Here is a step-by-step look at the framing, and the final result

Frame, print and rice glue (from the Japanese paper shop in Toronto, and really amazing for collages)

First stage

Adding a little colour

Putting it together

Done! 

The Regent Theatre Fundraiser is October 13 at the Picton Golf and Country Club. Support local theatre!

Mecanismos

Creativity can be daunting at times. Sometimes it's like reading a compass without a needle. What direction to take? I am working towards filling sketchbooks with drawings, but I struggle with the routine. When I am busy working, the sketchbooks sit on the shelf and gather dust.
Most of the work that I do is digitally based, so I do find the time to experiment with vector-based images. A sense of play that I have used in the CMY-X series and Retrobots. This series springs from my digital sketchbooks.

 Over the past couple of years I have been working on a series of screenprints. These are collages based on my collection of dusty old science textbooks, hardward catalogues and do-it-yourself magazines. Animating the inanimate. Bringing out the mad scientist in me.

 

When I started this series, I felt a strong need to experiment. I've worked on a number of small edition prints, working towards consistency. With this series, I wanted to produce 100 unique prints, using the same elements throughout, but mixing and remixing the different pieces. The heads and bodies are mixed and matched, in and exquisite corpse kind of way. It was exciting to play with different combinations of color, shapes and expressions.

Sixteen heads
Sixteen bodies
45 background elements
7 colors
100 prints

Thanks to Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping at Spark Box Studio!
I am putting the first ten in the series up at Illogator.  Or you can contact me directly and I'd be happy to send one along to you.