In Utero

Pencils for the ink drawing that I'm working on. It's a little bit deceptive since the actual image is significantly larger; I just forgot to set the scanner to an A3 paper size.


I planned to finish this piece last weekend but the sudden arrival of a full-time job put a damper on that one. It's currently sitting at home about 1/3 inked.

Can't Argue With A Confident Man

I remember watching the original "Assault on Precinct 13" and making a mental note of how great the soundtrack was. John Carpenter played a mean synthesizer back in the day. And I love the fact that he scored his own films, too -- there's not nearly enough dual-threat director/composers!



I really don't mind painting in either complete silence or whilst talking to the people around me but music's definitely a prerequisite if we're talking about my optimum studio environment. It keeps me loose and relaxed, gets me into a physical rhythm, and stops me from thinking about how long everything's taking (for the most part). I suppose it helps me build a story behind the image, too.

Typically, I'll thrown on an instrumental playlist -- anything from The Dust Brothers to Miles Davis to RJD2 to Explosions in the Sky, depending on what kind of mood I'm in or tone I want to set. Might just have to add John Carpenter to that list as well.

Little Garcon

Street musicians on a sunny day in New Orleans.

Silver Lining

Alex McLeod -- Toronto-based digital artist and all round nice bloke. I met him through a friend of my brother's at The Taxali 300 opening and had a nice chat about making it out the other end of art school and living as a practicing artist.



It was fun to hear that Alex had majored in painting/drawing at school (the same thing as I am studying now) since he basically abandoned all the traditional practices he learned to branch off in his own direction. Not something I see myself doing given my digital ineptitude but it just goes to show you that there's more to life than school -- especially when it comes to art.



It was interesting for me to hear Alex talk about how he was influenced by those old point-and-click adventure games and their pre-rendered backgrounds because I look at these images and see them as photographs of dioramas or set-pieces that have actually been physically constructed. In my mind, at least, it's like we're walking through a Hollywood soundstage or a claymation studio just seconds after everyone left for lunch. I dunno. There's something charming and nostalgic about how self-consciously artificial these setups are and I really like that.

You can check out more of Alex's stuff on Kanye's blog. Or if you just happen to be in Barcelona in February to March, I highly encourage you to go and visit the Rojo Artspace.

Human Detritus

A little slice of creepy from down in New Orleans. I'm sure that kid's shirt just fell off a parent's stroller or something but it still sent my imagination spinning off into some dark corner.

Undiscovered Country

Found this last lomo image hiding on my desktop. If I remember correctly, it was shot in a Jewish restaurant in Brookline, Boston, where I had the potato pancakes.


I'm currently working on an ink drawing -- nothing too fancy, just something to get the wheels turning again (school starts in a fortnight, after all). Pencils are all rendered so we'll see if I can knock it out sometime today.

I Always Thought Violence Didn't Solve Anything Until One Day It Did

I'm not really one for video art or French noir for that matter, but I did think this was a pretty neat flick:

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

The slow motion's borderline gratuitous but at least it tells a story that has nothing to do with "The Matrix". Also, it kind of makes me want to go out and buy a Phantom camera even though I'd have no idea what to do with the bloody thing.

Plaisir d'Amour

While I was down in New Orleans, I visited the National WWII Museum. And apart from the wild celebrity-fueled propaganda of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' "Beyond All Boundaries", I thought they did a pretty decent job of portraying all sides of the conflict.



The photography alone in the museum was staggering in its brutality and sadness. As each room represented a chronological development in the war, the photos were arranged much like a timeline. One Life-published image in particular stuck with me: that of a homefront beauty smiling behind her desk, proudly displaying the Japanese skull that her boyfriend had sent back.

Umbral De Pobreza

Sweet concerts that I've recently missed: Maximo Park, MF Doom & Mos Def, Lauryn Hill, Vampire Weekend, Lupe Fiasco. I'll throw in The Pixies in there, too, because even though they're playing in March tickets sold out in about half a heartbeat and I am far too poor to eBay anything.


There's probably a lot more that I could add to this list but I'm not enough of a sadomasochist to check Ticketek. Ah well.

Ain't Got No Lullabies

Two lonely souls in New Orleans.

Like A Lead Pillow

A Softer World is a photographic comic produced by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne (love her photos).

It's sometimes funny ...


... and sometimes sad ...


... but always worthwhile.

Spike

This is Spike, my friend's housemate down in New Orleans. He's got a penchant for biting fingers, licking the tap, and waiting for the mail. Somewhere in his head the wires got crossed and he thinks he's a dog. But that's a total plus in my book; I was never much of a cat person.



It probably also helps that he's been de-clawed.

The Jericho Mile

I feel like anatomical studies are the artistic equivalent of going for a run. Both are fundamentally beneficial to goals that I want to achieve but (for me, at least) also oftentimes monotonous. Which explains why I don't do either as often as I should.


I think the trick is to dive right in without thinking too much. Once you do get caught up in the mechanics of it all, there is a therapeutic dimension to that kind of mindless single-mindedness. Shake the rust off and it all becomes clockwork. Sometimes it's nice to just drift.

Over The Mystic

Riding the 111 over the Tobin Bridge to Chelsea. Heading to court, no less.

First Breath After Coma

I'm going to interrupt the chronological continuity of my little photographic timeline and post a little something about an opening that I had the pleasure of attending last week in Toronto. The Taxali 300 showcased over 300 illustrations and prints from the collection of artist Gary Taxali (below: getting a hug). A lot of cool stuff that was way out of my price range ($200-700 a pop for a postcard-sized print). But even if I did have that kind of dinero, I'd have been hard pressed to find something that wasn't already sold -- by the time I got there I reckon 70% of the work had been tabbed. Easy six figures for Gary; not bad at all for one night of schmoozing.








Most of the openings I've been to have been strictly small-time or school-related so it was nice to see how the other half lived. At one point someone asked me who I was shooting for, which is exactly one of those times that you wish you could lie faster/better. These things really are great for networking though. I'm sure he has absolutely no recollection of the event but I did get a quick two minutes in with Gary who was kind enough to humour this strange kid with some words of wisdom. That's something I definitely appreciate.

Motherland

So I just got back into Sydney this morning. You know, I never thought I'd complain about warm weather again but I'm so not used to the sensation of sweating anymore. Hmmm. On the plus side, I did learn some new things today:



Couldn't decide which one of these facts was more awesome. Check out the website for more bizarre items: http://www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk/