Lutz Dille mural at CAMERA

Gorgeous mural

From another angle!

Close up
I love the look of the woman
She is the just the kind of gal woman I love drawing
And what a great coat!

As you can see this photograph is in the MOMA now

My favorite thing to look at in the city right now is the gorgeous photograph blown up outside CAMERA at 1028 Queen Street West. The photo entitled Young Couple looking at Slides was taken in 1959 in NYC by Lutz Dille.
The Stephen Bulger gallery next door installed it to commemorate the work of the German born photographer who lived in Toronto from 1951 to 1980. It is such a gorgeous installation and the black + white image looks so great combined with the wooden window frame of the building and CAMERA's great lettering. I kinda hope they keep it up forever.

ps. Stephen Bulger is offering free Saturday movies this summer in conjunction with it's current show: Fading Dream: The work of William Eakin.
Beautiful interiors + air conditioning + free movie = GO.

My apartment

A couple weeks ago my apt appeared in the Toronto Star. Here is one of the photos shot by Star photographer David Cooper.

ps. My apt is for rent beginning October 1!
It is a very roomy space with large office plus a deck in an amazing neighbourhood.
Please see this ad and contact the landlords if you are interested.
http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/1816053520.html

Uppercase magazine + Illustrator Debbie Powell

Debbie's cover

Sneak peek of interview

Way to go Janine.

A few months back I interviewed UK based illustrator and blogging penpal Debbie Powell for uppercase magazine. The issue is just back from the printers ready to be shipped! Here is a sneak peek from the uppercase website including Debbie's beeyooteeful cover.
Also... a huge congrats goes out to uppercase creator Janine Vangool who won GOLD at the National Magazine Awards for Art direction of an entire issue of a magazine for Issue 1.

Impressive: Printmaking, Letterpress, and Graphic Design

Brown paper packages tied up with string
These are a few of my favourite things...

A spread including my work

Close up of my small pink scissor print
(This was the first print I ever silk screened)

Close up of Mary Janes print

Spread with work by House Industries - yum

Spread with work by Frank Chimero and The Heads of State

This is one of my favorite posters by Frank Chimero.
(Is not included in the book but felt compelled to include it!)
Words to live by!
Ditto for this poster. This is one of my favorite posters by The Heads of State.
Is not included in the book but felt compelled to include it!

I posted about the release of this book previously but this week my contributor's copy arrived in the mail and I was finally able to see it in person! I'm very happy to be appear in a book alongside some of my favorite designer/ printer people including Frank Chimero, House Industries and The Heads of State.
This book is published by Gestalten and is available from amazon.

Back in the Studio

I was back in the studio all day beginning work on my Room of One's Own print.
I completed the first orange pass. These prints should be ready in a week! Please send me an email if you are interested in purchasing one.

Ikea Expedit Bookshelf as Gorgeous Room divider

The basic shelf

Look how great it looks when you add some nice books + tchotchkes
From Domino magazine -sigh- R.I.P Domino!

In black it makes for a cozy bedroom divider
From apartment therapy

From ikea hacker
I like the drawers - good for storage

This is 2 Expediets put together. Gorgeous!

So the loft I am moving into is 945 sq. ft of completely RAW SPACE ie. no walls except for the bathroom! OY VEY - so I am on the hunt for some room dividers. I may put in some dry wall eventually but for now I think I'll use 2 or more IKEA Expedit bookshelves which I have long admired. I love their cubey graphic look and possibilities for storage.
Above are some nice examples of how they have been used as room dividers. I think they look great - and at 169.00 a pop are a very affordable solution.

So the only question is White, Black or Birch?
Whaddya think? Thanks for your input.

Film: Exit through the Gift Shop

Everything the poster says is true: Joyous, Inventive and Funny as Hell

Banksy himself “appears” in the film cloaked in a hoodie, with his voice disguised.

From the trailer - very clever. :-)

Last Sunday I saw Exit through the Gift Shop: a documentary by the well known British street artist known as Banksy.
It was really hilarious + plus very educational! (A winning combo!)Even the trailer for the movie is a riot. See above.
A lot of critics have speculated that the film isn't in fact a real documentary but rather an elaborate hoax orchestrated by Banksy. Either way it's still well worth seeing and will leave you wanting to see lots more of Banksy's fantastic + provocative work.
ps. I think the film has one of the best titles of anything EVER.

Thinking conceptually: Advice from Nate Williams

Nate Williams has an excellent blog post entitled A Methodology for generating new ideas. Nate's method consists of 3 steps:
1. Breaking down the brief into 2-4 key words
2. Doing word associations around each word
3. Arranging the words into different relationships. He explains that the idea behind his methodology is similar to writing a song. There are only a few musical notes, but by rearranging their order, length and speed you can create an infinite amount of songs.
Highly recommended and very helpful when feeling blocked! (like I am tonight!)

Sketches: Three Bakelite telephones

Lobster phone by Salvador Dali



Tonight I found this picture of a Dali bakelite telephone on a great blog called design traveller and just looking at it's exquisite shape was inspired to draw it. I have long admired these bakelite phones -particularly the ivory ones which i find especially goofey looking.
Perhaps i'll make one of these drawings into a print someday....

ps. There are just too many great blogs out there... how the heck does anyone get ANY work done?

Tonight

Back in the Studio

The Brooks Brothers suit done in a custom colour for a special customer

Step 1 in making a screen
Transfer your image to a piece of acetate
(Trade secret which I learned from studio mate Jeff: If you don't have acetate you can also oil a plain piece of paper to make it transparent)

After placing the acetate on a screen which has been coated with emulsion, turn on the light table and expose the screen for 5 minutes
Jeff uses the 'heavy tool box technique" for ensuring that no light seeps through.

TA DA! The s is for swing screen is ready!

This is what the final print will look like.

On the weekend I printed a custom Brooks Brothers suit in orange for a special customer request and also created the screen for my s is for swing print. Swing prints will be ready in approx. 2 weeks!

Polkee Dots

You can never have enough polkee dots.
I love these sheets from Garnet Hill. They come in an array of colours - and are on sale right now.
They'd make a nice house warming gift.
Hint hint hint.
Just kidding - sort of.

Women who Paint on Walls: Hazel Meyer and Margaret Kilgallen

Hazel Meyer

One wall of the installation

Another wall!

A deconstruction of the tshirt

Pleased to see a quote from Michel de Certeau included! (one of my favorite Situationist thinkers)

Part of Margaret Kilgallen's Installation from 2000 UCLA Museum, Los Angeles

Margaret working. Love this picture

Love this one too.

Margaret working
She never did projections - She painted directly on the wall based on a sketches. Brave.

Two Saturdays ago I went to see "Hyper Hyper": an installation by my friend Hazel Meyer at The OCAD Graduate Gallery. The installation was Hazel's MFA Graduate thesis event. As explained in her invitation Hyper-Hyper was an installation of doodles, sketches, marks + text that weaved together the physiology of muscle building through resistance training with art methodology. It consumed the walls + floor of the gallery and was an explosive visualization of a discursive thought process!

Hazel's courageous doodles + text dancing on a large scale immediately reminded me of one of my favourite artists and mentors Margaret Killgallen -- so thought it was high time I included some pictures of her work on my blog. She is endlessly inspirational to me.

Sketches