Seasons Change

 Sara's Piece (2012, aerosol, acrylic, and ink on canvas)

Sara and her mom Lianne with their new piece.

Yo! Here's a piece I put together for as a commission last month. Sara wanted a large piece, a portrait, so we decided to do it in the style of my Research on Control series. I took a few liberties and experimented with the colour palette in the portrait a fair bit, and am happy with the results — I learned a lot doing this piece, and have another top-secret acrylic portrait thats been in the works for quite some time coming soon...

Rock the Rails 2012 demo piece

So I've spent part of my summer designing a program, called the Aerosol Academy, to teach youth about the history, cultural relevance, and legalities of graffiti. Using a custom workbook, they first learn about the history of the art form, then get to try out some of the tools and techniques, first on paper, then on canvasses or boards. At the end of the program, we again review the legality of graffiti — what it's legal for them to paint on and what they'll probably get in trouble for, and where the nearest legal wall is, or how to get one set up. At Rock the Rails last month in Leduc I introduced a super condensed version. Here's how it went...

Rock the Rails 2012. After running around all morning getting supplies for the Aerosol Academy Mini Camp, I get to the site at around 2 pm. It's nice and sunny out. I start prepping all the boards with basecoats and setting up the easels. Around 4:00, the wind picks up. Hella. We start putting everything away, and a big section of the sky turns green. Everyone starts taking pictures cause it's so freaky lookin. Then, intense lightning and thunder. Everyone runs to their vehicles and GTFOs. Intense hail and winds for like 2 hours. Then all of a sudden, at like 7pm everything clears up and it's all good, Rock the Rails 2012 skateparks competitions are delayed, but the Battle of the Bands is good to go, and the bands start to throw down. Kids start signing up for the Aerosol Academy, and I start giving them plastic jumpsuits, a quick walkthrough of the mini-workbook, and cans of spraypaint, then pointing them at 8'x4' sheet of plywood on easels. Other youth come over and check it out. More kids come with consent-form-signing parents in tow. I largely ignore the demo piece (above) I'm trying to paint as I'm too busy signing kids up. And stopping them from trying to figure out whats wrong with the nozzle by staring into it and trying to spray. The plan was definitely to do something a lot more structured, but considering it was hailing out half an hour before, a little rolling with the punches was required. Everyone had a great time regardless — we actually ran out of boards to paint on, and could have used more paint too, so despite the intense weather and tight timing, the event was hella successful! I wish I had some more time to finish the demo piece I did (shown above), there are definitely a ton of things I would have like to clean up, but it's all good. Congrats to Smile for the Bullet who took home the top prize in the Battle of the Bands!  

 Untitled (diptych) (2012, aerosol, housepaint, acrylic)

Lastly, here's a diptych I painted for my mom while I was down in Calgary for the long weekend. Seasons are changing where I live, and that's what these paintings are about. Aiight, thanks for coming by homies! I'll be back again to get it crackin' soon. 

FPG3: Album Art

FPG3 (cover)

FPG3 (back)

Ayo! I'm back to share some album art I recently finished for Doobyis, a local musician. FPG#3 (which dropped today, get your copy right here) was a little more solitary and contemplative than the last instalment, and I wanted to reflect that in the cover art. D is alone in the lab with a pen and a pad, honing his craft and gettin' his 10,000 in. There are lots of little details taken from the music, like the posters on the wall (MF Doom, Ghostface, and B.I.G.), Soundcloud up on the computer screen, a Nas CD on the table, and Doobs rocking workboots and a green hat with a D, to name a few. For the back cover, I went with some hand-rendered type to represent the DIY self-made style of music Doobyis makes. A few key lines from track #2, "The Wreckage", inspired the visuals for the backside. This was a fun project — Doobyis trusted me with a lot of creative freedom and enough time to get the job done right, and I'm really proud of the results. A special shoutout goes to my man Jarett, whose critiques were invaluable throughout this piece, and my man Bmoney, for teaching me to keep my files tight — this project was drawn by hand and then coloured digitally, so with all the layers involved, not being a sloppy worker was a huge help to me. 'Till next time, onwards and upwards homies!

Watercolour Sketchbook

Yo! Here are a few pages from a watercolour sketchbook I've been working on to practice the medium as well as to hone my hand-rendered typography skills. These pages are near the end, and throughout the book I've been placing bits of advice and inspiration to keep me going - for example the sketch at the top is a loose (and out of proportion) sketch of Gary Busey with one of his quotes from his guest appearances on Entourage - "Art is only research, it is not the final form." Classic. The second one is a bit reminding me not to be too hard on myself, and the third is just a sketch for a forthcoming piece - the barbershop has been a great place for advice in my community and I'm sure in many others. I've been busy, so many more to come!