New York State and Indiana

A new song I've been working on, I'm too physically and emotionally drained to bother trying to record it at the moment, so I made a youtube video the other day for it (it was posted on facebook as well).
In the symbolic sense it is about a cat that gets left behind by its owner all the time, and in the realistic sense it is about a boy I need to stop writing songs about.

"You're not the only one with problems,"

I finished this 3 part series this morning and showed it at school today... So enjoy it. K?




If you were curious as to what the first piece says, the grosbeak is saying "You're not lost, you just have no place to go." Also, on the second piece the love bird is saying "I'm just not in love with you" and the dove replies "oh."

And here are some detail shots...

My Workspace

Today has been so unproductive, and the blame lies in my upset stomach and the unbarable heat in my appartment. I fully intended on finishing two pieces today and starting a third.. but the most productive thing I was able to do was pry open my windows and stick my cat in there to eat all the bugs; whether they're alive or dead I'm terrified of whats inside my windows! But even then all I'm getting is a slight draft, and I still feel too hot. Maybe I actually have a fever. I don't know.
Anyways, the other night I decided to practise some painting on my drafting table. Because its big and if it looks ugly it will get covered up and hidden in no time. It wasn't bad though! its been a long time since I've actually tried to do anything other then tag in spray paint so I wasn't really disappointed in what I did at all. Anyways, I felt the need to take a picture since its only temporary (infact I already started priming a canvas on it so its ruined now);




If you think I live like a pig, then maybe you should buy some art to get me out of this horribly cramped basement appartment?

Buddhist Workshop at the WAG and Reetbot

So, after waking up late and therefore missing my first class of the day (New Media Design, basically, a class about flash animator), I felt guilty about not being able to call my ride to tell them not to pick me up from the University and ventured over to the Winnipeg Art Gallery for our date with a Buddhist monk.
I kind of neglected the details of why exactly there was all these Buddhist events going on at the WAG as of late, but I do know that a handful of my classmates had been there since the morning doing meditation and that there is going to be a retreat this weekend. Today what we we did was basically hang around with this monk while he made a sand mandala, apparently one of few (if any) ceremonies that have ever taken place in this city; Kevin, our prof, claimed it was a once in a lifetime chance, and that we'd probably never get to see it again.
I'll admitt that I downed a giant coffee on the walk over expecting to have trouble staying awake, but fortunately this monk was VERY personable; urged us to come closer, gave awesome explanations for his work, answered all our questions (no matter how vague) and even let us try it out! So of course I had to take some pictures, because Kevin is right, I probably never will get another chance to work on a sand mandala with a real monk again in my life.













ALSO! Tonight was Danny's aka Reetbot's opening at the Cre8ry. It was awesome, I'm insanely jealous, it made me want to quit my day job so I could just paint all the time. He definately has a thing going on... millions of little paintings and using all different types of things to work on; canvas, wood, paint can lids, cassette types, records. I definately bought a painting, I'm excited to pick it up.

What Fall'ows

Tonight I attended What Fall'ows at The Spot in the Exchange. I'm a huge fan of these DIY shows, I hope they keep it up! It was a good crowd, I had a lot of fun.

My favorite of the show, John Small;


Tomorrow is Dearraindrop for the Send and Receive festival! So excited.

currently at the aceart gallery

About a week ago I went to the aceart gallery in the exchange to see Amy Wong's Everything is Everything and I loved it so much I had to go back the other day to see it again.

She produces my favorite kind of art; just taking bits and pieces of what you want, who cares what others think is aesthetically nice to view, and put it all together. Collage, paint, varnish, stamps, everything. It's full of contradictions; deep and personal vs fun and playful, strong technique vs chaos, etc.

I think a lot of young artists could benefit from looking closely at how Amy executes her work. You don't have to be rich and have amazing resources to be a talented artist. She uses paper with collaged garbage, unstretched canvas, and seemingly whatever she can find to paint with.

I'll definitely be taking a third look at her work on Saturday (maybe I'll snap pictures this time with something other then my cellphone) when I go back to aceart to attend Dearraindrop for Send and Receive. We had a lecture with them last night, man am I excited for that!

Anyways, Amy's work will be up until November 14th, and I urge you to go see it. She was born in Toronto and went to school in Montreal, support your fellow Canadians!

Here is her current blog:

http://amywongwebsite.blogspot.com/