(Cussy) Updates
Jean-Philippe Harvey at home in black and white
Some (updates) are not worth looking at, we definitely get too many of them, and I often feel like ignoring most.
But when the update comes in the form of a new website by artist Jean-Philippe Harvey, one of the Quebec artists I watch out for, I find myself far more open and interested in the idea of actually paying it some attention.
We curated his work last year during Art Pop, and I have to say, I am very intrigued by the sudden absence of colour in his work. It’s a big departure from what he was doing up until recently, and at some point in the near future, I am sure this lil’ blog will see a more detailed discussion about this movement from his end.
For now, go have a look at his websites if it moves you, and it should, because after all, his newest one has a bunch of cuss words in it. Which is always a bonus if you ask me.
Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: illustration, Jean-Philippe Harvey, painting | Comment (0)As distracting as this…
Alison Moffett, an artist working out of the UK, caught my eye in a similar way to how Mozart’s requiem just caught my ear. Her website is well worth a 10-minute or 20-minute or forever-minute walk through woods other than those you’re currently in. Unless by chance you were already looking at her work, in which case, carry on, carry on.
Dusty Peas, blowing your mind from deep in Ontario
The drawing-printmaking-rabble-rousing duo Jamie Q and James Kirkpatrick have been jammin’ on collaborative works together for some time now, but not forever. From the bowels of London, Ontario, their minds seem to mesh in the most cohesive ways, explaining how they are able to present such a playful and consistent body of work as a duo so early on in their practice together.
They recently completed an artist residency and will be unfurling and folding the fruits of their labour at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore tonight at 7 p.m., right here in Montreal, 211 Rue Bernard…
It looks like pretty mind-blowing work. They’ve even silkscreened a spaceship folks can assemble themselves. I am a little too excited to get down to the Bookstore tonight and see their finished product in all its glory…
I sat down with them over space, time & the internet recently to ask some questions about their artistic process and to find out, for once and for all, what is the what. The answers are pretty friggin’ illuminating, so I hope you enjoy their notions and all as much as I have.
1. could you describe for all the folks out there who’s in your collective and what your deal is? ie if you have a mandate, if you even consider yourselves a collective…just some basics.
Dusty Peas is James Kirkpatrick and Jamie Q.. we think of ourselves as a collaborative art team more than a collective. But we also feel like we are part of a larger community of people doing creative stuff, one without a name or mandate. We don’t have a mandate as Dusty Peas either… we’d rather not be tied down to a formal set of rules. Maybe that is a sort of mandate… that whatever we make will be pretty unconstrained and open to possibility.
2. does “dusty peas” come from a specific idea or theme? where did you come up with it?
When we make stuff it always ends up being something that neither one of us would have made individually, so in a way we see Dusty as a third person who is creating this work. But also it is a nonsensical name that doesn’t mean anything.. words we would always say to each other as a silly thing that was totally removed from any original meaning.
3. when did the collaborative thing start and how?
We met through Peter Thompson last summer and started doing collab drawings in November to make zines for Expozine. We felt that it worked well and was fun so we kept doing it.
4. is this something you’re both familiar with, drawing ensemble, or is it a totally new way of doing illustrative work?
JK – Being involved in graffiti at an early stage of making art I got used to the idea of having things I created being painted over and marked on by others. Also seeing the work of Marc Bell and Peter Thompson at a younger age sort of showed me how two people could really melt their minds together to create one final piece of art. When I look back on it I realize I have been making collaborative art for years without even thinking of it as that.
JQ – I come from more of a sculpture background, so doing collaborative drawings is a pretty new thing for me. I did that guest artist project with you, Kit, at silence is not (always) a good medicine, and I’ve done drawings with other people where it’s more like a game in which everyone passes drawings around. But this is the first time I’ve been making drawings collaboratively as a regular part of what I do.
5. what are some of the main differences for you between drawing with someone and drawing alone?
When working with someone you have to be ok with letting things happen that you have no control over. You have to be able to work without having a preconceived idea of what the art is going to look like in the end because of that. In that sense it has more freedom to develop spontaneously, but on the other hand it also gives you the structure of the other person’s marks to work from, rather than facing a blank page with total individual freedom.
6. how has this pushed or challenged your individual practices, if it has at all?
We’ve been really focused on the Journey Through Time & Shapes project for quite awhile now, so seeing this new book and sculpture finally finished we’re really excited about how it turned out, and we’re both feeling like this collaborative work is better than our individual work at this point. But also our solo work is really important to us, so the collab stuff just motivates us to push our own work further.
7. do you think this could expand to go beyond drawing? if so, how?
Actually, we started doing sculpture together back in February, and have since also started doing stop-motion animation and all kinds of other stuff. The silkscreened prints in the Journey Through Time & Shapes book are all based on paper collages and paintings, and the project also includes a print that can be cut out and assembled into a sculpture.
8. is this very similar or very different than the stuff you do as solo-flyers?
The way of working is similar since both of us make stuff in all sorts of media. We’ve both done work with installation, found objects, sculpture, graffiti, painting, drawing, self-published zines, sound, film, animation… But the art itself looks pretty distinct from our solo work. People often can’t tell what we added to the work as individuals. That’s a good combination.. to have a similarly versatile way of working while doing something different than we would by ourselves.
Now go check it out for yourself. It’s going to be a very special show made by two very special people.
Who doesn’t want another excuse to make a sketchbook?
Personally, I think it’s always a good idea to have at least one sketchbook on the go, as the little friends above will testify to. Over here, at the Art House Coop website, you can sign up for this pretty interesting looking project where they send you a sketchbook, which you then fill up or leave empty or smear honey in, and then send it back to them by mid-December-ish. Then your book, alongisde countless others, will go on a tour through the U.S. of A. They are even offering to bring them to your city if you can find a gallery to host the event. All in all, it seems like a really fun thing to do, and a great motivator for those who like this kind of thing but need external forces to help push their inertia button into the ”on” mode.
You DO have to pay for the sketchbook, but it’s a small fee considering the scope of the project. If you decided to head over to their website to take a look at this in further detail, consider sticking around, they’ve got a neat thing going on worth poking at.
Filed under art calls/appels, art shows, illustration | Tags: Art House Coop, illustration, project, sketchbooks | Comment (0)Of drawing using the stains from your own bile.
The folks who organize the Drink & Draw sessions at the Casa have another night of hanging-out-with-too much-tequila-in-the-stomach and too-many-pens-to-choose-from for those interested lined up for the 15th of April, this coming Wednesday.
This poster basically sums all that you need to know up in one image, so I will leave it at that. Suffice it to say, though, go for the marker stains someone cute might arrange on your arm. Go for the opportunity to finally use nacho grease as a medium. Most importantly, (aside from art-making in public, communal dialogue, etc) go to spend your hard earned money at the Casa, a place that we all definitely need to love a little more fiercely and intensely for the time being.
Filed under events, illustration, local | Tags: Casa del Popolo, Drink & Draw, illustration | Comment (0)Lukewarm-old photos, but not in a bad way.
You know, when things are from the 80s (at this point) they’re RETRO, and when they’re from this morning, they’re FRESH….and if they’re from, say, mid-february 2009, they’re a wee….lukewarm?
I still think these photos of the Galerie Pangeé Nuit Blanche extravaganza hold their own despite the awkwardness in terms of TIMING that I have decided to post them. Maybe you’ll recognize some of the peeps in them. Or people.
The whole gallery was transformed into one gianormous, collaborative mural and the results were pretty spectacular. The illustrators included folks such as Jason Botkin, Osvaldo Ramirez and Tyler Rauman.
Pretty cool stuff, even one odd-month later…..
Filed under artists, events, illustration, local | Tags: galerie pangee, illustration, osvaldo ramirez, tyler rauman | Comments (2)Jean-Philippe Harvey Just Changed My Life
Not alot going on but sick-ness, (flu is abounding, no?) other than my discovery of a very young, very talented artist who is indeed a Quebec resident of some sort.
Presenting Jean-Philippe Harvey. Words do not describe how great his work is, so I am going to full-stop, now.
Of These Precious, Childish Drawings…
…Not in that way that you think, though, childish as a put-down, childish as that immature, stickier-than-molasses inability to get-on-with-it-all or be-done-with-it. Instead, these original Winne the Pooh drawings that I hoisted ship and sailed to from the excellent blog Drawn to the new-for-me beauty contained within BibliOdyssey, contain a childishness that is nothing like the kind your teachers scolded you about and your parents still nag you to change.
As soon as I open a book with EH Shepard’s delicate, whimsical drawings, I am immediately transported to that childish state where all things are a little more possible, where the elves probably are waiting for you in the woods, and where there is a bit of ache within every moment. And winter somehow helps add a note to their poignancy, ringing through the lines a biting cold that seems to awaken the life contained within each movement…
Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: illustration | Comment (0)
