Spring Sprung Special: Spiders, Space and Soooo Much More

It seems every couple of months I write a new blog post here and begin writing about all the new things that have been happening in my life and then introduce some new art work I've recently completed. Throw in some ridiculous hyperbolic rambles and boom, a new post. Well, this post won't be too much different.

Now our daughter Maelle is 6 months old, cute as all heck, and keeping both Clare and I extremely busy (Mostly Clare though)

It's a wonder we get anything done, what with all the pooping and crying and laughing and cooing and crying and pooping and cellphones and the internet and frozen food entrees, we manage and get by, and I make some art in the meantime.

Getting the work out there has been the focus of a lot of time as of late. Recently, I've been scouring the city with my great friend Tek Yang, searching for a venue to show the etchings that keep popping up in this blog. I'm excited to announce that we have found a space and come this September we'll be showing the work at the Black Cat Gallery on Dundas West. The show will be from the 3-10th of September and will have a more formal invite/announcement in the coming months. Another showing of the work might be in the works for earlier in the summer. As well, I'll be participating in this year's print sale at the Idea Exchange in Cambridge this May, selling my complete inventory. Fun, no?

Getting back to the etchings, I've titled the series Unmöglicheskunstarbeitvorlautradierungen: Reveries of the Absurd. Translated to English from German it means Impossible art work silly etchings. Of course I slammed all these words together as Germans do because it's funny and they do it all the time. Refer to this online article and tell me I'm wrong.
http://theweek.com/article/index/245258/8-of-our-favorite-ridiculously-long-german-words
The show will feature 10 etchings, 8 of which are now completed and 2 that are drawn and now being put to the plate. The artwork will be accompanied by short poems and will be tied together through a loose narrative. I've designed the last works to sum up and incorporate some of the previous characters and ideas together.

This etching is called Destiny and Charles. As you see it features a goat who has the ability to shoot a laser from it's eye, and a pregnant lady archer. They find themselves in a futuristic landscape, in a planet system that is plentiful to say the least. You may also notice a tiny figure standing in the background under the cliff, it's meant to be the same figure from "Die Katzen Meister," one of my earlier etchings. After having showed it to a friend at the studio, they asked "So I guess the goat is named Destiny and the chick with the bow and arrow is Charles?" At first I thought, you got it backwards, dip-sh#t; but reneged my emotions and thought, does it matter? That's why I call the narrative "loose." I provide some words and music (pictures and prose), it tells a part of a story and hopefully there is a good enough mix of mystery and intrigue left for the viewer to make up the rest. Essentially, they are dream enticers. I hope it works.

Here is the etching titled "Spider Hotel." I re-worked and re-designed the composition twice before this third manifestation.  I even had the last version on plate with line work etched and 3 layers of aquatint complete when I decided to abandon the piece. I simply didn't like it, what can I say. Luckily, I can just go to a scrap yard and get my money back for the copper. In the image you see Amelia Earhart (who was depicted in the second part of this series) opening the curtains in her room, a massive spider with it's legs spewing out of the room's door and window, a busted up sedan and a gentleman entering his room. You may notice that all around the car are foot prints, crushed cans and a set of skid marks. I would love to inform you of what it all means to me, but that would contradict what I previously wrote here. Come to the exhibitions and we'll talk about it, K?

After listening to a CBC radio 1 interview with New Yorker Cartoon Editor and contributor, Bob Mankoff, I was inspired to pick up my pen and draw some funnies. The etching series I just finished blabbing about, I initially envisioned to be some unholy mix of Gary Larson and Rembrandt; so the impetus behind a lot of my work is humor and in this format it is galvanized. About seven drawings spilled out of me in a flurry of activity over last weekend. I know somewhere deep down in the deep dark depths of my soul, I can rock out a boat load of these and will attempt to do so in the next couple of months. I might even set up a sub-blog-website just for these. Here I've shared the one I liked the most from this first clump of work. If you don't think it's funny, let me know and I will write your name down in a book titled "Stupid Dum Dums With No Brains And No Brains For Humour." So there.

Here is a drawing for a multi-colour woodblock I just started working on. I can't tell you much about it conceptually as I just started drawing in my sketchbook, blacked out and woke up 5 minutes later in just my underwear, books strewn about the apartment, 13 black candles lit around me, on top of a pentagram dusted out with paprika with this completed on the page. I figured, it's a sign, I'll use it!

I was looking over some old work and came across this drawing. I did a lot of work in this drawing style up until my second year at OCAD. It's a portrait of my dear friend Emily Rose Smegal while she enjoyed a book and some tea one morning on our trip with my brother in Switzerland in 2005. I have a bunch of old work that isn't horrible or embarrassing that I'll be sharing in future blog posts. Well, I've been writing a lot, I'm tired of it now and am chomping at the bit, excited to get back to the studio. Bye for now.
Hugs and Kisses,
Giddleberry Finn