MONSTER COMICS AND ART 2002 PAGE 3
AUTUER THOERYThe MONSTER drawings, like all of the “HEY APATHY!” drawings, tell a simultaneously personal and social political story. The idea being that any individual experience, however cryptic, minute or unique, is macrocosmic and that a universal language of both private and public proportions exists throughout all artistic expressions. It is therefore often important to take note of the artist's biography and technical developments in order to fully appreciate the artworks themselves. In my own experience, I have found that personal, political, expressive, repressive, physical, and psychological factors all meddle in constant competition for attention on the page, however I tend to pursue topics of magnificent symbolic proportion rather than examining the details of daily routines. The creation of the MONSTER drawings was compelled by numerous personal, artistic, and political motivations unconsciously perpetuating my unconventional interview.
AFTER THE FIRST EXHIBITIONAt the end of Jan. 2002, I had completed, and exhibited, the first environmental installation of “HEY APATHY!” which included hundreds of small drawings, 15 meticulously crafted ink on paper murals, numerous comic strips, and animations. The initial artworks depict the city as a giant gear propelled by an endless sea of faceless people. Inspired by the cold introductions to the overpopulated, yet anti-social metropolis, and a desire to provoke discourse, I spent one full year, working exclusively with a handmade bamboo quill pen, creating enormously intricate and repetitious cityscapes and apocalyptic visions. The illustrations depict the illusion of conformity and possible fate if things didn't change. I had already decided that the extent of any singular study should not exceed the duration of one year. In order to create the second chapter of the mythology I decided to re-examine the crowds from my new vantage, now much less distanced, yet still alienated from the constituents. Thus resulting in the MONSTER drawings.
WALKING THE BIG CITYAlthough I had not yet found the means to initiate dialogue with the public, I discovered an unconscious discourse during my meditative, and exploratory, walks through the crowd. Without ever actually stopping or talking, a non verbal society began to flourish. Expressions of love, hate, frustration, compulsion, consumption, and distraction, emulate throughout the rush hour traffic. Despite our busy schedules, an inescapable desire to socialize permeates. Even the most introverted of denizens can not help but express their unwillingness to succumb to expression. In between these unguarded moments, a brief abstraction flickers, as though an unspoken, universal language was calling out from across the intersection. Inspired by the body language of the streets, I decided to investigate the subtleties of the hidden discourse in my second series of ink drawings, the “MONSTERS“.
INFLUENCES & INSPIRATIONS
The “MONSTER” drawings, like all the “HEY APATHY!” images, were compelled by a personal motivation to investigate the city as well as an artistic agenda to create works of importance in the long standing tradition of the storyteller. Immersed in my studies at O.C.A.D., I found my self travelling the city frequently, observing the happenings. These strolls were the primary inspiration for the MONSTER drawings, as I was beginning to see the city as less of a cog wheel, as previously envisioned, and more as a social entity. As well a examining my physical interactions amidst the chaos, I also found inspiration in the illustrations, films, and music that I enjoyed and studied.
ILLUSTRATIONSThroughout my entire life, two major moments, each incited by the acquisition of a new book, stand out as seminally inspirational to the development of my vocation. The first time this occurred was in an Ottawa bookstore when my mother, likely unaware of the parental advisory, purchased her 10 year old son a copy of Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke”, an event further discussed in the comic book analysis‘ on this website. The second and more relevant influence came to me in high school, by way of a sort of secret underground, a teacher, named Kish, passed along a copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” to his unsuspecting Catholic school students. I remember the adventure, but was far more taken with the amazing illustrations by Ralph Steadman. For the first time I started thinking about the universal language, thinking about black and white monsters. Something impressed me regarding the vigorous yet precise, black and white monster drawings. They reminded me of hieroglyphics I had always understood, yet never before encountered. The influence of these artworks has never left my practice and although it wasn’t until years later that I began producing ink drawings, I continue to aspire to Steadman’s level of expression.
ROCK CARVINGSA large influence on both the “HEY APATHY!” and “MONSTER” drawings stems from the study of rock drawings, ancient storytelling, and hieroglyphics. In particular I recall discovering a photograph of one such image, carved by aborigines, on an Australian mountain top. The drawing, indecipherable from ground level, depicted a tiny little bubble person about to be consumed by a giant whale. Without the aid of a helicopter, no one would have ever been able to see this ancient wonder. The amazing capabilities of simplified imagery to communicate on a grand scale, impressed me in a manner such that the “rock carving” aesthetic has since dominated many of my thematic and technical explorations.
FILMS & CARTOONSI remember having little time to actually watch movies during the winter semester 2002 . This was primarily due to the extensive amount of artwork required to produce the monster animations. However, as luck or co-incidence would have it, I happened upon a television channel running all-night classic cartoons. This was probably unconsciously educational as I would play the channel all night while working on my own stills, frequently looking up and discovering new tricks and techniques. The channel ran a lot of Hanna-Barbara shows, these programs are composed of the most simplistic, yet invariably useful, animation processes. As a practicing animator, these shows proved extremely useful, as well as entertaining.MUSICAs a part of the attempt to reinvent the “HEY APATHY!” artworks, I decided not to listen to any music while I created the MONSTER ink drawings. Listening to music was a large part of the process during my first investigation, and in almost all aspects of my life, so it was a major decision to remove it from the practice. The goal of the drawings was however, to breach routine and illustrate the unconscious “mask”, therefore it was necessary to change my habits, and remove as much psychological interference as possible. Although I did not actually listen to any music while I worked on these drawings, I do recall being very frustrated with my musical inquiries. I was really interested in the Godspeed You Black Emperor music and subsequent genre, but found most groups lacking the rhythm, drive and storytelling which I constantly crave. As a result I continually rotated between the early SLINT albums ( a friend had introduced this dark rock to me in high school), and my ever-trustworthy copy of Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” between monster drawing sessions.
A DIALOGUE WITH THE CITYThe development of the “MONSTER” drawings not only enhanced my visual and technical vocabularies, but it also initiated several of the public processes which would prove integral to my entire body of work. Through these scribbles I determined, and practiced the techniques necessary to create public performance drawings, and was able to exhibit the works on the streets, and at three public venues, ultimately engaging in conversation with various people from the city. At the exhibition at the Distillery District Art Complex (Fall 2002), the first of it’s kind, I had a poor showing, meeting few people, and even fewer patrons, however one specific interaction resides as the highlight of the event. A young gentleman asked me about the “MONSTER” drawings and I explained the primal scream and “drawing association test” theory and he laughed. “You’ll never guess, but I’m a psychiatrist and these guys are going up in my office waiting room!” holding his selections, he leaned in closer and deviously added, “Wait until my patients get a look at these!”
BACK TO MONSTER COMICS 2002 GALLERY
|
