Dancing Drawings

Comic Book Drawings: Nature, Technology, Spirits...

Online Comics APATHY AND DESPAIR

HEY APATHY! ONLINE ALTERNATIVE COMICS

This little short entitled "APATHY and DESPAIR" was made way back in the winter of 2001-02. I wanted to do a corresponding artist statement in the form of a comic book for my first exhibition of the HEY APATHY! artworks. The auto-biographical narration follows my weird experiences upon my earliest ventures to the monstrous metropolis. Having suffered a bout agoraphobia enhanced by a fear of mass media manipulation and an overwhelming populace of apathetic denizens, I decided to eliminate all my personal possessions and hide in my basement apartment. In the strip the character uses his commercial and material articles to barricade himself underground.

Like wise I hid in my home turned studio for an extended period of time while I developed my earliest ink drawings. Upon completion of the exhibit I returned to the big city to show the work and continue to investigate the urban atrocity. This comic depicts those initial sensations of despair and the influential experiences surrounding my early creative processes.

I had actually intended to draw a second chapter to this story which would explain the invention of my nightmarish APOCALYPSE drawings. The first series of HEY APATHY! artworks had two parts to it, one representative of our current state of nihilistic conformity and the other a series of premonitions of the apocalypse awaiting us if we did not change our ways. The idea was to eventually film the narrative in live action and have the two part comic as a sort of program for the moving picture. Although I completed the APATHY! portion of the book and film (shot on 16mm staring Mike DeCrook as the artist) I sort of lost interest in the project and started working on a bunch of animations instead. Anyways I came across a photocopied magazine version of the story and thought it would make an interesting dream sequence in the online comic. Eventually I will also transfer the film stock to video because it is pretty weird. We did a nice job on the high contrast lighting and some cool experimental overlays with drippy black oozing ink.

more art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Online Comics page 16

HEY APATHY! Online Art Comics page 16. This page is a montage of the various artistic processes I went through during the late summer and early fall of 2001. As I started back to school for my second year at the O.C.A.D. I stopped taking drawing courses and started focussing on film and animation. I already knew what I wanted to draw and had spent my entire summer making giant pen and ink murals so I didn't really enjoy the painting classes where they put apples of nudes in front of us and asked us to be colourful. Instead I practiced drawing on my commutes to and from the college and spent my time studying art forms that required technologies and instruction. Primarily this involved working with John Cruele on 16 mm animation projects as well as some long hour in the wood working shop and on the video editing suites. (I didn't include these in the montage but whatever). I also had to go head to head with the curator of the O.C.A.D. atrium gallery but forcefully convinced her (yelling and screaming) to let me book the space. I'm pretty sure my arguments were convincing but I think my friends also went back after explosion to smooth things over a bit. Any ways the story is still in auto-biographical mode but as you can see from internal monologue things are about to shift. I was heavily inspired by the artworks of Robert Crumb at the time and felt it was important to tell one's own stories so as to avoid fraudulence. However I kind of abandoned that philosophy for a while as you'll see in the upcoming stories. more recently I've come to a bit of a full circle and decided to re-include my autobiographical adventures as part of the mythology because I have actually done some weird things, had some strange experiences, and despite the probable outcomes of my attempts, might actually have something worthwhile to say. But I doubt it, probably just another artist trying to convince you how great I am, I mean if you really look at it that's all those "artists" ever really do... “ I am so and so who has been in this many magazines and won this many awards and sold work to two celebrities five years ago worship me!” now that’s art. visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Online comic page 15

Online Comics page 15, another depiction of my early artistic processes. Way back in 2001 I started drawing large scale ink on paper murals as part of the first instalment of HEY APATHY! I spent the entire summer dividing my days between a job landscaping and my evening working on the murals. They where all drawn with black India ink and a hand carved bamboo pen. The general routine involved about 5 hours each night working on the insanely intricate and massive artworks. I completed 13 large works that summer so as to have them ready for exhibition before I returned to the Ontario College of art and design in fall. I didn't actually have an exhibition space yet, or even really any plans as how to get one, but I plugged away and made the murals any ways. When I started back to the college I started making smaller and more accessible artworks based on the themes in the larger drawings. The idea being the exhibition would include hundreds of pieces ranging in size from 5 x 7 inches to 12 x 15 feet. The creation of the little works was ideal for my commute as I generally had about 1-1.5 hours of travel time to kill. I think that I would finish 2-3 of these each day and often drew on the backs of the paper as well. I would go to the dollar store on the weekends to buy frames which I would then use as a palette to work on. The little glass and cardboard was perfect for portable drawings and when they were done they were already ready for the wall. It is actually creepy thinking about it now because all of these early processes are very similar to the kinds of techniques I would use later on as a street artist and performer. I actually never really realized how intricate and precise the connections were until I started recollecting my processes here. Damn I feel old thinking back to that little introverted, innocent, and unassuming hopeful of 22 years. I already knew back then everything that was going to happen, unconsciously that is, but for some reason I insisted on doing it all anyways. check out these early drawings at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/drawings-art-comics-2001.html

HEY APATHY! ONLINE COMIC PAGE 14

HEY APATHY! online alternative comic page 14. These panels represent my personal intimidations and inspirations derived from the monstrous metropolis. Overwhelmed by the enormity and endlessly confused powers of communication expelled within the city, I have often felt as insignificant as a faceless little bubble person can possibly feel. How can anyone make a difference, have a voice, or even just feel as though he or she even matters. Ah the myth of Sisyphus , only in the case the futility of the anti heroes boulder takes the form of mark making with ink on paper.

After my first exhibition of artworks I became doubly aware of the mass hypnosis of superficial and commercial ideologies rampant in the streets and screens and ultimately minds of the metropolis and it's inhabitants. In order to pursue my artistic endeavours I returned to my studio in an attempt to take the battle up a notch. See what happens next week, (maybe sooner but this is only one of three projects plus never ending commissioned artworks I've got going on simultaneously) If you can’t wait you can always check out more online and independently published comics on my brutally designed home made website. All apologies for the mess over there, I’m just trying to catalogue everything chronologically and I plan to bring in a designer soon to put up a proper home page and clean up my mess.

HEY APATHY! Art COMIC Page 13

HEY APATHY! Art Comics page 13. ATTACK OF THE LAUGHING BILLBOARDS. Here the little anti-hero wanders the streets of the monstrous metropolis in a exemplary stupor. The young artist has just completed his first exhibition and has become slightly inebriated by hubris. Spotting the distracted catalyst, two giant billboards prey upon his weakness and attack with a barrage of mockeries and brawling laughter. Assuming diabolical form the over-grown television commercials center out the young artist annihilating his ego and shattering his dreams...

Things are getting a bit more fun for me as far as working out the online comic is concerned. The whole "book" is sort of like a clip show of all the comics I've done over the past ten years (almost). Many of these pages have been previously published as zines or comics, but the print runs were so small the chances are the material is all new to any blog viewers. The first few pages that have already gone up were primarily from my 1st year sketchbook. Although I feel that these strips document important early stages in the development of my mythos, I am far more excited to present more recent and advanced strips. Today's post was an original page made for the comic and the artworks from here on in are pretty wild. more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/