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/

HEY APATHY! Artworks 2001-2009

HEY APATHY! This is a little chronological montage of my artworks from 2001-2009. The video describes the progression of the drawings over an extended period of time. The initial comics depict the city as a giant gear, propelled by hordes of faceless people. Each subsequent series brings the audience in for a closer examination of the city. The faceless crowds begin to identify themselves and we come to realize that it is in fact all the different kinds of people who make the gear grind. Simutaneous with the artworks, I also continued to move closer and closer and eventually became a part of the city. My earliest works were created in a suburban basement, then I moved into a Kensington Market Studio. Shortly after that I began studying in cafes and bars around downtown Toronto and eventually became a fully licensed professional street artist. HEY APATHY! has been expressed as drawings, gallery installations, murals, animations, fashion designs, and is currently being independently produced as an online comic and ongoing comic book series.

HEY APATHY! ONLINE COMIC PAGE THREE

HEY APATHY! ONLINE COMIC PAGE THREE: This page depicts the young anti-hero awaking suddenly from precognitive nightmares of an impending apocalypse. In a trance like moment of realisation, the little person leaves his bedroom and proceeds to his basement studio. Here he turns on some music, stands in the middle of a large sheet of paper and hand carves a pen out of bamboo. The ritual acts as like a seance, resurecting the spirit of the musician on the tape. Fully understanding the extent of the young artists inspiration, the spirit warns him of possible future threats. Despite these horrific premonitions the artist and ghost both agree that the drawings must be created, and the stories must be told.

I started drawing seriously around Dec 1999. At this time my focus was on creating surrealist horror comics, chop full of all kinds of nasty things (cannibal diners,witches etc.) However my objectives changed drastically the following winter. One evening I set out to start drawing when I found an old Beatles tape. The album documented the groups progression from pop stars to activists. I had an epiphany (symbolized by headlessness in the comics) and came to the realisation that if I was going to make comics, that they should be about real conflicts, and potentially have some sort of social value. Following this experience I started work on HEY APATHY!