Ideas, ideas...

Even though it was obvious that I would be putting on more shows after the debut of Illustrious Pink Elephants, I knew that they were from thus forth going to be themed.  What those themes where I had a general idea of but nothing concrete.  Issues with the environment, child labour, organs being bought on the black market and so forth were such concepts.  And then earlier today I had a thought.  What if I were to do these shows, 7 to be exact on the seven deadly sins.  Each sin being clearly described, but with a twist.  Not really portraying the concepts as sins to God perse, but things that are happening around the world that we may not know about, or do know and refuse to do anything about.  For example, Gluttony could be our hunger for technology.  Lust; our obsessive compulsions to be "beautiful" and what we go through to obtain it.  Greed; our unsustainable hunger for natural resources.  Sloth; alcoholism, eating disorders, ect.  Wrath; domestic abuse, suicide, ect.  Envy; the corruption of political systems and Pride; could be the last or first sin described, with an overview of a lot of the previous sins; dealing with consumerism, obsessions with weight, eating disorders, depression, sexual preference, ect.  I have to think more on it, but I really think this is where I want to go with these shows.  Please feel free to comment or add suggestions!

clearly can't make up my mind

i recently bought a book on graphic design promo art and fell in love-with everything in it.  and all i kept thinking to myself was, man i should have picked this up before i designed my cards, because now i want to re-design them because i clearly can't make up my mind.  so this is what i did, just playing around in photoshop the other day.  i think i'll probably go with this new design when i decide to get more cards made.  arg!

Ah, film...

These shots are from an old 35mm camera I took with film, not digital-gasp!  You know when you shoot film, maybe 2 or 3 or if you're lucky 5 shots come out great and the rest is crap?  Well I shot this roll right after a snow fall a few winters ago and almost every shot came out great.  To top it all off, everything had this beautiful blue glow to it.  Haven't had a shot like this since.  Also thought I'd add one from a roll of black and white I did the fall before hand.  Ah, film.  There's something so smooth about it.

sketching!

So like I had said I've been researching schools, and found this absolutely amazing school in Montreal that has free tuition!  I know, I couldn't believe it either until I called them to confirm I wasn't applying to a high school.  And one of the things they require in their portfolio submission is a sketchbook to make sure you're drawing regularly-which I totally don't.  So I bought a new book and have been plugging away at it as often as possible (when I'm not making hats and ear rings to make rent-gah!)  Here's some of what I have so far.  This particular piece was actually an idea I got from a project I did way back in high school where you take a photo of someone, slice it and then glue every other piece on paper and then draw the missing pieces in between.  Totally fun with a neat look.  Gotta love De Niro.

A past production...

I decided to post images of my last show, A Robotic Nation in leu of my site (murderbird.com) which will be up and running in the next week or two.  This show debuted at the Cre8ery Gallery on September 4th 2008 and was well received and spotlighted in local media (Uptown, The Tab, The Manitoban, The Uniter & The Projector as well as a dozen or so smaller papers.)  The show consisted of 50 mixed media pieces, all robots in traditional dress to depict different cultures of various nations.  25 of them where Prisma Marker, acrylic and pen on water color paper with it's duplicate in pencil.  These pieces were also professionally framed and matted.  Currently I am working on my next solo show, Illustrious Pink Elephants which will also be released at the Cre8ery on November 5th 2009.  This show is the anticipated release of my signature style and depicts concepts of a political nature.  Each piece will be created on canvas using acrylics with the preliminary work conducted first with photographs and then photoshoped.  Please see previous posts for more information.  

first draft for IPE...

Been working on this for the last month or so now, not constantly mind you, but here and there trying to nail a solid technique that I like and will work with thus forth.  Here's the first piece, clearly called "Vogue Darling."  The concept behind this work is conformity.  People, especially women have been cast as sexual figures and are taught from tender ages subliminally and directly that to be considered popular, or attractive, or worthy of men's (or women's) affections that you must fit into their one sided idea of what beautiful is.  Many women are growing up struggling to conform to these ideals that they truly loose touch with who they really are, striving to live a life that isn't realistic.  The goat horns signify a sheepish quality, reflecting the large population of brainwashed young girls and women striving to either become what they can't, or successfully embracing an un-unique and barbie-doll lifestyle that is only meant to trap you into a life time of consumerism.  Wear this dress, wax all the right spots, dye your hair this color, wear these shoes, talk this way, eat-nothing at all, travel to these spots and God forbid you have a unique thought in your head.  

The canvas will span 6'x4' unframed.  I hope to have all the preliminary work finished for all 13 concepts by the new year where upon I will start painting.

*click on the image for a larger view.

my new site!

it's slowly coming together, actually it's been a project since last spring, but now all the graphic design is done, and all that's left is finishing the flash, entering all the images and launching it!  here's an example of what one of the pages will look like!

CD release party!

Hey folks!  for those of you who don't know, Scott Malcolmson is having his first CD release party tonight at the Park Theatre!  Show starts at 7pm and goes till 10pm.  His sound is acoustic folk, kinda got a Jack Johnson feel and he's spent a lot of time getting his first record out, so lets support this great Winnipeg artist!

I designed his entire CD; full 12 page booklet inside with lyrics, CD design, back and front tray cards and posters.  We actually did a photo shoot in the exchange where I shot roughly 250 pictures and used about 7 of them (pretty much the norm).  The front cover is a photoshop piece which I used layers of color to create.  All in all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, being my first CD I designed.  It's really neat to see it all printed out too.  

For those of you interested, check out his Myspace to hear his sound!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=365867050

shrinky-madness!

who'd have thought that neat plastic you casually toyed with as a kid could be used to create such ornate and fun jewellery!  i've been making ear rings for ParaMix and F&Q now for the last 3 months and they've been selling like crazy!  here's a few pics of some of the work i've done, they, and many more are readily available for you at these stores!

crochet!

hey folks!  so recently i have been commissioned by Silver Lotus & Rooster to make hats and head bands and i've taken some photos of the finished pieces for everyone to see.  they're made of various types of wool, some cotton, some actual wool with different accessories attached.  i really like the flowers and the berries personally, but the ones with feathers seem to be flying out of there.  (bad pun, sorry).  anyways, they are available at these stores retailing for $30 each for those of you interested, or you can contact me through email for a custom made piece.  gotta keep warm!

new card!

finally have a business card!  i just designed it, thought you'd all like to see!  i seriously heart photoshop.  you can do so much with this program it's insane.  it's honestly an artist's wet dream come true.  

things are coming along nicely for the show.  i have my frames on the way, thanks to the boys at work and should start the preliminary work in photoshop soon.  i've finished work until they call me back so i have some free time.  well, not really free time; i have 100 ear rings to make for ParaMix and 10 hats for Silver lotus due in the next week so i will be at home, arting my heart out.  right now though i am on a mission to find some buttons for the hats i'm making.  i'm looking for those "hook" buttons, you know, the ones they usually had on felt jackets made of bone most of the time.  they look like teeth to me actually.  anyways, i'm trying to find them, but it looks like the only way i'll get them is if i find them on a jacket, so i'm hitting up all the second hand stores this weekend.

anywho, back to work.  :D

New Show!

So the next show has been booked for November 5th 2009 that will debut at the Cre8ery Gallery.  It's called Illustrious Pink Elephants and is very political in nature.  I am hoping this show will be as well received if not more so being that it is the debut of my signature style which my manager kept telling me I needed to conceive as well as it's message.  Illustrious Pink Elephants, for those of you who didn't guess is a play on words, and deals with a lot of different issues I strongly believe we as human beings need to stop and take stock of.  Here is a list of the concepts for the show.

1. 2 men kissing. *nudity present. (deals with sexual preference).

2. Woman lying against a wall, legs out in front of her, she's cut her wrists, continuous pool of blood beneath her. 2 panel piece. *nudity present. (deals with suicide).

3. Woman in clawed foot bath tub, cigarette in mouth, whiskey glass half full in her hand over the side of the tub, a plugged in toaster sitting on a table at the foot of the tub, her toe rests under one edge, entertaining the idea of pulling the toaster in with her. *partial nudity. (deals with depression, alcoholism & suicide).

4. Woman standing, whiskey bottle in mouth, words along the side of the canvas read; "if this is the life, then why does it feel so good to die tonight?" *nudity present. (deals with depression & alcoholism).

5. Man laying down, hooked intravenously to TV, stereo, computer, magazines. *nudity present. (deals with the media spoon feeding us opinions about everything from how we're supposed to dress, talk, buy, watch, play think, eat...)

6. Woman sitting on the floor, pulling out a love handle and going to cut it off.  Pieces of herself are laying in front of her like meat.  In the shape of the knife are in words the thoughts in her head. *nudity present. (deals with women feeling that their bodies will never fit into the impossible mold the media spins, she hits her breaking point). 

7. Woman curled around a toilet. *nudity present. (deals with eating disorders).

8. Guy sitting in a chair with a remote in his hands, about to change the channel.  Woman behind him with a crazed look in her face, a cast iron frying pan above her head about to strike. *partial nudity present. (deals with domestic abuse).

9. Woman touching her face, a disgusted look on her face.  She seems to be looking at a reflection of herself, clearly what she's seeing is a misrepresentation.  Piece will be framed with glass so the audience will see their own reflection. *nudity present. (deals with women looking at themselves in an unrealistic view).

10. Guy with an elephant nose. *nudity present. (the signature piece; the pink elephant being the perpetual issue no one wants to talk about).

11. Girl in a thong and 4 inch stiletto heels standing in front of a mirror, looking at herself in awe, cigarette in mouth, huge goat horns protruding out of her head.  Instead of the brand name on the cigarette it says 'bahhhhhh'. *partial nudity present. (deals with conformity). 

12. 2 women kissing. *nudity present. (deals with sexual preference).

13. Grown man in a diaper, shaking hands with a man in a suit, standing in front of a brand new Lexus.  Diaper is representing the media. *no nudity present. (deals with conformity).

These concepts I will be presenting are all issues that I believe many if not all of us have encountered on some level.  Perhaps you had a brother or sister who came out and had to deal with it's results in a less then welcoming fashion.  Or your best friend had problems with alcoholism and you didn't know how to deal with it.  Or maybe you grew up all your life feeling like you needed to fit into what someone else thought was beautiful and with so fought with an eating disorder.  We all can't pertain to think these issues don't exist.  Through these pieces I hope we will realize that while these are very serious situations, we are also not alone.  

At this time I have begun the preliminary photos for the show.  I have already had one successful photo shoot, and will be scheduling more in the months to come.  I hope to have all the preliminary work done by the beginning of next year.  I am also working on obtaining a grant from the Winnipeg Grants Council.  

I will keep everyone posted on advancements!