One of my goals over the past year has been to establish relationships with galleries that showcase work similar to my own. To do this I did some research into galleries in Canada and the U.S. that currently show surreal and pop culture based artwork. After creating a list of suitable galleries I put around a series of e-mails to them featuring examples of my artwork and a link to my website. Then I waited for contact.

Some galleries didn’t both to get back to me. More yet sent a reply saying that while they liked my work they currently weren’t looking for new artists. A few, a very few said they liked my work and had either space available to show some of my paintings right away or they had upcoming shows which would be perfect for my surrealistic style. One of them was Distinction Gallery and Artist’s Studios in Escondido, California.

I e-mailed back and forth with Melissa Walker, the curator of Distinction Gallery. She wanted several of my works right away for one of their back galleries that features new work which is not connected to a specific show. I sent off three of my paintings. Check them out below.

Click each pic for a larger viewer.

 
These three went down to Distinction earlier in the summer. They’re still available if anyone would like to purchase them. Please contact the Distinction Gallery here.

Beyond wanting some of my available paintings for her gallery right away, Melissa invited me to do some work for Distinction’s upcoming show entitled “Scientific Evolution”. I was happy to oblige and produced two new paintings for the show. They’re entitled “Renewal 1″ and “Renewal 2″.

Click each pic for a larger view.

 
The idea behind the exhibition is to show how scientific advances have changed the evolution of humanity. I immediately thought about how modern medicine has allowed all of us to live longer lives by staving off early childhood illness and diseases. Also, with new treatments for disease and injury the life expectancy of everyone on the planet continues to go up. I personally hope to live to be a truly curmudgeonly old fart, with physical strength and mental accuity still intact. Let’s hope modern medicine can help me out.

I created two pieces for the show. I’m not sure if I was supposed to do two or not. I seem to be the only artist with more than one artwork in the show. Oh well.

The two paintings I sent down feature the idea of never ending renewal. The piece on the left “Renewal 1″ features an arm like form which can eject a worn out hand for a new one with the touch of an implanted ‘renew’ button. The piece on the right “Renewal 2″ is also based on an arm motif but in this instance the arm is renewing itself by self administering an injection of infinity through a conveniently implanted injection port. As the infinity flows into the interior of the body it becomes one with it creating new flesh and new vitality.

The show “Scientific Evolution” will be hanging at the Distinction Gallery from August 8th to September 5th. If you’re in Escondido, California or nearby I highly recommend that you go check it out!

For now, that is all. Goodnight.

For the past two years, Cath and I have been treating ourselves to a nice little getaway in Niagara Falls as our birthday present to each other. Work is not invited. When we first decided to go we were recommended to stay at the Kilpatrick Manor, a lovely little bed and breakfast just minutes from downtown Niagara. Well, we had such an enjoyable visit last year that we decided to do it again this year.

It’s run by the husband/wife tag team of Kevin and Nance.

Kevin is a professional chef and takes care of the Breakfast side of things. He offers three options for breakfast and every day is different. Each selection is gourmet and can be tailored to your tastes. He’ll also talk your ear off about just about anything. From politics to comic books, we chatted about everything.

Nance is the host and the organizer of the house taking care of the Bed side of things. Our room was ready and, since we were return visitors we had fruit,cheese and wine waiting for us when we arrived. Nice touch!

We planned our trip a little after our birthdays this year, the weekend of April 18th to be exact. Last year we were in the stately Chrysler Room. This year we decided to try out the Hunniford Room which came complete with a fireplace surrounded by a lovely sitting area, a king sized bed, bathrobes and slippers and our very our spa jet, massaging shower with mood lighting! Whoo!

We took advantage of the room for an evening, enjoying a bottle of wine or two, a selection of chocolates and the delicious fruit/cheese which had been provided by our hosts. The Manor also had a nice selection of DVD’s available of which we watched a few on our flat screen television, also part of the room.

After spending the first evening in the splendour of the Hunniford, we decided to tour the downtown strip and check out what was going on in Niagara. On our way, we saw a bevy of pot legalization advocates protesting in a local park. All around them were open parking lots and vacant stores. Nothing quite like preaching to yourself to get the word around!

Last year we went around the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum — which I highly recommend. This year we decided to tour the midway taking in Tussaud’s Wax Museum and a few of the other spectacles offered along Clifton Hill.

We really enjoyed the wax museum. There was really quite a lot to see and most of the exhibits were set up with themes in mind. There was the Hollywood room full of stars from today and yester-year. There was a room for the royal family. Cath and I really enjoyed the horror and sci-fi themed area of the museum. There was even a place to take a picture of yourself going over the falls in a mock barrel! We took every opportunity that we had to ham it up a bit and play with the figures. I know we weren’t supposed to but — you only live once.

After having a great time in the waxworks we wandered down Clifton Hill to see what else was offered. If you’re interested in thrills and chills, Niagara has it. They have a working amusement park, movie themed rides and numerous entertainment venues claiming to be so scary they’ve got sign boards boasting how many patrons have had to turn around before making it all the way through! Personally, if they really are as uncomfortable as they say, so much so that I wouldn’t be interested in finishing the tour, I don’t know why I’d pay. So we didn’t.

We carried on towards the Falls and checked out the majesty of one of the world’s most amazing natural wonders. It’s fantastic to have this right in our own backyard. You can get there in an hour from Toronto and it’s free to see so there’s really no excuse not to go.

After taking in the falls we wandered back up Clifton Hill in search of a large video arcade. We found one, the Niagara Falls Museum and Penny Arcade. Cath and I are quite partial to games that require you to kill zombies with a model gun. The House Of The Dead series of games are really good for this. They had the first in the series hidden in the back. We found out that we’re crackshots and spent half an hour playing the game on our original tokens!

After our lust for zombie death was sated we moved on to the shooting gallery. It was set up at the very back of the arcade and was made to look like a wild west frontier. Using a mock rifle we were challenged to shoot ‘light’ at sensors around the scene. Every recognized shot made something happen. One shot would make an animatronic wolf howl. Aanother would make a groundhog pop out of a jar. Cath was awesome! I fear for anyone who would try to duel with her. For every shot she made, she received some tickets that were redeemable for prizes. We had 49. That was almost enough for a plastic soldier man or a novelty kids mirror. We ended up giving the tickets to a family who were busy collecting to get something worthwhile.

After the arcade, we headed to the Canyon Creek Restaurant where we had reservations for a relaxing dinner. I had the prime rib special and Cath enjoyed the salmon on a cedar plank. Both meals went down well with a glass of red wine and we enjoyed the view of the Falls afforded us by our table assignment. A table of ladies beside us mysteriously vanished at one point during our meal. We thought that they had pulled a dine ‘n’ dash but they showed up half an hour later to reclaim their table, I’m sure to their server’s relief!

We picked Canyon Creek as our restaurant for the evening because it was close to the casino. We’d never been in and wanted to see what it was all about. You know the classic look of casino’s in movies that features a bunch of roulette, poker and black jack tables and some slot machines scattered around? This looked nothing like that. It was a room the size of three football fields full of digital lottery gaming terminals. The era of the one-armed bandits is over.

The room hummed. Video terminals were ringing. People were talking. Machines were tinkling. All of this led to a pall of whitenoise that hung over the entire room. Everywhere blinking screens tried to catch your attention. Lights flashed off and on with disarming regularity.

Cath and I set a limit of $20 each when gambling in the casino. We ended up spending $50 between the both of us. I think we kept things pretty modest. I was the first to lose all my money to the video terminals. We tried a whole bunch and we tried all the options that each one offered. The more options we chose, the faster the terminals separated us from our money. I’m glad we set a limit. After checking out the casino for fourty five minutes we decided to head back to the comfort of the Kilpatrick Manor, feeling a bit like quasimodo, holding our ears crying, “The bells! The bells!”

We spent our last evening quietly watching a few movies, enjoying some wine, each others company and the lack of work that a vacation forces upon the taker.

If you’re planning a little getaway to the Niagara region and are looking for a quality place to stay, I’d highly recommend the Kilpatrick Manor. It features spacious and tastefully decorated rooms with large beds and all the ammenities you’d need to enjoy your little escape. They also offer up packages that include a wine tour of the region or a relaxing personal massage held in the comfort of your own room. We’ll keep you updated about our shenanigans next time we go!

For now, that is all. Goodnight.

Hi all! I wanted to let you know about the launch of a new project of mine. As the post title states, it’s called “The Great Canadian Visual Arts Grant Database” and is, as you guessed, a database of every visual arts grant available in Canada!

At the moment I’ve got just about every major grant from the provincial and federal levels listed. I’m now in the process of searching through all the major cities in every province and all the private benefactors listed online, scouring the web to find every single grant opportunity.

“Why am I doing this?”, you may ask. We’ve got a vibrant and cohesive cultural society in Canada yet so many of our resources are scattered haphazardly across the internet or hidden away on government servers, never to see the light of day. I think it’s time to change this.

As an artist I am generously afforded the opportunity to apply for monetary grants to support my personal practice. Unfortunately I’ve often found while searching for those opportunities that the information I come across is out-of-date, erroneous or the grants and their websites no longer exist.

Being displeased with this outcome I decided to take it upon myself to research what is currently available and put it onto one handy dandy website where every artist, from coast to coast, can find the right grant for them!

It’s simple and clean and all the links work! I hope you like it and I hope you find what you’re looking for. At the moment I’m only listing grant opportunities that have website representation. If you know of anything that I’ve missed or that doesn’t have a website please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll be happy to add a posting with all the pertinent information!

For now, that is all. Goodnight.

Hi all! I wanted to show you all my latest creation. I’ve decided to embark on an exploration of a whole new world. It’s populated by pumpkin related denizens (because I like Halloween) and I plan to use it as a mirror of our own society, it’s fears, insecurities and short-comings.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not trying to be a stick-in-the-mud or doom sayer by focusing strictly on the negative aspects of our society but, as the old adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It’s the problems that we need to correct. The only way to do that is to talk about them. By creating a new world with a new race of people I hope to remove all bias and stereotyping that might be inferred on them. This way, I can talk about issues in their world that parallel our own, hopefully imparting my message to everyone who views them without impugnity.

This piece is titled “If You Could See What’s On My Mind” and deals with the subject of societal control on what is considered acceptable in the realm of the mind. Being a purveyor of imagination, I have come under fire from this very form of socially accepted censorship. We all have the right to think what we like and to be unfettered by fear of reprisals for what we think. People are often censored in the workplace or the family for thoughts and their sense of imagination and this is a trespass that should be talked about openly and often. Expect this to be a theme in many of my upcoming paintings.

The character in ”If You Could See What’s On My Mind” has had all of his orifices sealed up. Corks, tape, staples, stitches and even a zipper stop him from being able to communicate what’s on the inside to the outside world. Not content to be bottled up, his mind left to ruminate in its cranial solitude, he has taken the initiative, severed the stitches that keep his head closed up and removed its top to release all those things that deserve to see the light. The idea here is not that these shapes emerging from his head are some kind of horrific monstrosities but rather that they are flights of the imagination that are now unbound.

I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoyed painting it!

For now, that is all. Goodnight.

Halloween is a fantastic time of year and it’s a shame that it culminates in one spooky evening and then is all over in a hail of empty candy wrappers and dishevelled costumes. Perhaps that’s the fun of it all?

Well, although I haven’t been very faithful to the Halloween season over the past few years (my apologies Halloween). I’ve decided to let out my inner ghoul and start exploring the world of Halloween and the creatures that might inhabit it. Maybe I can atone for my past transgressions (my apologies Halloween).

Here’s my first painting in the series. It’s entitled “I Hate it When my Eyes Blow Out!” and features a pumpkin headed gentleman re-lighting his eyes after the wind has snuffed out his candle. As you can see he’s functionally blind until his candle is lit. He’s stabbed himself in the face several times with prior attempts at reaching his wick, hence his perturbed disposition. It’s 12″ x 18″, Acrylic on Canvas.

When I came up with the concept for this piece I conjured up a civilization of pumpkin people and what their world would be like viewed through the eyes of a pumpkin. I’ve come up with a whole series of ideas to help flesh out this world and it’s inhabitants and I’ll be bringing you a new one hopefully every week or two for the next little while. Stay tuned!