The following paintings were contributions to my very first group show at the gallery "Usine 106u" in March of 2008. They were worked on sporadically through 2007 and they constitute my first foray into the creative process of making art. Of course, a portrait is a form of art, but for me it's a bit like being a photocopier... You just paint what you see the best you can and that's that. In these paintings I was trying to use the skill I had developed painting simple portraits and make it more interesting for the viewer and certainly less of a bore for me to paint!
''Doodle Dreams''
36x60'', oil and markers on canvas
2008
SOLD
Doodle Dreams was commissioned by an old friend of mine. She became a doctor and bought a condo with her architect boyfriend and got me this huge canvas and asked how much it would cost for me to paint something that big, i told her around 2 grand and she said ''ok!''. She told me to paint whatever I wanted and that she trusted my talent! That delighted me at first, but I found out in the process that it's not so easy to paint what you want when you know it will end up on a particular person's wall. I couldn't get up in the morning and paint vaginas all day if you get my drift... The pictures that are on here are only documenting the last and final stage of the piece, but it was so many things before it became what it is! I painted over so much, so many concepts didn't make the cut, so much that at one point I actually had to flip the canvas to start anew... My friend was pregnant with her second child at the time, and in the end that's what launched the final concept in my mind and on canvas.
-------------------
"Damn Kids"30x40", acrylic, latex and oil paints, oil pastels and markers on canvas
2008
SOLD
This piece was started in my friend Youri's apt in Oakville Ont... on mushrooms. I think we were reminiscing about the gangster brat kids that used to live in our apt building a couple years back and I guess I wanted to portray that vibe somehow..? I dunno.. I started browsing pics of kids being rude. Type "kid giving finger" and "kid smoking" into google images, I thought they could be buddies.
There was a can of left over latex paint on the porch that evening and we decided to pour it onto the canvas out of artsy fartsy curiosity. It came out looking pretty cool. In retrospect I wish I hadn't indulged in my shitty little font fantasy so much... it bothers me that the title is written twice on it like that.. but whatever man, the thing is done.
It was bought by my uncle oddly enough. The man's got an extensive art collection that consists of many great classical Flemish painters and then on the mantle there's this thing hahaha... weird, but cool.
-------------------
"Not Obama"
12x24", oil on canvas
2008
SOLD
Another piece started in the GTA, visit www.thegraveyart.blogspot.com for some more art that was started over there but never made it out alive..!
On Karl's porch on Denisson Ave in Toronto you see a lot of weird mofos walking by... plenty of attitude. I woke up on a hot hot summer day there (on the couch, on the porch) and felt like painting. I got inspired by a mixtape cover I saw in a torn up magazine on the floor. I finished it a couple months later when Obama was starting to get hot, that's when I gave it the name... cause it's not Obama..! It's my first piece sold off the walls of a gallery to a stranger. Apparently the dude that bought it is surprisingly a nerdy looking white guy!
