News and Events

March 7, 2016

Last chance to see the Colours of Art exhibition

The show at the Button Factory ends this Friday. come see all the talent that operates in Kitchener-Waterloo.

February 2, 2016

Decoding Abstract

Nice to see people are still talking about abstract art. One of the problems with making and showing non-objective art is that it challenges people in ways they’re not used to being challenged. As a result, people may dismiss it outright. “My kid could paint that.” “Can you believe how much that art costs?” I hear things like this all the time.
Occasionally, someone gets it, and I can tell they get it by the way they gaze into the painting, as if they’re lost in another world. These people understand what I was trying to do.

Abstract art is an abstraction. It does not represent anything. It is nonobjective. Instead of depicting what we recognize in the world of objects, people and nature, abstract art is concerned with color, line, form, and texture. It is not reality-based but emotionally-based. It is expressive and gestural. When an artist paints or sculpts, they are driven to express what they see and feel. And because no two artists see or feel in the same way, we have a broad spectrum of presentation. Couple that with the viewer and alchemy takes place. The emotion in the art synergizes with the evoked emotion of the viewer and voilá, you love the work, hate it, or remain cold. When viewing the work, you may feel dreamy, or hyper tense, float with a buttery pattern, or grow dizzy in a geometric structure. Clean lines, drips, swathes of color, loaded canvases, arched steel, holes in stone, towering monoliths of brass or tiny boxes painted in colored grids; the range of abstraction is infinite.

Decoding Abstract | News from West Branch Gallery & Sculpture Park

April 21, 2015

Postmen: Poster

As a final idea for a poster for the film-to-be, “Postmen,” I tried wrapping an old BB gun up in craft paper, and putting some prop stamps on it. Normally, I’m pretty lazy, and I work with digital collages, pulling bits and pieces from the Internet, but there was nothing really that fit the bill.
Also, googling “gun package” is likely to get me on some kind of watch list.
Here’s what I came up with:

Here’s the poster. It won “crowd favourite” at CineCoup. So, not bad.

April 21, 2015

Project: Postmen

Been working on some images for some friends and their movie, “Postmen“. They’re working their way through the CineCoup challenge in order to win a $1 million prize and distribution in theatres.

What is CineCoup?
We make the movies fans want to see, by asking you which ideas you like the best. Our model brings talented filmmakers into the public eye and challenges them to build an audience before the cameras even start rolling!
What Does CineCoup Want?
We want genre projects and we know Canada’s got the good stuff so bring it on! We’re talkin’ SCI-FI, HORROR, ACTION, THRILLER, COMEDY, or documentaries that deal with similar themes (ie. King of Kong, Indie Game: The Movie, Trekkies, etc.)
Filmmaking teams start by submitting a movie trailer. Over 12 weeks they advance through CineCoup’s social web platform and in the end we option (up to) 10 projects and greenlit one for production with (up to) $1 Million in production financing and a release in Cineplex Theatres! #BeBrave

I offered to shoot some poster ideas at them, and see if I could help with their concept. Here are some of the ones I tried:

I kind of liked the last one, with the Saul Bass nod. But something was still lacking. I decided to expand on another concept, which included a gun wrapped up like a parcel. You know the kind, with the outer wrapping so tight, that it obviously looks like a gun.

November 5, 2013

Art Event at THEMUSEUM

Tonight is a great fundraising event at THEMUSEUM in Kitchener. A Toast to Canadian Whisky features whisky-tasting, a book-signing, and an art show, curated by yours truly.
Over 30 works will be shown from the Burnt Island Collective, a group of wilderness artists, who work together on local projects.