wait...

...when did I become so Toronto??!

(Toronto apparently =s Latte + Yoga + Canada Goose)

bake sale fun

 

If you have to make bake sale tags to keep people with allergies safe, you might as well make something cute!

highlights of chagall and the russian avant-garde @ the AGO

I love going to the AGO's big exhibitions! Busy as they may be, they're always full of inspiration and unexpected surprises.

I really wanted to check out the Chagall show because I find his paintings so free and gutsy, especially in terms of colour - I'm a big chicken when it comes to colour. I need to learn from these guys. I was also very interested in the show's focus on the influence of Chagall's origins on his work. A nostalgic, even sometime idealized view of my own hometown and culture is something that has unexpectedly crept up on me while living in Toronto, and that I feel I need to tackle through art as well.

That, and I've been reading a lot of Joann Sfar this year.

Did I mention the chickens? I love the fun, happy chickens and goats and cows that pop up here and there, and even in the most sober of his pieces.

See the chicken?

("Newspaper Vendor", Marc Chagall, 1914)

...and the Russian Avant-Garde. It's not all about Chagall, guys! Some of my favourite stuff in the show wasn't Chagall at all, but of other Russian born artists. I really fell for this one:

A little boar and a whacky bird AND a freaky naked lady? I was all over this!

("Spring", Mikhail Larionov, 1912)

I was also floored by this collection of lithographs by Natalia Goncharova. So graphic, so direct, so creepy, and so beautiful.

(Portfolio cover from Misticheskie obrazy voiny, 14 litografii - Mystical Images of War: Fourteen Lithographs, Natalia Goncharova, 1914)

(Bratskaya Mogila - A Common Grave, Natalia Goncharova, 1914)

This documentary by Dziga Vertov was projected on a wall, and I was completely mesmerized. Man with a Movie Camera is a depiction of everyday life for people in Russia in 1929. There's some elements of stop motion in there, along with other fancy camera tricks for the time. 

Once you're done with Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde, don't miss Constructing Utopia: Books and Posters from Revolutionary Russia (1910-1940) on the first floor. Propaganda leaflets and posters with beautiful, constructivist design. I love that stuff.

hibernation?

Fall sucks because it means summer's dead and the freezing's coming. And the colds and the sore throats and the runny noses and the cold and the snow and the never ending nights and... I'm not a fan. Seriously, if seasons could alter between spring and summer, I'd be a happy camper!

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❊ inspiration blog

My last post gave me an idea...

I now have another blog where all I do is post stuff that influences and/or inspires me. It's already a bit late, I guess, but I hope it'll help me push the work I do for my short that much more. And keep me inspired.

I'd appreciate any suggestions regarding work, films, blogs, etc. that I might not know of yet - and if you can get some inspiration out of the stuff I post, that'd be pretty cool!

les moomins

I kind of pity anyone who hasn't grown up with the Moomins. I grew up watching the cartoons, and I'm really enjoying the original material, over 10 years later - even if all the names are weird in English...

Les Moomins
Uploaded by GREG1205. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

Les Moomins - 06 - Le Groke
Uploaded by kroman.

The cartoons were a European/Japan co-production, like so many of the other shows we watched when we were young on the french version of the CBC, la SRC. Seems like no other kid's animated series comes even remotely close to this in quality these days, especially contents wise.

finally went to the AGO yesterday

Marchesa Casati
Is a living doll
Pinned on my Frisco
Skid row wall

Her eyes are vast
Her skin is shiny
Blue veins
And wild red hair
Shoulders sweet & tiny

Love her
Love her
Sings the sea
Bluely
Moaning
In the Augustus John
de John
background

Jack Kerouac

le pen?

I'm in love with this pen (in black), but I try to use it sparingly... Because I don't know where to get them around here. Anyone ever come across any Marvy Uchidas Le Pen markers around the GTA?

flipbook 2009

Did YOU buy your copy this week?

typical msn silliness...

anniversary!

You gotta hate Facebook... and by that I mean you gotta love it (sometimes, anyway)! Especially the graffiti application! Anyhoo, today is me and Adam's anniversary, and since he's still in New Brunswick, what better thing to do than a good old graffiti via Facebook to celebrate?

new blog...

I thought I'd finally quit fartin' around and make a "real" animation blog..!
So here it is:

Special thanks to Adam Arsenault for the random title ideas :)