Before They Were Famous, after 2.

Before:

"She's Imaginative, She's 23 Years Old..." one or two weeks before completion.


After:

"She's Imaginative, She's 23 Years Old..." completed image.

Before hey were famous, after 1.

As very few people get to visit my studio and see in person the process of me destroying their favourite parts of a painting by their next visit, I have decided to post these before/sfter photos of paintings long since finished.

Before:

"When You're Alone...." in progress, about one week before completion.


After:

"When You're Alone..." Completed image.

Hochelagalaga

There is a point that is reached in the making of a painting that I can only compare to the feeling you get when, after playing Galaga for several hours you realize that you no longer pay any attention to your ship along the bottom of the screen. You no longer glance down to see where it is, as you know from the feeling of your hands and the shots flying up the screen.
In painting it is like you no longer pay attention to the overall composition, or even bother to hang it on the wall to try to see the next marks. You just mix paint and pour it, or remove it using your periphery vision and the more than likely incorrect remembrances of the night-before's work to guide you....but you trust what lies beyond the man being revealed behind the curtain.

Roy Lerner at Galerie D'Arts Contemporains: Vernissage November 16th

Roy Lerner: From New York to Montreal
November 16th to December 13th
Galerie D'Arts Contemporains
2165 rue Crescent, Montreal
Vernissage: November 16th 5pm-8:30pm

I'll be there, and so will a member of a famous jam band.

Opening Night At The Circus: Highlights Reel One

The best conversation I had all night was with the dude from the National Portrait Gallery(we'd met at an earlier opening at the gallery):



Me: "Hey! Howsit going?"
National Portrait Guy: "Oh, not bad. I'm working at the National Portrait Gallery."
Me: "Dammit... I mean, these are all totally portraits, hey?"
NPG: "Yeah like that 'She's Imaginative' one...."
Me: "Yeah I'll totally show you a picture of that girl...Well I guess I'm not a very GOOD portrait painter."
NPG: "Well, Steven Harper and all his cuts means I don't know what's happening"
Me: "Shitty. So does that mean you're like a teenage girls who has been given a week to live and wants to do all kinds of BAAAAAD stuff. Cuz I'll give you a deal on buying the whole fucking show right now! That'll show him."
NPG: "hahahahaha. Actually they froze my budget"
Me: "Your name is Craig, right?"
NPG: "No, Chris...."
Me: "Shit I gotta get a drink"

We All Agreed We All Had A Smashing Time

Wil Murray Opening at Patrick Mikhail Gallery: November 4th, 2006
More photos on my Flickr Page

Pas Chic Chic: I claim thee as "colleague".

I rarely find other people making art or music that I would pick as colleagues. In fact I shy from it, as it seems like some other persons job. Historians. Critics.
This week I was given the demo for Pas Chic Chic, a band made up of some of the most engaging people I know in Montreal. I was overwhelmed to find some very nice commonalities between their music and my work. I have had an ongoing conversation with Roger about art since my arrival in Montreal, and Marie-Douce is a collector of my work and DJ at my show last spring...they are two of my favourite people to have visit the studio.
Their music steps well beyond the drudgery of identity-based work, where the form is simply an armature to be fleshed out with the colour an material of influences. They have found the nuanced ornate and not thrown too many babies out with bathwater. Of course we're all marked with our grandfather's hands. I feel commonality many places, starting with the question: but what do you do after years of making something?
Listen to them here:
Pas Chic Chic: Sur Les Ecrans Statiques

From Studio to Gallery In 3 Days Flat

Eyebrows plucked.
Monkey hair trimmed.
Suits neatly packed.
Ties carefully selected.
Dealt with how to refer to my academic education in the press release for the show. "Studied painting at ACAD...."
Last trip to the studio to hold me over until Monday.
I leave for Ottawa tomorrow, for the opening of my show on Saturday.