Here's another version of my print I did on craft paper. Turns out it looks way better but only one copy really worked out. Tear.

Ink and Dogs

I also practiced drawing dogs all weekend. 

Ink and Portraits

This weekend I decided I need to get back to the basics and actually learn how to draw, and draw bigger. So I did some portraits. Liquid ink is fun. 

Jacqueline

 Nasuna
(She ended up looking like Jennifer Aniston)

Self Portrait
(Hadn't done one of these since high school)

People at Expozine

When it Rains...

I'm having trouble dealing with colour as usual, but, on the other hand, no problems with the rain.

The Ball

This is a screen print of the sketch from The Planter's Ball I posted a while back. It's is my first real screen print in a while, 3 years to be exact. It was a real pain in the ass. 9 colours. 9 pain staking colours. Sweat and tears went into every print so they may not be acid free anymore (blood free guaranteed though)? 

This is my friend Louise while she read me a bit of The Road at her house.

The Book of Tree Planting Suicides (Trailer 2)

The Book of Tree Planting Suicides has received a great response! I sold all 37 copies (minus one that I kept for myself)! Recently, I reprinted some pages I was missing to complete the edition of 50 copies, so in a minute (or several hours) once I finish binding them, there should be 15 copies left. Who wants one? They are $25 each and $2.20 for shipping if you aren't in Montreal (or I'm coming to Toronto in Nov.). I will never print them again so we're talking limited edition here. To commemorate the completion of the printing, here I will release another one of the images.

All 50 copies officially printed and bound with two APs (Artist Proofs) also!

Dead Bird Under a Bridge

I thought I'd lost these!

I painted this one fine Sunday on a day off in Midway, BC under a bridge, over the Kettle river, right by my camp. I hadn't tried free hand spray painting probably since my mural in Barcelona in the Sitges abandoned water park. I was supposed to do this a lot over the course of the summer. I had a crate of spray paint in my car, but I failed miserably except for this one sketch. There's my dead bird, the mascot for winning and free love apparently. It was one of those times when I thought it was terrible and never wanted to look at it again, and then last minute on my way out of Midway at the end of the season I took a picture as an afterthought. I think it's pretty good for having no free hand skills. Getting good at this is on my to do list. I'm thinking about practicing with just dead birds until I get really good at them and figure out my style and some tricks. Also, I think I'm changing my street art name again. It's going to by Y-BOT. Just you wait. 

Action/Adventure Hero Dreams

I had another one of my action/adventure hero dreams recently. Me and my crew of warriors were escaping from some evil force. We were running through an open field and I discovered that I could jump really high and spin. I jumped so high that I was able to reach the clouds. The clouds were a fluffy firm consistency, like cotton, that I could grab hold of. When I manage to haul myself up on a cloud, there is my friend Justin hanging out in his boxer shorts! I give him a big hug and it is understood that he is dead/was thought of as dead so I'm very happy to see him relaxed and well. 

Nothing is quite as it seems

This is the scene Gilda and I walked into at the planter's ball this June. It's a roughish sketch but I think I'm going to work with it more. 

I forgot to draw in me and Gilda.
We were dressed up as twins.
I mean, we are twins.

Project Updates

The Laundry Project:

The Swollen Eye Project:

And introducing a new Project... 

 The Bug Bite Project: 

The first round of the projects: 
http://shouldercat.blogspot.ca/2010/10/photo-projets.html

By the Lake

Kraut King

A little drawing I made back in April for Garrett's Birthday card. Garrett makes delicious homemade sauerkraut and sells it out of my yard at the farmer's market every week. 

Wandering Carts

I'm going to try and get back into this blogging thing. I've been tree planting all summer and very unproductive. 

 I was going to do a photo series on abandoned shopping carts in Vancouver this winter because they are just 'so Vancouver' to me and I see an unusually high volume around compared to any other city I've lived in. They're a bit funny. I kind of gave up after these two though. I would always see good ones when I didn't have my camera on me and none when I did. Obviously I should have just had it on me all the time, but by the time I missed some good ones like one in front of a haggard, fallen East Hastings sign, I had decided it was a dumb idea after all. I like these though, so now I'm full of regret. 

The Book of Toby and Annie Fails

When I was in San Francisco printing my book, Annie made me a really shitty mock up book binding to show me the ways. I took the shitty book and drew some shitty pictures in it overusing sharpie metallic markers (they feel amazing) of our misadventures printing books in San Francisco. This is my favorite page.

Art Shows

While I'm slaving away planting trees, my art is going to be hanging out in a couple of art shows in Vancouver! 

Art Waste is part of this Music Waste festival. The Book of Tree Planting Suicides will be up there. Should be a cool show. June 6th at Gallery Gachet.

The grant I got to make my book got me into this show. It's May 29th-June 9th at The Culch. I'll have a couple of paintings up.

Spring Time in Vancouver

The Book of Tree Planting Suicides is finally finished! 3 weeks of binding! Turns out there are 36 copies for now and then there will be 14 more in the Fall. I have 25 potential copies claimed so get it while it's hot off my 4 brick press.

The Book of Tree Planting Suicides (the trailer)

After much anticipation and waiting, finally The Book of Tree Planting Suicides is close to publication! This has been my little baby project for almost two years. It got a real kick start when along with a grant, I got a fancy little deadline from the DTES Small Arts Grant in Vancouver. Thank you. It is inspired by The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley. They were hand printed in San Francisco by me and The Most Magical Annie. One million thank yous to her.

The book is comprised of 16 hand drawn screen printed drawings depicting a variety of creative ways to end the suffering when feeling particularly hard-done-by on the block tree planting. I will have 35 copies available for sale before the tree planting season this year (just in case you need inspiration out there, please view with caution), and another 15 copies for the zine fair in Montreal this November. If you are interested in purchasing a copy (very limited supply as you can see) let me know and I'll put you on a list. Books are $25 each. Let me tell you, they are A LOT of work. Holy. Book making is hard.

The Book. (6.25 x 5'')

Baby books in the making. So many to go. 

Along with the cover (how will that girl do it?), here is a teaser of what is inside. We've all thought of this one. But I'm pretty sure there's some in there you haven't thought of. I was totally bush crazy when I came up with them so...

PS: This is what I've been up to and in great part why my blog is pretty inactive this days.

Vessels