I've been going through one of those creative incubation periods. I can sometimes tell because one symptom is thinking of good blog post ideas but never seeing them to fruition. I've been inspired; I am riffing. ¶ One of the reasons why I like Martin Scorsese so much, as an artist, is because he's a personal artist. He is, if this isn't too pat, an honest filmmaker. He responds to criticism with a shoulder shrug. He does what he does well, technically, and everything else is just his spirit. You either dig that, or you don't. But his films resonate with people, emotionally, like my emotional connection to GoodFellas; to Taxi Driver; to Casino. He expresses his ideas without deception through film, and he has good ideas. He also feels the same way as I do about flying. ¶ I've been working to inject more cinema into my work of late. That's why I haven't been updating my feature illustration. As I mentioned above, I'm incubating a few competing ideas on what next to showcase on Siteway, so please stay tuned. By cinema I don't just mean my subject matter, although I do mean that, too. I also mean those elements of cinema that are so appealing: the still-grandness of it, the iconography of it, the spirit of film. In the short term I think it means I'll be depicting not just characters from film, but whole scenes. This involves more labour than pure portaiture, but it's where I'm headed, so there's no sense worrying about the degree of difficulty. ¶ I've got a bunch of work out there or coming soon. I've done a few illustrations lately for Canadian Home Workshop, Meetings & Incentive Travel, and you can continue to see my work in L.A. CityBeat and NewAngeles. ¶ We've been making a bunch of Cypriot meatballs lately. Kief-TE-thez, similar to Greek meatballs, are a combination of beef, pork, potato, parsley, cinnamon, mint, salt & pepper.

Here's my Mom's recipe:

about half a kg. ground meat, half pork and half beef
5 good size potatoes
1-2 onions
quite a few sprigs of parsley
1 egg
salt, pepper
cinnamon, a few shakes
dried mint, 1 tsp
Here's how I prepare it (which differs slightly from my mother's version). I grate the potatoes and add them (grated potato plus their juices) into a big bowl with the meat. Then I chop up the onions into tiny bits, and add them to the bowl, along with the egg, the parsley, and the rest. Then I form them into smallish balls (not the rugby-ball shaped ones you see in Greektown) about an inch in diameter. Heat up some vegetable oil in a large skillet and cook away. It's pretty involved, the frying that is, so get ready (apron, drink) and you'll be fine.

Labels: CareerTalk, Cinema, Clear, Recipe, Vague

¶ 4:01 PM

There are soul deaths and then there are soul deaths. ¶ Here's something I've been contemplating lately: I've been engaged with my work, and by work I mean the lines I draw, in an unprecedented manner of late. It's partly because I decided one day that this would be a good idea. And as you're all already aware, being a free agent requires the agent take care of sales, marketing, accounting, office and project management, and even janitorial services. So telling yourself to "focus on the work" is not only simple and comforting, it's rewarding. It's investing in better furnaces for HQ, better equipment at the factory, better ships for your fleet. I'm investing in the lifeblood of my industry: drawing. The drawing action itself has become a relaxing enterprise; an experience that is itself enjoyable, and not just because of the results. The results, the lines drawn as it were, are themselves relaxing, if only briefly. Imagine the ink from an industrial inkjet bleeding into your expensive art paper. It only lasts as ink for half a second. Then it becomes part of the paper. That's what I mean by relaxing. Like the final piece that snuggly fits into the puzzle. The easiest piece of all. And yet, it's rigid, in there, the instantiating unit. In any case, some by-products of this focus: a sketchbook that's not half-bad, some Siteway dusting, continued experiments over on flickr, and more steam in the engine. ¶ It is remarkable that there are few men so well employed, so much to their minds, but that a little money or fame would commonly buy them off from their present pursuit. I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity were the whole of a young man's capital. Yet I have been surprised when one has with confidence proposed to me, a grown man, to embark in some enterprise of his, as if I had absolutely nothing to do, my life having been a complete failure hitherto. What a doubtful compliment this is to pay me! As if he had met me half-way across the ocean beating up against the wind, but bound nowhere, and proposed to me to go along with him! If I did, what do you think the underwriters would say? No, no! I am not without employment at this stage of the voyage. To tell the truth, I saw an advertisement for able-bodied seamen, when I was a boy, sauntering in my native port, and as soon as I came of age I embarked.—Henry David Thoreau, from Life Without Principle.

Labels: AdmirationOfBenefit, Clear, FeaturedIllustration, Heroes, Siteway, Vague

¶ 7:51 PM

I got into the office just before midday today and found that the building had no power. The whole city block was out, as it was soon revealed, and at first I was disappointed. Soon after downing my Gatorade, however, it dawned on me that some time offline puttering in the office would be swell. And it was. I managed to organize my Esquire collection, water the plants, sweep, and leaf through The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker (something I've been meaning to do for some years now). I have so many wonderful magazines and books here at the office that I really should make more time for them.

Labels: Clear

¶ 5:00 PM

I woke up to The Dark of the Sun playing in my head and it brought me the sort of sweet morning inner smile I haven't woken up to in about three weeks. Fucking finally! Excuse my expletive, if only because it's out of pure relief and not frustration, for once recently, and nobody is more relieved that yours truly. This has been the toughest chapter change I can ever recall, and only the Third Perspective knows why. Whatever the reasons, I hope they resonated with me somehow and that I'm stronger for it. Hey yeah yeah. ¶ I love, like many others, Francis Ford Copolla's integration of religious and gangster imagery in the Godfather trilogy. Especially poignant is Baptism and Murder, a sequence near the end of The Godfather. It's not so much Good versus Evil that makes this sequence work even if it does trade on that battle. It's the directing and editing restraint that does most of the work here to pull back from the potentially destructive cliché. The sequence places us in the church with Michael as he renounces Satan in baptizing his nephew and then in calm cuts we bear witness to his murderous commands executed in rough and gross ways. It's nowhere near a depiction of glamour—a mistaken distinction between film depiction and what the film depicts—instead it's a restrained interplay between the daily grind of priests versus hitmen. Michael Corleone's character continues to live with me and remains quite possibly the most complex cinematic characters ever. I depict him here as he lies to Kaye about murdering his brother-in-law. "No," he lies, flatly, to her one chance at asking about his affairs. But not merely a monster, he commits evil acts to protect in ways he never wanted and yet he is too weak to understand his greater responsibilities. ¶ I took last week off the weekly Siteway drawing but now I'm back and feeling like myself again and ready for more. The office is coming together slowly but surely and in time I'll have some new pictures up on flickr. ¶ Until next time, I bid you good day from Chinatown.

Labels: Cinema, Clear, FeaturedIllustration

¶ 10:24 AM

Move went well. Exceedingly well. Hoping to update illustration on Siteway soon. Your patience is appreciate. Stay tuned.

Labels: Clear

¶ 3:29 PM

With the unofficial Canadian summer season well under way and massive changes on the horizon, perhaps a meaty post is in order. ¶ Our year in London, Ontario is coming to a close. London is a nice Ontario city with benefits you'd be surprised to hear about (excellent restaurants, indie fast food, and shopping) and some you'd expect (the university, the second-hand books, movie, and music market, and the parks). Being here has meant lots of time alone, not just by myself but with Pauline, and it's been fun and necessary having a year to ourselves. It has provided us with the preparation time required for everything that's coming. And it's coming like the boulder in the opening minutes of Sexy Beast. ¶ On Tuesday of this week we jumped on the Greyhound and headed for Toronto. We signed two lease agreements, grabbed a coffee, and then back on the afternoon Greyhound to Londontown. The first lease was for our attractive new apartment in Little Italy. It's minutes to our favourite Y, steps to City, cafes, restaurants, markets, and people. It's also about thirty walking minutes to my new office in the garment district, just north of Queen on Spadina. That was the second lease. Expect a formal announcement in the form of a press release on Siteway regarding my office move and if you're a friend or colleague, you'll likely be receiving an e-mail announcement. ¶ Bob Newhart might say: it was quite the day, wasn't it? Both are extremely exciting prospects. I can't underestimate that sentiment. They are frightening as well. We're not just coming back, as I told a confidant on the phone the other day, we're coming to Toronto. I'm setting up my office in four weeks. We're moving into our new apartment in five! We can't wait to be back home and share our lives with all of our friends again. ¶ Pauline is accepting new clients at her new post at April Maloney Salon (647-430-5573, 178 Avenue Rd.) in Toronto. She is currently booking male and female clients for Tuesdays and Saturdays. ¶ Sailing last night was the best class so far. We gave our teacher a ride to the course from the dock as we were the last to rig our boat. This is partly due to my ineptitude, but partly also because our boat was an older model. It was Man Overboard and Capsize night. Man overboard was our teacher. We all took turns rescuing him (sailing up to him, pulling him on the boat). Capsizing was our trial by fire (capsize the boat, get soaked, right the boat, and then get back on the boat). As our teacher (a man whose ability to sail and fly a plane makes me jealous) said, "...the boat is your security, even if it has capsized. Never swim away from it to grab anything that may have fallen out. Even a bailer. Always stay close to the boat. Right it, get back on, and sail to your bail or whatever else. Never ever leave the boat."

Labels: Clear, TheOffice, Toronto

¶ 11:06 AM

It has become something of a tradition of mine to write a state-of-the-Siteway address at the beginning of May. I began writing on Siteway in early May 2000 which makes this blog roughly seven years old. From the banal to the ridiculous, self-promotion to self-analysis, I've tried not to think about the categories of my writing too much (I've recently adopted the use of tags which are an attempt to coalesce themes). I see no reason to abandon this form of expression, and I look forward to more. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Avery Hutch. ¶ Having said that, the rest of my sites are not exactly as established as Siteway. While Siteway is situated in the real world, as the company that I actually run as a freelance illustrator, the other three sites exist primarily in an imaginary world (being actual web sites, however, brings them a little closer to this world). Tonicville is the fictional city I'm developing, Phelts is the company that finally got it right, and Coastalmatic is the name of the cinema in Tonicville that lifted Tom Phelts' company from small-time to big-time. Hence Phelts' interest in film. However, it's not as simple as all that. I'm working hard developing three additional visual languages for each site that work independently and as a family. The goal is a showing of illustrations, drawings, posters, artifacts, and even some sculpture from the Tonicville world in Spring 2008. Between now and then, however, I'll still be showing portraits from the Siteway canon. ¶ One way to think about my over-arching objective is to think of Siteway as the solid real-world foundation to a wonderful playland of ideas, stories, film, and art. Tom Phelts, Matchstick, and the rest of my characters and props will populate a world inspired by the ideas within Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. You'll see the world first, at the Spring 2008 show. Until then, there will be glimpses on the other sites. I've abandoned the weekly Coastalmatic animations not because I didn't think they were going in a good direction but because I don't have the capacity to commit to another weekly art object. And I don't want to sacrifice quality. ¶ Here's to May, here's to our upcoming sailing course, a summer of adventure, and always an eye on the prize.

Labels: Clear, Coastalmatic, Phelts, Siteway, Tonicville

¶ 12:55 PM

Cherry blossom girl... ¶ Okay so we're in week two of Coastalmatic's short life. You can check the latest animation here and last week's here. ¶ A Siteway featured illustration of Quentin Tarantino was in the National Post last week. You can see a photograph of it here. ¶ Quietly reflecting on our extenda-weekend in Toronto reveals warm emotions and while writing this way can get uncomfortable, I will say that I had some rare quiet moments with many of those close to me and I'm extremely grateful for them. ¶ If you win some, and you lose some, then count me in. ¶ Just quickly in closing: I know I'm taking on another lofty who-cares-right-now experiment with Coastalmatic, and I know it's all a little vague. Especially the part about how all the sites are related. But there's a lot I've invested in these areas of my life and I'm serious about their full and complete development. Vagueness must scent character, and not dolls, after all.

Labels: Clear, Coastalmatic, Gratitude, NationalPost, SitewayWorld, Vague

¶ 12:43 AM

Let me level with you, dear reader. I'm struggling rather dramatically with quitting smoking. I'm struggling for at least two reasons: because I've always been a moderate smoker and because I'm a romantic. The former is a struggle because I don't have an obsessive personality. I meander along with various interests and habits and vices and never burrow down to the limit. The latter, tied into my associative memory and flights of fancy, dispose me to some genuinely positive memories. Like smoking for the first time with high-school buddies, smoking in the car on road trips, camping, winter... the list goes on. But there are a tonne of negative associations as well. Like point blank 80% of cigarettes I've smoked have been lackluster experiences. The noxious fumes and lingering smell. The (albeit marginal) dependance. And the definite, in my view, shortening of natural life. I'm crossing over into a new phase of my life and I'm determined to make the right choices. But I'm only a man and my to-date inability to quit has me really grasping. I feel guilt, weakness, and defensiveness. I write this not to carve out a special place for myself in the smoking sphere, because basically I think what I'm feeling is fairly universal. In fact I write it for that reason and, because, I think writing about it will help with the mental gymnastics I alluded to. ¶ In any case, I am still committed to finishing up with cigarettes. I'll do this by re-formulating my romanticism into the fictional world. I'll write about characters that smoke, for sure, and I'll continue to draw cigarettes in my portraits. But what I won't do is actually light up. ¶ I don't regret starting. It was part of my young adult life. It inspired me, it kept me in check, and it was fucking fun. But the best-before date on that personal chapter has long since past and it's time to move on. It's called the law of diminishing marginal returns. ¶ Pauline and I drove over to Poor John's last night to hang up some art. John did most of the work. We're doing a double-show there for the month of March. I've got Clint Eastwood Lit as well as three King size prints hanging (Depp, Kubrick, and Hitchcock) and Pauline has three of her oils on the wall, including her most recent effort which took about two years to complete. She even worked on it when we went to Sundridge this past summer. Poor John's is located at 1610 Queen St. West and is worth a visit anyway. ¶ It's March, compadres! Dave Chappelle's Block Party. St. Patrick's. Siteway Select. Siteway Sirens. Let's hear it for rolling with the punches, in general.

Labels: Clear, Vague

¶ 12:15 PM