No More McConnell Fellowship!

So the bad news is, that my McConnell fellowship has been withdrawn. But, that is not really bad news because it was withdrawn in order to offer me the even better David J. Azrieli Graduate Fellowship and a Concordia University Graduate Fellowship.

This change is meaningful because it means that I got the highest ranking in the fellowship competition. And, while I am not that committed to titles and rankings, this does make studying next year a little bit easier and it flatters my ego a tiny bit (especially considering that last semester was not my best one to date).

The Drawing Room Exhibition

I am pleased to announce that my drawing has been selected to be part of the The Drawing Room exhibition which is a national juried exhibition taking place as part of the 2010 DRAWN Festival in Vancouver. This festival is (I believe) the only nationwide festival dedicated to Canadian drawing practices in Canada.

Info:

The Drawing Room runs July 17 through August 7 at the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver). An opening reception will take place Friday July 16, 7—9 pm.

http://www.drawnfestival.ca/DRAWNNews100619.asp

Pixel bricks

This is part of a really fun and interesting series of quick compositions in which I drew walls with isometrick pixel bricks that is loosely inspired by old school 2.5D video game art.

All the standard references are here for me: pixels, orthographic/isometric projections, grids, iterations, digital/analog comparisons and even politics if you care to get deep with it.

Drawing with jpg macroblocks

This was just a one of test in which I tried to use pre-existing jpg image's macro-blocks to do a self protrait with. Without getting technical, I could say that it is like drawing with pre-existing compression artifacts and moving them around until one image becomes another. That doesn't really explain it but I am too tired to type 20 paragraphs.

Drawings

A couple of drawings from my last crit.

Some work from last semester.

So, I haven't posted in quite some time and I have done a terrible job of documenting my recent work, but here is one ongoing project.

This project revolves around teaching myself to engrave in copper. Since this technique is hundreds of years old and been, more or less, replaced by etching no one can teach it to me at school. So, this project is me teaching it to myself.

With this project I print after each line I make and keep the off prints for drawing on or doodling. I write my notes directly on the prints and instead of an edition I have a type of narrative book that documents the process. It is definitely not very masterful but is fun none-the-less.

Digital DreamScapes (Not the official Title of the series)

These prints may end up not going anywhere as I do not like to work aesthetically any more. There are some conceptual puzzles I am working with in these, but they are, as of yet, unresolved. When and if they ever do, I will officially welcome these prints into my official practice. but for now, they are just fun images to make and shoot!

End of Semester Crit

Though I have not posted any of my new work from the past couple of months, here are some shots from my end of semester crit that give an idea of what I have been doing. As previously seen, my work is still program generated for the most part.

Stay tuned for more posts over the holidays.

Prix Albert-Dumouchel Vernisage

So my first post in months shows me with my son, sister, partner at the vernissage for the Prix Albert-Dumouchel, a print competition here in Quebec. The show itself had a few interesting pieces and but on the whole was not overly impressive.

The winning Entry was pretty interesting as it dealt with themes that I am interested in as well - notably language, identity and relations. Though if I had to vote on a winning piece I might very well have chosen the same one, I still find it strange that one of the three judges was a the print director at UQAM and the two winners were from there. Seems to me to lack a certain ethic and most likely a conflict of interest but on the whole I do not care much for competitions. I need them for the CV but these are rarely a proof of superiority, just taste. Winning would not have proven me better and losing does not prove me worse.

Still a fun time was had and I was proud to have introduced my Son Lukas to his first vernisage. Hopefully, he will get many opportunities to accompany me in the future.

Awards

Though, I don't have any new work to show right now, I do have some news pertaining to my education. 

The first piece of good news is that I have been awarded the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) for 2009-10. This alone will make my next year a really interesting one as I will be able to concentrate on my studies and not have to worry about working.

Also, I have just found out that I have been awarded the Yves Gaucher Prize in Studio Arts from Concordia University for 2009. 

So, all-in-all, I am having a pretty good week.