BLACK AND WHITE DRAWING

BUILDING NEW CITIES IS BUILDING NEW PEOPLE

BLACK AND WHITE DRAWING At this point in history the Metropolis has become the fastest growing entity in the world. It is impossible to look up into the sky without seeing metallic skeletons, concrete slabs, and the crane creatures. Apartments, hospitals, offices and institutions are sprawling upwards all over the downtown core. What does this mean to the future? How does it relate to our past? Can every one afford to pay $1000 per square foot on real estate? Regardless of any precise answers to these queries, there is little question as to the fact that the city is evolving. Tombstone towers eat the sunshine and box store monsters grow like fungus at their roots. Socializations move inwards and comfortable conformity becomes a way of life. Welcome to the future, you are now here however it may be no where!

The imagery in these artworks presents various connections between the past, present and future of architecture and culture. The cranes and machines are entangled by vines and flowers inciting meditations, considering and comparing concrete construction to a natural process. The city grows almost organically despite the contradictory essence of the  metropolis and the natural environment. The buildings are made up of both old fashioned brickwork and utopian glass towers and are often being built in figurative likenesses. This amalgamation suggests the structure of the skyscrapers will also affect the structure of society. Old ideas and traditions will be streamlined in a similar fashion to the new towers. The streets have also been drawn in a particular manner exposing various levels of both physical and financial elevation from crowded subways to penthouse suites.

These detailed pen and ink drawings were made during my two week residency at Toronto’s renowned Drake Hotel. The Hotel is situated in an interesting part of our city. At the time of these works the whole place was under construction. The entire south side of Queen West was inhabited by mechanized dinosaurs, heaving and grinding stones from the ground to the sky.  New nineteen story apartments appear, routing like weeds and expensive suits scurry like bugs. Amazingly the neighborhood remains a diverse one boasting numerous contemporary art galleries and bars as well as their bourgeois doppelgangers, though it remains to be seen what will happen to "the scene". During my stay there I met angered people who’d lost their back yard sunshine and other’s who were excited by the construction and anxious to move in. Alas I suppose progress is always a double edged crane.

The “Construction” black and white drawing series was inspired by the changing face of the Toronto’s city skyline. The works were all done will fine point technical pens on archival illustration board and range from 3 x 5 inches to 2 x 2 feet

LINE ART DRAWINGS Extremely Detailed Comic Book Artwork

BLACK AND WHITE DRAWING Cartoon styled surreal cityscapes

DOODLE DRAWINGS Surreal Cityscapes & psychedlic stories