Custom Cross-Stitch & Crochet

My life has mostly been about photobooths as of late, but I have snuck some time in to work on non-photobooth related endeavours. A few weeks ago I was asked through my Etsy Two Hands Two Crowns shop to do this custom piece. It was a fun break to work on a needlepoint again because I’ve been doing lots of graphic design, illustration and crocheting lately….

Speaking of which my piece for The View from Here, a show happening at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto from April 21 to July 15 is 99% finished. It’s a large crocheted wearable sculpture. I have a photo shoot on Tuesday with the talented Lindsay Duncan to help me document it before I ship it off to the show. I will wait until the show opens to share the fruits of the photo shoot, needless to say I’m really excited by it all!

Donor Thank You's for March 30th

Yesterday was another great day for the campaign, I reached 92% of my goal!

Donor Thank You's for March 29th

No word of a lie, after a string of donations this afternoon I cried out of an overwhelming amount of positive emotions. I really appreciate the support people have shown for my campaign, both with their donations and by sharing it with others!

Donor Thank You's for March 28th

Photobooth Expedition Campaign Video

Go to the IndieGoGo Page to learn more and donate!

Photobooth Expedition on IndieGoGo

My IndieGoGo Campaign is now live! I'm so excited about this whole thing that I feel like my heart will burst! It would really help me if people could share the campaign with their friends. Here's the link, http://www.indiegogo.com/photobooth-expedition

Also, yesterday the CBC story on photobooths that I helped with aired and you can listen to it here. The journalist, Julia Caron did a great job at capturing the feel of photobooths and I'm really happy to have been a part of it. http://www.cbc.ca/quebecam/2012/03/27/following-the-photobooth-faithful/

Two Days and Counting until Photobooth Expedition!

My Photobooth Expedition IndieGoGo Campaign will launch in just one and half short days so I’m working away on the donor’s perks. I’ve silkscreened about 12 meters of my airmail design on different fabrics. Today I sewed the first one into a cushion. Hank was very eager to be part of the photoshoot. (Actually, he just wouldn’t stop playing with the wrist strap attached to my camera.)

Also! I’ve been helping CBC Radio Quebec with a story about photobooths and it will air tomorrow morning, Tuesday the 27th! It will play live at 7:15 AM EST time on the Quebec station (anyone can listen to it live online by adjusting their region) or you can listen to it on their website, www.cbc.ca/quebecam/ any time after it initially broadcasts. You can also visit their facebook page to see the images that go along with the story, I haven’t heard it yet and I’m a healthy melange of excited and nervous about it!

Photobooth Expedition on IndieGoGo Coming Soon!

The time has almost come! On March 28th, I’ll be launching an IndieGoGo Campaign to fundraise for two photobooth themed trips I’d like to do this spring!

The first trip is to Venice, California for the 2012 International Photobooth Convention, the second is to Montreal to visit Auto Photo’s warehouse. (They’re the manufacturers of photobooths in Canada.) I’m taking these trips to do research for a graphic novel that I’m writing & illustrating about photobooths. (I’ll also be shooting a stop-motion animation in Montreal at the warehouse, you can learn more about that here.)

I’m SUPER DUPER excited about this campaign so I’ve been busy creating some incentives for people to donate. Amongst the perks will be…

- A limited edition 9 x 14 print of a “Photobooth Portrait”. These portraits will be throughout the finished graphic novel. I started and almost finished one last night, you can see my progress in these photos.

- A photobooth themed tote bag, designed and silkscreened by me + a one-of-a-kind creative photostrip taken by me.

- Airmail cushion covers measuring 16 x 16, also designed and silkscreened by me.

- A 12 page booklet of concept art for the final graphic novel.

- Mail art from me for ONE YEAR. Yes, that’s right, one perk will be that every month for a year I will send you a creative care package with photostrips, drawings, recipes, tiny gifts and an ongoing puzzle that you will need all 12 months to complete.

-And more!

The campaign will start on March 28th and last 26 days, I’m hoping to reach as many people as possible so please feel welcome to share it with your friends! Thank you!

Spring Forward

Holy Moly! I’ve been insanely busy lately, all with things I love to do. I have another 3 weeks of this intensity and then I’ll have some breathing room and get to enjoy the springy weather. I’m preparing for a big project that I have mostly kept hush-hush but finally later this week I will be announcing it! Stay tuned.


Here are some illustration projects I did in the last couple weeks. First is the cover the Dalhousie Gazette, which is in print now and will be until Thursday if you want to pick up a copy. I drew it entirely in Photoshop.









Secondly is a branding/ formatting exercise I did for Umpomo! Umpomo is a card game that my brother, Tiegh and I invented a few years ago and have been slowly developing.

Tiegh has been workshopping it with different groups for the last nine months and we would like to eventually produce it. This was my first stab at designing some branding for it. I drew these and put them together in Adobe Illustrator.


















And lastly is just a fun, cheeky little comic I made this week. I drew and inked it by hand and coloured it in Photoshop.

Silkscreened Airmail Tests

Over the last two days I printed over 4 meters of this airmail pattern. I designed the repeating pattern using vintage airmail envelopes and registered the two colours on two screens. I printed test samples on mercerized cotton, bleached linen, canvas and on a few coloured cottons for fun.

I’m going to spend another 7 hours in the studio this weekend printing another 3 meters on the fabric I decide on. Eventually I plan on making some oversized cushions and some tote or messenger bags. I’ll keep some for myself, give some to special friends and sell the rest at my Two Hands Two Crowns Etsy shop!

Next Photobooth Animation in the Works

In 2010 myself and friend, Pamela Norrish made Coast to Coast to Coast, a stop motion animation shot entirely in a photobooth. Ever since then I’ve been planning my next photobooth animation and very slowly working away on it.

Shooting a short film in a photobooth has many challenges, among them include the space issue (you have to fit a couple people, puppets and props into a small booth), the timing issue (with 2.5 seconds between frames), the cost issue (it works out to a $1 per shot) and the public issue (using a booth in a mall or bus depot means you’re dealing with curious passer-bys.)

Additionally, Halifax only has three photobooths and they’re serviced by the owner of the booths himself so the quality of the photos are often inconsistent or they’re just plain out-of-order. So, for this next animation I dream of going to Montreal and shooting in the city with the most photobooths per capita.

I’ve just finished the main costumes for the animation. The Whyte Bull head is constructed from fabric I silkscreened and the Commonplace Bull head is entirely crocheted, I also silkscreened a celestial background. I took a set of test strips with both heads and I’m pretty happy with the results. I still have to make a few more puppets and props but the bulk of the construction work is done. I hope to shoot the animation this summer!

Three Cheers for February

February for me has always been one of those months you just have to tough through. Not much exciting stuff happens and the weather is usually poor. On February 2nd the transit system here in Halifax announced they were going on strike. I normally rely on transit pretty heavily as I live a little far from the action. In the first days of the strike I complained about all the time I was losing by walking to my friend Rosalind, who is wise in many areas but especially wise on matters of health. Rosalind reminded me that the increased amount of exercise would actually reduce stress and improve my energy. I may have rolled my eyes when I heard this.

But of course, Rosalind was right. Nearly every day of February I walked between 8 and 15km, powered solely by my legs and audiobooks. And with all that time walking, February still turned out to be a highly productive month! It was a particularly stimulating month because all of my interests were engaged. Here’s a recap of my February:

-I started work on a fine art piece for the show A View From Here at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, which excitingly just received a grant in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. (The photo to the right is a detail of the unfinished work.)
-I’ve collaborated with the CBC on a story about photobooths and I started building the official Fotomaton website (a photobooth-art initiative that I started last year with American artist Aran Graham.) I also built the props for the next photobooth animation I’d like to shoot this summer (a blogpost on this coming soon.)
-I designed and got my first two ever tattoos!
-I accepted a few commissions, including an emblem for Bad Dog Theatre Company in Toronto (top photo), a custom cross-stitch through Etsy and two a couple of posters for a band in Halifax.
-I’ve just started collaborating with Lisa Amerongen on a children’s book she’s writing and that I’ll be illustrating this summer.
-I spent a week volunteering as a judge for the Canadian Improv Games and kept up my regular volunteer shift tutoring kids at the public library. And I’ve kept up top-notch grades in my five classes and still found time to attend my regular yoga class.
-And perhaps most excitingly I’ve decided I’m going to attend the 2012 Photobooth Convention in Venice, California from May 18th to 19th. I haven’t got the resources to go yet but I’ve got a few ideas.

Thanks February!