Ambidextrous Illustrating for T-Mobile

The commercial I worked on came out last week and I'm pretty happy with it. The production company, Pedri Animation, a stop motion animation studio outside of Amsterdam, were really cool to work with and did a great job. The team there was awesome and I wish my trip was longer so I could have picked up some animation techniques from them.

Quite unexpectedly, I am actually in the finished commercial. It was supposed to be just my hands but the ad agency melded the stop motion footage with footage that they shot of me for the making-of video. At the end of the day, that is fine, but for the record, neither myself nor my business, Two Hands Two Crowns has any opinion of T-Mobile's products or services.



The ad agency found me because of the videos I posted of myself doing ambidextrous illustrations on vimeo three years ago. All that ambidextrous training that I did just for fun has definitely paid off. Just goes to show that you never know what a hobby will turn into!

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

A Quick Trip to Amsterdam

Back in August I made a list of ten or so things to blog about, all of which were highlights from my summer. I didn't get very far into September before my schedule was swept away again.

The last week was really a whirlwind with a last minute opportunity to work on a commercial in Amsterdam. I'll share the back story of how that came to be when the commercial is ready to be shared. For now, here's a photo of our stop motion animation set-up.

I had less than one day of free time in the city but the stars aligned and I was able to visit with three friends in that time! We met at the newly-installed chemical photobooth in the Lomography store. Photoautomat Amsterdam placed the booth there only a few weeks ago and its been hugely popular. (It's the first working chemical photobooth to be in Amsterdam in almost a decade!) 

I feel super lucky that I was able to hang out with Stefan, Cari and Jason, who I know separate from each other but who are all "photobooth people" in their own right.

Strips of myself with Stefan, Cari and Jason

I'm in Edmonton now and prepping for lots of fun events in Alberta over the next two weeks. Hopefully I'll find some time to recap some of my other recent adventures here too!

12 Images of 2012

2012 was without a doubt the best year of my life so far, I was actually a little sad on this New Year's Eve to see it go. I started last year not knowing what to expect and everything just clicked into place. Here are twelve images that touch on some of the highlights. 

From January to April I was studying at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, where I finished a post-degree certificate in Design. Strangely I have no photos that reflect that bout of academia. Though this photo was taken during that time in my old bedroom in Halifax. This is Hank, the cat I had on loan for nine months, he was a total shit and I miss him very much.

 

A highlight from the wintery months in Halifax was that I got my first tattoos, as seen here above a hairstyle that I made up and sport often. 

My birthday is in late April and as a special treat, my friend Krista and I took a two day trip to Prince Edward Island. I had never been before, it was an amazing little vacation and my best birthday yet.

In May I went on the first half of my Photobooth Expedition! I ran an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds I needed to do this research for my graphic novel. I was overwhelmed by the support I received from family, friends and strangers. The first trip was to Los Angeles for the International Photobooth Convention, followed by a trip to Montreal to visit Auto-Photo's warehouse.

In June my parents who live in Edmonton and my sister who lives in Montreal came out East for a visit. Together we went to Newfoundland, it was the first time any of us had been. I was blown away by the province, its history and charm, it's so unlike anywhere else in Canada. I would go back in a heartbeat. Below is a photo of Cape Spear, the most Easternly point of North America.

In July and August I continued my Photobooth Expedition to Europe. This was a last minute idea that I concocted while in LA. It was spurred on by a rare exhibit of photobooth art. My trip started in Brussels, the exhibit was at Le Botanique, featured below.

After Brussels I spent a week in Paris conducting interviews, it was exhilarating and very good for my French skills. From there I went to Amsterdam, for more interviews and to visit an old friend. A huge highlight of the trip was visiting one of the world's largest private collections of vintage arcade machines, complete with a rare photobooth model of course.

From there I went to the south of France. I stayed with an artist couple in the Roman city of Nimes and attended the Rencontres de Photographie in Arles.

I finished the interviews I needed with quick trips to Turin, Florence, Cesena and Milan. I spent most of my time in Italy on trains. I headed back to Halifax and within a few days I exhibited at the Dartmouth Comics Arts Festival. Soon after I packed up my things and said a tearful goodbye to my east coast friends.

En route to Chicago, I stopped in Toronto for a week partially on photobooth business and partially to help my little brother move. After much ado I finally arrived in Chicago, I'd only been in there for a few days when I got a phone call about acting in a short film in Toronto. So shortly after settling into my new apartment, I headed back for the Nuit Blanche weekend.

Chicago in the fall was lovely. With the help of old and new friends, I easily nestled into my new neighbourhood, the Ukrainian Village.

I can't begin to explain how fortunate I feel for my time at A&A Studios. I learnt so much and met some great people. Amongst the many projects from those months, I re-built an old photobooth, which I'm now the proud owner of! It's seen here, without it's back, being used in an experiment.

Leaving Chicago, I made some quick trips to New York City, Burlington Vermont and Montreal. 
In December I came Edmonton to have surgery on my jaw. After some initial hiccups the healing has been smooth sailing. I'm here now, working on a grant application, submissions to publishers, editing an animation, doing freelance illustration and working on a visa application! A&A Studios has offered me a job and if all goes well I should be moving back to Chicago for the long term at the end of February. 

I'm anxious to see what 2013 has in store.

The Solo Act

I very rarely, if ever, write about truly personal subject matters on this blog; I try to reserve it as a space to discuss my professional and creative endeavours.  However, over the last six months or so, since I went on my first Photobooth Expedition trip, it seems like one personal matter keeps creeping up into my professional life.

I unabashedly have been single for the last 3 and half years. To be more specific, in the last two years, I have casually dated but I never considered myself to be anyone’s girlfriend. Nor have I wanted to be; my singlehood has served me well! (Just look how happy I am in this photo without a real boyfriend!)

I get asked fairly regularly, “how do you get so much work done?” And one of my answers is “SINGLEHOOD!” If you think about it, relationships, especially at the start take up an enormous amount of time; everything from going on dates to shaving your legs on a regular basis. It adds up and I’m very particular with how I choose to spend my time.

I’d like to iterate that I’m not anti-relationship and my soul isn’t bitter and shriveled.  Like many people, I hope to grow old and wrinkly in someone else’s old and wrinkly arms. In fact, I even look forward to it!

So here’s where this factors into my professional life. Usually after I finish an interview for Photobooth: A Biography and the interviewee and I have bonded over geeky photobooth facts, they often casually make a comment about my relationship status. Sometimes it’s a polite inquiry into how am I able to sustain a relationship with this type of work and other times it’s more adventitious and presumptuous.

This summer I was asked this question in some form about a dozen times. (And one time these were the exact words, I had the audio recorder going.)

“Is your boyfriend okay with you doing all this traveling?”

Oh boy, let me break that down. Firstly, it presumes my sexual orientation.  Secondly it presumes that because I’ve got my life together that I must also be in a relationship as part of that package. And lastly, it implies that this supposed boyfriend is stuck in the 50s if he’s on the fence about me going off on my own. 

I’m not so sensitive that I’ve been outwardly offended by these questions, I just simply explain that I've chosen to be single for this part of my life. And I’d like to stress that I’m not bringing this up to slight the wonderful people who’ve helped me with this book, they’ve all be fantastic and wonderful.  I expect I would get questions like these regardless of the reason behind my travels.

My issue is a societal one. One where the assumption is that a “together person” can’t also be a single person.  And furthermore, the major assumption that being in love is always preferential to not being in love.

So here’s my honest truth-- choosing to “not be in love” over the last few years has been the best thing I could have done for myself, for both my personal and professional development.  It’s not hard being single but it is sometimes difficult to explain to my loving family why they shouldn’t fret about my love life.  I would love for singlehood to be recognized as a healthy choice people are able to make instead of as a circumstance they’re stuck in.

I know there are a whole lot of people in this boat, I'd like to hear your comments about single stigmas or support too.

Back from Europe & At the Dartmouth Comics Arts Festival

I'm back! After putting the blog aside for three whole weeks I'm back at the keyboard. Why was I away for so long you ask?

Well... first of all I was in Europe researching photobooths until August 10th. Lots of friends have asked me "how was the trip?" And it was amazing but it was also a business trip. It was less romantic and whimsical than people seem to think, truth was that it involved a lot of time on trains and many frustrating language barrier moments. That said, I'm so happy I went, it was so great for the book and good for refreshing my outlook on life in general.

The other thing that has kept me busy was the Dartmouth Comics Arts Festival (DCAF). This was the first year of the festival and no one was quite sure what to expect. Fortunately it was a huge success both from the artists' and fans' perspectives. I got to sit behind a table and talk to people about photobooths all day, so that was pretty great. Some people even recognized me from the CBC story I helped with about photobooths that has gotten a lot play across Canada in the last two months. 

Everything that I had at my table at DCAF I'm now selling at my Etsy shop. The items include a Second Edition of the Concept Art Booklet (I revised it to include my trip to Europe), a new Photobooth Portrait of a rare booth I got to visit in the Netherlands and the last few tote bags I have. 

And lastly... I've been busy with preparing to move and tie up loose ends here in Halifax. I have less than 9 days left in this city and a whole lot of work to do and an amazing bunch of friends to visit with. I've got a few illustration jobs on the go as well, just to add an extra layer of challenge to it all.

Over the next few days I'll be posting updates from my Europe trip, so stay tuned for that.

European Photobooth Expedition Half Over

I've been in Europe now for 15 days and have 9 more to go. I've been busy following photobooth breadcrumbs in Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam. Tomorrow I head to Nimes and then later to a few spots in Italy. As I have been interviewing people I've uncovered new leads and wishing that I had more than five days in Italy, as a large part of photobooth history is routed there. Hopefully I can break through the language barrier and make the most of it, I won't have anytime to play tourist.

When I get back to Halifax, I'll do a huge write up for my blog and photobooth.net's blog... so details of my adventures will have to wait.  

I'm here in a refurbished and functional chemical booth by Fotoautomat France, which can be found at Forum des Images in Paris.

Souvenirs from Newfoundland

I've been in Newfoundland for a week now and I'm sure happy I came. The history of this province is sure amazing, and seeing as how they only joined Confederation in 1949, their ties to England and Ireland are stronger here than anywhere else in Canada. I'm a sucker for anything vintage with the British royal family on it and it's no surprise that I love the postal system - so naturally I instantly fell in love with these stamps! They are from 1949 and earlier, when the province was still the Republic of Newfoundland. I bought two packs, one of used stamps and another in mint condition. My heart melts for these things. I'm going antiquing in St. John's today, with any luck my heart will be a soupy mess in the bottom of my chest by the end of the day.

Krista Leger took this photo for me last year when she was helping me document some of my collections for a blog I was contributing to. I didn't buy these in NFLD, they're just evidence of my love for royal family memorabilia. (This photo is of George V, Edward VIII, George VI + Queen Mother and Elizabeth II.)

I also stumbled on this amazing shop, Our Humble Abode. It's filled with mostly goods for the home, some of which are made by local artists. I bought this mug to add to my collection of "cups-I-like-too-much-to-drink-out-of-so-I keep-pens-in-them-instead."

A Visit to Auto Photo

The second part to my Photobooth Expedition was a visit to Auto Photo in Montreal, they’re one of the few companies left in the world that are working with chemical photobooths. Everyone there was amazingly helpful and put up with me for hours while I asked question after question. I conducted a few interviews as research for my book but some of the questions were just about things I had been wondering a long time…. like the real names of the people in the sample strips on booths, and the difference between a Model 17C and a 17P. It was also neat to have years’ worth of assumptions confirmed for me, Jeff  (the Vice President and grandson of the founder) knows the other half to stories about booths that I had speculated about. Generally, during my trips in Los Angeles and Montreal it felt great to talk to people who understand the photobooth world. For almost a decade I had no one (in person) to have a dialogue with about this passion that consumes a good chunk of my life. I don’t think I knew how starved I was for conversation.

This is a treasure chest of photos from many different booth models that date back to the 1960s.This box was one of several filled to the brim with old photos.

Jeff was kind and generous enough to let me take photos for my next animation in one of their booths at the warehouse. My sister, Eryn and her friend Perryn were my loyal assistants for one of the days of shooting. I’m a real lucky duck to have had their help. Here are some photos of us working on the animation.  I also seized the opportunity to take some more experimental photos and I have added new work to my flickr.
 
I have lots of material for my book and many hours of editing photobooth frames together ahead of me. I also have THREE pieces of exciting photobooth related news, none of which are confirmed yet, so I will keep them under wraps until they’re ready to share. Stay posted!

International Photobooth Convention Recap

Whoa!

A lot has happened in the two week hiatus I took from blogging. I’ve hardly a moment’s rest since I left on the first leg of my photobooth expedition on May 16. I landed in Los Angeles and was greeted by my old friend from Edmonton, Kory, who arrived a couple hours before me.  We were picked up by our amazing host, Corbin, who welcomed us with open arms to his home which is referred to as Hotel Guacamole.  Corbin took a couple days to show us around LA and then the convention took off.

I made a whole bunch of new friends, some of whom I didn’t know of before and others who I had been communicating with online for years. Before that weekend I had only met one other “photobooth enthusiast” in person, so it was really exciting to finally find people who share my passion.  A lot happened, more than can be quickly shared here… and most of the stories I will save for my graphic novel about photobooths.

Here are some photos from just a few highlights. First are some photos from the arcade at Santa Monica Pier which as two chemical colour booths, Kory and I used one. Secondly is me posing inside the lovely (but not presently functioning) Model 11 booth that was on display at the convention. Another big highlight was the Photobooth pub crawl which Brian from Photobooth.net organized. We rented a pub crawl bus and drove from bar to bar to visit their photobooths. We were an odd crowd to be on a pub crawl and that made it even more fun. The convention had a B&W and colour photobooth which were free for the public to use, so lastly, here are my keepsakes from the convention.

I’m in Montreal for a few more days, I’ve been here working on a couple projects but mainly I’ve been doing research for my graphic novel. I have three really exciting pieces of news that I’d love to share but will wait until they become more official/concrete. I’ll be posting more photobooth adventures in the coming days!

Summer of Crafts & Kids

In a few days time I’ll have completed my 4400km journey from the Eastern Coast to the very middle of Canada. Yes, I’m going to Northern Saskatchewan. Why? Because, my nieces, nephew, eldest sister and her pregnant belly (who all live on the exact opposite side of the world from me) are making the 12,500km trip, so the least I could do is to meet them there.

Playing the role of Aunty Meags is a pretty great gig. I get to spend all my time reading out loud, making crafts, and for one week I will scarcely check my email inbox and not feel bad about it.

Each time I see the kids I come up with some handmade gifts and some craft ideas we can make together. The girls love playing dress-up so I made each of the kids (including the one yet to be born) a gender neutral mask of a Canadian animal.

In the last month I’ve also rekindled an old favourite past time that I’m excited to pass on to my nieces and nephew. With a dedicated friend in Halifax I’ve relearnt how to play Cat’s Cradle! If I search back far enough into my memory I think I may have learnt this classic game at my grandparent’s cabin on this lake in Northern Saskatchewan and I’m happy to pass the tradition on.

Photobooth Project: Tracking Desmond

Quite a few years ago I started tracking photobooths by their model and serial numbers. I then began to volunteer for Photobooth.net by giving them the booth information I had collected. With all the traveling I did in 2009 and 2010 I was able to find and document quite a few booths in Canada, Australia and Europe in the hope that people would find them on the website, use them in person and that the booths would then be less likely to disappear as a result. While tracking for the website I also, sorta accidently started tracking something else too.

In Canada we still have many chemical photobooths because we still have a distributor (whereas in most countries, chemical booths are owned privately and are found in bars or museums instead of in shopping malls and bus stations.) Auto-Photo, the manufacturers in Canada (founded in 1953) have quite a few models in circulation and most Canadian cities have at least one and as many as twenty-five booths. The example photos on the exteriors of the booths are not taken in that specific booth, but, I imagine at the warehouse in Montreal. (Photobooths develop photos without negatives so no strip can ever be authentically reproduced). As a result you can find reoccurring individuals on the sides of the booths, which is interesting because some of the booths are decades old. For whatever reason, this past spring I started photographing one individual that I kept seeing. A few months ago, as I was walking to a new booth I thought in my head “I wonder if I’ll see Desmond?” And sure enough, this fellow, whom I subconsciously named Desmond, was featured on that booth. I assume that he must be an employee of Auto-Photo to have been featured so readily for what appears to be about a decade. There are lots of other fun folks to follow too, the women especially are interesting because you can guess the year pretty well based on their hair styles.

Here’s a melange of some of the photos I’ve snapped of Desmond from booths in nearly every large Canadian city. He seems to like the colour orange.

Femme Avec Un Chapeau Rouge Update and Other Photobooth Projects

I have been slowly amassing more Femme Avec Un Chapeau Rouge photobooth pictures and thought that I would post an update. (Click to enlarge the image.) If you’re curious about the project please read the post I wrote for it back in April and it will make more sense. Here’s a selection of the photos I’ve taken with the mask, it includes photos from Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, Paris and Berlin.

And now’s as good as a time as any to announce that in January I’m moving to Halifax! I'm excited for the move for many reasons that I'll go more in depth about in a later post. Though specifically I am excited to take the mask with me to new East Coast towns and also to find new booth locations for Photobooth.net’s Locator feature.

I’m generally anti-digital photobooth but while travelling I’ve made a few rare exceptions to my own rule. In countries where photobooth pictures can still be used for passports, the digital booths are taken more seriously, ie. you can’t overlay a flowery border or a Wanted sign on your picture. I like differences between the French, German and Japanese borders in these supposed passport pictures.

I still have plans to make the short narrative into a photobooth animation, it’s all storyboarded and ready to go but I’m waiting until I have a free weekend, a pal who can donate their time and a whole lot of loonies.

In the meanwhile you can watch the (very) short film I made the first time I experimented with photobooth animation in 2008, The Birth of a Genius. There aren’t many frames so the transitions are quite choppy, though I think its decent considering it was shot during rush hour in the infamously tiny booth in the Bloor-Yonge Subway Station in Toronto.

Stay tuned to the blog as next week I'll be announcing a new photobooth project that you can participate in!

From One Pacific Coast to Another

Well, I’m back from my adventures in Australia and Japan and have been thoroughly filled with new and enlightening experiences. Some highlights include photobooth-hunting in Sydney and San Francisco, improvising with my friend Cale in our duo “Hands are for Friends... Werewolves are for Night time,” spending hours in stationary stores in Tokyo and getting to spend quality time with my sister and her family in the lush wilderness of Northern Honshu. I had many thrilling experiences though I am, without a doubt, pooped. I’ve had a few days in Edmonton to shake off the jetlag, only to leave in another few days for Victoria, Vancouver and then Hope, British Columbia.

I’m partially going on this trip to do some research for an art project and for some tattoos I’ll be getting in October (stay tuned). Though the primary reason for the trip is to go teach at the Improv Camp! This will be the ninth camp I’ve attended (including last year’s one in Australia) and the sixth one I’ve instructed at. This year I’m working on bringing a few new features to the camp such as a library!

I’m also juggling a few other projects; a handful of illustration commissions, continuing the Anonymous Pen Pal Matchmaking Service, helping with the Art of Waiting's Photobooth Contest (which you can still submit to!), putting together applications for Toronto’s City of Craft and a Prism Comics grant and getting ready to launch my new production name & line of craft products, which should be ready in three weeks! I’m reminding myself that I can sleep when I’m dead, or more realistically, during the winter holidays.

The photo was taken underneath an art installation on the east side of the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo.

Adventures over the Pacific!

I’m stationed beside the only free electrical socket amongst the hustle and bustle at the San Francisco airport, not because I prefer the city’s airport to the city itself but for the practical reason that I’ve got a layover before I fly off to Sydney, Australia. I’ll be teaching improv at the Australian Institute of Performing Arts at their Winter Improv Intensive. I’m going with three other representatives of the Canadian Improv Games to help bring the format we teach in Canada to the Australian school systems. With just a little bit of down time after the Intensive, I’ll be flying back into the Northern hemisphere to Tokyo! I’m going mostly to visit my sister and her family but I’ll also be teaching a little bit of improv (to English speakers). I’m excited and nervous for the cultural differences and the language barrier (I plan on using my six year old niece as a translator.) I’m particularly excited for all the paper and stationary stores. I love handmade paper and thematic stationary kits. (Speaking of which, I’m still taking folks for the Anonymous Pen Pal Matchmaking Service.) After Japan, I’ll fly back to Sydney to visit with some friends and then fly to Edmonton from there. I’m really excited for the trip, I’ve got loads summer reads packed, a few illustration gigs to work on, some Beast and Creep drawings to keep up with and some final details to work out with the storyboard for Arc in the Sky. I’m also putting the final touches on a blog entry I’m writing for Art of Waiting. Their Summer Photobooth Contest is on now until September 1st , this is a super fun way to win some swell prizes. I took the photos above (collaged together for from different strips, click to enlarge) to help inspire some creativity.

June: the sit still mod podge month

I returned from my trip to Toronto a few days ago, I was there for PROJECTproject’s incredible COMBUSTIONfestival. The Tumbleweed Project (cross-Canada improv tour) went extremely well as well. May was a really swell month that involved a lot of moving and shaking- both in the geography and dance floor sense. Though June has brought a drastic change of pace and the way things have worked out I’m going to be in Edmonton for the whole month! This may not sound so outlandish to most but for the last 12 months I haven’t stayed in the same city for more than three consecutive weeks, with an average of one week in each city I visit. I’ve got ants in my pants and one month of sitting still is a lot for me to handle these days. Though I do have good reasons to be here, Rapid Fire Theatre’s Improvaganza is on from June 16-26 and I will be helping out the festival. I’m also collaborating with a retired UofA art professor on a series of photographs (more on this in a future post). For the most part I’ll be doing Go Eat Some Poison commissions and freelance gigs here and there; little things that will be good at occupying my time and putting moneys in my pockets. Which will come in handy because July brings travel adventures in Australia and Japan. All I have to do is ignore the ants biting at my legs for 4 weeks.

The photo is of a banner I made upon my return in order to encourage myself to get through June.

The Tumbleweed Project !!!!!

Yes, that’s right, there are five exclamation points in that title. “Why so excessive Meags?” you ask. Well, I’ll tell you. There are five exclamation points because this is one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of. The Tumbleweed Project is the brainchild of Julie Dumais, Artistic Director of the Combustion Festival; an enormous and lovely improv festival in Toronto in the last week of May. The project is essentially a cross-Canada road-trip that picks up a new improviser in every city it visits, does a show, takes some workshops and finally arrives in Toronto were we’ll perform as an ensemble at the Combustion festival. Each improviser also loosely represents a region of Canada, though that region may not be the location the improviser is joining the tour, for example Justin Collette of Moncton, New Brunswick is joining the tour in Chicago. I’m going to be 3rd to join the team on May 15th in Calgary. I’m looking forward to the road-trip across the prairies, particularly to visit Winnipeg, where I haven’t been in years. I’m also going to seize this opportunity to track down some photobooths in each city for Photobooth.net.

For more information about the Combustion Festival, the Tumbleweed Project or to follow our on-the-road blog visit www.projectproject.ca. (The artwork on the poster is by Vancouver’s Ehren Salazar.)

Here are some tour details, for the specifics please visit the Facebook event here.

MAY 13: VANCOUVER- Tim Carlson @ Little Mountain Gallery
MAY 14: EDMONTON- Hannah Spear @ Rapid Fire Theatre
MAY 15: CALGARY- Meags Fitzgerald @ Loose Moose Theatre
MAY 16: REGINA- (no new member) @ The Fainting Goat
MAY 17: WINNIPEG- RobYn Slade @ Exchange Community Church
MAY 19: CHICAGO- Justin Collette @ Playground Theater
MAY 20: OTTAWA- Cari Leslie @ Elmdale House Tavern
MAY 21: MONTREAL – Kirsten Rasmussen @ Mainline Theatre
MAY 23: TORONTO - Mark Little @ Clinton's Tavern
MAY 24-29: TORONTO – @ the PROJECTproject COMBUSTIONfestival

Back from the Chicago Improv Festival!

I’ve just returned from Chicago where I was making Improv Art at the 13th Annual Chicago Improv Festival (CIF), the largest improv festival in the world. The festival was spread out over multiple venues in the city; Second City, IO, Annoyance Theatre, The Playground, Comedy Sportz... and others. There were hundreds of acts from all over the world, though unfortunately the festival was less international than originally anticipated because the European groups were unable to fly in because the Icelandic volcanic residue. The biggest highlight for me was CIF’s Award’s Night where they gave a best Ensemble of the Year award to The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Best Improviser to Susan Messing and three Lifetime Achievement awards to the late Severn Darden, Dick Schaal and to Harold Ramis. It was at Second City’s intimate ETC stage and the tone of the evening was uplifting and inspiring. It was very exciting and humbling to be around many of the field’s most talented individuals. I may be writing an article for improvisation.ca about the evening’s events and will post a link here if I do.

From an improv art perspective, the festival was a challenge for me because I had to carry my materials with me from venue to venue, usually doing three shows a night and sometimes with only minutes to set-up. (Usually at a festival I have a little studio on stage, where I sit comfortably for the whole time and have a convenient area in the lobby to display and sell my works.) The challenge ended up paying off because I got to meet tons of people that way and got to work in some great venues. After this experience I feel like I could make improv art under any conditions. In an Icelandic volcano? Probably.

I’ve been to a lot of Canadian Improv Festivals (spectating, performing, or art-making) and I’d like to think that I know a good percentage of Canadian improvisers, and that if I don’t, that it’s just a matter of time until our paths’ cross. Going to a Canadian festival is like going to my family reunion, if my entire extended family were comedians. CIF was the first American festival I’ve been to and though it still very much felt like a family reunion, it felt like someone else’s family. This may sound like a silly observation but it was crazy to meet that many improvisers at that level that I’d never met before. Once I got over my shyness I made some great friends from companies all over the states and Mexico, and I’m looking forward to my next American festival which will be that much less daunting.

The photo above is of my make shift studio at Comedy Sportz, it was taken by Jerry Schulman.

"Femme Avec Un Chapeau Rouge" Series

This project requires a bit of back tracking to explain it best. In 2002 I was looking through some old magazines in art class, in a French haut-couture magazine from the early 90’s I found a grainy but captivating image. I wasn’t sure what it was but something about this woman dining with this huge red hat really fascinated me. In 2003 I tried to paint the image to the best of my abilities in acrylic paint. In 2005 I found the image again and thought it would be an interesting experiment to paint the photograph again as a measure of my artistic growth, this time in oil paint. In 2006, I had a university painting class where the teacher had asked us to work with repetition. I decided to test my painting skills, but also artistic range once again and painted the “Femme avec un Chapeau Rouge” over twenty times in various mediums and styles. Above is the original magazine image (I drew on the horizontal and vertical lines in 2003 for reference) and the first and second attempts. On the right are a select few of my attempts from 2006.


In the fall of 2009 I spent a month in France. While I was there I was looking for non-digital photobooths (a personal passion of mine, see old post) and was visiting more booths than normal, though I didn’t necessarily have ideas every time I was taking pictures. A week into my trip, in the children’s section of the gift shop for the Musée D’Orsay I found a mask. Being in France and seeing this red had, I was automatically reminded of the magazine photo from years before. For the rest of the trip the mask and signature pose of the woman became a default pose for me while photoboothing. Since returning to Canada I’ve played around with the background in these photos because the background in the original photo is very non-descript and it was always a difficult formal decision to make when painting. The mask is conveniently light and small so it’s been ideal to bring it with me for my other travels this year. I brought the mask on my latest trip to Ontario, Quebec, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois. I’m also going to bring it with me while touring an improv show across Canada in May and when I visit Australia and Japan in July.

Here are some pictures I have taken with the mask during my travels so far.

The next step in the project is to do a stop-motion photobooth animation, done in a similar style to an animation I made with artist Pamela Norrish last year, which you can check out here.