Saturday, October 31, 2009

GHOST HOLE


GHOST HOLE
at the White House...
I have a sad piece in GHOST HOLE tonite, mass Halloween art party installation/performance spooky wild. This piece is a small part but I try to turn ghosts and the metaphysical into the real and emotional. It's orange and black.
I like being part of something at the White House. My oldest brother Frank used to live at a legendary house called The White House in Vancouver when I just moved there from Northern BC. I'd often be put up there to help me get on my feet. It was quite formative. A house of veteran original punk and metal scene people living with guys who designed immaculate costumes for strippers along with Emperors of Gay Pride (they both had tonnes of sequins and boas) and more. Fun parties and a good community. What a house that was, I am still in contact with some of them. This is a different White House but the name makes me happy and they are very spirited doing their own thing as well.

Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 to very late
377 Lansdowne Ave.

The WHITE HOUSE presents:
(((GHOST HOLE)))

From dusk to the witching hour,
a portal will be opened at the white house
for all ghosts and ghouls to investigate.

There will be a battle with demons, a zombie shootout,
a magical doorway, ghost stories, and a horrific sunset. JUST SAYIN

SLIM TWIG
BROKEN TREE FORT
+various performances TBA

NEW Free Drawings #6 will be unleashed!
NEW Halo Halo tape will be released from its mortal coil!

Contributing Artists:
Nicole Torok
Ariel Adele Glenesk
Jonny Wheeldon
Brette Gabel
Katie Bowes
Laura Curley
dAeve Fellows
Brandon Dalmer
Jesjit Gill
Yuula Benivolski
Xenia Benivolski
Vanessa Rieger
Adam Cowan
David Hanes
Julia Dickens
Robert Dayton
Eric Jackson
Laura McCoy
Tarp Ghost
MIDDLESCHOOL
+ more!


Bands start at 10pm.

>BRING YOUR FLASHLIGHT<



This show is also called "DEAD ON THE INSIDE".

Sunday, October 25, 2009

"THE UNVEILING"


"THE UNVEILING"

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, 10pm (don't be late as we are rarely very tardy)
The Ossington (61 Ossington Street, Toronto)
Free admission

"Unveiling #1"
Hosts Robert Dayton, Junior and William A. Davison dramatically unveil the latest and never-before-seen (until this very eve) creation of artist and musician Drue Langlois!

Then they will be auctioning off this masterpiece with minimum bid starting at just 50 dollars !!! A low price for this amazing work by this important artist...

This will be followed by a soiree/party
ONE-NIGHT-ONLY! So if you want to bid and possibly attain this never-before-seen stunning curiousity, you best attend! Even if you are broke like us, you do not want to miss this opportunity of UNVEILING (and we-as the only eyes besides the artist that have seen this work- guarantee that this work is amazing....)



"The Unveiling" is a new series of one-night-only soirees/exhibitions, held monthly (more or less) in the back room of The Ossington Bar, which playfully reinvent a romantic and antiquated concept - that of a single artist "unveiling" their latest creation for a gathering of colleagues, collectors, critics, and cultural elite. The series is organized and hosted by local artists/curators William A. Davison and Robert Dayton.

The series kicks off on Oct. 26th as "Unveiling #1" presents the latest soft sculpture/doll creation of artist, comics creator, animator, musician and former Royal Art Lodge member Drue Langlois. Please note that the artist will not be present at this unveiling. However, Mr. Langlois has given the organizers explicit instructions on how to present his work, which Messrs. Dayton and Davison will execute in their own inimitable style.

DRUE LANGLOIS ARTIST STATEMENT:
"Compare an early drawing of Goofy (from "Lonesome Ghosts" let’s say) to the dog from "Family Guy". Do you believe that Brian Griffin is a living creature or do you imagine, like I do, a bored person drawing a flat, uninspired drawing on a computer and someone recording dialogue in a sound booth? Since the style is so unconvincing, I wouldn't feel anything if the character was suddenly stabbed by someone. In Lonesome Ghosts, the forms and environments are vividly convincing, so that by the time Goofy sees his rear end and, thinking it is a ghost, shoves a nail into it, you can really feel that he is in a lot of pain.

Pre-70's Disney animation was my first exposure to art at an early age. Goofy's complicated snout (with two chiclet teeth) intrigued me and I worked hard to learn how to draw it. Although not clearly defined in my own mind at the time, I could see that this company's principles on character design (and how important they considered structure to be) were superior to the flat design techniques of other cartoon companies from the 70's onwards.

I have studied the application of form for many years and it makes its’ way into my illustrations and dolls. I am surprised that I do not see it being used by people more often. Flat, decorative character styles in artwork and toy design are stale, like wallpaper. Personally, my eye just passes right over this style, no matter how garish they make the colours.

A love for structural principles is not necessarily a witless nostalgia for a certain time period, they just happened to have been applied more in the past. Realistically sculptured designs and an understanding of perspective appeal to the parts of your mind that want to feel how the parts fit together, or that help you imagine being in the character's environment. These things can be applied to new projects to make people really feel the nail in the ass."


DRUE LANGLOIS BIO:

"I have been making artwork since I was very young, being inspired by pre-70's Disney animation. The cartoons led me to an interest in comic books. Starting off with Disney comics and "Harvey" books like "Spooky, the tuff little ghost", I was eventually drawn more and more toward detail and human characters.

My first art-related job was making cartoons for a local paper when I was 12. Between 1987 and 1995, I started drawing human super-hero stories that were rigid and cluttered at first eventually becoming more graceful. This was soon followed by enrollment in a Fine Arts course at the University of Manitoba (1992-1996). My brother Myles Langlois was experimenting with video during this time period and I started working on those with him.

1995 was the beginning of my musical collaborations with Myles and then, later in the year, with Michael Dumontier. This early lo-fi music, mostly acoustic guitar and singing, was recorded on a dual cassette recorder that could be used to overlap layers of sound.

In early 1996, some University of Manitoba Fine Arts students and I formed a drawing group called the "Royal Art Lodge". We also made a lot of music: Avignon, Albatross, No Pirates, and Eyeball Hurt and the Medicine (later, Double Greeting) were some of the Royal Art Lodge bands that I was involved in.

Eyeball Hurt and the Medicine (my band with Michael Dumontier) started playing shows in 1997 and we wanted to have some attractive band merchandise so we sold our homemade dolls under the band's name. These dolls were based on one that I had made for Michael as a gift in 1994.

The assembly-line style of making Royal Art Lodge drawings helped me to become prolific but the structure of my drawings began to suffer. So, semi-consciously, to ensure that I didn't become too lazy about my principles in form, I started to work on small comic books again in 1999, and independently distributing them under the banner of "Samuel Appleface Comics".

The Samuel Appleface comics, in conjunction with RAL art and music shows in Vancouver, led me to a deep involvement in zine culture for a number of years. Marc Bell, Amy Lockhart, Jason McLean, Broken Pencil Magazine, Robert Dayton, and Dame Darcy were a few of the people I worked with during those years.

Around the same time, I was becoming more successful with my solo art career and was represented by Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. Also, the dolls that Michael and I had been making were selling really well and our band started playing music shows at art gallery openings more often than bars. I switched representation to Katharine Mulherin of Toronto and have had regular shows since then.

In 2003, The Royal Art Lodge had a touring exhibit called "Ask the Dust" that went to New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Middleburg Netherlands, and Seoul Korea. I became more interested in my solo career and left the group around this time, as did Hollie Dzama and Myles Langlois. Simultaneously, Michael and I decided to stop making the "Eyeball Hurt" dolls.

In 2003-04, I continued to have solo exhibitions in Germany, Italy and Canada and I illustrated the comic book miniseries, "Captain Canuck: Unholy War". I had a show at Zeihersmith gallery in New York where I exhibited solo dolls and since then I have been making small batches of them every few months.

In 2005, I formed a new band (after moving to Montreal) called "Bold Saber" and started playing and practicing music more than ever before. In that same year, Riel Langlois and I formed the "Hot Hail Productions" company publishing a compilation of my Protoprize comics. This was followed in 2007 by "Overachiever" and a concluding chapter to the Captain Canuck miniseries.

In 2008 I holed up in Brandon, MB, working at a greenhouse, and studying animation- illustrating webisodes of the animated space opera, "Superspace" for Hot Hail. I moved to Toronto that fall and put on a few Bold Saber shows, as well as one in Chicago to coincide with a large showing of dolls at the "Home gallery".

As of 2009, Hot Hail presents weekly web comics. My newest one is "Pools of Zara", which is an ongoing story presented in a weekly punchline format.


For further information, feel free to contact The Unveiling's hosts William A. Davison and Robert Dayton.

William - davison@recordism.com
Robert - moustachedpainless@yahoo.com

Many thanks to Jubal Brown/Intervention Mondays and The Ossington!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

POST-SICK WET DIRT HALLOW SOUNDS

Hi pals,
Suffered a mild bout of bum-out and cabin fever due to a real bad cold/possible flu. These things always make me see life in more unpleasant tones. I thought that it had led to another sinus infection, luckily my Doc told me to wait-and-see 48 hours before cashing in my scrip of antibiotics, I'm glad he did as I feel lots better today! Yer the best, doc! (too bad he can't cure the sad, it ain't really gone away)
In the midsts of this, WET DIRT recorded an album at 6 Nassau, my voice held out and we were super quick without sacrificing in the performance or production departments: what a studio! It really is a great place in the Market and James is real good engineer! I am loving the sounds of those drums! It sounds wild!
Now if only we could have played a show before Robin jets to Germany indefinitely on November 1st. Sigh....yeah, he's leaving (I love that guy) but the band will continue, trust us...


This Sunday at FEELINGS, Lorenz Peter is my guest, he's the talented cartoonist who also makes sounds for National treasure Corpusse, he also has amazing records! I first met him in the early half of the 90s when he was palling around with the now-deceased singer of The Ugly and that gal from Return To Oz. Me, I am spinning all my Halloween records and I didn't realise that I had so many, besides the usual suspects like The Shaggs and Staked Plain, I'll be spinning a ghost story type LP with strange synth sounds by Gershon Kingsley. As well as some records by Wade Denning, this guy makes the best Halloween-themed long plays as he has the best and most creative effects and production techniques...some records may bleed over into the following week, Nov 1st.
Sunday, Oct. 26, 9 PM, the Ossington (61 Ossington), no cover....

Friday, October 16, 2009

STUDIO VISITS





For those who missed it, here are a couple images from my recent Studio Visits art show - for a full description (ie. artist statement) visit my BIG ART SHOW post a few posts back.

For more images of the show and rather reasonably priced sales, please go to this link:

http://1zero7.bigcartel.com/category/robert-dayton

Saturday, October 10, 2009

the return of...FEELINGS




read on...i will be delving into realms of personal sadness....songs that i send to her that make us both cry over our loss....that said, it's good to be back...

SUNDAYS RESUMING OCT 11th
The Ossington (61 Ossington) 9 to late
With D.J. Body Beautiful and a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior

We have been asked to return from our sojourn. We are rested. During this time of reflecting upon our time of reflection called FEELINGS, we also experienced a sad and deep loss. Come and we will share it with you. every. single. week.

For this holiday Sunday there will be no respite from our pain. I will play some of the songs that make me cry, songs of loss, as well as pre-recorded versions of a ballad or two that I , myself, wrote and sang. Indulge me.
And as usual my Midnight Candlelight recitation which- with the addition of smoke machine and projections- is proving to be a hit with the people! So much so that I even do a 1 AM recitation! What are recitations? Intense spoken reflections of the soul in a romantic manner. We are here to help you get through this mortal life. Both this week's recitations deal with loss. Oh. Is it Thanksgiving? Sorry.

NO Cover. be thankful for that.



Bask in them....
FEELINGS

With DJ Body Beautiful plus guests


FEELINGS is a special night where we spin music that you probably won’t normally hear. A boutique mix of :
ELUSIVE DREAMINGS/PRIVATE PRESSINGS/FREE FORMS/CAN CON CONCRETE/B SIDE EXCURSIONS/ELECTRONIC PRIMITIVA/EMOTIONS/EURO HORRORS/INTENSELY PERSONAL VISIONS/DEEP PSYCH/UN-EASY LISTENINGS AND BALLADS/PRISON SOUNDTRACKS/FANTASTIC JOURNEYS OF WONDER/
ORGAN-ISMS/NEO-BAROQUE
With a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior

This will be ...special.

To Hurting People

Since we are struggling with pain, even at this moment, we have first hand knowledge of what it is like to experience the silence of God. Sometimes the immense loneliness of pain-whether physical, mental or emotional-is completely overwhelming!
As you listen to us spin, let the music wash over your brokenness as great healing waves of God’s merciful love until you hear the music once again.

From our hearts to yours,
D.J. Body Beautiful

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

BILLBOARD PROJECT



I had previously mentioned Paul Butler's Billboard Project that Jason Mclean so kindly asked me to be a part of. Jason basically asked me what work of art affected me most/earliest.
My response was put up on a billboard on the side of a convenience store on Queen West.
The pic is tuff to read so this what it said:

As a little boy my Grandmother had a box of comics for all of her grandchildren to dig through. I already loved comics but nothing really stuck out until I grabbed an old, coverless copy of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen no. 143 from the box. I still have it to this day. This comic had everything I could ever want as kid: Superman, classic movie monsters like The Wolfman and Dracula, a green, horned planet, and a flying robot dog- all mashed up into a new forward thinking form. This comic book really excited me. I didn’t even know that it was by Jack Kirby until years later. As a teen I went through a short period of growing pains where I rejected the work of Jack Kirby- I’ve talked to a few Kirby fans that went through this phase. As an adult, I would say that he is my single most influential artist for many reasons. This Jimmy Olsen comic book, like all of his 70s work, has his familiar crackle and bubbling energy. Panels burst like they were three-dimensional. It is distinctively his. Every panel is a work of art that connects to other panels on pages that connect to other pages in sequential stylized flow. And he churned out a few comic books a month while reinventing the form every ten years or so. I once had a dream that I met him.


The comic in question is here:

Saturday, October 3, 2009

THE EAGLE SPREADS ITS' BUTTER

Big art show tonite! Phew! 107 Shaw: Studio Visits.

A tad nervous about this new work.

May I delve into creative process here?
Great.

Around five years ago and/or more, I felt relatively infallible. I was in a band that was teetering on success, a movie I starred in just came out, I had a weekly column, etcetera. Well, the labels never came knocking even with the heaps of press that we received, I left the column out of anger (they didn't pay anyways) and found that after years of writing this thing no other mags/papers/options came knocking cuz it was a silly lil weekly in a silly lil city, and the movie did get me an agent where I'd constantly be competing with others in a large room for a wacky part in a commercial (but when I landed one it was totally fun, I should state for the record amidst this murk that my agent is awesome and he truly believed in me). I was living in a city that grew increasingly uncaring about anyone/anything except a DJ with an iPod. I was bitter and frustrated. And nervous. Oh, and I stopped drinking which showed that my indestructibility was a farce. Introspection. I am fallible. Like everyone else, I am a mere speck. But actions do cause ripples! So I would continue to take risks. And try to be grateful.



A big risk was moving across the country. My girlfriend was moving, too, and I had a small part in a movie for when I arrived.
The bitterness and frustration left with the change of scenery.
However, I was also the new guy in the new city. They mostly knew nothing about my years of output. But they were also pretty welcoming.

On the movie set, I was seriously nervous and second guessing myself every step of the way. This has been the same with my visual art practice. I have been needing serious feedback as I have grown so doubtful. "How's my driving?" Even with maintaining a blog, I know that my ego has shrunk. A bit.
I'd never misconstrue lack of ego with self-pity. Self-pity is just another side of the ego beast.
I've been a critic. When I was 'super-young know-it-all' I would fire off some of the most scathing reviews about the 90s musical dregs. Positive reviews, too. I wanted the writing to crackle and leap off the pages. A coupla months back my band WET DIRT got a review in The Now, one of the three alterna-identi-papers (which to be fair has never been that kind to me and a lot of Torontonians tell me they don't take it seriously) which, to others, read positive but its' flatness got under my skin. I wish that review never happened. It spent a long time focused on my outfit, how I was from Vancouver, it boxed in the bands' sound in an off manner, and briefly stated that my voice didn't blow them away. I fixated on that quick line. I did lunchtime polls with everyone about my voice. I thought that I wasn't keeping my end up in the band. I didn't want to add to the mediocre crap heap. I was seriously considering stopping. After all the years of honing, recording, touring, voice specialists, allergy shots, and exercises I figured it was hopeless. My voice was better than it was three years ago. Still. Not. Good. Enough. Give up.
I was a mess. Two days later I had to take my girlfriend to the hospital and I had to be there for her. And I was. But I felt so depressed and mentally numb. I tried to put my arm around and snap out of it! SNAP OUT OF IT! And I couldn't totally. She confronted me later and I was so upset at me for her, I told her how it was my duty to be there every step of the way-and I was physically- but my head, my friggin head just wouldn't let go! She understood. But that's just another part of ego. This self-absorbed fixation. Self-pity. I'm just a speck. She was pretty good at bringing me out of that self-absorption. It's over now, as she had to leave and I am so sad and adrift, always on the verge of tears with this loss. I don't even want to think about 'the next relationship' as I didn't even want this one to end, nor did I think about it ending but I have to be less self-absorbed in life. People are interesting. Others are interesting. Creative self-expression must be a passionate conduit of deeper things.

I decided to sing some more. I took a step back and realised that I am fine, not technically brilliant but, passionate and emotive. Sure, I can always be better but I have this need to perform for people and to make albums, to craft songs. I need to be entertained and so do a lot of people and there ain't that much musical entertainment out there. Just need to make it shine, work on it. It can be tougher, more of a vaccuum when one is completely D.I.Y. , doubts can set in more; I never asked to be D.I.Y. but occasionally flickers of validity can be seen through the trees. I have to remind myself that some of my favourite things are made with zero backing.

Jay Isaac, bless him, has been one of the people that's helped so much. He booked the band for a show the other week at the Wrong Bar as part of the Hunter and cook mag launch. This show was so unlike that show that got the review, as the room looked and sounded great and people I never met gave good feedback and we affected them. Okay, okay, it's going right, don't give up, don't give up...
(and the movie premiered, someone I deeply respect said something super-nice and honest about my work... don't give up, don't give up)
...now to find the balance. Don't get the cocky walk. If people compliment I can't let it feed the ego, it can't go to the head, it has to go to the spirit. Balance.

I think it's healthy to second guess, that fallibility probably makes for better art. It actually hasn't hindered my craft at all but it has been a bit gut-wrenching at times, more time spent second guessing than making. Granted, going from the gut as pure conduit is great as well. Having both is perfect. Gut-reflection-gut-reflection.

I'm still nervous about these new drawings. That go up tonight.
I took a preliminary sketch to Jay last month and he set me into a good direction, he made me think about where I was taking it. I was so scared that this work would be empty 'art about art.' He told me that art is spiritual. He's right. There is a lot that is so spiritual in the world that doesn't get recognised as such. He gave me the names of some French Symbolists as inspiration and sent me away in a hopeful mood. I saw my work in a new light. I gently coaxed and eased more meaning out of it due to the path Jay sent me on.
I so want to make sure that the art has a positive force to it.
I'm still worried, i mean, my anatomy is fucked, working big again and figurative, taking risks...nerrrrvousssss.

Oh, I will have to dash out of the opening for an hour to catch Destroyer at the Horseshoe, what a busy night, this gives me an excuse to break up the text and post a pic I drew of a project that he, Julian, and I formed ten years ago, we were originally called AIDS and played just one show. We then changed it to the more palatable Points Gray and I hope that one day someone releases our album of acid downer folk damage on wax. Or that i get a sudden windfall to, yes, do it myself.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

ART JAZZED

My friend Anna May has a tee shirt that says Jazz in a bouncy script, it may be for the airline or maybe, just maybe, the album by Queen. Either way, I feel jazzed. Not only is there the big show this Saturday nite Oct 3rd with Jean-Paul Langlois at 107 Shaw that I been working my feelings to the bone for (see previous post for more info)(most of my working energy is spent on self-doubt: I will be sure to make a future post on that) buuuut...I am part of Paul Butler's billboard project! Selected by the great Jason Mclean, I wrote about the art that first moved me (ie. Jack Kirby) to be put on a huge billboard at H & H Variety at 616 Queen Street West ! That's just West of Bathurst and mere blocks from the Studio Visits art show at 107 Shaw that I hope you will all attend!

Here is press release:
For Immediate Release The Other Gallery presents ART MOVES Throughout downtown Toronto’s 24-hour convenience stores Scotiabank Nuit BlancheOctober 3rd, 2009, Sunset to SunriseToronto, ONFor Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, The Other Gallery’s Paul Butler will invite members from the art community to ask someone of their choice to describe a will be displayed in and outside 24-hour convenience store across Toronto’s Maps will be available for pick up at the ZONE A INFO CENTRE, and downloadable on The Other Gallery website, othergallery.com.The “Scotiabank People’s Choice Award” invites audiences to vote for theirfavorite project by visiting scotiabanknuitblanche.ca online. There is also an iPhone application, the “Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Night Navigator,” which provides maps, information, and voting opportunities for the event.For voting purposes, ART MOVES is found under:Zone A Independent Project # 47 Downtown Area.Participants include: AA Bronson asking Matthias Herrmann, Aganetha Dyck / Tricia Sellmer, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir / Gudmundur Oddur Magnússon, Ashley Neese / Marie O Neese, Chen Tamir / Barbara Tamir, Dave Dyment / Paul But-ler, Derek Sullivan / Jessica Bradley, Eleanor Bond / Jason Mclean, Robert Dayton/ Courtney Burke, Erica Eyres / Garnet McCulloch, Euan Macdonald / Pat King, Guy Maddin / Dennis Randolph / Jones Miller, Jennifer Delos Reyes / Laine Gabel, Joe Friday / Monica Keller, Kirsten Stoltmann / Brad Phillips, Kitty Scott / Tom Mc-Donough, Lisa Gabrielle Mark / Channing Hansen, Micah Lexier / Tom Koken, Michael Dumontier / David Fair, Michel de Broin / May Lee, Mitzi Pederson / Lynn Lu, Ruth van Beek / Basje Boer, Paul Butler / Sam Gould, Red 76 / Zefrey Throwell, Richard Boulet / David Boulet, Robin Simpson / Maryse Larivière, Steve Loft / Erin O’Hara, Tatiana Mellema / Mark Clint-berg and Zoe Crosher / Andrew Berardini.Media space courtesy of Adapt Media Inc.Printing courtesy of Eclipse ImagingFor more information contact:Paul Butler647.867.1945othergallery@gmail.com