PRINTED MATTERS

Printing has changed the world. With the invention of the movable type printing press around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg created arguably the most important instrument for the global democratization of knowledge. Not only did the printing press facilitate the spread of text-based information, it also spread images. Prior to the invention of the printing press, artwork had to be viewed in person, limiting the influence of styles and specific images to local audiences or those wealthy enough to travel great distances.

The printing press may have begun the democratization of art, but another printer evolved it both conceptually and practically. Andy Warhol made art based on accessible products and personalities from pop culture. In addition to his attempts to democratize art through his subject matter, Warhol used screen-printing to produce multiple versions of his images. Where elitism, preciousness, and scarcity had been the ruling principles in the art world, Warhol embraced commercial reproduction techniques and mass culture. Further down the line, two of my biggest street art influences — Barbara Kruger and Robbie Conal — used printed posters to spread their artwork and messages in public spaces.

I’m a product of the era of mass production and the mass culture it has created. I can’t imagine my art practice without the influence of, and the use of, printing. Some of my biggest art influences were not paintings, but printed things like album covers, skateboard graphics, punk flyers, and t-shirt designs. When I discovered stencil making and screen-printing in high school, I used them to make t-shirts and stickers, but by college I began to use screen-printing to make art. I enjoyed illustration, photography, collage, and graphic design separately, but with screen-printing I could synthesize those techniques into an integrated final product. Screen-printing also provided latitude for experimentation and the ability to make multiples, and my style began to evolve as I explored the graphic nature of the medium. I tried to make images that would translate well to screen-print production. A harmony of beauty, power, and utility was my goal.

I always believed in art as a part of public dialogue, and my Obey Giant street art campaign aspired to arrest visually and provoke intellectually. With the need for me to compete with well funded advertising, screen-printing posters myself was the only way I could afford to create large quantities of materials to share on the streets. My theory was that I could print an image on thin paper for the streets and on thicker paper to sell. I was broke, so I needed a process that was affordable and efficient. I printed my posters in a consistent size and color palette so I could build modular grids of images and constantly expand my image library for large outdoor installations.

Repetition, consistency, and persistence over the years yielded a growing audience for both my outdoor art and gallery art. As people started to request more “fine art” of my images, I began to embellish upon my utilitarian printing techniques by printing on wood, metal, and canvas, as well as incorporating stenciling back into the work. Some of these pieces began to function as one-of-a-kind mixed media paintings. To keep my work affordable and accessible, I also made screen-print-on-paper editions of my fine-art pieces.

The Printed Matters show incorporates every variety of my printed works, including prints on wood, metal, album covers, and fine-art collage papers. Some people say print is on its way out, that it will be wiped out by digital media, but I say you can never replace the provocative, tactile experience of an art print on the street or in a gallery. Printing still matters.

-Shepard

For more info... OBEY GIANT

For artwork purchases please contact Subliminal Projects, www.subliminalprojects.com

Toronto School of Art Fall/Winter Program Begins

(click on image for close up view)

It's about that time of the year again, back to school! Depending on your personal point of view, this is either an amazing time of the year... or just the opposite. If nothing else, it's a great time to start fresh and retune the rest of the year. For those of you who are looking, or know someone who is looking for some art classes, professional or beginner, Toronto School of Art is accepting students! All the teachers are professional working artists who are incredibly passionate about their craft. Once again, I was lucky enough to have worked on their annual calendar, keep an eye out for it in your local newspaper in the month of September.

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TSA guides artists through all phases of their artistic career, from introductory courses and portfolio development to private practice. We recognize the creativity of all students and seek to foster their development through:

• An inclusive, flexible, and responsive environment

• Our teaching faculty who are all active members of Canada’s professional arts community

• Small classes, with hands-on study of both traditional and contemporary practises

• Dozens of fine art and digital art courses offered during weekdays, weeknights and weekends!

• Our central location, right in the heart of Toronto’s thriving arts scene

• A student body that reflects the diversity of our city

• Guest Artist Lecture Series

Follow. facebook

Online. www.tsa-art.ca

Call. 416.504.7910

Email. info@tsa-art.ca

Artsy-fartsy Deal Stinks to High Heaven

A good friend of mine pointed out this front page article in the Toronto Sun's (Saturday edition, August 28th) newspaper. Unfortunately, the artists are getting the usual misdirected anger of the usual politricks of a government. It wasn't so much that the article got me thinking about how effortlessly the author pulled on the outdated cliches of what an artist is, but it was the comments that came after. Most of them made me realize just how much people are out of touch with the concept and necessity of art. Where some countries consider art a part of their daily life, a necessary investment in their culture and a way of showing-off their creativity as a society. We are more concerned with how to best stick to the safe and automatic way of seeing and living life. I can appreciate that the city has a lot of issues on its plate to deal with, but cutting art out of the budget is not the answer. A life of an artist is clearly not an easy one, but without support, its damn near impossible. The value of art is always debatable, but it's potential to remind us that there is more to life than our usual daily grind is absolutely priceless!

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Just what the east end needs: A hippie-style commune for poor, starving artists.

And paid for by you!

Perhaps, no matter who is elected by the voters Oct. 25, we can also let the future tenants, and those leftist councillors who slammed this disgrace through, decide who the next mayor is, too?

Why not? They just do whatever they want anyway. All other rational thinking disappeared a long time ago.

“There is a dearth of housing in this area for artists,” Councillor Pam McConnell said in somehow trying to justify this disgrace.

What there is a dearth of is common sense on city council.

But what there is an abundance of is communists, socialists and blatant waste-a-holics.

The stench of this deal hits one’s nostrils from miles away because every part of the purchase of the circa 1899 Harris House heritage home at 450 Pape Ave. to create subsidized rental work and living spaces for artists stinks to high heaven.

Despite staff originally not recommending it, and saying there was no money for it, council in a suspect-move decided to go ahead and borrow from another department’s budget about $2.2-million — $1.9-million of which is to purchase the Salvation Army property, once known as Bethany Home for pregnant teenagers, at the corner of Pape and Riverdale and an additional $275,000 for closing costs.

They are making it up as they go — at your expense.

It looks like a sweet deal for so-called artists who don’t seem to want to survive on the market economy like the rest of us have to. Others who want to live in this neighbourhood have to come up with $600,000.

This feels like a heist. Somebody call Chief Bill Blair.

“People borrow money all the time,” says Councillor Paula Fletcher. “It’s an opportunity to do something very positive.

”Positive for whom? For artists perhaps. Not for taxpayers.

“Maybe the city can give it to me,” jokes single mother Donna George, who lives in below standard Toronto Community Housing with her five children. “I am not an artist, but I would like to live there.”

“Artists can get a part-time job to make ends meet,” said neighbour Greg Gherini. “Make it a place for single mothers because they have it tougher.”

Front-running mayoral candidate Rob Ford said he will open up, and rip up, deals like this when he becomes mayor.

“There are 70,000 people waiting to just get into (housing) and now we’re setting up special housing for these people?” Ford told the Sun’s Don “Pistol” Peat. “We can’t afford it.”

Just what is going on here? “I don’t think they know,” said an angry Councillor Doug Holyday. “I don’t think there is any proper plan for that property.”

I talked to Fletcher last night who admitted, “it could end up as seniors housing or something else.”

You know we are hard on Fletch but I can tell she really believes she is doing the right thing.

“I am sick and tired of the west end getting all of the housing for artists,” she explained.

“Joe, it’s a very low paying job and they struggle. Don’t worry this is going to work out. Next year we will have a social housing provider to partner with and we will get the money back. Next year, we will go there and I will show you. You and me.”

I am already looking for my bandana, paint brush and peace sign.The alleged redneck and the former commie. It’s a date.

joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca

A Letter by Van Gogh

"And pride, like drink, is intoxicating, when one is praised, and has drunk the praise up. It makes one sad, or rather -- I don't know how to express it, I feel it -- but it seems to me that the best work one can do is what is done in the privacy of one's home without praise. And then you do not always find a "sufficiently" friendly disposition among artists. Either they exaggerate a person's qualities, or else they neglect him too much. However, I should be pleased to be able to believe that justice is better done after all, than appears to be the case." -Van Gogh

Anyone who knows me, knows how much Van Gogh has inspired me. The amount of passion he released in his work is mind boggling! A few days ago I was reading up on him and came across this letter to his brother Theo (who played a very important supporting role for Van Gogh). I found it inspirational, in the sense that I can completely relate... "x" amount of years later.

Lil Wayne

Don't Get it

Spray paint and Oil on Canvas

30" x 40"

Heart. Passion. Desire.

Spray paint and Oil on Woodpanel

36" x 36"

Silver Lining

Spray paint and Oil on Woodpanel

26" x 72"

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Detail

Quiet Revolution

Spray paint and Oil on Canvas

36" x 40"

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Detail

Tingatinga

Once upon an afternoon.. while in Iringa. (Tanzania)...

I asked my Aunt: "Where can I get some genuine Tanzanian art!... As souvenir."

She asked: "...Carving or Painting?"

I answer: "...Painting."

She says: "Tingatinga!?"

I ask: "Tingatinga?!?"

She says: "Tingatinga!?... You know, iconic paintings of Tanzania!"

I say: "Perfect! Take me there."

Hah! The conversation went something like that... more or less. When I first saw or heard of Tingatinga art, I didn't think much of it. Up until I started asking more and more questions. Eventually... in the briefest of explanations I realized that Tingatinga was to Tanzania as the "Group of Seven" was to Canada. Tingatinga was to Tanzania as "Van Gogh" was to the Netherlands. As Obey is to the modern day America. Tingatinga was a Tanzanian artist who got caught up in the misunderstandings of President Nyerere's politricks. His artistic life-line was cut way too short to make sense of. Today he is an art movement, an African art legend!

Anyway, there's a lot more of his story online. Read more here... Tingatinga. I couldn't possibly do him justice, but there are plenty online who could.

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Boiled down to its core, Tingatinga art can be defined as painting on masonite using bicycle paint. The paintings can be as small as ceramic tiles, while the biggest paintings are intentionally made to be a size handy for hanging on the wall of a living room. Market limitations have prevented artists from working in larger formats. A majority of the buyers have been foreigners. cultural art from developing nations that has been adapted to the special requirements of long-distance travelers, including size. Also the choice of design in Tingatinga and other types of African art has often been adapted to the purchaser's expectations of what should be included in an African painting. African artists need to make what sells with whatever materials are available to them. -Wikipedia

Peter Harris

After Hours

18" x 48"

Oil on canvas

Behind Closed Doors

24" x 60"
Oil on canvas

February Evening

24" x 52"

Oil on canvas

Lakeshore Gas

20" x 30"

Oil on canvas

Urban Vista

30" x 48"

Oil on canvas

Streetcar 1 A.M.

42" x 24"

Oil on canvas

Night Vision

30" x 60"

Oil on canvas

Downtown 9 P.M.

24" x 24"

Oil on canvas

West On The 401

24" x 60"

Oil on canvas

Plant Doors

24" x 24"

Oil on canvas

(As usual, click on image to view a larger version)

I share studio space with a handful of some really talented artist's here at the Water Tower Studios. Each artist has their own private space to work in and as expected each one abides to their own schedule and work ethic. Sometimes days can go by before we see one another. With time I've come to know, respect, admire and learn a little bit more about art simply by watching and talking to Peter. One of the most talented, dedicated, disciplined and probably the hardest working painter I know personally. Anyway, for as long as I can remember, painting (in the traditional form), has always been something like magic to me. It's refreshing to see familiar urban Toronto landscapes that I see regularly, (but rarely take note of), being captured in such a beautiful traditional manner.

Artist Statement:

Exploring the contemporary urban landscape of my day to day life has been the focus of my work for the past nine years. Each oil on canvas painting begins with personal reaction to an urban space that I interact with daily, examining my relationship to the space as it alters with the changing light and under various weather conditions. Visiting at different times of day and night, I observe carefully the interplay between light and space and plan how to capture the tension present in outwardly public spaces transformed nightly to private, personal spaces. The night has always played an important role in my work as a formal element reducing the field of view and creating stage like settings for the urban landscape and as a psychological element reflecting my attitudes about the spaces I visit.

My paintings portray the common urban landscape that city dwellers inhabit, seek to make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and provoke the viewer to consider otherwise unremarkable spaces. The familiar parking lots and streetscapes of the city which are the settings for my work are painted in a solemn manner which imbues a common landscape with mystery, status and gravitas. Painted realistically, they appear as an accurate documentation of local geography, but often have specific recognizable elements removed to increase the universality of the landscape. By giving a sense of familiarity to the work, an entry point for the viewer to project themselves into the space is created, and asks of them to rethink their own relationship to their urban surroundings.

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Re-inventing a Genre: Introducing Peter Harris

Since the late fifteenth century, when landscape began to emerge as a distinct genre in western art, it has increasingly held the fascination of artists and collectors alike. In his book Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama goes so far as to locate this fascination in our ethnic psyche. Certainly for North Americans in the middle of the nineteenth century, landscape art fused the promise of the new world with the enterprise of incipient nationalism. Personal memoirs and correspondence of nineteenth-century artists are filled with detailed descriptions of the logistical difficulties encountered in packing easels, paints, and other materials into remote and inaccessible spots in order to capture the “view.”

But the landscape which fascinated North American artists of the nineteenth century is no longer the landscape we see outside of galleries and museums. Not only has the landscape itself changed dramatically, but so has our means of seeing it. While even the remotest places are accessible today, the means of access has altered our perception of them.

This consideration informs the work of Toronto artist Peter Harris. His landscapes are an acknowledgement that the landscapes we experience today are experienced from roads, bridges and man-made embankments. More appropriately, they are an acknowledgement that the means by which we see our land today have become part of the landscape itself. In Harris’s paintings, the topography is intersected or “framed” by bridges, culverts, telephone wires, light poles, and such. These may structurally complement or radically alter our interpretation of what we see. The natural and the artificial have become inseparable elements in our experience of the land.

Even the quality of the light, the prerequisite for vision, has altered our vision. In “Suburban Shift,” Harris compares the “landscape” under natural and artificial light, tellingly using the light pole itself as the focus of the latter image. The artist’s nocturnes provide us transformed landscapes in which artificial lights touch everything with a mysterious luminescence. “Night Vision” almost seems a conscious updating of Edward Hopper’s famous painting “Nighthawks.” Though the diner in Hopper’s painting has become a strip mall in Harris’s, both paintings convey a sense of loneliness and anonymity through the contrast of interior and exterior lighting. Harris obtains an effect similar to Hopper’s but through a much updated idiom.

Harris is hardly the first artist to treat this theme. What is important here is the overall tone of Harris’s work. Far too easily might the artist lapse into nostalgia or environmental polemic. Yet the tone of Harris’s paintings is neither bucolic nor political. It is dispassionate. The man-made features of this artist’s landscapes are simply there: facts of the way we see our world today. When we accept as such the roads, bridges, and poles, instead of trying to look around them, they offer a compositional beauty in their own right, just as the artificial lights mingle to create harmonies of color. Harris’s art seeks not to transform reality; it asks us to re-train our aesthetic sensibility to see what is before us.

-- JimHall, Oxford Gallery

Check out more of his work here... www.peterharris.ca