Adaptation Charting

Being the hyper active artists that I am I managed to squeeze in another show before I left this weird place called Finland. This one focused more on my contextual experience rather than the development of my own ideas. The project called for an emphasis on photography, but being the crafty guy I am I managed to warp this to something I was more comfortable working with, an animation / process drawing.

This was the result of about 2 months of work. Everyday before I went to bed I made one quick drawing on a large piece of paper and took a picture. Each drawing was made to represent my day, so as an art piece I don't think this is very successful. It is more akin to a source of memories for me. Other people in the group approached this project as a scrapbook, available for all to freely read. I didn't want to make things to easy for the viewer. I felt that this chaotic assembly of imagery represented me better as well.

Halfway through my process drawing I got the feeling that I wasn't going to be entirely satisfied, so I went ahead and jumped into my favorite medium. I also felt that I didn't have enough work. Finland just wasn't pushing me enough.So I thought I would put my skills to the test and see how many paintings I could produce in 3 days. Keeping with the theme of documenting my stay on the other side of the world, I decided to do a sort of anthropological documentation with a slight twist. I asked some friends to come by and I would paint a straight portrait. The catch was that they had to make a funny face. Each person is from a different country and the expression was their own choosing. I liked this series much better than the drawing. It still maintained the main idea, but it was filtered through me now.

Collaboration

Some weeks ago, while I was working on the SnowCastle in Kemi I met this amazing sculpture. As it turns out he had a vision for a snow, ice and light project and he needed some help. I was more than happy to offer him anything he needed. The end result is incredible and well worth the effort, but it has to be said, I have never been colder in my entire life. Several hours in -27 with just student quality winter gear wasn't really a smart choice. Also consider that for most of the time I was jumping around in half a meter of snow. Regardless, I will always remember this experience. I also invite you to check out further details of the project here.

Everyday Magic

This was created in collaboration with Joerg Brinkmann, an amazing artist that was on an exchange at the time. It was made for performance art class at Concordia University. The purpose of the video was to emphasis the everyday magic that we experience.