Recent Rookie Illo

i'm really into this 'illo' as we call them. i am so happy to have been able to incorporate virginia woolf, kate moss from a corinne day photo w/ feather headdress, THE BELL JAR (w/ woolf. again), ripped up flyer for strawberry ice cream sale (from the annoying GD flyers that get stuffd in my mailbox even though i just put up two signs: NO MORE, please), feminine vershz of gerhard richter candle (pink) fr the SY daydream nation album cover (that i love. and his work made me cry when i saw it in the real) but best of all being able to incorporate two of Lisa Smolkin's girls. I love her drawings. Thank you, guy.
These 2 are especially important to me b/c they were retrieved from a secret art burning we did in the summer with shary boyle. Lisa was doing some burning and i pretty much jumped in the fire yelling: nooooooooooooooooo! once again: i love her drawings.

AND!! and!! you can read the breathtaking piece of writing that I had the honour of illustrating. It blew my mind.

http://rookiemag.com/2012/09/stuffing-myself-with-immanence/

ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE!!

I dont even know where to start on this project/what to say...cos it's TOO MUCH! (designed that cover. in fact just staring at my laptop that i stared at that cover for so long and then to see it IRL...it's super twilight zone surreal). I spent my summer working with Drawn And Quarterly in Montreal putting together the yearbook. It is the best of the best of the Rookie site's content in a publication form. We put it together and I added my 'vibes' as (TG would say)..you will know what I mean when you see it. I am being vague which is 'cray' b/c this is one of the best projects I have ever worked on. ever. and there is SO MUCH TO SAY. ask me anything. okay maybe not now. or...i dont know when i'll have time. But there is so much to say.

I'm cram-seshin packing/getting things done before i catch a RED EYE tomorrow night to NEW YORK FOR THE LAUNCH (very obsessed with this RED EYE on Cathay Pacific. I love that airline! and i love flying!!). It's already 'red eye' time. i live in 'red eye'. Okay i need to go finish an illustration for Rookie (the show must go on) and try and fix a dress i destroyed 8 years ago (antique thing i thought i'd 'hem' but hacked off too much now i am sewing it back together. nice work) and i have to pack and my suitcase is looking too small and i am loathe to pull down the other honking thing that AIR CANT replaced when they busted up my other suitcase (that i actually liked)...they gave me a hideous one. I CANT. it's like patent-leather-looking-but-tiny-black&silver -checkerboard' pattern/hound's tooth. It's so ugly i thought for a minute it was 'good' but after skidding thru a few baggage claims, it's all SKID. IDIOT DESIGN. the patent is now not so patent. it has scrap marks on it. i think the only thing that will save this future landfill is STICKERS as in: lots. And not just sticker stickers - BUMPERSTICKERS. i might have to visit a 'head shop' and pick up some 'rock stickers' or stickers you're meant to stick on your van. ('take me to your dealer' etc.)

oh yes. i need to go.
Anyways! Get your hands on a ROOKIE YEARBOOK and tell me what you think! so far i have only heard 'freak outs' as in: WE LOVE THIS!!! It's amazing amazing amazing. WOW. to be a part of something so grand and full of love  from so many contributors (writers, photographers, illustrators, artists, stylists, designers. u name it) and so, so much HARD WORK and love went into this. I know i put every single i had into it. We decided pretty early on: THIS IS NOT GOING TO PRESS UNTIL IT'S PERFECT.

and it is.

okay now must go.
xoxo
but wait. before i go. I think what is most SURREAL is that one year ago today I was sitting in Dawson City at the Macaulay House residency(you srsly need to click that link and have your mind blown) doing my residency..that was me sitting in a room working by myself watching the parade of dawsonites cruise by the windows (i was looking down on everything from the second floor bird's eye view)...three-legged dogs, dogs running with  leashes dragging behind all free and wild (no owner in sight), weird rigged up ATV-like things ripping past. Pretty yukon style...the light in that studio was really good and it was SEPTEMBER which always means NEW THINGS and all the leaves were turning gold! and well..yes. the yukon LIGHT which is like nowhere else on earth. I was working on Rookie illustrations all fresh and new and u know..kinda freaking out cos it was NEW and it was also the usual me: wtf am i doing? but just...DOING IT and figuring it out learning curve style..finding a good balance and what will work on line and brushing up on my 'tech skills' (that was a joke cos it you only knew. Tom at D+Q finally got me using a stylus 'pen' which is SO GREAT)...but to think back to that scene and to look at this scene now tuh-day...that all those 'illos' i did in the past year..i never ever would have DREAMED that one year later we'd be holding a book in our hands. It makes me want to cry. I dont think I have ever seen a project unfold with such gentle force and determination EVER. Never. and i've been doing this a long time. SNOWBALL. There are so many incredible people involved in this project. Incredible. It is a true labour of love and it couldnt have come at a better time for THE WORLD.

Run the World, Girls
(oh! speaking of GIRLS. Lena Dunham will be at the launch reading!) and sum other speshul guests.
WOOT. i'm such a fan of Lena.

ON 'NOT LETTING GO OF SUMMER'

with the hopes i'll be posting some more..there's lots to catch up on and lots happening. BIG YEAR! more to come. xoxoxoox

things on my desktop

Book reviews on ROOKIE here.

christina ricci, 1998

FRANCESCA WOODMAN where do i begin??

truth be told, my desktop is a total mess. Laura Palmer is also sleeping on the desktop. I really love photographed plastic. Francesca Woodman's work is fairly new to me. Photographs. Mind=blown. Blown=mind. I dont know where to begin. Her work is astonishing. She died in 1981 at the age of 22. She jumped off a building.

THIS WOMAN'S WORK!!!

Have you seen this yet? alison schulnik. shary tole me about her awhile back and when share(balls) recommends, you know it's gonna be REALLY GOOD. (thanks to my people over at banquet for posting this! My people)


Mound by Allison Schulnik from garaco taco on Vimeo.

My New Life

and again: MY NEW LIFE
i love that hair. That rat's nest/bird's nest driving in that car. something like that. That's Dora Ford in the middle. I dont know anything about her but it's a pretty picture i found. it's about -38 here in the Yukon. Thanks 4 that!
HAPPY 2012!
xo
PS the lana del rey drama carries on. JT LEROY

'I will love you till the end of time'

oops forgot to blog for what...like..what? a year? can i blog everyday? if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody give a rat's ass? I know i do.


so yessssssss i'm in TORONTO doing the terry fox marathon (bless him) version of all things bunnies..give me my dixie cup of water every 30 steps. ..actually no. pass me my FAVOURITE CUP. I bought this EXCELLENT cup from hugo didier last year at the Oneofakind show where i am now..I drink my 900 tonnes of water out of it every day. It's tall in the shape of a heart with a lipstick kiss mark where your own lips hit the cup and drink the water. AND! Ergonomic: it fits perfectly in your hand. Hugo himself told me each lipstick mark on every cup is HIS OWN. Dude applied and re-applied lippystick for HOW MANY CUPS? i'm going to ask him tomorrow cos i'm going to buy MORE. (i actually bought two last year but one vanished into thin air). I'm really not much of a shopper. ok i lie but i'm really really picky and i only buy the good sh*t.

the show is going awesomely. i dont know what it is. My booth location? I'm right around the corner from JULIE SINDEN. Thank goodness. It's been so, so busy...for example: run out for 5 minutes to go buy a five dollar coffee so i can stay awake for the next 13 hours going on 4 hours sleep and not eating anything all day but a handful of almonds and then not even being able to drink the coffee. i'm NOT kidding you. This is the opposite of my usual life. of course i find this all to be really fun..even if it's insane and exhausting and not super healthy but i make up for the food in the evening. in fact, i just polished off grant's chocolate coconut bliss. OOPS. I keep wondering when people will stop paying attention to the bunnies but it doesnt seem to be..happening. they just continue to gain in popularity like a VERY LARGE SNOWBALL. I will say that i do my best to make them better and push for evolving/evolution. It's really all i care about. All i care about is MAKING IT BETTER. And i mean everything.

a very sweet girl came in with her mom (times 10 - this happened several times over) and wanted my autograph. ???! (she really just wanted the bunny's autograph but bunny didnt have a pen so i was the stand-in). Lots of girls carry their bunnies with them everywhere. THE STORIES I HAVE HEARD. Bunnies with homemade hammocks stretched over beds, bunny condos, bunny apartment buildings...Um..i do love it when i get to revisit a bunny..when a collector brings their bunny by to say hi. I usually add some accessories..today i added a silver halo/headband with a gray feather to a big pink bunny.
Collectors. This is how it goes.

i digress. There are a hundred stories. ALL OF THEM ARE AMAZING. This stuff keeps me going.


i've been listening to that lana del rey business. i know i've been in a warren for the last while..is this all new? am i that out of it? i like her 'video games' and 'blue jeans' songs and her LOOK IS QUITE GOOD. HER NAILS and the ooober bling (diamante hoops the size of halos) and the 1940s veronica lake hair and those slightly sleazy rose-tinted heart-shaped specs (I mean - COME ON) and her 50s dresses and other random. kinda dope (like soap on a rope).
i heard she had  plastic surgery assistance but what else is new and free to be you and me so that is weird but free to be me and you and while we're at it everyone else we know. oddly, strangely, amazingly, she and her sister run a "grassroots homeless outreach program in New York assisting street people (that never feels right to say) in piecing back their identification/paperwork so they may transition back into 'normal life' and get jobs, apartments".  WHO IS THIS PERSON?  Just try and connect the dots. Actually - don't because you won't. She's appears...??? 
i like those two songs and the style mashing and her possibly true humanitarianism?
Now i'm going to listen to BLUE JEANS over and over.

and let's hope it's all true and not this bullsh*t

POSTSCRIPT POSTSCRIPT POSTSCRIPT!! it's all fake!!!! i knew it. Lisa Prentice proved it. Her daddy purchased all of it.  I KNEW something was rotten in the state of Denmark. It just wasnt sitting right. just wasn't. wasn't

In other news - i dont have time to do ROOKIE pictures this month but i have been pounding out movie reviews left, right and centre. HAAAAAAAA FRIED GREEN TOMATOES! I have new meaning, new purpose to my existenz as a human bean.

check it.