The last website was built by hand in a plain text editor.  I had no idea what I was doing, and changing one thing meant opening and editing at least 4 separate files.  This was a whole lot of very monotonous work, and the urge to procrastinate nearly always overpowered the urge to update.

This new site is using a lot of ready made components with lots of advanced content management systems; I’m halfway through uploading all the content and I’m still discovering new features that aren’t even advertised by the theme’s creator, Devin Price.

There is now a master gallery listing of images.  Images can be tagged in various ways, and galleries can be created on the fly based on whatever tag you select.  That means if I tag things “abstract, 2009, acrylic, Toronto,”, you can click “2009” and see a gallery of everything I painted in 2009.  With just one more click, you can be taken from there to a new gallery depicting toronto, or all my strictly abstract work.

I think this is a great addition to the website, because it frees people from the rigid organizational scheme I used on the old site, and lets you search for things however you want to search for them.

As I play around with this website further, I’m sure I will discover more cool new features that have so far gone unnoticed by me.  Content from 2006 to 2010 is currently uploaded and tagged, but I still have to go through and update all the information and the availability of each piece.  That won’t be a fun job…

Happy 2014.

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here.  That’s right, I’ve got a new website.

My old website was built to be fast and efficient, but it wasn’t flexible or easy to maintain.  With the introduction of tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and web-enabled gaming consoles, flexibility has become, in my opinion, much more of a priority.  And based on the frequency of my updates, making it easier for me to do so is probably going to be a welcome change on my end.

Moore Gallery, which had me on their stable of artists, has transitioned from a gallery with a physical space into focusing on private dealing.  That means that I’m a free agent in the Toronto art scene again!  As much as the internet changes things, democratizes the art world, and bypasses the gatekeepers and tastemakers of the past, I’m still the kind of artist who wants to show physical objects in a white cube.  I like galleries, and I’m working on settling into a new home for the foreseeable future.

May 18, 2012

The opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 7th, from 6 to 8pm.

I’m really excited about this show. This is the first time that I’ve had enough of an established body of work that I wasn’t rushing around at the last minute, fighting to crank out enough work to display. For this show, I was able to pick a theme, look at my entire body of work, stand back and pick out a number of pieces that fit that theme. In this case, visual abundance – the density of images we come across in our daily lives from advertisements and videos to photos on social media, was something I was thinking about. I selected paintings that were based on collages of images taken from time-lapse photography sequences, where I was literally choosing one or two images from thousands of possibilities and combining them into digital collages emphasizing speed, abundance, and visual density.

February 22, 2012
I have a strict rule about not advertising shows before the paperwork is signed, because cancelling a show and uninviting people is a terrible feeling that I prefer to avoid. If you are wondering what happened to that February showing of the DRM Boxes that I hinted at earlier, just know that I am wondering the same thing. Don’t know what happened, but it never materialized. The boxes are done though. Expect some cool videos showing off the project to be posted in late March, when things calm down slightly and I have a chance to put some proper videos together.

The show in June is still in the works. I’m not going to lie, this is easily the biggest show of my career to date, I am very excited, and a little nervous, and I am determined to step it up a notch and produce my best work to date, and looking at the fresh work in my studio, I think I am doing just that! I can’t wait to present this to the world. The only downside is that producing work that is 20% better takes 100% longer…

I am composing this update from inside one of Toronto’s top hackerspaces. A laser cutter is running in the background, and I am doing some preliminary tests for something that will be quite a technical departure from my previous work. I’m not sure where this test will lead me (if anywhere) but it is important (and a lot of fun) to always try new things.

January 12, 2012
Happy belated New Year everyone.

Brad and I are putting the finishing touches on the DRM Boxes, since we will be showing them at Open Gallery next month. I’m afraid we are kind of slacking on the organizing and planning aspect of this show, so I don’t have an opening date for you at this time, other than “February”

I have also been offered a very big show in a very cool place, so I’ve been working up a storm in my sketchbooks. I’m not going to be secretive at all about this show, so expect to see a lot of details and behind-the-scenes studio stuff posted within a month’s time.