Illusrtation XLII : All lunatics looking in the sky and Some Originals for Sale
I spend most of my time building automation bots and motion graphics. Occasionally I paint things. Recently I became a member at Slice of Life Vancouver — a gallery, gift shop, studio space, and general creative rabbit hole at 1636 Venables St — and the first group show on the calendar after I joined was themed around horoscopes.
I don't follow horoscopes. I'm more of a "I will spend three days rigging a character in Cinema 4D and then build a Telegram bot to send invoices" type of person. But I do like painting chaotic piles of strange figures, so I made the piece work.
The result is Lunatics Looking at the Sky — watercolour and ink, all twelve zodiac signs tangled together in one composition, each one jostling for space but all of them oriented upward toward something. It's Caist — the fragmented, slightly cubist figure style I've been developing across sketchbooks and travels — but with more characters than I usually deal with at once, which was its own problem to solve. The "looking at the sky" part felt right: a pile of lunatics who are chaotic on the ground but somehow all pointed in the same direction. That's astrology to me.
It's currently on the front gallery wall at Slice, 1636 Venables St, as part of the group show. After Friday, February 27, it moves into the shop, where it'll stay indefinitely. The difference is context: right now it's properly lit on a white wall. After Friday it's in a room full of other interesting things competing for your attention. If you want to see it as it was meant to be seen, this week is the window.
Open daily 10am–10pm. (@slicevancouver on Instagram.)
The Actual Reason I'm Writing This
Being a Slice member also means I have four other original paintings available for sale in the shop. Physical works — watercolour and ink on paper, not prints, not editions, just the one thing that exists. I'm a motion designer and compositor by trade, which means most of what I make lives on screens. These don't. They're on paper. You can hang them on a wall and they'll stay there without needing a power source, which at this point feels like a minor miracle.
I'll write up each piece here as I go — context, process, the usual. But the short version: if you've thought about owning something I've made, this is the most straightforward version of that. Walk into a gallery on Commercial Drive, look at the thing in person, hand someone money, leave with a painting.
[The other four originals are coming to this post — check back, or follow along on Instagram @shashrvacai]
Lunatics Looking at the Sky is on the front gallery wall at Slice of Life Vancouver through Friday, February 27, then moves to the shop. 1636 Venables St — red door, check in at the gift shop. Open daily 10am–10pm.
Comments
Post a Comment