My friends at Pictoplasma asked me to create an image to help launch their latest project, Secret Sidekick, which invites artists to create an illustration in which a character is combined with a photograph. My image pictures the guardian spirit of a vacant lot.
What makes a place special? Is it possible to discover the fantastical hidden in the familiar? This project addresses these questions by mixing illustration and photography to depict a variety of homeless nature spirits who, having lost their forests and streams, are forced to live in the forgotten corners of the city.
Combining my interests in urban landscapes, local mythology and the supernatural, these images suggest that the magical and the mundane can coexist in the most unlikely of places, if only we look closely enough.
Spirit City Toronto was published by Koyama Press in 2010, but is currently out of print.
A piece for the Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery group exhibition in 2014 which exhibited at both the Kaufhaus Jandorf in Berlin, Germany and at MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, in Monterrey, Mexico.
A series of spirits ruling over the four archetypal elements of earth, water, air and fire. Created for the photo-illustration anthology, Les Fumettos Du Cyclope.
A series of hand-made spirits paired with photos taken around Toronto.
These characters were all based on actual witness sightings, as hard as that may be to believe. Click each creature's name to get the full story. They were created for a lecture I gave at the 2012 Pictoplasma conference in Berlin.
The Loveland frog, Ohio, USA.
The woods helper, Georgia, USA.
The stiff-legged gnome of Salta, Argentina.
My friend Beatriz Juarez, then art director of Elle Canada magazine, asked me to create an illustration about games. Fun times!
A fun series of book covers for Harlequin's Worldwide Mystery Series. Client: Harlequin Books.
These happy guys were created as a breakfast-themed pattern for surface design company, Sorry You're Happy. Pattern designs by Jen Hsieh.
This piece was created for a collaborative kid's book project called "It's A Jungle Out There?!" organized by Mike Kerr and Renata Liwska of RandMCollective. Each artist got a two page spread to showcase their animal which in my case was a wolf!
Promotional images created for Work/Life books 1 and 2, published by UPPERCASE.
Work/Life 1, 2008.
Work/Life 2, 2011.
This logo was created for Koyama Press, an award-winning small press founded by Annie Koyama to promote and support a wide range of emerging and established artists. "Kickass Annie", as the logo became known, has since been reinterpreted by over one hundred Koyama Press artists.
Logos for Koyama Press and Koyama Press Kids.
A reinterpretation of Kickass Annie as a vengeful goddess striding through Tokyo.
An image depicting the month of October commissioned by Kid Icarus for their annual screen-printed promotional calendar.
Article on germs. Client: Today's Parent.
