The Time has Come....

The inaugural, paper edition of Reality Sketch hits the stands tomorrow (available at better Steeltown art supply shops), a mere two months late. The project was beset with hindrances from the start. First off, my printer refuses to acknowledge my print cartridge; in short, it's busted. So I couldn't include the micro essay "Who Owns the View?" on page 5 as I had originally intended. Never fear, it will appear in these digital pages just as soon as I get around to writing it.

The biggest blockage, however, involved indecision over which cover to use. Here is the original version:

This scene unfolded almost exactly as pictured. A graffiti artist had tagged all the parking metres on Ronscevalles Ave. in Toronto with this odd choice of moniker (not that I should talk) and I felt compelled to capture the moment that hazard had so weirdly constellated.

I decided, in the end, to use a cover that tied in to the comic book embedded in the 'zine, wherein the protagonist gets kicked out of a local mall for sketching the infrastructure.

There are plenty of other sketches and commentaries that space restrictions and formatting would not permit inclusion in the 'zine version of Reality Sketch issue 1. Thanks to the magic of the internet, these are available here for anyone interested or bored enough to investigate.

Liuna Station

Liuna Station would be a great skate spot, were it not for the vigilant security guards. One winter night when I was feeling restless, I started jogging up and down the stairs pictured here. It wasn't four minutes before the guard pulled up in his car and asked me to stop.

The Fakie Airwalk

This sketch is based on the cover of the Februaruy 2007 issue of SLAP magazine. It depicts the pro skater Louie Barletta demonstrating a trick which, in the magazine interview, he claims to have invented: the fakie airwalk.

Now, Mr. Barletta is a radical skater, and way more capable and daring than yours truly. But I've been doing backwards, or "fakie" airwalks for at least three years. Sure, I never do them down sets of stairs, as Barletta does in the picture, but I just want to set the record straight.


I half suspect, even though I've never seen video of him doing one, that Rodney Mullen was the first to do a fakie airwalk, just as he invented so many other crazy tricks.

Who Let the Cat Out?

I was very nervous when I started letting my cat out. I live down town, and I wasn't sure he'd be able to find his way off the roof and back. But he more than managed...he's now a very happy kitty and comes and goes as he pleases.

I like to write down my dreams. When I find dreams that I have written down from years gone past, they often make no sense. The memory of them and the "tone feeling" is gone. Sometimes I think that drawing them would be somehow more constructive.