TCF in Berlin

Well, not us, just our work. We're very pleased to have been invited to do a piece for the Berlin-based arm of the Le Monde Diplomatique.

Wolves In The Throne Room!

Awesome show yesterday in Toronto. 4 great bands, headliners the amazing Wolves In the Throne Room. We bought a song from them a few years back as a soundtrack for the animated film we are presently working on this summer in the woods. It was great to see them live, say hi and give them a copy of our book.
Thank you Wolves!

-Pat

Daytime Emmy nomination PBS ARTOPIA

Over the last few years Marek has been working with PBS WNET 13 designing ARTOPIA, a new educational show for children about art. We just learned the show has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the "New Approaches - Daytime Children's" category.

-Pat

TCAF!!!!TCAF is fantastic!

We spent last weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, held at the Toronto Reference library. We were there with posters, prints and our Drawn&Quarterly book POHADKY. The festival was amazing! Christopher Butcher and Peter Birkemoe, the festival's directors and founders did a fantastic job. The venue, the Toronto Reference library, was perfect, and guests included some of the top creators in the field from Japan and Europe. It was inspiring- we met tons of nice people, stocked up on some awesome books, and our table was in a excellent spot beside some really fantastic table mates.
Thanks very much to all who came by to say hi, we had a great time and we're looking forward to TCAF 2011!



Yoshiro Tatsumi interviewed by Adrian Tomine at Harbourfront.The translator did an amazing job! filmed by samehat.com
-Pat

busy month! back to TO, back to the Island

So, April was a very busy month- crazy work schedule and deadlines, but the upshot is that we've rented another place on the Island, and will be there until end of Sept. Yah! We spent a few days in Vancouver before heading back East, and we fell in love with the city's proximity to nature. VANCOUVER RULES!

Last year in Toronto, I recalled looking at google maps, and how close Vancouver seemed to be to the mountains. With that idea vaguely in mind, we set off on a random run from Stanley Park, and asked people along the way for general directions/ideas.

We started here, in Stanley Park.....


and ran here....


and over this bridge.....


ran up this road.....



saw these pretty flowers....


and arrived here! Capilano River Regional Park/ Cleveland Damn! We were amazed, we didn't expect such an incredible vista, so close to the city.


Inside the park- awesome trails, rushing river.
yah, Vancouver we heart u.


-Pat

Geoff Berner on SaltSpring

We had the best evening out here on the island.
One of our favorite performers, Geoff Berner came to play at the local dancehall, conveniently located just down the street from us. Yah!!! It was pretty awesome to see him out here (Thank you SaltSpring promoter), as opposed to Toronto. We heard the show in Toronto had a conga-line going, which is pretty cool, but we had an actual dog on the dancefloor.

Opening act Ora Cogan was great too. She's a local, and her music really sounds like it was created here on the Island contemplative, haunting and cool.
-Pat

TCF in Vancouver

Thanks so much to everyone who came out the Pohadky book launch at Lucky's, extra thanks to Gabe for hosting the event ! We had a great time meeting local comic artists and catching up with old pals.
We also checked out Stanley Park, which was absolutely amazing. You guys in Vancouver are seriously lucky !

I really appreciated the Park's approach to leaving the dramatic looking trees blown over by the storm a few years ago in place to decompose.
In High Park in Toronto,the bodies of dead trees are mysteriously "disappeared", preventing the natural cycle of decay a forest would normally experience.

Marek looks down,




Pat looks up!

The Magical Fern Tree!!! We've never seen ferns grow on trees.In Ukrainian mythology, there is a fern which blooms only once a year at night on Kupalo's eve, and if you find this magical flower, you will be able to understand the language of plants and animals.
If I lived in Vancouver, I'd probably give this tree a try come July 7th eve.

We were pretty happy to find this place.



Yesssssssssssss!!!

InkStuds Interview

Big thanks to Robin McConnell for inviting us onto his radio show and podcast Inkstuds to talk about our book Pohadky, our art, and tomorrow night's book launch at Lucky's Comics in Vancouver.

You can listen to the whole interview here: http://inkstuds.com/

If you live in Vancouver, swing by Luckys tomorrow night!

-Pat

POHADKY book Launch at Lucky's Comics Vancouver Friday March 20th 2009

Lucky's Comics in Vancouver is hosting a book launch for our Drawn & Quarterly Petits Livres POHADKY, Friday, March 20th, 5 pm to 8 pm, 3972 Main street. We'll also be showing posters and artwork at the gallery. Come on by and we'll tell you how awesome we find the rainforests of BC !
-Pat

Marek draws bears

Marek has been sick, so, to get better, he's been drawing bears.
-Pat

•Pushpa Chandra Ultra Marathoner•The Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada

Here is my contribution to the 2009 Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada- Ultra Marathoner Pushpa Chandra.
On Dec. 13, 2008, Chandra became the only Canadian to run 100 kilometres in the Antarctica Ultra Marathon. Inspiring ! She's also a Vancouver based holistic sports-med doctor. Read all about her here.

-Pat

TCF new show reel!

Check out our new TCF Demo Reel. Click the image above, or see the animation page of our site.

cheers,
Pat

TCF in Jerusalem

above: Curator Vered Ganchrow

Our good friend Vered Ganchrow, head of animation at Musrara art school, recently invited us to participate in a show she curated at the Morel Derfler Gallery in Jerusalem.

We especially enjoyed Vered's poetic recap of the opening, in which she recounted, beyond the usual illustrators, artists and students one might expect, "A few neighborhood cats were at the opening too. Mostly around the goat cheese."

Thanks for including us Vered, looking forward to our next meeting at an animation festival or some other awesome location in the not-to-distant future.
-Pat

Montreal Pohadky Launch on youtube

Salgood Sam of Montreal, aka. Max Douglas was kind enough to film and edit our POHADKY book launch at the Drawn&Quarterly store in Montreal, nov 2009.

We had a really fun time, thanks very much to our publisher Drawn & Quarterly, the awesome DQ staff, and all those who came out. An extra huge thanks to Salgood Sam for surprising us with this great memoir of the night.
-Pat

It's awesome here

We've been absolutely loving it out here on our Bc gulf Island. The rainforest is extremely inspiring, and work is going well.We're also loving the farm animals we're taking care of. The ducks especially are very feisty characters, and the chickens
take no guff either.

Skulking in the orchard- look closely... you'll see..


a cat mousing....



some ducks lounging....


some hens pecking.....



and not far off.... deep in the forest....
...some petrified deer....




-Pat

RIP Lux Interior

Lux Interior died of a heart condition yesterday at 62 years old.
Sad.

-Pat

DOMOVOI - Show Online

Our show DOMOVOI is now online - click here to see the work. I'll be in Toronto for the show's last day at the Resistor Gallery, Saturday, January 31st, 1pm-4pm. Drop in, say hi, and if anyone is interested in prints, let me know, and they can be picked up then.
-Pat

Hoping not to be eaten by COUGARS!

I've recently learned there are cougars lurking amongst the trees, as proven by the recent removal and messy consumption of a goat on a nearby farm. This is making my off-road forest running slightly challenging, or perhaps better said, frightening.

On a slightly different note, the appearance of the cougar is greatly adding to my study and appreciation of THE FOREST. Experiencing the untamed possibly deadly forest versus the my usual haunt of the city park has added a world of insight when doing the research of slavic mythologies/folklore, which is part of my practice as an artist.
- Pat

Marek gets the horns

Our boy sheep, felt the need to show his appreciation for our care by means of the head-butt, a well known tradition amongst boy-sheeps, hence the name "Ram".

Fortunately, Marek was quick to positions a metal watering can betweenst himself and the aforementioned boy sheep, said can bearing the brunt of "greeting".

We are now feeding said boy sheep and his lady friends without going into the enclosure.

We're all friends now though.