The Plan, Where To Find Me, March 27- April 3rd.

Here's the first grid of 25 8x10 canvases, there are hopefully going to be 3 grids of 25 for a total of 75 paintings to be completed by May First 2011.

I was hanging around in my head yesterday, looking at a bunch of notes in a sketchbook when it really settled in that I wasn't having fun with my work. I was bogged down by worry and stress and the act of painting was too much, I was building models for Any How Town (see links section this blog, woefully lacking updates) and I just didn't want to paint, it was a bloody pain, it made me feel tired.

I thought that "the Tom Waits Project" would get things kick started in me to get going, but that just felt like work added onto work, which when your only form of income is painting I really don't need any more stress, I couldn't really find the "in" that I was looking for, and I think my work already looks enough like his lyrics, that if I do find something inspiring in his work to paint, I'll just use it as a source title and that's all.

Cuba was a nice break and I found the work of a few artists really inspiring but I didn't draw or sketch a single thing while I was there, hell I only took about 23 photos and to come back to NO SALES was a huge drag.

Yes, things were looking dire and on top of it all ( I don't edit my blog in case you notice tenses flying all over) the only freaking paintings that were selling this month were the Skeletal Mariachi, which are fun but aren't really that challenging, I have at least 30 better paintings hanging all over this city that you can invest in , but people's wallets were speaking ($80.00 each, how can you go wrong) and I think also people just think these little 8x10 pieces are groovy.

So why fight it, let's just be groovy for awhile, things just started up again in me, I wrote the words, Six Million Dollar Man in the same sketchbook that I'd been staring blankly at and did six pages of notes and sketches. I'm happiest when I treat my work as a diary, I just paint whatever, whenever, no real planning, if I want to paint the Six Million Dollar Man, I will. So "the April Grid Diaries" are what we're doing, they may be hung as they are completed at the Press Club in April, they may be framed, maybe not, just keep coming back and having a look, I want to do about two of them a day.

Where To Find Me

The Wilson 96 (615 College Str.) I am taking my work down from the Wilson 96 on the 31rst. You can have great fun there on Tuesday at Trivia, it really is a blast, or you can check out the amazing Samantha Martin and the Haggard on Thursday. Monday to Friday 5-8 there are great drink specials, there is an ATM onsite and you can pay the staff for my work if you don't have time to meet me.

The Cameron House (408 Queen Str. West) My work will be hanging at the Cameron until the 2nd of April, great bands to check of this week, if you like well written roots rock check out Joshua Cockerill on Wednesday, check out Alejandra on Tuesdays , this may be her last one, not sure, get there early people love her, and I think Fish & Bird are playing this Thursday, also of course "Kevin Quain and the Mad Bastards" on Sunday nights, I mean do I even have to mention this Toronto Institution ? You don't know who he ...what ? Shame on you, anyways there is an ATM on site and you can pay the blah blah.

Online You can find me on Twitter by clicking that "Follow Me" thing over there on the left, it will direct you right back to this blog in a nifty little loop. You can find me on Facebook at the group, The Mad Craft Shoppe and you can find me on Tumblr at "the mad craft shoppe" or "mad craft shoppe" I can't remember which. I am available for commissioned work, from TShirts and Band Posters (see the label "pub life sketches" or "TShirt Designs) or commisions (see label "commissions"). You can check out the link to my crazy letters for kids, "the alphabet shoppe" in the links section (it's where the top photo of this post comes from) or my ongoing series of childrens books / dioaramas / graphic novels / amusement park for mice over at the link "Any How Town" which needs a huge update.

Any ways there's lots of cool shit to see here that I've done and will be doing. If you've found your way here via business card or however you got here, please send me an email to let me know, we really appreciate your feedback. .

all the best,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com