( click any image to enlarge)
Currently finishing these two lovely drum pieces, which will be shown in November at the Cameron House, only a few more steps to go. Each piece is 24 x 24 inches and will be available for purchase from this site in the next week, when the finished images will be posted. Listed price will be $400.00 please contact the artist at madcraftshoppe@hotmail.com if interested.
( this guy up here is me )
I love the rendering of the Canoe in this piece but it has since been destroyed due to my own sense of humour, I had called the piece simply "Canoe" but I couldn't stop thinking about the little man standing in front of it. I won't say anything more. Moving on!
This is a work in progress "Dinner Bell" continuing with the solid red back ground, I'm thinking of adding more images to the piece to give it a more loose feel, there just isn't enough going on for my liking.
Another work in progress "Skipping Rope" very happy with it so far, the edges are a bit hard, very much unlike the rendering in the other three "Red" paintings, so I'll have to work on that. These pieces will be shown at the Cameron House in November, 2006.
Remember those "Spot the Differences" Puzzles that they have in kids magazines ? Well here's a chance to not only do that but to see the evolution of panel from raw sketch to finished product. I like to start things rough and just get a good blocking in done so I can judge how the panels move from one to the other, I have to say that this one is my favourite as a "Stand Alone" Panel. (The Joey Ramone in the top piece is better than the finished one though.)
(figures represented, back row; Pootie Tang, Bjorn Borg, Evel Knievel, Front Row; Dog Playing Poker, Joey Ramone, The Joker, Cobra Commander, The Great Gazoo, missing from this image Brent Micks as Superhero.)
Here is another stage of blocking in when gobs of cheap paint are hunked on to flesh out areas, if you compare this image to the finished piece below you will see many differences and changes that had to be made to accomodate the right feeling of "Chaos" in the bar scene.
Changes here include Mike Ness on guitar being changed to Pat Morita, Red Dress Girl and Bald Guy changing to Gold Dress Woman and Vinnie Jones, Block in figures beside them changing gender to become Owen Wilson in Royal Tenenbaum's and Bardbella and the addition of Robert Mitchum and the Riddler.
Comprehensive list of figures in the finished piece as follows: back row;starting from Left Mr.T, Pierre Trudeau, Pat Morita, Violin Girl, Mike Ness on accordian, Harvey Birdman on Bass, Pootie Tang, Bjorn Borg, Evel Knievel. Middle Row Jaws, Green Girl from Star Trek/She Hulk, Robert Shaw as Quint, Anne Margaret, Vinnie Jones, Stiffler's Mom/Robin Wright Penn, John A. McDonald as the Five Dollar Bill, Owen Wilson as Tenenbaums, Barberella, Generic Hottie Waitress. Last Row Marvin the Martian, Space Invader, Shane McGowan, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Robert Mitchum, The Riddler, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Malcolm McDowell as Clockwork Orange, Dog Playing Poker, Joey Ramone, Joker, Cobra Commander and The Great Gazoo. Also in mural Spy vs. Spy, Donkey Kong, Cloak and Dagger Superheroes, Couchy and maybe a couple more things that I forgot.
The Long Genesis and Continuing Story of "World Domination"
as told by A. Shay Hahn
It's a lovely piece to behold, sixteen feet long, five feet high hanging proudly on a strong brick wall looking down on a beautiful hidden back patio on College Street. Clover grows amongst the elegantly laid patio stones, 23 beers are available on tap to server even the most (or the least) distinguishing Drinker's tastes, the staff has character and are attractive, the owners slightly less so, but they make up for it with personality and good cheer.
To be continued....
This is the back patio of Collision (Collission ?sp) on College, a band of RedStripe (always two words) cases floating on their wall. This was done on the two hottest days of the summer by your albinist host/proprieter.
This piece was done at SuperMarket in Kensington ,see how the truck contains Red Stripe cases! I quite like this one it's hard to find a beer add these days that is this simple and deconstructed, just a photo of the back end of a shoddy Jamaican delivery truck.
This is the (soon to be opened) back patio at Cocktail Molotov on Dundas at Bellwoods, my favourite so far a six and a half foot tall bottle of beer. Perhaps the patio is open I'm not sure.
These are the three murals commissioned so far for Red Stripe that the Shoppe was contracted to do, hopefully there will be more before the Summer ends, if you have any thoughts or have seen these pieces don't hesitate to contact us by leaving a post!
A.S Hahn
Study this picture carefully (above) .
There are those bird houses again, this time attached to men, I thought it would be a great image for a hostel to have birds looking for a home. Also the female hockey players with Canadian flag would make a good area for photos, most of them are missing teeth and have black eyes, there is also a lacrosse player included, the best durn sport on Earth. Also featured are "Tiny Houses" another signature that lets you know A.Shay Hahn was responsible.
About six years ago (maybe five) I was hired by The Planet Traveler's Hostel in Kensington Market on Augusta to paint a mural for their back patio area. This is one of the instances where I was given free rein to paint whatever came to mind, I had very limited time to paint this piece but I enjoy the surreal humour and homages to Kensington/Canada very much. Actually I painted the piece with a giant tarp behind me so I was literally pressed up against the wall and had to push back against it to back up to see what I was doing, it was freezing cold and raining intermittedly over the three days that I had to paint the piece, before leaving for the Blyth Festival to work. The only source of a heat was an oven that I would rush in to warm my hands on when they started to freeze up.
Over the years the neighbouring eavestrough managed to wash out large chunks of the piece, (see first photo) I did not know this and this is where the Cloak comes in to play. I was having a pint and struck up a conversation with another patron, we were talking about murals as I was planning the Cloak and Dagger piece, (see above post) and Tony, the guy I was talking to, said that his favourite mural in the city was at a Hostel in Kensington Market and I started laughing. Tony was nice enough to get me back in touch with Anthony the owner of the Hostel and I was able to restore the piece to it's former glory, with some added new touches. Anthony estimates that easily over a thousand people from all over the Globe have had their picture taken in front of this mural, whichI find very touching that my work has travelled so much.
I rarely get to restore work and I think these photos really show what the environment can do to a piece and also give credence to a new coat of paint. If you are looking to stay here, International Shoppers it's located at (I believe) 185 Kensington, right across from the Park and Amadeus (sardines!) there is a Majong Men's club with two Lions right beside it and there is a barbecue every Saturday, very reasonable rates.
This is one view of the Office Mural, it features collages created from TPM's archives, featured here are quickly rendered pictures of Jean Yoon, Paul Thompson (or Box Body as he is sometimes called) John Blackwood, Billy Merasty and some other actors whose names I do not know and should.
These are two views of the Mezzanine Mural painted in 1998 and my first Introduction to the World of Theatre Passe Muraille, seen here are John A. MacDonald (Mc?Sp) Louis Riel (or Flaming Ted Danson as my friend Gray referred to him) Big Bear and others, the Indian Virgin Mary in the Quebec flag was Layne Coleman's idea, originally the dress was Royal Blue and she was white, but I thought it looked boring and changed it significantly. If you look closely you can see a drum, a birdhouse and a violin floating about, three symbols I've used in my work forever. The' mural does extend for about four feet in either direction but you'll have to go to Theatre Passe Muraille to see it. I quite like the dark tone of the piece as opposed to a more glowing look at Canadian history, this is a haunted piece.
I was never happy with the Office mural, there just wasn't enough time in the budget (if you know what I mean) to realize it properly. If I could only have three more "day$" to complete it I'm sure it would be perfect, but deadlines are deadlines. Rendered here are Jim Gerrard, D'bi Young , some other people and a girl with a Rooster head dress on that I quite like.
This piece is over a year old, it had been awhile since the pub and I had been able to get the time to do a new mural, I was advised it would be cool to return to the origins of the piece (see explanation below) so the result is also, well, below. The above piece is based on Geof Darrow's Clip art that populates his incredible comic book panels (Hardboiled, Big Guy and Rusty, Shaolin Cowboy) so it's a tribute to his work and looks crazy good all mashed up.
This is the newest edition, "The Return of Troy", a young violin playing orphan from the very first Done Right Inn mural (explained further below) There was some confusion as to the plane having D.R.I on it's body as if I was saying "The Done Right is going down!" or something, I was going to put a dinosaur under the plane like Troy crashed it into the Dino but there wasn't enough room in the composition, sure it's a big wall, but it didn't fit as you can see further down is a bar with stools and that's where his head would've been and no one would've seen it, so another time maybe. I wish I had better shots of this but you get the drift.
(Another shot of the "Darrow" piece, this time with some sun and blurs ! Sorry all.)
I've been painting a mural at the Done Right Inn (Queen West and Trinity Bellwoods) for about six years, maybe more - they used to have a Graffitti artist come in but he always made a mess so I got the job. It's probably the only "Seasonal" mural in the city, repainted four times (yes four!) a year, so there have been about Thirty different pieces in this space since about 1999.It began with a group shot of a female marching band "The Trinity Belles" and eventually the women in the band received names and an expanded story. The figure above is Troy the most popular of the characters, a woman even dressed up as her for Hallowe'en - can you beat that!
I hope to expand the history of this mural considerably on this Blog as it is very close to my heart I just have to secure more photos from the past few years and all the changes it has gone through. If you have photos please submit via email madcraftshoppe@hotmail.com
