It doesn't always come easy you know

First off sorry about those two images being sideways, I thought they weren't, anyways. This is a look at Process for the series,"Silver". This piece is titled "Hermes" or "Woman with Bottles". I scrapped it after these four attempts and need to hire a model to do this properly. So for those who think I just vomit this stuff up without a problem, you can now rest easy knowing it is a struggle. I love the concept, I just have to walk back to square one and start over again, hopefully when that happens I will have a solid pose and photo references to work with, as I believe this is a great image.

Churchill said, "Blessed are the painters, for they will never be lonely." I add, "and they sure get pissed at their work sometimes." That being said, I do enjoy the struggle, the dialogue between me and the image, it's a high.

A.S.Hahn

Mural news

As most of you may know, (or check the "murals" tab in the column to your left),about twelve years ago I was commissioned to create a mural for Theatre Passe Muraille's bar area, this was probably my second or third contracted mural. This one project started a relationship with the Theatre that continues to this day, under Layne Coleman's stewardship and Jonathan Rooke's steady friendship, I became the resident scenic artist,painting almost all of their shows for the next five or six years, and every wall in the building except the ceiling. I was playwright in Residence for a year, that play went on to become the show "St.Christopher" which was produced on the mainstage in association with DVxT theatre and another show of mine, "Lemon Water" was produced by Greg Thomas and his partner Liz Dalgleish at Summerworks on the mainstage.

Almost all of my time was spent there, in the Theatre or the Shop, it was a studio, a refuge, a club house, an office {a place to crash and sometimes a place for...} and so much more, so many of my closest friendships began at Theatre Passe Muraille. Artistic Director Layne Coleman left the position and a new Artistic Director, Andy McKim was hired. Andy is a great man, he accepted me into the Tarragon Playwrights Unit with only three "little" produced shows ( Two Rhubarbs, one Summerworks under my belt), he has nurtured playwrighting talent all over this city and deserves his own theatre.

Last week I was asked to do some signage for the Theatre, (which of course because of my loyalty to the building I did for free, so don't ask how much I charged) that night at the bar upstairs was Greg Thomas's Bachelor party, he and Liz are getting married, it was great to stand up at the bar (which I also painted) with so many friends that I'd met through TPM, looking at the back wall I did understand fully that it is a different place now, the mural has been painted over, I'm not mad at all, not in the least, it was high time for it to go, part of me does wish that I'd been told that it has been covered and another part wishes that they's ask me to do the job. It's a great, great place, you should go there and see a show.

Here are some additions to the mural at the Done Right Inn, people there love the Spy Vs. Spy and I didn't want to cover it completley so I decided to continue the Mad Magazine theme by adding characters by the great Don Martin. I feel there are enough, I couldn't have done any more that day as I was thick in the head with a cold and had to get home to freebase some neo citran.

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cheers Shoppers,

A.S.Hahn

Water towers {a return}

World's Tallest Love Letter {Forever}

You Are My Sun Shine {For the Cameron Family Singers}

acrylic on canvas, twenty x twenty inches

four hundred dollars each.

It's interesting when I render these because you have to put yourself on the ladder, you have to imagine how far the "artist" in the painting can reach.

The first piece is a nice bridge for the work from "Silver" where there are two light sources at work, fire and moonlight. The second image is a very obvious thank you to the Cameron House for the long relationship I've had with them as a Gallery, as a Church, as a Concert Hall,a Theatre, etc. So it just felt right to add this to the "Silver" show.

Current Pleasures : I'm Not There, Gone Baby Gone, hanging with Lee and Miles at the Magpie.

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Other news that moves

I mean Jesus Christ, look at the size of that fish.

{I always feel I should write more, but also the image should speak for itself, whether it's a painting or a picture from the newspaper. Also, I don't like posting links, I enjoy visually the way the newspaper looks with the scan, it remind me of M.Ellis and I working together in University on Media projects, we'd pile chains and all kinds of stuff on the scanner to make our backgrounds, a good memory. Also their is an Arnaud Maggs feeling to it, that I enjoy, his work is amazing, I will own some of it before I'm forty.}

Mission Control

This is when we're happiest Shoppers, just take a moment to drink in the majesty of a guy firing on all cylinders.

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A.S Hahn

Things that moved me this week.

Light Math and thoughts for a Sunday

Woman with Scissors

Woman with Pitchfork (Hades)SOLD.

twenty x twenty inches

acrylic on canvas

four hundred dollars each.

The weekends really aren't weekends at the Shoppe right now friends, the weekends consist of at least eighteen hours of painting and sketching. As I've also been working another job I manage to do about twelve hours of painting during the week, so the light math is thirty hours of painting a week, plus an average thirty five hour work week. The man has some stamina folks.

Q. Why is that ?

A. I wait all year for this, as soon as I have the hard dates for my Cameron House show, I take all the notes, photos and sketches that I"ve been jamming into moleskines and cramming into sketchbooks and I start laying it out. It's all about preparation, some people may think that I paint quickly, it does look that way, but it's the preparation that gets me there. Once I'm ready it's time to get it all out.

Q. But wait, I thought you despised sketching !

A. Oh yes that I do, I can't stand it, if you've see me at any of the local pubs, you'll know that I take the first pint to scrawl a whole bunch of stuff down and then can relax to read the paper and chat.

If you want to research something great and Canadian and spooky (see First Image) look up "The Battlefords" on Google.

I do have more to say about this, but I need to go for my daily constitutional, take care

A.S Hahn

Silver the Series, cont'd

Man With Hammers {Hephaestus} SOLD.

Raised by Plastic Wolves {Romulus}

twenty x twenty inches, acrylic on canvas

four hundred dollars each

from the series "Silver"

We now have our dates for the Fourth Annual show at the Cameron House dear Shoppers, which is tentatively titled, "Silver" or "the Whole of the Moon" not sure which right now, the show goes up on November First and comes down on the Twenty Ninth. I hope to see you at the Opening which takes place Sunday, November 9th from -7 pm. There will be food, hopefully a band, and yes this is a child friendly event. To reserve work in advance, contact me here at the Shoppe.

Here are two more pieces in the series, which find me leaning towards a theme of the representation of Greek/Roman Gods and Myths, this wasn't a deliberate choice, but as I explore the reasons for these images, the creation of the iconography, I find myself looking to represent something that is bigger than I am, but present it on my terms, what better than Gods themselves ?

A.S Hahn

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Silver, the series

Lady With an Axe (four)

Untitled (the Haircut)

SOLD

Canadian Girl (DESTROYED)

each piece is acrylic on canvas, twenty x twenty inches

four hundred dollars.each

I suppose it could be said that after "One Thousand Fiances" I've decided to move from the beach into the field, that the "why" of that ground as a time device has been explored, the field is a place where things are about the happen, the beach a locale where people wait.

I am extremely comfortable with the shift to the Twenty x Twenty Inch format for this series and have been making daily trips to snatch up as many as I can for this series.

A. Shay Hahn

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Proper Villains, Two Hundred Posts

Proper Villains Triptych

four hundred dollars

Killer Robot, World Domination, Death Ray

acrylic on canvas, twelve x twelve inches

SOLD.

Two hundred posts, writing to come, watching "Eastern Promises"

This came out of nowhere, I think Ijust wanted to have some fun, over on Facebook this began long comments and discussions about World Domination, as I tagged each figure in the piece as friends, which is becoming a popular thing to do as folk over on facebook send requests to be tagged. This series just makes me happy, and others too.

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A.S Hahn

Song Currently Stuck in My Head "Catch" by the Cure, which doesn't bother me at all.

For My Father

For My Father

acrylic on canvas, twelve x twelve inches

one hundred and sixty dollars

(detail)

This came very quickly, it has received a huge response from readers for it's simple power. It's very touching and in need of little explanation.

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Will write later.

Lady With an Axe

Lady with an Axe Tryptych

each piece is twelve x twelve inches

acrylic on canvas

SOLD.
As soon as this work was posted I received a very strong positive response, as opposed to a morbid, Lizzie Borden view of the work, people were more inclined to comment of the empowering aspects of the women, that whatever was coming towards them, they were ready to face it, which did come as a surprise. I am quite happy with these and the expansion of my "vocabulary". I always take a Hemingway approach to a painting, he said, "I write to see what's at the end of my pen.". I believe I do the same with my paintings, I may not quite understand why I'm doing them, but I'll be sure of it later, it's why I'm most comfortable working in series, I"m sure.

A.S Hahn

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A Bad Bad Man

Here's Igor Kenk's boarded up "Bicycle Clinic" on Queen West. My first studio at 198 Walnut Ave was around the corner from Igor's and I would have to walk past him and his "Crack Team" of cycle "Clinicians" (read thieves) standing around smoking . I would haveto walk past them to get to Tern Art Supplies and made sure to give them all the stink eye as I walked past. These guys just gave off a stench. If you click on the photo you can read what Toronto has to say to this "person".

A Field Story, the series

" A Field Story", complete

The End,

twelve x twelve inches

acrylic on canvas

SOLD

{See text below}

A Field Story, the series

The Meeting, The Witness, The Men, The Ingenue, The Walkout

from the series "A Field Story"

each image twelve x twelves inches

acrylic on canvas

SOLD

I am very proud of this "Story", I am even happier that it was sold completely as a set. This work found it's beginnings in my love of period gangster films such as "Road to Perdition" and "Miller's Crossing" also the film, "Northfork" has served as a great inspiration, actually I feel that looking at my work, that I could've directed "Northfork", it fits so closely.

This has greatly inspired me to work on other "Stories" or multiple narrative pieces that flow together and I have started the sketches for "Lady With An Axe - A Garden Story" that I will be starting next week.

There was also alot of mention of crop circles and other phenomena, maybe that was because the X Files film was released this week, if that's what people saw in the work, well so be it.

A.S Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Cloak and Dagger Sundays.

This is completely self explanatory, I hope, if not, I will never design another poster. But if you need me to contact me here via email.

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Signs about town

The first sign is on College in front of a Church, I can't recall it's name even though it's only two blocks from the Shoppe. I love that they have left it looking like this.

The second "Free" were piled at the outdoor rink in Trinity Bellwoods park by the Ice rink, apparently to assuage any feelings of guilt for folks who wanted to steal the wood, the city spent all kinds of cash to have people stencil the word "Free" onto them. Well it worked, they're all gone.

Here come the Drums...again.

Drums
eighteen x thirty six inches
acrylic on canvas
six hundred dollars

Four years ago still lives of drums figured rather prominently in my work. After painting at least ten of them I'd felt that I'd exhausted my interest and took a break, recently a friend asked about them and if I was still doing them, I told him I wasnt. After some deliberation and thinking I'd been spending too much time with the figure I created this piece.

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The Done Right Inn

I have no excuse to have not posted this sooner, here's the mural at the Done Right Inn, which I did in March of this year, featuring everyone's favourite Mad Magazine folk Spy Vs. Spy, there isnt alot of detail here, it's a huge hit though.

Also for the month of August work from the "Fables" series will be showing at the Done Right Inn, so drop by and revisit the magic.

A project in the works

Here are some preliminary sketches for a series of four paintings for a wonderful friend. It is a chance for me to explore, the story of Icarus. Very excited to get started, stay tuned as the work develops, it's going to amaze ya.
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Ta daa.

Super cool work we do here, the font is from another designer, the rest is all Shoppe.

Thanks to Mr.Micks for coming up with the slogan.

College Street Six AM, the morning commute...

I forgot to check if he made it across the street when I got home from work.

Get Lucky Tatty

Here's a tattoo design for the number one Mr. norman who had his CD release party at the Cloak last night, he is a talent, for sure. Stay tuned for the work I am drawing for his sister, no joke.

Has anyone heard that song on the radio that goes, "E yay E yay E yo" in the chorus, it is so lame, no tattoo designs for them.

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