Bio:
I graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1995, and since then I’ve been active in the Toronto art community. I was an organizer and founder of the Impure artists collective in Toronto from 1994 to 1998. From 1999 to 2011, my partner Scott Carruthers and I ran Fly Gallery, a storefront exhibition space in the Queen Street West neighbourhood.
In 2019, Scott and I launched Fly Gallery Projects, through which we published the comic book Excuses, featuring the work of seven artists. More recently, I’ve served on the programming jury and organizing committee for the newly opened Collective City Gallery in Toronto.
Artist Statement/Philosophy:
Mr. Nobody is a project I created in 1998, a cartoon character that grew out of my interest in the early 20th-century animated worlds of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop), Otto Messmer/Pat Sullivan (Felix the Cat), and Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse). These references carry a sense of nostalgia, evoking a perceived simplicity and charm from another era.
At the same time, Mr. Nobody has always held a more ambiguous and existential dimension. He is humorous, but also anxious and unsettling, a character who repeatedly confronts the void. While the visual language may echo familiar cartoon traditions, the tone often shifts into something more introspective and unresolved.
The foundations of early American studio animation, both in aesthetic and in content, were influenced by vaudeville and minstrel shows, which were popular forms of entertainment at the time. Mr. Nobody carries traces of that lineage as well, and part of his unsettling quality may stem from this history embedded within the form itself.
Below are some examples of my work. Click on the image to see the full image:
Favourite artists:
Philip Guston, Francis Bacon, Robert Crumb, Diane Arbus, Frida Khalo…to name a few!
The purpose of art:
To create and experience art in all its forms is to be lifted beyond our base selves, into something more thoughtful, more feeling, and more human.
I am inspired by:
My parents! For their knowledge, vitality, understanding and kindness.
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