Tomorrow both myself and up and coming animation talent Chris Auchter (a haida atist from Skidegate) will be interviewed separately for Arts Zone. The target audience are children interested in art and the show is produced by Force Four Productions. I will be demonstrating my approach to drawing Haida manga and giving you a peep at the WAR of the BLINK which is now only 6 pages short of a completed pencil work.

Chris will be showing some of this flash animation. His work is already shown on Aboriginal peoples television for the last two years on Wakanheja. He has just completed a lovely bright piece that will be used on Arts Zone.

I’ll let you know when and where these particular shows can be seen.

For fans of that rare creature called great television the President of Force Four, Hugh Beard was involved in producing one of the industry’s best ever television shows Cariboo Country (1957-1969)

NEWS RELEASE

Canadian design flaunts its ‘Raw Potential’
at exhibit in abandoned Gastown building

For immediate release Thursday, December 11, 2003

VANCOUVER, BC – A jet-setting exhibit of Canadian design that picked up kudos during its debut at the Tokyo Designers’ Block in October will be touching down in Vancouver from December 11 to 14 as part of its global tour. “Raw Potential: Design from Canada” will be flaunting the best of Canadian design in an edgy and offbeat exhibit in an abandon building at 44 Water Street in Gastown. The exhibit is headed to design shows in Toronto and London, England, in the new year.

“We want to break the stereotype that design is elitist by showcasing some of Canada’s best designers in an unorthodox, raw setting,” says Rob Studer, a member of the Vancouver-based BARK Design Collective, which is organizing the exhibit. “We picked a derelict building in the heart of Gastown to bring this high-calibre, international exhibit down to earth, to make it accessible to everyone in the city.”

“Raw Potential” is one of the largest exhibits of Canadian design to be showcased in Vancouver in recent years. An opening reception and party to celebrate the exhibit’s Tokyo success will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 11 at 44 Water Street.

The provocative exhibition of architecture, illustration and graphics, furniture, textiles, jewellery, media arts, fashion and product design opened at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo on October 9 as part of the Tokyo Designers’ Block. The exhibit features 35 works, from 26 internationally established and emerging designers, representing design from corporate to street culture, from landed immigrants to indigenous peoples, from the conceptual to tangible.

Casa Brutus, the leading Japanese design magazine, rated the exhibit in the top ten at number seven out of some 100 exhibits during the Tokyo Designers’ Week and Designers’ Block. “QUOTE MAGAZINE”

The exhibition showcases both conventional and iconoclastic design that challenges stereotypes of Canada. Haida Manga, for instance, is the ancient saga of Raven Travelling illustrated in Japanese comic book format or “manga” casting the lewd Trickster-Creator in fishnet stockings. “Aboriginal design is not some artefact buttressing the Canadian myth,” says Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, a Haida illustrator. “I want to reshape the elevated and sacred Haida iconography into a rudely familiar image, one that is relevant and accessible to all, even to the Japanese.”

Other offbeat designs include a white “one-piece” felt suit by Vancouver fashion designer Natalie Purschwitz, architectural renderings of an “extreme” museum perched precariously at the top of a rocky mountain by Cynthia Wilson and Oliver Lang, and a “Grow-Op” coffee table to green the interior of your cramped, downtown condo by Mark Brady.

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“Canada is the Petri dish of human culture. We are an experiment in identity, where cultures from all over the world are grafted together, where social conventions about marriage and drugs are being radically reshaped, where creativity is unhindered by history,” says Beth Hawthorne, a member of the Vancouver-based BARK Design Collective. “Yet our international image is strikingly out of sync. Canadians are seen as a painfully polite, terribly dull bunch whose greatest contributions to humanity are maple syrup, smoked salmon and log cabins.”

“There is huge potential for the creative design industries to reshape Canada’s brand image,” adds Studer. “We wanted to capture the spirit of the ‘New Canada’ through conceptual design and consumer products, to provoke entirely new perceptions of our country as urban, youthful, eclectic and outrageously entrepreneurial.”

Curated by the BARK, the exhibition is based on a nation-wide call for design submissions, which display unapologetic qualities of a newfangled Canadian brand. Its intention is to expand the world’s perception of Canada as a place where there are world-class designers conceiving progressive design solutions through edgy aesthetics, novel functionality and material innovation.

BARK* Design Collective was founded in 2003 by six Vancouver designers who recognized a lack of support, identity and dialogue in the West Coast contemporary design scene. BARK’s mandate is to heighten the profile of Canadian design and highlight provocative design concepts resulting from the exploration of unique materials, forms and cultures. BARK actively engages the public through local and international exhibitions, as well as an upcoming lecture series on desing. BARKS includes Robert Studer and Beth Hawthorn of ‘this is it design Inc., Christian Blyt and Marja Koskela of Up and Down Productions, furniture designer Steve Suchy and Victor Chan of c-design studio.

MEDIA EVENT

WHAT: Opening Party and Reception
DATE: Thursday, December 11, 2003
TIME: 7 p.m.
PLACE: 44 Water Street, Vancouver

For more information contact or to schedule special photo sessions contact:
Rob Studer or Beth Hawthorn of this is it design at info@barkbark.ca 604-682-8447

What is truly worthwhile may not have anything to do with us

The Street Newspaper in Vancouver Canada is printing a serialized Rocking Raven story- “The Strong Silent Type”

In early 2004 that story will be available to other newspapers sold on streets throughout North America by marginalized and homeless people-

University of Toronto’s Semiotics Student Association has selected Rocking Raven as a cool site!
Visit other cool sites they are promoting.

Here are the projects currently alive and well at Rocking Raven Studios.

1- The War of the Blink-

A 48 page black ink narrative account of a pre Canada battle. Haida iconography provides a matrix for this true story. Potent layout approach make this work a remarkable display of Haida and manga techniques. Remaining work=45 days

2- The Carpenters Fin-

A full watercolor story that merges a personal experience at Xaanghiit Gwaii on the southern most tip of Haida Gwaii with an ancient tale. This story includes the Wasco, creation of various small Whales, violence, revenge and humiliation. A classic Haida tale :-). To date all pages are worked up to second stage with layout, color sense and draft text. Remaining work=180 days.

3- The Code-

A story based on the workings of the Haida Gwaii Watch (HGW) beginning with a speedboat trip along the east coast. Mysterious messages in an archaic code convince the HGW to attempt to open up the fortress of Skungwaii. They must first deal with a guardian and security system that could destroy them. Chapter one is 28 pages. Black ink, standard rectangular layout and original art on 8.5 X 11 inches panels. This story will be familiar to any visitors who have travelled into Gwaiihaanas National Park reserve on Haida Gwaii. Remaining work=10 days.

4-Ranger Ricky’s guide to Haidas-

Somewhat tongue in cheek. Do you want to know how to make paralytic shellfish posioning sauce, build your own copy of a Haida fetish chair or learn about the connection between land otters and pesonal tolietary habits. Recipes for the seafood lover and personal survivial tips that you won’t forget…ever. Originally worked up during shifts as a member of the HGW on Skungwaii this work was designed as an entertaining educational appendix to the Haida Gwaii Watchman’s manual. Two colour and at draft stage probably 48 pages.
Remaining work= 40 days

The orginal paintings, the full set for “The Last Voyage of the Black Ship” have been sold already.

I will however consider offers for the full set of ink paintings used in “A Tale of Two Shamans”.
No other work used in any of the Rocking Raven publications are currently for sale.
Sorry but I need to keep them around a while longer.

michael

From the sounds like canada site

“The traditional images of Haida art are totem poles, carvings and beautiful masks in bold red and black. Shelaghs guest today is rejuvenating an old art form and creating one that is entirely new. It’s called Haida Manga and it’s a combination of traditional Haida art and Japanese-style comics. The images and stories are dark and funny and sometimes rude. It’s kind of “east meets west on the popular culture frontier”. Michael Yahgulanaas, a former elected chief councillor in the Queen Charlotte Islands, now lives in Vancouver with his wife and baby girl. “