The Learning Zone

Those who have visited the Learning Zone would have met Tom Colleran, one of our many talented LZ Student Monitors who have provided valuable services for us. Tom will be graduating from the Drawing & Painting program this summer. Tom’s main focus with his artwork has been portraiture and figurative paintings and drawings. Coming to OCAD U was a natural fit for Tom as he grew up drawing.

I spent a lot of my childhood on a farm, a farmhouse and we did not really have cable or internet, we had very slow internet. We would spend most of our time drawing. My grandfather would have a lot of photocopied articles and the backside were always blank so we would get big stacks of paper that we could draw on. My grandpa, when he saw me draw he would be pulling me aside to show me the great masters. I got more interested in pursuing it more seriously later on.

LZ: What 2 art supplies could you not live without?

TC: A good supply of Willow charcoal and a good kneading eraser.

What kind of books do you enjoy reading?

One of my favourite authors is Kurt Vonnegut. I like his blend of humour, satire, history and science fiction.

What do you do to relax?

I play a lot of guitar. I am in a band with my sister.

Do you have a favourite contemporary artist who you appreciate a lot?

The one artist that got me excited was Eric Fischl. He also works from photographs. Fischl was part of the Neo-expressionism movement that popularized working with the figure again in the late 60s. His paintings have some dark and perverted imagery—and he does some really nice portraits too.

Is there anything else you want to share with us, any final thoughts?

Take your time at school. When I started I was really concerned with getting through everything and taking as many classes as possible then I slowed down. Give your self enough time to do things. Having less projects gets you excited by the projects you do have and that is a big help. That is one of my many experiences from OCAD that I will transfer to my art practice.

Image citation: Between Friends/Entre Amis. National Film Board of Canada, Still Photography Division, Ottawa, Canada, 1976. McClelland and Stewart Limited, Toronto.

This past October, the Writing & Learning Centre (WLC) hosted visiting artist Chantal Gibson , A Historical In(ter)ventionist and educator from Vancouver.

During her visit, Chantal worked on a collaborative interactive altered book installation, called Between Friends. This event was held at the Learning Zone from October 30 to November 3.

Chantal invited OCAD U faculty, students and visitors to participate in the writing of this book by weaving, braiding and linking their shared stories from past to present, across borders between the US and Canada.

Image credit: Chantal Gibson

To learn more about the inspiration and the book Between Friends please follow this link or contact Stephanie Dayes (WLC) sdayes@ocadu.ca.

Last week (Thursday, March 12) was the 7th annual OCADU Zine Fair. A mixture of students and Toronto-based zine makers gathered to share their work with the OCADU community.

For the uninitiated, zines are self published creations that take many different forms: small magazines, art books, comics, journals, how-to guides… the list continues to infinity. The Learning Zone houses a zine collection and is the meeting place for OCADU’s Zine Collective. The annual zine fair is but one of the Learning Zone’s zine initiatives, and it is the best opportunity to meet other creators face-to-face.

Meet some of the vendors at this year’s zine fair:

Jay Chau is a photography student at OCADU.

Jay (who was sharing a table with fellow student Grace Brooks) was displaying work such as these embroidered genitalia journals, and some prints. Grace was showing t-shirts (featuring Billy Balogna from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse!) and sculptures of two-headed animals.

Worn and The Wheelhouse were neighbours this year. The aim of The Wheelhouse (left) is to bring together a community of people who are facing barriers to accessibility. Through intersectional activities — including a zine distro — The Wheelhouse provides resources, learning opportunities and safe spaces for marginalized people.

Before it closed up shop at the end of 2014, Worn was a progressive fashion journal that looked deeper into fashion, covering questions like what is behind our relationship with accessories, what is the relationship between religious identity and underwear and what connections are there between clothing and activism. Though there will be no more new issues of Worn, back issues from its 10 years of feminist fashion insight are still available online.

Whitney French is a Toronto-based zine maker and one of the editors behind the zine series From The Root. The series documents stories, images and testimonies from women of colour in Canada. The first issue’s focus was hair, and the newest issue — which had its Toronto debut at the zine fair — focuses on stories and experiences around the theme of the body. The body issue has its official launch March 22 at Beit Zatoun on Markham Street (4-6pm).

Kimberley Dewing was representing the work of a group of 4th year illustration students. Much of the work was themed around goblins. They have plans for a next venture which will focus on witches.

OCADU alumna Emily Waknine was here representing the artist collective Carrier. To raise funds for future exhibitions, Carrier was selling work such as collage zines, prints, jewellery and cassette tapes.

If you missed the zine fair, you may yet have a chance to see the work of these artists. Many of these zines will be added to the OCAD Zine Library so stop by the Learning Zone to check out our collection. And follow the links above to find some of these zines for sale online.

We are pleased to welcome Doug Beube to the Learning Zone on Monday February 10th at 3:30pm for a presentation and discussion of the works from the student and faculty weekend workshop – Radical Bookwork: Dis/connecting the Altered Page.

Beube, a mixed-media artist who works in collage, installation, sculpture and photography, deploys book media in a transformative structure referencing the dimensionality and dynamics of digital information. His sculptural representation of books simulates behaviours from the digital domain, such as cutting and pasting, but he uses power tools and glue rather than keystrokes.

I apply quasi-software functions such as cutting, pasting and hidden text onto an analog system; it does not work it cannot.  Doug Beube

All are welcome to join us and view the works produced!

Lynn Canyon by Canadian artist Adam Waldron-Blain is a video performance placing the artist playing a violin, while taking different positions in the middle of a rushing creek in a North Vancouver park.

The interruptions of sounds of rushing water, wind, birds and a dog with its owner flitting through the static frame, engages and challenges the viewer to watch and hear his violin performance in a powerful and unpredictable space.

On at the Learning Zone until June 18th and available online.