Drawing this morning on the balcony, before the rains came. People walking by, mainly moms and dads back from delivering kids to the nearby day care.

Bonus: a sensitive portrait of my foot.

Went to a launch, which was really a reading, of books by some friends of mine. I like to sketch during these things, but this time I found that drawing the people sitting around listening was more interesting than drawing the readers.

Once, long ago, I had decided to draw every author whose reading I had attended. That resulted in many drawings of people looking down, talking into microphones. Became a little the same after a while. Also, I haven’t been to many readings for a while, being somewhat out of that sphere as of late.

But it was pleasant catching up with some of the people I hadn’t seen for a while, and hear what they were doing.

This was at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, in Montreal.

Went to a chat today by Peggy Burns, who is the marketing person for Drawn and Quarterly Books in Montreal, speaking at the Atwater Library. She talked about the history of Drawn and Quarterly, some of their artists such as Chester Brown, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Lynda Barry. Also got into a little of what it takes to get a graphic project published with their press. Very inspiring, actually. Even though webcomics are becoming more important as a way to get your work seen, it’s still good to have something paper such as a zine to be able to send, which they can hold in their hands.

They also like productions from a single artist, rather than the assembly-line or collaboration mode that many more mainstream comics are created with. Something slightly dismaying for yours truly was the idea that “funny” does not go along with graphic novels in North America. Still, I’m not going to change the sorts of things that I like to do, but do more of it, hoping that people like it.

I’m leaving the little notes I jotted here along with my sketches; samples of my horrible handwriting. That’s Peggy up above, and the rest are faces in the crowd. Look at all the arty people! It’s pleasant to draw them while they are paying attention to something. Thanks to ALEAQ for hosting the event.

The other night I went up to the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore on Bernard Street, in the vaguely trendy area of Mile End in Montreal. Amazingly got a seat right by the lectern, with a view of the screen, as below.

Drooker’s event was billed as a Workshop on Art and Activism, but it was more like a performance. He projected pages from his graphic novels, and his New Yorker covers, accompanying them with stories, and music from a banjo and mouth organ.

A good deal of it was focussed on the Occupy Wall Street movement, and also the refugees in Gaza. Note the word “wall,” which applies to the partitioning wall in Gaza, and also the name of the street in New York.

It was a mesmerizing evening. Afterwards, Drooker took a group down to visit the occupation here in Montreal, in Victoria Square, but I had to go home and feed the kitties. Still, I’m inspired to do a few more socially relevant things. He exhorted us to get off the internet, and make stencils and stickers, to get to the percent of people who don’t have a computer, and don’t use the internet.

Below, a couple of drawings of people at the event, including Kevin, who helped set it up.

Saw them the other night, at an event sponsored by Drawn & Quaterly publications. Two big cartoonists at the tops of their games. Didn’t have much to say to us struggling types. Neither of them really uses a computer, or worries about people reading their comics. Clowes talked about what it was like being nominated for an Academy Award. Still, it was neat to see them, and I’m sorry I didn’t buy a book.

A visit to the Seguin Poirier Gallery-Studio in Griffintown, Montreal. http://seguinpoirier.com

This is another of my little point-and-shoot camera video interviews focused around aspects of the art scene I happen to encounter during my wanderings in Montreal. I’m formalizing it now as “Art Chat” and have bought that name as an address for a web site where I will collect these videos in an on-line album or gallery as I do more of them.

They’re fun to do. I’m learning as I go, with my camera and $99 editing software. Technically, they’re not too sophisticated, but they serve as a record. I’m a former visual arts writer for magazines and newspapers. One thing I enjoyed in doing articles was letting the artist speak for him or herself. Video is perfect for that, and also lets one get a glimpse of the art. At this stage it’s meant to tantalise, and provoke viewer to seek out the art on their own.

Shot of a drunken me (Jack Ruttan) and the estimable (and late) Sonja Skarstedt at the now-defunct Double Hook Bookstore, sometime in the early 1990s. Photo by Geof Isherwood.

On Saint Viateur, during the recent Feast of Saint. Marziale.

And rue Masson:

Taking a break from all the sketchbooky angst to post these shots of a performance of “Pinocchio” in the local park, still going on, even as I type this!

Spent a while shooting and editing videos of the annual L’Écho d’un Fleuve event, which happens in this neighbourhood every June. It’s a thrill to do, and wonderful to think one lives in a neighbourhood where such things take place. Hooray for artists and dancers and all. Not an easy life.

But it’s great to see a little of what people are doing. The first video, nothing much really happens. I commented a lot.

The second video has great dance in it.

The third has this glorious mistake I made, superimposing one track over another, so a dancer seems to be dancing with herself. I couldn’t have planned that, but wanted to keep it.

Hope these things stick around for a while, as a record of what was going on here, in the quaint old days of 2011.