Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

Street guys:

Street kid:

Street Pug Dog:

Street cute chick:

These have been piling up! I have no idea why I named the truck “Wibberly.” It’s the name of an old British SF author.

And another picture. “So What” girl visits Star Wars:

The Staue of Maisonneuve was coming down (or going back up! – I don’t know) at Place d’Armes in Montreal. I was zipping by on my bike, back from a meeting, when I saw these statues being wrapped up and ported around. Interesting! (I hope!)

Anyhow, here they are for your delectation. More in the flickr set, if you want to click on one!

From some angles they look like something out of a horror film. From others, like aristocrats being taken to execution.

More done on the back alley garden, behind my place (okay, it’s rue de Rouen between rues Shepherd and Chapleau). Art stuff, and decoration this time. I got roped in to help. My neighbour, pictured up above, got into trying to fasten his tableau to a brick wall.

Me, I would have tried to drill into the mortar rather than the concrete brick, but I wasn’t into bossing people around too much!

I helped set up the little fence (and take photos of the others working, as below):

Success!

Job well done. It’s pleasant here, now, and I feel like hanging out, sometimes.

The local Eco Quartier (a little neighbourhood org. that does recycling, gardening, and ecologically-oriented projects) visited the lane behind my apartment, which was generally a down at the heels place, full of burdock and junk. They instigated a project of planting a garden back there. It’s part of an initiative called ruelle verte.

Notice these are all women working here. Men like me came around, but mostly to kibitz and comment. I don’t know why it worked out this way.

At any rate, it turned out quite pleasantly. From kind of a waste area to somewhere you might like to spend time:

Next week, we’re putting up some art, and painting this stump. Pictures of that when it happens.

Mr. Boggedy approves:

I’m only getting around to this now (I have a lot of blog posts — mainly stories and photos, backed up. Well, at least one more!)

Above is yours truly, along with Sradj Mohamed, a true gentleman. He was the most recent owner of the Laundromat I’ve been going to for 20 years, down the street on rue de Rouen. Sad to say it’s gone out of business, since the beginning of July.

Sradj comes from Syria, where he was a teacher. The laundromat wasn’t that well-kept or busy, but he could be seen in front repairing clothing, or typing in Arabic on his computer. I wonder what he was writing?

He’s a devout man, and would take time out to unroll his prayer mat, and pray. He also taught me how to count in arabic: “wahid, ithini, thalassa, arbat,…” and would sometimes offer me a strong, sweet coffee.

I miss the place now, and not just because it was cheaper than the other laundromats in the area. I hope Sradj finds success in the future. Shukran!

Wish I was there, actually. Maybe not at the moment, because it’s the rainy season. But my friends over there tell me I have a place to stay if I want to drop in. Can also pick up my sketchbook full of Bangkok drawings I left over there.

But I was going through old disks, and found this one full of pictures of the event I help organise over there at the Tadu Gallery, with my friend, Peter Mantello. “Montreal Comix Come to Thailand” was the catchphrase. Would like to come back. Or have some of Thailand come to Montreal.

They’re similar places. Strong culturally, but with a dominating culture nearby (Japan, or the US in our case), and a strong religious background (the “odd” sons got sent to the monastery, the same way they went to seminary in Quebec to keep them out of mischief).

I didn’t remember these shots, and wondered if I actually put them up. Then I found a link to sequential.org’s website of Canadian comic news, and found them there, thanks to Salgood Sam. [link]

They were taken by the office staff, because I, silly boy, hadn’t brought a camera.

Anyhow, the exhibition was prints of work from 15 mainly Montreal-based alternative comic artists. Yours truly was artist in Residence. I found myself in a condo on the outskirts of Bangkok, in which Jane Birkin had recently being staying. I was also conducting weekly workshops in cartooning, which was fun. Though I didn’t have much to teach. Mostly let people cut loose and draw. Below is one of the Bangkok pro artists, decorating a wall.

A few of those drawings are in my books. I’ll look for them and post them. In the meanwhile, I’ve put pages from the elaborate brochure/catalog Peter produced for the event.

I hope he’s well, but I found him there much changed from the person I knew in Montreal. Ohh, Bangkok… Bangkok.

Yarg

He’s supposed to be a cheery little guy with a twinkle in his eye.

Meanwhile, Walter Matthau is being uncharacteristically menacing (and cryptic):

And this is just an old sketch, made in the lobby of the Musée des Beaux Arts:

The one above, based on an image in one of my “how to draw” books, took me 2 hours. The one below, about 15 minutes. Which one do I like more? That’s easy.

My browser wasn’t cooperating, and I wasn’t going to be able to post these pictures. But something shook loose. Leading off above is a B-Day card for a friend, who likes military things.

Below, a walking girl:

And a woman director:

Random guys on a page:

I kind of enjoy trying things out, and possibly failing, rather than doing one perfect picture after another of something I know I can do. Hence these.

Guy in a slightly Middle Ages hood.

These “backwashes” or “cauliflowers” are accidents. I could paint them out with another layer. But they’re interesting, so they stay.

On to the next picture. The more you do, the better you get.

It was a nice day, finally, last Sunday, so I went to rue Ste. Catherine East between Papineau and Berri to take in the FIMA, or Festival Montreal des Arts. Basically, the street is blocked off, and a lot of artists set up there in tents, to display and hawk their wares.

I myself did a kind of indifferent sketch above. Was sort of jangled, and people kept on coming up to me and asking inane questions, like I was part of the show. One guy asked me why I bothered sketching, when I could get an image much more quickly and accurately by taking a picture.

Well, I did take pictures, and here they are:

This is another artist, also sketching the street. Maybe in a little more of a controlled way.

Her in her tent, with her paintings:

Some of her pictures, lined up on the table.

The art’s kind of middle of the road. Stuff I’m not totally crazy about, but might look good in your living room. But since this area is known as Montreal’s “Gay Village,” there was lots of other stuff to see:

Scooters outside the local leather bar:

“Beach” volleyball:

Another typical sight on the street, especially in this area around this season:

These people were inside an empty mobile home, enacting the entire script of the movie The Fifth Element.

There’s video of this, which I will share when it’s online. Generally, a lot of fun was had, which is part of what art is about.

Will have to buy new books, or draw on the walls. You can’t stop me.

These were outside walkers, and a ball player. I see ball players often, because there’s a diamond in the park around the corner.