Not to sound like I’m plugging the school or anything, because I know a lot of people haven’t had the best experiences with it, but my time at OCAD has really changed my outlook on art making and has many ways rejuvenated my passion in it.

The professors particularly in the illustration department really pushed me to try my hardest. After a few embarrassing critiques in second year, I kinda started to clue into what made an exciting picture. I started to constantly compare my work to art I loved being published in books, and fawned over in art galleries, and just try to meet (and ideally surpass, but yeah right) that quality.

A fellow student pretty much taught me how to paint because I had never done it before. So I shifted my work out of the computer and started to get more excited about the results.

As for the direction I hope to head in after I graduate, I just aim to to spread out a bit and experiment more with other mediums and visual motifs. I don’t know why but I always feel a little embarrassed when people ask my medium and I say acrylics. I rarely find work I’m excited about when it’s done with them so I spend a lot of time making sure they don’t look too acrylic-y.

We’ve noted a recurring “beard” motif in your illustrations. Could you tell us about some of the themes you explore in your work?

I always get teased about the beards/hairs/pubes in my paintings by my friends. I tend to focus on that sort of imagery because it really set people and the concept outside of time and I felt it helped create a timeless looking picture. I felt a little bummed when I saw it become sort of a trend in a lot of peoples work so I’ve made a conscious effort to try and stop doing it but clearly I haven’t really.

I have a huge obsession with the past, particularly the rise of America and all the awful things that have happened over here. The steady destruction of the wildlife, and feeling like everything you do in your day to day life destroys what supports us, makes me feel increasingly sad and conflicted about what I should be doing. At times I feel like making art is indulgent and I should be involved in causes that have more impact. So I’m trying to shift my work in a way where I convey issues I’m passionate about.

I’ve been taking stabs at hand rendered typography because I love the way it can look. And it’s really fun and satisfying to do. I also love the way pictures look in design contexts. Doing the Blood Meridian cover in my own time was a nice little exercise to see how one of my images would look in the place of a book cover. Going to a record or book store is so fun to just look at the packaging. I get so pumped when I see a beautiful design and how multiple images can come together to create a beautiful cohesive thing. I see it much how an album is compiled – songs fit together in certain ways and in a lot of cases totally enhance the feeling and power of a song through its sequencing.

Looking at a record cover, and the back, and then flipping it open can be a similarly breathtaking experience in how each image can add to another ones power.

I definitely aim to develop a pretty specific design aesthetic so hopefully someone will always recognize my work as only my own.I use recurring design elements and textures that I hope make my images cohesive but at the same time I want every painting to carry its own weight and stand strongly on its own.

We love the concept for the 360º collaborative mural for the group show at xpace you’re participating in. Can you tell us about the idea behind this project and what it’s like collaborating with the artists involved?

This was really fun and stressful to do, and all the credit must go to the very hard work of Jessie Durham and Dmitry Bondarenko who basically got everyone all together and organized the whole thing.

The shows theme was basically set around the idea of a procession and it’s called Cavalcade. Everyone got their own section of the wall and we spent a lot of time figuring out who would be beside who, and how everything would fit together. I was really happy that I got to collaborate with my good friend Adrian Forrow, and be a part of a show with so many talented folk! We all planned to have our set spots and leave space between each person’s mural for a fully collaborative section that eases the viewer into the next person’s work.

I pretty much planned from the get go that Adrian would be introducing his characters into my own mural heavily. But now everyone is in a place where we can really improvise and find neat and exciting ways to add our own visual vocabulary to each others pieces. We really have no idea how it’s going to transform!

After the show ends it’s going to be tough to paint over all our hard work, but it’s also refreshing to be making something based solely on the excitement of creation and collaboration and not have to worry about sales. If the show sounds exciting to you come check it out early and then on the closing so you really get a sense of how it has transformed. Every Friday of the shows running time there will be at least one of the artists will be in working on it so feel free to drop by, we’d love to talk to anyone interested!

Any upcoming projects we can look forward to?

Right now I’m head deep in all things thesis, and I’m really excited about where it’s heading! It’s a series of paintings based around the turning points of various outlaws, drug lords, rebels etc… and the reasons why they reject society’s rules, and carve their own unlawful paths through life, and achieved their infamy. I’ve included one of my images about Black Bart, the gentlemanly robber of Wess Fargo’s stagecoaches. This company wanted to buy his mining land and he refused so they cut off his water supply and out of revenge he began robbing only them. He was known for how polite he was and even left a few poems at two of his crime scenes.

There are so many other interesting figures and it’s really exciting researching all of these fascinating people. So come May I’ll have a whole new body of work each focusing on a different figure and hopefully it goes well!

All images ©2010 Sean Lewis

Your catalogue of artists is incredibly diverse, ranging from Michael DeForge’s loose comics style, Nicholas DiGenova’s meticulous animal hybrids, to the dream-like folktales of Tin Can Forest. Do you have a long-term creative vision for Koyama Press, or do you choose projects as they come along?

People often remark on the diversity of the catalogue but it really just speaks to the kind of work that I like. I will continue to work with fine artists, illustrators, animators, street artists, printmakers as well as comic artists.The only constant for me is that I wish to maintain a certain level of quality.

Koyama Press has definitely helped nurture and encourage Toronto’s growing comics and arts scene. Do you have any advice for local emerging artists?

Only to get out there with like-minded people, show your work, make art every day. See what other people are doing. It doesn’t cost anything to go to galleries, look at work online and use the library if you cannot afford to buy reference materials. Travel as much as you are able. Learn how to write grant proposals.

Koyama Press’s “Kickass Annie” logo has definitely travelled far with dozens of artists creating their own versions of Kickass Annie (http://on.fb.me/hVfEbJ). How did this get started?
Any plans for an anthology collecting all the Annies?

Initially, I commissioned a few artists to do their version of Aaron Leighton’s design. I wanted a few for my office wall. Once a couple of them were posted online, several people came forward asking to add to the collection. A couple people just surprised me with their versions.The collection is pretty amazing now and it seems to have come full circle with Aaron doing a version of his original version! I may put together a little book or zine of the versions when I have the funds.

Any upcoming books from Koyama Press we can look forward to? Given unlimited resources, what would be a dream project you’d like to undertake?

Diego Bergia’s ‘Lepos Bible’ has just come out, Mark Laliberté’s book ‘Grey Supreme’ will be out in January and Michael DeForge’s ‘Spotting Deer’ will debut at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival in December.

With unlimited resources? I have lots of projects and a long list of draft picks with whom I’d like to work. And, I’d want to find a way to continue supporting the all of the artists in the current catalogue. Produce higher quality books too. The list is endless.

Michael DeForge’s ‘Spotting Deer’

Mark Laliberté’s book ‘Grey Supreme’

Diego Bergia’s ‘Lepos Bible’

Is it hard to balance making comics with more lucrative work such as illustration/design?

JJ: Drawing comics, or drawing in general, is habitual for me. I try to bring my sketchbook with me wherever I go. Drawing is something I have a lot of fun doing, so I tend to get stuff done even if I’m busy with other projects or a day job.

I used to work full time at a screen print shop doing design work and color separations and still managed to make a few comic books during that time in my life. I would come home after work thinking I just wanted to watch television and relax and I would inevitably pick up my sketchbook.

Nowadays when I get an illustration job it’s from someone who knows my style and allows me enough freedom to have fun with it. For instance, I’m working this week drawing the cover for an issue of The Coast, an arts and culture newspaper out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, for which they wanted a hulking piece of evil machinery stealing peoples money. I love drawing giant machines. So I have no problems putting a comic project aside to work on something else that is equally interesting.

“There is so much potential to do all sorts of interesting things in comics and I feel I have a lot further to go with them.”

While your earlier comic One Million Mouths was a series trippy existential shorts, Blue Winter and Small Victories had longer, more developed, narratives. How do you approach the writing aspect of longer form comics?

JJ: The smaller strips typically manifest as exercises in writing, which I pair up with related imagery. I focus a lot on the language in those. The drawings are secondary, which is and should be the case for most comics I believe, but in those ones it is especially so. I put a lot of thought into the words and once I’m pleased with them I create a visual environment loosely related to that text. Those shorter strips are definitely born out of the writing.

My approach to creating a longer, plot-driven comic is entirely different. I don’t like working with a narrator’s voice in longer comics. I prefer all the words to come out of characters mouths. I find the narrator’s voice can tend to render the drawings obsolete. In longer form comics I like the drawings to tell a large part of the story. Working this way forces me to filter out excess dialogue and focus on writing economically. In this way the pictures validate their purpose as a crucial plot-driving component of the narrative.

Generally my approach to comics, especially in the case of longer narratives, can be divided into the categories of writing and drawing, though both inform one another throughout the creative process. Oftentimes I begin by cooking up a general idea for a story, which usually just materializes, inspired from a doodle or a mental image. I never write out a complete script of a comic. Oftentimes it’s just a map of a loose plotline. From there I usually draw out some characters and spaces, often based on drawings from my sketchbook. Usually I have a clear scene in my head that I draw and that begins to inform the larger narrative.

I don’t necessarily approach the comic chronologically. Sometimes I’m in the mood to create interesting environments and compositions and sometimes I feel like busying myself with less cerebral work like inking panels or colouring. The way I draw comics requires me to draw the same thing, even sometimes the exact same panel with a slight alteration, repeatedly. I get some sort of satisfaction from that but I have to be in the right mood to engage in that sort of meditative work. I like repetition and pattern.

Nature and science-fiction are two very contrasting themes and aesthetics that crop up recurrently in your comics. Can you tell us more about the themes you explore in your work?

JJ: I’ve always enjoyed drawing robots and aliens and futuristic things. I guess it’s just taking me a bit longer to get that out of my system. I’m a huge Star Trek fan and believe that the science fiction genre is often misunderstood, and probably for good reason. A lot of sci-fi storylines are pretty weak metaphors for present day situations and have a tendency to come off hackneyed. For this reason, I think a lot of serious writers stay away from science fiction. Margaret Atwood writes fantastic science fiction books but she refuses to recognize they are science-fiction books. When it’s done well it’s a great framework to tell a story.

Primarily, for me, it’s an aesthetic preference. Science fiction allows the freedom to draw pretty much any nutty thing that could someday possibly exist or already exist in some other dimension and I often use it as an exploration in drawing. I haven’t yet done what I would consider a good sci-fi comic but perhaps some day I will attempt it. I’m also a huge western fan but I’m terrible at drawing horses and cowboys.

The same can be said for my interest in depicting nature. I have a lot of fun drawing plants and trees and animals. I also have a lot of fun being in nature. My dog loves to run around in the woods, which is great because getting out in nature becomes a necessity. If she doesn’t burn some energy she get’s kind of squirrely. Having a dog has been really good for me; I need to have an animal around. I spend large amounts time by myself drawing comics and she keeps me company and also forces me to get out for walks and exercise. Sometimes I take a sketchbook with me and draw and that practice has made it’s way into my comics.

You recently previewed panels from an upcoming comic featuring embracing arctic monsters and flying Inuit over an almost lunar landscape. The images are amazing! Can you tell more bout this project?

JJ: Those were excerpts from my new book that ought to be out sometime early next year (2011). It’s a culmination of both styles of my comic work. The book will feature some of my One Million Mouths one-page strips peppered throughout a longer loose narrative featuring two giants in love walking around the arctic and doing weird things. It’ll be closer to my Small Victories book than any of my other work.

It’s being published by AdHouse Books, and will be the first book I’ve done that I haven’t released on my own. I’m really excited about that.

Your bio mentions that you draw inspiration from the folk tales of your Ukrainian and Czech backgrounds. Could you tell us a bit about the characters and themes in your work?

Pat – I grew up second generation Ukrainian-Canadian in Winnipeg. The cultural traditions practised in our house hold were very much tied into the church, and growing up I couldn’t see Ukrainian culture as existing independently from the church. As an atheist and environmentalist, I was very happy to discover the pre-christian roots of traditional Ukrainian folk culture. It was a way “back into the fold”.

I feel the reverence humanity had for nature in pre-christian/pagan cultures is something that’s been lost in our contemporary society. Along with this shift away from living within the natural world, we’ve also forgotten a lot of traditional common knowledge, i.e. the names and properties of local flora and fauna. My work channels traditional Slavic rituals and symbols to celebrate nature.

Marek – I would say that my work is greatly informed by growing up in an immigrant household. We spoke Czech at home, I had a library of Czech storybooks and huge collection of Czech kids magazines that were full of whimsical comics strips; a style of comic that didn’t really have a parallel in the West. I was of course also really into American comics and animation, but the work of  Czech artists like Josef Lada, Adolf Born, Jiří Trnka among others, were closest to my heart and are still a huge influence and inspiration to this day.  As far as the characters I draw, it’s a set of archetypes, such as the devil, the baba yaga, the rusalka, the wolf, the bear, etc. that I keep reinterpreting and redesigning to explore different themes.  The themes in my work have changed quite a bit over the years, from purely formal concerns, to personal and political narratives, and this cast of characters is like a visual vocabulary I use to explore the subject matter that interests me.

We love the forest, yet it’s constantly beleaguered by the detritus of a modern consumer culture.

What does the name Tin Can Forest mean to you? How did you come to choose this as the name of your collaboration?

Pat –  Marek came up with the name. It was a title of a poem he wrote for an art show we had in 2000. I thought it really suited us on several counts - the poem was written just before Y2K, and is about living in a dystopia of millennial anxiety and environmental disaster.

We love the forest, yet it’s constantly beleaguered by the detritus of modern consumer culture. At the same time Tin Can Forest has these nostalgic connotations to early comic strips, stop motion sets, fairy tales. I think the name expresses both our environmental politics, and describes our visual aesthetic as well.

Could you tell us a bit about your creative process and the way you work together as a team?

Pat – It depends on the project. Often when we collaborate on concepts and the development of ideas, I tend to do more of the research of themes and subjects we’re interested in, whereas Marek will compile the visual references.

Marek – Collaboration also involves long walks, fights, Eureka moments, dance parties, drinking binges, all night drawing or animating sessions, months of isolation on mountaintops, and loud music.

In addition to paintings and comics, Tin Can Forest designs, directs and produces animations both for client projects and personal work. Do you have a favourite from these activities? Do you approach personal and commercial work the same way?

Pat –  We love to work on our own non-commercial projects the most, and this is our focus throughout the year. We are primarily artists who work commercially to support our art projects, though we’ve found working commercially is a good way to keep your skills in shape, and try new things you might not otherwise try.

Marek – Commercial work pays some of the bills. We’ve been lucky to work on a few really interesting commissioned projects, that offered a fair amount of creative freedom. We approach such jobs with the same enthusiasm as for our own art.  On the other hand, there’s stuff we don’t want our work to support. We’re vegetarians, so to make animation or illustration for meat products would be hypocritical. I also think that car culture, especially in North America, has become way too overbearing, so we don’t want to help promote the car industry in any way.

What can we look forward to from Tin Can Forest?

Pat – We’re working on a video and album design for Geoff Berner’s upcoming record “Victory Party”. We’ve been fans of Geoff Berner for years, and we’re very happy and honoured to be working with him.

We’re finishing a film we shot and animated in the forest on Salt Spring Island called “Heart of the Forest”. It features music by Wolves In The Throne Room.

We’re also doing a kids book with Kids Can Press based on our short animated film “Montrose Avenue”, which portrays a day in the life of our street here in T.O.

Keep an eye on our blog for updates on any other Tin Can Forest happenings.

We’re very excited about your forthcoming book “Baba Yaga and the Wolf”. Could you tell us a bit about this project and what we can expect?

Marek – Our new book is a kind of a hybrid between a comic and an illustrated story-book. It’s visually very much in the vein of our last book Pohadky, with a combination of my drawings and Pat’s decorative designs, but with speech balloons and text. The story of ”Baba Yaga and the Wolf” is told by different narrators throughout the book, and is a riff on the classic ” bargain with the devil ” narrative. We spent the last winter living in the forest on an island in BC, some of the book was done there, and some was done in the Czech Republic, where we were this past spring. Both places greatly inspired the imagery in the book, so I would say it’s a Slavic folk tale set in a Canadian forest. The book is published by the mighty Koyama Press.

All images ©2010 Tin Can Forest