From The Look in Her Eyes, I Knew – A Villanelle

Posted on May 31, 2017 by julian peters comics

From The Look in Her Eyes, I Knew – A Villanelle

From the look in her eyes, I knew
She was riding to meet a guy.
But is any of this even true?
There’s no end to what I’ll construe
From a face as it flashes by.
From the look in her eyes, I knew,
Though (her flushed cheeks were another clue),
Love was pedaling in her thigh…
But is any of this even true?
Is it not just the the thought of two
Now apart? I would nearly die
From the look in her eyes I knew
Then, when she knew it too
In the pull of my disrobed eye…
But is any of this even true?
And now, is it mere fancy to
Divine she too soon will cry
From the look in her eyes I knew?
But is any of this even true?

(I’m not a poet, but I like word games. A villanelle is a fixed verse poetic form of nineteen lines with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.)

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Creative Workshop and Panel Discussion at the FBDM!

Posted on May 26, 2017 by julian peters comics

The 6th edition of the Festival BD de Montréal Comics Arts Festival begins today and continues through to Sunday. I will be present with a booth on Saturday only, 10:00-17:30 at which time I’ll be selling some zines and prints from my poetry comics, as well as displaying some art work from my ongoing graphic novel about the Battle of The Plains of Abraham. Also, between 11:00-11:45 I’ll be leading a workshop on adapting poetry or song lyrics into comics, and between 13:00-13:45 I’ll be taking part in a round table discussion on the theme of “Telling a story” alongside Nina Bunjevac and Joe Ollman, animated by the Gazette’s Ian McGillis. The festival takes place in the idyllic outdoor setting of La Fontaine Park. Workshop, panel discussion and all events are free and open to all. Hope to see you there! Click here for more info about the festival and the complete programming: http://www.fbdm-montreal.ca/programmation/programmation-2017/

Posted in bande dessinée, comics, montreal, Poetry Comics | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Noah’s Ark

Posted on May 23, 2017 by julian peters comics

I created this watercolour painting as a recent baptism gift for my godson. Since my godson is genetically predisposed to becoming a wide-ranging and unconventional thinker, I decided that my depiction of Noah’s ark would eschew the usual elephants, lions, and zebras in favour of some of our less well-known fellow earthlings. Depicted aboard and around the vessel are: black-billed spoonbills, flying squirrels, gerenuks, capybaras, wooly bear caterpillars, mushushus, pig-nosed frogs, cassowaries, jerboas,  pink fairy armadillos, long-eared bats, okapis, budgerigars, tamanduas, tarsiers, Highland cattle, pangolins, echidnas, Malayan tapirs, African wild dogs, star-nosed moles, saigas, proboscis monkeys, flying fish, elephant seals, sawfish, narwhals, and a human.

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Assurart Drawings -Papier 2017

Posted on May 15, 2017 by julian peters comics

Here are the twelve drawings that I created to decorate Assurart‘s booth at the most recent edition of Papier (Montreal), Quebec’s largest contemporary art fair. Assurart is an insurance company specializing in art insurance, and my drawings were intended to humourously illustrate the benefits of getting one’s art objects insured. Although the twelve panels were displayed in a long row wrapping around the booth, they were originally drawn on two comics pages of six panels each, as shown here. The storyline is the creation of Colette Mendenhall and Mireille Poirier.

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Listen to my French-language interview on “Les Oreilles d’Anne”

Posted on May 3, 2017 by julian peters comics

I recently participated in an episode of “Les Oreilles d’Anne,” a radio show normally broadcast out of Nantes, France. Its two hosts, Florent Bouchardeau and Lisa Focken, were in Montreal at the tail end of a trip across Eastern Canada, in which they had specifically set out to find out about the country’s Acadian musical traditions and contemporary scene. Beginning at 16:32 you can hear my interview with Florent and Lisa on the subject of my ongoing project to create a graphic novel about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

When you’re not used to hearing your voice recorded, it’s common to think, “do I really sound like that?” In this case, however, I also find myself thinking “Bon sang! Is my French really that bad?”

http://www.lesonunique.com/content/les-oreilles-danne-3

Posted in bande dessinée, Battle of the Plains of Abraham, comics, montreal, new france, nouvelle france | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Bombardment of Quebec – Colourized

Posted on April 24, 2017 by julian peters comics

Here are two pages from “Each in His Narrow Cell,” my ongoing graphic novel project recounting the siege of Quebec and the Battle of The Plains of Abraham in 1759. All the characters from a particular nation are depicted in a combination of a neutral grey tone and one characteristic colour -blue for the French, red for the English, purple for the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and so on.

Posted in bande dessinée, Battle of the Plains of Abraham, comics, new france, watercolour | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My drawings at the Papier 2017 Contemporary Art Fair

Posted on April 20, 2017 by julian peters comics

Montreal’s Papier is an art fair dedicated exclusively to the paper medium, one of the largest of its kind in North America and the largest contemporary art fair in Quebec. This year I will be among the up-and-coming and most definitely bankable contemporary artists to have their work up on display. Sort of. Assurart, an insurance company specializing in art insurance, commissioned me to create twelve drawings that will decorate their booth at the fair. The drawings are intended to humourously illustrate the benefits of getting one’s art insured. But are they art? You decide.

Papier runs from April 21 to April 23 at l’Arsenal (2020 William Street) http://papiermontreal.com/visiteurs/

Hope to see you there!

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“East Coker” by T. S. Eliot

Posted on April 11, 2017 by julian peters comics

My visual adaptation of the last stanza of T. S. Eliot’s “East Coker,” the second poem of his Four Quartets. It was originally published in 1940. Eliot’s remains are interred in the parish church of St. Michael’s in East Coker, a village in Somerset, England. The poet’s memorial plaque inside the church reads, “in my beginning is my end – in my end is my beginning.”

Posted in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, comics, illustration, Poetry, Poetry Comics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Vimy 1917-2017

Posted on April 9, 2017 by julian peters comics

Today marks the centenary of the beginning of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (April 9-12, 1917). The Allied victory cost the lives of 3600 Canadians (along with, lest we forget, an unknown, but no doubt horrifyingly high number of Germans). Among the dead was my great-great-uncle, Lt. William Henderson Gregory, killed by shrapnel while leading a charge up the ridge on the first day of battle. He had just turned 27.

 

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“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound (1913)

Posted on April 4, 2017 by julian peters comics

Two illustrations inspired by the American poet Ezra Pound’s famous and famously short poem, “In a Station of the Metro,” first published in 1913.

I have no experience with Chinese and Japanese brush painting, and it is known as a technique that takes at least a whole lifetime to perfect, but it’s the idea that counts. Perhaps I will return to this theme once I’ve had a little more practice with this painting style.

Posted in illustration, painting, watercolour | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments