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Saturday 19 December 2015

IT'S DONE!

On Thurs. Dec.17, 2015 I presented the ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT graphic novel as my Master's of Architecture thesis at the University of Toronto's Daniels school!


The audience was half professors and half students, I've never seen so many profs at one crit; the discussion ranged from criticisms within the story of norms in architectural education, challenging conventional modes of representation and whether it was okay for me to be as arcane as I was being; and was the feminist bit intentional?


 One of the best parts was when a visiting critic from U of Waterloo mused, "I remember when I was a young architecture student and I got so frustrated with the school that I drew a cartoon, and I wanted everyone to see it, so I posted it on the front door of the school.  It stirred up a lot of reactions and some people even responded with whole essays."  I asked, had they been positive or negative? He smiled and said "Both. One of them even told me I was way out of line and who did I think I was?"  And the visiting prof turned to smile at the guy sitting next to him, who turned red and chuckled.  "Sorry, I was a lot more hardcore and intolerant back then."  They're obviously friends now!


But the best for me was a prof who didn't speak much, just said at the end, "You've brought everything back to a place of deep essential meaning for you.  We all need to do this.  Keep doing this."  And another asked me to keep drawing like this.

Many, many thanks to my advisor, Prof. David Lieberman--without his appreciation and guidance, the completion of this ten-year degree and the commitment to this graphic novel would not have happened!  I have become a better artist for it and I vow to continue.

Daniels School of Architecture final Thesis presentations Booklet - Dec., 2016

The  graphic novel is more than 2/3 done... near future plans:
a) Complete all the pages, lay out and publish the final product.
c) Explore new avenues of professional growth.

 Thanks for all your support!  (And thanks to Utkarsh Singh​ for taking the photos of my presentation!)

Friday 4 December 2015

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 10



A bit abstract - this page shows a plan view--think Google Perimeter--of Bagel Blue (little circle in lower left hand corner) walking angrily along the road away from the hamlet in which he grew up.  (Actually it's based on a painting by a certain Dutch modernist who liked grids!)

In other related news, I am excited about my upcoming thesis defense for my Master's of Architecture degree at U of T... it will be on Thurs. Dec. 17; the subject will be this graphic novel.  There will be a PowerPoint, original pages and a lively discussion.