shannon gerard

With the love and support and amazing design of ALSO Collective,...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:51:27 -0500

With the love and support and amazing design of ALSO Collective, I’ve launched an ambitious Indie Gogo campaign to help take the Carl Wagan Bookmobile from Toronto to Newfoundland.

Check it out!

What are the dreams closest to your heart?

Take a minute to consider your wildest dreams, the things you have always wanted to make, the places you have always wanted to go. The Carl Wagan Bookmobile can help you articulate those dreams through art making.

Partly motivated by the passionate work of astronomer Carl Sagan, The Carl Wagan Bookmobile is a manifestation of my highest ideals—play, imagination, rigour, and outreach.

Carl is a mobile gallery, publications studio, library, classroom, and dream machine—all contained within a 1988 VW Westfalia camper van. Through Carl, I teach workshops in screenprinting, bookbinding, zine making, and creative writing, collaborating with various communities to tell stories and to generate artists’ books. Participants come away with self-published works, new studio skills, and a sense of the possibilities that can emerge when we come together to make art!

The Mission

In July and August of 2013, the mission is to drive Carl from Toronto to Newfoundland, stopping at artist-run centres, community spaces, educational initiatives, print shops, arts and literary festivals, bars, homes—you name it—to lead workshops, produce publications, meet people, and inspire new ideas!

William The Tattooed Baby was Willy’s favourite song as a...

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:31:00 -0500

William The Tattooed Baby was Willy’s favourite song as a toddler. Our favourite part was “Here’s Najinsky doin’ the rrrrrrrhumba. Here’s his social security numba.” I’d jiggle his tummy on the first part and then tickle him behind the ears on the second. CUTE.

Hips on his ships!? Good ship to be on.

Merry Chrrrrristmas!

More Than Anybody Can also includes a few spoken pieces, like...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:40:00 -0500

More Than Anybody Can also includes a few spoken pieces, like the example included here. I recently read this amazing passage in Christopher Hitchens’ autobiography Hitch 22 and I want it to be true of my life:

The stupendous importance of love, friendship, and solidarity has been made immensely more vivid to me by recent experience [the knowledge of his own death]. I can’t hope to convey the full effect of the embraces and avowals, but I can perhaps offer a crumb of counsel. If there is anybody known to you who might benefit from a letter or visit, do not on any account [emphasis his] postpone the writing or the making of it. The difference made will almost certainly be more than you have calculated.

So this recording is posted in solidarity with other dreamers and parents and lovers of the world. We should say things to each other and not— on any account— put them off.

The thoughts in this recording pertaining to the continuity of time and to the inevitability of change are shared for those of you like me who oddly experience a nostalgia for the present. Do you know what I mean? Do other people mourn the end of their happiest moments while they are happening? I feel that odd collapse of reality every single day.

It’s almost Christmas Eve. I can’t wait to post this...

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:05:00 -0500

It’s almost Christmas Eve. I can’t wait to post this darling gem. Spoiler alert!

This year Willy’s gift from me is a record of songs I used to sing him as a baby. It was an emotional time making it— and scary! Singing into a real microphone (with a spit screen thing in front of it? whoa) was so different than a hairbrush in the bathroom. The result is a kind of off-key (for my part), clunky, sweet thing that I hope he will love.

This song, Egg Suckin’ Dawg, was the stand-out for me. So. Much. Fun. (Thanks Sparky!) Tumblr only lets me post one song a day, so I’ll put up three between now and Christmas Actual.

The record title, More Than Anybody Can, is lifted from John Denver’s lullaby, For Baby For Bobby: I’ll walk in the rain by your side. I’ll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand. I’ll do anything. Help you understand. I’ll love you more than anybody can.

Can I express the depth (and height and width and time and space) of my gratitude to Graham and Aaron for helping me make this silly little bit of true love? I’ll try really hard.

The world is beautifully made for doing good, and for resting....

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:36:23 -0500

The world is beautifully made for doing good, and for resting. Like a park bench.

Yehuda Amichai wrote that. And here at Hooper’s Mill, it rings true. Literally… rings! A highlight of going to church this morning was getting to toll the bells and the rope lifting me up off the ground! Then I had the immense joy of climbing up in the steeple where I found grafitti from 1923 and from 1896!! Who says church is for sitting up straight in the pews? If you know where to look, mischief makers are everywhere!

Afterward I tramped home through the snow wearing borrowed boots! Yes, they take good care of me here.

Can I stay for keeps? Will you make a little place on your hearth rug for me?

Weird. Outside the train window was a Gerhard Richter painting.

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:33:00 -0500

Weird. Outside the train window was a Gerhard Richter painting.

I spent the longest night of the year with my dearest Wendy and...

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 12:01:00 -0500

I spent the longest night of the year with my dearest Wendy and David at Hooper’s Mill— a place that would help even the skepticalest skeptic believe in magic. And the wonder started right away— on the train to Kingston! We were barely out of Toronto when an absolutely charming man started loudly wishing everyone many happy returns of the season. He even hollered out his drunken version of Johnny Cash’s Redemption and shouted, “I’m bad darlin’, but I’m GOOD!”

I so wished I was seated beside him. Unfortunately for everyone else, he disembarked at Oshawa, but I managed to record his parting words to us (click the arrow to hear them!).

Singing The Browns’ I’m Looking Back To See as he stepped down onto the platform? Whoa. I loved him! Thanks Train Charmer for underlining my convictions about the great beauty of life.

I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see
If I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me
You were cute as you could be standing looking back at me
And it was plain to see that I’d enjoy your company

I wonder how many versions of this story were told last night, around dinner tables where passengers from that car settled? Dreamy.

After a very delightful weekend at City of Craft, I’m...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:30:00 -0500

After a very delightful weekend at City of Craft, I’m feeling in a sentimental mood. My sister Erin helped me make Plants You Can’t Kill this year and spent her weekend with me behind the table. It was awesome.

A combination of magical factors has recently got me thinking about how blessed I am. I have so many really truly beautiful friends who love one another. We are building the lives we want to live, and trying our hardest to make a contribution to this old world.

This week, I am suddenly struck by the fact that I learned how to make my dreams a reality from my parents— from the practical demonstration of actually growing up that way. My mom designed the house we grew up in and dad built it. We lived for a while in a trailer in the woods, and then moved into the frame while the rest of the house was constructed around us. We had an extraordinary childhood there.

I’ve been listening to Loretta Lynn a lot, so I wrote these lyrics about my life to the tune of her life.

Click that little arrow up yonder and it’ll play.

My Nano Publishing students recently travelled down to North...

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:10:00 -0500

My Nano Publishing students recently travelled down to North Adams, Massachusetts to conduct a performance-reaction to the 2012 exhibition, Oh, Canada. We travelled with Symon, Antonio, Lisa and Eunice of ALSO Collective, Vanessa and Caroline of the OCADU Student Gallery, Graham Nicholas (Carl’s number one music man), and Luke Painter, Chair of Printmaking. While in town we held a party at Melanie Mowinski’s PRESS and visited darling Grover at GJ Askins Books.

The students are currently working on a book about our experiences. Below (and above) is my contribution. It’ll give you a sneak peek of the sincerity and amazement included in their work. The book, called BEAVER FEVER, launches Thursday 29 November at 10 pm at (where else?) The Beaver.

Here’s my essay:

(page one)

A Brief Reflection on 100 % True Love, Followed by a Short Piece about Paper Cuts, Magic and Going Places. By Shannon Gerard.

I’m so grateful—overwhelming grateful—that the Carl Wagan Bookmobile has brought me closer to so many wonderful folks. I’ve tried to draw their faces for you, because drawing people’s faces is an act of utter love for me. And I want the students who came with us to North Adams to see how much love can result from the effort it takes to move art forward.

Thank you, ALSO Collective. Thank you, Vanessa and Caroline. Thank you, Graham. Thank you Lukey P. Thank you, Grover. Thank you, Melanie. And thank you, thank you, Nano Publishing class of 2012.

(then some drawings)

(then this essay)

I love to read books. I love to make books. I love to play. Books and Play are two of my most passionate interests. Book objects are playful objects. They make great noises when we open them. They imply performative leaps between their pages. Their pages can cut us. We remember, long after reading books, the relative balance of those pages in our right hands and our left hands. At the ends of dear books, we hold them against us.

Books are a journey and the Carl Wagan is a ramblin’ man.

Carl was born from the central research questions that motivate most of my work: How does the social position of art affect the way in which we value it? In other words, does where we tend to encounter art mediate what it means to us? Can art in fact become a social experience that changes the way we operate in the world?

We have some long-held notions about where to find art most readily—galleries, art school, monographs, catalogues, concert halls, design studios. Most of the students I work with arrive at art school with a set of reasonable expectations about the system—I’m going to give them an assignment. They’re going to try to communicate an idea. I’m going to grade it. Repeat. Through this process, they are going to grow.

But that is not really a human interaction. Surely institutions should offer us more than a set of satisfied expectations. They should give us other people. They should give us permission to try something we would not have otherwise tried. And it should be safe to fail a lot within that context.

People do not want to fail. But I know we want to try. And I know we want to find each other.

Do you know the work of Olafur Eliasson?

He dyed the rivers of Los Angeles, Stockholm, and Toyko green. He suspended a giant sun in the midst of the Tate Modern and made it shine down on visitors like magic. He emphasized that the world is a place we inhabit and influence, not an image we consider on a postcard. So why should art be something we merely look at on the walls?

His excellent 2009 TED Talk poetically illustrates his idea that cities should not just be pictures to us. We should go places. My favourite part of what he says in that talk is this: “Art can actually evaluate the relationship between “What does it mean to be in a picture?” and “What does it mean to be in a space?” and “What is the difference?” The difference is between thinking and doing.”

For many years I worked at the U of T Bookstore and a friend of mine there kept a package of band-aids in her desk for the frequent treatment of paper-cuts, which she called an “occupational hazard.” I just love that.

You gotta get out there. You gotta try. And you gotta get your fingers sliced up a little bit.

Best friends. True love.

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 17:06:57 -0500

Best friends. True love.

The best thing on the Internet

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:16:00 -0500

The best thing on the Internet

I just spent one of the most enjoyable weekends of my life in...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:22:00 -0500

I just spent one of the most enjoyable weekends of my life in North Adams Massachusetts with my 2012 Nano Publishing class, Luke Painter, ALSO Collective, Vanessa & Caroline, and The Real Live Graham Nicholas.

My students’ performance at MASS MoCA, The Justin Beaver Schoolhouse exceeded my exceedingly high expectations. Like, whoa. Check out their blog, which will continue to grow over the next few weeks. And watch out for an invitation to our CANADIAN REALNESS party on November 29th at the Beaver!!

I am so blessed to know such amazing, creative people. ALSO...

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:49:19 -0400

I am so blessed to know such amazing, creative people.

ALSO Collective are working on a short movie about the Carl Wagan and we gathered with the incomparable Graham Nicholas last night to record some tracks for the film. Antonio’s friend Darryl played harmonica too! What a capital evening!

On a long night walk home, a sidewalk covered in shredded paper...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:43:34 -0400

On a long night walk home, a sidewalk covered in shredded paper was like snowfall in August. But the snow was things once written then unwritten.

I miss you, so much.

Mr. Tough Guy.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:42:46 -0400

Mr. Tough Guy.

Building a blog for the CARL WAGAN BOOKMOBILE.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:11:22 -0400

Building a blog for the CARL WAGAN BOOKMOBILE.

I recently started recording very short videos, all under 30...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:29:44 -0400

I recently started recording very short videos, all under 30 seconds, that communicate some of my small experiences. The album on Vimeo is called The Single Word, Delighted.
You can watch several (or just one) of the films HERE > https://vimeo.com/album/2008228

This one is an interaction with Amalie Atkins’ most delightful installation Three Minute Miracle: Tracking the Wolf at MASS MoCA.

When I saw the first few results compiled in an album, I thought of this amazing moment from JD Salinger’s Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters and Seymour An Introduction. Surely one of the best literary exchanges of all-time:

The old man adjusted the pad and pencil on his lap with greatest care, then sat for a moment, pencil poised, in obvious concentration, his grin diminished only a very trifle. Then the pencil began, very unsteadily, to move. An ‘i’ was dotted. And then both pad and pencil were returned personally to me, with a marvellously cordial extra added wag of the head. He had written, in letters that had not quite jelled yet, the single word “Delighted.” The Matron of Honor, reading over my shoulder, gave a sound faintly like a snort, but I quickly looked over at the great writer and tried to show by my expression that all of us in the car knew a poem when we saw one, and were grateful.

Priority One on this year’s trip was to visit MASS MoCA...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:09:56 -0400

Priority One on this year’s trip was to visit MASS MoCA and see Oh, Canada. It did not disappoint. North Adams MA is an absolutely amazing little town.

We stayed in the city-run Historic Valley Campgrounds where we had campfires and swam in mountain lakes and then WALKED INTO TOWN to see one of the country’s best Contemporary Art Museums. Real Life!!

AND we discovered the most darling bookshop— GJ Askins at the Eclipse Mill. Piles and Piles of volumes covering every surface of a former residential space in an old mill. It was so wonderful.

AND we stumbled into PRESS, a letterpress gallery and print shop run by the amazing Melanie Mowinski— a prof at Massachusetts Liberal Arts College who, like me, was weary of waiting at the Institutional Baggage Claim and decided to start a letterpress studio her own damn self! (well, with the help of some beautiful people it seems) I instantly adored her and her project!

This video was made at an old warehouse which was almost maybe going to be an artist residency, until the roof caved in. The real roof. Right in. Oops.

North Adams, I LOVE YOU!! I’m ready for BFF. Call me.

The HI WILLY » HI MUM series continues this summer. I...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:47:28 -0400

The HI WILLY » HI MUM series continues this summer. I started a blog to collect them all in one place. You can scroll through the album HERE > http://hiwillyhimum.tumblr.com/

Jen B over at Fidoodle HQ told us about this amazing iPhone app...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:23:49 -0400

Jen B over at Fidoodle HQ told us about this amazing iPhone app called Frameographer and we have been playing with it tonnes on the road!