Expo @ Entre le Cafe et la Plume

I have a new website!!

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www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

Expo @ Entre le Cafe et la Plume

December 2011 - January 2012
123 Av. Mont Royal Ouest, Montreal, QC H2T 2S9

My friends at Entre le Cafe et la Plume were gracious enough to offer me their walls for this month of December going into early January.

Coffee lovers...
Readers...
Writers...
Etc'ers...

Here's a cool new spot at the foot of the mountain that has exactly what you're looking for...
Plus they are the only brewers of Verve coffee in town!
They've been open since the end of the summer and things are booming!
I was lucky enough to be called upon to design their logo and now I've got my creations on their walls... Couldn't be more grateful!

Take a stroll over and say hi!


It's really too bad the law prevents this little one from hanging out in the shop...
She's a heart melter...

[...]

Reservoir Dogs

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Reservoir Dogs
Mixed Medium on Canvas
24" X 30"
July 2011

In 1994, a friend of mine, Tone, and his best friend were in France after a trip to Amsterdam and had some time to kill before their flight home. With them, was a friend whom they brought along from Amsterdam - Mr. Brown - who couldn't make the flight home with them. So they took Mr. Brown for a quick walk to give him a proper send off and then they were off to the movies. They decided to check out a movie from an up and coming American director who had been making a lot of noise in film festivals around the world with his first full length effort: Reservoir Dogs.

Still buzzing from their farewell to Mr.Brown, they sat down and enjoyed the now-classic opening scene for the first time. Immediately after the breakfast discussion about Madonna and tipping and such, once the title came up, Tone's best friend got up, disoriented, and said: "Wow! That was amazing... I definitely got my money's worth with that movie." It was only after Tone explained to him that it had only been 5-10 minutes and that the movie hadn't really started that he sat back down to actually watch the movie.

*********

This brief anecdote, I think, is a great testament to the writor/director work of Quentin Tarantino and his complete mastery of natural dialogue. Anyone who may have tried their hand at writing will agree that natural dialogue is one of the most difficult things to simulate... and Tarantino makes it look easy.

This is my tribute to this classic film.

Coin de Bullion [feat. The Making Of...]

I have a new website!!

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Coin de Bullion

Mixed Medium on Recycled Canvas
36" X 36"
May 2011

What is recycled canvas? Simply put, a canvas that was once something else... and now is something new. A few years ago, I was asked to participate in a friend's photo shoot for school in which I portrayed Jesus Christ... I know! Some of the photos came out pretty sick and I had decided to make a piece with one of them. The canvas was plastered with torn out bible pages that created an interesting background but the idea never really came together visually in the end so the piece was never shown to anyone except close friends of mine who came to my place. Since then it's been sitting under a bed sheet waiting, waiting.

Of late, I've been tightening my budget belt a lot more than usual and, as luck would have it, I'm recently REALLY into the concept of re-using old canvases that have been gathering dust in my studio space [how convenient, right? Right.].

I've also been asked by people to show a bit more of what goes into making one of my pieces and I figured this one would be as good as any to show you! So without any further ado... I present to you:

"The making of Coin de Bullion"
[The semi-abridged version]

Here's the original picture I took while out on a dog walk [pretty random, I'd say!]:

So here we go!

I ripped off as much of the bible paper as possible but since it was glued on there something wicked I couldn't get it all off and so there are still some "good book" remains lingering. I sanded it down to give if a nice smooth feel so that I wouldn't be too lumpy.

Then the actual painting could begin! Rollers and acrylics first.

Followed by some spray paint fade for the sky.

Skip ahead a step [creation of the main background beige-ish layer] and right into the second layer stencil which will be used for the white highlights [ironically done first!].

Before:

After:

Next I created 2 new stencils for the following 2 shades of brown [only the first of these 2 layers is shown below]:

It's all in the details. Notice the cross-walk sign is the only thing that's not blue or brown...
Why?
Why not?

And finally one layer of black [some pictures missing]:

And... the final unveiling:

So there you have it!

A step-by-step view into what makes one of my paintings come to life... I hope you've enjoyed the ride and will share with your friends and family.

This painting as well as all of my most recent, unreleased work can be seen for the whole month of June at Studio Bizz Iberville [2488 Mont-Royal Est]. Keep your eyes and ears open for a mid-month vernissage or maybe even a
"taking down the art show" event!
Who knows!

So as usual, thanks for playing along and I wish you all a great, great time.
Until we meet again!

[...]