No longer is it merely a place to sit, drink, eat and be local. For the month of September, Amocat is a port – a harbor for seafaring artwork. Docking on its walls are nautical scenes of varying shapes and sizes. Some of the intricately rendered ships float on framed canvas, while others drift across the surface of wood that itself has lived in the salty scenes they now immortalize.
'First Command' is one of several paintings depicting a portion of an adventure story that will be released by Treefish Studio in the near future.
All through the month of September, Amocat Cafe is displaying the art of local artist Stuart M. Dempster. Along with his fiancée, Kendra, Dempster comprises half of Treefish Studio. He considers this show a bachelor party of sorts, calling it his “last solo sail” before rolling all of his artistic endeavors into the Treefish fold.
“This is the culmination of seven years of showing my art,” says Dempster. “A lot of pieces in the show have stories behind them.”
In fact, several of the pieces have, according to Dempster, “an actual, literal story behind them.” Pieces such as First Command and Shore Party depict scenes from an adventure story that Dempster plans to release in the form of a graphic novel or webcomic, which will be brought to life with Kendra’s aid as part of Treefish Studio.
I have been privileged to know Dempster for almost a year, now. In that time, I have seen him do many amazing things. A jack-of-all-arts, he sees potential in nearly any material put in front of him, and doesn’t shy away from experimentation. Whether it’s rigging a makeshift recording studio in the garage, constructing a ramen cart from scratch or bringing to life the ships displayed in Amocat this month, Dempster approaches his projects with equal fervor, frustration, giddiness and passion.
Stuart M. Dempster
When asked what he enjoys about making art, he responded that it’s not something he simply enjoys.
“I do enjoy it, but that’s not why I do it,” elaborates Dempster. “I do it because if I don’t, I’ll go bug nuts insane!”
“If I don’t do it, it hurts,” he explains. “Art needs to be done.”
Dempster’s show officially opens in an event beginning at 4:30 this afternoon. Amocat Cafe can be found at 625 St. Helens Ave in Tacoma. For more information on Dempster, Treefish Studio, Amocat Cafe or today’s event, click on the links below:
The story revolves around a group of twelve brain-whammy super-powered types called the FreakAngels who were somehow responsible for the end of the world. The details of how and why are not initially disclosed, but the result is a story that gets the lovely setting of a flooded, post-apocalyptic London. All of this is beautifully rendered by Paul Duffield, who I had quite sadly never heard of before. His art is lovely, and Ellis’s writing is, well…splendidly Ellis. So go read the comic. You won’t regret it.
All that aside, the point of this post isn’t to go on about how Ellis is an effing genius (which he is), nor how Duffield’s art is fantastic (though it is quite nice to look at) or even how FreakAngels is proving to be a really enjoyable read (again, go check it out). The purpose of this is to talk about the creative process.
I still get asked with appalling regularity “where my ideas come from.”
Here’s the deal. I flood my poor ageing head with information. Any information. Lots of it. And I let it all slosh around in the back of my brain, in the part normal people use for remembering bills, thinking about sex and making appointments to wash the dishes.
Eventually, you get a critical mass of information. Datum 1 plugs into Datum 2 which connects to Datum 3 and Data 4 and 5 stick to it and you’ve got a chain reaction. A bunch of stuff knits together and lights up and you’ve got what’s called “an idea”.
And for that brief moment where it’s all flaring and welding together, you are Holy. You can’t be touched. Something impossible and brilliant has happened and suddenly you understand what it would be like if Einstein’s brain was placed into the body of a young tyrannosaur, stuffed full of amphetamines and suffused with Sex Radiation.
That is what has happened to me tonight. I am beaming Sex Rays across the world and my brain is all lit up with Holy Fire. If I felt like it, I could shag a million nuns and destroy their faith in Christ.
From my chair.
See, this is the good bit about writing. It’s what keeps you going. It’s the wild rush of “shit, did I think of that?” with all kinds of weird chemicals shunting around your brain and ideas and images and moments and storyforms all opening up snapsnapsnap in your mind, a mass of new and unrealised possibilities.
It’s ten past two in the morning, and I’m completely wired, caught up in the new thing, shivering and laughing and glowing in the dark. Just as well it’s the middle of the night. No-one would be safe from me right now. I could read their minds and take over their heartbeats with a glare.
Faster than the speed of anyone.
That’s how it works.
This is, quite possibly, the best description of the creative process I’ve ever seen. When you get an idea, and even moreso when you’re actually working to implement that idea, it is exactly like that. This is how I feel when I’m creating, whether it’s alone or with collaborators. When things just fall into place and inspiration is like a plentiful drug that just keeps being dumped into the room for free, it feels like that. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing, video editing, drawing or what have you. It doesn’t matter if I’m alone in my room or out getting chalk all over my clothes on a city street with a dozen other people. It doesn’t matter if I’m the brains behind the operation, or focusing on the seemingly small task of perfect spotlight operation for a theatrical production.
All of it, no matter how big or small, no matter what it is or who else is involved…it feels just like that. Exactly as Mr. Ellis describes.
It has a life of its own. It makes you feel powerful, it makes you feel like the world is yours to create or destroy. But in the end, you are not the one in control; you’re a pawn, whose only purpose is to bring the magic to life. It takes you along with it, through every sensation that Ellis describes and so many more, and you just have to hope that you didn’t lose your phone and all of your spare change on one of the last seven loop-dee-loops.
It’s a rush like no other, and I truly hope everyone experiences it at least once in their life.
This blog is currently under the control of Adam’s Canadian girlfriend, Shannancy. Muahahaha!
As this is being written, I am sitting in Sea-Tac international airport, waiting to catch my 6:00 am flight to LA. I am dictating this blog, via cell phone, to my lovely Shannancy, the totally awesome and magical and super super amazing person you should totally subscribe to,who has been kind enough to stay up and chat with me so I don’t go insane sitting around a not-quite-empty airport that is filling up as I speak. I actually love airports… They’re jumping off points to new adventures.
At approximately 8:41 this morning I will arrive in LA and will shortly thereafter be picked up by Amber (AKA TheAmberyOne) and Karissa (AKA Imgonnabeatree). Throughout the rest of the day more and more of the Classy Ladies — the strange people I call friends — will arrive, using assorted means of transportation. It will be the first time we have all seen each other since the 2009 North West YouTube Gathering. Damn them. Damn them for getting to see you when I’m stuck here! STUPID CANADA, BE CLOSER TO CALIFORNIA!
We are converging upon the land of celebrities, beaches, skin cancer and fake boobs (Careful what you say; I grew up there.) because this weekend is the biggest event in YouTube’s history. This weekend is VidCon. This weekend I am a giant squid of anger and jealousy.:(
My poor sniffly Adam is awful at dictating. ^_^
VidCon is one of the few events in existence to use the dual meaning of the word ‘Con’. The word ‘Con’, in this context, can mean either ‘conference’ or ‘convention’. That is a surprisingly fun sentence to read aloud. Try it! I DARE YOU. Conferences are generally seen as a group of professionals getting together, trading notes, attending workshops and learning more about their craft. A convention is more often something like a comic convention, with booths, celebrities and fangirl-y geeks. Vidcon, however, serves as both a learning and networking opportunity for video professionals, as well as a gathering for Youtubers who simply want to spend time with one another and meet their favorite YouTube stars. I wanna learn and network and gather. Dear Santa, please send me to VidCon!
Yeah... This didn't work. I'm still in Canada. -- Shannon
There‘s no parking in the red zone… Adam is currently pissed off at the airport announcements.
Personally, I am attending VidCon for both reasons. In addition to wanting to see all my favorite Youtubers, and my friends, the Classy Ladies, I will also be treating it as a professional conference, and, as such, have prepared a large number of business cards to pass out. My hope is that I’ll meet a few interesting people willing to collaborate on new projects, and perhaps gain a few new supporters as well. My hope is that I’ll get totally famous by dating Adam.Heck, if I get can a paying gig out of it, even better! Please give my boyfriend money so he can eat.
Also in attendance will be Jeff Klein of Norman Tweeter Productions. Amazingly, Jeff managed to snag a ticket to VidCon after the event was sold out, which just goes to show what perseverance, not to mention Hank Green’s email address,can get you. Jeff and I will no doubt be making many crazy puppet videos at VidCon, including ones featuring a brand-new AdamTheAlien puppet. At this point I don’t know if I’m more jealous of Jeff or Adam; they’re both ridiculously fun to collaborate with.
Anyone who was following my videos back in March, around the time of the Emerald City ComiCon, (Aside from my car asploding, that was a fantastic trip.) may remember the first AdamTheAlien puppet. This version was incomplete, and still had a lot of modifications to go before it was finished. It had foam hands that I may have broken several times. Ultimately, the number of changes that needed to be made necessitated the creation of a brand new puppet. I am ecstatic to say that the new puppet looks exactly like the chalk drawings — right down to a tiny fedora. It doesn’t have an awesome beard though. Silly beardless alien.
It should be noted that at the time this is being written, I still have not released all of the 2009 North West YouTube Gathering videos. Not to mention the 2009 Americhordal Gathering. Given that, and the fact that I am currently working on videos that will pay my bills, I cannot say with any assurance when my VidCon videos will be up. I can say, however, that I will get them up as soon as I can. Sometime after VidCon 2012? In the meantime, as the event is going on and afterward, simply search ‘VidCon’ on YouTube. Or click the link I just gave you. I’m sure there will be no shortage of videos. Including one of me just crying.
At this point in the dictation, the sun is rising over the airport, meaning that my boarding time is nearing.The sun is almost completely up here, it’s a little bit ridiculous. Before I sign off, I wish to issue a challenge to my readers: in the comments below, please write suggestions, ideas and challenges for videos I should make at VidCon. If you tell him to shave his face, or kiss someone, or anything else that I deem bad, I will kill you with my mind. If your idea is chosen, you will be credited in the correlating video. I’m changing whole sentences from sleepy grammar to correct english… Sleepy Adam is adorable.
At this point, it is time for this sleep-deprived and airport-addled Alien to say mushy things to his girlfriend, urinate, brush his teeth and board his plane. Watch this site, Twitter, my YouTube channel, and the Vlogtag channel for VidCon antics as they happen. Until then, fare thee well, and may your day be more entertaining than this airport. AIRPORTS. ARE. AWESOME. Plus you were talking to me for over two hours. Quitchyerbitchin, VidCon attendee.
–AdamTheAlien
I must say, it was a joy to help Adam write this, and fill it with my own thoughts. If you enjoyed my thoughts, you can go read more of them at my blog, which has recently been emptied of writings, but will be filled up again soon.
Overheard yesterday at Frost Park, while I was touching up my purple-coated alien pirate, the quote was a perfect summary of how things went down at 2010′s twelfth chalk-off.
Self-promotion has always been a staple of Frost Park artwork, from websites written next to drawings and my ever-present alien avatar to more blatant examples like James Stowe’s ad for Comic Book Ink and Mark Monlux selling his books right off the sidewalk.
This week, however, it permeated the park even more than usual. From the chalk art itself to the voting, every element reeked of some form of propaganda.
My roommates, Stuart and Kendra, were out promoting Treefish Studio. Stuart wore the Treefish logo on his shirt, and Kendra incorporated Treefish into her drawing. I overheard Kendra talking about the studio to other chalk-off attendees, and she later wrote about the event on one of Treefish Studio’s two blogs.
Also in attendance were Isaac Olsen and his friend Dani, promoting Quiet Shoes, an independent film Olsen has been working on since 2006. Their chalk art was an eye-catching advertisement for the noir comedy, including footprints leading up the park toward the Rialto Theatre, where Quiet Shoes will be holding its world premiere tonight at 7:00 PM.
Olsen wasn’t the only one promoting an event; Mark Monlux’s entry this week was aimed to draw people to the upcoming 100th Monkey event, which this month is being invaded by the Cartoonist’s League of Absurd Washingtonians (C.L.A.W.). The 100th Monkey is a periodic event in which Tacoma-based artists get together to mingle, network and share their respective arts and interests. “Monkey tiles” – monkey-themed artwork that, despite the title, isn’t always tiles – are sold for $4 each. Every tile purchase puts the buyer’s name in a raffle, out of which is selected the official “100th Monkey”, who is then responsible to assist the event organizer in putting together the next 100th Monkey event.
Ordinarily, 100th Monkey Events tend to conflict with C.L.A.W.’s monthly “open swims”, in which they allow the public to attend their proceedings. This time, however, local cartoonist R.R. Anderson – a founding member of C.L.A.W. – was selected as the 100th Monkey. As a result, Anderson has rallied the League together to assist him in monkeying with Tacoma’s collected artists. All of the monkey tiles for the latest 100th Monkey event have been created by League members, and the event will serve jointly as this month’s C.L.A.W. open swim. The June 2010 100th Monkey event will occur on Wednesday, June 23rd, from 7:30 to 9:30 PM at The Stonegate (5421 S Tacoma Way).
Even the sponsorship – which is ordinarily promotional anyway – had a little extra propaganda element to it this week. Artists were invited to bring resumes and work samples to submit to the sponsor, Northwest Territories Mint, adding self-promotion of a job-seeking variety to the chalk-off. The Jinxmedic – also known as C.L.A.W. member Michael Shaudis – served as a representative for Northwest Territories Mint, accepting resumes and drawing a piece promoting his employer.
The promotions didn’t end with the conclusion of the hour-long competition. As usual, the post-chalking race to get the most votes by Midnight raged on, but this week’s tantalizing prize – ten Spanish gold doubloon replicas and a Mayan calendar medallion – put more pressure than usual on the competitors.
For myself, I put the word out every way I could – urging my Twitter and Facebook followers to flood the voting thread on my behalf. I even uploaded a video to my YouTube channel promising to make a pirate-themed video using the doubloons as props if I won.
The strategy worked. My repeated self-promotion – vying for votes on a piece that was, itself, a form of self-propaganda – resulted in a final tally of 17 votes (out of 45 total) for Captain Adam the Alien. A nice lead over the 10 votes for the second-place winner, Debivans.
I look forward to recieving my booty, and now my viewers can look forward to a pirate-themed video I’m already beginning to concoct. Given that my girlfriend, Shannancy, has demanded to be a part of it, I imagine it will at the least be a very pretty thing to watch.
Today I received the honor of being immoratlized by the great cartoonist and founder of the Frost Park Chalk-Offs, the mighty R.R. Anderson.
Anderson draws a Tacoma-centric political cartoon called The Tacomic. Throughout the Tacomic’s four years of existence, the “Tacoma Action Figure” has been a recurring theme.
Anderson uses the feature to portray significant Tacoma personalities as action figures, complete with special accessories and actions depicting notable characteristics of their persona.
While I’ve been included in Anderson’s comic once before, as part of a group of Frost Park regulars, this is the first time I’ve had an honor like this bestowed upon me.
Adam the Alien is probably the coolest and most popular person I know. He is another one of those MILLION PROJECTS AT ONCE folk heroes I’ve come to admire over the years during my humble, hyper-local political cartooning service. Let this TACOMIC stand as a thank you for all of Adam the Alien’s hard video-editing work assisting C.L.A.W. and C.L.A.W. Members alike. Let this TACOMIC stand as a celebration for the launching of AdamtheAlien.com… And finally Let this TACOMIC stand as an OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF HONOR for his ferocious Friday Frost Park Chalk Off devotion.
If you have a video problem, If no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire Adam the Alien. [cue intro theme]
The Frost Park Chalk-Off was in full force today, after weeks of low participation and rainy weather.
Arriving a little bit late, I initially had some difficulty finding a good place to chalk. many of the choice spots were already filled, some by the usual Frost Park veterans and others by faces I didn’t recognize.
I pulled out my camera to begin vlogging and discovered, to my dismay, that the battery had somehow been drained from the nearly full status I had last left it at. Luckily, Frost Park veteran Joel 413 was kind enough to lend me his camera, so there will indeed be video up later, as I catch up with editing a month’s worth of Frost Park videos.
There was a general theme of bicycles this week as many artists attempted to pander to Frost Park’s latest sponsor, the Tacoma Twilight Criterium Bike Race. There was an additional, accidental theme of fish as artists also pandered to the prize Tacoma Twilight Criterium offered: two gift cards, totalling $40, to Two Koi Japanese Cuisine.
For my own drawing, I opted to go against the theme. Being my first time really putting effort into chalking since I got sick in early May, I preferred to just start drawing and see what my imagination churned out. Having just launched AdamTheAlien.com on Monday, promoting the site turned out to be the foremost thought in my head.
My roommate, Stuart Dempster of Treefish Studios, drew a piece he titled “Bass-Akwards”, a reversal of the traditional depiction of a little fish being eaten by a bigger fish, in turn being eaten by a still bigger fish, etc. Dempster stated that it was a commentary on the BP oil disaster.
Voting to determine the winner of the chalk-off is open to all, via the comments of this week’s Frost Park Chalk Off event thread on FeedTacoma.com. A free FeedTacoma account is required, and it is highly recommended that voters specifically use the word “vote” to indicate their choice, as otherwise it is often unclear as to whether the comment is a vote or simply an observation.
"Bass-Akwards" by Stuart Dempster. Photo by Kevin Freitas.
The book is a collection of select installments of Mark’s movie reviewing comic strip, The Comic Critic. The comic strip provides quick, humorous, spoiler-free reviews of the films Mark has seen. For this book, he’s picked out the under-seen movies – the movies you didn’t see because you were too busy watching the big blockbuster instead – and brought them to the foreground.
I first met Mark through the weekly chalk-offs at Frost Park. He is one of the most creative and talented artists I’ve had the pleasure of meeting during my time in Tacoma, even if he did steal Princess Leia from me. (She was rightfully mine, Mark!)
I’m proud to say I own a copy of this, his first book, as well as the T-shirt he made out of The Comic Critic‘s review of Donnie Darko. I advise everyone to take a look at it, buy it, and then sit impatiently by the mailbox until it arrives.
-Adam the Alien
[Edit: Oh, and just in case you didn't notice, the comic shop girl was played by my lovely girlfriend, Shannancy. Be sure to check out her YouTube channel!]
. I advise everyone to take a look at it, buy it, and then sit impatiently by the mailbox until it arrives.
![[Featured Post] The Alien's Perspective: Frost Park, Season 3, Episode 11](http://adamthealien.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/4-Frost-Park-adamthealienDOTCOM.jpg "4 - Frost Park adamthealienDOTCOM")
