Got a job for The Walrus magazine, for a really interesting article on the mainstream acceptance of pornography (the astounding success of the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James) and how e-readers are the new brown paper bag for masscult books.
From the piece: "This is why Lolita and Tropic of Cancer might still be considered dangerous: their authors are unafraid to extend their vision into uncomfortable areas or offend readers. By contrast, it is difficult to imagine anyone seriously wanting to ban SECRET or Fifty Shades of Grey, its attitudes and approach are easily assimilable in our present cultural moment."
I focussed on the idea of accessibility, safe erotica - packaged in such a way that won't overstep boundaries or discomfit a reader... Consumerist, conservative, acceptable - a comparison of the average reader of this erotica with the Disney-fied Cinderella story.
Here's a full page and a spot I did recently for art director Giorgia Virgili at Stanford Magazine, a client that is always a pleasure to work with. Written by intern Rachel Kolb, deaf since birth, it was a good read and fun to figure out.
While hashing out my ideas, I specifically stayed away from any kind of puzzle imagery. I had something going on with ears-as-eyes, but it all came off a bit too goofy and light for the tone of the piece.
When I was ready to submit my sketches, I had arrived at something interesting with using water/waves. Waves are like words for her, they keep coming, unending, gone quickly... Can be different sizes, intensities... Overall I wanted to convey the stress/anxiety she experiences when trying to decipher what people are trying to say to her. (The article also shows that lipreading is not entirely negative, and in fact helps her in ways that surprise her constantly, so I kept that in mind.)
AND - The woman depicted was not intended to be an actual portrait, but it was a nice surprise today to see that the author is actually blonde.
A quick one for the Sunday Review section of The New York Times, working with art director Erich Nagler. The article is written by a woman who struggles to write a thank you card to the family of a donor who's death allowed her to have the A.C.L. tendon in her knee after a skiing accident.
Here is my last "Memoir" spot (in print) for More Magazine Canada, this one on the dangers of living in paradise.
... And another thank you to art director Faith Cochran and editor Linda Lewis - for giving me a few years of monthly opportunities to do good work. It's been great to have a regular gig for that section. Although the image would print small (2.44 x 3.02") it allowed me to do some work that got some very nice recognition from my peers, including a gold medal for this one from SOI. Coming up with ideas for personal stories is something I've always enjoyed, so I'm sad to see that magazine go, as it was also one that gave ample work to illustrators each issue.
In other news! I was recently notified that my painting, "Pink" has been selected to appear in this year’s Society of Illustrators exhibit and book.
I'm excited and very honoured to be included once again... Hoping to hit NYC in January.
Last Friday night (October 26th) was the opening of the "Fall Classic" show, the second in a series of events put on by the Garrison Creek Bat Co. It was a fun night - thanks to the GCBC Trio - Dave Murray, C.R. Fieldhouse, and Ryan Christiani!
The show featured artists; Base Camp X, Rob Baytor, Alex Bierk, Darren Booth, Graeme Cameron, Sandra Dionisi, C.R Fieldhouse, Jeff Garcia, Leslie Gauthier, Darryl Graham, Adam Hilborn, Bryce Huffman, Irma Kniivila, Jamie Lawson, Erin McCutcheon, Erin McPhee, Dushan Milic, Joe Morse, Dave Murray, Jacqui Oakley, Pete Ryan, Jon Todd and myself.
We were each given a beautifully hand-made maple wood baseball bat to do what we liked with, and here are the results...
Rob Baytor
Alex Bierk
Darren Booth
Julia Breckenreid
Graeme Cameron
Sandra Dionisi
C.R Fieldhouse
Jeff Garcia
Leslie Gauthier
Darryl Graham
Patrick Gray
Adam Hilborn
Bryce Huffman
Irma Kniivila
Jamie Lawson
Erin McCutcheon
Erin McPhee
Dushan Milic
Joe Morse
Dave Murray
Jacqui Oakley
Pete Ryan
Jon Todd
Here's my bat, hanging at SMASH gallery. It's titled "Keep Your Eye On the Ball"
Each piece moves! Really liked the idea of what the bat can do, the movement involved...
Porcelain balls by Erin McCutcheon! $5 if you want to smash one at a target at the gallery... $20 if you want to take one home. Erin also did a beautiful porcelain bat that I do not have a photo of.
Erin and Dave at the counter...
Dave Murray's bat.
Jamie Lawson's bat...
Marco Cibola, Jen Hsieh and Thom Sevalrud being forced to have their picture taken...
Darren Booth's bat, silkscreen by Dave Murray...
Loved this bat by Darryl Graham - you grip the bat and it tells you what kind of hitter you are! (I got the "Great Bambino")
My pal, Sandra Dionisi's bat...
"Poisonwood" by Graeme Cameron and Christopher Pearsell-Ross
GCBC Trio - Dave Murray, C.R. Fieldhouse, and Ryan Christiani
Here's my November issue illustration in MORE magazine... It's for a story an author wrote about her own family's issues. She discovered that her adult brother (who lives at home) had nearly depleted their mother's savings at the slot machines. She was trying to come to terms with this and the fact that her mother could not bear to deny her son, therefore aiding in destroying them both.
Check it out, my work will be in good company! We've all been given these beautiful hand-made bats, to do what we like with them... Late October finds the baseball season nearing its end, but also at its most exciting. A full season has been narrowed down to two teams, competing for one of professional sports' greatest prizes, the World Series title - also affectionately known as the "Fall Classic". GCBC would love for you to join us to help celebrate the spirit of the season at "Fall Classic", our second art show - hosted at SMASH (2880 Dundas St. W, Toronto).
Check it out, my work will be in good company! We've all been given these beautiful hand-made bats, to do what we like with them...October finds the baseball season nearing its end, but also at its most exciting. A full season has been narrowed down to two teams, competing for one of professional sports' greatest prizes, the World Series title - also affectionately known as the "Fall Classic".

GCBC would love for you to join us to help celebrate the spirit of the season at "Fall Classic", our second art show - hosted at SMASH (2880 Dundas St. W, Toronto). 

Check it out, my work will be in good company! We've all been given these beautiful hand-made bats, to do what we like with them...Late October finds the baseball season nearing its end, but also at its most exciting. A full season has been narrowed down to two teams, competing for one of professional sports' greatest prizes, the World Series title - also affectionately known as the "Fall ClGCBC would love for you to join us to help celebrate the spirit of the season at "Fall Classic", our second art show - hosted at SMASH (2880 Dundas St. W, Toronto).
Check it out, my work will be in good company! We've all been given these beautiful hand-made bats, to do what we like with them...October finds the baseball season nearing its end, but also at its most exciting. A full season has been narrowed down to two teams, competing for one of professional sports' greatest prizes, the World Series title - also affectionately known as the "Fall Classic".

GCBC would love for you to join us to help celebrate the spirit of the season at "Fall Classic", our second art show - hosted at SMASH (2880 Dundas St. W, Toronto). 

Check it out, my work will be in good company! We've all been given these beautiful hand-made bats, to do what we like with them...
This is a study of Jake Blount, a character from the novel "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.
When I'm playing around with materials, and searching for the people in the paint, there are times when there is a sense of regret... Objects, colours, line, mistaken marks and other things that I thought were essential, something that seemed to form the thing as a whole, or say something strong - can be obliterated in an instant.
I tell my students that the greatest place to be while you're working on a piece is where you find yourself making a decision that could ruin everything or make something fantastic happen. Fear is a good.
Patience though, is equally so. Last Friday night I stayed late at the studio and ruined what I thought was going to be something kinda cool. The painting had this wild chartreuse colour in the background that clashed nicely with the beginings of Jake's head and arms. And then I covered it all up. The damn thing looked like someone had cut their hair over it. So I had a drink and went home. Didn't think about it, taught on Monday - then came back to it with fresh eyes yesterday...
And I like it. It's different than I foresaw... The face, the weight in it is better and more suitable to this frustrated, angry, drunken character.
I always have a bit of regret, little pieces I wish I'd kept, but that's what happens when you don't adhere to a strict formula, pattern or process while you work. I like the surprises. It's like getting to know a person like Jake in an unpredictable conversation.
"Is there anyone more reviled than a sexual predator? He’s that leering, grubby man with a two-day growth of beard and yellowed eyes — the guy who lingers outside schoolyards and slinks alone through amusement parks looking for the child who lets go of her mother’s hand for a moment too long. Or he’s my father."
MORE Magazine, June 2012
MORE Magazine, June Issue"Is there anyone more reviled than a sexual predator? He’s that leering, grubby man with a two-day growth of beard and yellowed eyes — the guy who lingers outside schoolyards and slinks alone through amusement parks looking for the child who lets go of her mother’s hand for a moment too long.
"Maternity Wear" : This piece was about a mother who had a stylish, big statement personality.
"Tea & Sympathy" : A daughter reminisces about her mother's delightful ritual of afternoon tea: reading the leaves.
Since December of 2008, I've been fortunate to maintain a monthly illustration gig with MORE Magazine Canada. When Faith Cochran initially contacted me, she described the job like this: "The column features a personal essay in every issue. The subject matter is wide ranging, fascinating and challenging. The illustration is small, so the concept needs to be simple but brilliant."
Around the beginning of each year since then, I've half-expected an email from Faith stating the bad news - that "it's been great, but..." Fortunately, they've kept me on - and now through a recent redesign. (Which looks great, I might add!)
Thanks Faith, it's a pleasure to continue working with you.
- It is not the heat, the doctor in the camp told Jean several days later. Sometimes, something goes wrong and the baby is not meant to be born. That is all.
Some mothers say they feel the exact moment the child stops living. Some sense something wrong, or dream of death without knowing why; others notice only later, when the movement stops - although even this is only a feeling, for when the baby is this large, it no longer has any room anyway to move in the womb.
There is no safe way to induce the birth. It is best to let the body make its own decision, though this is a danger if labour waits too long. You may have to carry the still-baby for some weeks, perhaps even as long as a month.
Avery put his hand on her taut skin where he had felt movement for so many weeks and now felt nothing.
- Sometimes, the doctor said, it is simply not meant to be.
Avery could not help himself thinking: All the water inside her and our dead child.
- It is time to go to Cairo, the doctor said.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The young Nubian woman who had offered to bless the child in the Nile dipped palm leaves in river water and wrapped the cool greenness over Jean's distended belly. The leaves drew the heat from her skin. Again and again the woman did this for her, until Jean fell asleep.
No need of a translator between the two women now.
_____
page 173
For months after birth, a child remains in the mother's body; moon and tide. Before the child cries, the mother flashes wet with milk. Before the child wakes and cries in the night, the mother wakes. Deep in the child's cranial vault, the mother's gaze knits up the dangling synapses.
And when the child is spirit, it is exactly the same.
They said:
There are 2 new books out about Charles Dickens. He was a bit of a rock star - popular, knew a lot of people, still has a good following.
(I do love painting people, doing portraits, so was keen.)
We are looking for something like your "Talking With Dorothy" black and white style.
Perhaps Dickens surrounded by a group of people or in the middle of a London crowd...
In the rough stage, I always like to give my own take... In the middle above, I thought it might be interesting to show him between two shop windows, the reflections relating to the two books coming out, like two versions of him. They still wanted the crowd - ah well, you've always got to give it a shot!
(Did I mention that I am not a fan of doing crowd scenes? And on a quick turnaround especially? Well, the above right is my answer to a crowd - this way I was still able to have you still see Dickens somewhat largely and give the impression that there are many surrounding him.)
Here's the final:
This job was for Suzette Moyer and Jennifer DeCamp at The Tampa Bay Times - a full broadsheet cover for the travel/literature/arts Sunday section called Latitudes. Nice working with you both!
I've had a book stuck in my head for a couple of years now, called The Winter Vault, by Anne Michaels.
Life, death, water, earth, love, grief... Cycles. A novel written with such poetry that I couldn't shake it.
The image above is probably the least planned image I've created in a long time. I didn't have a plan beforehand, I just started painting.
The flower is fireweed, a native plant that grows after a forest fire, when everything has burnt to the ground... I thought it was suitable to the main character, Jean, thrown into grief after the death of her unborn child and to the story overall.
So there are more images I've been chipping away at and I'll post them as I finish them.
One of my favourite actresses, one of my favourite faces. This portrait of Tilda is one that I painted over and over again... Each time I did, she had a slightly different expression - she was too ghostly, or too warm, her face too open and inviting. But here she is, a premonition of fall and winter during this hot summer perhaps.
Working in the studio at home wasn't working any more and I wanted a space that would give me more room to paint and to collaborate with people that inspire me.
It's been a month since I moved into the new studio in Kensington Market and I'm sharing this great space with some amazing talent/friends; Sandra Dionisi, Aaron Leighton, Koyama Press, Renmotion and Pyramid Attack.
Thought I might have difficulty working in a studio with others, but have found it to be no trouble at all. In fact, I'm finding myself continually inspired! Not just by the talent mentioned above, but also by my tireless coop students Nayoun Kim and Alysha Puopolo... They've been helping us with a variety of projects and are now working on a killer window display that I'll post photos of when its done.
Where I work...
Shots from last weekend during a Car-Free Kensington Sunday.
I'm busy, but school's out and now I have more time to do things I love, like Pen Club! This is something that happens every other week in Toronto at the Future Bakery on Bloor. (We used to call it "Drink n' Draw".) Aaron Leighton, Steve Wilson, Arv Slabosevicius and Anne Koyama are there every week with a regular crowd and people like myself who drop in every once in a while to hang out and draw.
The steady stream of what they all create in their books in an evening astounds me, and honestly makes me self-concious. I don't work the way that many of them do - hilarious images that just seem to fall out of their heads and onto the page... As much as I try, I don't work this way - eventually I find myself doing what I love most - observing, capturing a moment in a person's face.
The amazing Janine Vangool - curator, designer and publisher of Uppercase magazine - has just come out with Work/Life 2. The book is 224 pages and features 100 international illustrators - myself included.
Inspired by a 1910 advertisement for women's undergarments, this image grew into something else as I worked on it in my studio.
A recent piece for my regular spot in MORE magazine:
Before the whistle finally blew, Dr. Marc Barnes was sleeping with thirteen of his patients on a weekly basis. One of them was the author.
This piece has been selected to appear in Illustration Annual 52, the May/June 2011 issue of Communication Arts.
This is an idea I had recently that didn't quite fit what the client was looking for. It stuck with me and somehow I think this unintentionally suits this time of year when we're reminded to care for others.
Happy Holidays to all,
Julia
Took advantage of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and headed east to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to set my eyes on friends I haven't seen for far too long.
When a little person with big saucer eyes asks if you'll draw with her, that's hard to resist... Here's a quick sketch of Geneva.
This year has been such a great one in terms of travel - and I'm headed to Arizona near the end of October... But I'll be back to Lunenburg very soon.
I did a quick and fun job last week - Geneviève Biloski at The National Post newspaper asked me to do a calender front for the Arts & Life section of the paper, with the month of October as a theme. I had done a couple of these before - and it's nice to see the work so huge, the entire length of the page. The layout has changed since the first time I did it, and now they like to have a very narrow image, loose in shape with hand done text incorporated into the illustration.
My brain works in mysterious ways... Here's a recent piece I did for UCLA magazine for their 'Life Signs' section (thanks Janet and Charlie, it was fun!) - on what causes intimate relationships to go stale over time and the best strategies to keep that from happening.:
This is typically what it looks like when I start thinking about an idea after I've read the text I've been given...
A rainy day, a bit of conversation with Dorothy Parker. This is one of my favourite things to do, making it up as I go along, trying to find the people in the paint, their faces... No particular goal, just play.
Here's another shot, for those of you who like to see where I'm working...
Right now I've got some work in a great group show on display here in Toronto at the Steam Whistle gallery called 'Cut to the Drummer', a project that was put together by Bepo + mimi - which, in case you didn't know - is driven by powerhouse Sandra Dionisi. Check out the CTTD site to hear an interview I did with Alan Cross, the man and expert behind 'Ongoing History of New Music'.
Below is a painting I did of drummer Aaron Solowoniuk of Billy Talent, titled 'SKINS', as well a couple of shots from the show and another of this painting still in my studio... The other painting is of Archie Alleyne, titled 'Tension' - Peter Goddard, a reviewer at The Toronto Star newspaper, had this to say about the portrait: "Julia Breckenreid's Archie Alleyne – a deliciously shadowy image of the veteran Toronto jazz drumming stalwart – is a lyrical contemporary exception to this old-school approach."
