THE REALLY GOOD EXCITING VERY FUN DAY
"I've bartended a lot of events in this place that were literal shit shows.. but this? This totally rules." - an actual quote from a little ginger man who served drinks at the venue! Love you.
Here's how it all went down... January 23 2018: Sitting in our quaint 2-bedroom apartment, my roommate Em and I were making dinner when our friend Ayrton came over. After our usual conversations of nonsense, we came up with the genius idea of hosting our own little interactive art exhibition: something that we all have wanted to do eventually, but knew would never really happen.
But why the heck not! We got to thinking that our creative minds needed some sort of outlet - some sort of way to get rid of all the art (shit) that we have accumulated over the years, give others the opportunity to create their own art, and ultimately bring people together on a random upcoming Saturday. Another friend, Clive, who is also Ayrton's roommate, immediately got on board and our team of 3 quickly became 4.
All of us are in the creative field: myself studying Photography & Art History; Em who studied Studio Arts (and now a very successful tattoo artist); Ayrton studying Journalism; and Clive studying Art Education. The planning started right away with Ayrton creating a Google Docs on his laptop - where we put down all our ideas, budgets, details, lists, etc. It was mindlessly titled "Art (Shit) Show" and that was how that happened. Art (Shit) Show became the brain child born from four busy art kids that had a little too much energy so of course, why not host a huge event to stress us out a little more!
Over the next few weeks, we contacted a gallery that loved our idea and soon we signed a contract to host our event in their awesome space right on the street front of St. Laurent. They let us do whatever we wanted! We created a Facebook event with all the details and posted weekly of things to expect at the show. Our RSVP count grew pretty fast and soon we were expecting over 100 people. After countless trips to Dollarama for art supplies, Canadian Tire for materials, and our hard work inside/outside of school creating our own art to show and sell.. it was all coming together.
Saturday March 31, 2018: THE BIG DAY
We slept a grand total of 2 hours the night before. The morning rolled around and we got to the gallery for 8am to start setting up. On half of the gallery space, we had huge white tarps hung up covering the walls for the beautiful minds and dexterous hands of goers could craft their own (shit) with markers, paint, chalk, etc. Art shit for all!
On the other side, Em, Ayrton, Clive and I had tables set up with our own art. Prints, paintings, stickers, photographs, clothing, graphics, video and pretty much any other medium you could think of was there! Em's family and best friend from home was in town for the big weekend. Ayrton and Clive's family and friends were here too. I was so lucky to have my best friend make the trip too! Throughout the day, friends brought friends of friends who came, art, and went. Although the most rewarding part was seeing strangers off the street come in to check it out and make their own art.
Into the night time portion, we had live music! And cheap drinks! Like $5 for a drink and a custom sticker. It was really cool seeing people who came during the day, come back for the fun part! They couldn't get enough of us ;) The art (shit) was still on the walls and for sale, and most importantly, people could still draw on the walls too - which seemed to be the highlight of the event. I loved seeing random people get into the zone and create some weird pieces of art that I still think, "Who drew that rainbow alien-looking robot eating a taco?" I don't care but I love it.
The following couple days I got super sick. All worth it though.
