december (Patreon)

hello! 

drew the above piece that u can download for free from here, and print yrself to make into a card for your union delegate / rep / shop steward / organiser, to thank them for their largely invisible n often thankless efforts.

new piece for Overland about the efforts to expand voting rights to 16+ year olds. an excellent campaign on face value and then doubly so when u consider how progressive most young ppl are / and their potential impact as a voting bloc hahaha  😝

getting the young'ns the vote is current greens policy, and the ALP had it as a priority back in 2016 but have been quiet on it lately, i don't think they're against it but its not in their focus atm. meanwhile people aged under 18 paid $40 million dollars in taxes last year, which u wld think wld afford them some rights, "no taxation without representation" blabla. and ppl their age can already vote in argentina, austria, bosnia, brazil, cuba, east timor, ecuador, estonia, germany, greece, indonesia, malta, nicaragua, scotland and wales. 

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Since i last wrote i am pleased to report that i have got a JOB.
I think i overdosed on drawing the last while, which happens, I remember having similar feelings three or four years ago, and a friend said “just stick with the art for now, do your best with the book, go hard on it, and then reassess things”. Feel like that is kind of what happened, the book does feel like an end-point of some sort, and i will struggle to continue to draw groups of workers in ways that don’t bore me and bore you guys hahah, so i need to mix it up.

Plus i miss having co-workers, using my body, having a degree of job security. The last especially with the leaps and bounds AI / robotic illustration are making.
I got AI / a robot to produce these original pieces about artists work getting automated:

I am not rly mad about drawing becoming automated, (AUTOMATE ME PLEASE!!!!!!!), not sure why artists shld expect not to be effected by automation when just about every other layer of the workforce is. You can’t rly resist it. i liked this take about it all, and this one also:

People say the work that AI makes is still fugly and alot of it is, but it’s also *very new* technology, its gonna jump ahead in leaps and bounds over coming years / even months. I don’t think robots will be making narrative based work any time soon, like longer research based or reflective comics, but i think they will probably be making a large chunk of what we see as static, stand-alone artworks in the next couple of years. it does all make me a bit uncomfortable, but that said, as an example, even though it has pushed thousands of graphic designers out of work over the last five or so years, no one gets mad at a time-poor comms worker or organiser for using Canva to lay out a flyer (and i dont rly see why they wld).

above is an AI rendering that a friend of a friend of mine got made, based on my illustration style hahah FUCK.

anyway ALL THIS SAID the day job i got is only giving me two/ maximum three shifts a week at present, so i’m gonna keep this Patreon going until i can be made permanent or pick up more days.

I’m never gonna stop drawing as long as i have fingers, and perhaps one of the most special parts of the new job is that I can draw while on shift. The position is a ‘lashing and pinning’ job at the docks, basically involves securing the containers when they’re up on the ships and removing metal attachments when they're taken off the ships. If i can cop the physicality of it and the night shifts, it might hold me in good stead for years to come, thats the hope anyways...

turned that 'boycott' comic into a printed zine, which i've been slowly posting out to all u ppl, along with some new stickers and wotnot. pls email me if you've moved houses lately and i'll update address. i'm about halfway through sending the packages, might take me a bit longer to get them all out, thanx for yr patience.

the boycott comic was also translated into italian recently for Internazionale, i will put the italian version at the end of this email, feel free to forward it on to anyone u think might like to read it in that language.

drew the below little design for the MUA to celebrate their 150th (!!!) bday this year. did it as a freebie since they're my union now :

also drew this sick quote from MUA leader Paddy Crumlin, which i'm now a bit nervous about putting into the broader world cos of the new job hahaha (the rally depicted was about 200 metres from my work), i wanna keep my head down for a bit. good quote from him tho, and i hope the drawing will find a home when i feel a bit more settled:

ive been trying to tie off the below rough sketch about the pokies, but the entire existence of poker machines is so big and bleak and looming that it's hard to find an entry point into the issue. even harder to make something kinda camp / playful or goofy. if u have any ideas about how i might tweak the draft to make it punchier / less "scold-y" pls let me know!!!!!!

some Teaching and Research Assistants Union members at Concordia University in Montreal made this banner with a remix of the 'united we bargain' graphic on it <3

ok i might leave it there, thankyou for the continued support!!!! and dont forget to let me know if you've moved, send me a msg. have a good xmas and ny mates x

PS This is on TODAY if u or anyone you know works for a delivery rider company!!!!
a great first step imo: