Table of Contents

Overview & Thoughts

Story comes easily and quickly to me. Always has, and hopefully always will. I began my art journey a decade ago, learning how to draw comic books. I had the grand plan of taking one of the epics in my skull and bringing it to life in comic book form. Then I learned how much work that is — a ridiculous amount of work — and how little people notice that work. The average reader spends something like five seconds on a panel, while an 8-10 panel page can take an entire day to draw, ink and colour.

Although the syllabus suggests I shouldn’t try to take hold of a single story too quickly, I cannot escape how my mind works. Stories began the moment I read the headline for this theme.

An Inventory of Shimmers

The idea of ‘enforced friendliness’ or ‘mandatory friendliness’ is interesting. Brings up thoughts of the paradox of tolerance. I have some corporate “mandatory socializing” coming up, which I am dreading as a fairly introverted person. In many ways, the corporate world follows the expectations laid out in this essay — though I certainly remember when the opposite held: aggressive competitiveness was the rule of the day. I’m not sure which is better.

In the social media world, we talk about para-social behaviours: People adopting in-social behaviours with individuals they’ve only known via Instagram, YouTube or Twitch. These remote people occupy our screens constantly, so our brains (not evolved to handle technology like this) react as if they are in our local group, whereas this is one-sided. The remote individual on the other side of the screen knows nothing of this interaction — they encounter thousands upon thousands of ‘followers’ every day.

Trying to think about this from a painter’s mind, I think themes of alienation, isolation, and conversely, fame might build interesting visual narratives. I can imagine that using painting to evoke a wider emotional range might also work as a form of resistance against the narrowing that this essay suggests. There is also an aspect of survival here, and taking on a persona/masking inner self, to move ahead in the current society.

Group Critique/Tutorial

I submitted the the following two paintings and context:

Years ago, I began my art journey exploring drawing and writing comics. This influences my approach to painting, particularly as I frame moments in time to tell stories.  A long-standing idea that shaped my thinking — developed before my time at OCA — was a screenplay concept: a story told entirely through the actors’ hands, with identities revealed only through costume and gesture. 

In these two paintings, I build on that visual idea, focusing on hands as the primary actors.  Gesture and a scattering of identifying motifs hopefully invite curiosity, encouraging viewers to infer character and story.  My goal is for each piece to stand on its own narratively while creating an emotional link between the two.

I imagine these paintings as part of a larger series — each capturing a suspended moment between major events, leaving the narrative deliberately open for the viewer to complete.

Martin Young (2025) Receipt of Goods. [Oil on canvas board] 30.5 x 30.5cm.
Martin Young (2025) Shift’s End. [Oil on canvas panel] 30.5 x 30.5cm.

Later, they became studies for the works contemplated in Spent

Feedback from the session:

Reviewers responded positively to the idea of focusing on a fleeting moment and using hands to suggest narrative. The limited framing invited personal interpretation—viewers were intrigued by what happens outside the frame and before/after the moment shown. The group perceived themes of power, dominance, vulnerability, and decision-making across the two works.

Shift’s End was pointed as the compositionally stronger, which I agree. It was the second attempt and I had stronger references. I think I realized it better, as well, as I used sketch transfer technique to transfer my digital drawing over to the canvas — a drawing made with heavy assistance of the hand references.

In contrast, Receipt of Goods was painted based on visual references only. That said, the group said that the brushwork indicated ‘speed’ in the event, suggesting a faster paced moment.

I enjoyed hearing that the group caught on to the visual symbols I was using, and there was a good discussion around what some of them might mean. One member of the group suggested broadening the range of subjects to elderly or children, and how that might change narratives.

I’m not sure I resonate with that last one, at least at this stage. The story itself, as it currently stands, doesn’t have a place for another character. But perhaps something to explore in future.

Research

My notes on artists are consolidated below:

Art Gallery of Ontario: Yayoi Kusama

Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – Let’s Survive Forever returned to my home gallery after spending the last couple of years travelling in the US. I hadn’t had the opportunity to see it previously, and experience the sensory impact of the infinite room, so I jumped at the chance to attend a talk put on for a select group of the AGO’s supporters.

This event allowed me to talk to the AGO’s Chief Curator, as well as their head of conservation, and hear how this very complex work gets shipped, assembled, and cleaned. I find conservation very fascinating.

We were also allowed to visit the infinite room after hours, and therefore have repeated visits within in the absence of waiting in line. The artist stipulates that an experience lasts 60 seconds, so they timed us and pulled us out after a minute. But we could then go back in after a relevant “breather”. In those breathers, I doodled something of a reaction, seen to the right.


Sketch reaction to Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – Let’s Survive Forever

Reading Round-up

Exercises

Narrative and the Frame

I find it difficult not to embed stories in nearly everything. This exercise got me thinking about a project that could be a “choose your adventure” done in paint:

  • Imagine a Brady-Bunch intro wall, where several individual portraits are presented. Some look out of frame at other portraits. Or just off into space. Each has a couple of distinctive pieces of costume, or presentation — jewelry, torn clothing, hair colour, something. Each should have 2-3.
  • Then, a series of other images. In each image, an interaction or aftermath of an implied interaction. Crucially, none of these are portraiture or full figure. They all conceal the identity of the actors present.
  • The viewer is then challenged to assemble narratives from a series of disconnected events and tell stories for themselves.
  • The study to the left, Study for Tender, arises from this idea.


Martin Young (2025) Receipt of Goods. [Oil on canvas board] 30.5 x 30.5cm.
Sketching and thinking about Spent
Undersketch for study of Motel scene
Problems: man on bed needs more narrative focus. Perhaps bring him to this side? Otherwise, reposition camera and move nightstand to other side of bed?


Narrative Continuation: Spent

These four images are a riff on the above, taking the study into stand-alone territory. Though I think this could also still fit the originating idea. Some of these are a bit more than I think my current skills allow for– but that is just reason to dive in and tackle. Study for Tender scared me, but I’m pretty pleased with it.

Clearly being influenced by the “alienation/isolation” themes from the reading ‘An Inventory of Shimmers’.

  • A subway car. One man sits in the foreground, slumped, staring out the window. In the background, another man stands, face obscured by a pole or passing light. Blurred billboards? A red tie in the background.
  • A close-up—hands meeting, money being passed. No faces visible. One arm shows a suit/shirt. The other has a wedding band. Tattoos? String bracelet? Each needs identifying marks.
  • A man sits on the edge of a neatly made bed, fully clothed, facing away from us and towards a window. Silhouetted? The room is anonymous — sterile lighting, fluorescent tube, beige walls, and generic art above the headboard. Keys on a nightstand, a wallet, a beer can. Something red (baseball cap?). Does the hotel room art echo the billboards from the subway car?
  • Early morning. A booth by the window. A half-finished coffee. A man rests his head on one hand. Outside, city life begins. Steam rising from coffee? Newspaper headline partially legible: something banal but ironic.

Becoming Material, Image and Language

This one is more challenging, perhaps because I loaded complexity into it. I wanted to use my instant film camera, as I like the physicality of the Polaroid format. However, I’m still very much an amateur with physical film and manual cameras, so many of the shots were entirely over-exposed.

Some, however, are still interesting in that state. Though I think the overall story was lost.

A few are beautiful. A few suggest something is going on in the image with the combination of views.

(tbd)