Snakes, Rakes, Lakes, Zines, Zines, Zines / by Caitlin Chaisson

Over the course of the exhibition, Disturbances in the Field, the gallery space was used to host several youth workshops that encouraged the sharing of stories about environment and landscape through drawing and zine-making. Using collaborative drawing techniques where several artists work on a page, these mash-up drawings create narrative through juxtaposition. In the exercises pictured above, a silver-breathing pink Tyrannosaurus Rex faces off against a flying unicorn, a cat basks in the sun between a bat and a tulip, the Loch Ness monster exclaims its name and startles a fluffy ram nearby, and a sun rises over a one-point perspectival horizon. Each drawing contains the tropes of landscape: a horizon, a type of vegetation, an animal, and some kind of atmosphere.  

Short, thirty-second line drawing exercises were also used to experiment with the effects of simple mark-making. Asked to illustrate the phrase "A snake in a lake with a rake" (among others silly rhymes), the group came up with some impressive and dynamic improvisations. 

All the drawings were later turned into either components or preparatory work for zines the participants made and took home. So many thanks to the truly awesome Carrier Sekani Family Services youth and staff. 

If you are interested in making your own zine, and sending it in to the Far Afield Library... please do! The Library is a slowly growing collection of sought out, donated, and self-published works. 

Download the Zine making instructions here, and learn how to fold the instructional zine here. Try them out, make your own, and send them in.