Tag: My Pandemic Diary (Page 1 of 10)

My Pandemic Diary! The Show

August 15, 2022 / Rob

I have printed out all 178 pages of My Pandemic Diary! and will be tiling the walls of the Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery with them. It promises to be overwhelming. There might also be a Lil’Covie piñata at the opening.

Saturday, August 20 to Thursday, September 1

Opening reception: Saturday, August 20, 1 to 4 p.m. Masks requested.

Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery
Niagara Artists Centre
354 St Paul St, St. Catharines, ON(905) 641-0331

http://www.nac.org

Pro tip: If you are coming from Toronto, the QEW has been a beast lately. Leave early to beat the traffic and enjoy the restaurants and shops of downtown St. Catharines before the show!

BUY THE BOOK! My Pandemic Diary! is now available in snazzy hardcover and softcover edition. can be ordered directly from Blurb, a print-on-demand service:

https://www.blurb.ca/b/11219153

My Pandemic Diary book now available

August 4, 2022 / Rob

My Pandemic Diary is now available in a 180 page book, in both a hardback and softcover volume. Hardcover is priced at $59.99 CDN/Softcover is priced at $49.99 CDN.

Books can be ordered directly from Blurb, a print-on-demand service:

https://www.blurb.ca/b/11219153

I have reviewed copies of both versions and I am impressed by the printing and reproduction quality. Seeing the sketchbook as facing pages is real surprise and makes the journey even more dynamic. I hope everyone who has been asking for a book enjoy it as much as I do.

A few months from now, we will either revisit these pages and laugh, or burn them for heat.
That’s how I introduced My Pandemic Diary! to the public.
The sketchbook was never intended for public consumption. Its genesis was a conversation I had with my partner Christine. Actually less a conversation than a rant followed by a directive.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, Christine was adamant that she couldn’t listen to my mad observations for the duration of this crisis, and I should grab a sketchbook and start writing it all down.
I am glad I started My Pandemic Diary! on Day One. It has an urgency and a shape-shifting tendency that wouldn’t be possible if I wrote it with hindsight. It is packed with suspense, generosity and betrayal because that’s what we were all experiencing in real time.
I also think it’s really funny.
Sharing My Pandemic Diary! was an afterthought. I’d put five pages at a time up on my website (swizzlestudio.com) and the usual social media. People liked the diary and told me they looked forward to the next round of plague drawings. They also kept saying “You should make a book out of this!”
I don’t quite get that. My Pandemic Diary! is my own personal journal of a weird time. The art style depends on whatever materials were at hand, the political views swing wildly, it goes on nature walks, and it is fixated on my inability to get a haircut. But maybe its unevenness is its strength. Unevenness has been the watchword for the past two years.
Despite our attempts to keep stable, none of us has had any idea where we are going. My Pandemic Diary! is a dense, rollicking, swear-filled project that tries to, if not make sense of it all, at least make some good jokes.
Enjoy!
Introduction to My Pandemic Diary!

Cold and crazy January: My Pandemic Diary pages 36 to 40

January 27, 2022 / Rob

January appears to have hit a patch of black ice and spun out of control. Here’s the latest pages of My Pandemic Diary!, in which I try to capture some of the twists and turns.

These latest sketchbook pages are exciting (to me, at least) for their drawing experiments. I really like the pen and ink page celebrating winter with its minimal colour. Plus there’s a full page of chimps throwing poop that harkens back to my Monkey Mondays project.

Direct link to the latest pages HERE: http://swizzlestudio.com/my-pandemic-diary-part-3/#page36

Links to all three volumes of the diary can be found here!
Part 1: http://swizzlestudio.com/my-pandemic-diary/
Part 2: http://swizzlestudio.com/my-pandemic-diary-part-2/
Part 3: http://swizzlestudio.com/my-pandemic-diary-part-3/