People to look for
I’ve seen some amazing art this summer but back in June I wandered into “The Crooked Star” a bar at 202 Ossington Avenue, I was only in there briefly as I was waiting for a table across the street at the restaurant Libereto.
Looking around at all the Kitschy décor I spied the most interesting group of illustrations by Toronto Artist “Cat Reyto.” I haven’t stopped thinking about her work, and although this show is down now. She will be showing new work soon and I know you need to see it, Ill keep you posted!
This show called “The Great Disgrace” “Blame it on Your Day job!” was a series of illustrations that she did on the subway on her way to work at her “day job.” We all know what these jobs can be like, a necessary evil that funds your true love whatever that may be. In Cats case its amazing illustration and animation.
I spoke to Cat this summer while she was working up North helping to convert an old church into a residential unit.
So tell me about the circumstances that led you to this body of work?
The story behind it is, I worked for the winter temping and the temp job was an hour and twenty minutes from where I live.
I felt super sorry for myself and the only way I could make myself feel better was I would get on the subway after work and draw something about what happened to me during the day.
January and February there wasn’t much going on and what I would look forward to, was the end of the day when I would get to draw all of my experiences. Some of them are fun and some are sad and some are unrelated to the job I was doing. Normally, I work to my own agenda and I was so busy that that subway time was the only time I could relax and think about things that were ridiculous.
So what is your preferred line of work?
I am an animator, I went to Concordia a traditional old-school animation program and in 2007 I graduated from Sheridan in their computer animation program and since then I have just had to make money with my own contracts. I was learning from it, and doing many different kinds of projects.
I sell my work as prints and you can order what you want. I want to get them into people hands as soon as possible. I have a show planned for the beginning of October. I’m thinking of a character-based show, possibly having fun with the characters maybe making 3 dimensional cut-outs and larger prints of my work.
Was the day-job situation a learning experience for you?
What I really got most out of that show was a way to document things in my own way, it was like, this is how I thought and this is how I wrote it. These illustrations may turn into a book.
It was an opportunity to be able to get a large amount of work done, and selling the prints in the bar was great, I got to know the regulars and they purchased the work.
It‘s true what they say, that inspiration really does come from bad times and I hope people out there can be motivated when this happens to them and realize that its better to do things instead of getting down or staring at the walls. It’s the struggle that puts you on the edge and makes you react. It was definitely one of my more creative times. I find situations like this sort of take you out of your own bubble and stop you from looking at yourself and make you look else where. If there was a reason to the show that was it.
So what’s next on your agenda?
I was thinking this year of doing a volunteer project that I could document in the same way. The idea of doing it came to me on the subway as well. That was a month or two into recession time and things were looking bleak but I managed to gain something from it.
Cat is also a portrait artist and will take commissions.
