News:

Dying Alone or Bust: 'Lil VS 'Lil

Exhibition in Winnipeg, Canada of Tiny Tommy Comics prints, original drawings, & Pop Art.

July 15 - August 1, 2010
Freud's Bathhouse & Diner
42 Albert Street
Winnipeg, Canada.

Opening night: Thursday, July 15th, 7pm.

With non-stop lo-fi magic provided by DJ TV School (Toronto).
Free!

Affordable pieces of small merch (Pop Art), prints of comics, original drawings & sketches, large paintings (Pop Art), some signed comic books, and miscellaneous.

Official Press Release:

Tiny Tommy is an iconic cartoon character developed by illustrator "SBK" and writer "Dottie Jax" - two creations of prolific Canadian wanderer, artist, curator, and mine of cultural capital Kristel Jax - over half a decade ago.

Jax, before and while managing and editing Syphilitic Mermaids Magazine, conceived, wrote, and illustrated over sixty known comics which explore philosophy, relationships, coming of age, artistic process and identity, gender, indie and underground culture, and the awkwardness and apparent hopelessness of human existence.
Through sequential, tiny drawings of four ragdolls named Tommy, Sketch, Suse-J and Belle, Jax created a world where isolation was an indisputable fact of life, and the meta-struggle to manifest one's inner world was both sweet and heart wrenchingly crucial.

While labouring on the outskirts in the indie and web comics world, Jax was encouraged in late 2006, while living in San Francisco, CA, to create works with her comic characters that could be both produced and distributed more quickly. Under the pseudonym 'Lil (often spelt SM²), Jax began producing one-panel comics on stickers, found objects, and even small canvases. One of the most famous and recurring of these comics bore the mantra "Dying Alone or Bust!", taken from 2006's A Rainy Day With Belle's Record Collection.

Pop Art pieces have ranged from similar nonspecific witticisms to collaborations with other artists, illustration-only (wordless) pieces, and works bearing mottos relevant to a certain location, environment, or time period; during election times it is not uncommon for Jax to make works bearing the command "Vote!", and the Dying Alone or Bust exhibition in Winnipeg will include works which are locally relevant.

Comics, while jumping from home to home in online format (TTC archives are now located comfortably at tinytommycomics.com) have appeared in xeroxed zine format, micro-press releases, and university newspapers, as well as in art shows, book fairs and shops in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York City, and Winnipeg, Canada.

'Lil's Pop Art has shown in both traditional and nontraditional venues in an extensive list of cities and towns across North America including Toronto, San Francisco, Atlanta, Vancouver, Montreal, and Winnipeg, Canada, as well as in London, England.

This (Dying Alone or Bust) is her first solo gallery show.