Hello!
You may have noticed that I recently removed zines and artwork from this blog. This is because I created a professional website for art and illustration! In the future, this blog will continue to focus on writing projects.
You can find my new website here: https://rotemannadiamant.com/
Please share!
Re-posted information from CCOL’s website blog:
“The Canada Comics Open Library, a non-profit comics library in Toronto, needs your help to be able to open our doors to the public for our first library branch in Toronto! We want to make our comics collection publicly accessible, and we need your help to be able to work with and support creators and offer a cozy and vibrant space. Our comics collection includes over 500 titles and continues to grow. Check out our online catalogue!
The comics library will be the first of its kind in Canada, with the potential to grow to become the largest publicly accessible comics collection in the world!
The comics library will be a welcoming space where you can drop by to read our comics, hang around to work on your own comics and art, speak with other people interested in comics and the comic arts, and participate in workshops and other events.
View our campaign page for more information!
….and to check out our rewards for your generosity:”
I was so swept up in work that I forgot to post about work!
This is the most exciting project I have ever worked on, and I’ve had the complete pleasure of leading this non-profit comics library for the past 9 months— and can finally talk about it!
The Canada Comics Open Library is working on creating an inclusive physical library space to help showcase how diverse and wonderful comics are. Right now we have an online platform with plenty of resources about Canadian Comics, and we are hosting pop-up libraries and events in existing accessible spaces until we are able to rent a space of our own.
This is a poster from our recent launch event
(designed by Ben Harvey)
And here are a few photos of community members enjoying comics at our recent pop-up library!
(Photos by Ramtin Teymouri)
I will follow this post with another update about the project!
Here are a few templates for making zines! There are so many great tutorials online you should check out. I prepared these images for an “introduction to zines” booklet to give away at Maker Fest this summer at the Toronto Reference Library, where I tabled with the Toronto Zine Library. Feel free to re-post and share.
8 page mini zine made from one sheet of paper (8.5 * 11″)
Accordion zine made from one sheet of paper (8.5 * 11″)
Simple hand-sewn binding
A few general tips
Have fun!
Please share this info and support DIY zine culture in Toronto 🖤
The Toronto Zine Library is hosting an event to raise money for a new printer and scanner for the library, and to help support future library operations. The library would like to provide accessible printing/copy methods for zine makers. Also, the scanner will support a special project that we have been working on (to be revealed the night of the fundraiser!)
The fundraiser will take place Saturday, August 4th at Glad Day Bookstore from 6-9pm. There will be live music, guest artists, a raffle, and a station where you can make zines!
Libraries like the Toronto Zine Library are far too rare, and much needed. The TZL is a much loved special place for everyone who has volunteered and visited, and we want to keep it running. The collection holds zines made by creators from all around the world speaking from diverse experiences and knowledge. The TZL is a place that aims to accept everyone and help support marginalized creators.
(Let me know if you would like a copy of this image to share elsewhere)
Thank you!
For those out there who live in Toronto,
The TZL Collective (Toronto Zine Library) will be partnering with the Toronto Zine Off to host a zine trading event happening this Friday, April 6th from 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM EDT at the Tranzac Club in the Tiki Room (292 Brunswick Ave, the same address where the cozy zine library is nestled on the second floor)
You can find all details about the event over here
If you like, bring 15-25 copies (or more) of a recent zine you have made to trade with other zinesters 🙂 There will be a small open mic as well. Myself and a few other members of the collective may be participating (if I can work up the courage).
Best of all, this is a free event!
For the past few months, I have been researching fairy lore for an ongoing writing project. I recently came across an exhibition catalogue on Victorian fairy paintings, suitably titled Victorian Fairy Painting (1997, edited by Jane Martineau with contributing essays from curators and other experts).
I feel so lucky to have stumbled into this one at Balfour Books in Toronto while they were having a big sale.
The drawing below was inspired by Richard Doyle’s The Fairy Tree, which I saw in the book and immediately thought it would be a good excuse to draw monsters.
Richard Doyle was brilliant at drawing little fairy folk figures in imaginative wondrous landscapes. Unfortunately, his depictions carry racist, nationalist, and orientalist attitudes of the time.
He was also the uncle of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who later enthusiastically embraced spiritualism.
I love the dream paintings of self-taught artist John Anster Fitzgerald, included in the catalogue. His paintings below had several versions and were controversial because the earlier versions showed references to drug-induced hallucinations and darker themes.
So many fairy paintings from the Victorian period were heavily inspired by Shakespeare, ballet, and theatre – but my favourites are inspired by more traditional lore, spiritualism, and psychological themes 🖤
Richard Doyle’s The Fairy Tree
The Artist’s Dream by John Anster Fitzgerald (1857)
The Nightmare by John Anster Fitzgerald (c.1857-8)
The Stuff that Dreams are Made of by John Anster Fitzgerald (1858)
Completely unrelated, as I was browsing the children’s section in the bookstore, I noticed that staff had subtly placed an unwelcome book in the children’s section. I found this offensive to children’s literature 😦
