Comics Residency in Riga I - James Turek

During the whole month of April kuš! hosted the first CUNE comics artist in residence in Riga in cooperation with NOASS. Now James Turek is back in Leipzig and he sent us the following report with pictures (some additional ones added by us):

CUNE Residency RIGA, April 2013

Notes from the field

April 1st, shortly before midnight I arrive in Riga airport and pick up my bag. David Schilter is waving me on..."We have to run to catch the last bus!!" We run across a nearly empty parking lot as snow falls heavily and spring into the bus as the doors close behind us.



This was the first residency I have ever had and the first for kuš! to host. From the beginning until the end (one month later) it was a bit like hurrying through the snow at night, inspiring, new and exciting, and a good feeling of relief when you make it to your destination.

Comics Jamming

Yesterday we had another one of our monthly "drink & draw" sessions. Imagine, besides drinking and talking we actually really drew!

First we warmed up with copying each others work. So the task was to draw a dog in the style of some of the attending artists. In the next picture you can see how everyone tried to draw a dog in the style of Martins Zutis. In the end he himself also drew a dog. So can you spot the original?

Drink & Draw with Simon H

Last week we had another Drink & Draw where we met up with comics artists and enthusiasts to have a fun evening with comics jams. This time we again had a special guest: š! #10 and 11 contributor Simon H from Austria. Even though they have their own Comics-Stammtisch in Vienna, it was the first time he joined such an event, and also said he enjoyed it, even though most of the time he was talking about going once more to eat pelmeni. Among other guests, we were happy to welcome also š! #11 cover artist Leonards Laganovskis.

So here is how we looked like drinking and drawing...

Keep on Jamming

Last week we had another drink&draw comic jam. Again we had some special guests. This time we met in the exhibition of Reinis Hofmanis and were joined by the Dutch comics artist and activist Albo Helm and by Austrian animator "kreasteve" Stefan Holaus. While most drawing took place on paper, some also started to experiment on the table and make tattoos with permanent markers. So it goes...

Drink & Draw with Toby and Gary Baseman

Gary Baseman, Toby (see above), Jana Brike, Oskars Pavlovskis, Gunaars Miezis, Inese Verina, Linda Konone, Ruuta Briede and Ruta, Aiste Mo, Kuš! David and Sanita Kuš! were the line-up of last Thursday's artventurous drink & draw. Gary Baseman was on a personal research tour through Poland and the Ukraine and then came to Latvia as Fulbright specialist, lecturing and doing workshops in the Latvian Art Academy. Nicely he agreed to meet up with us to do a comics jam. To see how much fun we had and what we did we will now show you some pictures!

Drink & Draw with the King

König Lü.Q. from Switzerland is currently on his royal visit in Latvia and on this occasion he invited local comics artists to join him on a comics jam. A fun evening of drinking, talking and not the least - drawing comics - followed.

Drink & Draw

Last Thursday we again met for our monthly Drink & Draw session. This time we actually also drew. Below you can see some of the doodles by Reinis Petersons, Ingrida Picukane, Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs and UKNO. If you want you can purchase them too. They make a lovely Comicsmas gift and also help to support kuš!, as the proceeds will go directly 50/50 to the artists and to the production of our next issue. What the next issue is about, you might figure out in some of these doodles:

Strange comics jams

Latvian artists where lucky to take part in two very special comics jams with international artists at the last Ligatura comics festival in Poland.

First here is the very impressive result of the comics jam initiated by Saša Rakezic:

Ingrida Picukane, Agnieszka Piksa, Martins Zutis, Boris Stanic, January N. Misiak and Aleksandar Zograf contributed to this drawing, which later was embroidered by Saša's wife Gordana Basta.