Joshua Santospirito Art

Upcomings and Goings
* 13th Oct -> 5th Nov HOBART *
I’ll have some art as part of a group exhibition of comic-art at the Rosny Barn in Hobart named Follow Your Shadow (see the image at the bottom). Opening part is from 5:30pm Friday October the 12th. I’ll also do an artist talk with some of the other artists on Saturday the 14th of October at 2pm, All welcome. Kid-friendly.

* Oct -> Nov INDONESIA *
Me and my tribe of graphic novelists will be in Jogjakarta for the second biannual Comics Art Workshop. Whilst we are in Indonesia we will be doing TWO DIFFERENT Read To Me comics reading events:
1) At Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali (if that pesky volcano doesn’t blow it’s top), and
2) At Biennale Jogja, in Jogjakarta, Java.

Whilst I am in Indonesia I’ll also be manning the @Sawtoothers Instagram account if you want to follow and see all the great art things that catch my eye. Sawtooth is wonderful artist run gallery based in Launceston in Tasmania’s North.

* 16th November, Thursday -> MELBOURNE *
Talk (see the above promo image) – I’ll be in Melbourne to give a low-key talk about Sydney/Purgatorio at Squishface Studios in Brunswick at 8pm after their drawing class.

Sydney/Purgatorio
I feel like I should tell you a bit about my graphic novel project … but not too much, cos it’s going to take me a very long time to complete and if I talk about it too much you will be sick of it by the time it comes out … in maybe the year 2023 or whenever. This is the project that I’m taking to the Comic Art Workshop to get feedback on.

Comics take a long time … they truly do. And this one is more complex than any one I’ve ever done before. Craig San Roque wrote in “prose form” back in 2010, and it is a published piece in an academic journal. After I launched The Long Weekend in Alice Springs in 2013 I said to Craig “Hey Craig, if you have any short bits of writing, flick them my way and I’ll see if I think they’ll make a good comic”

Craig sends me a piece of writing which is about THREE TIMES AS LONG as the original version of The Long Weekend in Alice Springs …. honestly … what didn’t he understand about the word “short”??

I read it … hated it.

I quite was relieved “Great – won’t waste years working on that super long piece of garbage! … A few months after that I got a bit drunk at home after the Carlton Blues lost badly to someone (2013 was yet another lost year) … and reread Sydney/Purgatorio and realised that it was indeed quite brilliant. DAMNIT Craig!!!

I might tell you a bit more about it in about in another email in a few months time so I don’t take up all your day, the art on this page are from concept sketches I’ve been doing alongside the drafting work that I’ve been doing on it.  You can look at these process images on my Instagram if you like.

Thing to buy if you enjoy buying things
Graphic Novels
* The Long Weekend in Alice Springs
* Swallows Part One
* I wanna be a travella: Sri Lanka (a nice little travel comic/sketchbook from my trip there)