When religious people come knocking at your door, do not turn them away! Consider it a business opportunity.

You don't have to be rude to religious proselytizers who come to your home to share their beliefs with you. You can invite them in, just charge them for your time. I've decided to charge $500 an hour, and I've drafted a written agreement for just such an occasion. As a public service, I'll include it below as a downloadable PDF, but here's just a taste.

Now they can try to save your soul, and you can put some money away for a rainy day. It's win-win! You can get the full document here.

High-quality prints from my mail art project are now available, made to order.

I'm now offering prints of any of the hand-drawn postcards I've made for my mail art project. 

High quality digital prints can be made to order for any of the images from my mail art project. The prints are 13" by 19" (with a white border), printed on heavy-duty archival paper, and signed. The cost is $70 (CAD) per print, plus shipping, and they can take a few weeks to arrive. Please send a query to info@paulvermeersch.ca if interested. 

Here are a few recent examples from the series:

Careful Whispers

Plague Doctor with Talk Balloon

The Shootout!

For a full library* of images from my mail art project, click here. 

*New images are being added all the time, so visit regularly.  

100th Postcard!

Last December, I started a mail art project where I make, and mail, hand-drawn postcards. They are available through my website for $10 each. Today, I am mailing out my 100th card, called "Rocketship 1956". This card is a homage to both the popular fiction and the midcentury modern design style of the 1950s.

For more information about my mail art project, click here. 

My summer residency at the National Water Centre

This summer I was an artist in residence at the National Water Centre, where I was working on my next book. Mike Forestell of the Waterkeepers organization dropped by the centre to interview me, and this profile is the result. Thank you, Mike.

Connected to societal collapse and the disintegration of language, Paul sees a growing abstraction from nature. Having spent equal portions of his childhood outdoors and in front of the TV, he surmises: “Nature is very popular—in the media. Everyone like pictures of nature. But you put those same people in [nature] and they shrink from it….My nature comes to me served up by Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom or David Attenborough, and it’s entirely educational, but it’s also sanitized”.

Read the entire profile here.

Jacqueline Valencia reviews Don't Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something

Thanks to poet Jacqueline Valencia for this review on Goodreads of my latest book Don't Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something (ECW Press, 2014).

Postmodernism finds poetry continually cycling through arguments of the lyrical versus the conceptual. Therefore, it’s refreshing to see a poet dare to play amongst the mudslinging.   

Paul Vermeersch’s latest poetry collection Don’t Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something, is an ode to language left after the end of civilization. Scouring the poetic landscape with various prose harvesting methods such as cut-ups, centos and erasures, Vermeersch collects work and molds it into new structures. He does this on the conceptual setting of future decay. Through that world Vermeersch renders the words anew and reveals the inherent experimental nature of poetry.

Read the whole review here.

Order the book here.

Updated Visual Art Section

I've updated the visual art section of my website with larger images, updated price and availability information, and paintings and drawings in one easy to browse section. Check it out here.

Wolfe Island Literary Festival -- June 6, 2015

I'll be taking part in the annual Wolfe Island Literary Festival on Saturday, June 6th. 

It runs from 3pm to 6pm on Brophy's Point, Wolfe Island (near Kingston). Remember to check ferry times in advance.

Hosted by Mark Medley. With readings from: Michael Crummey, Helen Guri, Paul Vermeersch, Dani Couture, Bernie Finklestein and Darryl Webster.

Programmed by Dave Bidini and Mark Mattson.

** This is a free event. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. **

Thank you to the sponsors: Donald Bayne, Mark Ertel, Hal Mattson, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, and Windmills.

RSVP on Facebook. 

Art Show: No Ceremony

Banner designed by Kimikimo. 

No Ceremony was a group show featuring work by Talwst, Justin Peroff, Kimikimo, Hieram Weintraub, and myself. Held at Milk Glass Gallery, 1247 Dundas Street West in Toronto, it was original scheduled from April 30 to May 3, 2015, but was extended to May 4.

Below are the works I exhibited in the show. If interested, please send inquiries to info@paulvermeersch.ca.

Defence Research Board, printed polyester curtain, 69" x 70". 

Invasion, oil on canvas, 24" x 26"

Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy, oil on canvas, 24" x 30"

Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy, printed polyester blanket, 50" x 60"

Two Laser Guns (Hair Dryer), oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

Two Laser Guns (Hose Nozzle), oil on canvas, 18" x 24" 

Sea Monkeys, framed, ink on paper, 19" x 24"

Les Desmoiselles de Mystery Machine, framed, ink on paper, 14" x 17"

SOLD -- New 100% Robot Pants, oil on canvas, 6" x 12" 

SOLD -- Scientific Optical Principle Really Works, oil on canvas, 6" x 12" 

Alien Phrenology Bust, oil on canvas, 11" x 14"

Schtroumpf Cubiste, framed, ink on paper, 11" x 14"

SOLD -- Godzilla, framed, ink on paper, 14" x 17"

Poster designed by Kimikimo.