Jonathan Rotsztain

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I will be leading a Self-Loving Jew comics workshop this Sunday, March 19 as part of Limmud Toronto. Limmud is an international, one of a kind festival celebrating all the richness Jewish identity can offer. I’ll be leading participants through the history of Jewish memoir comics and the creation of their own confessional visual stories. I’ll also be selling my books as part of Café Limmud. I’m very excited to see you at the St. Andrews Club and Conference Centre at 150 King Street West this Sunday. My presentation closes the day at 5pm. And don’t forget to read the original Self-Loving Jew comics on my website. 

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The latest edition of Self-Loving Jew is now up on Scribe, the Forward’s Contributor Network. The Chanukah themed strip builds on the previous editions you can read on Koffler.Digital here. 

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#Verified ✔ . #drawing #daily #diary #comics #socialmedia #michelangelo #vitruvianman #vital #stats

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Dreary Diary is in full effect on instagram.com/jrotszta + http://drearydiary.com/ 

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Happy Chanukah from your Self-Loving Jew!

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Calling All Grandparents and Grandkids! I’m excited to be heading to the Koffler Centre of the Arts for Part 2 of the Intergenerational Comics Walk series begun last weekend.

In Part 1, I led groups of grandkids and their elders on a walk around the Holy Blossom Tempe neighbourhood sharing geological, political and personal histories of the Cedarvale and Forest Hill area.

Next we went into the Temple and I taught comics exercises that culminated in the grandkids and grandparents producing autobiographical comics together.

In Part 2, our comics workshop is going to join forces with Bookmarkers, a regular program of Koffler and Groundwood Books, where I’ll be presenting with author Sara O’Leary and illustrator Qin Leng who will be reading from and talking about their latest children’s book, A Family is a Family is a Family!

This event is free, all-ages and open to the public. See you at Artscape Youngplace at 1pm! Above poster by me.

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As the US election is about to wrap up with either a bang or a whimper, now may be a good time to look back at last year’s Canadian election. I had the pleasure of working with Noah Richler’s NDP campaign. The result is Noah’s new book The Candidate: Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail a frank, witty and heartfelt memoir of seeking and losing a federal race. I supplied graphics for this video as well as a comic that appears in the book. Go pick up a copy and get the inside look at the how and why of politics in Canada from one of our nation’s leading writers. 

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This is the second ad in the series Private Deals, Proven Failures for the Nova Scotia Health Coalition featuring branding and icons by ALL CAPS Design. 

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My branding and icons in this important campaign spot (2 of 2)

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Private Deals, Proven Failures! ALL CAPS provides logo and icon design for the Nova Scotia Health Coalition’s latest campaign. The province wide campaign includes television ads such as this spot. The campaign highlights private funding deals’ proven record of failure when used to finance and build public infrastructure. This is the first time ALL CAPS has provived assets that have been animated and aired on terrestrial television and across the internet. We’re proud to support the NSHC and help spread the message about the failure of the P3 model. 

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My branding and icons in this important campaign spot (1 of 2)

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I’m back from my residency at KIAC in Dawson City, Yukon and had a blast! We were lucky enough to receive some great press for the Dawson Comics Crier from the Yukon News [Read Here] and What’s Up Yukon [Read Here], including having my artwork from Dreary Diary appear on the cover—and above the fold—of the News. You can also see that my comics were printed on the same folio piece of paper as the official comics section. Long Live Print! Pretty cool. 

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Here it is! The debut issue of the

Dawson Comics Crier by West Dublin Monitor on Scribd

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I’m now complete my residency at KIAC in the Dawson City, Yukon. The result is the Dawson Comics Crier! Read our first (and only for now) issue here featuring an interview with Tundra Comics Chad Carpenter and work by dozens of local and international, professional and enthusiast artists of all ages. 

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Tonight in Dawson City, Yukon! I’m giving my KIAC Artist Talk and we’re launching the Dawson Comics Crier! Join us in the KIAC Ballroom at 7pm.

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I’m the current Artist in Residence at KIAC in Dawson City, Yukon. It’s amazing to spend time in this beautiful and magical Klondike gold rush town.

Along with artist Rebecca Roher, our project is to create a new free comics newspaper *The Dawson Comics Crier*

Whether you're in the territory, have been or dream of the Canadian north — send us your comics and stories for print in this free, community project that will be distributed throughout the Yukon.

Email [email protected] by Sept 20! Art by Rebecca Roher.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

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For the last five weeks I’ve been an artist-in-residence at the Roundtable Residency. While there, I completed a new comic Exercises 3 which will be available at Zine Dream this weekend! For the Roundtable’s closing show, I took the 24 interior pages of the new Exercises, hung them on the wall and painted images from my comic on top off them, images based on paintings by Roy Lichtenstein, “inspired” by the graphic storytelling of Mike Sekowsky and Tony Abruzzo, dialoging with the intersection of fine art and funny books. I also spoofed the residency bunny, recreating shots of it for the residency’s Instagram takeover. Roundtable was an amazing experience and I am grateful. Thanks to all the organizers and the Dragon Academy for hosting. 

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Tonight at 7pm in Toronto: Join us for The Roundtable Residency Closing Reception including art by me like the launch of Exercises 3 and new pieces from over a dozen local and international artists. 

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today’s my #takeover on the @roundtableresidency #instagram! #follow4follow

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It was my privilege to host two editions of my workshop Rhythms: The How and Why of Ritual at the Hillside Festival this July. With gentle guidance, participants crowd-created a communal ceremony drawing on mental, physical, spiritual and emotional pillars. Hillside was a blast and these workshops/rituals were especially fun and meaningful. Thanks to Hillisde and all who came out to the workshops. Thanks to Daniel Rotsztain for photos of the Saturday ritual on Guelph Lake. xo

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I’m heading out to Guelph, Ontario this weekend for the Hillside Festival! I’m thrilled to be delivering my workshop *Rhythms: The How and Why of Ritual* on Saturday at 1pm and Sunday at 5pm. Hope to see you there to engage in some communal intentionality, healing and celebration. Photo by Tabercil via Wikipedia.