A September Full of Art

Run by some of the folks from Anime North, this was the first year for Grafficker Alley. I had some reservations leading up to the event since there was not much marketing that any of us artists saw besides a couple of social media posts from local Mississauga pages. We were hoping to see a bit more, but luckily there was still quite a turnout for this event.

The venue was absolutely beautiful! Located in the Small Inspections Building along Lakeshore rd, it was a very spacious building with tons of windows providing a lot of natural light into the space. The only con to those windows was that some artists got blasted by too much Sun in one corner of the building as there were no shades. Luckily for me, I was facing away from the windows and we had a tree in our corner.

My partner and I shared the table, with majority of the table contains my art, and a small shelf for my partners art! I loved sharing the space with him, and I’m so happy that he’s even more motivated to create art with me.

Overall, it was a nice event with a decent turnout for its first run.

Run by Visual Arts Mississauga, Art in the Park is an annual event that gathers the community to explore a variety of art pieces from local artists, participate in hands-on workshops, and enjoy live music and food.

Art in the Park was the first ever event I applied to, and I got rejected. I definitely was not ready when I was filling out that form, and I wasn’t 100% sure if my art would fit in with all the other art being displayed and sold at this event. I’m primarily a digital artists, so looking at pictures of vendors from previous years with tons of traditional artists with paintings and handcrafted items was a bit daunting.

It turned out to be such a nice time!! I met some amazing local artists and had such a fun time talking to all the visitors. There were some memorable moments during this event:

• I had made some empty zines for people to take and make their own comics/zines; two visitors came back and showed me what they had made! One of which was a kid who had seen two siblings fight just outside of the building, and decided to make a comic based on having mean siblings (his mom later told me that he was an only child 😂)
• I spoke to a little girl who was also Filipino. She told me she absolutely loved halo-halo and really liked my halo-halo zine. She ended up asking her mom for it, and she got it! It was just really cute how excited she got seeing a dish she loved 🥰

Just Zine Things

Date: September 27th, 2025

Location: Interesting Things | 1352 Lakeshore Rd E. Mississauga

Another first time event! Just Zine Things was the first zine-centred event held at Interesting Things in Kensington Market. The weather was in our favour this day; nice and sunny with a slight breeze while we were set up in a nice intimate area in the back. Just an overall cozy event with a nice flow of people!

With how small the event space was, it made it easier to go up to other artists and strike up a conversation. My partner and I had a lot of fun getting to know all our fellow zine artists!