Artings

The latest creations from my mind-womb!!!!!

"Java Baby"

"Water Baby"

"Oil Baby"

"Monthly."

"Moon Time"

I'm considering these sketches for future paintings. I've made stickers out of most of them. Let me know if you'd like some. : )

I feel Autumn today.

Like I said. Today is ripe with the scent of familiarity. It's my favorite time of the year again. Despite the Fates' attempt to commandeer my feelings about Autumn, I still regard her as my favorite season. There's color, change, and promise of rebirth. Everything getting ready for the long winter ahead. It's as if the earth is breathing in after breathing out since the Spring.

I'm feeling very creative today, we'll see how that shapes up, but I definitely think some drawing is in order.

And now for something Gothic. So much color surrounds Autumn. Yellows, oranges, reds, browns, and clinging shades of fading green. There are grays and whites and blacks toward the end, and some blues. Then Winter, in all of its minimal white, flecked here and there in blacks and greys, like ash from an autumn explosion. The irony here, is that Autumn, for all its color and whimsical holidays, is first and foremost a season of death. The veil between the worlds is reputedly thin at this time, the earth seems to waste and decay, the color fades. Ghosts return to us in this season on holy days like samhain, halloween, El Dia de los Muertos, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, and a host of others. Harvest, the gathering of the fruit of dying plants for storage through the winter and the eating of harvested meat is celebrated on various feast days in Autumn. Underlying all of these joyful festivities is the theme of death, eturnity, blissful sleep, and faith that Spring will return after the Winter. All the life that is sucked out of the landscape will magically return as the Sun begins to show its face more and the days lengthen. A gamble, at best.

The theme of death has been shrouded more and more in the gradual evolution of the Autumn holidays. What used to be regarded as solumn celebrations of ancestors and lives lost has turned into the candy-flinging frolic of Halloween, and the gorge-fests of Thanksgiving, the Feast of St. Michael (one of the 4 evangelists), the Mid-Autumn Festival (celebrated in many Asian countries), Durga Puja (a feast for Durga, Mother Goddess and slayer of demons), and countless others.

But, also underlying the theme of death is a feeling of hope and deliverance. Why would we gather and store for the Winter unless we were sure we'd be alive after the sun "dies" on the eve of the Winter Solstace? We take solace in knowing, by faith, that it will be reborn again on the morning of the Solstace. And Spring will return, so we can do it all again.

This musing brought to you by... A faint scent, and a feeling. It is Autumn today. I love it.

Update and Burbling

Wow, so work has been so hectic that I haven't been able to produce any stickers for, like, a month now. Yay school starting. Apparently this is our peak season. At least it'll calm down soon.

I'm seriously considering the purchase of a vinyl cutter. They're expensive, but I really like it as a medium. I have plans. So many plans. *evil grin*

I have a girlfriend, her name is Laura. : )

She made me a bento lunch today that included a big rice piggy and little hot dog piglets! So full of cute! And made with love. You know how sometimes you can totally tell that your food was either happy or made with love? You eat it and it nourishes your soul and your body. I started my lunch happy and ended it laughing because I could feel the love. :D Best lunch evar! Thank you my dear! I'll post a pic later.

I've been artistically constipated. I haven't done anything in a really long time. It's time to get painting. And knitting. And sewing. And sketching. Anything...

The problem I've run into has to do with my energy level. It's non-existent. I've been trying to counter it with a little mind-over-matter exercise. I wake up, frown, and my first thought is "I'm tired, I want to sleep more, this sucks." I'm making a concentrated effort to wake up, smile, say an affirmation, and think "I'm awake, I'm happy, today is awesome!" It has produced good results so far, actually.

My dreams have been very vivid lately. One involved visiting Atlantis and seeing their water accumulator tower; it pulls water out of the atmosphere using polarity and drips it into a lake, all pure and drinkable. There is a force field that keeps contaminants out. If a large enough organic body falls in (ie. Me or another person), it teleports it onto a platform that is like a dock running out into the center of the lake. For the record, teleporting is SUPER FUN!

My inquiry into Hinduism had produced some interesting results. The more I research it, the more I am drawn to it. Not the Hare Krishna movement, but the religion as a whole. It is full of light, balance, love and tolerance. Not just tolerance, but understanding and acceptance. Cool stuff, and the deities are super cool.

I have a big happy today. : )

My cat caught his first bird a week ago! I was very happy for him, and he seems to have perked up a little since then.

I have an awesome potted vegetable garden now! It is doing well. Hopefully it will produce zucchini before the frost. There are tomatoes also, and lettuce and peas. Herbs too. Om nom nom.

I'll try to sell Argentina this weekend. My car and I have had some good times, but now we must part. I'll see how well I do with for sale signs and leaving it in a visible place before I go with craigslist.

I'm in Circus Bacchus as their official fire tech (LOL!) and I'm now the trumpet player in the Circus Bacchus Band! I'm having tons of fun with them and I'll start learning new skills soon. Juggling and fire staff are on the list. And I think I'll be able to coordinate group fire routines too.

I tried disc golf. I LOVE it.

That's all I can think of for now!

Tiny Update

Work is so fun! I get to make things every day!

A company called R.T. Henderson chose my logo out of the ones that the other designers and I sent for proofing. It was the first time my design has been chosen ever! I was super excited about it. Here it is:

I've finally gotten settled enough that I've started working on my own artwork again. And I even got hit up to illustrate a children's book by one of our clients! It's a cute story about a Moose and a Goose and a mystery bird with low self esteem. The mystery bird is very self conscious about the way he looks and is afraid that others don't like him because he is different. By the end, the Moose and the Goose present him in all of his glory to the other animals. The mystery bird is a Peacock and all of the animals crown him king of a festival because he is so delightfully unique and beautiful. Cute story, I'll be getting sketches of that done this coming week if all goes well.

Wow, life is good.

Smallish Update

I've been doing a TON of sketching lately. Mostly on the circus stuff. Which clued me in to a gigantic problem that's developed, probably over the last couple of years. My hand for the human figure has atrophied alarmingly. I mean, I can't even draw coherently these days. The reason I've been doing so much sketching is because that's all I can do!

In lieu of this, I've started a figure sketchbook. I'll be going through all of my Bridgeman books on figure drawing and human anatomy and movement, trying to recover the skill I've lost over the past couple of years. I'm begining with "Constructive Anatomy", the unofficial textbook for one of the most important figure drawing classes I took in college. That class helped my perspective a lot, but is responsible for half of the problems I currently have with the figure. Seriously, it should be a year-long class. The problem is that it takes you through the entire figure and then the semester ends, and you're left without adequate time to practice ALL that you learned. Half of it slips away over winter break, and then it's on to painting (which I took a whole YEAR late).

So, most of my figurative projects will be put on the back burner until I've addressed the problem of regaining my hand. Until then, I have plenty of painting to do!

Also, this is cool... mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/

That's A Wrap...

Well, nothing sold at the show. Now I don't feel so bad about lining up buyers outside of the gallery for a couple of pieces. : )

I've been doing some character sketches of "The Burn Unit", my group of circus burners. There are 7 in all. Spitfire, Kindlyn Stokes, Smokey Pyre, Bombastian, Ignis-Agni, Berny (Bernard) Scalding, and Firestarter. Now I need a story... That's always been the problem with my characters; they never have a story.

I keep on telling myself that if I clean my room, I'll be able to work... Excuses, excuses...

MythoLogic: Visions and Patterns

"Pobrecito"

"PMS"

"Ouroboros"

"One Side Will Make You Grow Taller"

"Network"

"Lucy"

"Chimera"

And there you have it! The line-up for the show.

Vacation is going well. I have gotten all of the things I wanted to get done finished.

Flagstaff has always been an interesting place for me. I grew up here, so, naturally, it is hard for me to separate all of that experience from the place. This time around, I decided to be objective about my stay and try to find a Flagstaff that I could appreciate; a Flagstaff I could actually call home instead of adolescent hell. As I was walking around downtown, sort of the alpine equivalent of 4th Ave., Tucson, I met a guy named Adam. He introduced himself with rose quartz, a giant hunk of non-crystaline, record-keeper mass as big as his fist. At first I thought he was trying to sell me something. I was wrong, and he was just out for conversation. We ended up talking for an hour or so and he introduced me to the "meditation bed" at Sacred Rites, a musical, metaphysics store downtown. The "meditation bed" is a wooden couch that acts as the resonator of a 3 octave monochord of strings running down the side of the bed. The owner of the store sang a beautiful mantra and played the bed while I reclined on it. It was very relaxing. Just the kind of revelation I needed.

So, underneath the Flagstaff I grew up in, there are small pockets of highly pressurized beautiful people and experiences. I had hoped that it was possible, and I think I've reconciled with the place on a very basic level. Now I understand why people live here, on a geologic hot-spot, at the foot of a sacred mountain that is due to explode any day now, just north of the vortexes, just south of the largest canyon in the world, in one of the coldest places in Arizona. It may draw a lot of snowbirds, and passers through, but the actual inhabitants of this place are what makes it beautiful. It's nice to be able to walk down the street and say a word to people and have them respond in a friendly way, without looking at you funny. I'd forgotten what small town life is like.

I've been doing a lot of journaling, reading, visiting old friends and brainstorming for my next few series. I also found two places that would quite probably display my work up here, once I make more of it (Black Hound Gallerie, and Animas Beads). Wouldn't it be fun to take my hometown by storm? I have a feeling I could rock this place.

The current fantasy is 7 pieces and prints for the show. My finger kinda killed my momentum, so the last 3 pieces will be finished after the show. Mr. Pinky says that I need rest and relaxation. And when fingers begin to speak to one, one must heed them. I'll have the 7 scanned tomorrow, make labels, business cards, an inventory sheet, and prints of the pieces. Booya.

In Flagstaff, I will do lots of hanging out downtown, tea drinking, drawing, and reading. I'm also going to hijack one of the cars and go to Sedona on Imbolc and the Grand Canyon. Chief Yellowhorse loves me, his signs say so, and maybe he'll cut me a break on jewelry costs. I'll be there for 2 weeks.

My next few projects will be a commentary on love. It will be cynical and sensual. I'll need some models... I think I know who to ask for a couple of them, if they're game. Excited! I think I'll try for 4 total.

Fits of Creativity...

I mean let's face it, my creativity tends to come on in fits. I'll suddenly feel compelled to draw or paint or make things. It's strange, and annoying because it's less productive this way. Having said that, here's what my last 24 hour mind storm has produced.



I've sketched members of the Addams Family, redesigned my favorite Vampire: The Masquerade character (Crystal) and story-boarded the Jabberwocky for illustration.

I have a postcard design due on Monday and I just earned a bunch of money doing brand identity for my sister's massage business. It feels really weird and satisfying to make money off of my work.