space age.

done in three parts.

the repeated piece is part of one of the new star wars lego vehicles that the boy got for the holiday. its something from hoth in the empire strikes back.

the blaster is from the buzz lightyear ride up in disney.

the pattern is from the icon for a holiday music file that carrie downloaded on her mac. added it while watching romancing the stone. that movie brings back memories of driving to the concord mall movie theater with my family when it came out. it seemed like such a long ride. back roads and rural on the verge of suburban delaware county. it was like a 20 minute drive.

subduing the ray gun and dressing up the pattern was done with diego and the wonderpets in the background. a little tift merritt in between.

i'm not satisfied with it.

a cup of color.

warming up.

the girl's glamour glasses. the boy's spotted lizard. stars from a shrinky dink ornament on the tree.

started a few weeks ago. maybe a month. and it looked like this.

broke it back out last night after everyone was in bed. the lovely missus was in bed sick before the kiddos were tucked in at 730.

listening to a mix i made for her. 

tift merritt- mix tape

cee-lo green- old fashioned

dave rawlings- sweet tooth

leisure society- love's enormous wings

the tallest man on the earth- the dreamer

hoots and hellmouth- roll, brandywine, roll

to name a few.

finished off the evening watching box of moonlight. gotta love sam rockwell.

a staggering work of genius.

pretty much says it all.
i still have a bit of fondness for this one.

 

another wet one.

view of the jacked up back porch awning on france street.

monotype done on plexi with watersoluble pencils.
used a smidge too much water for the transfer.

it will be sunny tomorrow. at least sunnier.

i want sun.

i know we need the rain, but i am not used to it for this long.

caught a glimpse of the sun today. it made me smile.

i just came across this one. looks like rain. again.

one near end.

one of four large drawings on paper that wrapped up my thesis body of work.
final 2 months in baton rouge.

i titled it "a way".

living in a one bedroom apartment. using the bedroom as my drawing space.

sanding paper down.
mark after mark.

the work i made that year was the most i had made that was consistent in style.

the next print i made looked entirely different.

i still love that cloud.

france street.

view from inside the back porch of jerome and i's place in baton rouge.
that backyard was seriously neglected.

grant green guitar licks bounding out from the boombox in the living room with the checkered floor.

stereoscope.

inspired by stereoscopic photographs.

my work at a crossroads here. it bridges the gap between the childlike imagery from before with the more detail oriented work that would follow.

done before i really got going with the pattern, subtle color changes, and more sophisticated imagery in the medallions in the spring of 96.

middling at best.

shine brite.

gosh.

thinking of my first use of these words together brings me back to my time at summer camp. summer of 1997. first time i met my future wife. go figure:)

positivity. making people smile.

again, using everyday things as my subject. combining this interest with my love of pattern and decoration.

revisiting screenprinting for the first time in over 6 years and using it for t-shirt designs. playing with wearable multiples. multiple colors that are not shown in these "trap" images.

tufted fishies.

finished up while "watching" janeane garofalo's stand up routine. funny.


the fishies are one of the girl's yard toys. she kept wanting to play with it as i was drawing it. sheesh...


i have enjoyed working on these 2 panels. a bit challenging at moments because of the different format.


i'm thinking they will go in our bedroom above our closet. my goal is to get one more "standard size", read as "small", drawing done this weekend. we'll see. i still have to create a lesson plan, catch up on grading, and organize the mess in the garage.


we'll see.

thankful.

i'm thankful to have moments like this with my daughter.

i'm thankful for my family and friends.

i'm thankful for the health and happiness of those same people.

this one is pretty near done. if anything changes it will be minor. maybe a bit more value contrast among the main characters of the image. the hinges on it will be replaced and flipped to the top of image  so it can be hung that way.

just look at that tightly organized work space. impressive, no?

here's a closer look at the companion piece. not complete, but moving forward. logan painted the color washes in the center and then I added on top of his work. the chair is a relatively new addition to our home. The missus often sits there. laptop by her side.

(the waiting room chair in the other image is one i find myself in on occasion. laptop on the credenza, craning my neck to check out the action of the weekly saturday lsu football game.)

the lamp is one that carrie got recently. it's an awesome lamp. she was very excited when she purchased it. rightfully so.

the morning playlist with the girl at my side- a little bill withers followed by justin townes earle's new album, harlem river blues.

getting there.

a bit closer.

getting ready to start its companion with the tufted chair and possibly the millenium falcon sandwich cutter.

throw up.

we took the little doors off our guest bath vanity a bit ago. the unit is cheap and the previous owners made some "repairs" to it.

i thought the doors would make interesting supports to draw on. with the frame built in. or is it on?

i had the girl add some color to the center of the panel with washable color markers. i'll have the boy add color to the other panel.

the frame color is improving. it isn't as vomit looking as it was last night.
more like pepto.

i think darth vader's tie-fighter sandwich cutters will make an appearance as a pattern element. hopefully today.

the jar was made by our friend nicole in brooklyn. the waiting room chair lives next to our credenza.

drawn while watching grey gardens (hard to watch after a while) and the tim burton version of alice in wonderland (kinda crap).

kitchen remodel.

i've looked up recently from the black tufted chair in the living room and looked at these two a bit more intently.

done to cover up the ugly wood finish of the countertop and cabinetry above it.

wish i had done more of it.

it will be weird when they're gone, but it will be SO nice to have a new space.

seymour.

while in baton rouge, i took it upon myself to make 3 self published (read as i made 50 copies at the local kinkos and placed them in grad student and faculty campus mailboxes and studios) periodicals.

my abbreviated academic attempt at breaking down the book form i had played with while in philadelphia. while self serving and self important, they have provided me with a couple of my favorite visual images.

first heavy exposure to the 70s era music of stevie wonder. innervisions is incredible. golden lady is aural bliss.

the blue kitchen.

the condo on 36th street served us well for a number of years. cheap mortgage... and, uh, cheap mortgage.
after a short while we painted the kitchen blue. bright blue with lighter blue trim around all the cabinets.

pretty.
pretty intense.

for a while there i was bouncing from part time teaching gig to part time teaching gig to part time teaching gig. all in the same day.

in the gaps in between i would, what else, document the place and its immediate surroundings. i made a series of relief prints on styrofoam. we were getting a lot of takeout sushi at the time and i would cut out the tops of the boxes and use them as my plates.

the kitchen counter became my ink slab. the pull out cutting board became my print bed.

usually 3 colors done with selective inking of the plate. used a variety of colored mulberry paper.

short circuit

My clearest recollection of these drawings in process is me laying in bed at a little boutique spa/hotel in palm springs and adding colored pencil to the yellow one.

At that time, Carrie was getting a massage elsewhere on the property.

Early February? The calm before the storm. Our last weekend getaway, pre-kid. Less than a month later the boy would be joining us.

I have a couple more that I have never added color to. Pattern making and repetitive mark making have always been very calming for me. Makes sense that I was getting into these as we were nearing the birth of our first child.

Didn't have a preconceived composition in mind, just responding to the previous rows of shapes that I had completed. I like the compactness and density of shapes in the drawings. Nothing touches one another, but the shapes have a charge or energy to them. Static? Potential?

The blue and yellow ones are framed in the house. I came across the green one as we were clearing out our spare bedroom closet in preparation for our new floors to be installed, and realized that it was not finished. I'll get back to it... some day.

folding. and folding. and folding.

wow.
between the folds. remarkable film.
i love the transformational aspect of the medium. you do not remove. you do not add.

the mathematical nature of it kills me. in a good way.

what the?!

woke up yesterday and before my morning coffee, looked at a drawing i had been working on before going to bed.

it was awful. the objects were fine, but the pattern i laid down on top killed it. and not in a good way.
spent any free time during the day trying to subdue the suckage that was present. breakfast time, diego time, and naptime. the boy got up early from his "nap" and drew and painted alongside me at the kitchen table for a bit. nice.

the dino is one that the boy wanted me to put into a drawing after i chose a couple others for a previous work. i mislabeled this one in an earlier post as a hadrosaur. it is actually an ankylosaur.

the banana peels are from a collection of felt foods the kids have. carrie made felt sushi rolls and others from all over did other food items, and then they swapped. some pretty cool stuff.

i think it's fixed...

i've got to get into school mode and start investing time in lesson planning. this summer vacation has been a treat. lots of me time, lots of me and kiddo time. wish the missus had the same schedule, but somebody has to bring home the bacon.

froggie and friend

summer break is winding down. first hot day in a while. beach day. glad to have these days with the boy and the girl.

started this one while watching "this american life".
continued while the kids were eating breakfast.
finished while they were napping and then drawing next to me.

i love working at the table and them drawing on both sides of me. logan has actually stayed with it than he has before. his first love is still building with legos though.

jammed with the kiddos another time to arcade fire's "month of may".

Pa C d2

inspired by our movie night with the boy. he loves this droid.

coupled with the girl's night time companion and calm mood inducer.

i like the neon in this.

dinos and legos

puzzle pieces and a one winged creation by the boy. i wanted two wings, but i compromised.

he liked the dinos but was disappointed i didn't use the hadrosaurus. i'll have to get that one into a drawing soon. need to keep the boss happy.

the pattern comes from the skin of the apatosaurus.

late night session with arcade fire on the daily show. they sounded good. morning wrap up out in our west wing. still listening to the tunes mr. torrieri sent my way. good stuff.

8 drawings since getting back from the east coast on the 2nd. not bad.

i'm planning on doing a workplace series once we start back up in a few weeks.

this is my fancy combination drawing board/portfolio. its where my drawings live while awaiting shows and buyers.