Holiday cards

Lindsey helped me out here a little bit. She designed a card for family that's going out around xmas time. That girl's got it together. Hope to see you all soon.

Nog

The final weeks of autumn have always been an extra special time of the year for me. It's a time for fresh perspectives and dedications, a time for reconnecting with family and old friends, a time for ugly sweaters, and a time for consuming obscene amounts of my wife's egg nog. The tradition of egg nog is relatively new to me as this is only my second year partaking. Early in October it is not uncommon to find that Lindsey has been running errands and making preparations of the most secret sort. Then, the week before the holidays, she triumphantly unveils the product of her mysterious toils. Lindsey brews this magical little concoction annually, like her mother before her and her mother's mother before that and so on and so forth. It makes for the ultimate holiday digestif, and it's a surefire cure for those prone to the emotional and spiritual slumps often associated with the winter months. The good news for you is that if you know me and you read the blog, you just might get a taste. There's a lot to go around this year.

Retribution

Ben

Here's another ink wash and brush drawing. I saw Zombieland about a week back and very much enjoyed it. If you A: think zombies are fun, B: laugh a little sometimes when you see gratuitous violence C: listened to Metallica in the mid 80s, and D: are an unrepentant fan of the first Ghostbusters movie then I would highly recommend you see it.
This one goes out to a true pioneer, the original hardened zombie survivalist, Ben from Night of the Living Dead.

Vic

Hope everyone had a memorable Halloween. Lindsey, our friend Krista and I barely survived a night of haunted photo booths, bootlegs, murder scenes, smoke machines, and a foreign gynecologist tending bar in a clown wig.
I just finished reading Frankenstein. Excellent story. What's more, Mary Shelly began writing it when she was 18, one of her first earnest attempts at a novel.
I took a crack at working with those ink washes again. After I finished I took a step back and realized that Frankenstein's monster looks a lot like Nathan Explosion... Not what I intended. If he were a real person being cast in a production, I'm sure he'd butcher it pretty bad, but what a soundtrack.

Not even honorable mention

too bad, so sad. Ah, well... only moderately deterred when I consider the storyline I would have had to commit to.

Dropping the ball

My efforts to post regularly are earnest, but I've been dropping the ball. Somebody who follows said I should be less selective about stuff I post. I believe their exact words were: "nut up and don't be so shy". Normally, I'm not open to polite suggestions, but I feel like I ought to nut up a little. The blog is looking awfully sparse.

cap

Haven't been able to meet Lindsey at all for lunch this week due to some scheduling conflicts. I took lunch in my car today, just to get out of the office, and I drew this.

I Still Exist

Sasquatch Disgusted

Won't ever get tired of drawing this guy.

Natural Habitat

Lindsey and I were out at Mighty Tieton once again this last weekend. Lindsey maintains a healthy business relationship with all the good people out there through her work, so even though we're not technically in residence anymore we occasionally get press time. There have been a couple tour groups through the print shop the last couple of times we've been out there. It's usually some guests of one of the residents who live in the lofts across the way. I just wanted to reflect on what that feels like.

We're doing a demo out there this weekend if anybody's interested. It's free. And, you'll learn things. I promise.

Chimp Vision

Scrabble Ruins Friendships

Xochimilco

Slow Mail

Couldn't Reconcile

Woodcut.  Edition of 10.  Respect.

Fundependant

Edition of 4.  Polyethylene relief.  The photographs hardly do these justice, especially this guy.  I ended up using a tasty metallic ink for the grey.  Turned out alright.  Mike, if you're interested, I got one of these with your name on it.  Thanks for the inspirado. 

Glazed

Okay, so I've been slacking a little bit on curating. These undoubtedly qualify as the messiest of my undertakings out at Tieton. Speedball is not the highest quality stuff, pretty temperamental actually, but it was the undisputed brightest magenta I could find in the shop. I feel like the ink ended up loading a little bit on a couple of these, but I'm still generally satisfied with how it turned out. This was an edition of 7. Polyethylene relief.

Too Tall

polyethylene relief. Edition of 2. Portrait of Ed Freeman.

Thirteen

Polyethylene relief.  Edition of three.

First in Flight

Woodcut (plywood) and polyethylene relief. Edition of three.

Douchebag

I'll present these chronologically as they came off the press. This first one is a relief print/monoprint on plexiglass and polyethlene. There are seven in the edition, one of them is spoken for (Goathead took it off my hands). Enjoy!

Mighty Tieton

A while back my lovely wife, Lindsey, and I were invited to participate in a 2-month-long residency at Goathead Press over at Mighty Tieton. Mighty Tieton is an unlikely collective of sorts, a community really, comprised of a variety of creative types living in and amongst a book bindery, letterpress studio, print shop, cidery, warehousing, rental cabins and several artist studios. We were the inaugural artists in residence (WOOT!) which basically meant that we got to hang out in the print shop and make art all day. It is my understanding that there has since been several artists slated for other residencies in the coming months. It's nice seeing something like this take off in such a good direction so soon after we concluded residency.

The following several posts will be showcasing the product of my time out at Goathead Press. There is an exhibit in the near future if you have any interest in seeing some of this stuff in real life. Call me for time and location. If you don't have my number then I probably don't want you there. I appreciate your interest all the same.

How Berg Runs Hoops

A couple of my good friends were in town this last weekend on account of various sibling high school graduations. On Saturday evening, I ended up in Ryan Berg's olde backyard for a game of croquet. Now, if I thought about it long enough I could probably count the number of times I've played on one hand. I am by no means seasoned. So, needless to say, I got worked. Even so, I can't remember the last time croquet was so much fun. In the past whenever I thought of croquet I pictured pasty women in poofy dresses with bonnets toting tea cups and giggling about arranged marriages. Saturday's match has altered my perception drastically. It is a deceptively engaging game full of sabotage, intrigue, suspense, and poison death matches. I would highly recommend that anybody who reads this immediately contact their friends, go outside, set up some hoops, and pick up a mallet.

Now, moving one step beyond. I guess this would be more like polo hypothetically. This would be pretty fun too.

Big Man

Be afraid. Oh yes, be afraid...because this person actually exists. I've seen the guy. Without a doubt the largest dude I've ever seen. I embellish only slightly with the tattoos and the smoking. His tattoos were more of the tribal persuasion. As for the smoking, I cannot attest to whether or not he is a smoker. I didn't see him light up, but I can totally picture him putting one out in some dude's face. What's more, when I saw him he was yelling at cops outside of my bank. I stopped to spectate for a quick second before being directed to carry on about my business. I don't imagine that any amount of tasing, macing, clubbing, or low-grade bull-moose tranquillizer could do much to sedate this apparent menace, so in a way I'm glad I didn't stick around....such a big dude.

work

These are the people I work with. The funny thing is that I've actually seen her using a similar contraption. I wonder how one acquires something like that.

Busy Week

This week was crazy busy.  Had a couple projects on my plate that I submitted for approval last night.  Been a while since I slept in.  Delightful.

outer space

These washes are a little sketchy, but practice makes perfect.  Once in a great while I'll attempt this funny-looking grayscale style I've got going on here.  Gotta bone up on those brush skills.

Happy Friday

Sasquatch Continued

I've been on a Sasquatch kick lately. What can I say? Speaking of which, the line-up for this weekend was looking solid (I'm a huge dork for TV on the Radio), but it just wasn't in the cards. I did hear something about a couple bands from this years line-up doing a joint over in Roslyn at the Brick though. That's happening this Friday. It's free supposedly. Too good to be true? I'll find out tomorrow I guess.

I have no clue what's going on with this scene. I didn't have any particular story in mind when I drew it. If anybody has the inclination they should chop it and add some words, make it more ridiculous than it already is. Sasquatch hates bears apparently...

I caved...

Today marks my inaugural post.

Why now? After all this time advocating genuine, analog interaction... it might not make sense to most of the people who know me. Two reasons:

1) To make myself less illusive to the people I've lost touch with.

2) To catalog the product of one of my favorite pastimes.

I'm hoping that this will further motivate me to put in more time at the drawing board.

I consider myself to be moderately inarticulate, so don't expect any lengthy discourse. I might put an image in context from time to time to avoid ambiguity if I feel it's necessary. Otherwise, don't count on me getting all autobiographical on you.

Hope you enjoy!