Automatic Drawing

So a few years ago I came across a video of a practice that some artists do to loosen their minds called Automatic Drawing. Basically it's an artistic form of meditating and is a good way to get through art blocks. I've really been having a good time with it, and it's nice to do work that feels more immediate and unpredictable. Anyway, here's some of the pieces Ive done lately....I have to be honest I used to not really "get" abstract art...I was all about comic books and illustration, so for me this kind of like how people get a taste for vegetables as they get older...or at least thats how it feel to me.

Been awhile.....

Hard to believe I havent posted on here since 2017, but it seems like time is flying by. So what have I been up to? I'll just answer how I do to people in person - same old same old, just grinding away. I have learned a lot technique wise in the past 3+ years though - figured out how to incorporate colored pencil into my watercolor pieces and have also been learning to work digitally, but in a way that it still retains the characteristics of my analog work. Anyway, here's some highlights.....

Working on a new site

For a little bit this is going to be my temporary website until I get my new one up and running. For the last couple years I've been using a Wordpress format and progressively had been having problems with it and I think it finally broke. I've been wanting to switch to a Square Space site for awhile if anything so I could have a functioning shop on it instead of a link to my Bonanza site, so now's the time.

Playing catch up

Haven't posted for awhile and thought I'd do a little catch up...mostly I've been working on commissions that I can't show yet but will very soon.... Did a poster for a Carcass / Deafheaven show awhile back...

Also Artfest went well...met a lot of great people and it was great practice for merchandising my art. I always have this pressure to keep moving onto the next thing, when I should be looking at some of the work I do and figure out ways to make money on it even after its finished. So for Artfest, in addition to having original for sale, I also had matted prints and button packs. Also got a little help from my dad constructing a temporary wall for the booth that I shared with Matt Freeman of Freeman Design Co. Next year the plan is to do a 4FRNT reunion booth with Mike Guidone and Jeff Richards.

I haven't always been a political person but around 2003 that fuse was lit in me and the recent election has lit it again so I've been working on various Trump pieces. Safe to say Im not a huge fan. LOTS more to come.

Bizzness Cards

Probably not really anything postworthy but I just got some new business cards yesterday...these are actually the first cards I've gotten done in almost ten years...I know I know I'm horrible at self promotion. Anyway, with Artfest coming up on the 18th of September I figured it was finally time....

Time to Die

People that know me well, know that Blade Runner is my all time favorite movie. It wasn't always that way. In fact up until a few years ago I always told people Empire Strikes Back was my favorite movie, but as I've gotten older my appreciation for Blade Runner has grown the more I've watched it. Like do you ever see a movie and you're like "I want to go there."? That's how it is for me and that movie. Even though it's overcrowded, smog filled, and full of acid rain, the city of Los Angeles in 2019 seems like a place I'd like to live. Plus they have cool umbrellas. Anyway, here's a new piece I just finished titled "Rick Deckard Witnesses Roy Batty's Soul Rising to Heaven". A few years back there was an exhibition of medievel art at the Dayton Art Institute that got my neurons firing as far as imagery and history. It occurred to me that it would be funny if some far off future civilization or maybe an interstellar visitor came across some of the pop culture art of recent times and how they might confuse that for our actual history. And with the recent mash-up art there might even be further confusion i.e. Star Wars stuff mixed with Lord of the Rings, etc. but thats a whole other discussion. So I started thinking about some of my favorite movies and how to interpret by way of medieval religious art and in some cases how despite what really happened, the depiction doesn't necessarily show the correct or whole story. The first one I did was inspired by a statue I saw in the exhibit of St. Michael slaying the devil, but in this case Darh Vader defeating Obi-Wan Kenobi titled "Lord Vader vanquishes the Rebel Terrorist Obi-Wan Kenobi". It just struck me that Darth Vader wouldn't want his fight with his old master to be depicted the way it really happened with Obi-Wan basically allowing himself to be destroyed, so instead I portrayed him as physically having Obi-Wan under his boot defeated. I ended up doing the final on a Darth Vader blank cover.

I sketched up a few more ideas including a Taxi Driver one and this one that I FINALLY completed of one of my favorite scenes from Bladerunner.

Art Fest / Infusion Art t-shirt design

Next month I will be participating in the first annual Infusion Art Artfest in Beavercreek, Ohio where I will be showing off some of my artwork and peddling my wares. I also just wrapped up a t-shirt design for an art endowment called Infusion Art to be sold at the event. While brainstorming ideas I started doing research on art goddesses and came across a wikipedia entry for a Benzaiten and thought it would be a perfect visual way to not only represent an artist but depict various different art techniques and tools.