At the Visual Arts Center in Richmond,VA. Don’t know what an Art-O-Mat is? Check it out!

I am so good at reading other people’s blog updates and terrible at updating my own. What can I say, everyone else is doing such cool stuff! 

Back in June I was selected (kindly asked and was given the job) to design the Archers of Loaf poster for their Black Cat show in DC. This was sort of a big deal for me as they were and still are one of my favorite bands. The final version was a take on “Freezing Point”. Now that the poster has been approved, created, and sold out, I figure I can show you some of the stuff that didn’t make the cut…

1. The “Hate paste” concept. While I liked this idea, something about it wasn’t jiving and I stopped with this illustration. This was drawn during the one lunch break I took over the summer. 

2. The Postage Stamp. I wish this could be used for something else at the Black Cat. It is a play on the DC metro and the stop in which one would get off to go to the venue. The stamp is in relation to touring and traveling all summer. 

3. Toaster Poster. I would like to see what this looked like screen printed. It is so poppy and fun that I bet it would have turned at very nice with some silk screened imperfection. Unfortunately there was already another Toaster Poster made for Austin. So much for an obvious song choice.

4. Freezing Point. This was the final of the poster that we ended up printing. In the end I was most excited about this design and I think we all felt that it fit the band’s style in addition to my own. 

There you have it. Just a little clue into the world of what goes into to making something like this. And this was an easy project :)

One of my favorite things about the internet is stumbling across images of items from my childhood. I was looking at Jim Phillips art online and came across a shot of this Jason Jessee board which I believe I received for my 10th birthday. 

I loved this skateboard. It was the first deck I owned with concave. I am sure I learned a couple of tricks on it, but I KNOW I learned one-footed ollies on this board (all the rage in the hensley era of skating). I have a vague memory of ending up at a shopping center on Sunday and skating with a ton of people I had never seen before right before this thing bit the dust. Mind you, I grew up in a small town in VA and I knew most of the skaters in and around a decade of my age. 

It was a magical time for me as every trick and skate session was so exciting. Boards were about to change shapes at a drastic rate and I can confidently say this was the last board I owned without a nose. I believe I also learned that Santa Cruz was no longer cool while having this under my arm and that I needed to get an H-Street deck immediately. 

I finally have given the website a little face lift. It still needs a little more TLC, but the visual component of it all is pretty much in tact. My hope is to get a few more key pieces of the portfolio up in the next few weeks. 

New Shirt Idea. Yes, No?

Not the most flattering images in the world, but I think they get the point across. 12 out of 23 sold with a week left!

I spent so much time and energy getting my show installed and up that I never really had time to promote it other than sending out an invite to the opening weekend.

The dust has settled and the work has been up for a few weeks now. I think I feel okay on commenting about my perception of how the opening went and my thoughts on attending them.

I am pretty overwhelmed at the interest in my work. Almost half of the show sold in two days which is pretty hard to wrap my head around. I was thinking 2/3 pieces would go and then my apartment would fill back up with collage work. It is awesome, don’t get me wrong. Sharing yourself with the world can be tough and it was nice to see that 1.5 years worth of Sundays spent painting didn’t completely go to waste. It feels really good to know that my ideas are going to be hanging on walls up and down the east coast.

I love going to art openings. Just not when they are mine ;) Maybe it is just something I need to get used to, but being the center of attention for a few hours over the course of a weekend wasn’t something I was really into. I think I would have preferred to look through the window all night;) Of course, I am grateful to all who came out and shared nice words. Your presence was wonderful.

I am itching to get started on some new projects. I just finished a poster for Archers of Loaf which I will be posting after the show in a few weeks. Beyond that, I have some ideas for some larger scale paintings that are 4 times the size of the current work. I am also looking to do a few more t-shirts and posters for bands who are looking. I have a new dot com purchased which i will be unveiling once I sit down and make a few final tweaks. Exciting times.

I approve of this travel mug.

You can buy it at this link.

I have finally started working on the Interiors exhibit again after a pretty lengthy hiatus. Painting had not been in my vocabulary over the past few months and it was nice to see that I could still create work for the show (FYI, painting perfect curves is really freaking hard). My technique is a little rusty, but hopefully I will be back on track in the next week or two.

I had noticed some warping in the collage material of a few older pieces. NOT COOL. Earlier in the week I varnished a few cut-outs to see if that would keep the paper stiff and mount ready. So far, so good. The mounting went really smooth yesterday and I hope that everything properly stays in tact. Glued paper isn’t going to last forever, but I had hoped that the work would last a little longer than a few months. Most are fine, but a couple of newer works got killed when the heat was up in the winter. I would hate for someone to buy a painting with a climate control disclaimer.

More new works coming soon!

Recently, I stumbled across a Ryan McGinness book that contained examples of how he gets from point A to point B. It was a relief to see piles of quick sketches that will turn into beautiful and slick vector drawings. After the creation of quite a few vectors, screens, and ink color selections you end up with something like this:

(this is actually hanging up in the VMFA a mere mile away from my home)

I had one of those “just like me!” moments when reading about his process. There is no right or wrong way to create, but in the past I had often felt some of my methods were a bit juvenile. Luckily, Ryan has shown that one can create in this manner and be quite articulate as well as organized.

http://www.ryanmcginness.com/pdf/RM_VMFA.pdf

I was recently asked to participate in an annual event that donates it’s proceeds to MS. This has become near and dear to me as my lady lost her mother to the disease a few years back. The poster theme revolves around bikes and beer. I started scribbling this morning and this popped out…

I must say, bikes and beer written down makes me think of some sort of drunk riding advert. I hope to import this general idea into the computer over the weekend and see what happens. At least I am following the correct process;)

I must learn Monty Grinds this spring.