Illos for Workbook

So my great bestie cohort in life had recently asked me for some illustrations because she is putting together an english workbook intended for high school seniors and college freshman. I was definitely not guaranteed to have my illos actually used in the final version (dependent on the publisher) so was mildly surprised to get the copyright contract in the mail. Not only that, though, but after interacting with the copyright contract guy on their end, he took the time to check out my website, and THEN took even more time to send me an email complimenting my work! Just saying, he made my week. Here are some examples of what will be in the book. Brian, whoever you are, you made my day.

For the Onomatopoeia chapter

For the Simile chapter

For the Emotion chapter

65°: An Exhibition of Contemporary Encaustic Art

I have three pieces hanging in 65°: An Exhibition of Contemporary Encaustic Art at Nave Gallery Annex! The opening is tomorrow night from 6-8pm in Somerville, MA. I am super excited! The show is solely encaustic works. I am looking forward to meeting some folks in the area that work in this medium. Also stoked to attend a show that contains some of my own artwork...I don't think this has happened for over ten years.
Hopefully this will be the first of many more to come. Thanks folks, I hope to see you there.

Hot Dog Garden - one of the three to be at Nave Gallery.

November is Working Out Well.

Lots going on as of late! I've been working on two separate illustration projects; illos for an english composition workbook to be published in 2014, and I have been continuing work on the 100 monsters for my friends at Games by PlayDate. Also I'll be showing some of my encaustic works December 5th at Nave Gallery in Somerville, MA in their 65°: An Exhibition of Contemporary Encaustic Art show. What a great end to the year. And with all my free time, I managed to whip up this super cool collage postcard for my friend Alexi. Happy holidays people!

Dwell & Flood

New paintings over the past few months - since the big move!  Yay!

Dwell

Flood

A visit to the Kimball Jenkins Estate

Here I am, a resident of Concord NH for over a year, and only today have I finally made the visit to the Kimball Jenkins Estate. As far as I can tell, this is the only place in town that offers continuing education art classes and meet&greets for local artists. There are two galleries (one for prominent artists and one for their own students), both of which I was able to get an eyeball on after randomly showing up on their campus.

It seemed to me the place operates more as an event space and provider of art classes: for my visit the receptionist had to run around and turn the gallery lights on for me. Also she let me view the exhibition that was in progress of being hung (reception to be on October 10th). Very informal with no informational handouts, Kimball Jenkins struck me as pretty interesting and mildly standoffish, but heck, it was free. It leaves me curiously wanting to attend one of their social events.

Either way, of the three artists to be presented on October 10th at their upcoming show A Sense of Place, I was by far most interested in the artist Alison Williams. 

One of her paintings on a pedestal.

Again, this show is in the process of being arranged in the space of Kimball Jenkin's mansion. Also it is very apparent that the aesthetic of the mansion is a source of pride for the estate in how much it imposes upon the gallery space. I do believe they ask of the artists to incorporate their exhibitions into the space intentionally. Alison Williams did that with an installation along with her varied paintings and multimedia works. 

Bad photo of her current installation

As you can see, you need to be close to absorb her installation/not have it fight with the surroundings. But she did use the whole space (items on shelves in the background, as well as specific pieces that used light as an element to the work in the windows - this should be interesting at 7pm at the gallery opening). I did do a bit of research on her, and it seems she often makes complete small buildings as installations using a lot of natural light; I think this may be an early attempt at a non-rectangular enclosed space for her.

Either way, her work was beautiful. In reading her artist statement I found she focuses on gardening and art with no separation between the two. She is interested in that line between human direction and natural assertion. From her website; 

"In both art and gardening I navigate the tension between an expected and a disrupted path... 

I set parameters and initiate material intersections, then I am engaged in a relationship 

with how the materials assert themselves and move beyond the imposed limitations. " 

From multilayered, multimedia panel pieces to classic paintings of flower arrangements, she elegantly used her varied mediums in a way that added depth to the long conversation throughout her work.

Looking forward to the show to find out the titles of these. Good pairing here.

Monsters!

Makin' 100 monsters!
Pen drawings specifically. Here's a few while I'm progressing. Wicked fun!

Center of a Tension

This homework assignment is very overdue, but better late than never. Illustration for the title.

Center of a Tension

Burgerfest

Commissioned to do a tshirt design for work. We're getting ready for burger week at the Barley House. The boss wanted a spin off the classic Woodstock tshirt, so this is what we ended up with...

Painting for my friend Stacy

There was this one time I had posted a picture of a painting in progress on here, and my friend Stacy loved it. Then the painting grew older and changed into something else, and the first image was lost completely. So I made Stacy a new, finished version for her birthday. Below you can see the inspiration, and Version 2 aka Final piece. Pretty cool stuff.
 

Under-painting that is now completely covered.

Finished painting. For Stacy.

Finding the time.

I finally found a half day to paint, which was a pleasure. Knowing I haven't sat down to do so in a while, I wanted to create something successful and finished in an evening. So I made a very small painting, about 4"5" on a piece of board I sawed off. You can tell this because the wood is crooked... Not to worry, this was more an attempt at doing than creating a sellable piece. I didn't have any plans when I sat down with a pencil, and this is where I ended up.

Looking at this I can see my palette isn't changing much. I think it's time for me to buy a larger variety of acrylics. 
Have a good day folks!

Any Other Branch finally published!

The book is done and in hand. It's a good day.

Infinite Monkey Edits

I made some logo designs for a new business my cohort is starting called Infinite Monkey Edits. I believe it is a manuscript editing service. Aren't these pretty sweet? We were going for old school, something similar to letterpress. If I had more time to make another, I think I would include a ton of filigree. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow to whip one up. Pretty cool nonetheless!

Any Other Branch

My painting Big Pinkie has been chosen as cover art for Any Other Branch, a book of poetry by Ivy Page due to come out this March from Salmon Poetry. I'm pretty stoked.  Despite the fact I had no input over the layout of the cover, I am pretty happy Big Pinkie made an appearance. Pretty cool! Here is the full cover.

OVS Latest Issue & Dead White Men.

I'd totally forgotten to update about all the good things going on lately. So - here we go!

OVS put out our latest issue (issue 8! This thing's been going on for a while!) and will be showing it off at the upcoming AWP (Association of Writers  & Writer Programming) Conference in Boston the beginning of March. Here is a preview of the cover, art by Eleanor Leonne-Bennett.

Also on the docket my friends are starting up a new Anthology, which I got to make the promo materials for. It's called the (Dead) White Men Anthology, and as you would guess I had great fun playing around with this one.  I created a handout and the masthead for the website. Pretty fun.

So here you can see J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, E.A. Poe, and John Steinbeck (a random selection). I should do more of this, I love sketch work.

And lastly, I finally figured out my life long theme song if I had the choice. This is it.

Happy Monday people.

Sketckbook Project contribution mailed off!

My little sketchbook should be touring the states in a few months. So excited! It will be digitized by the Sketchbook Project people as well. I will post the link here when that happens, so you can check out other sketchbooks too. Wicked stoked. Happy Monday people.

Sketchbook Project coming to completion.

The deadline for mailing in my contribution to the Sketchbook Project is fast approaching. And I do best with deadlines. So as you would guess, I've been killing it. The book itself looks great, I've covered up a few pages but the end result of all the spreads I am very happy with so far. Got one left to go, and the cover...I have no idea what to do with the cover. I will be shipping out my little sketchbook this coming Saturday. I think at least the heart one I've posted before, but now you can get an idea of its surroundings. Here is a preview.

On another note, both potentials from last month have gone by the wayside. Sadly, Planet Marshmallow closed at the end of the year. And I will not be taking the Chalk Hill residency - the two weeks they allotted me encompassed Thanksgiving-time, and I am not selfish enough to use up a holiday purely for me. But I accomplished what I sought out to do - I was accepted. Hazaah! Next: find opportunities a bit more local.