Heavyweights in progress . . .

Working on some more sports imagery. This is a detail of a boxing painting I'm working on. I was reinspired by some of the great Josh Longo's muscle men.

Banshee

One of my points of extreme embarrassment as a child was when I first got into comic books. The characters were new to me, and as an X-Men reader in the Chris Claremont era, the number of characters and universes was pretty daunting. But I was into it and wanted to ask the cooler, older kids about stuff I didn't know, and mostly about the new (to me) character of Banshee. However, when I got up the courage to ask, I couldn't remember his name, and stuttering I said, "You n-n-n-n-know, the loud one?". Not cool. Even in the comic book world of uncool cool.

Simon Says . . .

Here's a piece for Wes Gatbonton at Las Vegas Weekly in more of painted style, which was a lot of fun especially working on a portrait.

And the finish . . .

Dreamin' of summer . . .

A little painting after a sketch I did in August when my Vermont fishing license was still valid. Those were happier times . . .

Only Two Holidays Behind, and off to Society!

Another CityLife illo for the Thanksgiving ish - still catching up on my posts, butIm getting there:). Plus, I got two pieces into the Society of Illustrators which is bo-gnarly and right around the corner, opening on January 8th! Here are the big winners. . .

Hot Dog on a Stick!

Piece for Maureen Adamo for a first person account of life at the famous west coast franchise, Hot Dog on a Stick. Suffice to say, life at the Stick closely mirrors my own restaurant experience, so much so that it reminds me that in my nightmares, Im back in food service.

Cwismas is coming!

Orthopaedic Surgery

A compilation of hospital sketchbook work modeled after a display case in the Ortho Hall in Albany Medical Center. I don't get a lot a hard sketchbook time there but I do what I can, and it's fun to montage some snippets.

For the super-nice Jaun Mims at Retail Traffic.

New Site Updates!!

So, I finally got around to updating the site. God bless wi-fi in hospitals.:) Lots of the new stuff I've been posting on the blog.

'tis the season . . .

Finished this guy up to submit to Society. I've been wanting to do a football image for while and had the chance to finish it up the day before my Ma's car crash.

Calling for thoughts and prayers . . .

My Mom was in a bad car accident, and I don't want to miss any bases - so I'm asking anyone and everyone to say a little prayer, mantra, meditate or whatever you do, to try and help her out. While the exercise may prove to be one of futility, and the cosmos an unwelcome place for the transmission of focused positive energy, or human will and love too weak to surpass the limits of our own skulls, or even if the idea itself seems ludicrous and naive to you - she's in a lot of pain, and what could it hurt?:) I'm quite an atheist myself but maybe the transmission of these things comes more subtly. Maybe thinking about someone who's hurt and helpless turns into a kindness for a stranger, which is passed on and on to maybe somehow helping my Mom. Who knows? An infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare - let that rattle around your head and then think something nice about someone who you dont know - it may set into motion something wonderful - it may be the first few lines of Shakespeare that turn the infinite impossibility into reality.

Armstrong to Moon

Mowin' Lawn

Another gouache experiment . . . Trying to learn some lessons from the Batman. And hoping the Batman will start telling me about beating people instead of gouache, but for now, just gouache.

The Incorruptible Batman

My love affair with my sheet of tan Rives BFK continues.

Self Portrait as Giant Baby

Handball

Got inspired walking back from Pratt. Well, half inspired by the kids playing handball, and half inspired by that great Ben Shahn painting.

SUPERVILLAINS!!!

The supervillains are here!! All (or most) of your favorites. This painting was fun. Villains rule. My favorites: MODOK, Electro, and the Blob. Honorable mention: Arnim Zola.

Joe Wilson

I couldn't help myself with this one. I was abhorred by Wilson's outburst, and amazed that the response to the discussion is whether the statement of "You lie!" held some sort of racial undercurrent. I for one have a hard time believing this would ever happen with a white president (to my knowledge it hasn't). Even the context of the outburst also was right after the President's statement about not giving health coverage to undocumented immigrants. He wasn't moved to rage during all of the other things he disagreed with, only after this specific statement. I'm just going to call it like I see it: Joe Wilson, I believe you have revealed yourself to be a racist, no matter what you say or even think about your own ideas and preferences.

Duhram Bulls!

Got to spend a night at the Durham Bull swanky new park downtown while I was housesitting for my brother. Had a great time! Bulls pulled out a come from behind win, had good beer, and almost got tatooed by a rocket foul ball!

Las Vegas Weekly

One of three images for Ryan Olbrysh at Las Vegas Weekly.

This American Life Sighting . . .

While we were headed upstate last week, Michelle and I stopped at the Plattekill rest stop to eat some road food, which turned out to be the infamous Roy Rogers, along with it's Fixins Bar. Generally I abhor the idea the of a "Fixin's Bar" but we were feeling frisky, and starved to the point of Fixin's. As we sat there, Michelle said,"Is that who I think it is?". I turned to look at a nerdy, but kinda hip dressed guy and thought it must be someone from Pratt. . . some other teacher, or former student. I turned back around thinking no, but then I heard the voice, a birdy thin but emotive voice. And realized it was Ira Glass. I am nerdy enough to consider myself a total NPR Dweeb, and in fact got jumped a year or two ago wearing my pledge drive t-shirt. Whether this was the cause of the beating I will never know, but suffice to say, I was a little blown away by the celebrity sighting. Whenever we see the overblown, fat, Wal-mart saturated world outside the city, we always say one thing - with both love and disdain - "America." And there we were. America. And there was Ira Glass, right where he's supposed to be. So it was fun to hear the episode which was out last week, all taking place at the rest stop.

As for the picture (by Nancy Updike), I took particular notice of these as well. Never drink from anything bigger than a cat and shaped like a bar-bell.

Experiment 5

Experiment 4

Experiment 3

Quality Squad

After a wonderful birthday-day where we went to the planetarium (last year was the aquarium!) and saw the space show and looked at sweet rocks, and moon photos, we spent a great night on the roof of our friends' apartment and ate burgers and drank beers. They even put up a tarp which allowed us to stay up there in the rain, which was great - made for more of a campfire atmosphere. Anywho, on Saturday, it was beautiful out, but we stayed in to enjoy a day home with the discovery channel, bad movies, and sketchbooks in an apartment that finally stopped roasting. It was amazing.

Beer Games!

This is the back of the newsletter going out with JR Beer this week - and yes, it's a game board. The game is played with bottlecaps to have a little "stay at home night". I've got to admit, there were some challenges with this feller: a pretty tight deadline, a crazy scale to work on, and many, many things to include. All in all, it was worth 2 all nighters and a slight carpal tunnel flare up! But what better cause than beer?:)

Experiment 2

Experiment 1