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

ZAMBROOPA!

In the year 1988 a team of two astronauts embarked on a mission to the moon Zambroopa to investigate it's mysterious properties. These are the chronicles of their experiments.

Country

Self-Portrait

Just kidding.

Space-Cat!!!

You are my Space-Cat,
My only Space-Cat
You make me happy
Up in a place
You'll never know how much I love you
Oh please don't take my Space-Cat to space.

A Card for Mr. O-Bag Baggins

A custom B-Day card for my friend, old college roommate, and illustrator, Mr Owen Sherwood. He is now thirty!

New CityLife Doodle Cover!

A cover for Maureen at LasVegas CityLife. The finish design is a bit different, but you can get an ideer of the style. This was a gaggle of giggles to do. Andrew DeGraff - Pro-Doodler - Living the Dream. Actually, to ammend that, I found it kind of hard to try to make this look authentic, i.e. have it drawn poorly, but well . . . Hard to describe, but I think you get it. It was sort of like method acting - I put on some Journey, Rush, Queen, and the Cars and watched NewsRadio on Hulu - and I was back procrastinating on my homework all over again. It was great to rework the CITYLIFE text a bit, too. And make it bleed a little.

Gala Bent

Seattle artist Gala Bent has some really beautiful work. Michelle sent me the link, and I was transfixed for a half-hour going through all the images on her site.

It's Rainin' Fish!!

While last year I had to clean the rest of my family's catch to make the stained T-Shirts for the Dirty Laundry show in Honolulu, this year my lucky Mets shirt and, well I'll just say it, D-Bag sunglasses came through with a slew of good size bass, and nice selection of trout. I do love fishing in Northern Vermont - catch some crayfish, grab a cup of coffee, a book or crossword, and lounge in a boat for three hours. I love sports.

Rehearsal Din Din

Image and type for my Big Bro's wedding . . . Yahoo Nate and Katie!!

Dime Bag 3 Press!!

Jordin Isip, illustrator extraordinaire and one of the curators (along with Rodger Stevens) of the Dime Bag 3 Show at Giant Robot NY was nice enough to send around post from the NY Magazine culture blog, which included a nice write up of the show and "30 slides of the best works", of which I was very flattered to be included. My guess is the writer, Emma Pearse, is either also a Mets fan, or also a fan of tiny stadium billboards that say "Keyspan". I do miss my stadium. The show closes on August 12th, so if you haven't seen it, your window is closing!!

Michael Jackson vs. Prince - Prince outlasts MJ

I was going through my archives and found this image I did for my friend Laurin (aka the dj - Sleazy McQueen) Prince vs Michael Jackson Party a few years ago. Thought I'd throw it up as a little memorial. I have to admit, the man was amazing. I'm still a bigger Prince fan, but the world was better with the both of them in it.

Summer Sketchbook Work

A few drawings from my time in Vermont this summer. Some pics to follow. Galactus came up for a few days.

One of the oldies . . .

One of my favorite paintings from my time in NC (2004). It's a weird one, but I still dig it. Home Depot square birch ply panel. Can't beat 'em with a stick.