Out with the old

A couple weeks ago, I spent some time at my parents' house cleaning up what used to be my bedroom in order for them to create a guest room or study.  It included tossing a bunch of art that I made when I was really little, which was fun to giggle with my mom over.  I snapped a few crappy photos with my dumbphone and tossed out all but a couple pieces.  Then yesterday, I barrelled through my current studio, filling up three huge bags full of my old art that have been sitting in my closet ever since I made it.  I snapped a few more pictures and saved a few more pieces.  The pieces below are mostly of the pieces I kept. I now regret not photographing all of it before tossing the ripped bags out into the rain.  Whoops.  Well, now I have room to store more pieces that I don't really like. Hahaha  One thing I'm thinking of doing is posting these pieces on Facebook and giving them away. I don't want money. I want you to take it away from me! I haven't fully decided if I want the world to see these things.

The order in which I'm putting these pictures is... first ones are post-college, then college, then highschool, then gradeschool, and lastly possibly some of the first "art" i ever made.

POST COLLEGE ART:

This is break-up art.  Interpret as you will.  I'm way over it and never want to see this piece again.

This is a piece I drew for a group show I was in based on a nautical theme. I was surprised that I was the only person out of the 50 participants who focused on pirates.  Irate pirates at that.

I painted this for a show in 2011.  Rravens are a symbol of death because of their carnivorous ways and so when you spot a murder (group of ravens) flocking to one spot, it can  be a telling of someone's immanent doom.  I made this in my phase of studying post-apocalyptic everythings.

I made this while in a study group called the Rookery. Interpret as you will.

This is a study of a famous scientific illustration of a wolf. I drew this in my phase of studying wolves, their  behaviors, and their anatomy. Ask me about that another time.

COLLEGE ART:

I'm seeing now that my dumbphone has a really terrible camera. Sorry this is so blurry. This is a watercolor collage of all things associated with water. College assignments have really weird results sometimes.

This piece was a study in 3 things. First, we learned the rub-away technique (which is all the brown muddy parts). Rub-away is where you put a thick layer of oil paint down, then take a rag and start wiping away the paint in order to create the tones that make the picture.  Then ontop of the rub-away, we did Underpainting, which is painting sections of the piece in one color in order for that paint to peak through the Overpainting. You can see the green part of the one guy's face and the pinky forehead of the guy of the other side.  Then we studied flesh tones in oils and painted parts of the faces so that we could still see the Rub-away and Underpainting processes.
The journey is more important than the result....?

We had to dissect one of our favorite things. I chose a snickers bar. 

Dissecting another one of my favorite things was my '71 superbeatle- my first car.

Figure study. His name is Andre.

Weird pastel drawing of my friend Liam

My first interpretation of Mother Earth. I know, I know, she's probably not white. Whatever. I was 17.

This is a pastel I did for my roommates when we were parting ways. I later added a poem that I digitally placed on the truck. It goes like this:

And this, I suppose, is where it must end.

Move away, step away, like an old trend.

But I like I said yesterday with all of my heart,

I love you more than then sum of my parts.

You've been there with my playing hopscotch and all.

I fear in this new house, my spirits will fall.

So lets keep together your heart and mine

With play dates and giggles all of the time.

Don't worry, my friend, as we drive away slow.

For five houses down is not far to go.

-by Me, in like 2005 or something

This is a terrible photo of a really nice pastel piece I did vaguely based on the play Othello.

You know when you take pictures while you're staring out the window of the airplane? Well, as a 16 yr old, I thought it'd be a good idea to paint that.

This the the most meta art piece I've ever made. This is a painting of me throwing out a painting that I didn't like.

And this is the painting that I apparently never actually threw out, although I still don't like it.  hahahaha

I think this was an assignment to copy an idea from a Norman Rockwell painting, but put our own twist on it.

HIGHSCHOOL AND GRADESCHOOL AND CHILDHOOD ART:

I've often been embarrassed by this piece, which I drew on the wall of my childhood bedroom. I just think it's weird. But it's my childhood best friend, Jenny. I drew it because I wanted to work on drawing faces. Who knows why I chose to draw it on the wall.  My parents have kept it up there ever since, God bless them.

I also painted this on the wall.  My mom actually wants me to finish the piece instead of paint over it. What a funny thing- a collaborative art piece with yourself from 15 years ago.

Um.... I don't know what this is or why I made it, but my name's on the back and I have a vague memory of making it.  I flipped out when I found it. I now understand why I had very few friends as a child. What a weird kid. When I showed one of my roommates the other day, he said that there is a book cover that is similar to this. That adds to my questions, but maybe provides the hints of an answer.

I think this is my first drawing of zebras. I must have been in second grade or something.

On the back of this piece is my mom's handwriting announcing "A Great Tree!".  How supportive she was. There was a whole little series of this kind of tree drawn on the dot-matrix paper that my dad would bring home from his "Computer" job. This is the only one that said it was great. I was probably about 4 when I made it.

On the back of this one, my mom wrote "Fog".  We both laughed a lot when we found it together. How nice of her to see this as something, even fog. Oh, homeschooling...

Wedding Invitations

I am surrounded by people getting married.  Albeit my feelings about marriage, I’ve benefited a bit from it because I’ve gotten to create and illustrate now 4 different wedding invitations for my friends.  This is my latest creation.  I was given very specific instructions about the illustration, but I think it ended up pretty nice.  I even signed it.  I never sign my pieces.  Again, did hand-lettering.  Well, really just tracing a font. But it’s a good excersize in keeping your hand steady as shit.  I'm designing the other side of the invitation as well, with all the info and stuff.  I'll add that later on.

The final piece.

This is how I traced the names. I wrote them backwards on a piece of tracing paper and then placed it perfectly on the watercolor paper with the penciled-side of the tracing paper down, and colored all over the lettering so that it would transfer.  Magic.

This is just an in-progress shot.

the back

This is the original sketch.  When you're making art for friends, sometimes its best to make fun of them  while doing it.  The response to this sketch was that it wasn't wise for the deer to being saying "shoot". :o)

Catch the Carrot

This year I started sitting with the fact that the freelance design work that I do is 99% marketing.  Posters for events, re-designing websites, etc.  It makes sense and I’ve learned a lot about marketing over the years- not from schooling, but from experience.  I have a lot more to learn.  But I now do 2 official marketing things.  I am on the Marketing Team for the Food Co-op around my neighborhood, and I got a full time job (eek!) as Marketing Coordinator at a local non-profit called People’s Emergency Center.  PEC, as we call it, is half homeless shelter for women and children and half Community Development Corporation, or CDC. I work for the CDC part of things, making flyers, emails, facebook pages, websites, etc. for all the social services in the neighborhood that we’re associated with. I think I’ll learn a lot in the position and am glad to be getting a steady paycheck for designing every day.

The piece below is for the Food Co-op. They’re doing this marketing campaign to get new members, so they’re placing these stained glass carrot decorations in a bunch of different local shops and then putting on a scavenger hunt to find the carrots. If you “catch the carrot”, you get a discount on your new Co-op membership.  Oooooooooo!  So this is the design I made for the poster. I did hand-lettering for the “Catch the Carrot” title, which was fun. I don’t get to do hand-lettering very often, so I thought I’d give it a whirl on this one. 

Update: Just found one of these in a bus stop...

To Whom I Do Not Know

Today, I was reminded, is the first day of Lent. Millions of people have been flocking to churches all day to be marked as Christians with an ashy reminder crossed into their foreheads.  Millions of others cower at home, fearful of the judgement or persecution they might receive if they are marked for believing something that has given them hope and life in the world. And even more are completely indifferent to this annual journey, or are judging the Christians for any number of ridiculous or legitimate reasons.  I sit at home, scratching my favorite new pen across the box I received in the mail today. Today is one more day.

The potential is apparent.

Ever wish, after totally fumbling through an interview for your dream job, that you could just write your interviewer and just tell them that really, you would just do so well at that job and they should give you a shot?

That may have happened to me yesterday... And it reminded me of this documentary I watched last week about Snowy Owls, who are probably one of the most skilled hunters of all birds.  Or, at least, I think so. But as owlets, baby owls, they are so fumbly.  They waddle around, tripping over stuff and catching their balance by sticking the wing out like a crutch so they don't fall.  It's totally pathetic and adorable.  And you know that they're gonna grow up to be so amazing. It's in their genes. Unless they die, they're going to be amazing as adults.

Thats kinda how I felt a little bit.  Like, come on!  I know I could be AMAZING at this job if you just give me a chance!  Pardon my bumbling words and stammering answers to your questions.  Just trust me.

So I drew this little owl.  Because the potential is apparent.

I also gave the original to my friend who just had a baby.  Seemed to fit.

The workings of my heart

I doodled a pencil sketch of this a couple weeks ago.  The idea evolved over the time of creating the sketch. I originally wanted to draw something that represented love.  And I didn't want to draw people hugging or hearts.  But then I thought of the anatomical heart and while I was staring at a picture of one, I noticed that the arteries kind of looked like they were planted into the heart like trunks of trees with the roots wrapped around the chambers.  One thing led to another and I had the beginning sketch. I was excited about the idea but a little self conscious about turning it into a completed piece, so I let it sit for a couple weeks.  So yesterday, I laid a piece of Layout Bond over the sketch and decided to develop it using this 03 Micron.  I could throw it out if it turned out awful and still have my sketch to work from.  But this is what I ended up doing and I think it turned out better than I thought it would.

Gig Posters

I watched another documentary the other night about poster artists for band gigs.  It was fantastic and truly inspirational. I want to watch it again, take notes, sign up for the events for poster artists, and make more poster art.

Right now the band that I make the most gig posters for is Phillybloco. Recently, I created 3 new posters for them.  Since I've been making posters for them since 2009, it's fun for me to re-invent how I envision their look to be and how their energy can be conveyed in the designs.