the mama pajama rolled out of bed

This was a pretty cool gift: my friend Caitlin went to France and brought me back a cute little basket for my bike, perfect for transporting small plants home from the market in :) Bike gifts are THEBEST.

Fave illustrator, fave beer of the summer. Ralph Steadman's sweet illy and type for Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat. LOVE.

A detail from my new studio.

NEW STUDIO SPACE! All set up and ready to crank some illys out :D

Out of the fountain flows gold, into a huge hand.

I've been working on the start of a circus/carnival themed show lately. I decided to do a fortune teller, as I am called a gypsy on a regular basis for how I wrap my hair. I did have a lot of fun with my photo reference:


Original sketch:

Here's the piece, in progress. I'm excited to do a multi-layer lino again, and I think I'm going to add an additional layer of the background as lino as well. It's fun to be working with lino digitally again!

Finally, another variation on the lions from last week:

no matter if you're born to play the king or pawn

My derby bust is 1. fixed! and 2. finished! After a long nap during the thunderstorms of this afternoon I finished this up... now I can get it out of my room and not constantly worry about me/anyone else ruining it in my house!!!

Last night was the Langhorne Slim show in Woodstock! It was my first time seeing him play in seven years, and he did not let me down! The Low Anthem was also phenomenal, check them out too, each member is incredibly versatile and the instruments they use are quite unique. I had a ton of fun there, and I believe the gentlemen of the War Eagles were very happy with the mailers that I gave them :) More pictures to come!!!!

Don't call me when the new age gets old enough to drink.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my good friend Shalini had given me a much needed kick in the butt to get back into linoleum block printing, which used to be all I did in undergrad. Being in a circus/carnival frame of mind, I chose a lion for my first subject to get back into printing with. First I sketched it out:

Then I redrew it, cut it out, and printed it:

Bringing it into photoshop, I was met with a really happy surprise when playing around with layers and opacities, I am really intrigued by the interplay of the interior lines here:

I was able to see my friends from the band 28 North again in Rochester last night! We had a lot of fun, even though the venue was a bit of a different feel from my old favorite, Abilene. They're on tour now, so check out their schedule to see if they are headed to a city near you! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND going to see them! Below is a collaborative sketch that my friend Kira and I did while the boys were playing:

A collaborative sketch with some of the boys in the band, me, Kira, and the girl sitting next to us (sorry, I had to edit some content to keep this blog family friendly).

It's so easy, when you know the rules.

Progress on my Thom Yorke sketch :) Making the shapes in this reminded me of a simpler time when I mapped out shapes for linoleum block prints. As if reading my mind, I got a (not so subtle) reminder from a good friend of mine that I should really start printing again. DULY NOTED! I'll be working on a new print this weekend, fear not!

In other news, the Avett Brothers just premiered their music video for "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise". I LOVE the song already, and the video is absolutely beautiful. The artist involved is Jason Ryan Mitcham, go watch the video now. Be inspired by it!!!

Finally, I had a really fantastic chat with my dear friends, Robert Ernst Marx and his lovely wife Francie the other day at Orange Glory. They were telling me about the evils of the fine art world, contracts, and having your art stolen. It reminded me how blessed I am to know them, if you haven't checked his work out already, I urge you to! He is amazing and always inspires me to work harder and get better :)

strangers on this road we are on, we are not two we are one.

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of listening to and meeting two up and coming bands, 28 North and Hollis Brown. Not only were the guys super nice, their music was awesome! I may be finagling my upcoming trips to make time to see them again at Abilene this coming Sunday, after that they're touring all over the place! If you're in Rochester, you should join me there :)
28 North:

Hollis Brown:

There's something to be said about the beauty of asymmetry. Sure, in our culture, the perception of "what is beautiful" lies mainly in symmetry, especially in faces. Take a look at many celebrities deemed "attractive", and look at how symmetrical their faces are. I, on the other hand, LOVE the little asymmetrical nuances that make a face unique, perhaps this is because my face has some asymmetrical features to it. I've been wanting to draw Thom Yorke again, I miss his weird, wonky eye. This is a quick sketch I did of him today.


Final note, The Onion's A.V. club is doing an AMAZING thing with their "undercover" project, and this one is my favorite. I'm a huge sucker for this song :)

Wye Oak covers The Kinks

summer days, summer nights

finished mailer back:

finished mailer front:

10 days until the Langhorne Slim show :D

I push the envelope off the precipice.

Stuck in a heat wave, I've been relocating my studio to any coffeeshop with available air conditioning. It's working out for me so far, but when I come home I get a little guilt trip from my favorite anti-muse.

I got frustrated with the original drawing of George Eastman (daddy Rochester, as I've been calling him lately), so I redrew it. I like the shapes in this one a lot more :) Now.... let's have a Jay Lincoln moment (AHEM).... "so... what do we think here guys.... do we have a likeness?"

a weekend of independence

First and foremost, it was a HOOOOTTTTT weekend! Today I got back to Rochester... and feeling guilty about not having a nice long cycle in a few days... went out for a 40 mile ride. It was enjoyable... the best thing about cycling is there will always always wind blowing towards you... but then you stop... and the sweat POURS OFF OF YOU. A few of the miles were treacherous.. but the majority weren't. When I got home I looked (and felt) like this vat of melted cheese:

So the weekend! I had a ton of fun visiting my good friend Gayle in Albany. This was my second time to Albany, and I have to say, I like it better every time I go. I wish I had my pictures to show you, but since the camera is still at her house... you'll have to do with descriptions. Carly and Kira came along too, it was a wonderful reunion of RIT Illustration ladies. The first night we were there, we went out on the town and lived it up. Our second day (the FOURTH OF JULY) started with a walk to their beautiful, beautiful park! We came back home... where we were cooking up some delicious beer ice cream. We ended up cooking a fantastic meal of kielbasa, grilled onions and peppers and mushrooms, garlic bread, and to top it off, 'smores on the street with the grill. We were fortunate enough to get invited up onto a neighbors rooftop to watch the SPECTACULAR fireworks over the capitol building. One of my favorite parts was after dinner, when we watched one of my favorites, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'm a Jimmy Stewart junkie, it's true... and I do have a thing for Frank Capra movies. This just capped off the lovely weekend.

Okay, so art wise, I seem to do a portrait of Kira (sometimes demanded) during the long drive to Albany. It works: she drives, I draw her. Have I mentioned my love of drawing hair? I got really into it in this one... but I love it all the same.

As of today (July 5)... only 15 DAYS REMAIN UNTIL I SEE LANGHORNE SLIM IN CONCERT!!!! I'm a little excited... I may have been working on his mailer/gift all week, this is a preview, type is yet to come. Since I have done so many portraits of just Sean, I decided that I wanted to draw all of the boys for the mailer itself. I liked the back view because it made me think of how to make it visually interesting without the presence of faces. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Finally, an in-progress portrait of George Eastman for the (AHEM) Eastman School of Music.

Recent Findings

The other night I attended a screening of the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which originally was a film about the street artist, Banksy, but turned out being more of a film about the film-maker himself. This film blew my mind, I had no clue what street art was really about. It made me want to do more, be more, all the time. The following discussion with my friends in the Sweet Meat Collective was really fun!

OH MY GOD DUELING BANJO PIG ILLUSTRATIONS. I MAY HAVE TO GET SOME THINGS DONE EARLY THIS WEEK SO I CAN CONTRIBUTE!