Please excuse me but I've got to ask, are you only being nice because you want something?

Right now, two musicians that I'm really into have some new music out. Not only is the new music good, the art for their albums is done by linocut artists like myself. First of all, Stanley Donwood has done Radiohead merch illustration for YEARS. His fold-out cover of The Eraser has been on my studio wall since the album came out, I just adore his work. Atoms for Peace's new album, Amok, features his illustrations in the packaging and in some of the music videos.

The second artist that has a new album out I first saw at SXSW at the Palm Door in 2010. I more recently saw her in Buffalo with the Punch Brothers. Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer's "Child Ballads" came out less than a week ago, featuring the art of Peter Nevins. Nevins' earlier album cover that he illustrated for Anais, "Hadestown", was nominated for a Grammy for the album cover design! That's pretty swanky, if you ask me.

Speaking of album cover art, I created the back illustration for Liana Gabel's new album. The type will go under the umbrella for the track listings.

I also created an "evergreen" poster for Liana to tour with for this album.... kind of the fill in the blanks poster.

I got the Anatomy Show poster all finished up! The show is coming up on May 11. It's time to make flyers and get advertising that show.

I'm really excited to see old and new friends at this show in April at Abilene! Record Store Day is such a wonderful hipster holiday. I can't believe how much it has grown in the past few years. I played around with different color layerings in my final output of it... and I can't choose a favorite, I guess I'll let the client do that.

I don't mind you coming here, and wasting all my time.

Hello! Since my anatomy obsession started in September/October, I finally formulated a plan to have an art show of just my anatomy work. I've been working on the poster for about a week now, and I'm really excited with how it's coming along. The show will be in May, and I'm hoping that it can be a continuing themed show. Since I have different media and outlets, it feels really important for me to section out my work into separate shows.

I recently entered an online contest through Creative Allies to design this summer's Fleetwood Mac tour poster. I haven't entered any of their contests since I won the contest to go to SXSW in 2010. It seems like a million years ago now! Here's hoping I win, but if I don't, I have a sweet peacock now.

Here's a photo of the progress work that I did on the piece. I had a lot of fun drawing the tail feathers!

Speaking of progress work, I had an art opening at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education this past Friday. I took some wonderful letterpress classes here in the printmaking studio, and I was honored to have a showcase of my poster work along with the original linoleum. If you ever wanted to try your hand at linoleum block printing, they hold classes in it!

This past week I learned that the poster that I did for the Kingsley Flood album release has some of the wrong bands on it, as the lineup was changed since I made the poster! Since I am having posters screenprinted to sell at the show, I had to think fast, so I bought a white acrylic marker to write the new bands on the poster. This is really embarrassing... lessons in poster making, I guess. I am looking forward to the show at the Bug Jar this week, regardless, and am so excited to work with the Kingsley Flood!

I've been really into the human face recently, and I remembered today that John Cleese had a great series on the human face a few years back on the BBC. So, I watched that in the studio today and drew John Cleese as my warmup drawing.

My face obsession started when I read this NPR article about people who cannot physically smile and the portraits taken of them by photographer Sage Sohier. There's a beauty to their faces that I can't describe, their eyes seem to hold more emotion than those of people who can smile.


Take care, everyone! It's almost springtime!