Saturday, December 23, 2006

Boy Girl Origami

Boy Girl Origami

These kids were in the origami section of the Kinokuniya bookstore where I did some last minute holiday shopping the other day. I'm going on vacation to Texas tomorrow, thank GOODNESS. I need the rest badly. Happy Holidays!

Monday, December 18, 2006

2 Photos


Alice Tunnel Mural


Mary Mary Quite Contrary




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Friday, December 15, 2006

Awesome is...

Abandoned Paper Cutter found Yesterday Morning

...finding an abandoned paper cutter on the sidewalk on the way to work in the morning. I've decided to name it "Chantry."

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Dear Santa,



My Amazon.com Wish List

Today has been a bummer of a day, but I did a tiny bit of online shopping therapy, got a couple of Christmas gifts off Amazon, and then I made a wish list!

Speaking of Amazon! Penny The Rhode Island Red is now avaiable through Amazon and Borders.com, but they mispelled the title >:(

I submitted a request to correct it. Now it's bedtime. G'nite.

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Ohhhh man...


My life would be so complete if I had this in the future...I really want this Bob Ross video game thing to happen.

Fathead says "hello"



Fathead digital painting

This is a painting I made a while ago when I first downloaed ArtRage2 which I affectionately call, "Fathead." It really is a fun little program, especially if you have a graphics tablet to draw with. I really enjoy the "feel" of the digital oil paint, much less messy than real oil paint, and you even have an "instant dry" option. Years ago when I stopped painting for a while and focused on learning photography I became really drawn to the instanteous aspect of image-making, which was kind of silly because the kind of photos I would end up making involved lots of time consuming set up or post-production. Still, once you capture the image within your frame, it's pretty much there and you can shoot extras to get the shot you want.

When I came back to painting it became so much more of a chore to create the kind of image I'd want, all this sketching, and then the process of mixing paint, applying it, becoming frustrated with whatever was wrong with it color or composition wise, painting it over, and just continuing to rework it 'till it was good. Hours and hours of soul-eating work. For me it's almost a masochistic thing to do, painting, because of this process, and I'm pretty sure it's what Walter Benjamin was getting at in regards to there being an "aura" to painting as opposed to mechanically reproduced work.

And I've been thinking how painting is such an archaic art form, I mean, not only does it take a long time to actually produce one, but to be a really good painter, that takes YEARS of training and practice, just like any other skill, you have to do it over and over and over again to get better at it. And who has time to do this time consuming-practice? Our culture is so accustomed to instant gratification, internets, frozen foods, automobiles, etc, these things exist in one time zone and doing things like, knitting, cooking a really great meal, or painting exist in another.

Maybe that's part of the reason why I like it so much, this weirdly old process provides a contrast to everything else I do. I guess for me it's always been about balance, contrasts, and juxtopositions. I'm kind of in love right now with a certain brand of frozen dinners (which I ate 4 days in a row), but I also enjoy cooking spaghetti with Michael. I love shooting digital photos and I love painting things with lots of detail (even though I grumble about it while I'm actually doing it). When I was still in school people there used to be a lot of that digital vs. traditional debate, but it really doesn't matter anymore, if it's good, it's good, you can't resist technological change, but you can never get rid of traditional practices either.



Monday, December 04, 2006

Yuck.

I just checked my new(ish) website in Windows, and...eeks, what a mess. WINDOWS SHMINDOWS. I'll be fixing that soon, and if anyone stumbles across a broken link or wonky looking page, I'd appreaciate it if you'd let me know via email or commenting.

Shows that were on in the background while working on the computer this morning:
Farscape, Stargate, Meet The Press. Now it's time to go back to bed.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

A more proper update.

The mighty Wonder Woman smiles upon me today, for she's my submission for this weeks IF: Might. Although, now that I've read this very peculiar story, I feel more inspired to draw a young Mighty Morphin Power Ranger! As posted (in very brief words) before, Headexplodie.com is now updated with a new front page and portfolio section! WHEEEEE! The website has been kicking my ass this week, while I try to prepare for next weekend's CCA Holiday Fair, and work, and sleep, and playing Twilight Princess. But I wanted to make sure I got most of it done by today, since today I reserved a spot on Etsy's Showcase, or as I like to think of it, the SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN. Many a fine morning during my youth were spent watching The Price is Right, spin that big wheel!!!


Finally, last, but most certainly not least, do you like reading about adventures involving chickens and love? Who doesn't!? The Adventures of Penny, The Rhode Island Red is out now! Authored by the wonderful Yvonne Backman, and illustrated by myself, you can view some of the drawings for it in my porfolio. We are very excited to finally have this project finished, it's a story Yvonne has been working on for a very very long time, and we will do a book signing for it in February. Makes a great holiday gift! Buy it now, from Lulu Press, Barnes and Noble.com, and probably Amazon and Borders soon.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Kids are running up and down the hallway upstairs and I gotta go to work now.

this is just sort of a test post.

The website has been updated! Sort of.