home on the strange

this is what my little one-off comics look like when i ink them. this particular one was included in the box social show at secret project robot gallery a while back. you remember, don't you?

sure you do.

i have a date with chelsea

no, i'm not going out with the former first daughter--i'm going to be in a show in a gallery in chelsea, the manhattan gallery district, this february! here are the details:

"Fade Out, Black In"
Jan 31- March 1st
Opening Reception Feb 7th 6-8pm

Curated by: Zeina Assaf

Featured artists: Betty Beth Bartholomew, Ronald P. D. Brandt, Christin Couture, Stanislav Ginzburg, Christina Gundersen, Rachel Hyman, Tine Kindermann, Nina Olson

NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present Fade Out, Black In, a group exhibit dealing with the underlying currents of dark nostalgia and distant memory. From childhood fears and adolescent recollections to the tainted past, the works encompass a pitted feeling of loss, self-reflection, and turbulent dreams. While grappling with disturbing images of the past or a twisted take on reality, the artists’ work relates on an emotional level, as well as an aesthetic one.

Fade Out, Black In features mid-career and emerging artists who work in media ranging from photography and sculpture to oil painting and mixed media. Exhibiting both locally and nationally at venues like: Deitch Projects, Secret Project Robot Gallery, The RIDER Project, and St. Ann's Warehouse.

NY Studio Gallery
511 W. 25th St. #6-07 (b/t 10 & 11 Aves)
New York, NY 10001
www.nystudiogallery.com
212.627.3276
Hours: Thurs - Sat, noon - 6 pm or by appointment

this is all they do

well, not really--they like eating and sleeping too. but this is definitely puck and buttercup's favorite "activity": they sit on the poophouse and look out the window, watching little birds and insects go by. i like when they bob their heads at the same time--it's as if they're bopping to music that only they can hear.

this is a one-off pop-up book that i made in their honor.

you owe me a coke

to sarah and ryan: i do not think you are pathetic in real life. the pictures just sort of tell me what they're saying, after i draw them. unfortunately, i have no control over it. really.

to the rest of you: by the way, they were watching "golden girls". on DVD. now, i am not in the business of judging, mind you, as i was watching too. i just want you to be an informed audience.

personal growth

this is just silly.

party girl sings the blues, sarcastically

here's another for the comics show i'm semi-helping to curate. jason estrin deserves most of the credit for this thing coming about. without him, this thing never would have gotten beyond a zygote of a gallery show. the exhibit will be at secret project robot in williamsburg, brooklyn, through the month of october. the opening is on saturday, october 6th. go to the box social blog for more details.

hallmark is for wussies

these are the cards i made for my dad and mom on their respective days this year.

dad's card, outer:

dad's card, inner:

mom's card, outer:

mom's card, inner:

i was not able to see my mom's reaction to her card, but i'm sure it was just as quizzical a look as the one i saw my dad give his.

dad: "that's, um, really neat there, son..."

back after all this time

has it really been three months since i posted anything? so sorry, folks. the summer just flew, dinnit?

this drawing is a sketch for a comics project i'm working on. there's a show i'm supposed to be in this october (yikes), and i'm trying to do this series of random people with word balloons saying random things. some funny, some sad, some both. hopefully i'll be able to finish them on time. (special note to IFers: this drawing only obliquely hints at the "wedding" theme for the week, so the following image is included as an additional--albeit still oblique--reference.)

this is my first real "paid gig" right here! a local church hired me to do an illustration of their building for their website. and they gave me money for it! now, if i could only get about 100 more of those jobs per year, i'd be doing all right.

an artist and a poet, conversing

neighbors

click images for larger versions.

these are all scenes from my street in greenpoint, brooklyn. sepia ink on watercolor paper, 4"x6" each.

the whale shoot

this is a type of baleen whale called a bowhead (mostly, anyway. i also stole a few attributes from other whales, for aesthetic purposes). the bowhead whale spends all of its life encircling the north pole, unlike other whales that migrate at various times of the year.

woodcut, 11" x 10".

i spy...

i spy, with my little eye,
a couple of manatee floating by.

***zinc plate etching with aquatint, tinted with GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).

total balance

click image for a better view.

this is a zinc plate etching i'm working on right now. i just did a round of aquatint on it, but it didn't seem to take (the areas i wanted black didn't go black - i suspect the acid is too watered down), so i'm going to have to try again. sorry, that last sentence went all over the place. any suggestions?

illustration friday - "communication"

click image for a better view.

hey, everyone. wow, it's been a long time since i posted, and that's mainly because i have not been making much lately. at least nothing i could deem worth sharing. but here we have something i like - it's a fiberglass-drypoint etching print. my printmaking class is a lot of fun so far. yay for multiple prints, which i can slap paint upon willy-nilly* without fear of messing it up!

*the paint will come later. stay tuned.

illustration friday - "super hero"

this is our hero, buttercup, showing off her powers of what we like to call "the fatness". sorry i've been away so long, by the way. that's what working six days a week will do. but hey, it beats slogging through six classes in one semester, as i did this past fall (in case you were wondering, i got four A's and two A+'s). luckily, i'll only be taking five classes this semester. what a relief that will be--well, it would be a relief if it weren't for the two jobs and volunteering that will be added to those five classes. wasn't life supposed to be easier by now?

illustration friday - "phoenix"

arizona, that is. this watercolor drawing is from a family trip to phoenix. one of my best friends, jason, was dating my sister-in-law emily, so he was there too. each morning we would hike into the hills to draw the landscape, or to work our comics or what-have-you. this was one of my landscapes. the end.