Ok So, Here's A Piece That Isn't Up Anywhere Else On The Internet With The Possible Exception Of My Facebook

ok so, here's a piece that isn't up anywhere else on the internet with the possible exception of my facebook it's called "And The Geese Had Never Noticed Him"

consider it as a waaaaaaay out view of everything, I wanted something a little ominous, and I wanted a dragon, so he's there breathing out clouds on a mountain top, you'll note the title makes you as the viewer go "who's this personal pronoun? is there a thing aside from geese and mountains in this picture that I might not notice right away?" and then the waldo hunt begins.

it needs that title because otherwise the dragon is often completely overlooked. and I feel like I should have put in a mountaineer or two for scale because he's actually gigantic. oh well, gives me an excuse to draw more dragons maybe later if I feel like it.

that dragon really should be named Waldo, if I was a type who liked handing out names.

Just wanted to say, I think your prints are beautiful!

Thank You!

Lantern.

12" by 15" linoleum block print, edition of 4.

(in retrospect I should have made as many as possible of this because it's pretty popular) this was meant to be a set of four (as these are a cut quarter of one of my usual blocks) that tied up the story a little bit, showing objects that are left behind or incidental to the various storylines of the whole deer-girl thing. I got as far as the lantern and the antler, I partway carved a seashell necklace on a rock with a starfish, and the bones of a rabbit being nosed by another rabbit would be the logical fourth one I guess, that or maybe the bowl the tree people own with four frogs swimming in it.

it is a set of two, because I ran out of time at the end of the year, I may carve and finish it anyways because I still have the blocks for the two I didn't print. (note to all'yall who may be worried about the exclusivity of my editions, I threw away all of my blocks after I graduated because they were gross and oily and I had no place to keep them where they would not seep vegitable oil all over everything, one more thing I like about acrylic ink)

moths to a candle flame, it's such a bad idea but it's so pretty, to navigate by the moon of your life and not the moon of the sky, and then it burns you up. so artsy and poetic no? such a classic, all of the item-series show items and animals interacting, and they are really just simple little things. 

so many stars though.

stars are a big thing for me. when I was a kid (and still) I really loved my glow-in-the-dark stars all over my ceeling and walls of my room, ever since I got to go on a semi-camping trip to the wilderness and saw what the sky really looks like away from all the danged light pollution I have been fascinated with the milky way. although I am not particularly interested right now in recreating the look of actual sky, I want that kind of Narnian feel of the familiar and unfamiliar at once. stars from a different sky. and I want that look of wilderness and inhuman landscapes and being able to see all the stars is a mark of that.

and then I carve them out, all five points, one at a goddamn time.

it's one of those things people don't tell you about being an artist, inspiration may be the spark that starts you, but your time and energy are the coal you have to burn if you want the steam engine of your artistic vision to reach the shores of proper physical fruition, and not crash on the unmerciful shores of conceptual art.

also, you have to train yourself to be receptive to inspiration, all the skill in the world does no good to nobody without that 2am magic.

That is my tool box.

on the sides it has two little slips of paper one says "you are a good person" the other says "you are a fucking tool" the bottom has one of my prints that says "FUCK" printed on brown paper.

inside is: a strop, my speedball carving tool, a couple of X-acto knives, what's left of the fancy carving set  I bought when I realized I was going to be doing this for my BFA (note to the world: never loan out your tools, even if you think not loaning out your tools makes you look like an asshole, nobody notices your name carved in the handles and they will not give them back) other things: my engraving twist which is unsurprisingly nice for working up scratch board, my scratch board tool, a lump of eraser, some utility knife blades, some mechanical pencils, some mechanical pencil lead, an eraser and an Altoids Small's tin where I keep my tool-bits. (I like to think of it as the Altoid's sharps tin) the box interior is also decorated with a couple of these silly librarian-themed temporary tattoos.

I felt like showing some progress pictures today of something simple. I'm trying to get back into the swing of making things and what better opportunity for that than a three day weekend?

I am making several more of these simple herbaceous prints to be ready for my show at Dandelion Botanicals in April. it always pays to have a range of prices available, somebody who won't drop $200 on a piece might still want something for $20.

Screen Prints!

alright these are the three screen prints I did for Ben Moreau's summer screen printing class that he liked so much he said it was better than a visit to the dentist for a root canal.

and what else could possibly be better than dentistry?

alright, these are a bit of a departure from my other stuff. I was just not feeling it during the summer after I made it into the BFA program when it comes to sticking to my "theme" and making art that would be useful for my BFA portfolio in the coming year. it was my first summer in Bellingham, I was mostly crippled all the hell, and sick of being pretentious and sad. So, I made OZ Fanart.

the first one is a reductive screen print of myself as Glinda the Good Witch of the South in her costume as she appears in the first OZ movie. it glitters. it is hard to convey just how much these things glitter in the sunlight like fairy-taffy made of pink and shimmer but they do. I would have to convert it into one of those glitter .gifs to give you an approximation of how nice they look.

this print was made with reductive screenprinting, which I have a pretty hard time controlling because I am like, comprised of 90% sloppy mess. I still love it.

the second one is of Christine as Ozma the rightful Queen of OZ. I was mostly trying out all different kids of techniques with this one, the swirls of the sky, the layers, the bajillion million layers and colors and the fact that it could still use a pattern on her dress. the gold bits also glitter.

this print was made through transparency processes, both using clear plastic and ink/paint/cutouts to expose the screens, and gobs and gobs of transparent base to give the inks character and clarity. (note her head flowers over the building)

third one: A Tribute For The Wizard.

photographic processes and fucking up repeatedly by not saving my progress lead to the end result you see here, this is Ben as the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz being displeased by our offering of One Good Print.

as he said in crit "YOU MUST HAVE AT LEAST FIVE PERFECT PRINTS!!"

everybody in class except for the Asian kid we never really saw posed for this.

first silhouette is Jake, then Brendan, then me holding aloft the golden print, then Allison and Stacey.

this class was good times.

How are you so good at Lino printing? I'm trying to self teach myself!!!!

Short answer: Thank you so much! I really like making all of my art and I've had a lot of practice.

Long answer: I went to school and spent roughly 6 years doing nothing but learning how to skillfully make art, how to know the world how it really is, and how to have big cohesive thoughts and opinions about anything given enough time to write it all out. College! I recommend it.

I spent a lot of 2010 to 2012 working on the pieces you see here on my tumblr and if they were organized chronologically, you'd see how much I improve from one project to the next due to the feedback I received from my friends and teachers both in critique and informally when I asked for help.

Printmaking is very process oriented, if you want to get better at the process: you should try taking a class or at least watching a demo at an art supply store, that way you can see somebody do it live and ask them questions as they go along. Ideally you'd get to use a press too, I may be stuck using a spoon to print with now, but nothing beats a press for making it easy to print big.

But, if you think you've got a handle on the process (hint, warm up your linoleum a bit and it will become easier to carve) the rest of it is just practice, and figuring out what you want to make and how you want it to look, before you try and do it, without getting bored because you over-thought the idea, or paralyzed by fear that the finished product won't be as good as it already is in your head.

The trick to that is also practice.

The other thing that allows me to create interesting art is that I had to find my center to know what I wanted to talk about in my art. I think everybody goes through this, you’ve got the tools, you know the procedure, now what? what do you want to draw?

Finding your center, your genius-sprit, your idea-particle detector, your muse, your omnivorous all devouring cultural trash compactor, or whatever you call the place where the ideas come from, is important, but everybody already has it, you just have to practice using it.

If you don’t have it yet, or don’t think you do, write out a list of things you’d like to draw normally, things you’re interested in learning more about, your areas of expertise (be they archeology or pop-culture hair styles) things you wish you’d made, things you know you could make better than the original, the things (or people) you obsess over.  What is the best of your life? The worst of it? What can you not stop thinking about?

The things that itch at me, the stuff I absolutely have to shout from the mountaintops, are the things I make art about. Sometimes if I don’t think I have anything I go chase ideas. I drink scotch with friends and talk, or stay up late until my feet feel too comfy and the birds are chirping at the sunrise, or I stare at the computer screen at my job and have a pang of angst and I keep a sketch book and I draw any and every little thought that comes into my head.

And then I do my best to take the little fluttering light of an idea and manifest it right. Sometimes I manage it, other times I don’t do as well as I’d hoped. But there is always next time.

Oh, and also.

If you don’t manage to print square on the paper, either make a jig to hold everything in the right place, mount it right  when you frame it. or use enough paper so that you can cut it square after the fact.

Somebody somewhere will love everything you do.  If you have something genuine to say it’ll speak to somebody. No matter if you don’t think it’s good enough or not. There’s no such thing as perfection, there is only hard work and being true to yourself and your idea.

Thanks again for the compliment, it means a lot to me.

 Happy New Years and good luck to you.