Down To My Last

I lost my favorite brush! It's not a fancy or expensive brush, but I learned a long time ago that those things rarely matter with art supplies. I started making so much more art when I stopped going to the art supply store all the time and getting sucked into the trap of "if I only had THIS kind of brush and THESE new paints I would be doing something so much better" and then putting off actually ever making any art. But even after telling that little story I still don't have my favorite brush, so this painting was done with a new brush that will probably not be my new favorite because it holds so much water that I'll probably take it with me the next time I go camping instead of a canteen.


I'm not a very superstitious person so losing the brush is not like losing my lucky underwear (but if I had a pair I would draw monsters all over it to keep my privates safe), but it has thrown me off quite a bit. For the longest time I would just paint with whatever was at hand and let the randomly chosen brush dictate the feel of the painting. But lately I've grown so comfortable with this one brush that I'm having a hard time accepting the loss and moving on. I ended up making this painting as an attempt to jump to new gear, but I have to admit that my heart wasn't really in it with this one. It feels trite to me and the contrast between the red flower and black flowery collar on the monster didn't end up anything like I wanted it to.

The painting in this post is a submission for another Underneath The Juniper Tree contest (http://underneaththejunipertree.blogspot.com/2011/05/play-it-again-tex-music-challenge.html). The first issue of their digital magazine comes out tomorrow and as long as they're not openly mocking my art I will probably continue to submit things for them to review as I really like their mission of bringing creepy and interesting art to kids and adults.

I'm Gonna Get You Suckers

Last year I did a painting of a giant squid and everyone hated it. But it's one of my favorite paintings of mine, and I figured out that I like it because of the suckers on the tentacles. I have more tentacle paintings in mind and toward the end of working on these hugging tentacles (vaguely inspired by Jim Munroe's book "Angry Young Spaceman") I found an approach to rendering the suckers that I was happy with.

Tiny Teeth And Heart Balloons

Thank you to everyone who turned out for yesterday's Columbia City art walk! Don't tell the other art walks because they'll get jealous, but I think Columbia City's is my new favorite. I think it has the potential to turn into a truly celebratory monthly festival and I definitely recommend turning out for next month's (June 16) and then going to the Mountain Goats show afterward (http://www.showboxonline.com/market/eventdetail.php?id=31805). And also buying an extra ticket for me. Thanks!


These are some doodles I did during the slow times yesterday. The first one was pretty much entirely for my daughter. The others revisit some things I was obsessed with a few years ago - tiny teeth (above) and Felix the Cat-influenced eyes (below). Both of these were more something to occupy my fidgety hands than an attempt at anything substantial, but somewhere in the world is a table with a row of sweaty and uncomfortable creatures similar to the one below dancing and eating.


If you find yourself in the south Seattle area or are into poetry events (or whatever it is you call them), I still have some original pieces hanging at SPLAB for the next few weeks.

http://splab.org/?page_id=7

One Fine Day

Come to the Columbia City art walk! It's almost 80 degrees and sunny, live music and art is happening all around, and you can see my broken frame that blew over in the lovely breeze!

I also have a small show of original paintings up at SPLAB at 3651 S Edmunds.

Super Awesome Best Art Walk Ever

The inaugural Columbia City art walk is tomorrow (Thursday, 5/19) and it looks pretty darn cool. And not just because I will be there (although that's clearly going to be a huge influence on its success) - check out the link below for a list of all the activities and music and even post-art walk events they have planned.

http://communityartscreate.org/Community_Arts_Create/ArtWalk_%26_Street_Fair.html

I'll have a gallery show up at SPLAB and will also be hawking my wares in the alley just like every Thursday night. Except that this time it's sponsored by Community Arts Create.

SPLAB Location:
3651 S. Edmunds
Seattle, WA 98118
in the Columbia Cultural Corner (the former Columbia School). Enter from Edmunds. Off street parking is available and we’re three blocks from the Link Light Rail stop in Columbia City.


View Columbia City ArtWalk, Bohemian Backstreets in a larger map

After Midnight

Despite their magical appearance and fabricated back story, I'm pretty sure that fairies are completely lacking in actual magic. But that doesn't mean that after an evening of trying to turn rats into something more spectacular that their fairy godmother couldn't learn to love them as they are.


I put "rat fairy" into google's image search and found that I was not the only person to come to this conclusion. I seem to bump into Jasmine Becket-Griffith's (aka strangeling) work on a lot of the art sites I participate in, but that could be a wishful association on my part considering she has a contract with Disney and I have a contract with laziness. I imagine her gig is much better paying, though possibly not as relaxing.

I also found this piece by Lauren Mills (http://www.laurenmillsart.com/) that I liked a lot. I don't love everything she's done, but some of her work is the kind of displaced and slightly creepy art from children's literature that I really enjoy.

If We Can't Be Free...

...at least we can be cheap (thanks, Frank Zappa). For an undetermined period of time, all Spirals In Love prints purchased online have been reduced in price by approximately 15%. This saves you about $3 on an 11" x 14" print AND it can still be combined with any imagekind free shipping or additional discount codes. You can jump directly to a piece from the Spirals In Love galleries at http://spiralsinlove.weebly.com/galleries.html, or by browsing my selection at imagekind at http://spiralsinlove.imagekind.com/.

As long as I have the time, I will be entering something in Underneath The Juniper Tree's Edward Gorey challenge (http://underneaththejunipertree.blogspot.com/2011/05/edward-gorey-challenge.html). Anyone who likes to write or draw (both types of entries are accepted) should also enter and support this new magazine. Gorey was one of the earliest influences on me, especially when it came to bridging the gap between "children's" art and "real" art (a distinction I refuse to make). Additionally, I've been told that I look like Gorey when he was younger (above), which means I can hope to look like him when I get older (below). Thanks for the pictures, Mark!

Two Become One

I didn't make all of the jellyfish here. I'm only responsible for the pinkish-purple ones, which were inspired by the lonely jellyfish below (the one labeled "jellyfish" to help out anyone who knows how to read but doesn't know what a jellyfish is).


Someone who cares about jellyfish loneliness made a companion for the original and the end result is the final picture of this post - two jellyfish where there was once one, swimming together forever inside the closed world of the frame but no longer limited to the original plane.

You Can Almost Believe That They're Real

I do my best to avoid letting people actually see my face, but Gabrielle Garrido of mynorthwest.com was very enthusiastic about my work at last week's Issaquah art walk so I agreed to a few pictures. I'm pretty sure it's just because my kids are cute (they were helping promote my location on a very rainy day by handing out business cards), but it's free publicity so I might as well exploit them.

http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=643&sid=477995&pid=11

There are three pictures of my setup (the first one has me and my children) and then following those pictures is one of Julie Clegg and her work.

I shared my art walk space with Julie of Bailey & Banjo Pet Photography.

http://baileyandbanjo.com/

She also runs http://www.lickslobberdrool.com/ which is a charity that takes cancer away from dogs and gives it to animals that people like less, like owls and giraffes. So if you hate giraffes (or like dogs) you should check out the site. Especially since I owe her now that I completely misrepresented her charitable organization.



Greeting visitors to our little art barn was Charlie of http://charliespring.com/, also seen and heard outside of http://charliespring.com/ in the real world (his performance schedule is on his website). Charlie was fantastic company and continued playing past the point where we could see his breath in the cold, wet air and only took minimal breaks to warm his numb fingers.

We didn't have very many visitors due to the extremely crummy weather, but thank you to everyone who braved it to come visit us! I'm not sure if I'll be at June's Issaquah art walk, but I will definitely be at August and September's (July is dead to me).

The Incredibly True Story Of The Missing Spirals In Love Blog Posts

The Blogger Monster got hungry and ate a few of my recent posts. I'm hoping they will reappear, but in the meantime they are all still available on the facebook mirror of this blog at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spirals-In-Love/134433636605970.

Munky River

Testing the limits of watercolor paper...I'm already about seven coats of paint in on this one with many more to go. I might end up destroying the paper but so far this one has been very fun to paint. I'm considering a second, much more impressionistic version as well.

I Don't Want A Dog

Both of these paintings are experiments. This one was me wanting to play with a more uniform color palette and rounded shapes. I didn't intend to from the start, but as I worked on it I realized I was subconsciously trying to get a little of Robert Crumb's wildly curved landscapes and slightly too-floppy figures in the mix. I've always liked the results of the more creative artists who illustrated the reading primers I had as a kid where the cheapness of the publisher limited the artist to work within one or two colors.

This other painting has been sitting around for a while. I wasn't even going to finish it and then I thought it would be a good chance to play with really heavy lines. In the end I don't know that consistently heavy lines are something I'll revisit for a while, but working on this did remind me that it can be fun to vary the weight of the lines since I'm using a nib pen anyway.

Nostalgia

Let's Go Pop

I love bubbles. I could sit and watch them for hours as they trace the path of the breezes across the sky and twist and reshape the light and reflections of objects around them. This was a painting that I started a long time ago that I could not get back in the right frame of mind for until last night. It still feels very rough to me but I'm also probably going to be too consumed with something new to totally redo it.

Bohemian Like You

I've been invited to participate in the first-ever Columbia City "Bohemian Backstreets" art walk! I don't know my location yet, but I will post it here when I do.

http://communityartscreate.org/Community_Arts_Create/Art_Walk.html

The walk is Thursday, May 19 from 4-8pm and there should be an associated street fair. Most likely full of mimes having their mime minds blown by the mind-blowing Spirals In Love bookmarks.

Columbia City has hosted a monthly BeatWalk (like an art walk but for music) on the first Friday of each month for 15 years, but is just now taking a stab at the art walk thing. Even if you are not able to attend, if you live in the Seattle area please let anyone who might be interested know about the art walk - as a brand new event it will need all the publicity it can get!

The Mountain Goats

Give John Darnielle some money.

http://www.mountain-goats.com

They'll be in Seattle on June 16.

Sex, Lies, and Picture Books

There's not actually any sex. That was just to draw you in and possibly snag some search hits for "love sex". But there are...

LIES - as of five minutes ago I am not in Gilman Vilage any more for tonight's Issaquah art walk. My new location is inside the train depot near downtown. It has an address (below), but it's not really on a road. Come see me - I'll be the one in the conductor hat making choo-choo noises instead of selling art!

50 Rainier Blvd. N.
Issaquah, WA 98027

Map

PICTURE BOOKS - I have three copies of the extremely limited (to three!) Spirals In Love inaugural picture book. It's not good enough to have a story or anything, but it does have a lot of pictures of pictures and the pages are shiny and each is one-of-a-kind. They'll be $15 each and available at tonight's art walk.

I'll Always Save A Place For You

Spirals In Love bookmarks debut at tonight's Issaquah art walk!

Hypothetical Art Walk

I've been confirmed for the Issaquah Art Walk this Friday (5/6/11), but the organizers are being super secretive about details. I suspect this is because they're planning on awarding me with a grant for $20 million so that I can stay at home and paint and play with my kids instead of having to go to work. I'm somewhere in Gilman Village (http://www.gilmanvillage.com/eventssub.php3?id=67), but I'm not exactly sure where.

The official site is http://www.arteast.org/artwalk.htm.

10th Annual Downtown Issaquah Art Walk Season Begins May 6, 2011

ISSAQUAH, WA - The Downtown Issaquah Association (DIA) announces the 10th annual season of the Issaquah Art Walk on May 6, 2011 from 5-8 p.m. The popular monthly Art Walk held each first Friday of the month, May through September invites visitors to meet local business owners, enjoy free live music, watch artists in action, shop and dine in Downtown Issaquah by extending normal business hours. Art Walk draws hundreds of visitors into Downtown Issaquah and Gilman Village each month by placing dozens of artists into local businesses.

The Art Walk enhances the already vibrant arts scene in Downtown Issaquah. The new ArtEAST's Art Center, the centrally located Hailstone Feedstore and newly expanded Museo Art Academyon Front Street add to the creative opportunities for artists to make and demonstrate art in the 2011 Art Walk season. For May, ArtEAST opens a new exhibit titled 150 Feet of Art at Up Front Art. Visitors will enjoy a tasty reception and can purchase work in an online auction through May 20, 2011. The newly remodeled Village Theatre Front Stage and Mainstage each welcome visitors and host artists in their Front Street lobbies for Art Walk.

Other Art Walk activities on Front Street include glass blowing demonstrations at Art by Fire and free, live music at various Art Walk locations by The Studebakers, bands provided by Kaleidoscope School of Music, Dorothy Hay and the Issaquah Singers, Charlie Spring and the Train Wrecks with other various musicians at Gilman Village.

Art Walkers with an appetite will enjoy bites and entertainment at Amante Pizza and Pasta in their new location on Front Street, at Fin's Bistro, Flying Pie Pizzeria and the Vino Bella Wine Bar. Gilman Village features hot java and snacks at the Issaquah Coffee Company with music and outdoor art displays.

Event maps are available at Information Booths located at the Hailstone Feed Store, 232 Front Street and at Gilman Village 317 N.W. Gilman Boulevard. Complimentary limousine shuttle from 5-8 p.m. sponsored by Gilman Village will pick up visitors on the corner of Sunset Way and Front Street at the Issaquah Library and drop off in main parking lot in front of Gilman Village.

The Art Walk is known activating community involvement and galvanizing the Downtown Issaquah merchant community. As the event has matured, little has changed in its format. New for the 2011 season is a "soft" close for participating businesses at 8 p.m. instead of officially ending at 9 p.m. After 8 p.m. visitors still browsing, eating and listening to music will recognize open Art Walk venues by the iconic Art Walk A-frames remaining outside open businesses.

Do De Do Dull

Heart balloons. I haven't had much time to paint lately so I thought I would post some of my recent doodles. I don't doodle nearly as much as I used to, but lately it's been a fabulous way to relax without the commitment of a painting. The heart balloons above have been a constant in my life for the last few weeks as my daughter wants them on everything either of us draws.

This is a chicken with a flowery monster mask farting hearts. The little sea monsters around it are something I started doing again recently that I used to do everywhere. Not sea monsters necessarily, but a page filled with tiny creatures of similar design.


Rats were always a common theme when I would draw the tiny creatures. These are some kind of rat-human hybrid. Doodles like these are how I play with lines and facial expressions. The Spirals In Love series creatures don't have traditional eyes, but whenever I approach the face of a creature the eyes are central to my design.


More little monsters - some kind of skull-headed chickens or something, all watching a pig-man eat a flower. You can probably see that most of these doodles will never go beyond this stage. It's rare that something this directionless becomes a painting, but playing like this lets me quickly try out new things. For instance, the triangles floating above the heart/fart chicken made their way into a trading-card sized painting of tomatoes (that I'll post later) and I enjoyed the definition they added so much that I'll probably work them into a proper painting soon.