was

pen and ink with washes

No, I can't get it out of my head, now my whole world is gone for dead. This song has been stuck in my head for a while now, kind of interesting. I apologize for the long ramble of reflection this will be, but here I go. It's been an interesting few weeks, ups and downs, odd mindsets, but here I am. I don't know, quarantine has shifted a lot of things for everyone, and I've noticed a lot of changes in myself. I jokingly say I'm becoming soft, but it's a bit true, in a good way. I'm thankful for so many people in my life, and I'm finally letting those people how much they mean to me. I know I've said this before, but gymnastics has really been getting me through, and I'm proud of all the progress I've been making recently. My coaches make my life better, they're just incredible people and I love them so much. Thank you to the person I had a whole long text conversation with tonight (you know who you are) and for always dealing with my chaotic self. And finally, I've started to accept who I am, and that's a nice feeling. There's still the dark parts, the static still consumes me from time to time, but tonight was a good night. Thank you for all the support from everyone (in and outside of this community!). I genuinely appreciate all of it

Started as a doodle while I was listening to a podcast on the history of gin! Just graphite.

One of my favorite pieces I did for Inktober a couple of years ago. The prompt was juicy. I went with an NBC Hannibal aesthetic. You would not believe how much fun I had coloring those pomegranates.

I was just thinking of how every time I see a moth, somebody has to point out that they're just 'Ugly Butterflies'.

This, not very ferocious fellow, was my social distancing Easter weekend project that I finished yesterday. A colored pencil drawing on Strathmore 400 colored pencil pad with several different wax and oil colored pencils.

Zoomed in shot of "Pattern Interrupt". 2020. Size: 32" x 40" / Micron pens on archival museum board. This piece was all drawn freehand - no rulers or measuring tools were used to create this artwork.

That was my first animal painting, chose ocelot, because the are so beautiful and unusual. It is done with oilcolors on canvas.

I sketched this black cat drawing as the start of my custom pet portrait service. Graphite, a mechanical pencil and a hb pencil was used on Derwent sketching paper.

I had a wonderful time creating this commision for a Kansas City Personalities wall mural installed in a downtown KC apartment building. The wall measures roughly 12’ x 20’. These were all hand drawn graphite and charcoal drawings that I scanned into my mac and delivered digitally. The file was then enlarged and applied to the wall surface.

Trying a different style! A bit messy because I thought the orange ink was waterproof... but it's not :(

Watercolor …each tree was painted in a 2x3 space

BEING GREEDY CHOKES ANANSI From Favorite Folktales around the world by Jane Yolen. One time, Anansi lived in a country that had a queen who was also a witch. And she decreed that whoever used the word five would fall down dead, because that was her secret name, and she didn’t want anyone using it. Now, Buh Anansi was a clever fellow, and a hungry one too. Things were especially bad because there was a famine, so Anansi made a little house for himself by the side of the river near where everyone came to get water. And when anybody came to get water, he would call out to them, “I beg you to tell me how many yam hills I have here. I can’t count very well.” So, one by one he thought they would come up and say, “One, two, three, four, five,” and they would fall down dead. Then Anansi would take them and corn them in his barrel and eat them, and that way he would have lots of food in hungry times and in times of plenty.

THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN WITH FIVE COWS From Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen. One morning a little old woman got up and went to the field containing her five cows. She took from the earth a herb with five sprouts and, without breaking either root or branch, carried it home and wrapped it in a blanket and placed it on her pillow. Then she went out again and sat down to milk her cows. Suddenly she heard tambourine bells jingle and scissors fall, on account of which noise she upset the milk. Having run home and looked, she found that the plant was uninjured. Again she issued forth to milk the cows, and again thought she heard the tambourine bells jingle and scissors fall, and once more she spilled her milk. https://www.instagram.com/p/CnnCvkZpxW0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I printed my black and white zentangle drawing on marker paper and colored it with alcohol markers. At first it was a bit to garish with too much contrast, so I painted a warm grey over the whole piece. That gave me what I was looking for. Of course, THEN I completely undermined that with making a bunch of wild colored ones (two shown here) by playing with them in Photoshop. I shall be using this (along with my Zentangle koi posted la while back) for printing blank cards that we sell for charitable (mostly foodbanks) organizations.

This started as a pencil drawing (see the 2nd image) that I scanned and put into Photoshop. I tried various filters including: Smudge, Ink Outline, some Splatter, changed the Exposure and added a Sepia Photo Filter. After a couple of hours of playing (I’m not very knowledgeable about digital possibilities and just use trial and error) I ended up with a dramatic image with which I am quite happy. The reference was a magazine advertisement.

I was looking at what Pixabay might offer as inspiration, and found this fish. Perfect for a ballpoint pen drawing. The incompleted drawing in the second photo was taken before the final "glaze" of little scribbles of turquoise pen across almost the whole surface. It was a happy accident that made for a shimmery, iridescent fishy quality.

So many dots.... this project was done for a class.

Things have been so busy of late and my output has greatly reduced. However, I have returned to oil painting. I revisited this piece I started last year and put in a few more hours to finish it. The scene was from a few summers ago when I visited Pen Arthur forest for the first time. The piece takes me right back to that day when the late summer afternoon sunlight struggled to penetrate the canopy.

It was so meditative doing the shading and blending for this one.

Meet Peter and his friend VW Rabbit. Peter was born during the pandemic and scampers about daily having fun with his friends.

Kangaroos, wallabies, and emus at the zoo with my Sharon Art Studio friend. So nice to create together again! This was from November, when the SF Zoo was still open. I'm really grateful we were able to go several times before it closed again.

Where do I begin with this one? This is a drawing of my dad and I; the picture was taken back in 2006, a happier time, I suppose. I don't commonly think about my dad, I don't necessarily think about how much I miss him or how I wish I could see him again, so it was odd for me to sit and look through old photos. I don't really know my dad; I do, but I don't. My dad was physically part of my life for 10 years, the second half of those were not the best. Mental illness, self medicating for years, debt, heroin, arguments, threats, uncertainty. I feel like I remember the negative more because I was older, my parents couldn't hide it from me like they used to. At the same time, when he was sober and stable, life was good. Life was great, things felt complete. So here I am, 6 years since he died. I don't want to say his image is fading, but I know less of who he was than I did before. I see the good from some (the ones who praise him, who act like he was a saint), and I see the bad from others (the one who felt the pain). I suppose I no longer see my view, my memories aren't there anymore. I don't necessarily feel sad, the anger has faded, and I can't say I'm happy. Maybe I'll figure it out one day, but, for now, it is what it is.

I'll be honest, this prompt stumped me a little bit, I wasn't sure where to go with it. Here's my take on it, reflecting the 50s and 60s vibrant music scene and the Cold War shadowing it.

The other night I chin-chin with the universe... My quick daily sketch from my sketchbook. 'Glass of universe'. Ink, coffe and red wine. Yes, I was seeping on this wine while sketching...

This started as something I was doing for fun, but turned into a very strenuous exercise on how to work with this many light sources.

...initially was going to replace the spiders meal for a banana (referring to the piece #Comedian created by artist #Maurizio_Cattelan)...but just could not do it. Had some good conversation about the concept, so hope it leads to more. Instead, it has lead me to explore some other ideas.

Inktober 7 - Enchanted : copic multiliners and india ink wash...tiny bit of a digital redraw on one of the fairies...

doodle on comic magazine cover. year of magazine was 2002.