elloh!

…and some day my chance will come.” - Abraham Lincoln

My little journal here is acting up. I am in the process of moving it.

New work is in my Etsy shop

I’ll be adding a smaller shop soon here on my site.

I’ve been catching up photographing and adding these items I’ve worked on throughout the summer. More photographing and uploading to come along with some new, top secret, print work!

Happy Monday.

Yes. So, a few weeks ago I visited this lovely little shop and I saw this little giraffe from Kenya. It was discounted a bit, sitting forlornly on a back shelf realizing its fate. The ears were broken off and now people were buying the other giraffes who were 100% perfect. One look and I thought of the Velveteen Rabbit, Corduroy and the island of misfit toys and one of my favorite books and cartoons, Ferdinand.

I decided to buy the little sculpture and make new ears.

Only thing is, the new ears I made looked a lot like headphones, so I painted them black and am finishing up making a little mp3/cd/cassette player for the little guy to hold.
Then I decided to paint this.

It has a story to go with it. I’ll give you the shortened version.
A secret agent rabbit was running through Africa and got lost. She ran into the little giraffe in Kenya, just sitting on the ground.
“Can you help me? Do you know where the pyramids are?”, asked the rabbit.
The giraffe deep in thought replied, “You’re far from it, but here is a map.”
The rabbit was so happy about this gift that she gave the kind giraffe with the funny little ears and short front legs a gift as well. She had collected many many souvenirs in her travels and this would also help lighten her load for the rest of the journey.
“For you.” The rabbit said. Before running off to the pyramids the rabbit showed the new friend how to place the headphones, then pressed ‘play’.
“Thank you again!” said the running rabbit. The Little Giraffe didn’t reply. He could only hear the music.
The sounds were soaring now through the headphones. “So this is what flying must be like? At least a little.”, he thought. Walking over to the water, Little Giraffe dipped its back legs in the water, waited a few moments and began making a map for himself.
Hope you liked my goofy little story.
cheers.

Her job was simple. Find the suspicious balloon with the irksome grin. The journey was dangerous. Only someone like ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was qualified. She packed a basket with the necessary supplies, placed the cape around her shoulders and was on her way.

How did she get to this point, in the image above?

stay tuned.

…not really dots, but drawings.

A sketch of Quincy Adams, son of John Adams whose tv miniseries was nominated for some Emmys. Oh and he was a president too. Both of them. More presidents coming soon and all 42 to be completed by the middle of September.

Looking at this drawing and Quincy’s right hand reminded me of this sketch.

It was drawn when I first started playing* guitar. My fingertips would hurt from playing because they weren’t calloused. I’d then practice for a few days in a row to build a tolerance. Then I’d get busy and skip a few days/’ahem’ weeks and the process would start up again.

I also thought of all the years of drawing and writing with a pencil. The calloused fingers growing up when I made my comics and drew portraits from the ‘old’ old school book series I had gotten from the library growing up called, ‘Draw 50 animals’ or ‘Draw 50 famous people’. I still have some of those drawings. They will be scanned in this month.

I probably would have drawn something like this scene back then, even though it is a recent drawing/doodle of mine. Dueling coffee cup and tea cup. They crack me up. Yes, I am five.

And tea just reminds me of the Queen, sketched here.

I plan on posting drawings/paintings/creative stuff everyday for the month of August. My comments are still not working but your emails have be much appreciated so feel free to continue commenting that way for now.

Enjoy your weekend!

*it wasn’t exactly playing. More like look at the book, get my finger positions, strum, stop, look at the book, get new finger chord positions, strum-ugh! sounds bad, must be wrong, stop, look at the book…

It has been awhile.

some festive presidential items/images of mine from my shop.

Above are some photos I took on the fourth of July. The day was spent at my parents, making shrimp kebobs and toasting marshmallows (in between the rain), talking, and fireworks. I’m not usually one for them. They bore me. Normally I see them on t.v. or far away with me seated with millions (okay not that many but lots of people! hordes of them! think of ‘rush hour on the subway’ type of crowds). This time my sister noticed a sound in the backyard when she was dropping off some bottles for recycling cause she’s all ‘green’ like that. Al Gore would be so proud.

We all came outside and saw an impromptu fireworks show for almost 20 minutes. They were close by and shot over the house right in front of us. The patterns are my favorite thing about them. The sky was a rich midnight blue color.

The last 2 photos were of my fourth of July and bastille day shoes with some pins of mine for added amusement. And the other image is from a day of hiking in Fairmount Park with my brother and his very sweet dog (never barks people!) Bruce.

Another brother of mine graduated from high school recently

Here he is, my youngest bro, with my parents’ dog Hoss man. His name is actually Hoss but you just have to add the ‘man’ to it just to add the chill factor. Hoss is very cool like that. Except if you’re the mail man who’s a fan of pepper spray, but that is another story.

I’ve been working on many things. I plan on having a big shop update in early August. Stay tuned for more details. And yes, my comments are still not working, but you can email me if you like.

ciao!

A little quiet here, no?

I’m back from Brooklyn and Maryland (near DC) shows a little waterlogged, sunburnt and tired, but happy. And, I cannot see my desk at this moment. It was wonderful meeting everyone! The Facial Hair Presidents were honored to see so much love before the 32 other guys show up later this summer. (hint hint)

My studio is in need of organization. That is an understatement. So, like Michael and Jane Banks I will listen to Mary Poppins and begin to clean. Only thing is, my studio drawers don’t want to open when I point to them and my paintbrushes fail to magically congregate in my owl container. I have to do the ‘old school’ method and pick up everything by hand. Orders are being mailed and some items I had created for the shows will be added to the shop. Then I will take a break from new items for my shop and work on a writing/illustrating project. As much as I love illustrating odes to pop culture, I like to balance it out with my own stories. I’ll show some work here soon.

At the post office I noticed a whole section on Sinatra. Stamps, bags and more. I thought of some of his songs and found this video. The first verse with the ant who moved rubber trees isn’t included but the kids still rock the song.