HOLY CRAP!

Well, the week is slowly (and I do mean sloooooooowly) coming to an end. UGH. The week before X-mas is insane for kids. They are off the wall. Many getting kicked out. HO HO HO! Just painted the Nursery for the new kid comin'. Dec. 29th. I am really insane right now. I am glad to be able to sit here and write this. It is going to be a truly amazing year. I am going to work on some more drawings later tonight and this weekend. I will try to post. I hope everyone has a great holiday with lots of cheer and joy. Don't make the mistake of letting the materialistic concerns get you down. This is a great time of year. Make a gift this year. People will be amazed. Burn a mix CD, sew a pillow (we did that with my monster designs), make collages and cards, make a candle, soap, doileys, whatever. There are tons of sites to show you how. Just go to www.ask.com and ask "how do I ____________?" Well, I hope you are all enjoying the season wherever you are. PAX

Now in Technicolor

Along with my zine, I have been creating drawings on different size papers and some with colors. The larger paper creates a harder image to look at cause there is nothing to focus on. There is simply all of these things. It is like looking at a crowd in a mall. You can look and wonder what the relationships are between them. I enjoy this alot.

A season of cheer

well, the Christmas season is well under way and we are busy as usual. Decorating, shopping, being pregnant and making art. Just had a show featuring many of my Art Dorks buddies here in town. Went well although the crowds were light due to single digit wind chills. Good times never the less. I will post some pics soon I hope of the opening and some of the art. I still have a couple of the pics for sale and I will post those. If you want one, just email me. Gorlath is melting into a pitiful mess but that is the way things go when you live in the mid west. He was with us for but a short time but oh how he could slow traffic (literally, cars slowed down, kids jaws dropped, it was awesome). Well, I will say goodnight for now but will talk soon. PAX

Squat Thrust #2 almost done.

You heard right. The second issue is almost done. It won't be a little mini this time neither.This is gonna be a 24-page digest sized book. I am editing the content now (not really editing as much as picking which pages to include). I still need to do the cover and inside cover info. I will post a pic when done. I am hoping to have them done before Christmas. They will be $3 and available for sale here and wherever I happen to be.

MY snowman ate YOUR snowman!

Ok, so not my finest work, but I was sitting here doing homework, watching a kid build a snowman out the window of my studio. I got an idea.... HEE HEE HEE.
I really wanted to scatter some half eaten carrots around the ground in front of GORLATH but... Oh Well. Happy Holidays everyone.

Tanks Giving

I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful Thanksgiving today. I am thankful for my wife, our cats, our kid (still cooking), our families, all of the friends I have had since 3rd grade, trees, birds, my job and especially the kids at my school, bugs, monsters, ghost stories, music, all the artists I have ever met, pie. There are more things to be sure but that will do for now.

Ooooooogy Driiiiiiiipy Sliiiiiiiimey

I had a great conversation with my oldest friend Tom last night. We grew up together and were talking about all the kinds of monsters and aliens we liked as kids and teens. We talked about life before internet, cable TV, the advent of UHF channels and man, it was great. He recently moved and discovered some old drawings he did when we were in higgh school. He will kill me for this but I had to post one of them because it is so ooogy and drippy, just like all of our favorite stuff. I have been so fortunate to have friends like him in my life. Monsters rule.

Great time of year.

It was fun setting up for halloween this year but next year I need to start earlier. Gonna have big monsters and flying ghosts. BTW, we're not rally on fire we just had to keep warm in the rain at camp.

NO MO PO MO

Another page from the second issue. I used to struggle thinking about what I was going to write about. I realize now that being a teacher is a great subject to work with. I have a lot to say about kids and what I see and what I hear from them every day. I am weirded out by the fact that I find myself despairing at times like my parents did about my generation. I hope I will be proved wrong. I also see alot of wonderful things in these kids. I used to think that if I did comics, I had to write stories. Since abandoning that approach, I can now write short essays and thoughts tucked into the images. I really like this. Issue 2 has been done while I have been in this class at the university. I have had to keep a journal and fill 40 pages. I am considering puting all 40 pages in issue 2. not sure. 24 at least.

Running on fumes

Holy Crap! What a hellacious month. I have been so busy with work, school ( I am taking classes at the local university that have been some good, some crap), family, holidays, camping. Well, Today, I have a day off and I finally got a major break in my workload. I still have a lot to do to finish up the semester but I feel really good. I bought a new cheap hoodie today. That always makes me happy. Issue number 2 is already drawn. I think. I have had to do 40 pages in my sketchbook for one of my classes. I think it will be great. I am just trying to figure out what to scan and what to keep. I am also starting to think about telling more little stories as I write on the pages of my journal. I included one about armadillos from my recent camping trip in southwest Missouri. I have been doing random words and stuff for so long, it might be nice to give people more to read. We'll see. I do not want to think too much about it. Well, I am going to go to Borders and work in the book and get a magazine so, I hope someone is reading this. Pax.

Squat Thrust #1 almost gone.

Well, there are only a few copies left of issue one. It is a small 8-page mini. The second issue will be a 24-page digest size issue. Coming at the end of the year. I hope.

Back to the Drawing Board

Crazy Week! Art Dorks site is Gone! Halloween Parties and more. I am doing some separate drawings and thought I'd post one. I will also post some halloween pics soon. I hope.

Good Times

Photo by Brant Hinrich

This past weekend, I went with some friends to St. Louis to see a show of paintings by one of my favorite artists, Gary Panter. If you don't know, Panter is an underground comic artist who came to fame as a punk artist in the 70's but gained real notoriety as the designer of the sets on Pee Wee's Playhouse. His work is frentic and poignant and funny to boot. Gary was kind enough to correspond a couple of times with me while I was a frustrated grad student. It was his do what you want and screw the rest approach that helped me to develop what I am currently working on. We then went to the Star Clipper, one of the best comic shops ever to meet Gary and a briliant art historian / editor Todd Hignite. They were promoting the new book "In the Studio." They both signed. It was a good time had by all. I spent most of my allowance for the month in three hours. It was great. Thank you Gary and Todd for being swell guys.

Three days and an atheist

Ok, so here's another page for issue 2. It isn't complete as I have not yet added this to the other elements of the page. I have also included a couple details. I got a graveyard built in my front yard. I will post some pictures soon.

Finally, some new stuff

Ok, so I thought it was time to put up some new stuff. Actually, I just got my scanner working. Thanks to my good friend John Melnik. YAY! The rat drawing was put on a piece of paper that one of my students used to test colored pencils. She gave it to me rather than throwing it out.

Unconsciously speaking...

When I was in Grad School, I got introduced to the comic diaries of James Kochalka. I really loved the idea of working so personally and directly. I was mad though cuz I didn't want to copy him. It wasn't until I looked at my own sketchbooks that I realized that I was writing about my life but not always so directly. The images were subconscious leakings of all the stuff I see in my head and the writing included the things I was thinking about or experiences I was having mixed with random words. I liked the idea of working and letting my brain work without my manipulations. I will talk later about some of the subject matter but for now, just take a look and figure it out for yourself. ha.

Some older sketches

Sorry for the picture qulaity. My scanner is on the fritz.

Man I love to draw.

Some more sketchbook drawings. It seems like the newest stuff (still to be posted) gets denser and denser.

Predators

Make 'em care.

Being a teacher has been a great experience. I am seeing a change as you take kids who don't give a rip about art and you open their eyes to possibilities they don't even know exist. I know this sounds terribly Dead Poets Society of me but it is true. I love that I get to do this and I learn so much from them as well. I have already learned a new way to draw a tree and a nose. I will be publishing some images soon of the first issue of squat thrust and some old minis. My scanner is on the fritz right now so I have to wait a little. So until I can, here is a drawing from last year to hold you over.

EMAIL ME

OK, so now you can email me through my complete profile. Just click on it then click on the email button and you can talk, comment or order a zine. Currently, squat thurst # 1 is available. It is an 8 page plus a cover quarter page zine. I will put a doodle in it and sign it to you if you like. It is only a buck. You cant even get a chicken sandwich at KFC for that. Oh wait, yes you can. But my zine tastes better.

Guts in a Jar

Some drawings come dorectly from my classes. One of the projects they do each year is a canopic jar in clay. This pic came out last year when I was having them work in clay.

more more more

AND more

I have been putting my images together by hand but would like to use photoshop more. My scanner is on the fritz so it's old fashioned scissors and glue stick for now. As the books develop, I can see how I can write more directly at times to a particular topic. then collage into the drawings. For right now, a lot of my writings are about working with middle school and being married. Monsters just cavorte around for the heck of it. Kind of.

Still More

More

A few things to see.

I work in my sketchbook religiously. I discovered that when I stopped working like an illustrator where I draw based on a concept, I can draw more on my subconscious to create really weird stuff. I also find that you will get some very personal stuff unintentionally. My writing however is something for the reader to grasp onto immediately even if incompletely

Where this all began

Ok,I make zines and minis as well as a number of other creative objects. I have been showing off and on in galleries and doing a lot of odd projects. WHile I was a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, I discovered the world of mini comics and zines. I soon discovered a real love for these little hand-made collections of stuff. Here was a place I could put all of my creative juices, including my love of drawing, stories, collage, printmaking and networking with great people. Right now, I am doing less mini comics and more with my zine "Squat Thrust."

I am a middle school art teacher and this seemed appropriate seeing as how it was Jr. High that introduced me to this "fart involuntarily in front of the girls" fitness tool. The zine takes drawings and writings from my journals and collages them together into the book. There is a narrative if you want but not as direct as a comic would have. This need to document my life really took form early on but it was only in the last few years that I figured out why. My Mom and Step-Dad split up in 91 and my Dad eventually left to move to Florida. He took the family photos with him. It really devestated me later as now I have only a handful of images from my youth. Now married, I have nothing to share with my wife and future children. Please don't think I'm whining. I ain't. Just sharin'.

It was this event that solidified the need for me to document my life and thoughts in some tangible way. Looking at Squat Thrust is like looking in someones photo album. You may not recognize the people but it can be really fun to peek into their lives. The words and images are not staged in my book. For better or worse, they are what they are. I will be posting some future images and some old ones, as well as pictures and other creative stuff. If you want to order a copy of squat thrust, I will be posting a picture of my email address so I dont get spidered... eeew.

Welcome

Ok, right now it's just me but I know you will be reading this soon so I want to say hello.