New shows

Well, there are 2 new dork shows coming up in June. I will be in both of them. We will be at the McCaig Wells Gallery in Brooklyn in my home state of NY. Represent. We also will be at the Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles CA. I will have three new pieces in L.A and 2 in N.Y. Go see them and all the other dorks if you are in town. The picture above is one I did for the Don;t Wake Daddy show in Hamburg Germany. I will post some more pics of sketches this weekend and the new drawings when I can.

Monsters Gotta Fight!

I'll be in the Fountain New York show February 22. pretty big deal apparently, directly across from the Armory show at Pier 94. Here are some pics of a piece I am sending to them. I have done a lot of doodles in my little sketchbook lately. I will be using them for material to do the graphite drawings from. I will be posting these soon along with finished art when I can. The Art Dorks have twin shows in LA and NY in June so I gots to gets busy YO!

And.....here we go again

Another fine year. We begin with the birth of a new baby. Sarah was born on the 4th in spite of our tax deduction hopes. She is awesome. She is strong as could be and just amazing. 2007 will be a great year I hope. There are several new Art Dork shows planned including stints in N.Y. and L.A. I am going to get Squat Thrust #2 out this month and I hope to make a butt load of new drawings for shows around the country. New Kid, Teaching, Husbanding, Artmaking, Parenting, Housemaintaining, and lots of new DVD's to watch. YAY!

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.