March 30, 2010
on Giving and Getting ... and Zombies!
. . . another one of the coolest things about the blogosphere is everyone's not just blowing their own horn. Sure, we all want to tell the world when we've got something new to share, but mostly it's all about the back-and-forth, and that includes shouting about someone else's blog when you've discovered how awesome it is.
Susan Mordigal of Susan Beth Studio has given me the Renee Award, which acknowledges friends in cyberspace — people who've really been there with support or laughter or in a crunch, even if they're people who've we've only met . . . well, virtually. Whatever small support I've been able to give Susan, she's given me that back and then some (Susan herself has been given the Renee Award and it's richly deserved). Thanks, Susan!
I've also picked up the Zombie Chicken Award from Barbara Desmond of Melancholy Musings. This award celebrates the Tao of the zombie chicken: excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These bloggers produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their blogs!
I pass this on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers (I risk the wrath of zombie chickens by failing in this task!). No worries . . . I can think of many, many wonderful bloggers who are more than worthy of the Zombie Chicken Award:
Check out their blogs!
Let's all do our part to keep the zombie chickens at bay!
Susan Mordigal of Susan Beth Studio has given me the Renee Award, which acknowledges friends in cyberspace — people who've really been there with support or laughter or in a crunch, even if they're people who've we've only met . . . well, virtually. Whatever small support I've been able to give Susan, she's given me that back and then some (Susan herself has been given the Renee Award and it's richly deserved). Thanks, Susan!
I've also picked up the Zombie Chicken Award from Barbara Desmond of Melancholy Musings. This award celebrates the Tao of the zombie chicken: excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These bloggers produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their blogs!
I pass this on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers (I risk the wrath of zombie chickens by failing in this task!). No worries . . . I can think of many, many wonderful bloggers who are more than worthy of the Zombie Chicken Award:
Check out their blogs!
Let's all do our part to keep the zombie chickens at bay!
March 27, 2010
Rescue!
Illustration Friday's theme this week is "rescue." Grandmother may think she's rescuing Little Red Riding Hood, but if you ask me, it's Red who needs rescuing from the blood-crazed, axe-wielding grandma. And where was PETA when the poor wolf needed a hand? Fairy tales are twisted, twisted things.
March 23, 2010
Jungle abstract
From the archives . . . a jungle meditation. I haven't done anything abstract for awhile, but I should. Abstractions are good for us. They force us to unfocus, to see into the middle-distance where our imagination dances free.
March 22, 2010
The 12-week challenge!
One of the wonderful things about the internet is how it levels the playing field. It doesn't matter whether you're the most-famous artist in the world or someone who does art just for themselves, just for fun. On the net, everyone's having a gallery opening, and no one has to eat those tiny squares of cheese . . .
. . . but even with that, there's something hard-wired into civilization that always asks: "what are you doing with it?" I'm sure some incredible Mayan artist carved a calendar wheel detailing humanity's fate til 2012 and his wife said: "Great, but instead of making one giant wheel, why don't you carve 100 tiny ones and we'll get rich for a change?!" . . .
Jonathan Woodward is an aspiring artist. If you check out his portfolio here, you'll see he's already very good and loving it. He's wanted to be a thriving, successful illustrator for at least half his life, and probably a lot longer. He's created and maintains a fantastic blog called "Zero 2 Illo" (check it here) which not only charts his own journey toward an illustrative career, but functions as a fantastic resource for all aspiring illustrators and creative types . . .
. . . but civilization is scratching its head again. Thus Jon has launched the 12-week challenge:
It's a little push, a collective shove to move everyone's art — and their careers — a little bit forward. It's a chance to say: "we all want this; let's do it together!" Over the course of 12 weeks, Jon will set tasks or goals, share tips and resources, and link everybody into one collective leap into the future!
I want to be part of that. How can I not want to be part of such positive energy and collective goodness? If any of you feel the same, no matter how you feel about your art . . . come join the party!
. . . but even with that, there's something hard-wired into civilization that always asks: "what are you doing with it?" I'm sure some incredible Mayan artist carved a calendar wheel detailing humanity's fate til 2012 and his wife said: "Great, but instead of making one giant wheel, why don't you carve 100 tiny ones and we'll get rich for a change?!" . . .
Jonathan Woodward is an aspiring artist. If you check out his portfolio here, you'll see he's already very good and loving it. He's wanted to be a thriving, successful illustrator for at least half his life, and probably a lot longer. He's created and maintains a fantastic blog called "Zero 2 Illo" (check it here) which not only charts his own journey toward an illustrative career, but functions as a fantastic resource for all aspiring illustrators and creative types . . .
. . . but civilization is scratching its head again. Thus Jon has launched the 12-week challenge:
It's a little push, a collective shove to move everyone's art — and their careers — a little bit forward. It's a chance to say: "we all want this; let's do it together!" Over the course of 12 weeks, Jon will set tasks or goals, share tips and resources, and link everybody into one collective leap into the future!
I want to be part of that. How can I not want to be part of such positive energy and collective goodness? If any of you feel the same, no matter how you feel about your art . . . come join the party!
March 21, 2010
Paving over Paradise
One of the greatest experiences I've had in my life is trekking through Nepal. I had a chance to explore the rich diversity of the country, from the cattle-choked metropolis of Kathmandu to the arid deserts bordering China in the North to the lush jungles approaching India in the south. But one of the highlights, above all, was hiking the 150-mile Annapurna Circuit, which many have called — hands down — the greatest trek in the world.
The Annapurna Circuit takes hikers from lush rice-paddy filled valleys, the Marsyangdi, up over Thorong La, a 17,769-foot high pass (higher than any place in the continental US) and back down into the Kali Gandaki valley, a wide, dust-filled journey between cliffs that's mystical and magical and exhausting and ... wonderful.
And now ... it's being paved over with a road.
Ethan Todras-Whitehill writes a wonderful piece about it in today's New York Times ("Last Footfall in Nepal" — read about it here). It really is a tragedy — although, of course, the locals who are against it are those that make money from the trekkers ... which is only about 15-20 percent of the population. To everyone else, the road represents progress.
Ugh.
What price progress when we're paving over paradise?
If you'd like to read more about my adventures in Nepal, check out my book "Nepalese Travel Odyssey" (available here or here). This isn't a book about the Annapurna trek, specifically — more about the wonders of Nepal and the adventures I had just getting around the country. If you ever dreamed of having far-off adventures, it will give you an idea just how "exotic" far-off exotic places can be.
The Annapurna Circuit takes hikers from lush rice-paddy filled valleys, the Marsyangdi, up over Thorong La, a 17,769-foot high pass (higher than any place in the continental US) and back down into the Kali Gandaki valley, a wide, dust-filled journey between cliffs that's mystical and magical and exhausting and ... wonderful.
And now ... it's being paved over with a road.
Ethan Todras-Whitehill writes a wonderful piece about it in today's New York Times ("Last Footfall in Nepal" — read about it here). It really is a tragedy — although, of course, the locals who are against it are those that make money from the trekkers ... which is only about 15-20 percent of the population. To everyone else, the road represents progress.
Ugh.
What price progress when we're paving over paradise?
If you'd like to read more about my adventures in Nepal, check out my book "Nepalese Travel Odyssey" (available here or here). This isn't a book about the Annapurna trek, specifically — more about the wonders of Nepal and the adventures I had just getting around the country. If you ever dreamed of having far-off adventures, it will give you an idea just how "exotic" far-off exotic places can be.
March 20, 2010
Expired
Sorry for the lag in posting. A special thanks — huge thanks! — to those of you who came calling to see if everything was ok or to kick me in the arse to get more artwork on the blog! I love that! . . .
. . . the truth is, I've been in one of those slumps where nothing I produce pleases me. Everything I've sketched or painted the past couple weeks I've sniffed my nose at — even throwing away digital files after Photoshop paints and all. It's all part of the process, I know . . . this business of trying things and trying again. Not everything is going to work for me — especially since you've got to fail to succeed, and I'm still very new in the process of exploring and discovering my style, etc . . .
Enough with the complaints. I'm getting an iPad in a couple weeks, so I'm super-excited about being able to sketch and paint directly onscreen. Expect a flood of new explorations!
Here's a quick sketch for Illustration Friday's challenge this week: Expired.
. . . the truth is, I've been in one of those slumps where nothing I produce pleases me. Everything I've sketched or painted the past couple weeks I've sniffed my nose at — even throwing away digital files after Photoshop paints and all. It's all part of the process, I know . . . this business of trying things and trying again. Not everything is going to work for me — especially since you've got to fail to succeed, and I'm still very new in the process of exploring and discovering my style, etc . . .
Enough with the complaints. I'm getting an iPad in a couple weeks, so I'm super-excited about being able to sketch and paint directly onscreen. Expect a flood of new explorations!
Here's a quick sketch for Illustration Friday's challenge this week: Expired.
March 6, 2010
The Mysterious Disappearance of David Lang
If there's one thing that fascinates me above all else, it's strange and unexplained things in our world. In that category falls all kinds of things — UFOs and why our Moon "rings" like a hollow bell when struck, for example (NASA did a test on this during the Apollo landings). Then there's the mysterious disappearance of David Lang, which occupies a curious corner of my mind . . .
Lang was a Tennessee farmer in the 1880s, quite normal in every way until the day he walked into his fields and — in full view of his wife, children, brother-in-law and a local Judge — vanished into thin air! One moment he was there; the next, gone.
There was no trace of him on the spot he vanished, no hole in the ground, nothing at all except . . . the grass where he disappeared grew higher and thicker than anywhere else, and no animal would go near it. His family called out for him, and could hear his voice calling back, calling for help, but the calls grew fainter and eventually faded away. David Lang was never seen again.
Had he slipped into another dimension? Been abducted by some invisible beam? No one knows. Whatever happened to him, one thing is certain: he was a brave pioneer into mysterious new worlds. And that's Illustration Friday's word for this week: brave.
Lang was a Tennessee farmer in the 1880s, quite normal in every way until the day he walked into his fields and — in full view of his wife, children, brother-in-law and a local Judge — vanished into thin air! One moment he was there; the next, gone.
There was no trace of him on the spot he vanished, no hole in the ground, nothing at all except . . . the grass where he disappeared grew higher and thicker than anywhere else, and no animal would go near it. His family called out for him, and could hear his voice calling back, calling for help, but the calls grew fainter and eventually faded away. David Lang was never seen again.
Had he slipped into another dimension? Been abducted by some invisible beam? No one knows. Whatever happened to him, one thing is certain: he was a brave pioneer into mysterious new worlds. And that's Illustration Friday's word for this week: brave.
March 2, 2010
Thor
Art Jumble's theme this week is "Thor" . . . and while this isn't quite Stan Lee's version, it definitely owes something to his creation. Doesn't everything owe something to Stan Lee, after all? . . .
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