Sunday, September 23, 2007

...zzz...

...feeling the burn...

it's the season again where i am working around the clock and my hands and eyes get all cranky. i already have a series of hand stretches that keep me from cramping up. tonight i prowled the interweb for eye exercises as drawing line after line after line all day long makes them all crazy-go-nuts. i think i found a good series that i want to try out...namely, i was sold on exercise #23, the most inspiring line being halfway into the paragraph:

THE HOT DOG This exercise is done to improve the flexibility of the inside muscles of your eyes (called the ciliary muscles). It is important to keep those muscles flexible. Remember to breathe. Take two deep breaths. Either stand or sit with your feet, shoulder width apart. If you are standing, make sure your knees are slightly bent. Aim your eyes on any target in the distance. While looking at your distant target, bring your index fingers, tips touching about eight inches in front of your eyes and into your line of sight. Still aiming your eyes at the distant target calmly notice a mini hot dog has appeared between the tips of your fingers. Remember to continue to breathe easily and deeply. Do not let the awesome beauty of the mini hot dog to distract you and to cause you to aim your eyes directly at it. Continue to aim your eyes toward the distant target. Pull the tips of your fingers apart slightly and observe the hot dog floating in the air. Now keep the hot dog for two breaths, then look directly at your fingers and the hot dog will disappear. Do not retrieve the hot dog for two breaths; then look again in the distance and find it once again. Switch back and forth for two minutes.

Friday, September 7, 2007

...he's so craazaay...

who? my friend alec, that's who.

i snuck on over to his site only to find a piece i hadn't seen before, this one:


and i thought, "DANG!"

for all of the talking i do about wanting to make wallpaper he just goes and does it. dang.
then i noticed this piece:


double dang!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

...look what someone did...


it's from this site: mayna's fotolog.
i think it's portuguese.


Sunday, September 2, 2007

...peep show...


so, what HAVE i been doing lately? that is a good question.

this year has been a much slower year compared to the gauntlet of shows and work of 2006. it's been a purposeful putting on of the breaks. after maybe seven shows over an eight month period i felt like i was teetering on the edge of burning out. not in a permanent sort of way, but in a way that my work that i love to do and the people that i love having in my life was falling out of balance.

it's also really hard producing new work for each show (they were pretty much all back to back so i couldn't just take one show and move it along elsewhere, a lot of work sold {many thanks, much appreciation}{and not to just the folks who purchased, but to anyone who made it to the show, stopped by on the internet, dropped me a line...}). i reached a point before my final show in november at motel gallery in portland where i realized that because i had no time to sit and stew, take new things in, i worried that the quality of the work would go downhill.

so while i haven't been as visible this past year i have been up to plenty of shenanigans. i've turned more of a focus on children's books. i finished one in june and am wrapping up another one at the end of september. i've taken on smaller illustration projects that are here and there. and most importantly i've taken a good deal of time to sit and stare and think and meet up with friends and on and on and on.

in november i have two shows....well, a group show and a solo show.

the group show is at subtext gallery in san diego maybe on november 3rd? the show runs in conjunction with/celebration of Bunka-no-hi, and will showcase artist designed Kokeshi dolls. I am looking forward to doing something a little different...and by 'something a little different' i mean doing what i usually do only on a three dimensional object.

the solo show will be november 17th at giant robot in new york. it's my first solo show in a year. it's true. i will post more info about it, you know, when i have more than lists and ideas scrawled over random pages of several sketchbooks.

and just so you know i'm not faking it, i leave behind some evidence of my noodling.