I've been working on my new comic. It's been hard to tell how it's going sometimes, but I'm really excited to be working on it. I don't want to say too much about it yet, but here are some snapshots of a few places that one of my characters has been. More sneak peeks soon!
I helped my brother Matt move up to Portland about a month ago. Today he starts his job at Laika (the stop-motion animation studio that made Coroline). It's really exciting to see him working in the field he loves!
I screen printed this drawing onto a shirt a couple of weeks ago because it made me laugh. It was made during a somewhat stressful time, so I guess it was actually a bit of art therapy. It worked!
While I was staying at The Den in LA, a bunch of us went on a field trip to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The main reason I wanted to go was the fact that no one who has been there seems to know how to describe it. Now I have been there myself and I don't know how to describe it either. I think every city should have a museum of perplexing things to explore. It would be fun to create one in Portland. Here's their website: www.mjt.org
While I was in LA for the Giant Robot show, I got to stay with an awesome group of artists and musicians. They were basically the best hosts ever and I felt lucky that I got to spend so much time with them. They've turned their house into a community art hub called The Den and do all kinds of inspiring projects. Above is Alex Chiu and his pillow helmet.
Here's Alex again with one of his paintings. Check out more at www.alexdoodles.com
Alex and Ann Chiu, doing their thing. They also put out a Zine called Eyeball Burp that's worth checking out. I'll probably be contributing to it soon: http://eyeballburp.blogspot.com/
Alex and I did two collaborative doodles while I was there. This is the one that Alex started,
and this is the one I started...
I also did collaborations with bigger groups of people while I was there. It's an ongoing household activity for them. There is art everywhere!
I got my face painted by Jenny Yoo. She paints on live people and objects, then photographs them. The end result looks like a 3D painting. I'll post the end result when she sends it to me. For now you can see some of her work at www.jenny-yoo.com. 
Justin Nakasone is in the band Wells with the rest of the house. I got to hear them practice a few times. Really fun music to draw to. http://www.myspace.com/wellsofpeople Thanks for the crazy aweseome week everyone!
I just got back from my trip to LA. It was such an incredible, action packed trip! It's going to take a number of posts to properly report all the exciting things that happened. For now, here's some images from the art show. Opening night went great. Everyone at Giant Robot was wonderful and a nice crowd showed up. The show is up for sale online now: http://www.gr2.net/artshow.php# and you can check out a slide show and synopses of the event at: http://www.giantrobot.com/index.php/blogs/transmissions-post/theo_ellsworth_at_gr2
I was very excited to have one of my stories picked by Neil Gaiman for the newest instalment of the Best American Comics series. I got my copy in the mail right before I took off for my LA trip.
I was also commissioned to do the end page design, so I tried to go all out and design something different for both the front and back.
My 15 page story, Norman Eight's Left Arm, was included in the book, alongside so many great cartoonists that I admire. It was nice to have my little comic picked by such an inspiring story teller. Felt like the kind of encouragement I needed!
I'm flying to LA early in the morning, and immediately hanging all my pieces at the gallery. The opening is Saturday night! I've been working non-stop to put this show together. There's always a hundred things I wish I had time to add, but I'm really happy with how it all came together. If you're in the area, come say hi!
