The Quiet Family

I'm now working on what is going to be an ongoing comic book series called The Quiet Family.

Back from JournalFest!

I just got back from teaching two full days of workshops at JournalFest in Port Townsend, Washington. JournalFest is the smaller sister festival to ArtFest, and focuses on the journaling arts. This was it's first year! My students were all amazing and it was a huge pleasure to get to spend time with two open and willing groups of great people. The above photo is something silly I did with my students to demonstrate that art is both a conjuring trick and a disappearing act. Thanks for being willing to get a little weird everyone! I hope you all had as much fun as me!

The class was entitled Words and Pictures. It focused on spontaneous drawing as a way to uncover your own inner-dialogue, then using that dialogue to inspire more drawings, which then opens up a new level of dialogue. More and more I see making art as a form of listening. The art speaks, I listen. The picture above is a section of the huge, detailed doodle I did as part of my preparation for the class. Working on this doodle actually lead to a huge breakthrough for me and I was fially able to clearly write the first chapter to the story I've been struggling with. Now that I'm home, I'm going to be drawing pages as full time as possible. The big doodle will most likely end up being part of the title page art.

a Book Mark for Quimby's Books

I designed a bookmark for Quimby's bookstore in Chicago awhile ago. They were actually the first comic shop outside of my home town to carry my self published work years ago, so it's extra cool to have done some art for them. In exchange for the art, they gave me store credit, so I got to indulge my Jack Kirby addiction with some Fourth World Omnibus! Yes! www.quimbys.com

Secret Acres Signs

These are two signs I designed for my publisher when they have tables at comics conventions. I drew them at 1/5 of the actual print size.

Here they are blown up to over 5 feet high and standing up! It'll be cool to actually see them in person at some point. It's by far the largest I've ever had one of my drawing blown up.

Journal Fest

I'm heading up to Port Townsend, Washington very very soon to teach a couple of drawing/writing workshops. This above image is the new postcard sized business card I'll be giving to everyone. These events are always an amazing time!

Creative Time and Space

About a year ago, Rice Freeman-Zachery asked me to be part of her upcoming book about artist's creative work habits. She sent me a bunch of great questions, which I answered and sent back to her along with some art. It was really cool to suddenly have the book show up at my doorstep after all this time! It'll be interesting to see what I said! I feel like my work habits have already changed so much, so reading this will give me a nice window into my own evolution over the last year.

There are 13 other artists interviewed, with their art nicely showcased, including my good friend Teesha Moore! It's a pretty versatile and interesting group of artists assembled here, so it'll be fun to hear what they all have to say.The book's available on Amazon if you want to check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Time-Space-Making-Room/dp/1600613225/ref=pd_sim_b_24
Sorry about how crappy these photos look. I need to get a new camera really bad. It's on my list of things to do.

Giant Robot Biennial!

This is a drawing that's being turned into a 3 color t-shirt for the Giant Robot Biennial celebration show that's coming up. I also have a large art piece in the show and donated some doodled-in copies of my books to the auction. Opening night should be quite a time. There's going to be live art performances, collaborations, independent video games, and who knows what else. It's at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, and is definitely something to check out if you're in the area.

in the works

This is a page of a hand colored comic I'm working on. It's going to be in an anthology called Snow Stories that cartoonist Mike Getsiv is editing. He's got a great line-up of artists involved in the project, so I'm really excited to be a part of it: http://www.getsivizion.com/snowstories.htm My piece is also a part of the big comics story I'm working on, so it'll eventually be reworked and added to for my upcoming series.

This is a whale that showed up on the big piece of paper on my drawing table that I'm always doodling on. at some point I'll try to get a good photo of the whole thing.

collaborating with kids!

I had a great time this past Saturday hanging out at Guapo Comics and Coffee http://www.guapocomicsandbooks.com/ during the Fun on Foster St. Festival. My good friend Sean Christensen organized a table of art supplies, and the two of us, along with a number of awesome artist friends, hung out doing collaborative art with all the kids that came in. Drawing with kids is probably one of the best things ever. a bunch of the drawings from that day are on display at Guapo and the proceeds from the art sales go towards P:EAR, an amazing arts center for homeless youth http://www.pearmentor.org/

Sleeper Car Review

There's a nice review of Sleeper Car followed by a review of Capacity over at Optical Sloth: http://www.opticalsloth.com/?p=3506

High Contrast Review!

My good friend Sam Kulla's in town for a visit. He's passing through town after some crazy travels through China, Korea, and all over Europe. Whenever we hang out, we end up doing all kinds of fun collaborative work. He's started up a really great art and literature site called the High Contrast Review that's soon to have a yearly print edition. While we were hanging out yesterday, I drew over one of Sam's photo's and turned it into an ad of sorts for The High Contrast Review. Agents from around the globe! Check it out at www.highcontrastreview.com

Sam's also kind enough to be helping me revamp my website, so keep an eye out for some exciting things over there.

necessary camping

I just got back from spending an amazing week out at Heather's Family's land in Montana. It's been way too long since I've been able to step away from the world of humans, buildings, and communication devices. We hiked around picking huckleberries, wild raspberries, black currents, and rose hips. I made a tiny boat out of bark, twigs and leaves, and sent it down the creek with a pebble for a passenger, and I drew pictures and daydreamed about the new comics I'm working on.

I also made a shrine out of some deer skulls we found out in the woods. I've got to make sure I get to do this kind of thing at least a few times a year. Living at this kind of pace makes a lot of sense to me. Now that I'm back, it feels kind of strange to be in a city, but I'm rearranging my studio now, so I can launch into working my new comics with as clear a focus as possible.

pinhole photo

I've always been fascinated by old photographs, so I thought It was pretty cool when an awesome lady named Donna Stewart walked up to my booth at the Portland Saturday Market with a home-made pinhole camera and asked to take my picture. I like the way everything in the foreground ended up stretching. You can check out more of Donna's photos at her Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36940648@N02/

the ever changing pictures on my drawing table

This is part of an unfinished drawing that will be the first chapter heading page of my new comic book.

This is smaller, unfinished drawing I've been working on along side of the chapter heading drawing. It'll probably end up being one of the earlier illustration pages that leads into the book.

This is a scribbly diagram I made in order to get clear about a certain aspect of the plot progression in the story.

These are some more fragments of unfinished drawings; all part of my comic. My plan is to make it an ongoing series, though I haven't quite figured out how many pages I should publish at a time. I think I'm just going to keep working on it until it feels like the right amount to have in a single issue, then get right on to working on the next one.

The comic is called The Thought Cloud Family. I don't think I'll be changing the name at this point. It's going to be in color. I tried to have it be black and white, but the color is ending up being an important part of the story, so I'm just going for it.

Right now I'm just focusing on the lead-in art, and making crazy charts and notes, but I've set a date to start working on my story full time (as much as finances will allow).

Heather (my girlfriend) is just about to graduate from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. It's been a huge and intensive program! After she graduates, we'll immediately be escaping to Montana to camp for a week. When we get back, she'll be starting a part time job as an assistant in an acupuncture clinic, and I plan to launch into my comics series! It feels like an amazing new step for us both!

Also, Tomorrow night, I'm doing a reading at Powells City of Books, along with my awesome Cartoonist friend Aron Steinke (See the earlier post below). I'll be reading first at 7:30 pm. Unfortunately, Heather has school that night, so she won't get to see me talk in funny voices.

Maybe you can come though?

Ramona Falls

I did the art for Ramona Fall's debut album, Intuit, put out by Barsuk Records www.barsuk.com Ramona Falls is the solo work of Brent Knopf from the band Menomena in collaboration with a couple dozen great musicians. He's off on a tour pretty soon and I definitely recommend catching him if he comes through your town. The album is awesome and I'm proud have supplied the visuals. I rarely have time to do commission work like this, but he magically contacted me at just the right time, and it ended up being a really fun process turning our conversations into pictures for the album. www.ramonafalls.com

San Francisco Zine Fest!

Due to some car issues, I wasn't sure If I was going to be able to make it to the San Francisco Zine Fest this coming weekend, but I scored some last minute plane tickets and I'm heading down! It's suppose to be a great show. I'll be there all weekend signing copies of my new comic, Sleeper Car and copies of Capacity. I'll also have a bunch of my art zines, prints and other objects of interest for sale! Come say Hi! It's located in Golden Gate Park, which is one of my favorite places to explore in San Francisco! www.sfzinefest.com

It's also coming down to the final week of my Solo Show at Giant Robot! There's still some pieces available, and the whole show is still up online to check out: www.gr-sf.com . It'll be fun to be down there again so i can stop in and say hi to all the awesome folks at the gallery.

Reading at Powells City of Books!

I'm going to be doing a reading at Powells Books with fellow cartoonist, Aron Nels Steinke at the end of August, up in the Pearl room where all the awesome art books are! I'll be reading a story from my new comic, Sleeper Car, and Aron will be reading from his awesome new book, Neptune! The art from our stories will be proected on the walls. It'll be a fun night!

Sleeper Car arrives!

A big box of my new comic, Sleeper Car, showed up at my door a couple of days ago! It makes me want to buckle down and finish my current illustrations jobs so I can get back tomaking comics as much as possible. Sleeper Car will be making it's way into comic shops now . It's also already available at the Secret Acres website and on Amazon.

Sleeper Car!

Pre-copies of my new comic, Sleeper Car are now available on my publisher's website! :

http://www.secretacres.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=65

It's hot off the press, and my own copies haven't even reached me yet! I'm very excited to see it in print!

In late August, I'll be Reading from Sleeper Car at Powells City of Books here in Portland with my friend Aron Nels Steinke, who has an amazing new book out called Neptune. I'll have more info about that soon.

Art for sale!

My art show at Giant Robot-San Francisco is now available online! http://www.gr-sf.com/artshows.php

Portland Zine Symposium

I'll be at the Portland Zine Symposium all weekend: www.pdxzines.com selling my work. I'll probably be wearing my magic house-helmet during parts of it.

The above photo was taken by my brother Matt, who I just had an amazing time visiting in San Francisco. He's working on a stop-motion animated film right now! I'm trying to get him to move to Portland so we can collaborate on his next one!

Back from San Francisco

It was a successful show opening and I had an amazing time! Here's a picture of me with Luke, the awesome manager at Giant Robot, San Francisco. The whole staff at GR-SF was great to work with and I met so many wonderful people! Thanks everyone! The show should be up for sale on the gallery website within a week. In the mean time you can check out a slide show of the opening night on their website: www.gr-sf.com

Imaginary Friends!

I'm heading to San Francisco with a car-load of art! I'm leaving early Wednesday the 15th to hang my solo show, "Imaginary Friends" at Giant Robot. I can't wait! Above is one or the wood cuts I made for the show. Below are a few more sneak peeks at some of the other pieces.

Folks that come to the show opening on Saturday the 18th get first dibs on pieces, but the show will be on display and up for sale on their website soon after. www.gr-sf.com

Tea party!

I've completely finished everything for my 32 page comic, Sleeper Car, and I'm sending off the scans to Secret Acres! It will be coming out Late August! Now I'm finishing up tons of pieces for my upcoming Giant Robot show. The picture above is one of the many tiny pieces that will be hanging on their walls starting July 18th! On another note, I've officially started drawing the first page of my next big book. Though it'll probably be a little while before I can get back to it, it felt pretty amazing to finally be sitting down and laying out a scene that's been inside of my head for years! It's turning out to be a great summer!