I have new work in the Sesquatennial Show at Grass Hut gallery, at 8111 East Burnside in Portland. The show opens Friday, February 6th, 6-9pm. The show is in Celebration of Portland's 150th birthday, and includes some great local artists including: David Wein, Carson Ellis, Emily Counts, Scrappers, Ryan Berkeley, Yellena James, Ryan Jacob Smith, and Betsy Walton. I did 3 new pieces for the show (two small pieces, including the Scaled Yeti pictured above, and a big 18x25 piece). I post the other ones soon! The show goes up for sale online after the opening: http://www.grasshutcorp.com/
While I was at the PLAY retreat at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA, I was inspired to start keeping a small sketchbook diary. I'm always drawing on random scraps of paper during spare moments, so I thought it'd be good to be more organized about it. For reasons beyond my understanding, I decided to name this first one "The Tour Guide Is Wearing Animal Slippers". I'll be slowly filling this little book and posting my progress (even the wonky pages) as an ongoing Blog Publication. The rules: straight spontaneous pen, no preliminary pencils ( the cover itself is an exception to that rule, but that's because I hadn't thought up the rule yet).
I was trying to make this character be underwater, with just the top of his head above the surface, but things went astray. I turned the rippled surface into his hat and gave him a little car. It felt like a close call.
I love staying in the beautiful/creepy old houses when I'm at Fort Worden. There's rumored to be certain rooms that are haunted. The first night I was there, I dreamed that a WWII ghost-solder was showing me around the fort. I woke up to my bed being violently shaken. I lay awake for a long time after that. It didn't occur to me until morning that it had been an earthquake.
I've been suddenly drawing these "scaled yeti" people a lot. They're a mutation from the earlier ones made of leaves.
At the PLAY retreat, I was asked to participate in a talk/demo on doodling and drawing. I ended up mentioning how much I enjoy drawing on trains and moving cars, because you end up with an unexpected line quality caused by the bumpy ride. I drew this page on the train home, and it got pretty out of control. I had to add a lot of lines to this guy to get him to look okay. His head was originally going to be some kind of architectural structure.
