Raining, raining, and cold.  I plan on updating her more regularly again, but today seems like a day for reading 'The Diary of Anaîs Nin' and drinking tea.

Indeed.

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
  - Steven Weinberg

Right right, Google.

A crust of ice.

We finally got a little snow here in Maryland, and though it doesn't even approach Cleveland standards I'm willing to feel it's better than nothing. A few inches, total, and shelled by that evening in a crisp layer of ice. This is what I remember best from growing up around here, the days when you awoke to a two-hour-delay because the trees, road, and everything else had been encased in clear ice overnight. The brilliance of sunlight refracting through the ice-covered twigs. The occasional, heartrending gunshot from the forest as a tree broke in half under the ice's added weight.

I took the opportunity of being somewhat stuck inside for the past two days to finish this image. I started work on it in July, lost it among my possessions for a long time and then rediscovered it a few weeks ago. It's probably the most ambitious watercolour I've attempted since entering college five years ago, and I'm still ambivalent regarding the outcome. Any comments are critique would be much appreciated.

9 x 12" on Strathmore. Ballpoint and Watercolour.

Submitting

The deadline on submissions for Spectrum 16 are on the 23rd, and I just mailed off my entry. This feels very big to me. For years I have leafed through Spectrum, ogling the artwork, peering in at an industry I only dreamed of being a part of. Submitting is very, very intimidating to me. But I did it, and now I wait for April and hope for the best.

I submitted a series, including my two prints 'Making Peace' and 'Returning Home', and this image here, 'Diplomacy'. A scratchboard I finished today, but felt belonged to that much earlier sequence.

Happy Winter, All!

A lot has been going on in my life of late, which has prevented me from being fully participatory on the internet. Nevertheless, I make my attempt.
Happy winter all, and best of luck struggling through the hard times the economy is presenting to us. May it improve soon.


Image: Perchta and the Wild Hunt.
My part of Evan and I's joint Winter holiday/New Year card.
Watercolour and ink.

Revivified

I seem to have a pattern. I work feverishly on something for a long period of time. Then I take 'a short break from it' because of other obligations. Then months go by.

I'm back to updating here, now. My newest thing to say is that one of my pieces ('Writing the Harvest', a large graphite drawing that hasn't been on here because it is several years old) is being published in GUD (Greatest Uncommon Denominator) Magazine (which is a pretty awesome literary/art mag all by itself, and should be checked out anyhow). This is the same piece that was nominated for a Chesley award about a year ago.
I'm thinking I need to work large-scale in graphite more often.

Obviously, this is very exciting to me. It's not much money, but publication and subsequent exposure is a very, very good thing for any artist, regardless of the paycheck. It will be in the Spring 2009 edition (volume 4). Good stuff.

In the meantime, I'll try to be updating this more often. The contract I was working on came to an end, and I've been looking for the next job. And moving, from Virginia to Annapolis, Maryland. All a little bit hectic. I still need to update with my BFA work, and intend to do so very soon. It's already uploaded, which should make this easier.

You'll hear more from me soon.

p.s. Some months ago I received a very sweet email from someone who follows me on Deviantart and apparently reads this blog. Before I had the chance to respond to it (I tend to sit on things and think about them for a little bit before getting back to them) it was lost to the depths of my Gmail account. I have not been able to find it, despite all my searching.
To the sender, sir, I did not think the email crazy or off-putting. I simply seem to have an undeveloped understanding of Gmail's 'archive' function, for unlabeled mail. I would be happy to hear from you again, so that I might actually respond to you.

My BFA is coming!

If anyone who reads this wanted "tangible" evidence that I am freaking the hell out of my mind right now, take a gander at the show card for my BFA. As much as I enjoy doing this sort of thing, I would be highly appreciative of not having such a close and stringent deadline for it all.
I would also be appreciative of not having the spring show this week, finals next week and my BFA the week after that.
And on top of all of that, I am attempting to fabricate some more work for a Steampunk show in Texas next month. This is why I am non responsive.

Any and all who are in Cleveland, though, please stop by my BFA while it's up. I'm putting a great deal of effort into it, and payoff would come in the form of impressed 'ooh's and 'aah's from the largest possible audience.

That plus a degree, I want one of those too.

I'm a little behind.

I know I said I'd post as soon as I got back from SGC. My excuse: my BFA is coming up, and the studio closes on the 25th, so I have to get all print and enameling work done by then. Craziness.

So, as if they haven't been already, things are going to be a tad slow on here.
I do want to break the silence a little with this well written and touching review of "For the bible tells me so.", a documentary on the misrepresentation of how homosexuality is portrayed in the bible.

The movie came through the Cinematheque at my school during a particularly grueling week last semester, and I missed it. I'm kicking myself even more for that now. Hopefully I'll be able to find it available in Blockbuster.

Today I witnessed a terrible thing.

Standing in line at the Walmart pharmacy, waiting to get my antibiotics prescription filled, I heard a horrible sound. A rip. A tearing, a rending of board and paper. I turned my head and saw a Walmart employee, cart before her, hands cradling a paperback romance. Rrrriiippp. The cover came off, topping a stack of similar ones in the baby seat of her cart. The depleted corpse was tossed into the cart's belly, where it splayed among dozens of its fellows. Rrrriiippp.
I stood watching, horror turning my stomach and shock freezing my gaze. I contemplated walking over there, shouting at the employee, demanding she stop. But of course she wouldn't. Of course, that would only cause a scene. No good. I turned my head and stared resolutely forward, studying the pink woolen hat of the old woman in front of me, willing her to complete her business quickly so I could drop off my prescription and be away. Rrrriiippp. My stomach clenched and twisted. The sound made me feel ill.

Stripping paperbacks. Of course I've heard of it before, from an author at a Dragon*con panel, most likely. Regular paperbacks are incredibly cheap to produce. The paper is cheaply harvested, the labor is paid nil, they're perfect bound and with glue of very low quality. The advantage of this is that book publishers can put a great deal of them out very cheaply, making them relatively affordable to the average person. The bad news is, when a company like Walmart (or Barnes and Noble, or Borders) buys a whole shipment of them and the bulk don't sell... it's far, far cheaper for them to strip the books and toss them in the dumpster out back, rather than ship them back to the company for their piddling refund. The refund wouldn't even cover shipping. This is the whole reason for the 'stripped book' statement you'll find inside most paperbacks from the 70's through the 90's, and even today. It's not because the publisher is really that sold on the cover art. It's because that front-coverless book you're holding was probably refuse, saved from a dumpster, and no big-time re-sale company made a profit off of it.
That's one of the advantages of trade paperbacks. Yes, compared to regular paperbacks they're very expensive. They're oversized. But they're made of decent materials, and they're far too valuable to be treated in the same way as a standard paperback. They're shipped back to the publisher for a refund if they don't sell successfully. What happens to them from there, however, I can only guess at.
I mean, just think of the waste! Because paperbacks are manufactured cheaply, they're made out of the cheapest and easiest paper material--wood, usually freshly cut, and with no guarantee of sustainability. That's bad enough, though if the book's being kept and used at least it's to a purpose. But thousands upon thousands of books are simply tossed in a dumpster every year. Not even recycled, that would be too much extra expense and work.
And me, I can't look at the mass destruction of books without my stomach clenching. I love books too much, no matter how trashy the contents. It's a terrible emblem for our wasteful, disposable consumerism. Look how much we have, we can just throw it away. But we really don't have that much. Really.

What can be done about this? I'm not really sure. Petitioning publishers and stores to act more responsibly is a thought. Notifying the public at large of this travesty is an idea, too. But movements are hard to begin, and I'd understand if you don't want to. But ordering books online from responsible sources, or buying from independent small booksellers instead of places like Walmart and Barnes and Noble.... that's a start. An ideal future would see books produced in very small batches, or even made-to-order rather than made-in-excess to anticipate the possibility of order. But then they'd be more expensive, wouldn't they? Our system just isn't set up to sustain that idea. But if anyone wants to venture that business, that green publishing company with made-to-order books printed on recycled cotton and wood paper...
You've got an instant customer right here.

Some art, and where I'm going for now.

Next week is SGC (Southern Graphics Conference), the largest printmaking convention...probably in North America. Big deal. Lots of neat artists, lecturers, panels, demos... very excited, me. This will be the second one I've attended. The last was held at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. This one will be at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond. Very close to home for me, and also close to my little sister, who's going to William & Mary, and whom I hope to see while I'm down there.
In any case, I'll be gone from Wednesday morning (early) through Saturday night (veryvery late.) What I'm going to is probably much more interesting than the fact that I'll be gone, so I'll be sure to make an account of what I found there when I get back. For one, I'm looking forward to a little springlike weather, in counter to the wintery deadlock that Cleveland has had to offer thus far this year.
Before I go, here are a few items I've been working on. The one up top is a sketch of a little hybrid critter that's part squid, part goat and part thorn bush. Just something I doodled in my notebook whilst awaiting the arrival of Nancy Stahl, the lecturing illustrator I went to see last Wednesday night, during the snowstorm. It was very informative, she is very famous, and more about that at another time, as well.
At the bottom are some sample enamels I've been working on, just to practice technique. The larger ones are photo transfer, done in different colours and baked at different lengths. The little ones are just experiments with flux and opaque enamels.

That is all. Happy Easter and Purim and Vernal Equinox (belated) everyone.