Friday, August 9, 2013

The Mothman




A while back, I wanted ideas for a series of linocuts to carve, and horror won, and I feel as I never quite followed through on that, despite the huge "list of art ideas" hanging out on my phone. Above you'll see my initial sketch for the second of these, based on the story of the Mothman. If you'd like to purchase a hand-pulled print, they're available on Etsy. Here's a scan of one of the completed prints--the red paint I used as a background is really rich and transparent at the same time, and doesn't like to be scanned very well:




In September 2012, I actually went to the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, WV and had an absolute blast! Here's some photos from that particular adventure--by which time my Canon crapped out, so all of these are taken with an iPhone 4S, accompanied by the Olloclip in some cases. Under the jump!



Wednesday, August 7, 2013

That is not dead which can eternal lie...

...and with strange aeons, even death may die!

Wow. So it has been two years give or take a few days since I last posted to this blog, with much upheaval in my life. Our houseguests whose apartment building caught on fire were here much longer than intended, to the tune of a few weeks turning into a few months, and unfortunately there was a lot of unpleasantness about responsibilities, attitudes and money. Suffice it to say, I've been burnt and it will be a very long time indeed before I let my charitable nature get the better of me. The relationship they had broke down and they parted ways shortly after moving into a new place and both of them have since returned to their home states, and frankly I couldn't be happier about it.

In any event, that all got me pretty run down for a long time, very stressed and not in any kind of mood to do anything. It's long been since cleared up though, and I've been busy since I picked up a second job again. Today is a rare day off that my other half and I share, and so we're trying to pull together an outing, and I'm not sure where we'll go yet, but I'm excited to go.

In the meanwhile, here's some pretty stuff to look at. I made thank you cards for some guys at my main job who have been instrumental in my development and actually in getting the position I enjoy now. I thought they turned out pretty neat, and I tried to make each one relevant to the recipient. One loves talking about kayaking and fishing, one's a filmmaker, and one's got a great eclectic, hipstery personal style, and I hope that came across.








If you care about that sort of thing, here's the stuff I used to make them.

Fish and Paisley: Bo Bunny's Lakeside Retreat from the Trail Mix collection, the green paisley from The Paper Company's Classics, Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Stormy Sky, the greeting is from a stamp set by KI Expressions.

Tattered Ticket: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from DCWV's Tattered Time collection, stamps from Inkadinkado's Vintange Expressions and Graphic 45's Le Cirque. I used Tsukineko's Memento ink in Tuxedo Black, some white VersaMagic and the fine strips down either side are Martha Stewart Embossing Powder in Antique Gold.

Cluttered Thank You: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from Echo Park's For the Record collection. The stamp is from a Martha Steward collection, stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink color Salty Ocean. The grey and yellow washi tape come from My Mind's Eye, and the blue and pink are actually from Target's store brand office supplies.