art show!

drop by sally loo's from february 15th to march 15th and see my "by it's cover " book cover art show!

i'll have a reception for it on friday, march 4th, from 6-8.

sally loo's is at 1804 osos st, in SLO.

i'm having these postcards printed up pretty soon, so if you want one (and you're not already a friend i see a  lot) let me know!

thanks to all you guys who read deese leetle blog of mine :)

smoked paprika is good on roasted yam.

tell your friends.

i love you, matryoshka

pen and ink

light of life

last month i painted this huge piece of painters canvas for my church's christmas service.  all the words are crammed at the top because they had a table there against it with lamps on it.  i was pretty happy with how it came out and super stoked to paint for my church!  quite an honor.

painting this thing was one of those "skin of my teeth" situations though.  it was so huge i took it home and wanted to work on it outside (this canvas is bigger than the walking space in my living room! :) but it had rained and rained for a whole week.  it finally came down to a wednesday when ian and i were gonna leave that night to travel up to his mums for christmas and i still hadnt done finished it.  i drove all the way up to morro bay and finished it in one of the spare church rooms about a half hour before the church closed.  crazy!  

p.s. the font that i based the letters off of is called "texas hero"... seriously one of my favorite fonts.  you can download it for free off certain font sites in case you fall in love with it too. :)

and in case you cant read it, the verse is, "I am the Light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  spoken by Jesus in john 8:19.  a wonderful verse that pretty much says it all.

vine charcoal, conte, acrylic

not sure how i feel about this one yet.  it's hard to put a lot of work into something only to be  marginally satisfied with it, but what can you do?  art is like that sometimes: a monster of its own.

i like the portrayal of the concept i had in my mind which was one of doing something by faith and how you may get discouraged or tired of doing it, but that doesn't mean it is for nothing or not bearing any result.

i think a lot of people i know have felt like this and have wondered whether what they are doing is fruitful or not, only to look back and realize the trail of beauty left behind them.  it's hard when you're in the moment though, for sure.

"and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not"

galatians 6:9

storytime with ian

One time in third or fourth grade I was in the little boys room and in a moment of inspiration from the movie “Ghostbusters” a buddy and I were “crossing our streams” between the urinals.  The janitor walked in and yelled at us, and in my nervousness I spun around and accidentally peed on his foot.  He yelled, “your recess is mine!!!” 

Sure enough I spent every single recess for the next week or two in the office staring at a wall.

The end

you decide

pen and ink

drew this at sallys talking to jules.

this is from a real tree growing out of a rock up on terrace hill where (6 months ago today, actually) we got married...

only a little crazier :-o

boy and music

pen and ink, watercolor

dont have a name for this one yet.

any ideas?

path: sketchbook fun from sallys

pen and ink drawing done outside sally loo's while talking to 'ol julie-pants.  

i think the secret behind pen and ink is the secret behind learning a musical instrument: you have to love one well played note and be content with it before going on to the next, slowly developing more and more appreciation as you go (at least as i understand it).  with this medium, you have to be willing to just breathe, draw, relax and enjoy every line one at a time.

a friend recently reminded/encouraged me to be stoked about the fact that every drawing i do with and for God is worship... a sweet thought indeed.  it takes the pressure out of it and brings art back to something enjoyable, filled with liberty and worth something, even if it only has value in His eyes.

i've always wondered how all these hours i've spent doing this type of thing could ever amount to anything.  so what if i can draw this or that?  the world is a place of great need and suffering and here i am sitting in my comfy house drawing pictures like a little kid.  when it's worship though... when love of God is involved, it all starts to make more sense.  i dont know what the point of it all is, but that's alright.  that's His job as God, not mine :)

pen and ink at the cafe

this drawing is based off ian as he was sitting across from me reading.  i'm not sure the resemblance is 100%.

playing around with my favorite mantra.

i was drawing with a round nib i found in ian's art supplies (a nib i dont usually use).  very fun :)

sketching with peppermint tea and ian in the freezing cold is an excellent way to spend saturday.

ian sketch

this is a sketch of my ian when he was a boy.  it is from a picture i found while i was snooping through his mum's photo albums.  his pose is perfect... you want to go to him and let him alone to think at the same time... he is neither happy nor sad...

it's gonna make it onto a book cover, just you watch ;)

resemble

paint and pen 7"x4.5"

(click on the image for a better view)