Puppet with Puppets

String Games

I'm starting to work on a few Sculpy & fabric pieces. This is the first. He also has some one-eyed puppets to play with...pictures coming soon.

Finished nesting monsters

Here are two pictures of the three finished nesting monsters. I'd love to have time to do more of these.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even if Valentine's Day is rotten, there's always the day after, when all the chocolate goes on sale....

Knight

I know it's been a while. The full-time work, full-time grad school has me writing and reading more than illustrating, but there may be some sketches this semester. The lighting in this piece is done with a small LED flashlight and a light box.

2011

Picture Book Report

This past winter I worked on an illustration for Dahl's Matilda and I created a second illustration for the novel earlier this summer. Both illustrations are on Picture Book Report today! If you're not familiar with Picture Book Report, scroll back through the posts- people have been doing some amazing work (I've particularly enjoyed seeing Kali Ciesemier's Sabriel illustrations).

I don't think I'm finished illustrating passages of Matilda, but this particular project will go on hold for a while with the start of MFA classes in the fall.

I love the dark quirkiness of Dahl’s stories. His characters are at once ridiculous and so detailed that they must actually exist. Last year I worked on a series of illustrations for Edward Lear’s limericks, which share a strange sensibility with Dahl’s work. I enjoyed working with Lear’s texts and found myself thinking about Dahl as I worked. Wanting to work with a longer piece than one of Dahl’s poems, and fondly remembering Matilda, I decided to pick it up again. The dark, very British humor and ridiculous events tend to make me grin with glee and I can’t help but love characters who are enamored of books….

Chapter 1: The Reader of Books
‘Did you know,’ Mrs Phelps said, ‘that public libraries like this allow you to borrow books and take them home?’

‘I didn’t know that,’ Matilda said. ‘Could I do it?’

‘Of course,’ Mrs Phelps said. ‘When you have chosen the book you want, bring it to me so I can make a note of it and it’s yours for two weeks. You can take more than one if you wish.’

Chapter 2: The Ghost
‘I’m fed up with your reading anyway. Go and find yourself something useful to do.’ With frightening suddenness he [Mr Wormwood] now began ripping the pages out of the book in handfuls and throwing them in the waste-paper basket.

Matilda froze in horror. The father kept going. There seemed little doubt that the man felt some kind of jealousy. How dare she, he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page, how dare she enjoy reading books when he couldn’t? How dare she?

‘That’s a library book! Matilda cried. ‘It doesn’t belong to me! I have to return it to Mrs. Phelps!’

There are many books in this world I do not agree with and hope no one ever reads, but the idea of directing violence toward a book is unthinkable, as it rends not just thoughts, but, in the case of fiction, entire worlds. Though we as readers already dislike Mr. Wormwood, this scene establishes Matilda’s father as a truly horrid man and enables us to laugh at him later when Matilda exacts her devious revenge.

Untitled & Unwritten and an Update

To see all 18 images in this exhibit, head on over to the Untitled & Unwritten. To see my nine images, you can also check out the posts below. The exhibit will also feature a selection of three-dimensional pieces I photographed.

The opening is May 18th, from 6-8pm at the Visual Arts Gallery (directions here). We are encouraging visitors to add a written story in the comments or at the exhibit, for while we've written chapter titles and made illustrations, the stories and book titles remain unwritten.

Update:
In the next weeks I will be moving to Massachusetts so there will be fewer posts during the month of May.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Songs from the Cacophony

I'd really love to use this bird again (each feather is hand cut, which takes less time than you might think). In-progress shots of this piece.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7: All Lights but the Moon

Chapter 6

Many Seeing Eyes.

Or, what became of all those sketches for the many masks, which were rather fun to make.

Two New Finished Images

Over the next few days I'll be posting what I've been working on since December. I've been playing around with adding frames and texture in Photoshop. If anyone has any suggestions for things I should try in Photoshop in the future, I'd like to hear them.

Chapter 3: And Then Again
Chapter 4: Shadows & Small Trees

Two New Finished Images

Chapter 1: Death of the Spring Snails

Chapter 2: Footsteps, Feather & Bone

Sneek Peek & studio

On Monday I posted Chapter 9 for the Untitled & Unwritten exhibit that goes up in May. Well, there are eight other finished illustrations that you haven't seen in their finished form! May 1st, I'll link to all nine on the exhibit's official blog, but until then, here's Chapter 5: Two Feet to Dance.
And here's the painted filing cabinet... Yes, it's ridiculously bright. I love it. I used blank magnets for the drawer labels. It's allowed me to clear a lot of boxes out of my room (which is also a studio) and made everything more accessible. I also took the time to go through all my fabric and take at least a 6"x 6" swatch from each. These are collected in one accessible place and the rest has been put away; it makes a staggering difference in such a small place.
And here's a photo of a drawer of parts- mostly because I love the bag of hands.

A week's worth of jumbled images

We were driving down a street right outside of town when we spotted this beautiful filing cabinet for free! Precisely what I needed for my studio, with plenty of drawers for hands, heads, misc body parts, paint, found objects, etc. Today I cleaned and sanded it and tomorrow I'll spray paint it.


Here's the Chapter 9 illustration for the ACC exhibition. Title: Old Beginnings. None of the completely finished images for chapters 1-8 are posted on this blog, though I will be adding some in the next two weeks. Also, on May 1st our blog for the exhibition will be up- I'll link to it then. For those of you living near Glens Falls, NY, May 18th, from 6-8pm at Deerlove Hall on the SUNY Adirondack campus (formerly Adirondack Community College), is our opening. Both Rachel and I will be there (as will free food and wine).
Chapter 9 in-progress. I tried a number of different papers before finally choosing one.

I like to knit to relax or while I watch movies or television shows (no time will be wasted!) Last week I began experimenting with knit necklaces. The green strand is of Egyptian cotton yarn and the lavender of bamboo yarn.

As the exhibit is fast approaching, the tedious process of framing has begun. Here are some shadow box frames holding Sculpy masks used for chapter 6. Both prints of the finished works and actual objects from the photos will be displayed.

Untitled & Unwritten postcard

Rachel Schneider did the wonderful ink work. The exhibit opens May 17th, 2010, at the Visual Arts Gallery in Deerlove Hall, on the SUNY Adirondack (formerly Adirondack Community College) Campus. The opening is Tuesday, May 18th from 6-8pm. Additional information, artist statement, and images next month.

And more...

Dragon
Serpents

Really?
Tomfoolery

So I made a couple of prints on Sunday and Monday, and found it enjoyable. On Tuesday I talked to Rockhill Bakehouse about having a print show in the next couple of months. The same day I learned that the artist who was going to put work up on Sunday (tomorrow) couldn't do it, so would I be willing to put work up then? And, being me, I said yes.

I've spent the past few days making prints, framing, etc. and will be putting up the show tomorrow (good thing there's coffee there). So, stop by between the 8th and April 2nd to see the work, have a really good sandwich, or pick up the best bread on the East Coast.

All the prints are for sale, and as they're prints, I do have multiple copies of a number of them (on varying paper). If you are interested in purchasing work, please shoot me an email or give me a call.

More prints

Oh Really?
Why must you smile like that?
Bird
It happened on the day of the party

Prints!

The Thief
Sea
Why must you smile like that?
From the Sky

Top: rubber block. Following three linoleum. Color added by hand.

Prints!

The Traveler
From the Sky



Also known as procrastination. The middle image is from the linoleum block, the other two are rubber blocks. I found some cotton rag paper that I made a few years ago and the two singular creatures are printed on it.