Wednesday is Comic Day!

So a new tradition is starting.  Not one, but TWO posts a week, with Wednesday as Comic Day.  Enjoy!

Birds and Fish

Today I had a conversation about love with a young lady. It came up because her fish had died. One died a short time ago, and the other died today. I told her I was sorry, but it reminded me of another story. This is a particular sad story. When I was a kid we had two love birds. They played in their cage together all day long. One was yellow and the other blue. One morning we found the yellow one on the floor of the cage dead. The blue one hopped around her. I wondered if he knew what had happened to her. That night we heard him tweeting loudly and rushed to his cage to find him with his head in the little ladder. He killed himself. I was probably eleven of twelve when this happened. I was a little in shock about the whole thing.

Love is confusing. I don't think it's just about depending on someone else or not being able to live without that special someone in your life. We have all had love and suffered loss, and we are still here. There is so much to live for and so much happiness, love, joy in the world. I hope you see that in your life reader. Bless you! Now enjoy this love fish:

Kiss me!

Wild Things

Looking back on my life I've tried to find things that have inspired me to be an Artist.  I received a lot of hand-me-downs and Where the Wild Things Are was among them.  I would be glued to those pages, looking at every detail.  Maurice Sendak wrote  AND illustrated it.  He's a big inspiration.
So I've decided to have fun with some painting programs and this is among the first illustrations I've made.  I'm still trying to figure it out.

P.S.  The Cuts, Bruises, and Broken bones show is still up, check some images out here

Andre

Andre the Giant was a hero of mine when I was younger. I don't really remember why. We had toys of him and everything. He was another popular character on pajamas to run around in. Learning more about him I discovered that he was a heavy drinker. He once drank 119 beers in one sitting. It was one of the few times that he ever passed out from drinking. He passed out in the hallway of the hotel that he was staying at. The people that he was with draped over a piano cover over him so he wouldn't be disturbed because there was no way of moving him.

His large size made him a super star, but it caused him a lot of pain too—physical as well as emotional. He had terrible back pain. He was always looked at as different. I think that drinking may have been a way to escape. A way to numb the pain.

Drained

First and foremost I want to say thank you for everyone that was able to come to The Hive Gallery on Friday night. It was a great experience to be able to hang out with all of you and see the work of some other incredible artists in the area. I also want to say thank you to The Hive Gallery for allowing us to have the show there and for being so wonderful to us. The people there are amazing and such a pleasure to work with. The show will be going until the end of the month, so if you have a chance you should go out there. Some of the pieces we have out there are selling for around $35-40 large(24x18+), and $10-12 small(12x8+).

To get ready for the show I wanted to make sure that I had ten pieces ready. There was one piece that I really wanted to take my time on and get right. I spent a few sleepless nights getting it ready and I hope that you enjoy it.

This is how I feel sometimes. I feel like all of my ideas pour out at once. Being an artist can be really exhausting sometimes. I don't know if people know how much it takes to do art. I think that we sometimes think to ourselves "I could do that." I think I've said that a lot in my life—only to fail when I do try. It takes a lot of effort to do something—but if we keep at it—we do succeed. Thanks everyone that reads this and supports what I do. You guys are great!

Heart,
Toast

Cuts, Bruises, and Broken Bones

Exciting news blog world—blogorld? Yeah, that sounds right. I'm going to be in a gallery with several great local artists up in Salt Lake City on March 4th at 7 to 9 pm. It will be at The Hive Gallery in Trolley Square. Come support your local artists!

So when I heard the name of the show I thought it would be cool to do a few different pieces involving cuts, bruises, or broken bones. I decided to look up different movie scenes that had any of the three. The first one that came to mind was from The Royal Tenenbaums. There is an amazing scene where Richie—Luke Wilson's character—goes to the bathroom and cuts his hair and beard. He's depressed after finding out the love of his life—his adopted sister—is seeing another man. He decides to commit suicide. I know that the subject matter is really dark, but this is such a beautiful scene. Check out here.

I remember falling in love with the imagery of the scene along with the music playing in the background. The song is called Needle in the Hay  and it is by Elliot Smith—who I have drawn and talked about in a previous post. I hope you don't think that I'm suicidal in anyway because I'm not. I think that we've all had something terrible happen to us. Sometimes we want to escape it all, but we need to channel that grief into something else. Some of the most beautiful songs I've heard come from people who have had just passed through a difficult trial. I hope you enjoy this artwork for what it is, and don't misinterpret it. Peace out and hope to see you on Friday!

I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghosts

"Ghostbusters!!!" "No way" "Let me see it!" My brother had just torn open one of his presents for his birthday. Inside was a neatly packaged toy of Slimer, the ghost from the movie Ghostbusters, but more memorably—at least to me—from the cartoon show The Real Ghostbusters. The show and movie were incredibly popular to my older brothers and I. For Christmas they both received proton packs while I received a trap. They would run around shooting ghosts while I would throw my trap to capture them. We were a pretty good team. It goes without saying, but Ghostbusters had the BEST toys.

When I made this particular piece of art, I actually didn't intend to make Slimer. I just thought I was making some funny looking character. It wasn't until I started to add colors that I realized that I had accidentally drawn him. My childhood seemed to rush right back. So many incredible memories.

 

 A few fun facts for Ghostbuster fans: The cast and crew would call Slimer Onionhead on the set because of his terrible smell. When audiences saw him they came up with the name Slimer and it stuck. Venkman would call him "spud" in the cartoon, which might be a throw back to onion even thought spuds are potatoes. Also, Dan Aykroyd  would playfully call Slimer the ghost of John Belushi who had died two years previous. Belushi was also slated to be part of the film before his death. Slimer does kind of have some Belushi qualities. So now I'm feeling a little nostalgic...I think I'm going to check Amazon for DVDs of The Real Ghostbusters right now.