The Meaning of Life

I've come across this recently and thought I'd share it:
What is the purpose of life? To live.
What is the meaning of life? To help others.
What is the fact of life? To suffer.

LEO

Some pics of some spreads of my pop-up book LEO about my red-eared slider.

Greedy Greg

Some pics of some spreads of my 32 page interactive pop-up book about Greg, a selfish pig whose bad manners upset the whole class.

Graduating.....

I'll be graduating soon.....December 13! But I'll be in the requisite Art Center Grad Show the night before on Friday, December 12 from 7 - 10 pm. All are welcome and this image above, hand-etched and printed with six linocut blocks on the letterpress will be handed out (no two are alike!), as well as some other leave-behinds. This image, a fox sparrow, is part of my ongoing series on Southern California birds and I'll post more as soon as I can. Thanks!

WOO!

Yay! It's out....I was fortunate enough to get into American Illustration. Congrats to everyone who got in.

Open Market

I was able to participate in One Colorado's Open Market this year, on October 12, which is part of Pasadena Art weekend. It was great to see all the different work of fellow artists and designers and it was a really great turnout this year! I had participated in the past with only a handful of tables but there were well over 100 artists participating this year. This event comes only twice a year and I believe the next one is in March so mark your calendars and I'll try to post the date when I find out. It's generally always held on a Sunday from 10 am to dusk. Thanks to all those who came to support us! I was selling framed prints of my Death in Nature series (bottom two above are examples from the series) as well as framed prints of some of my children's book illustrations, and The Birds series. I did much better than expected and actually sold out of my ducks (above), sparrows, and my children's book stuff! Thanks to all those who supported me with a purchase! It was very encouraging. I got lots of helpful suggestions, like requests to do rabbits and lions, and to print the images on t-shirts. I highly recommend fellow Art Center students/alumni to participate as it's a really fun event and I invite everyone to attend as it's FREE, fun, and you get to see and score never-before-seen artwork from some really cool young artists. I definitely plan to participate again next time.

It's, like, OMG, Sarah!

I haven't done a portrait in like forever - was good practice since I'm rusty. I did this for Op-Ed, where the assignment was to create a portrait of Sarah Palin after the vice-presidential debates. I caught the last part of it and the impression I got was this really perky, super shiny cheerleader who even managed to throw out a "cheer" or in her words "shoutout to the third graders!" She kept winking at the audience/camera talking with a perma-smile. I guess she just has a lot of vice-presidential spirit.

Death in Nature

So I've decided to start a new series while putting the fashion one on the back burner. I just wasn't happy with it. This new series is really personal for me and is a metaphor for what I've experienced recently. The artistic influence is due to my recent fascination with Charley Harper....he's amazing and a fine draftsmen. Firstly, this series is based on the often unfortunate experiences in nature that I've seen; for example, this image was created based on what I saw while on the way to and from school. I saw a doe and her young buck grazing on the side of the road. While driving home less than an hour later, I saw the young buck dead, most likely hit by a car, with the animal control moving its body. It was quite sad.
Lately, I've "accumulated" many deaths. Many of whom were quite young when they died so unexpectedly...like my classmate. I've racked up a total of ten deaths this year so far. It's been surreal. Secondly, I'm creating these images based on the often untimely, and seemingly unfair way life is often stripped from us. It's just nature I guess.
Comments and suggestions always appreciated.

LONDON

I'm trying a new fashion illustration style and I plan to do a series based on different cities. I'm keeping the final application in mind. This one is gonna be on a tote bag. More to come. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!