As some of you know, I am a art student at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. I was surfing the internet tonight when I uncovered a conspiracy that will shake this very institution to its core: former CIA Director James Woolsey is coming to Art Center on February 18th.
We are told he has come to discuss “Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility,” but this so called former CIA chief undoubtedly still entrenched deeply into the US intelligence apparatus likely has more sinister notions up his sleeve.
I spent so many of my adolescent years reading and admiring comic books. I delighted in my weekly trips to the comic book store and I devoured the latest books with an unrivaled enthusiasm. I often wondered if anyone else cared about the art, the characters and the stories like I did. In fact, a well-drawn tale would sometimes take on such personal significance I could hardly believe that anyone could care as much as I did.
Maybe it was because I was a visual person and never much of a reader, or maybe it was because like most adolescents I was in search of meaning in a world that all too often felt like it had little, but I genuinely felt that I had uncovered something profound in these comic books and graphic novels which others dismissed.
It was interesting to revisit this part of my adolescence in the existentialist short The Raftman’s Razor (2005) created by Keith Bearden and Joel Haskard with illustration by Tim Lane. Somehow a very confusing part of my life was made a bit clearer.
Adrift in the sea of adolescence in search of meaning, it is often all too easy to project significance, meaning, and purpose on to anything: even to find meaning in meaninglessness. Some might argue that this is a fruitless exercise, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Is life a series of meaningless poses? Will I ever know anything? Every thinking person must resolve an existential crisis of sorts at some point in their lives and the truth is that nothing and nobody matters as much as we think it does. As the great existential thinker Kierkegaard once said, “the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die.”
I still read comic books. I still find meaning in them and the point really is that I have used them as a tool to find meaning for myself both in my art and in my life.
This is a photograph I took in Hawaii and then went to town on this photograph with the Photoshop liquidation effect. Lot of fun, but I really should be drawing instead.
Daedelus is an experimental musician based out of Los Angeles. A friend of mine introduced me to his album “Exquisite Corpse” and I have been hooked ever since. If you ever have an opportunity to witness him live, I would encourage you to go. He is not just a remarkable and innovative musician, but also an amazing performer too.
Daedelus embodies a kind of Mad Hatter spirit if the Mad Hatter went to the future and brought back some instruments to share with us.
His music is sample driven drawing heavily from syphonic electronica, funk, and hip-hop. The music sounds very experimental, but is also very well produced. His songs range from fun to haunting, but his style as a whole is difficult to pigeonhole.
I wanted to design a typography around Daedelus’s musical vibe. It isn’t the type (no pun intended) of project I am used to doing, but it was rewarding experience which came out rather good in my humble opinion.
One of my favorite Fox cartoon shows is King of the Hill. Some of you may have heard today’s breaking news that the show has been officially canceled. The show is in its 13th year and has entertained me for virtually every one of those years. I am sad to see it go, but maybe it was more of a show for the George Bush era and thank God that’s over.
At least we will have until sometime in the 2009-2010 season to say good-bye. Here’s to our favorite redneck propane salesman. I’ll never forget when you told Beavis and Butthead to stop wacking off in your camper. How far you have come. Peace.
The above is my interpretation of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn character. Todd McFarlane has always been a major influence of mine and Spawn is a character that has great significance for me as an artist. The story, mood, and detailed artwork were burned vividly into my mind at an early age.
The story of an artist who built a business empire on his character is something I find profoundly inspiring. While Todd McFarlane as a business man has taken up most of his recent life, he has increasingly reasserted himself in the art and story of his flagship creation, Spawn.
If you have ever been fan or if you are just curious about such a momentous figure, I encourage you to take a look at this interview on his thoughts on the future of Spawn and his business empire:
One of my brother’s best friends is Michael Wakcher of Circle Versus Square fame. He also maintains a site of original quotes and witticisms at Wakcher.com which are sometimes wise and always amusing.
My brother and Mike were discussing how absolutely terrible Halloween poems and rhymes are such as this morsel by Theodosia Garrison:
At first cock-crow the ghosts must go
Back to their quiet graves below.
Of course, Wakcher in his brash style declared, “I could do that.” He then proceeded to rattle of the following with remarkable speed:
Magic spells and ancient tomes,
Strangers invite you in there homes.
Banchee screams and until your deaf,
Giving coins to unicef.
Wolves will howl, and owls hoot,
The creepy guy who gives out fruit.
Trick or treats for you and me,
Candy laced with PCP.
When my brother Adam retold them to me I completely cracked up. Not quite a complete Halloween poem, but strung together they are not far off either. Regardless, they seemed like a perfectly good way to say happy Halloween to all of you.
I am illustrator in the entertainment arts focused on visual development, character design, layouts, concept art, and anything in the realm of visual storytelling. Around these parts though, I'm letting it loose Simian Style and devolving into a higher state of consciousness on the boundary of an infinite-dimensional manifold in quasi-time. There's plenty of room down this rabbit hole! Learn more About Me and check out the Portfolio.
