hellomightydog

Rejected book cover.

I'm sad to say that art has taken a back seat to everything else recently. I'm still working, but I know I could be working harder. I don't know. I have a lot to do and none of the motivation to do it. I feel like I'm going through the motions.

I've been working on some pieces for a really fun show for November's First Friday. I'm also going to have a painting in the 621 auction AND I'm doing a collaborative performance with Jose and Tamar at the BFA Gallery. Tonight I need to finish painting a sculpture for a Boy's and Girl's Club fundraiser auction…and I need to start / finish 10 illustrations for a client this week. Couple my lack of motivation with the fact that there's a show I want to go to tonight, my Mom's house for dinner tomorrow, Breann coming in to visit on Friday, getting the house together for a Halloween party on Saturday…I'll probably have to cancel my Thursday attendance to the weekly video game session I've been having with some people. It's a loaded week.

I finally got to participate in a Tallahassee bike race this past weekend. Tons of awesome memories. It was Halloween themed, so I had a costume and shit. You know. There were a few keen checkpoints (such as the Zombie Apocalypse Obstacle Course, and this reverse bobbing for apples thing that Ouikut had.) There was a "Skaryoke" checkpoint where you had to sing Halloween/Punk songs while a live band played. Creeping through a graveyard looking for candy. And oh! Krank It Up (our bike co-op) had a couple of bikes to ride, one of which was a tall, fixed gear. I'd never ridden a tall bike or a fixed gear, but I owned that shit. I spent most of my time in the race with Aaron Amodt and Mike Harrington, but we called it a wash early on account of Aaron's busted tire. I think we still did about 10 miles, which felt good.

I am pretty stoked to be throwing a Halloween party.

This weekend was really great; I can't not log it in here.

( Weekend Update )

I went to Lowe's and bought the materials to make the poor man's steadicam, then went home and built that son of a bitch.

Here's the first test.



I like this guy's video (and his screensaver) better, though:



( Weekend Update Part 2 )

Oh, and Lucy Knisley just posted the first part of her Parisian diary. Do yourself a favor and click the page below to read it:



I'm really jealous/inspired by her ability to create interesting compositions without a variable use of line weight, or even color.

Shannon went out of town and I took care of her cat, Clover. Well, she took care of me and my LJ comments.


This is my mom on the dock at her place.


Vaughan and Ryan at Mellow Mushroom. I met up with them after the bike ride with Steve and Eric Garcia. Mike and Mallory were there too.


This is Clover doing her best impression of a burrito.


I visited Jon in Orlando.


Before we hit Jax for her Derby bout, Shannon and I went to Steinhatchee. One of the derby girls hooked us up with a free marina cabin for the night. She also paid for our dinner and 4-5 games of pool.


This is the view from the front porch of the cabin.


This is the view from inside the cabin.


I sketched a little before the derby bout. These are character concepts for a show flyer.


They had a standup Donky Kong machine. I still can't get past board two.

A few months ago, my hard drive bit the dust. I had a lot of important things backed-up, but a few items slipped through the cracks. One of which was a graphic novel I'd been writing. I have an older copy stored on my work laptop, but since the crash, I haven't opened it, fearful of discovering what little remains of my work.

It's almost time, though. I know I'm going to open it soon, maybe even today, and thinking about it has prompted a reinvigorated interest in good writing as well as an awareness of intent. There are two things I've "discovered" that promote my interest during the intake of media. It seems obviously silly when I type them out.

1. I like it when as a viewer/reader I'm dropped in the middle of a situation and my brain has to work to figure things out. This mirrors my attraction to conceptual art (not concept art), where there is a relationship between artist and audience. A shared understanding is created when both sides contribute, which is a more valuable payoff than "look at what I have made". The most engaging art is participatory.

2. Change has to occur to prevent the work from becoming stale. Like I said, this is obvious, but I need to write it out because I don't think I've ever successfully done it. In this rule subtlety is crucial. I've had a habit of setting up problems for my characters to work against and react to, but it's always right out front in big bold letters.

I just need to keep this stuff in mind.

Today feels like a Monday because I was out of town for a few days. I went to Orlando with Tamar and saw Jon, Morgan, Justin Peterson, and Animal Collective. I did not get to see Dav or Aaron. I bought some lamps. Tonight I'm going to some city an hour south of here with Shannon, then it's off to Jacksonville to watch her zip around a rollerskate track and to meet her mom. There were a lot of places I wanted to visit this summer and I have a suspicion I'm not going to see any of them. Hmf.

EDIT: I opened the script. I only lost 2/25 pages. YES.

Last night at midnight I was jussssssssssst about to sleep when I was woken with the request of going to 80s night at the Engine Room. Ain't gonna say no to a girl on her birthday. So we headed out. I ran into a bunch of cool people. You know. Old friends from college. Danced a little. Drank two cokes. Talked about the business of art. Ran into a friend / "client" and happened to have a logo I'd been working on earlier.

I also did a little bit of drawing this weekend. The tiniest bit of pen work. Fuck. On average, I worked on art waaaaaaaaay more than usual this weekend, but it's not enough. I've got al ot of stuff I want to work on but I'm having a hard tiem cementing the order. The longer I wait for a lot of it, the better it will be because (let's face it) experience compounds.

I met up with an old professor this morning on campus. He really liked me, I guess. He told me I had the best paper in the class, which is hilarious, because I essentially just wrote him a letter about why he'd be interested in Daniel Johnston. I read my friends papers and they were all official papers with MLA CITATIONS and PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE. Art school. Funny.

I gave him a comic and paid him for a DVD of his work that he sold me. I felt kind of weird buying it...I guess it's probably how my friends feel when I try to hawk my art / centaurs t-shirts on them. He told me that he wants to give me a bunch of other DVD's of his stuff and that'd be free...one of which I've seen, "Why We Must Vote For Bush," which he recorded before the 2004 election. It's a brilliantly sarcastic 15 minute satire which he recorded solely to drop off at the GOP. I wish I could've seen their faces.

Here's a video of his (Jim Roche). I'm afraid his work gets lost in the doldrums of youTube, but keep in mind this is from the late 80s.



Towards the end of our talk, he lamented that he was there to meet with the department chair, and that there were questions of his value as an instructor to students. Friends that took his sculpture class described it to me as a "disaster", but I can tell you that Jim Roche was incredibly motivational to me. For the two years I was at FSU, I was discouraged from making comics or even cultivating a style. A lot of art teachers tell you that you have to learn the tenants of drawing before you can even think about style. I think this is an important thing to hear, yes, but it's never, ever, ever all you need to know about improving yourself as an artist. Style is voice. If your voice is boring and monotonous no one is going to bother to listen to your fucking message. Even an awkward, misformed, unfinished voice is going to be interesting.

I guess it's a good thing I got some Jim Roche time when I did. I had a lot of questions about the business of art, the artist's intention, etc. and he answered them all. It really bums me out that someone who has the same questions next semester might not get the kick they need to work with the confidence that I have now.

Also, I tried showing Wizard People, Dear Reader to Shannon last night and she couldn't appreciate it because she doesn't know anything about Harry Potter. I was reeeeeeeeeally hoping this would actually help. I mean, come on!

"Harry prepared breakfast magic free and labor intensive."

How is that not goddamn hilarious.

+ Seeing my dad, helping my grandparents out around the house
+ Swimming, PF Chang's, First Watch with friends (thanks for the drink, Luc!)
+ Thinking about late summer / early fall camping trips
+ Not identifying with Morrisey
+ Sleeping in with Shannon

- Being late to work because of sleeping in with Shannon
- Losing at Tetris
- Eating shitty food
- Missing Tallahassee
- Walking into Lowe's and immediately falling prey to the temptation of conspicuous consumption
- Putting off my food co-op membership

At my job, I can listen to my coworkers talk about an activity for a course we're developing wherein by pressing the left and right keys on the keyboard, you roll a child (which is on fire) until it's out. But there are piles of dry leaves and broken glass around him that you are supposed to avoid.


That's awesome.

I haven't kept up with LJ lately; I'm sorry. It used to be that this was my primary way of keeping up with my friends from long distance. Facebook seems to have become another method for that, but it's not the same.

So, here's the news:

I've been working on animation stuff and not comic stuff. I'm ok with that (for now). I think I'll finish this project and another and then jump back into comics full force.

Ryan and I threw a pretty awesome party this weekend. A lot of friends came. The few people that I didn't know who were there were pretty cool.

Work has been reeeeeeally demanding. I wouldn't mind normally, but this is the worst timing ever for it.

Overall I'd say life is "ehhhh..." with little moments of awesome sprinkled in. This weekend definitely had a couple of awesome moments.

Man, oh man. Got a new comforter and sheets for christmas. What a fucking mistake. It was a true task to get out of bed this morning.

My trip to Fort Myers was great. I have coolbluereason to thank for it. Thank you, dog. Thank you. I came back, did a little cleaning, then went over to Kevin and Holly's for pizza, Pulp Fiction, and scrabble. Such a great night.

I have a really good feeling about this semester. I have been consistently happy for a while now. I've cut back on shitty foods. I went to the gym on my lunch break today, which was nice. My schedule is rad; I'm done with school by 1ish on MWF, and 10:30 on TR. So, I will probably make the gym a regular thing on TR, before I go to work.

Tonight is my last night of freedom before the shackles of homework are clasped 'round my wrists. I will celebrate with some dungeons and some dragons. Then I will go home and make a schedule for my independent study.

Update in bullets, late for work.

1. My trip to Fort Myers was fun. Lot's of time with friends and grandparents. Didn't really see too much of my dad, though. I'm starting to prefer the shorter trips down. I guess Tallahassee is my "for real" home now.

2. I ate too much. I behaved on Thanksgiving, but the night after I consumed a whole 12-inch pizza. I still am having what can be described as a food hangover.

3. Honesty time. I am a consumer. I have an HDTV. An Xbox. Hundreds of DVDs. I love looking at gadgets. I'm fond of shopping in general. But hearing the news of the guy in New York that died under the feet of a deal-hungry mob, and watching videos on YouTube of other mobs hitting a stack of video game consoles like a swarm of piranha...it turns my stomach.

4. I saw Synedoche, New York with Bobby, Luc, Mike Cosden, and Abbey. It had a narrative, yes, but fuck if I could tell you what it was about.