Fiddle Dee Dee

Since the show is coming down Friday I thought I'd post these for those of you that weren't there.
One is a rework and the other is new for this show.
Peace.

-J

Mother Nature

Mother Nature can be cruel and her toll on our collective psyche has been relentless here in the northeast. It has been a record rainy season. Five days of rain and an afternoon of sun has been the status quo. With June 21st approaching, it is highly probably we will never see any spring whatsoever. I will soldier on despite her utter disregard for my love affair with sun and blue skies.

I digress...Recently Joe D. put up photos of some old abandoned places he use to visit a decade ago and they brought me back to my childhood. We used to journey way out past the tobacco fields where the woods would begin and civilization seemed to disappear. I remember one particular occasion we found a car in the middle of the woods, something from the fifties or early sixties if I do recall. We pondered who pushed it out there and why.

I realize now that Mother Nature answers to no one. At some point in time, maybe there was a dirt road. A road which had long been obscured by her unending desire to regrow and change the landscape without regard for the squatters on her world.

Panda-monium!

Awwww....for me?!!

It's been a long while since I posted. That's a phrase I say a lot...well, every month anyway. I've been really busy at work.

I come home at night and it's been presenting some serious challenges, both with my energy and with the limited natural light.

Wish I had something esoteric or insightful to say but I've got a couch waitin' for me.

Enjoy the Pandas!

-J

P.S. Watch this little video!

Hide and Seek

Nothing better than a little hide and seek in the woods as a kid. We would go play outside for hours lost in the trees. Good times. The other day was a really grey day and I just felt like painting something grey. I really like the way it came out. It's a little tribute to Coraline if you haven't seen it. Go rent it when it comes out, or read the book. 

Since I have been working digitally I have realized that my pieces aren't looking the same on everyone's monitors. So this one may be a little more saturated than I wanted, but that's life! There are a few drawbacks to computers. So I guess you will have to come see them in person.

I will be showing in August at the MAC650 gallery and co-curating in October for the Addams Family Show. I am very excited about this one. I have a couple of ideas already that need to be sketched out.

Have a great weekend!

-J

Here Kitty Kitty...

This one started out in a very organic way. I wanted to do something dark with someone peeking in a hole. Turns out that hole was a old log. What's in a old log? spiderwebs and perhaps a cat that's hiding...they like to do that you know. If you can't find the cat, there's a good chance it's under the bed or in a closet. 

I didn't have time to paint this up and I probably never will, so here it is.

Have a great weekend!

-J

Obie the Alien Space Cadet

I was totally lost on what to draw the other night. It was another day of my mind being creatively drained by the day job.

I was really lacking inspiration and then I looked over and what was sitting there beside my monitor?...none other than, Obie the Alien Space Cadet. He's a vinyl toy, my friend and LEGO creative, John McCormack produced last year. This is my interpretation of his character as this Emo, affected, too cool for school alien. Hope you like it.

For you toy collecting geeks out there, John's toy is available for sale online courtesy of Devil's Head Productions. Here's a link for pics and more info on Obie.

ToyCyte-Obie the Alien Space Cadet

-J

Making More Prints...

raindrops keep fallin' on my head...
Just letting everyone know that I will be making more prints of this piece from my fall show. It's called Totoro the Protector, inspired but the Miyazaki classic My Neighbor Totoro. If you're interested send me an email. Large 10 x 17 inches for $100US and small 7 x 12 inches for $40US. + shipping.
Archival ink on acid-free artist's paper.

Have a great weekend everybody!

-J

ABCDEFG

Many artists out there have had a friend or family member ask them to illustrate a children's story they wrote. I'm no stranger to this request. The fact that I haven't done it doesn't mean that I didn't feel the stories were great. My sister Tori and a friend named Jordan have penned a couple of nice stories. Fact of the matter is, I just haven't had the time.
This piece is in honor of these requests. I know it has nothing to do with either of those stories mentioned but it has that old-school children's book feel. Hope you enjoy.

As they say on "Sesame Street", this one is sponsored by the letter "C"!

-J

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

So I had the impetus to do one more winter posting before Spring. I hate winter by the way, for those of you that don't know. Snow is pretty cool but the cold...I know, I know, you can't have one without the other. In a perfect world...

Some of you may remember the little holiday short I made that stars the incarnation of my shy niece. I decided to do a background piece of Betty's hood. I might do the Yeti's soon.

Have a great week and let's all do our part to get the economy started...I might even pray.

-J

You can watch the short here.

...with a Ukulele

I had some downtime and put this little animation together.

It's a work in progress. I didn't have time to finish up the lip-synch on the ukulele character but I'm putting it up anyway. If we waited until everything was "finished" before we showed it, well, the world would be a lot less interesting.

-J

Ukulele - animation exercise from monkeyslovebananas on Vimeo

Knitting Factory

Started this the other night and finished it up pretty quick yesterday. I began the piece in B & W but as it evolved, I added color. Hope you like it.

-J

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

The circus is coming to town.

I was thinking of drawing a train and this piece sort of developed over a few hours. I might tweak the values a bit but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Have a great week everyone. I hope this one is just as productive as the last.

-J

Bad Kitty

No News is Good News

Years ago I created this character of a post-apocalyptic newspaper boy and his pals. I guess it's like Kevin Costner's The Postman but cooler and more fun. Well, in my mind anyways. For this post, I decided to do a landscape of his journey.

Walk-a-saurus!

I was sitting in my studio the other day watching people walking their dogs. I was noticing that thing they say about dog owners looking like their dogs...or is it the other way around? Well it seems to be true in my neighborhood. Why dinosaurs?...because they're really cute. At least the hervibore ones are.