3rd knock at the door.

Hey fine feathered and fecund friendlies:

That's enough of that.

Are you in the Washington, DC area? Can you make it to the DC area? If the answer is yes, or you just discovered astral projection, come see art by Lisa Grabenstetter and myself at SOVA - Espresso & Wine on Sat. May 8th. The opening night of 3rd knock on the door. is bound to be a strange evening with music by Baltimore plucker James Von Lenz and fine foods & drinks available from the bar 'til 2 am.

From 6:00-9:00pm will run the opening, with a DJ set following for the rest of the evening. Artwork will be up for 6 weeks if you happen to miss it and be in the neighborhood later.  The new H St NE corridor is a funky place just by the Palace of Wonders and the Rock & Roll Hotel. It's a good place to spend a Saturday night, if I say so myself.

Here's the event page on Facebook.
And here it is on myspace.

May 8th at SOVA come join a strange crowd where Perchta and the Salamander envoys mingle over tea, street peddlers call out cantrips, and bluegrass pickers discuss Hegel with Krampus.

3rd knock on the door is the opening night of SOVA's newest exhibition featuring DC area illustrators Lisa Grabenstetter and Evan Jensen. Accompanying music provided from 6-9:00 by Baltimore musician James von Lenz, while drinks, food & espresso will be available from the bar.

Come early and stay late! SOVA has a chill vibe and there'll be a DJ set from 9:00 onward with the bar remaining open 'til 2.

SOVA - Espresso & Wine
1359 H Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 397-3080‎

Tossed About

It's been a month since I last posted! ...and that is explicitly not acceptable. I promise to at least make an attempt to blog regularly and without the gaps I've thus far been leaving in between.

Today I spent 5 hours STRUCTURING AN AI FILE. Seriously. That's what I did for the dayjob today. Don't say I never told you about it. : ) ...Not to say I don't do more fun stuff for the dayjob, but that was today's requirement.

In the first moments after dropping Lisa off at work, and buckling down to the drastic and infinitesimally precise songs of Adobe Illustrator, I was privy to a lovely article on PhysOrg.com where I learned about the most amazing conjoining of awesome things next to the International Squid Calculator. Mushrooms. Mushrooms and LIGHTNING. Apparently, electricity shooting along the surface of the earth will make fungus multiply. Once again, science gives credence to the folk wisdom garnered through long observation. Not always, of course, but it happens often enough that I just wish scientists would set out to test as much folklore as possible for demonstrable results.

Some people might recall I mentioned a set of deadlines coming up over the the next 3 months! I can tell you all what they are now, and show you some sketches, though not specify which were chosen for final artwork in a few cases (NDAs are common in this business). The first project is the soon-to-be-delivered woodcut ex libris for a fellow down in Virginia, final sketch below:

The second project is for StarShipSofa Stories, a print collection by the fine folks at StarShipSofa Podcasts. The sketches I submitted below are for an interior illustration (hence, b&w) to accompany Tides by Tobias Buckell. I really enjoy Tobias' work, and this short story is a really cool one that I hope you all enjoy as much as I did when I read it. Not sure when this comes out in print.

Sadly, I missed the deadline for this latest ArtOrder challenge, though here are the sketches I had done for it (before I got swamped with stuff and couldn't do the final art). Oddly enough, in composing a wolf/rat/snake, I didn't realize how much Eastern dragons are based on similar animals, and it was turning out too close to one of those. So no wolf/rat/snake for me. A mantis shrimp/wombat was another idea but I couldn't get it to look right. In the end, I was going to go with the fungitoad in some sort of guard-dog position at a town gate/city docks, and I'll probably do that myself when I have a moment, since I really l like the image. : ) The small child gestures are from a day spent downtown watching people frolic in the sun.

And that's what I've been up to. I have more for you later, but this is enough for today, methinks. : ) Enjoy your evening! It's raining nicely here!