A 3-Year Update

I'm told artists and other creative professionals should spend a significant portion of their time on professional practice, things like emailing, photographing work, applying to shows, and flossing. I struggle to prioritize my studio time as it is and so this sometimes seems daunting to me. No matter, as I've learned: no one else will do it for you. If I wait on the world to find my work and tell me how great it is,  I will be waiting a long time. And so world, I am here to practice the time-honored practice of shameless self-promotion. 

Below is a three-year update of recent exhibitions, studio work, and my life in between. And here you can browse a PDF catalog of my smaller work for sale. 

justice and love

bell hooks is speaking on our campus tonight with her good friend Gloria Steinem. I'm excited to hear what they have to say. And to see if the much anticipated anti-abortion protesters materialize. I was hired to make some illustrations for the bell hooks residency week. Below is my favorite of the bunch: hooks as Yoda. She is often quoted saying, "Without justice there can be no love." and that struck me as a Yoda-like koan. Karlyn Crowley, head of the Cassandra Voss Center that's bringing hooks to campus, unpacked it better than I can here and so I direct you to her article.

Start Anew

2015! Blistering winds and sub-zero temperatures. Hark, the new year arrives full of potential, promise, and (today) a threatening chill. Behold, the days grow longer. Or so we are told. The lake freezes and thaws and the ice clanks together and freezes again.

New sketchbook freshly sprung from the binding press that sits behind it. 

And in the spirit of new beginnings here is a sketchbook I bound for my Global Drawing Circle, an international collaborative sketchbook conversation facilitated by the fine folks of International Drawing & Cognition Research, "an interdisciplinary research network" who "host drawing symposia, foster collaboration, publish on drawing and cognition, and run educational courses and workshops."

Each member of our circle has started a sketchbook and we will dutifully mail them to one another each month. The idea is to be in conversation with one another through the drawing. It is a different feel than inhabiting one's own personal sketchbook. Here's to welcoming others into our process and the serendipity of collaboration.

drawing bell hooks

A recently completed card and illustration of bell hooks to promote her upcoming residency at the Cassandra Voss Center at St. Norbert College. The clients, Karlyn Crowley and Anna Czarnik-Neimeyer who run the Cassandra Voss Center, wanted the image to tie into the theme of this year's programming which focuses on "heroes, power, comics, and identity." They asked for a loose drawing of hooks: cartoony, but recognizable.

I drew hooks several times and struggled to be faithful to her likeness without getting too fussy in the drawing. I also kept exaggerating her cheekbones to the point of making her seem gaunt.

It's been nice to do illustration work lately. The parameters of a commissioned drawing are like a puzzle with several possible solutions. In this case Karlyn and Anna had a strong vision and gave great (read: very specific) feedback. In sussing out different visual options I also drew hooks as Yoda, but worried that the image wasn't flattering enough. Karlyn and Anna took a print out of that image to the National Women's Studies Association annual conference to show hooks and reported back that she liked it. Woo-hoo!

Art at Amery Food Hub

Photos from our trip to install Who Shares Wins: Kate Casanova + Katie Ries at the Amery Food Hub. We got to stay the night in Hungry Turtle's warm farm house and woke to more thin snow on the fields and roads.

Inside the Amery Food Hub's center space

Land Scout sash, Guide Book, and field books

Bobby Maher carefully installing seed balls for What You've Got

Economy of the Amateur Ink desk and drawings

What You've Got 

from the Hungry Turtle farm house porch

Finish Strong

Now is the time in the semester when I start thinking to myself and saying out loud to my students: finish strong.  By which I mean ground yourself, take a deep breath, and do the work. Do not burn out, but sustain yourself with rest, food, good people, and a disciplined practice. Amen.

Poetic GIFs by Daniel Maw

Daniel Maw is an artist, teacher, and cartoonist. I first saw his work when we were in grad school together, but stumbled back across it recently and was struck by his GIFs. Linked here is one I liked from the Red's Barbershop series. They are brief and poetic.

 Below, a self-portrait of the artist at the gym: