Garden Inspiration

Spring is here finally after a difficult winter. We burned piles of old dead branches last night and the grass is freshly mowed, so now all the new blooms are really popping. All these spring colors are inspiring me and making me feel very happy.

Under the Sea

For the last year when I sit down to paint, I've been painting fish and underwater scenes. My fishies are kind of cartoony and cute.

Wedding Cake

When my friends Lorie and John decided to get hitched, we all decided to throw together a party for them (we had a week's notice). I made this little cake. I'm no pastry chef, but I did have fun making it and it was delicious. Photo courtesy of Geoff Smith.

American Bar

I love a nice little cocktail every now and again, and I like the book by Charles Schumann called American Bar. It has a classic design with the best illustrations by Günter Mattei.

Beautiful Things

I wish I knew what kind of flowers these are. I've had them for about six months and they've dried in the most beautiful way.

Sneaker Pimp

These shoes were made for me by my friends and colleagues in DC, as a going-away gift. They have a prized spot in my studio.

Inspiration

The door to my studio (which is also the office and closet!) is plastered with various postcards I've collected through the years.

Easter Eggs

These are eggs I painted for the big Eggstravaganza at Bob Prince's house back in 2003. I thought it would be nice to do some this year and so far I've only blowing the yolks out of two eggs. They should be ready in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Derby Brats

Doing work for the Seattle Derby Brats is pretty much the best thing ever. I became a fan of roller derby when I lived in DC and went to my first bout in Baltimore. I was hooked. When Jerry and I returned to Seattle, we started going to the Rat City Roller Girl bouts. Then, out of the blue one day, Chris Hunter of the Seattle Derby Brats contacted me about redesigning their league logo.

This great video explains the game and captures the spirit of roller derby.

La Moustache de Fer - Part Two

This is one of the first sketches I've done. Looks pretty cool. I think the legs need to either be beefier, or just exaggerate everything.

La Moustache de Fer - Part One

My latest project is a commissioned painting for my friend Adam, who asked me to create a painting for his girlfriend's birthday. The only criteria was that it include a mustache. So after a few conversations, we settled on a circus strongman as the subject of the painting. I've been doing some research on historical strongmen such as Ivan Poddubn and Louis Cyr. They are such great subjects, I might end up doing a series of strongman paintings.

Late Bloomer

Here it is 2009 and I am finally writing a blog. I've been a longtime Flickr junkie, a Facebooker (I have yet to Tweet) and I have had a web site since 1996-ish. I wrote my first web page in 1994! But I've never had much reason to blog. Lately I have been working on a lot of different projects and I thought it would be nice for the people I know to go behind the scenes with my creative endeavors, to see how they form, and what influences me. So that is the idea behind this blog. Enjoy!