Critters at CAM Raleigh



Today, CAM Raleigh had a special teacher preview thingy of the upcoming Rebecca Ward installation.

Above, Rebecca Ward was busy at working taping up the joint. The installation isn't finished but you can tell already it's going to be cool!



A few Critters made an appearance.



I would say that photos don't do the work justice. Sure, it looks cool in the photo but you don't get the feeling of vertigo that it gives in real life :)




Cool how the tape comes right off the wall.



One of my goals is to have an exhibit at CAM Raleigh.. it's only a matter of time.. I'm patient.. sort of...

Till then, you might want to swing by CAM, check it out and pick up a Critter or two :)

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Drawing Ke$ha



Bought three cans of silly string at 5 Below today with the hopes of using it in someway to create art. Here is my attempt to draw a portrait of Ke$ha on the bathroom mirror.

REGION 3 Exhibition Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center



This is me standing next to the piece I entered in the REGION 3 Exhibition at the Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center. Today was the closing reception and they gave out prizes! How very exciting, I know. But I didn't win anything. Sad face ;(



You ever get that feeling that something doesn't quit fit? Like maybe everyone else is wearing shoes and your wearing sneakers? I kinda felt like my piece didn't exactly fit. Most of the other pieces were like, I don't know, real art.




But I'm still happy with my art even if it doesn't fit in. And i finally got a photo of my art with a solid white background.

And then I drove home in a thunderstorm with the top down on my jeep and i got really wet. Which was actually kinda fun.

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The Zonkey Army



This was a test zonkey and if you saw his last adventure, Zonkey in the Pond, then you know how he was designed to float in a pond or pool or fountain or something. And he kinda, sorta does float so I decided to make a few more.. in fact.. a zonkey army!



Here you see phase one of plan, create zonkey army! I gathered enough wood to create 10 zonkeys.




Unfortunately, when i went to attach the heads, things didn't go as swimmingly as i had hoped for. One by one the nails split the heads apart. Very frustrating I can assure you.




In the end only four zonkeys survived phase one. We were losing the war before we even set out to battle.



But 4 is better than none and with the original zonkey, we have a total of 5 zonkeys.

So now there are 5 zonkeys ready to float.

Stay tuned...

The Cup Shelf



Just about done.. at least I think I'm happy with it.

This actually is two photos combined into one. The piece is too large for me to get back far enough to take just one photo.




I resolved the wrong size cup issue by replacing a row of cups with a row of paint cans.




After painting all the cup I ran out of spray paint... so i placed them on the shelf too. I think they are a nice addition, don't you?



The piece is balanced off with two Critters. Yay! Critters! This gator...



And the white tiger which was designed for the early piece that I took apart to make this piece.

A Couple of Cups Can Drive Me Crazy



I was so please with the way this piece turned out that I decided to use a few more cups in my next piece.



However, I didn't plan for the cups when I built the frame... So the cups didn't fit snuggly like I wanted them to.



So I decided to scrap that piece for now and build a new frame with the cup size in mind. This frame was much bigger than the other frame...




So I needed more cups.



So I got more cups and spray painted them fun, funky colors...



But what I didn't realize was the new cups weren't the same size as the old cup. Are you kidding me!

No, I'm not. Look at how the cups on the right come all the way to the top of the frame while the cups on the left leave a gap.



So... I'm going to have to go out and get some of the right size cups and go back to the spraying board.

to be continued...

Zonkey in the Pond Part 1



The idea: see if a wooden zonkey could be built to float.

To test the theory we have created one wooden zonkey and are going to attempt to float it in the turtle pond. If this works it could open the door to a new sort of street art for fountains and coin ponds across the world.

Critter Cups



This is another piece I'm working on working title: Critter Cups.

This isn't how the finished piece will look. I just start by placing pieces on the shelf to decide which stuff works and which ones do not.



The cups in the middle will stay though. and pretty much how they are set up here.



This Critter will stay too but not placed here. I'm going to make him a little swing to sit on.



And then I grabbed a marker and made these critter cups. .... Hmmm, will this be a new trend??

My Next Shelf Will Be a Toy Shelf



And of course we'll need some toys. May I introduce to you, the Zonkey Action Figure complete with interchangeable stripes! How very exciting, I know!



This is the first one. there will probably be about nine action figures total for this first shelf.

Stay tuned...

Dinocow Bookshelf



Almost done with this piece.. I think. I don't know. Each one of these bookshelves proves harder and harder to create.



It started out simple. I like the quirky design. in fact, I like it so much that i thought I should make four of these. Each one exactly the same but turned on a different side.



Then I thought I would put some boxes on the shelf. Try something different. I liked the color scheme but no matter where I placed the boxes I just couldn't get happy with it.



Then I found out Peak City Publishing was gonna publish my book How To Milk A Dinocow so i decide to celebrate by making some Dinocow critters.



The other thing I did differently, or maybe it is just a direction I've been moving towards, is simplifying the colors and the shapes. Previous items on the bookshelves have been painted in a more expressive style. I scrapped type of items and cut out some basic shapes out of wood. It gives this piece a whimsical, almost primary look and feel.

Art-On-The-Move

Zonkeytrope Part 2



So I've partnered up with another artist to create three zoetropes for a public arts project. Read more about it here... So far, two fails.

Fail 1: Raleigh didn't select our Zonkeytropes for their sculpture thingy. They only choose 3 artists and 2 weren't even from NC. Whatever, sour grapes..



Fail 2: I hand drew all these zonkeys and colored them in with marker. Unfortunately, I didn't use permanent marker for the colored parts so when I tried to glue the pictures on, all the colors bled and ran. So now i need to redraw all the images.



The good news is that the zonkeytrope worked. When i spun it around you could see the little zonkey running.

The other good news is that Chapel Hill has a call for public artwork and I'm going to submit the zonkeytropes to them.

Stayed tuned!

Peak City Publishing to publish How To Milk a Dinosaur

If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn't weird enough, imagine how strange it's going to get when Trip Stanley's class starts drinking the milk!



The long awaited (by me at least) acceptance of How To Milk a Dinosaur by a publisher has come. Peak City Publishing will be printing and distributing the book but it's up to Trip to figure out how to de-dinosaur his classmates and keep from getting kicked out of school, all while preventing his mom from discovering the stegcowsaurus in his bedroom.



Along with our new publisher comes our new illustrator. I'm working with (trying to convince) former Apex HS student and current SCAD animation major Abby to come on board. She has already created a few sketches (as seen above).

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