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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Region 3 Exhibition


This is the piece I'm going to enter in the Region 3 Exhibition at the Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center. It's not even done and to be honest, this piece has been a bear. Nothing i've done here came out how I expected.. but i keep plugging away hoping I will like the final version.



The one thing I like about this piece is that the colors of the gear create an optical illusion, tricking your eyes into thinking it is moving.



I've been working with new colors and shapes.. sort of playing with the gadget concept. It even works... sort of.. when you turn the turny thingy the rope moves along the pulleys raising the paint can.



The exhibit will run from June 26th thru July 24th.

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New Batch of Critters Ready for the Road



A new batch of Critters are ready to travel. So far this summer we've sent Critters to California, Florida, Chicago, New York, Virginia, New Jersey and Atlanta.

If you'd like to be part of the fun, check out the Critters on Zonkey Street Facebook Page.









Critters on Zonkey Street Facebook Page.

The Pollock Paint Can Shelf: Part 2



I had this idea to create a piece inspired by Pollock's paint cans. I came across a great photo of Pollock's studio showing two shelves loaded with paint cans. I set out to recreate the idea.



Well, nothing I did looked right. The long shelf was too long. The paint cans wouldn't balance (both artistically speaking and literally!). Finally I decided to cut the whole thing up.



I reassembled the shelf into something that looks nothing like Pollock's shelf but looks very much like ian sands :)

Then, Alex and I took some time arranging and rearranging the paint cans till it looked and felt right. This peice is still in the works but I'm a lot happier with the way it is coming along.



Since the original piece was six feet long and full of cans, there were a few left over. I think I will create another paint can shelf with the leftovers.



This is a shot of the shelf before I cut it up. There were a lot more paint cans that are missing from this pic but you can get the idea.

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ZonkeyTrope



This is a new public arts project I'm working on with fellow artist Brandon Leffel to submit to the City of Raleigh: Art on City Plaza 2011. I wanted to create an interactive piece that people could not only view but touch and activate.

I came up with the idea of creating three zoetropes but of course, I've never built one. That's where Brandon came in. He built the three you see above.



Next step, painting them. I wanted them to be colorful but not too much cause I didn't want them to look like playground equipment. I think my color choices are just the right amount of fun.



The last step will be to add the animation that makes a zoetrope a zoetrope. I've choose the classic running zonkey. I drew these by hand and then scanned them into PhotoShop to make sure the animation looked decent.

I'm pretty happy with this one. Now I have to figure out how to get the art drawings into the art sculptures...

Stay tuned!

Zonkey



I just did an image search for zonkey and to my surprise none of my images came up. What's up with that? I've drawn zonkeys on boxes, billboards and books. I think I should at least have one zonkey image come up when someone searches zonkey.

So in order to help google image search out, I have created this zonkey post with just a few of my many zonkey images. And just to make sure, i'm going to write zonkey a lot!



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And don't forget Zonkey Street and the Critters on Zonkey Street!