NESSUS SHIRT COMPANY

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.26.12

2012-01-26T20:54:00.003-05:00

Blandess II (grandson of Blandess I), Andric the Bull, Benigh St. Lavender and Pallidess the Many-Wived.

I seemed to have uncorked something today. Well, not uncorked so much as just remembered how to work. Let's see if it lasts. It's been a rough December/January.

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.22.12

2012-01-22T21:35:00.003-05:00

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.21.12

2012-01-22T09:28:00.002-05:00

Dullest Marmorea, eldest daughter of Frizzema and Blandess I.

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.20.12

2012-01-20T21:19:00.004-05:00

Viscount Pershing Klutts (aka P.E. Klutts) and Lady Rabidia na Mossopo, parents of the Queen of Mayonnaise Sandwiches.

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.19.12

2012-01-19T17:57:00.004-05:00

Frizzema von Slanky, Queen of Mayonnaise Sandwiches.

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.18.12

2012-01-19T08:58:00.001-05:00

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.16.12

2012-01-17T11:49:00.001-05:00

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.15.12

2012-01-15T21:12:00.005-05:00

Official motto of the kingdom: My Ass Landed In Butter. (I wish I could get this phrase accurately translated into Latin.)

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.14.12

2012-01-14T20:08:00.003-05:00

I had to start over again. The color was too much. I see things better these days in black and white. So simple ink with a wash here and there.

Where the ideas come from . . .

2012-01-11T14:11:00.003-05:00

Quick post about my thought process. It's been almost two years since I started piecing together Refractoria through maps. For the first time--these maps allowed me to use language in my drawings. I've always had a love for language--I bestow nicknames on just about everyone and everything (though I invariably name first the things that disturb and disappoint long before I name things I relish and love--my love of language seems to be rooted in pettiness and spite, satire and ridicule. Go figure.) As a result, I frequently invent my own short, descriptive/poetic phrases. I copy many other phrases from books and steal even more from poems. I have endless lists of supreme phrases that I want to use someday. These map drawings have cracked the door on using language.

I mentioned recently my trip to the Met to see an entire show almost entirely dedicated to pettiness and spite, satire and ridicule--The Infinite Jest. (I'm going to see it again after the American painting wing opens and before the show closes.) I was electrified by the work in these shows--I wrote down the names of most of the artists and immediately started trying to purchase books by them. With my meager funds, I was able to snatch two out-of-print Dover publications via the internet--one on George Cruickshank and one on William Hogarth. I spent several afternoons simply sitting on Ol' Turq here in the studio, sipping on beer and studying at length every plate in both books. In one of Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode etchings (see the entire thing here), I saw one tiny detail that got my mind rolling. It was a family tree of William Duke of Normandy (the detail image to the left). I figured I could do something similar but based on one of the characters from Refractoria, and it would allow me to start introducing figures again in the work while still allowing for the use of language for labels, descriptions, brief histories, etc.

The first thought, of course, was a family tree for Vanessa I, First Queen of the Vast Nonsense. Enough already—why don't you give her a rest, for fuck sake? I kindly thought to myself. Then, of course, my alter ego presented himself: Popular Charlie. Too easy; give him a rest as well. Then Greencandle, an undefined archmage/astronomer who has been hanging out in my peripheral imagination for a few years. No, still not right. So, of course, it had to be the King of Smothered Rainbows. He's another character I've been kicking around (and, in many ways, simply kicking) in my head for about a year. A fictional customer primed for pettiness and spite, satire and ridicule.

The pose of the KoSR is based on Durer's painting of St. Eustace. I'm not sure how the rest of the drawing is going to unfold. That unknowing is causing a fair amount of anxiety right now. So I've spend the morning and early afternoon culling language from my sketchbooks and various other books, trying to arrive at titles, names of progeny--daughters, sons, wives, etc. Some kind of bullshit history that covers a half-dozen lifetimes.

We'll see.

King of Smothered Rainbows 01.10.12

2012-01-10T23:22:00.004-05:00

Blandess I, First King of Smothered Rainbows. He has feet of glass.

Two drawings going at once. It's a rarity.

662 Driggs: Henry Miller

2011-12-27T12:04:00.002-05:00

I'm having a hard time in the studio these days. Part of it is simple burnout from coming in 7 days a week for weeks at a time since Sept 2010. Part of it is a simple dislike of the drawing I'm working on--the Fastness drawing is a map in the classic AD&D graph paper manner and it doesn't offer a lot of opportunities for DRAWING in the way I like to draw--stuff, things, shapes, forms, etc.

To soften the tedium of the Fastness drawing, I've been trying to fill a few hours before studio time with a walk/bike ride around Williamsburg. It's a new neighborhood so there is plenty for me to figure out. I've long been a Henry Miller fan(atic) and this summer I just finished rereading Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. Inevitably, he mentions his childhood in Williamsburg. So I did a little internet research and quickly found that Miller lived at 662 Driggs . . . which is maybe a ten minute walk from here. I shot this photo yesterday on the way to the studio. I think it nicely compliments my boring photo of one of Max Beckmann's home here in the city near Union Square back in 2009. I found the address for Miles Davis's townhome on the UWS . . . I'll probably get up there sometime in the next few weeks to snap a boring photo of that as well. (Odd, somehow, that three of my biggest influences in my 20s lived here in the city--Miller, Miles and Beckmann. Well, probably not that odd.)

In searching the internet, I found this fan-blog on Miller--the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company--with a informative post on 662 Driggs.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and some smoke

2011-12-25T12:56:00.004-05:00

Thursday was a decent day for this time of year--partly sunny, mid-to-upper 50s. Positively balmy. I felt this might be the last decent day of the year (if not the season) so I took a bike ride I've been eyeballing since I moved here in 2004. Now that I live in Williamsburg, the whole enterprise was a little easier--from here to Prospect Park, through the park to Ocean Parkway, Ocean Parkway down to Coney Island and then up and around Shore Parkway Greenway and back through Sunset Park to Prospect Park again and then home. So I did it. Good ride, much easier than I anticipated--I didn't have to cuss out a driver once and I didn't get disoriented at all.

The Shore Parkway Greenway runs along the western edge of Brooklyn and offers a great view of the Verrazno Bridge and Staten Island. I could see this enormous plume of smoking rising up from what looked to be S.I. but--as I found out eventually--I was rising from somewhere in Jersey. It turns out there was a 7 alarm warehouse fire in Elizabeth.

After the ride, I got some tacos and a few beers and went to the studio where I promptly fell asleep on the couch.

Fastness 12.23.11

2011-12-22T23:21:00.001-05:00

Fastness of the Pleasureless Father

2011-12-17T21:17:00.002-05:00

Studio-made graph paper

2011-12-11T09:49:00.002-05:00

Not yet sure what I'm going to do with this.

Out of the studio

2011-12-07T02:00:00.003-05:00

The celestial map is finished--I cut the drawing off the board tonight. So that's a photo of it there hanging on the studio wall.

I spent the afternoon at the Met today checking out (for a second time) the Infinite Jest show. I remember a lot of my instructors from undergrad trying to push these guys off on me--Daumier, Cruickshank, Rowlandson, Nast--and I just couldn’t get into them. For some of those artists, it was a technical thing (they made marks in a way that didn’t appeal to me and what I considered "good" at the time) but trying to get the satirical content of an etching from King George the Third’s policy toward the French in 1773 . . . I just couldn’t get behind it. R. Crumb mentioned Thomas Nast in an article I read a few years back and I started looking him up on the internet--he was a caricaturist from the mid/late 19th C. here in the city, busted the balls of the Tammany Hall guys--and I just loved the shit out his drawings. (In fact, I stole the Ragbaby constellation from Nast (looky here) for the celestial map.) Amazing draughtsman. And that Crumb connection opened the door for me on these guys.

This show today . . . wow. Blooey. I understood the meanness, the cleverness, the spite, the cutting wit, and the contempt in a way that I never had before. So much delivered with something as simple as a drawing and some text. I think that--all of what I just mentioned--has been missing from my work. I mean, the intention to put it in there has always been present but I couldn’t get it into the drawings. Part of it is just the generic “illustrator-y” inclination I have when I start drawing (not wanting to get all gonzo, Ralph Steadman-y because that’s boring to me and wanting everything to have a certain reality and correctness in a way that’s pleasing to me) . . . and part of it was not really knowing how to jam all of that misanthropy in there. Allowing text into the drawings helped loosen those knots somewhat but now I can see (in some vague sense) what direction I should take. I’m not sure how I’m going to get this poison into the drawings--the text in the drawings now is still way more biting than the drawings themselves--but I am confident about knowing what I need to do.

Posted are a few photos I took while in the exhibit.

Celestial Map 12.05.11 (Finished)

2011-12-05T08:59:00.003-05:00

Well, that didn't quite go as planned. I wanted to "age" the drawing a bit, make it look used. I succeeded in aging it (with a mixture of tea, ink wash and watercolor) but the ink bled on the lettering for the last four or five items. It's supposed to be waterproof but the ink was applied rather heavily and I think it needs time to cure or something. All of the other lettering was fine. Kind of annoying.

Not sure what I'm going to do next. I'm taking the week off to visit some museums and the studios of friends.

Celestial Map 12.02.11: Two more great astronomers

2011-12-02T23:09:00.003-05:00

Silas II Chicagous (great-grandnephew of Silas I) and Popular Charlie (of) Sociopathopolis (aka the City of Sociopaths.)

I might be finished with the drawing this weekend. Wow.

Celestial Map 12.01.11: Silas Chicagous (a renowned astronomer) and the Sweetgin Nebula

2011-12-01T21:32:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.30.11: Mister Misericorde (a newly discovered constellation)

2011-11-30T22:11:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.28.11: The Inconsolable Pole, etc.

2011-11-28T22:44:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.27.11: The Smoke of Genius

2011-11-28T00:31:00.005-05:00

Finished the ropy twist of the Smoke of Genius which is Refractoria's equivalent of the Milky Way.

Celestial Map 11.24.11 (The Beagle)

2011-11-24T08:49:00.002-05:00

A new constellation was suddenly discovered on Thanksgiving Eve: The Beagle (aka Queen Thelonious)

Celestial Map 11.23.11

2011-11-23T08:47:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.19.11

2011-11-19T18:56:00.001-05:00

Celestial Map 11.13.11

2011-11-13T22:05:00.003-05:00

Celestial Map 11.12.11

2011-11-12T17:25:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.09.11

2011-11-10T12:59:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.07.11

2011-11-07T22:49:00.002-05:00

Celestial Map 11.06.11

2011-11-06T19:41:00.003-05:00

Slogging along through this one. Trying to add at least two constellations a day. Today: King Ixat and the Donkeymeiers.

Celestial Map 11.04.11: the Refractorian Zodiac

2011-11-04T22:19:00.001-04:00

Celestial Map 11.03.11

2011-11-04T00:26:00.003-04:00

My feet are dragging a bit with this drawing. I've never extensively reworked the images as I'm doing now--I've never liked redrawing a drawing once I consider it complete. (Which, of course, is why I never became an illustrator or graphic novelist--too much planning, too many thumbnails and composition studies, etc.) I like to solve a drawing as it goes along. Fortunately, the composition of this drawing might be enough to keep me motivated.

Also, I'm now realizing that I created entirely too many constellations. Some will get the boot and not land in the final drawing.

Celestial Map 11.01.2011

2011-11-01T22:05:00.002-04:00

Celestial Map 10.31.2011

2011-10-31T22:13:00.004-04:00

Constellation #28: Gaitus

2011-10-27T15:53:00.002-04:00

Constellation #27: The Rabbi's Daughter

2011-10-21T21:17:00.002-04:00

Constellation #26: The Sedentary Twins

2011-10-20T18:26:00.002-04:00

Constellation #25: Ornella Muti

2011-10-19T18:26:00.002-04:00

Constellation #24: Boss of the Red Soil Boys

2011-10-18T19:12:00.002-04:00

Constellation #23: The Titanothere

2011-10-17T18:42:00.002-04:00

Constellation #22: Bal-Mogoral the Carnivorous Ape

2011-10-15T18:34:00.002-04:00

Constellation #21: Taurimur the Boar

2011-10-11T20:50:00.002-04:00

Constellation #20: Salamadra the Harpy

2011-10-11T20:36:00.001-04:00

Constellation #19: False Cadine (and the Art vs. Design Star)

2011-10-10T19:07:00.002-04:00

Constellation #18: The Beholder (and the Greg Irons Star))

2011-10-09T19:16:00.004-04:00

Constellation #17: The Placoderm (The Failure Stars and the Earning Potential Cluster)

2011-10-08T21:08:00.005-04:00

Constellation #16: The Brachiopods (Meristina, Eospirifer and Pentamerus)

2011-10-07T20:17:00.003-04:00

Constellation #15: The Priapate

2011-10-05T18:52:00.002-04:00

Constellation #14: The Colorless Glove (Narhwold's Glove)

2011-10-03T14:50:00.002-04:00

Constellation #13: Blackstar (John)

2011-10-02T22:26:00.002-04:00

Blackstar (comma) John.

Constellation #12: Vehement the Parasitic Crab and King Ixat

2011-09-30T21:17:00.004-04:00

Constellation #11: Chas the Pleasureless Father (aka The Hunter)

2011-09-28T19:23:00.002-04:00

Constellation #10: Dreamy Megan and the Amethyst Pigeons

2011-09-26T20:34:00.003-04:00

Dreamy Megan and the Amethyst Pigeons.

Constellation #9: Nessus

2011-09-26T20:03:00.003-04:00

Nessus the Centaur and the Cloak of Poisonousness

Constellation #8: Bigavi the Imperial Measurer (and the Sumptuate Star)

2011-09-24T20:16:00.005-04:00

Patron god of the Thicknesses Guild.

Constellation #7: The Trilobites (Phacops and Asaphus) and the Brittle Star Nebula

2011-09-22T19:41:00.006-04:00

Constellation #6: Inphadeus (and the Dung Stars)

2011-09-20T14:58:00.004-04:00

Another one of the 12 Refractorian zodiac signs. It's a grease sign.

Constellation #5: The Mediocre Express

2011-09-18T15:58:00.004-04:00

The "smoke of genius" emanating from the stack is Refractoria's equivalent of the Milky Way.

Constellation #4: The Donkeymeiers

2011-09-14T18:48:00.003-04:00

Constellation #3: Ragbaby

2011-09-13T17:01:00.004-04:00

The first of the 12 Refractorian zodiac signs. It's a fatty sign.

Celestial Map 09.12.2011

2011-09-12T23:30:00.003-04:00

Compasses arrived today. They're not as effective as I wanted but they'll manage.

Constellation #2: The Unfuckable Pixie (and the Book of Grievances)

2011-09-11T20:27:00.005-04:00

The Unfuckable Pixie and a shot of two constellation drawings side by side.

Constellation #1: El Cunto and the Homonculous

2011-09-10T18:05:00.007-04:00

The plan is to do a series of these smaller drawings of the constellations and then place them on the larger map via scanning, enlarging in photoshop, tracing and then transferring them via rubbing. (I am still waiting for my large-sized compasses to arrive so I can draw the circular aspects of the map.)

I'm basing this drawing very much on Durer's celestial map. It won't quite look like it but it will look a lot like it--I'm not going to deny it. I won't. Don't try to stop me. I'm NOT doing to deny the hell out of it. Whatever.

The constellations drawings will be small, approximately 6.25 x 9.25. Ink on paper. (And I may lose interest in making them after two or three and just jump straight into making the map once the compasses arrive.) Today, I experimented with the hacky trick of putting a wash of tea (spearmint green tea to be specific) on the paper to age-it-up somewhat. I could've easily done the same thing with watercolor but was too lazy to get the trays out.

Celestial Map Sketches

2011-09-08T20:17:00.004-04:00

Tentative names for the constellations from top to bottom: Ragbaby, The Idiots, Imperial Measurer, Gravitar the Man-Ape, El Cunto and Alsip the Tentacular. (Some--or all--of these might not show up in the final map. Just working on some ideas.)

Celestial Map 09.06.2011

2011-09-07T00:08:00.002-04:00

Texas Fires from a Plane

2011-09-07T00:06:00.001-04:00

Chicago 08.29.11: Finished

2011-08-29T01:51:00.002-04:00

Short of paying plenty of $$$ to get this drawing restored, it's done.

New studio set up

2011-08-26T12:06:00.003-04:00

After seven years in one spot, I'm moving out of this apartment and the end of August. With the exception of my childhood home, this is the longest I've lived in one spot. I moved my turquoise couch and the three bookcases my grandfather built into the studio along with my one (1) houseplant. I repainted the studio floor at Teddy's prompting. It's very homey in there. Drop in and nap on the couch.

This is what the studio looked like about five years ago when we first moved in. Now I can only hope for a flood or some kind of fire to take this away from me. Life: you're the best, pal.

Chicago 08.23.11

2011-08-24T08:27:00.003-04:00

I guess this drawing is finished.

Chicago 08.16.11

2011-08-21T23:17:00.004-04:00

I numbered and lettered all of the notable buildings in Chicago. I'm close to the end but I'm losing steam, people and I have to move out of this apartment at the end of the month.

Just back from four days in Indiana where tie-dye is still a fashion option. Went to the Indiana State Fair for corn dogs (1), a lemon shake up (1) and fried green tomatoes (1 serving).

Chicago 08.13.11

2011-08-13T23:26:00.010-04:00

After five rounds of revisions with a superb editor, I now present the 100% fictional history of Chicago in 551 words. I hand lettered the whole thing today and . . . uh, boy are my hands tired . . . ?

Originally built in a coastal marsh and named after the sluggish yellow river it once abutted and now enfolds, Chicago was established in recent pre-history as a frontier outpost. During its earliest days, this outpost was a meeting place for the sea-blooded traders of the Saltwater Skull and the agrarian, matriarchal clans from inland territories to east and south of Chicago. In time, a modest hamlet grew around the trading outpost, and that hamlet grew quickly into a village.

The remarkably rapid transition of this swampy outpost to a throbbing, concrete-swaddled metropolis was carefully orchestrated by the kind hands of a cabal of thirteen priests, collectively known as the Druids of Chicagoland; these druids, led by Caiphus Algannor (pictured left), guided the populace from a thickly-wooded, sacred grove atop Cricket Hill, the highest point overlooking the growing city-state. All were welcome in this grove of ancient beech trees, which served as a temple, meeting place, and a celebratory hall.

For hundreds of years, Chicago and its ruling druids, believed to be direct descendants of the original thirteen, enjoyed great peace and prosperity. But another transition, darker and more insidious, was occurring nearby with the once-peaceful clans from the lands to the east and south. As generation succeeded generation, the principles of hard labor and neighbor nurturing egalitarianism were replaced by hierarchical violence and the hideous cancer of greed. After decades of infighting, a singular, brutal ruler--Empress Vanessa I, the Queen of Ropes--united all of the inland clans and the ruthless tentacular gynarchy of the Vast Nonsense was born.

In the spring of 407 Common Refractorian Year (CRY)--with the Chicagoland Druids unable to amass a matching military might--the now-united gynarchs marched unchallenged into Chicago. In a cruel display of strength, the invaders ignited the sacred grove on Cricket Hill, the voracious fire raging for three consecutive days and nights. As the last sturdy trunk collapsed in a mound of ash, Empress Vanessa I intoned a brief, eldritch incantation, and suddenly a massive chasm rent the heart of the city. Countless homes, shops and citizens were lost to this catastrophic event. Taking advantage of the utterly demoralized populace, the Nonsensicals immediately established heavily-armed garrisons around the city. Dominion established, Vanessa had herself lowered alone into the abyss and continued her rule from the unknown depths, communicating through terse missives tied to the legs of tattered red-winged blackbirds. In honor of their now-cloistered leader, the Nonsensicals named this great, gaping gash the Vanessa Perplexity.

Then, for nearly 30 years, the Vast Nonsense used Chicago as a military staging ground, launching repeated invasions into the lands ringing the inland seas to theWest. The allied powers of this region--the Cannonball Matriarch, the Hold of Dreamy Megan, the Estate, the Sisterhood of the Bruisers, and the Nine Dreamt Cities, consistently repulsed these attacks though at great cost. As a result of this stalemate, the Nonsense has reigned in all westward territorial expansion. Their legions were redeployed to the extensive eastern holdings. Only a modest though potent garrison remained within Chicago.

At the time of this map’s creation (434 CRY), the Druids are still ostensibly paying fealty to Vanessa I, Vanished Empress of the Vast Nonsense; however, consistent and systematic guerilla attacks against the remaining troops lead most to believe that Vanessa's hegemony was not at all secure.

Chicago 08.11.11

2011-08-12T01:49:00.004-04:00

Angriest drawing ever. Chicago, you done riled me. Now you're gonna pay.

Chicago 08.05.11

2011-08-06T10:14:00.005-04:00

The lakefront is finished. I'm randomly jumping around the street grid--I'll pick a few blocks to work on, complete them and then move to different section of the map; as a result, I've lost all track of what I've photographed and posted here. Everything is kind of a mush with this drawing.

I've written a brief, utterly fictional history of Chicago to accompany this utterly fictional (but mostly autobiographical) map of Chicago. This history deals with the founding of Chicago, it's early development and events leading up to the invasion of Chicago by legions of the Vast Nonsense AND the creation of the Vanessa Perplexity. The plan--once this history gets proofread by someone with more grammatical-smarts than me--is to hand-letter the history in the part of the blank space at the bottom of the drawing. The rest of that blank space will then be filled by a an enumerated list of the notable buildings of Chicago (a la the Indianapolis map.)

(The little fella at the bottom of the map is Caiphus Algannor, the leader of the original 13 Druids of Chicagoland.)

I can see the end of this drawing. I have to start thinking about the next thing.

Studio Roof 07.30.11

2011-08-06T10:08:00.002-04:00

Chicago 07.25.11

2011-07-25T22:31:00.004-04:00

Plaza of the Gods, These Miserable Breakfasts Will Kill Me, the Tenderproof Wood, Satiny Black Coykendalls, Witch-Caught at the Wrong Time(s), Pool of Hate and so on.

Chicago 07.17.11

2011-07-18T10:11:00.002-04:00

There you go. I filled in the Saltwater Skull and added a few sea monsters. A decent afternoon's work. Still plenty of tiny detail to finished. Tiny. Wee.

Chicago 07.16.11

2011-07-17T00:23:00.004-04:00

I've been doing a ton of work on this drawing . . . but it's all so tiny that it almost isn't worth recording from day to day. So. I've completed the border and about 75% of the heading. I'll probably drop the Saltwater Skull in next. Sea monsters will be included.

Chicago 07.11.11

2011-07-11T22:58:00.002-04:00

Chicago 07.08.11

2011-07-08T18:58:00.005-04:00

The Redolence of Seraphim. My Hands Hurt When You're Not Around. Memorial to Rilke the Abandoned Dog. A Fountain Dedicated to An Abandoned Husband. Etc.

Chicago 07.07.11

2011-07-07T22:38:00.005-04:00

So I think the Vanessa Perplexity is finished. There are some gems in there, I tell you.

"My Drinking Will Teach the Butterflies a Lesson" and "The Insomnia Lawn" are my favorites for the day.

Chicago 07.05.11

2011-07-05T22:37:00.003-04:00

This is my 901rst post, incidentally.

Chicago 07.04.11

2011-07-04T19:46:00.002-04:00

I'll startnaming streets and enumerating buildings tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. This is a tedious drawing and I'm two months in.

Chicago 07.03.11

2011-07-03T20:16:00.002-04:00

Chicago 07.01.11

2011-07-01T20:29:00.001-04:00

Chicago 06.30.11

2011-07-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

The Vanessa Perplexity--aka The Ruiner of Chicago--is finished. Now on to the rest of the map.

Chicago 06.28.11

2011-06-28T02:14:00.005-04:00

I've been in the studio working but very slowly on a very tedious part of the Chicago map: the Vanessa Perplexity. The daily progress shots haven't been working posting. I've also been playing a Wii game. Okami. It's kind of insane in a good way.

Chicago 06.18.11

2011-06-18T19:32:00.002-04:00

Chicago 06.17.11

2011-06-17T22:34:00.002-04:00

Chicago 06.16.11

2011-06-17T01:13:00.001-04:00

Chicago 06.14.11

2011-06-14T23:20:00.002-04:00

Chicago 06.12.11

2011-06-12T22:22:00.001-04:00

Chicago 06.10.11

2011-06-10T22:15:00.003-04:00

Okay. I could only stay away from the studio for three days.

Chicago 06.05.11

2011-06-05T21:14:00.003-04:00

Okay. So all of the buildings are inked. I think I'm going to take a break from the studio for a week or so. I've been in there on an almost daily basis since early September. I can't imagine I've missed more than ten days in the last nine months. In addition, I need to ponder a bit on how to approach all of this Chicago information. Also, all of this job stuff is burbling up.

Chicago 06.04.11

2011-06-04T23:04:00.002-04:00

What does train does the King of Smothered Rainbows ride? The Muh Express. (This might make more sense in the next drawing. Maybe.)

Chicago 06.03.11

2011-06-03T23:29:00.004-04:00

I've been freelancing for the last two weeks. That's why I'm behind. Work and art don't mix.

Better Doves

2011-05-25T08:09:00.002-04:00

Chicago 05.22.11

2011-05-22T21:53:00.001-04:00

A Few Neighborhood Birds

2011-05-21T08:28:00.003-04:00

A pair of mourning doves set up a nest in the window across from mine. (This happened last year as well . . . I wonder if it's the same pair?) The lady dove has been sitting on the nest for a month or so but this week is the first time I've seen the chicks. Two. (The other one is tucked away on the other side of the mother.) Photos are before and after.

Also, a starling has set up a nest in the busted-out street lamp on the Astoria Kaufman Studios lot.

Chicago 05.19.11 (The outline of the Vanessa Perplexity)

2011-05-19T21:43:00.002-04:00

I've inked in about half of the buildings. Mmm, let's say 45%. I don't want to be too generous to myself.

That blank space in the center of the buildings is a mysterious, tectonic phenomenon called the Vanessa Perplexity. Some sages theorize that this slowly spreading, chasm-like formation is similar--if not related to--the Perpetual Wound which has almost sundered in two the barbaric, windy steppes of the Coarse Lands. A small, exploratory corps from the Knights of the Perpetual Wound has recently arrived in Chicago to begin a preliminary assessment of cause and depths of the Perplexity. The ruling Druids of Chicagoland eagerly await the measured opinion of these brave, spelunking paladins.

(See, this all fits together somehow.)