vacation ideas?

in a perfect world, i'd have enough sick time to stay home today and nurse my MRSA infection i mysteriously manifested on friday night. however, i'm completely out of sick time, thanks to the pneumonia of 2006 and the great spleen-bruising a couple of months ago, both of which had me out of work for just over a week at a time.... talking with amandarin last night, commiserating about our jobs and catching up on the week's litany of Work Disasters we usually share over IM, explaining why i have no sick time, it hit me that the reason i have burned through all my sick time is that i haven't been able to take a real vacation in years, and definitely not since i started this job.

Read More

comic-con portfolio and Resistance

it's all of those things; the butterflies in the stomach you get from an interview, and the highly personal rejection of a bad date, and being able to see the other candidates for the job that you see at an audition, all together.... some years at comic-con, i got really excited because i thought my work might get picked up, and i was naïve enough to think that the vague encouragement at the portfolio review tables meant something.... and because it was there, the current painting, in its blue underpainting stage where it looks like not much at all: it's hard to tell, unless you're familiar with my studio and that table easel, but the canvas is huger than anything i've ever done before (24 x 30).

Read More

fireworks

there's nothing quite like group pyromania to bring a nation together. last night in santa ana, the entire city, it seemed, had obtained mortars and shells. there was enough sulfur in the air to cause massive clouds of smoke roiling through the city streets.

Read More

what is an art director, anyway?

In advertising and print work, art directors (often teamed up with a copywriter) come up with “concepts,” the creative ideas which communicate with us on a gut level through such devices as theme, metaphor, and symbolism. Some art directors do little more than dream up these ideas and present them to clients, while some oversee almost all aspects of the design and production process. Surprisingly, art direction is seldom taught in schools and there is very little formal information on the subject; it is often learned in practice.

Read More

500 years, but it's all the same face

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs] notice how the proportions of most of the faces are the same, and how similar the faces are. we paint the same ideal, over and over. this is an excellent example of how we find the Divine in individuals.

Read More