Rainy day in the Studio

Goodmorning from a rainy fall day here in Happy Valley! This is what I saw this morning from my studio window. There are so many colors out right now. Life is moving fast and I can barely keep track of the time it seems lately.

I'm honored to be working on a book cover illustration for Keyhole books! (due out December 09) as well as a few books for my own press (Brave Men) as well as trying to keep on top of other ideas for my personal work. Out of all the projects I have going on right now, I have none that are finished, but I thought I would share a few little sketches.






I also just read a great blog post by Julia about her trip to the Original Art Show at the Society of Ilustrators in New York. Very moving. Go read it!

Fall has fallen

Just delivered my most recent little commission! This was done from a poem and was framed along with the poem letterpressed with handset type. It is intended as a wedding gift from my client. I hope the recipients love it.



It is also the first image completed from my new little studio! How appropriate, the leaves are already turning out here.



Task of the day: finish hanging pictures and carefully placing tiny things in their places...

New Apartment, Old Film

So we (myself, Brian and Christopher) have all arrived in our new little home in the valley. We are still partially living out of boxes, but have set things up for the most part. I am especially excited for my new little studio that has a door out to the yard and a window that looks into the ferns. I hope this will be a wonderful place for me to create. I'm working on a little commission that I will hopefully be posting sometime next week.

For the time being, here are some pictures of our new home taken with 15 year old Polaroid film:

yard:

bikes on the deck:

kitchen:

Christopher in a sunbeam:

Sun Room

It's official...this is the 101th post!

July might go down as my busiest month yet, although August is becoming a close runner up, which is why I have been neglectful in posting here. Here is a little piece that I'm working on, called Sun Room.



I'm also sad/happy to announce that in a few weeks I will be moving to Happy Valley (aka Northampton, ma) and saying goodbye to my life long home of the Boston area...and my little short livingroom :(

Midsummer madness

Wow. It's been a long time since I checked in over here. Life has been a big ball of busy. I have been putting most of my efforts lately into my Brave Men Press work, as we just released our first book:



and have still been churning out little CoinSides for the Deep Moat Reading Series:



Even though I love this work, it will be great to get a few minutes and just paint or draw soon. I do have a new painting in the works right now, but until then, I will just show you my nephew George's head:



toodeloo

Print Fair

I've been insanely busy over here lately...I have some new work on my desk and have been chugging away at projects for Brave Men. Sunday, though, I had enough free time to attend the Print Fair at the Museum of Printing in North Andover. There was a great turn out despite the rainy weather and the steam roller printing went on as planned. It was a lot of fun to participate in such a great community event. Twenty seven artists all carved a 10" square of linoleum with a different letter of the alphabet and we put them all together to create one gigantic print.

Here is Sanya and me inking that bad boy up:


Here comes the steamroller:



And here we are pulling up the print:



Yay!!!



(mine's the Q)

Also, I seized the opportunity to buy an old copy press for good price. I've been wanting one of these ever since I took my first bookmaking class in college.


Just one more peice of cast iron I'll be putting to good use!

City Hawk

This is my most recent completion. The past year, I have seen at least one hawk everyday. Prior to that, I'm not sure I had ever seen one. There must be lots of little foods to eat.



This might be the beginning of a series of city bird prints inspired by my favorite little poem from Leonard Baskin's Hosie's Aviary :



The sparrow tells city skies
about nature



Where can I get the rights to this poem?...