Category Archives: grad school

resolution revolution and on being back from the moon…

i love using space program analogies… and since nasa will now be employing rent-a-wreck for getting american astronauts into space, i’ll use one from the cold war glory days.

apollo 11, the first lunar mission to land astronauts on the moon, lasted 9 days…from july 16-24, 1969. 9 days. subsequent landing missions were longer, but the first one to land was 9 days. three humans willingly sat on top of a controlled explosion and went somewhere else…living to tell about it and in some ways be burdened by it. either way, all those who left were not the same upon return. i mean, would YOU be?

yesterday i got back from the moon, after a 9 day mission. i left one way and came back another. the mission wasn’t the important part… it was everything that led up to the mission. it is the journeys we take in life that make us who we are…the destinations, while important, are not make or break. i feel different, i talk different, i guess i am different.

i couldn’t really see it before… mostly because i hang out with myself all the time. but i am different. history will tell if my difference will be an asset or a liability.

so now, i’m taking a few days off before training starts on my next mission. my studio has been cleared out, the drawing board has been sanitized of all the previous mission’s germs and juju… the lair has been purged.

now what the hell am i going to do?

“Houston, we have a problem…”

Categories: grad school life

my baby walks…

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i created bob the squirrel over 7 years ago. through thick and thin, good times and bad, the little tree rodent has always been there for me. i know it may sound bizarre to some… but if you spend as much time with your imaginary friends as i do, they become real. really real.

in all those years of drawing him, writing him, putting him in a thousand situations…(over 2500+ strips at this point) i never drew him with walking in mind. i mean, let’s face it… he’s a wise ass…the limited space you have in a daily strip doesn’t really give you much play as far as movement…you move the story along, try to be as artistic as you can and get to the next day. a daily strip is a grind that would make most mortals cry.

so, bob rarely moved. sure, he would climb trees, climb frank, chase, get chased but for the most part he was just there. he’s bob. he’s always there.

for my next semester in grad school, i’m animating.

i’ve never animated before in my life. ever. so nerves are exposed and the learning curve is steeper than well, it’s 90 degrees straight up. in talking with my artist-teacher last night, i was thrown a revelation: he’s not all that familiar with the bob character…i need to make him walk.

i knew that. if i’m going to animate he needs to walk. but frankly, i was avoiding it. maybe i was afraid that this character i spent so much time with would change once he moved. maybe he would move away from me… walk into the sunset as a chaplin silhouette.

corny and insane… i know. but like i said, i’ve spent more time with bob than almost anyone else in my life…

this morning, i did it. it took me four sheets of typing paper and a crapload of erasing, but i did it. i made bob walk.

it wasn’t as scary as i thought it would be. and after i got the one i wanted, i smiled. he was always living, but now he’s on his way to being alive.

Categories: animation art bob grad school sketchbook

pick up your own "better man"


well… the moment has arrived. i’m ready to unleash my graphic novel out into the world.

“better man” is now available for purchase through lulu.com. i have always been satisfied with lulu’s quality and this publication is no exception. so if you have a few pesos, euro, pounds or bucks to spare i know purchasing this book will not disappoint.

http://www.lulu.com/content/7346206

Categories: book grad school studio

back from the moon, episode 2

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so i’m back from the moon (the moon being my third MFA residency in vermont). 4 hours and 51 minutes of driving on winding roads as well as three, four and five lane highways, overpriced diet sodas from vending machines that i swear are flipping me off, bathrooms that range from the taj mahjal to the stockyard and all the piercing silence, punctuated by a newly developed rattle in the front end of my car.

this residency was great. i had a good time…let my guard down… a little.

three down and two to go with two more studio projects, a visual culture research thing and the mother of it all… the process paper— a document which sums up my experience as a grad student and forecasts the artistic road that may one day be under my size 10.5 hiking boots. (insert dramatic music here).

if i can get through last semester with most of my hair, most of my health and a third of my sanity…i got this.

for those of you out there in Never-ever land who are interested in acquiring a copy of my first graphic novel “better man” i’ve decided that i will self-publish… i am really proud of this book and want it out there now for everyone to experience. i will post details on how to get a copy next week sometime.

thanks again for keeping tuned to my exploits…. hopefully i’ll stay entertaining…

Categories: art book grad school