Lawn Mower Blenny

Adoreable...He/she? is relaxing on some green fluffy stuff by the water jet thingy...happy fish. This was how I found Lenny the Lawn Mower Blenny earlier today. Lenny is the largest fish in the tank. Lenny enjoys laying around in the other fishes territories and letting them try to shove him/her our of it...the clownfish is especially bothered by this.

Worm Bin

My birthday present from Fred. A beautiful worm bin! I am so looking forward to feeding the worms out kitchen scraps and having them turn it into something amazing for the garden instead of tossing it out with the landfill as its destination.

Rainy Day

I'm playing with painting monsoons today- for a picture book I'm working on right now.

Fittingly, it is raining outside- just a light rain. I'm going on a walk on the beach in just a little bit. It should be a good day to collect pebbles and sea glass...

Very Funny- a Needed Laugh :)

Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

By some weird quirk of the universe, my son and I we born 36 years and just a couple of hours apart. This weekend we are having a dual birthday weekend. Tomorrow is a gathering of his and my friends and Sunday Fred and Tristam are building me my birthday gift (more about that next week) as well as another celebration. Then on Monday it's a birthday celebration with more friends.

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Pale Blue Dot

Spring in Step

The sun is shining and the breeze coming through the house is warm. I have most of the windows open.

This last couple of weeks, Fred's grandparents have been in town visiting from Maryland. It was nice to spend some time with them. They shared stories of when Fred was a little boy. It was fun to hear what he was like as a kid...

Today I'm working on on bits and bobs around the house. I have a garden bed to prepare for some asparagus crowns I have to plant. An experiment in color on my drawing table going on- desert colors and a pile of tax papers to sort and tally.

Here is a little sketch I did using my drawing tablet and Photoshop.

Textures

Some pictures to break up the text...

Today was another busy day. This week has just gone whoosh...so much drawing, so much reading, so much organizing, so much paperwork, so much...I'm tired tonight. It's been non-stop. Lots of good stuff happening, lots of things being accomplished. Fred has been in NYC for the week with his new company. There is so much involved in getting a new venture off the ground- and really, just being self driven takes a lot, but the feeling of actually creating something of value is so good. I feel that for my work too- and "work" doesn't seem like the right word here, because "work" has somehow become a negative with some people we know (they wouldn't want to have their "lifestyle effected" by the stuff). What we have been building together over the years is really cool and dynamic and it is ever evolving and fresh...I feel very satisfied with it all.

What Did the Founding Father's Believe in?

Deism- very forward thinking for the time- I mean, really amazing when you think of it. If you read what the Deists believed, it reads like our Bill of Rights or Constitution...

Working

Lots of drawing lately....the wastepaper basket is emptied every day, full with papers with sketches and revisions on them...I'm using my Cintiq more and more for the sketch phases...this one is just a straight up sketch on paper.

Yellow

Some yellow in the garden. Yellow was my favorite color as a young kid...I had a yellow bicycle, yellow leather jacket..all things yellow. What a happy color....

A Walk

I took a break today around sunset to take a walk. I'm glad I did.

On Being: Inner Landscape of Beauty

A thoughtful piece on beauty.

Are we Living in a Holographic Universe?

So, I have been in my studio a lot lately, which means that for parts of that time I have different programs playing in the background. A couple of days I ago, I started watching/listening to, a series on PBS's Nova series. The series is called The Fabric of the Cosmos, and I can't' stop thinking about it. I found this article on the wen about some of what they were talking about called Are We Living in a Holographic Universe? This May be the Biggest Revolution of the 21st Century- you can't not be intrigued by that title.

GREAT talk

It is Pile Time

Around my studio- piles. Piles of drawings, snippets of paper with ideas and thoughts- things to get back to at some point, piles of story board sequences, piles of reference materials...piles. The piles and their content is ever changing- some piles have moved to my phone (thank you Evernote!). It's how you can tell things have gotten busy again around here- piles.

Tristam is fascinated with the whole illustration process I have going on. It's pretty cool. I have 3-D models and sketches and reference pictures and for the first time he is putting together that what I do has a process- a discovery process and refinement process. That I'm using every tool I can think of to help illustrate an emotion, a point of time a setting etc. and that is not a one shot deal...it is many many revisions and it's not ready to be done until it's right - and that that is a really satisfying thing...Fred and I are both big on letting Tristam see us working and what that involves and that it is fun for us, but it does take time and commitment and it's not about working x amount of hours to make x amount of money, but that it's about doing what you do with passion, joy and focus and developing a level of skill where you can be paid for what you love doing. We hate for him to fall into this trap of not constantly reinventing and being passionate about things- because life is short and we all have things that we are drawn to that make us some alive- and we really owe ourselves and the world to keep seeking that out and effecting things. It isn't instant and it isn't easy, but it is worth it in the long run.

There was this great article in Fast Company magazine about what they called Generation Flux. Worth a read...

3-D Printers- so cool

Greening

The garden is coming alive. There are so many shades of green and shapes of leaves.

I visit the garden a few times a day. Walking away from my studio space is important right now...I have been spending a lot of time in there are it's nice break things up a bit- stretch, pull a few weeds, take in some fresh air, get a dose of vitamin D and then come back to the table- clear and focused.

Game Change...

I have to admit, I am enjoying all of these nut balls falling- Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Rick whatever...that porcine Newt Gingrich...it is so sad isn't it? 300 million people and it is these intellectually and morally challenged individuals that float, for awhile, to the surface... How is it that we don't have decent candidates that have qualifications other than physical appearance and acting/lying experience? In daily life though, I have been amazed at times in situations where someone is lying their face off, how they can still garner sympathy and make a connection with people and the people they are lying to don't get they are being played. Interesting....