i'm officially back in new jersey. my life is slowly being unpacked out of boxes. in the meantime, i've set up shop and have my very own studio in town, which is pretty fantastic.

i found this great piece of glass in the backyard of a factory in baltimore. one side is bumpy and the other is smooth.

hello blog, long time no update.
i am working on a big, awesome painting right now.
i will have a tiny, awesome painting in dime bag 3.
please come!

a week ago i got a ticket because i forgot to move my car.
a good opportunity to decorate.

i included these instructions with the ticket.

hello! if you're reading this because you saw my work at the pratt show, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by. the four pieces from the show (and the work in my portfolio) are all for sale. i am currently accepting both personal and commercial commissions.

thanks to kayleigh for snapping this shot.
last tuesday was pratt institute's COMD survey.
that was my space.

tomorrow i put up a few pieces in manhattan for the pratt show, which opens may 12 and closes may 15th, 9AM-9PM each day. that link has more info but doesn't load quickly in firefox browsers. come out if you're nearby!

this week is going to be wild. really busy with school.

heard back from American Illustration;
"We are pleased to inform you that work you submitted to American Illustration 28 has been CHOSEN to appear on TRIBUTE our web gallery at ai-ap.com. While your image will not appear in the book, it was one of only 200 images from a record-breaking 8,100 submitted to receive at least 2 votes in the student category and is therefore eligible to appear permanently on our website - where over time illustrators build an online portfolio of their AI winning images and where creatives make direct contact with them."

i'm really happy. i'm also invited to the ai/ap 28 party in november. i volunteered at the last one and it was a blast. great food, free drinks, and incredibly talented people.

i will post the images they picked soon. for now, a piece i'm doing for my astronomy class based on an article in Scientific American: Let There Be Blobs. i was really attracted to the picture of the space blob:the blob is named Himiko, after an ancient Japanese queen. the scant information available on the queen is actually really interesting, but basically the blob holds a lot of possibilities for helping cosmologists and astronomers understand how various galaxies form, including our own. so i wanted to make the cluster of pixels to reflect our own universe by putting a face on it that also served as a reference to the queen Himiko.

i wish i painted the squares better.

still not done.

based on the article "Moses Was High on drugs..."
trading this painting with a friend, so it isn't for sale anymore.

slow ride

i love sloths.

painting on the kitchen floor.
dogs, dawgs, & more doggz.

these are great.

good morning. this is the earliest i've been up in a long time.
i think i want to go to a museum today.

(at tina and val's apartment, check out their blogs. they rule.)

rearrange your mind

more sketchbook scans to come.

i did this in january & redid the lady two weeks ago. i think it's like 60% done. it's going somewhere. i don't know where-- but i refuse to give up on it.

in the basement of the house i grew up in, i found my father's chartpak rub on letters, my old artwork, and my sticker collection. which included michael jordan valentine's day stickers (or perhaps stickers suitable for any romantic occassion). instead of letting these collect value (which they indubitably will), i have been giving them to friends and sticking them everywhere. the chartpak letters are more important and will be used as formal labels.

"you're cool!"

not supposed to be the dude from the sopranos. i save jpgs of weird looking people from the internet. these references never look like the end result, but somehow in this process i ended up painting tony soprano. my jersey roots are coming through.

this is a nice guy from a "how to" photography book circa 1970ish.
will be painting many more excellent people from that book soon.

here is my dirty yet charming notebook. how's my kerning.

tune in for whatever i decide to do with the lisa frank stickers.

still working out the kinks in this one.

still not done.
it's been a busy, fun, unproductive spring break.

i am really going for "vintage " with these cell phone pictures. no more after this, i swear.


this is still not done. i bought clear nail polish to paint on the surface of some spots. i don't know where to buy real enamel. new york central? anyone have experience with enamel?

this american life

today: npr podcasts, coffee, & finishing this.

snow day

it has been gently snowing outside all day & class is canceled. this makes for excellent working weather. so i cleaned up a little bit of my apartment and organized my art to enter the ai/ap contest.

i don't really like the idea of contests and competition regarding art. i understand that it may motivate some artists and that the concept has been around for ages, but it just doesn't appeal to me at all. there are enough outlets and visual space for everyone's art in this world (without adding competition), just not enough money. if you are making art and other people love it, that is enough of a reward. unfortunately, this is 2009 and all of us need money to survive. otherwise i'd be living on a farm with other artists, living off the land and showing art downtown with no intentions of monetary profit. just to share.

that is my spiel. this is what i entered, some new & old. these are all for various assignments, if you have any questions on the nature of them i will do my best to explain via the comment box. i seriously doubt i have any chance of getting in, mostly because my work varies a lot and i'm still developing "my style". but it's good practice i guess.

sketchball

oh hello.

my dearest best friend/room mate sophia is shooting her thesis film tomorrow in mildford pa. these pieces are going to be in the background of some shots; one of the characters is an artist who paints creepy portraits. so she asked me to crank out a few. here are some:

this sketchbook with the ribbon tie was dirt cheap at muji.
i think it needs to be filled with portraits.

more really old crappy work. this is when i first started using brush and ink; you can tell because the line weights are so funky.

if you haven't read the phantom tollbooth by now, you probably should.

the assignment was to put a mythological creature in my hometown environment. i was born in kuwait but have spent most of my life in trenton, new jersey. trenton kind of sucks but in a really endearing way. anyway, cerberus, the three headed dog, is guarding this terrible bridge in trenton that says "trenton makes the world takes". there is a train blocking the second half of the phrase, which i kind of regret including. but at the same time, i didn't want that sign to be the focus of the piece. i miss this piece-- i should be getting it back soon.

opium & slave trade. it's fun playing around with a limited palate.

this one is about deadly bacteria that lives in water,
adobe photoshop doesn't like photomerging my two scans of this piece,
and i wasn't very good at it either.

soldiers

FIRST POSTTTTTT

the best thing to do on valentines day is wake up hungover and start blogging. i read that in cosmo.

i guess i should start with work from 2008.

"can't get the message out"



for the book review descartes' bones



for the same book review, just a different approach