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3/02/08
Thanks to everyone who made it out for the Hooked on Colfax opening in Denver last night. Two more great shows coming up this month...

March 7th - Gallery Underground - Fort Collins, CO
March 14th - The Red Arrow Gallery - Joshua Tree, CA




2/24/08
Assorted Sunday ramblings...

I got an email from a high school student in Greeley, CO who asked me a few questions about my work. I really appreciated the straightforwardness of the questions and I thought I would share my answers...

What / who inspires your artwork?
All kinds of things inspire my artwork. I get a lot of ideas while hiking in the mountains. It's a meditative process to go out by yourself and just think about everything that's going on. I have a million projects happening at the same time... all the time, so when I get out and just think about everything, it helps me clear my head to think about new things. I notice and appreciate a lot of the patterns in nature, things like bark, leaves, clouds, mountains...they all have repetitive aspects. I like to draw things with patterns.

How do you come up with the themes for your work?
Sometimes ideas come out of thin air... and often I'll get quick flashes or visions of something that I know I have to sit down and work out. Some of them are from dreams, some from memory, subconscious, it really comes from everywhere...The themes vary...sometimes I will have a pretty specific feel or mood in mind when I start out...other times, it sort of develops as the work unfolds... it can guide itself.

How do you choose your colors?
My color schemes work much the same way. Sometimes I think ahead, and try to stick to a certain idea throughout a piece, like...this sky is going to be mostly purple and blue... or these pine trees are going to be green and aqua. Other times it can end up so different than I had planned... and as I'm working across the piece, some colors will inspire me to try different colors that I might not have thought about using before... I have a gigantic pen collection and I have really learned what each color looks like over the past few years... There is a very subtle but important difference between Sunburst Yellow, and Canary Yellow that can make or break the design... and to know what each one of these colors in going to look like ahead of time really helps.

That is one thing I really like about working with pens...the colors are very consistent.

With all of my work, I start with pencil sketches, and then go back and outline with black pens... kind of like the process in tattooing where you create a stencil from a reference. As I am working on the black lines, I start to think about which colors would work best for each section... I like to use colors in groups, usually two or three combined in each section or pattern. I also use a lot of highly contrasting colors, like orange and purple together, or yellow and blue. I think this helps things vibrate and adds energy to the patterns.

What are the meanings of your artwork?
I prefer to leave the meanings of my work mostly up to the viewer. I do like to explain what inspired the particular piece, and talk a little about the process, but what it means, is really up to you. Artwork is meant to be interpreted differently by each viewer, we all bring different mindsets and backgrounds to a viewing experience, and that is what is so special about when people connect. There is really no predicting how or why someone will love a piece of artwork... if you love it... you love it.

I can say that overall, what my artwork is to me, is energy. Cosmic vibrations if you will. I attempt to capture and preserve some of those vibrations on paper, or canvas, or the computer screen, or whatever it is, so it can be observed and reflected upon. This work is an interpretation of how I see the world. Colorful, vibrant, and full of life.

What media do you use?
The media I have been using for the past 7 years is a combination of pencil, pens, and Photoshop. As I mentioned earlier, I start with a pencil sketch, outline with black pens, and then color them in with markers, mostly Sharpies and Prismacolor. All of these drawings are 8x10, so pretty small. I then scan them into Photoshop to enhance and manipulate. I usually play with the hues and saturations of each section to get the balance between the colors that looks best to me. I will also re-draw a lot of the black lines and sections to make them really solid. No matter how precise you draw with a pen on paper, when you scan them at 300dpi and zoom in at 600%, there are many imperfections that become apparent. I am a perfectionist, and I like to get things as clean as possible on the screen before these go to print. I then enlarge them and print on canvas, and the result is pretty awesome to me.

Also, I'm interested in psychedelic artwork in general and yours is really cool, how do you get your ideas?
In regards to psychedelia... what psychedelics really do is open your mind and vision to a level that you don't normally observe. I think that those levels are always there, they just happen to go by unnoticed most of the time. Once you have be exposed to those levels, they are much more apparent and easier to see in your day-to-day, whether it was drug-induced, or by spiritual awakening, or your just having a good day. This level, for me, includes many patterns, and as I draw more and more, I have built up a catalogue of patterns that I use often. Some of these patterns will inspire new patterns in new pieces, and so on. Before you know it, the whole thing is a pattern, that's part of a larger pattern, that can reveal things you didn't see at first. Which is really the essence of psychedelia.

2/08/08
I hope everyone's having a great week out there. I have a few fun things to share today. The first of which is this flyer I received from the We Create Art Gallery in The Netherlands who is currently showing some of my work. It's all in Dutch, and I can't read any of it, but I thought it was cool to see the Joker in there amongst the Dutchness...

I also just re-arranged my studio and thought I would share a photo...lots of dogs, lots of light. Great place to create!

Here's a photo of a collaboration piece I did with a glass-artist friend of mine Raj Seymour. Raj fused the glass squares for the frame. I mounted a vinyl print of the Joker to some masonite and clamped the glass to it. I then poured a 1/8" of this super thick epoxy-resin over the whole thing. This makes it look like one solid piece of glass...pretty cool.

We are hoping to make some more of these with different pieces in the near future so stay tuned!

If you'd like to check out some more of Raj's work...please visit Seymour Glass Works.com

And, lastly for today, here's an e-flyer for a group show I am contributing to at Hooked on Colfax in Denver for the month of March. I will be hanging out for the opening on March 1st, so if you're in d-town, please drop by.

I also just received my greeting cards in the mail today, and I should have those online and available for purchase in the next few days, so please check back soon.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!


2/01/08
Lots of great shows coming up in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, and Joshua Tree in the next few months. Please visit my exhibits page for more info...

I finally got around to taking some better pictures of the Giraffe Project Hoodies, please click here to have a look...

Also, brand new piece... The Elephants...check it out!

1/17/08
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the Urban Pearl opening last weekend. Check out this review in the Boulder Weekly...


Click here to read the entire article...

1/06/08
Well allrighty then! Welcome to 2008. I've got a couple of huge months ahead with many great shows lined up. The first of which is this Saturday, January 12th at Urban Pearl Studios (next door to Mt. Sun on Pearl in Boulder). I am going to have tons of big canvas prints up including a brand new piece, "The Frog Pond". Please enjoy...

12/27/07
I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and you're getting ready to party hard for new year's eve! 2007 has been an amazing year with tons of art and many great shows. Thanks for all your support. I'd like to squeeze one more drawing in before 2008...Please check out The Night Owls...

12/21/07
I just licensed some of my work to a company called MyTego.com that makes custom vinyl skins for iPods, cell phones, laptops, and just about any other electronic devise you could imagine.

They sent me a couple of examples and they are awesome! Super easy to stick on, and really colorful and bright. So, please check out their website to trick out your shtuff!

I've got a couple of new drawings in the works, some snow owls and poison-dart frogs, so please check back soon!

Happy Holidays!

12/14/07
Brand new drawing, The Birdhouse...check it out!

Here's some photos of my work hanging at Ditto Gallery. The show will be up through December, so if you're in Denver please stop by and have a look!

12/11/07
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. It has not stopped snowing since last Friday. We've had over 2 feet of snow at my house, which means I have been getting a lot of work done. I am in the middle of a new birdhouse drawing that I hope to share with you all very soon...

Thanks to everyone who braved the snowstorm this past weekend and made it to the Ditto Gallery opening. The show really looks great in their new space, and will be up through December, so if you missed the opening please stop by and have a look.

The Coloring Books have been flying off the shelf. Thanks so much for all your support, I hope they are bringing you hours of coloring fun. I also just received a new shipment from the publisher, so if you would like to pick one up, drop me a line. They are also now available at Color The World on the hill in Boulder. I have also started posting finished versions on the coloring book page of the website, so if you have a masterpiece you would like to share with the world, please email it to me and I'll post it.

12/01/07
The Storytyme show at the Fox Theater last night was amazing. It was great to play with The Dirty Sweet, those guys are a fantastic band. Here's a short video from the B-Roll footage including some shots of our practice room and studio...thanks Nick. The soundtrack is from a jam session we tracked a couple of days ago during rehearsals for the show...enjoy.

I have also just finished another new piece titled, The Lighthouse. Sometimes the ideas for a project will just come out of thin air. This was definitely one of those. I was just sitting on my couch and for some inexplicable reason, images of these crazy towers with fish bowls and sea creatures just came flashing into my head. I pretty much just sat bolt-upright and became totally encapsulated with the idea and vision. I started working on it immediately and didn't hardly stop to eat or sleep, let alone scan images of each stage....so sorry folks, but there's no blog to accompany this one...you'll just have to use your imagination...

11/22/07
Well all-righty then, happy Thanksgiving! I would like to give thanks this year to everyone who I have met and worked with these past couple of months. It has been an extremely productive time with tons of new artwork and lots of shows. Thanks also to everyone who made it out to Hodi's last weekend for the FoCo Loco 2 opening. It was an amazing night all around, and I really appreciate your support. I hope everyone who took home prints, coloring books, and sweatshirts has been enjoying them thoroughly

Also, check out The Octopus's Garden (with blog) which I just finished tonight!

11/13/07
I went down to Denver yesterday to pickup some new canvas prints of The Zebra and The Joker, and they came out so amazing, I thought I would share a couple of pictures...although these don't do them justice (best I could do with my point-and-shoot), it does show how cool they look with the thick stretcher bars and museum wrap. I am continuously blown away by the quality of work by these guys in Denver. The color saturation and print detail is absolutely the best I have ever seen. If you would like to learn more about them, you can visit their website right here...GRI Studios, Denver, CO

I am going to hang both of these pieces at Foolish Craig's in Boulder later today. If you're in town and want to see how awesome these are in person, please stop by and have a look.

11/12/07
Presenting the first item in my clothing line...The Giraffe Project hoody. These are being printed by Rage Unlimited right here in Boulder and I am expecting delivery this week!

Please click on the image to the right for more information or to place an order.

I have been working non-stop on the Octopus and I'll be posting a blog with images soon.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

11/07/07
Well kids (both big and little)... the coloring book is now officially finished and available to purchase online!!!

This has been a super-long-term project for me and it is wonderful to actually see it come to life. I had the idea to create a coloring book about 6 years ago, and ended up with 30 images for this first edition.

It really looks great, and I am very happy with how it turned out. Please click on the image to the right for more information. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Also on the drawing board...an octapus...very swirly, very crazy...I'll be posting images to a work-in-progress blog, as the drawing grows, so please check back soon!

11/04/07
Just as I thought it would...Halloween certainly did bring about some crazy drawings! I have been working pretty much non-stop for the past four days on a new piece which I just finished... "The Joker"

I also posted a special blog on this piece which explains the process step-by-step with 9 different images. Click here to check it out...

You can also view this piece in my gallery right here...

10/31/07
It's always inspiring when it snows up here. That, in combination with the fact that it's Halloween today... means I will most likely get some scary-psychedelic drawing done. I thought I would share a picture of my studio...Happy Halloween!!!

10/30/07
Ok here we go, blog #1...well, that's not entirely true. I have been keeping a blog going on my myspace profile for months now...you can view those entries here if you like...But as far as this website...this is the first one. Where to begin? I have been working like crazy on about a million projects these past couple of weeks. Which means that I spend a ridiculous amount of time in my studio in front of the computer screen. I do have the occasional visitor though...

Probably the biggest news of the day is the completion of my coloring book. I have been scanning black and white images of my drawings for this book for the past 6 years, and the time had finally come to put them together. With all of my work, I start with the black ink and get the basic outlines and composition down, then go back with color. I have always loved coloring books, and before I could even draw stick figures, I was pretty darn good at staying in the lines. I am expecting a test print back from the publisher within the next two weeks, and it should be available to purchase online in plenty of time for Christmas..hint hint. Here is the design for the cover, I am titling it "A Coloring Book for Big Kids" because, I am a big kid really, and I love to color.

I am also talking with a screenprinter in Boulder about making some Giraffe Project hooded sweatshirts. These are going to be super heavy duty, full-zipper hoodies with a three color process. No skimping on the quality with this one. They are probably going to retail for around $50, but will be well worth it.

I have also just finished a new piece of art titled "The Zebra" You can click here to check that out...

That's about it for today, thanks for reading, and please check back soon! Have a great day...