A Creative Life

illustrated poem aka birthday card

January 14, 2019

Some twins I’m lucky enough to know turned one year old today. So in collaboration with my wife, I wrote a poem and illustrated it for them. It was a good opportunity to practice art word combinations. And I think they’ll like it. Their parents and grandparents seemed to. Anyway here’s a picture of the…

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a scrapbook by a mouse

January 13, 2019

This year I’m participating in the tiny sketchbook project at the Brooklyn Art Library – my sketchbook will travel to London, Paris and other places in Europe along with other tiny sketchbooks in a portable library that fits in a suitcase. My book will be in the Brooklyn Art Library’s permanent collection. I’ve titled my…

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carried away by a book illustrated poem

January 7, 2019

I’ve decided recently to practice my poetry and short-short story writing by writing something, no matter how bad, every day. If there’s anything illustration worthy I’ll illustrate it. Out of all I’ve done thus far this seemed worthy: Doing the poem text with a brush was new and different for me. It was looser and…

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sketching the coast

January 1, 2019

Happy New Year everyone! New on newsstands is a magazine, Oregon Coast Magazine, in which is a 4 page article that I both wrote and illustrated! It was such fun to do a “sketching the coast” article for them that I want to do more such writing plus illustrating this year. Here’s a link for…

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personalized portraiture pleasure

December 25, 2018

I’ve enjoyed, this season, being commissioned to create several portraits of pets which included many elements that reflected the pet owners too! Thank you for the privilege of making something special for you and your loved ones – that was the wonderful gift you gave to me this Holiday season! You can read juicy details…

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real life story recipes

December 23, 2018

I’ve been experimenting with the flash essay format. Creating recipe illustrations, for example, and writing a short-short story/essay to go with it. Here’s a recent one as relates to this Holiday season: Hot Cocoa Espressoism by Sue Clancy – My wife and I went for a long hike in the woods on a below 40…

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candied fabric peppermint flavor

December 19, 2018

In between Holiday fine art commissions I’ve been reading about the writers technique of flash fiction and flash non-fiction. And I’ve realized that this is what I’ve been doing all this time – illustrated flash. Or “illustrated shorts” as I call them. Like the short-short story writers do I take a nugget of a thought…

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recipe illustration finished

December 11, 2018

I’ve finished the recipe illustration I’ve been working on for Chef Sebastian Carosi. I shared it with the chef and he said “I absofuckinglutely love this!”. So I take that as a good sign he’s happy with my illustration: I was curious about whether the printing/production method I typically use would allow me to post…

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libation label list line

December 8, 2018

Around the edges of doing a cat portrait commission and Chef Carosi’s illustrated recipe I’ve done some wine label artwork to be used by Burnt Bridge Cellars for their 2018 Holiday Wine. To meet the winery’s request for art that was “festive but not religious” I used 5 writing techniques along these lines to generate…

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recipe illustration ready for garnishing

December 5, 2018

I’ve finished the handwritten ink work and the illustration painting for the recipe I’ve been doing for Chef Sebastian Carosi. (Past blog post re here) Now I’ll begin the photography and scanning processes to get it ready for print publication and etc. projects the Chef wants to do. The get-my-hands-messy art part is done. Now…

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