The above art is a wood plank that has been decorated with strips of my art prints. Once dry and given one coat of dull poly, a sharpie marker was used to make the loose line drawing. White areas were added with gel pen and then thinner black ink verse was handwritten on each row with a very loose and wild stroke.

Many of the words are a bit out of order as i’d occasionally skip lines and then come back to fill them in later. Still more of the words are obscured by the thick black lines of the drawing. i wanted a real and true stream of consciousness and emotion to be attached to the piece, but i didn’t want it to be obvious or read like a book. i pretty much wrote it in a way that forces the viewer to add their own experience and just take snippets from the actual thoughts and words. In this way, the entire piece is a fragmented self-portrait. My illustrations, cut apart and re-assembled randomly….and the same with my words.

i made some flowers out of off-cuts/printing mistakes i keep in a recycle bin in my office. i added these to the wood block, sprinkled on some slender glitter stems and stamens, then added in the black line art scribbles, leaves and vines. i topped the whole thing with a spray of satin finish poly and voila!…..err…..almost voila. When i get those hooks attached, man, you just wait to hear me shout my voila!

but here is my most recent completed work, “hanging by a thread.” it’s an ink drawing that i’ve scanned and colored digitally. i wanted a wispy, thin-lined work where the thread-like lines take center-stage. enjoy!

Ah, lazy Sunday. Today we did lots of work on the house and were pooped when evening came. So, my 4-year old son sat next to me at my art station and scribbled while i sketched. Liking the loose look of his scribbles, i asked him to make me some “circles” in a few different colors. His messy circles were adorably cute and i used 2 of them as the base for some quickie, silly ink sketches. Aren’t the faces goofy? My little guy LOVED watching the faces develop on the page and he was ecstatic that he was part of the drawing. We will definitely be collaborating more in the future. It was just so special…and so simple.

Several months back i got the notion for this artwork. i love drawing tendrils and curves and curliques and wanted to do a stylized portrait series focusing on hair. For a long time, the idea was a bit fuzzy in my mind and i didn’t know exactly what i was shooting for. i started looking in magazines and catalogs for some inspiring hair angles and styles. Then it hit me. Duh!? Why hadn’t i started looking on etsy? i searched under “hair accessories” and “hippie” and “bohemian” and “organic” and lo & behold, my inspiration appeared on the screen. i came across the Mandizzle site and was smitten. i immediately wrote up a convo and explained what i was doing and asked permission to use the shop’s photos as my inspiration. Luckily, the shop owner had rights to the images and a very generous heart. She was excited! i whipped through 4 of these pieces in a matter of days. The spirit was in me! i had so many ideas for color combinations, how i would stain and layer transparent color onto the wood panels. i was falling asleep each night dreaming of what the hair ornaments would look like in my trippy, swirly style. When i was done the series, it felt so good.

i’ve had a lot of good response from this set, even sold one of the originals to a local Philly radio personality, and am talking with Miss Mandizzle herself about creating a custom logo for her business based on the drawings. Of course, she gets all the perks i’ve got to give. If it wasn’t for her amazingness, these pieces wouldn’t have been born in the first place.

step 1: I made a black ink drawing full of swirls and curliques in my favorite twirly way.

step 2: i scanned that, then dragged another piece of my artwork (a fully saturated and detailed marker & pencil illustration) into the photoshop doc on another layer

step 3: i made a mask out of the black line drawing and applied it to the color layer.

step 4: i made layer copies of that cool form and layered them over each other until i liked the design

step 5: i dragged in the background layer….a scan of a painted/stained wood board i made.

…a few tweaks, tugs, and fiddlings with settings & saturations later….voila! i came out with this. It’s a combo of 3 of my favorite design elements that come together in what i think is a Beautiful Mess. And whaddya know? You can make one yours, if you like, by shopping here.