A Writing Gig

Even though in the headline of this blog I call myself "writer & illustrator," I use this forum almost exclusively as a sketchblog. Well, I figure it's high time I started earning that writer title I gave myself. You may remember that a few months back I contributed some web content on Joanna Newsom for Revue West Michigan. Well last week Deftones were in town and I lobbied for the gig to cover them, because I am quite fond of those lads. If you aren't familiar with them, you should look them up. They are quite outstanding. I would have liked to have weaseled my editor into posting an illustration of mine alongside the review, but I didn't have any time for art this week. You can see the show review that I did here.

My Rug for Hagopian

hey team
remember that time I told you that I won the Hagopian rug design competition? At the time I didn't have access to a copy of the winning rug design because I hadn't bothered to scan it in before submitting it (what can I say? it was a rush job).
Well the finished, executed rug went on display at the opening of the Student Exhibition .
I am thrilled with how it turned out.
That's me talking with Suzanne Hagopian of Hagopian World of Rugs, the competition's sponsor. She told me that while ordinarily the competition rugs are produced as one-of-a-kinds, my design is currently being considered for inclusion in an upcoming line, in which case it would be mass-produced. Should that come to pass, I will advise of how to purchase one of your very own.

that's me and my rug.

R.I.P. Agent Skully

Alas, Agent Skully, we barely knew ye.

It seemed a crying shame to throw away my anatomy model. After all, I slaved over this thing for an entire semester back in second year, and the anatomy model is one of those things that we all had to do. It is a shared experience that binds all of us CCS illustration weenies together forever. I didn't want to throw it away. In my mind I pictured my children's children's children admiring it and smiling as they think on the stories I will tell them about the Amazing Clark. He was an especially well done anatomy model, in my own humble estimation. Albeit, my attempt at an elegant contrapposto resulted in an anatomy model who appears to be shrugging his shoulders and saying "where's the party at?"

In the end, today as I begin my escape from the Motor City, the blessed Exodus I have waited so long for, there simply is no room for Agent Skully in my car. He's a fragile thing, and probably wouldn't survive the drive anyway. He can't be donated because he already has a broken hand. So I left him in one of the dumpsters . . . unfortunately certain cargo had to be jettisoned if I was ever going to make it back to that glorious jewel on the river .

So thanks for the good times, Agent Skully. Good luck and God Bless.

Classic Hoobler

As you may know, Jessica Newberry and I are in an ultra-exclusive book club. It consists of just the two of us. We are currently reading The Party and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov.
During the school year, Jessica and I would discuss the current book selection in studio.
But sometimes we would get distracted and instead of talking about the book, we would end up inserting Chris Hoobler's name into the titles of classic works of literature.
For some reason, Chris didn't find this amusing, which I will never understand.
Here are a few of the new classics we came up with.
I am considering actually writing them, by inserting the character of Chris Hoobler into the existing content, a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

meet the interns!

there is so much hard work that goes into the student exhibition.

that's why I have freshmen to assist me.

These are the interns. Brian Oscar, Illustration class of 2013, and Ken Emmons, Transportation Design class of 2013.

The lads helped build my frames, with all of the sanding and grouting and gluing and nailing and painting and whatnot. Then they helped hang my senior wall (which will be unveiled on Thursday after the Graduation ceremony, and which you can see at the Exhibition Opening)

senior review materials

today at 1:30, fate is sealed. I must show everything I have done this year in a digitally projected presentation. The review panel doesn't want to see originals, although after pestering Gil said I could bring one physical painting in if I insisted.
And I do insist.
In addition to my digital presentation and my one painting, I am also bringing them these takeaways that I made with my business card and promotional postcard outfitted in an origami envelope. I also printed out the process portfolio that Lora Parlove forced us to make and had it spiralbound. I will also be showing that at the review.
Wish me luck!

The 1,000 Crane Wedding Dress

As you may recall, I had mentioned before that I was working on a project for which I would be recycling the linocut peace cranes that I had originally carved for the portrait that I did of my buddy, graphic design innovator Kikko Paradela.

Well, it is now finished.

I give to you, ladies and gentlemen, The 1,000 Crane Wedding Dress.

There is a concept behind this. For those of you who may be familiar with the traditions associated with the origami peace cranes, supposedly folding 1,000 peace cranes can bring you anything ranging from a specific wish, to general health and prosperity, depending upon whom you ask. On occasion the families of young Japanese couples will fold 1,000 cranes as a wedding gift to hopefully bring blessings upon their marriage.

That got me thinking, why not just make a wedding dress out of 1,000 white paper cranes entirely?

That was the thinking behind this piece. Also, I wanted to work in an unconventional format, so I chose to paint this tightly cropped, extremely narrow vertical panel.

Here is a detail of the face:

and a detail of some of the crane collage:

At the student exhibition I intend to hang this piece and the Kikko portrait at opposite ends of my wall, so there will be some crane tie-in unifying the whole show.

The dimensions of this piece are 12 x 48 inches. Just think how perfectly a lovely narrow image like that could hang in your home . . . I guess what I'm trying to say is that this piece will for def sure be for sale at the student exhibition and Lord knows I need the $ for New York.