SE Guidedogs Super Heroes on Parade

Exciting news to share as I have been busy working on a new project, Super Heroes on Parade, with the charity Southeastern Guide Dogs.  This project is a collaboration between artists to paint, draw, sculpt or otherwise customize a massive doggie-hero statue. All the artists receive the same statue, cast molded by Scott Moore of Port Charlotte, FL but are paired with different sponsors who have "naming" rights and ideas of their own to incorporate.

To be selected for this contest is a great honor and it is all happening from a reply with work samples to a call to artists featured in the St. Pete Arts Alliance newsletter. So never be afraid to put yourself out there or send that email folks. 

My sponsor pairing was with FIS a local software and financial services company that does work with clients across the globe. Just as impressive to me as the scope of their business, was the charity outreach that FIS participates in both across the world and throughout the Tampa Bay Area. It has been fun and challenging to brainstorm and work with a group's batch of raw ideas to eventually a finished design, a statue that best embodies and pays tribute to what the company's core values are all about. Above is a color sample done with watercolors, the statue itself will be painted with acrylics and sealed with a high quality, UV resistant, clear-coat.

The unveiling for the first ten sculptures of this year's showing, of which I have been selected for, will take place on March 8th at the Sundial. Documentation of the painting process is being done with time-lapse video but I will wait to post those until after the unveiling.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all. Here is another hand-lettered greeting card this time on a non textured surface. Colored pencil and black ballpoint pen, Zebra 0.75mm line width.

Greeting Cards

My first cousin Emily just gave birth to a son, Brody. So like any faithful soccer fan stoke artist in the family. I had to whip up a hand lettered card for the occasion. And try to be the first to wrap the baby in some variety of soccer apparel. Office Depot has many of options for printing greeting cards at home, one of the Avery brand's textured, matte white cards is being used here. Made with colored pencils and blue ballpoint pen by Zebra .75 mm.

I would like to do more art on greeting cards they are relatively quick and simple to make. Unique cards are in demand in spite of the digital alternative I think these types of analog gifts still resonate with the recipient. 

Falafel Philly

Fresh Valentines Day themed chalk art for Zaytoon Grill, featuring a new sandwich item on the menu.  Do you like cheesesteaks but don't eat meat? Try out some variety with the falafel philly. Four pieces of falafel topped with grilled onions, peppers, roasted garlic and two slices of American cheese made to order on a sandwich roll. 

Happy Black History Month

Happy Black History month out there. Above is a sketch of JerryX a local musician who played at Kerouac night. I find many similarities with art and music on a variety of levels. And would not have been able to make most of the art in my life without the help and energy from listening to music. We wouldn't have the majority of our modern music today if not for the influence of black musicians on creating instruments and new genres, new ways of thinking about and structuring music.

Growing up in such an international city as Atlanta, gave me a much appreciated insight into diversity, southern history and race relations. The public schools I went to took not just the month of February to celebrate historical moments minted by minorities. This helped open my mind to the importance of figures from politicians like Shirley Chisholm to sports figures like Leroy Satchel Paige, to musicians such as Art Blakey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Robert Johnson the father of Delta Blues. The Jazz Renaissance movement caught my interest in how many artists and musicians collaborated, lived together or who's work was clearly influenced by the works of peers, swept up in the societal whirlwinds of cultural change. 

We were lucky enough to see, on a high school field-trip, many of the massive masterworks by Romare Beardan in various mediums. The scale of his hand crafted collages, mashups of southern life, in the computer age would be impressive but collage work of that size and intricacy in the 1930s is astounding. The portal these images provided into the life and strife around Beardan, his imagination, the time period and the importance of expression through music or other means clearly made a lasting impression on me. Even the drawing class we did that day. I made a mistake and asked the local instructor for an eraser and he kindly pointed out to me....its funny I recall his face, clothes, grey hair at the temples but not his name. He pointed out to me, that art pencils have no erasers for a reason and that there are no mistakes, work with it, he encouraged. 

Support Live Music

Support your local musicians and live music y'all, it is better than plastic. Here is a fun figure drawing from the Ka'tiki Bar on TI. Of the jamming musicians that make up Dennis Wallace and the Free-For-Allus. You can also see Dennis play bluegrass with his other band, The Confused Boys, on Sundays at the same location. I have drawn ol' skinny Dennis many times with this sketch being the best one, because for some reason his likeness is a hard one to capture. Charlie Morris also played guest guitar on two songs that night.