Now I'm over here

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My highly political experience

Lots of hubbub about the Presidential debate tonight. I saw the Presidential motorcade for the candidates today. I was out jogging whien I noticed there were police cars lining both sides of the street every block, so I decided to follow the trail to Belmont University where the debate was held. As the motorcade approached, two police cars scouted the trail first, followed by eight motorcycles, and two more police sedans. Something like twelve bulletproof vans rode the middle, most of them with 8 1/2 x 11 sign in the window announcing "PRESS." You could tell which vehicles held the candidates, because they were the ones with secret service agents looking nervously out the windows. Despite all the hardcore security, I did manage to weedle my way onto the Belmont campus. My adventures were cut short when one of the guards yelled at me, "Hey I don't know how you got in here, but you're not supposed to be in this area. How did you get in here?"

I don't have a cartoon for you guys today because I'm a little backlogged on uploading images, but as soon as I get myself to the library scanner, I'll bombard internetland.

Linoleum Cut #1

This is a relief I did for my printmaking class. It was the first time I'd used linoleum, so I had to get accustomed to the texture. The assignment was to illustrate a story from our family history. This is Simon,* a relative who suffered from a series of schizophrenic attacks several years ago. I really wanted to express both the frightened mania felt by victims of this condition, as well as the pain it causes family members who must helplessly watch a mind self-destruct.

*Name changed

The Tragic Divorce Proceedings of Mortimer G. Rabbit and Margaret L. Tree

Using discontinuous lines/abstract shapes to express mood is something I think I will probably be doing for the rest of my life. It is just that fun. Not only does this poor bunny have a destroyed home on his paws, now there are a bunch of right angles flying through the air that he has to worry with as well. WILL THESE TORMENTS NEVER CEASE?

A note on Tilly: I am indeed putting off my work on Tilly until fall break. I need large chunks of time to work on this project, and school gives me room only to do brief sketches such as the one above.

Shapes as People as Shapes

Crap, the punchline to this is blurred. Let me know if anyone can't read it. I didn't mean to end up doing this comic in pencil instead of ink, but sometimes the characters just kind of fall out of me without warning. I'm going to see if I can use these characters in the future, or at least other people in Shapeland.

I went to an art exhibit today at the Tennessee Arts League. The featured show, entitled "Heroes, Villains, and Comic Book Art," had been open for a couple weeks, so a lot of the paintings had already been purchased. The exhibit had another wing with more experimental assemblages and paintings that ranged from Orphist swirls of color to traditional Americana landscapes.

UPDATE: Turning up the contrast fixed the blurring. Enjoy the comic!

Clark the Clown

I have successfully moved in here at Vanderbilt. Getting the freshmen moved in was a truly rewarding experience, and I'm glad I was able to help so much. I would also like to give a big thanks to both Sean and Daniel for helping me carry all my boxes and furniture from East Nashville over to West Nashville. I bought a new bookshelf to house all the books I have acquired in the past four month, which has helped immensely in organizing my dorm so far. Feels like home already.



My final schedule for fall semester:

Relief Printing -- Mark Hosford
Shakespeare: The comedies and histories -- Andras Kisery
Survey of Calculus -- Linda Hutchison
Elementary Spanish I -- Jackie Willey
Sources of Contemporary Art -- ???

Books: The ballasts of our lives

Haha! Because I am so smart, and because I am so clever, I have waited until the last minute to start packing all of my belongings into cardboard boxes. I am scheduled to move into Vanderbilt either today or tomorrow because I am doing a week-long community service project with the campus recycling group before classes start. I have put in my two weeks notice at the Bound'ry, and am now in the process of remembering how heavy my possessions really are.

One of my coworkers took me to the sketchiest bar in all of Davidson county for my birthday, where I had a conversation with a stranger about the right way to lay electric wiring. Luckily, Michael rescued me by calling on the telephone to wish me happy birthday, which gave me an excuse to abscond after thirty minutes or so.

…And Now Miguel

So tonight I have officially reached my halfway point for the project I alluded to last blog post (yes, only halfway; give me a break I am working two jobs). I was looking at some of the panels that I will not be able to use in the finished product and decided this one would be good for a for-fun promo. The working title is Tilly (not be confused with Leo Lionni's Tillie and the Wall), and the pages will be 6" x 12." Right now the plan is 60 pages, but I have been consistently trimming that number down since I finished the script at the end of June. I have been going for a rather simplistic art style using cut-out shapes, but avoiding the flat South Park-y feel by mixing watercolor, acrylic, and india ink. Don't worry the typography will DEFINITELY not look this crummy upon completion.



Additionally, some fiction blurbs:

Bone by Jeff Smith
--Currently working through this, and I can't put it down. Smith spent about 13 years of his life inking this graphic epic novel, and his storytelling is superb. It is about three cousins exiled from their rural village and forced to question the nature of dream and reality to battle an evil monarch.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
--A bizarre story of a carnival family's grotesque and glorious self-destruction. Born a mutant in a family of mutants, the main character deals with gender roles, the nature of chance, and conceptions of the self through a life that puts the insidious ahead of the wholesome in the name of family unity.

The Great Divorce by C.S Lewis
--A short novel giving an fanciful interpretation of the afterlife, a topic that seems rather important to Lewisian Christianity. I couldn't buy into all the points he raised, but the descriptions of heaven and hell were refreshing and interesting.

The Avocado: Fruit not Vegetable

Yes it has been a while since I updated, and I'm sure you all have been worried sick, so here is a little ditty I put together just for you. I've been working on other artistic pursuits lately, which leaves me little time to do the quick sketches I generally like to post here. Hope you like iambic pentameter.

First of all, the Bound'ry is back open, to follow up on the last blog post. However, I am only pulling about a shift a week over there, possibly because my manager has caught on to my nefarious plan to abandon him once school starts back.

I did play laser tag last Saturday; the science center hosted a game of employees versus volunteers, which was lots of fun. The floor plan is already designed to foster plenty of running about, so giving everyone weapons made it seem very action movie. To give you a feel of the dynamic, most of the volunteers were in high school, while most of the employees were sophomores in college (there are six of us that are the same age--weird, right?).

The science center puts me in contact with a lot of children, so I am surprised I have managed not to get sick yet. How can children be so adorable and yet so filthy? One little boy liked the rides so much that he invited me to his birthday party at Disney World. Another one spat in my face (it was not malicious; he was simply unaware of what people generally do when they talk to keep spit from flying out).

Occupational Hazards -- Part 2

Last Saturday (the same day as the ASC's grand opening) I also found out that I no longer work at Bound'ry. And neither does anyone else. That's right--the Bound'ry is closed until further notice. Apparently one of the partial owners of the high-class eatery had a severe conflict of interest with management, and in response hauled all of HIS cooking equipment (grills, ovens, etc.) out of the kitchen. He gave everyone three days notice.

The official word is that the restaurant is undergoing renovations, which is partially true. The general manager asked employees to put their names and email addresses on a contact list if they were willing to work on the manual labor of reconstructing the kitchen area. It has been rumored that we will be back up and running in four to six weeks (just in time for me to be back in school and unemployable), but the estimates of those in the know have been slightly longer.

I am very grateful that I have a day job to fall back on. The people whose sole livelihood depended on the Bound'ry--the chefs and servers especially, since many supported families through that income--have been taking it very hard; really though all employees are duly feeling the harm done by this loss.

Occupational Hazards -- Part 1

If you live in Nashville, you may or may not have noticed all the advertisements that have cropped up in the past month about the Sudekum planetarium. If you do not live in Nashville, the Adventure Science Center has been working on a new wing to the museum for the past three years, which include (apart from the third largest planetarium in the country), an exhibit simulating microgravity, and a moonwalk. The planetarium has stadium seating for about 500 people, and uses an IMAX projected screen, displaying approximately 20,000 stars, as well as hosting animated featurettes. Yesterday was the Grand opening, and the mayor cut the ribbon for us, and everyone clapped. There were balloon contortionists outside, ice cream inside, and everyone had a roaring good time.

And then it started raining

I haven't thought of a title for this yet, but the girl in the center is named Valerie, and I think she will probably show up again. Perhaps in her new job she will make friends with Nina (from West Jersey). I can think of several things I would have done differently in this picture if I were doing it again, but I am beginning to think that if I spend a lot of time on anything, it will be of quality regardless of my biased feelings about it

Same Hat Same Hat is translating Shintaro Kago's manga Dance! Kremlin Palace! which has been amusing me recently.

I found out this week my boss at the Science Center frontloaded all my hours this month, so Monday night at Bound'ry was the last time I will work until Saturday, when I start shifts again at both places. I've got enough for rent, and I'm going to start a whole lot more hours in July, so it's fine by me. Four and a half day weekend, here I come!

I got a library card today from the Nashville Public system. I had been using Vanderbilt's library for all my needs up until now, but the college's selection of (ah... ahem, uh) children's literature is somewhat lacking, for reasons that are not entirely beyond me.

What I have been doing all this time

Though I've told some of you this in person, to verify I am in fact working two jobs right now, and they are completely different from each other in almost every way. Both these companies, however, shape a distinctive part of Nashville's identity in their own way.

The Adventure Science Center looks like a giant electric castle. It is pretty hard to miss if you are driving down any of Nashville's interstates (except 440 I think). I work the front desk, which means I sell people admission tickets/memberships and give people directions over the phone. Lots of sitting is involved. Occasionally I will run the flight simulator ride (BlueMax it is called), which is sort of like being inside a giant can of soda pop as someone shakes it up, except you are the one doing the shaking. I usually work from 9:30am to 5pm, and wear a red polo shirt with the Adventure Science Center logo on the left breast.

Bound'ry is a bar a couple blocks away from the Vanderbilt campus. I am a food runner, which means I stay in the kitchen until we get an order (or five or six) and then take the food the chefs have prepared, and deliver it to the correct table. This involves being able to balance several plates on a tray (or sometimes my forearms), and memorizing all one hundred of the non-sequential table numbers in the dining area. For this job, I usually work from 6pm to 10:30pm (unless I am closing, in which case it is much later) and wear a black collared shirt with black slacks.

I keep meaning to take photographs of either of these places, but never seem to get around to it. If I ever do, I'll post them here. Working two jobs leaves me little time for much else, so the infrequent blog posts will probably decrease further at least until school starts back.

"'But suppose God is black', I replied."

I did this in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles.

My supervisor at the Science Center was out today, and it was kind of a slow day anyway, so I had a lot of time to sit and draw as I sat behind the front desk. These are some sketches I did in preparation for the cartoon you see above. Also, I got my paycheck today, which means I'm going shopping tomorrow at the art supply store (WOOHOO!)

Another Hilary-ous reason to keep fighting Obama

Here is my latest endeavor in the field of political cartooning. I think I like drawing political cartoons in a looser style to give them more of a New Yorker feel.

Additionally, this is a study I did of an Obama caricature by Rick Meyerowitz on Stephen Heller's NYT blog.

Finally, I've found that even though he is quite a bit more conservative than I am, I love the art of Michael Ramirez. When I was in grammar school, my mother used to get this opinion paper called the Conservative Chronicle that was littered with Ramirez's work. Since I've long since formed my own political values, it's really refreshing to be reacquainted with him.

My second ever political cartoon

Update: NPR reported this morning that the Nashville City Council has in fact approved the budget that would decimate its bussing system. As a reaction, I sketched this during my lunch break today.



I have found that I am letting myself get more and more riled up by politics these days, so I have recently tried to direct some of that agitation into something constructive. Thus, a political cartoon. I am going to have to practice drawing Barack Obama a lot more before I can start doing cartoons about national politics. I've got Generic Terrorist Guy under control, and I'm still working on George Bush.

My first ever political cartoon (in case you were wondering, because I know you were) I made about eight years ago regarding the 2000 election controversy. I will probably never see it again, because I made it when I was ten. Just thought I'd let you know that I have experience in this kind of work.

In other news

Also at work today, I decided that my office is pretty vulnerable to a zombie attack. I do my work on the second floor, but zombies have been shown to have little difficulty climbing stairs. My potential weapons arsenal includes:

a)The miniature flag I have of Hong Kong beside my desk (don't ask me why it is there, it just is).
--This would have to be a pretty close-proximity weapon, and if I didn't jam into the zombie's skull at exactly the right place to penetrate the brain, I would be boned.

b)My telephone with all the fancy features
--This is fairly heavy and would probably do damage if there were only one zombie. However I fear that flailing it around would cause the part you hold to your face to get tangled up somewhere, thus making use of the heavy base really inconvenient.

c)The keyboard to my computer
--This is the one I finally decided on because it has the greatest combination of mobility and weight. If I yanked it up real quick and it did not easily detach from my PC tower, I would be toast, but when zombies attack, you sometimes have to take risks.

A portrait of Felicity

This didn't really turn out the way I expected, but hey, what does? After I lettered this I realized it might not make any sense. Felicity is talking about her unborn child. Jason is her ex-lover. Just making sure its crystal clear.

Space Patrol

Our body is basically a tool for processing energy and releasing it back into the world. When the body processes nutrients it must exert the energy it receives back out into the world. Human beings do not simply emit raw energy though. Our bodies must find some context in which to put this energy. Athletics is one such context. It provides high rates emission, and is composed largely of simple repetitions, thus requiring little complexity. Social engagements are another method. Creative expression is my personal favorite.

All of these contexts rely on contraction and relaxation of the muscles. Contraction is the withdrawl of energy and relaxation is the release. With mental contexts such as creative expression and social engagement, it requires the contraction of the brain, which is a muscle just like any other, followed by the relaxation that releases the energy. We refer to contraction of the brain as thought. This is why one cannot simultaneously try to remember the names of all seven dwarfs while holding a conversation about Walt Disney's career. One cannot think and engage simultaneously.

Private thought, masterbation, fat conversion, are all internal methods of energy use. They recirculate the body's energy inside the individual. Thought requires high levels of complexity, while fat conversion requires no complexity. Obesity is generally observd to be a negative trait in humans because we identify a fat person as someone keeping all of his energy inside himself.

School provides humans still developing their methods of contraction and emission with ways in which to organize their energy into forms that will lead to a life both productive to society and satisfactory to the individual.

Eventually, the agent will find a method of energy use he feels comfortable with, and will allign himself with this context for the duration of his life, settling into its patterns and rhythms, while becoming more and more familiar with the nuances and details of his chosen emission path, thus increasing his skill at navigating these patterns. This is what we call a career.

The energy exerted must allign itself with methods previously identified for productive energy emission. If a person reads a lot of books, he will want to write his own. If a person talks to a lot of poeple, she will get good at interacting herself. This is a basic input/output function. The creator needs to put what he is expressing into contexts similar though distinct from the content he has consumed.

The point of all this is, I have been eating a whole lot, and then sitting a desk for the entire day exerting minimal energy. This is why I have been arting like a madman during my free time.

Here is a picture.

The decline of Nashville's mass transit.

As a Nashvillian who relies on the Metro Transit Authority to get to and from my jobs, I feel some responsibilty to preserve this important service in my city. Yesterday I attended a meeting led by a representative of the MTA, explaing to the public that city budget cuts leave it short about 2.9 million dollars. To get around this the MTA is considering several options:

Eliminating Service on the weekends.
Eliminating Service at night.
Eliminate about a third of the routes.

I ride the night bus home on weeknights. I ride the bus on Saturdays and Sundays as well. It is PACKED. If these bus routes are cut, that means all those people will be unable to get to and from work.

This budget cut comes at a time when more people are relying on public transportation than ever. From 2004 to 2006, the number of people who used Nashville's MTA increased by about 250,000 people. From 2006 to 2008, the MTA gained 1,500,000 new riders. That brings current ridership up to 8.5 million people.

Most cities have a tax that funds their MTA, giving it a steady source of income. Nashville does not. Only about half of the MTA's income comes from the city, and only twelve percent is from is from the state. These numbers are far lower than the national norm for busses.

Most of the city council members head wealthy families and the MTA does not appear to directly concern them. About 80% of the people that ride the bus come from low income families. When the budget was being drawn up, most of the concern went to

a) Education
b) Police protection
c) Fire protection

Most of the people affected by this change ARE NOT EVEN AWARE OF IT.

If you live in Nashville, please come to the Public Hearing on June 3 at 6:30pm at City Hall. Your very presence will weigh on the minds of those in authority.

Based on a childhood memory

I'm dabbling in a new style with this one. Drawing scratchy/messy requires a lot of confidence in what you're doing.

I originally thought I was taking most of the influence for this from Natalie Kocsis, an artist I only recently discovered online. Then I realized my high school pal Jobathan has been drawing like this all his life.



A new bill is facing congress right now called the U.S. Orphan Works Act of 2008. If it passes, it would require that artists register every single image they produce with a private company or their work becomes public domain. The bill also loosens the rules for creative property. This means if someone finds something you drew online, and the image is separated from your name, the finder can use it for his company and make lots of money from it, and the artist will never see a dime.

Our contemporary economy is driven by creativity; companies everywhere have realized this and now understand the need to catch their clients' eyes. If this bill passes, visual artists will be left with fewer rights than they already have.