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.