United Way

Last November I finished up an internship at United Way and it was really awesome. Eloquent, eh? The really good thing is I can explain to people exactly what the United Way does. People know it's a non-profit, but how it works is they campaign and raise money on behalf of community organizations like Red Cross, Salvation Army and programs that help underprivileged kids. So, United Way gets people all jazzed about helping the community, collects their donations and then distributes it equally among their partner organizations. To break it down--the partner organizations use the United way much like a pimp uses a lady of the evening. United Way goes out into the streets, gets people excited and brings their money back to its pimp(Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.) Did I just explain a non-profit organization with a pimp/prostitute metaphor? Why, yes. Yes I did.

I got the opportunity to do a lot of work on campaign materials. On their website they have stories of those who have been helped by United Way funded programs. I created some flyers that businesses can put up around the office or break room when they run their campaigns. Click to get a full view.

Hand Drawn Sketches

What is more fun than an afternoon spent with a sketch pad, pencil, and an issue of Vogue?

Two more pieces

The first pictures are of a little side table that used to live in my dorm between two couches. It was navy blue with exposed wood on the table top. Sadly, it had suffered a lot of wear and tear, leaving it with stains and chipped paint.

I was inspired by all the groovy stuff I love at Target but can't buy. I hand drew roses and then created stencils for them. I quite like it now. I was going for pretty and chic, so hopefully I've accomplished that.

This second piece is a favorite of mine. Clearly, I love the UK and especially London and that love came out all over this trunk. I found it at a Goodwill for 5 dollars. It came with this really ugly, 80's, teddy bear paper on it so I scraped that crap off right away.

Then I was left with a blank trunk and a lack of ideas. I was originally going to go with a grungy, dirty, punk look, but I opted for a more feminine, antiqued, victorian-chic look. The patterned paper is scrapbook paper and I printed the photos from my computer after coloring them so they look aged.

Furniture Art

I've re-taken up a hobby this summer. I love finding pieces of furniture at 2nd hand stores and making them into fun and unique pieces.

It's something I certainly would be interested in turning into a business of some kind.

This is a nightstand I did for my sister. Her room has Indian themed decor and she wanted a table to match. We found this 3 tiered table at a Goodwill for 5 dollars. It was white before, but now has a lot of colors.

I did this with acrylics and a gold paint pen. Everything is hand drawn and it's all sealed with polyeurathane. The pictures are varying views of the table and it's different levels.

Hipster Trek

The new movie looked like it took place in a flying Apple Store in space. That's not a bad thing, but I think it definitely appeals to the hipsters.

Work for Papillion LaVista School District

I worked as an intern last summer for the Papillion LaVista School District's central office. They had me create letter heads, logos, invitation designs, and the school district's homework folder.

The images with the globe and guitar are from the Folder design I created. The black logo in the shape of Nebraska is a logo I created for NSPRA(Nebraska School Public Relations Association) and the image with the animals is an image I created for an invite to the opening of the Zoo Academy.

Graphic Novel Honors Thesis

Here is another short from the graphic novel I completed for the College Scholars Program.

Golf Novella

Last winter I was hired to do 19 illustrations for a forthecoming novella about golf. In this young-adult novel, the trials and tribulations of the golf course come to life

How I Became an Artist

This is another story from my Honors Thesis. I'm putting together a graphic novel that is a collection of short stories from my magical childhood. Most of the time it was pretty magical, anyway.

I would say "Ha! What a silly child I was! Thinking I could make a living off of art," however it still seems I haven't gotten that notion out of my head. I do think I'v become a bit more sophisticated in my craft. Back then I used only crayons and computer paper.....though, looking at my desk I can't help but notice that next to my fancy laptop and my fancy tablet there is a box of crayons on top of computer paper...

Wow. I've made no progress since I was five.

Conan

I say this proudly-- I am a Conan warrior.

I started watching the Late Night show when I was 12, so for nearly half of my life I've been a fan. Was I allowed to be up that late when I was 12? No, but the show was definitely worth the risk of being caught.

As you can imagine, I was pretty upset when NBC created a true crapbomb situation and lost Conan. I know it's just a show, but it was a reliable source of laughter and that's not something to be taken lightly.

It's a bit strange I'm bringing this up now. All this happened a while ago, however, there is an article in the NYTimes about Conan's use of twitter and the internet to promote his tour. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/arts/television/07conan.html?ref=arts I think it's all sold out and golly do I wish I could go. If you are, you are so lucky. If you are and have an extra ticket and no other friends, I would love to pretend to be your friend for the night.

Anyway, all this reminded me of a doodle I did back when the airwaves and internets were brewing with the late night turmoil. I wanted my own Conan desktop, so I drew that up and put together his quotes. The first part comes from his farewell on the Tonight Show and the second part is from his wonderful letter to the people of the world.

Conan remains funny and classy, and I lot of people thinking they have to sacrifice the latter for the former.

Heteronyms

Firstly, it's been a long time since I've posted, and though I'm sure very very few (if any) people have missed me, I'm gonna stick with this blog thing. Yeah!

I'm back from Spring Break and onto the inevitable job search. Yikes. That's scary so let's step away from that. Unless you're reading this and want to offer me a job....(there are certain things I won't do)

Anyway, I'm taking Advanced Creative Non-Fiction this term and our first assignment was to come up with four heteronyms for our creative selves. Before I go into what I came up with for my own alter-egos, here are some of my favorite heteronyms of all time;

Ziggy Stardust

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Lady GaGa

Tony Clifton

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Our professor gave us four different categories - Rock Star, Lightning Rod, Haunt, and Wild Card.

My rock star is FiFi Caruso, a drag queen. The drag queen part of my persona has be mentioned many times, so it seemed appropriate.

My lightning rod is the bleeding-est heart, annoying liberal part of myself. For those of you out there who are more on the conservative side, have no fear. I keep this part of me in check. It's best to be open, yeah? The ultra-liberal part of me is dying to tell you to check out the documentary Blue Gold- it's eye-opening and a must-watch. Okay. Back to the regularly scheduled heteronyms.

I picked an owl for my haunting persona. At times I can be a little distant and chilly, but I'm also very observant in my detached moments. Thus the owl.

Finally, the wildcard is the kid in me that never grew up (thank god!) You'll also recognize this little rascal from my in-progress graphic novel.

For class we wrote a bit about each of them and provided some sort of visual. This was mine.

Go forth and create your own heteronym. It's like the fancy shmancy, grown-up version of an invisible best friend. Put all the blame on them!

More Herland

Have a mentioned I love this book? Well, I do. Not because it portrays an exclusively female world as absolutely perfect, but it just makes you look at your own reality in a different way. Herland (the place in the book, not the book itself) has a darker undercurrent to it actually. Makes you think.

Anyway this is when the men first see the women. In class there was a lot of wondering about their clothes. Gilman describes them in such a way that.....they're imaginable, but really open to interpretation. According to the book, they're comfortable, practical, shorts that go to their knees and other things I had to look up. Do you know what a jerkin is? How about a trim gaiter? I didn't know and it turns out the first is a jacket and the second are these things that go around your legs...well the best I can imagine is some sort of leg warmer type thing.

I was also interested in the androgynous nature of the women. It was a challenge because the quickets way to establish feminine beauty in drawing is to slap on the mascara and lipstick. "She has lipstick! See? She's pretty!"

Obviously these women aren't like that, so I was trying to get the beauty of them without going to the ultra-feminized drawings.

Honors Thesis- Graphic Novel

So I'm in the middle of my senior year of college and working on my honors thesis. I'm combining my major and minor and doing a graphic novel. It's not the Frank Miller type graphic novel, but more "Persepolis". Marjane Satrapi is a literary goddess of mine. I'm also writing an intro/paper on it and my argument is that the graphic novel is outgrowing the term "genre." I mean, we have amazing graphic novels about everything from super heroes to small personal stories about growing up in the Midwest. How can that be one genre? I normally don't get hung up on labels, however I think lumping things together like that implicitly labels them as simple--something you can throw away in an all-purpose category.

Anyway, I met with my thesis director today, and it was a big help. He keeps me in check and motivated. I've been living in this work by myself for a long time, so it gets to the point where I forget I'll ever share it with anyone. When I get that it then make me look at what I've done and hate it to the point of torching it. However, have no fear, I won't be starting any fires. I'm feeling very invigorated.

Here are a few pages from my project. It's a collection of short stories about my childhood. these pages are from the story that depicts the time in preschool when a boy exposed himself to me. On the ride back, my mom asked me what I did that day and I'm told my word for word response was "a boy showed me his peanuts." So, here you go. All of my personal stories I chose to write up and illustrate, are the ones that I share over coffee with friends. They're the ones (whether they're big and dramatic or small and funny) that I tell people so they know me. So here you go, whoever you are out there--here's a little piece of me. If it brings up a memory for you, I encourage you to share. The top page is the first, so start there.

Macbeth + Cosmo

Macbeth was the name of the game today in class. So many questions! Is it fate? Self-fulfilling prophecy? What does it mean to be a man in Macbeth? Unsexing? All valid and intereting points of discussion, though clearly, most readers of this play are left wondering "What would Macbeth reading the horoscope be like?" I think it would turn into a horrorscope, myself. Here's my Macbeth doodle.

We also got into the interesting topic of codpieces--a fashion wonder that has gone by the wayside for the most part. The male Wonderbra, yes? I'm not done musing on that. There just might have to be some sort of codpiece ad. Some would get up to two feet long! Jewel-encrusted, and decorated in a way to identify one's political or religious affiliations. People got pissy when Obama didn't have an American flag pin. Where was the outrage when he was lacking a codpiece covered in red, white, and blue rhinstones?

Herland

I've recently read Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She's the same person who brought us "The Yellow Wallpaper" in case you're not familiar with the name. It's from 1915 and a great read. Three men come across a world inhabited only by women. Now you're probably thinking this story could only go two ways. 1) It's the intro to a bad porno. 2) It's a man-bashing, penis-hating, Y chromosome-loathing festival.

It's neither, so go read! Whenever I read something, I draw. The characters, settings, anything. This is what I've done here. It's from a moment early on in the book when the men, Van, Terry, and Jeff, are discussing what they think this world of women holds. I would like to point out that Motley Crue, the 80's metal band, and singers of "Girls, Girls, Girls" owe something to Gilman. Terry sees a world of "Girls and Girls and Girls," in Herland. Funny, right? So the next time you're at a party and someone says "There is absolutely no connection between 1980's hair metal and feminist literature of the early twentieth century," (which most likely, someone will-it's a pretty hot topic) you can pull out this little nugget of knowledge and wow people.

Terry turned out looking a little like Burt Reynolds or something. That kinda works.