Tune in

Being stuck in the house during lockdown, there wasn't much inspiration floating around for me. I even lost some of my impulse to draw for a while. But, I have to say that making beats and just exploring sound has given me consolation through rough times, way more than I could have imagined. 

 The hardware out there these days is truly magical. You can easily make complete songs (electronic music) without using a computer. My favorite device at the moment is the Elektron Model:Cycles. It's an FM-based synth/drum machine. The sequencer is incredibly sophisticated for what they are calling an entry-level machine. For example, you can apply a % chance for every note as to whether it will play or not, allowing you to make almost generative music. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface, but the immediate joy it brings me is always surprising.

Another thing I've noticed is that the space you're in can really inspire the sounds you make. I particularly like making beats in hotel rooms for some reason. I'm ready to go off into the woods and see what I can come up with. Sometimes when I'm making beats, the sounds give me visual ideas too, almost like a hallucination. I decided that my Youtube channel would be a place to let these two modes interact with each other. I've yearned to make videos for a while now, so it feels good to have some direction and hopefully loosen up my art practice. I think everyone should make music.

Stay healthy ✌️

Goner TV

This was fun! Planning to make more videos in the near future!

Robin Song

Lately i’ve been working early mornings in our studio. i’m not really a morning person but always kind of wanted to be. i was painting some large canvases and doing a repetitive technique involving dot patterns. This put me into sort of a trance and might have made me notice a bird singing loudly nearby. It sounded pretty to me and different than most of the sparrow’s chirping i’ve been used to. It was deeper and had more emotion to it. i wondered if it could be a robin. i had never identified the sound of a robin’s song in the city because there are so many noises you usually can’t single it out. i stepped outside and sure enough i clearly saw a robin in our neighbor’s crepe myrtle tree, singing. It saw me and immediately stopped singing. I think they are shy around people and that’s part of why we don’t hear their songs. i went back inside to continue painting. About ten minutes later i heard some sharp chirps, then a weird laughter-sounding call, before the robin went back into it’s song.

i was touched by how shy this bird was that it only sung in the early hours of the morning. i felt a connection to the animal, being up before dawn working on my own art.

Days later, i guess the bird had become more familiar with me and it continued it’s song even when i noisily took out the trash right under the crepe myrtle. It’s been a week though and now the novelty of this bird has faded and it’s really getting on my nerves.

Yule

Worship the Sun

Live in a Tree

Party in the Woods

Watercolor Wednesdays

These are in order from newest to oldest. Last year a close friend of mine gave me a pack of watercolor pens while I was on an overseas trip. Every time I go to another country, I get inspired to create a new mode for my drawing practice. I think this is the result of a combination of an unusual amount of free time, a language barrier that protects my introverted ways and finally, a new environment and culture that offers an altered perspective.

Generally, I will combine the watercolors with black and white ink pens. I usually play with coloring within the lines, and then breaking with that structure. I'm sure you are using different parts of your brain when you go back and forth from pen & ink to watercolor. To me it reminds me of syncopation in music, or 'rocking the boat' as drummer Johnny Vidacovich would say. Breaking with the structure creates a tension.

On this trip, I had been taking pictures with my phone, trying to post daily drawings to a secret instagram account, just for myself. Traveling, having my smart phone instead of photoshop, I used an app to invert the drawings, and then bump up the contrast. When I got the watercolors as a gift, I couldn't wait to try this technique with them. I can be really exciting when you press that invert button because you never really know what the result will look like. I soon realized that it's better to plan and test the colors before investing time into the drawing. A limited palette usually works better.

 I know a lot artists and illustrators who participate in Inktober, and I love keeping up with their efforts, but that's not something I'm ready commit to. Fall is possibly the busiest time of year for me, so I would either burn out or embarrass myself by posting sucky drawings everyday. Instead, I reached a compromise by doing #watercolorwednesday. I'm not strict, but I try to do it every week. I don't feel bad if I miss it.

Storm Crew

I was driving alone from Memphis to New Orleans. It can be a long and boring drive, and I had a way to watch videos on my phone, so I put on Star Trek: Next Generation and set the phone on the speedometer so it was visible through the steering wheel. I wasn't really watching it but listening to the audio and taking a glance every now and then. Really, I just put it on to keep me company. Eventually, I started daydreaming that the phone was a window into the engine of the car. I imagined that the people on the bridge of the spaceship were little car operators! It was a funny idea. Maybe they thought they were in control of the car and they were unaware of me. Then, something weird happened. The story synced up with my reality. In the episode, they were approaching some kind of space storm. It was a massive cloud that was somehow very dangerous. They were preparing a plan, trying to decide if they could go through it or not. At the exact same time I was approaching a bad thunderstorm. It was uncanny, hearing them talk about the storm right in front of me. It was like we were all getting ready for it. Eventually I had to turn off the video and concentrate on driving through the storm. It was so bad that I pulled off to the side of the interstate with a lot of other cars to wait it out. 

Hello old friend

I miss this place! It feels so weird to have abandoned this blog after so many years. Life on Planet Earth is wild. Time flies. I'm back!

I can give you an update. Kong Wee and I have been installing more and more outdoor murals. It's been exciting and satisfying to work on a large scale. Putting things out in the physical world is so different than paper works we do that (hopefully) end up in someone's home. I love working outside and interacting with people on the street. Sometimes they're not into the art at all! It's funny, but it reminds me a lot of skateboarding, how it's a personal thing a public space, so there is an uncertain element to it. When we installed the sequin birds, I heard someone say,  "it looks like prom." Most of the feedback has been good, but honestly it's thrilling to get a critic.

Speaking of skateboarding, I got to check designing a deck off my bucket list. Last year I was so stoked to do a series of two board graphics for New Orleans' own Preservation Board Co. It meant so much to me that it was my hometown heroes who gave me that opportunity. Hope to do many more in the future! All my best to you. Will catch up soon. Peace!