I'm back in Baton Rouge, and I figured I'd give a li'l update on what's going on right now. I am moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina in February, which means I will be spending my last days in Brooklyn in January! I don't particularly want to move OUT of Brooklyn, but I really do want to move IN to Buenos Aires, so, Brooklyn, I'll be back... someday. I've got a free ticket & rent, with space for a studio, so I'm gonna work on my portfolio for grad school (California?) and refocus, take a breather. Figure out exactly what I want to do, and where. I love NY, but you're breaking my back and the timing's not right. As in, I don't have the money or the job to deal with you. And I can certainly deal with 5 dollar steak and wine meals. So, please! Visit me! Yes, the ticket might be expensive, but I'll have a nice setup for at least til the end of the summer of 07. After that-- maybe one of the two grad schools I'm applying to right now will smile and favor me, but I'm not expecting much.

Also-- the animation project is almost done! Yes, done!! Almost!! I'd still like to give it to Spencer or a professional sound designer, but it's got a pretty amazing temp track to it right now, and Nate and I have (well, really Nate) tweaked, re-edited, and polished the compositing so it looks pretty slick now. I will youtube it when I get the chance, unleash it to the public... FINALLY.

Anyways, these images are prints from Bill Cass' Intaglio class. I'm feeling particularly nostalgic for Denmark and certain people from that time, and the sad man above is my farewell to Brooklyn, ha. Oh, and I'll post some more youtube animation goodness soon, happy holidays people.

Dear friends,
Check out my illustrations at stylusmagazine.com, with a new one to come each week for the rest of December. Feel free to comment and let me know how much Nelly Furtado really doesn't look that much like Nelly Furtado, or how Marie Antoinette totally blows and shouldn't be on the top movie list illo. Check it!

PS The image above is phase two of a giant lindsay lohan poster collage that Nate DeYoung and myself are breaking our backs and knees over. "Ol' Firecrotch" should be done soon!

YOUTUBED ENABLED ANIMATION GOODNESS PT. TWO

Here are some French & North African animated commercials from the '50's... more to come later!

YOUTUBE ENABLED ANIMATION GOODNESS



"PEE-NUT" by PES. Here's my other favorite of theirs, which I am admittedly embarrassed to embed directly on my blog (wear headphones on the link).



"Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club music vid-- designed by James Rizzi, directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. James Brown dancing at 2:33 is not to be missed.



"Fast Film" by Virgil Widrich. I'm trying to temper my hyperbole here, but this 13 minute short really is amazing. Make sure to watch all of it, trust me, it gets only better. Happy Holidays!

Some sketches from Boundary Waters trip August 2006 (finally posted). Max's great poem not included. This post is also dedicated to my poor, beloved C.R.V. May she rest in pieces.

Apparently, New York hates me & my ears. I now have "myringitis" in my right ear (the other one), which basically is an irritated ear drum making everything around it, including my balance, unhappy. So if you see me on the ground somewhere, please lend an arm and hoist me up, and I'll thank you.

At least Ghostface is now officially my myspace friend. And this is, sorry again to use the hyperbole, is mindblowingly amazingly great!

So all these caricature-portraits were done for Stylus Magazine's end of the year Best Of lists (films, singles, albums)-- be sure to check out the final illustrations when they go up at the end of the year!

Ps. This is mindblowingly awesome (via Shurpa).

this



& this

were really good. And in other news, being employed in NYC is overrated. Screw you Conde Nast, I'm no cartographer. Sigh. Buenos Aires is looking more 'n' more appealing by the second. However, some good news is that a Chinatown doctor restored most of my hearing back! Yay! And I've got some illustration work going on! (Except it's all pro bono.) Meh!

Oh and here's some Rapture + animation sweet goodness, in a Yellow Submarine/graffiti sorta way (read: awesome).

So I'm kinda deaf in one ear now, I have a "oh yeah, that's pretty bad" (doctor's words quote unquote) ear infection, like I was seven years old. I was never a sickly kid and this is the second time I've ever had an ear infection, but man. Getting ill is unpleasant. The NYM hospital over here is like a bureaucratic nightmare, but creepy, where you run in circles to find the walk-in emergency room, finally find it, need to get directed to the triage, find the triage, fill out a form, get it punched, and then slip it to a little slit on a windowless door on an imposing wall, where then you wait to get reviewed, and then upon said review, move into the second circle of waiting, to finally be summoned to a hospital bed, and THEN wait again for the doctor to curtly diagnose you and give you paperwork.

So when you're waking up after a party to grab some aleve, head pounding and half of your hearing gone, finding the New York Marathon in full swing right on your street is a pretty arresting experience. This city never ceases to surprise and amaze.

P.S. the illo above was comissioned by Mr. Eddy over at FierceGameBiz. Not published yet, it's gotten 886 hits in two days at my Flickr site. Not a gamer myself, this floors me, this kind of intense anticipation. Whatever, I just better be getting me a free Wii out of the deal (ahem, Mr. Eddy).

Trick...


or Treat?


To be honest, I think it could go either way.

Fingers tightly crossed for a job here! Will say nothing more of it. I'm superstitious, I can't help it, I got it from mama. What I will say, is that this guy is awesome. And that this, is fascinating and heartbreaking. Dumbo is my favorite Disney animated movie, though can anybody really see that "Baby Mine" scene and not burst into tears? Ahh, those elephants get me everytime.

I've spent exactly 34 hours of my New York existence watching HBO's The Wire. That could seem like a very sad statement, and y'know, it is, but I like to see it more as faithful, attentative devotion. And hey, if Alex Kolowitz digs it as much as I do, then I at least have some sort of excuse.

In other, more productive news, Jen, Tom Lee, Pedro and I seem to be starting a design firm for musicians. Yep. I don't know lickety-split about bidnezz, but it seems like this could be a lot of fun. So, if you're in a band (of any kind), and need a kickass cd cover, poster, stickers, temp tatts, etc. etc. let US know! Also, if you are a whiz at Illustrator, let me know that too.

Sooo... not sure how long I will be staying in New York anymore. My boss who hired me left the company to start another one... though this other one has even more questionable questions and unsure backing. I don't want to leave, but I also don't want to be another of those living-off-daddy's-and-mommy's-money-in-the-big-city kids. No offense meant, in fact most of my good friends belong to the very same category, but it is something that makes me more anxious and restless than I usually am (and I usually am anxious and restless). Find me a cool job? Please? I'll be your best friend.

Around 3:30 a.m., under mild insomnia & general ache from an extended hangover, I started hearing an insistent yet quiet sssssszzzzzhhting sound. I investigated and found the ssssszzzzzhhting was coming out of the window; a kid was tagging the wall of my building! I almost wanted to say something, so I could join, but I figure it would be taken the wrong way, and I could end up scaring him away, or probably getting myself shot. However, his tag was "MOOSE!," so in hindsight, I think he wouldn't have minded.

Boom! Another post. This is a detail of an oil pastel thing (oil pastel= way underrated) I did last night. It's dedicated to Eileen, Sarahmaria and Zach, off a drunken late night picture from one 809 Noyes party, who knows which one. Just a little exercise to get into a groove. Groove been interrupted by deflating air mattressess, hungover days, visiting good friends, and also that trying-to-find-a-job thing. I'm trying not to be too much of a hermit, but it kinda goes with what I need to be doing here... it's not like I commute to Times Square for work (!) and talk to jazz musicians or Antartic explorers and bump into Jay-Z (unlike some friends). Speaking of which, my celebrity sighting here is a grand total of ZERO and I feel, like, so lame. Alex Mack was supposed to come to a shingdig here the other night, but I had too much JD and wouldn't even've remembered if she did. College is apparently not over til I say so.

What up! Does anybody check this site anymore? Well, if you do, I plan on updating this thing more on a regular schedule, as now that I've moved into The Big City, I'm a bit more receptive on entertaining my thoughts/art innerwards and internetwards... I guess. Big city, lots to digest, lots and lots of everything. Anyways, these are some illys I did for UJI (United Jazz International), which is a new company that promises revolution!, so we'll see how that pans out. NYC is great, NYC is intense, I sleep on the floor, the ground rumbles and shakes, I wake up sore and hungover. I think I can get used to living here, so maybe you can give me a steady job?