franzeseinklings

Just for fun!

2011-06-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

Shot a video for my favorite client and posted it to YouTube! 8000 hits in just a week! Sweet.

If I've already forced you to watch it. read an old post or head out to somewhere fun.

Thanks for coming!

Cheers!

Go sale-ing with Hilton!

2011-05-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not a sailor. To be honest, I don't like the water much. It probably stems from seeing Jaws, the Posiedon Adventure and Lifeboat as a child. No, I'm not much of a sailor, but I do understand tacking. The act of sailing in a diagonal pattern to move forward against the wind.

I went out on a friends boat once and he showed my how it works. I probably couldn't do it, but I understand it. In sales and advertising you could define it as "changing ones course or conduct to get to the a desired point". At least, that's how I think of it and how it will matter within the framework of this post. And yes, it's kind of a funny story to my sense of humor.

I went to NYC this weekend with my wife. We love to go and see a play or two, see a museum or two, hang out in a good restaurant with some good food. It's a quick way to get out of Chicago without the pressure of a real vacation. Just a couple of days to ease a mind and not think about work or all the things I should be fixing around my house.

This weekend was no exception. Had a great time seeing "Good People" with Frances McDormand and a great exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum "Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef and Arpels". I was fascinated by how detailed the design work is that goes into fine jewerly making. There was also another exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt on Sonia Delaunay that was also fascinating, but I digress.

How does the Hilton and sailing relate to my general ramblings on design and advertising? I'll get there, but first a little background. I stay at a lot of Hilton properties. I have been a member of their rewards program for years and have gotten a lot out of it. I find hotel reward programs work way better than airline programs because hotels are expensive and a $400 a night room multiplied by two nights is a bigger savings than a flight to New York. The rooms are always clean, their staff are always nice and in general I always have a good stay.

My friend Brian Ahearn blogs and his site "Influence People" relates information on how to properly and ethically influence people. This story will give an example of how NOT to do this. I should have titled the post, "How to never sell anything to an ad guy or anyone else with half a brain."

We arrived ion Friday afternoon. After checking in we decided lunch was in order, then off to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and a nice walk through Central Park. It was a beautiful day. Maybe a cocktail on a terrace somewhere later. Good fun.

On the way out of the hotel we were stopped by a nice woman asking if we were reward members. I said, "Yes". She asked if I would be interested in a "free" breakfast if they could take up a little of my time. Not being completely stupid I figured they would be trying to sell me something, but she was offering free breakfast and, get this, $125.

As a freelancer $125 for an hour or so of my time is good money. I told her she could sign me up, but that I hadn't made a lot of plans for the weekend and wasn't going to guarantee that I would be there. If I showed up, I showed up, but don't hold your breath. She gave us an invitation and off we went.

The next day she called to confirm my coming, on Sunday morning, to the breakfast. I reminded her that I didn't guarantee anything and wouldn't again. In fact, her calling was making me not want to go, but it was her job to call so I didn't bust her too much for it. "Fine", I said, "maybe I'll be there. Once again, don't wait on me."

Saturday came and went. Another beautiful day in a beautiful city with plenty to do and see.

Then came Sunday morning. I tried to sleep in, but at my age that's a fading dream. It was around 9:30 a.m. when I got up. The breakfast was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and was a few blocks away on the way to the airport. My wife and I figured, $125 bucks, some free food, listen to something and we're out. Let the fun begin.

When we arrived we were asked "What do you know about time share?"

Ah, so it was a time share deal from Hilton. "Not a lot." I said, playing my role as the hick who just got sucked into a time share sale for $125 dollars. Would there be steak knives? I got a little excited. Don't really need steak knives, but wouldn't it be great? My wife and I shared a laugh and got on the elevator.

Upstairs we were greeted very warmly and offered coffee. Looking good, free stuff already. We laughed again and waited patiently for "our representative" to come get us and explain this "exciting new program". We laughed some more. Okay, in for a penny, etc.

Our representative came out and greeted us, once again very warmly, but the poor boy seemed confused.

"Where ya from?" he asked.

"Chicago." I replied.

"How long ya been there?" he asked.

"25 years." I said.

"You like it?" He asked.

What? Do I like it? I've been there for 25 years. If I didn't like it wouldn't that make me some kind of martyr or idiot? Maybe he didn't hear me. "Sure, I like it."

"Are you married?" he asked. Obviously not noticing my wedding ring, wife or the one set of luggage. The last time somebody asked this my wife replied, "Do you mean to each other?" I prepared for the joke, but she didn't bite.

"Yes. For 15 years." I said.

"Do you like it?" he said.

Really, what kind of an ass do you take me for. Even if I didn't like it was this a test to see if I would say something in front of my wife? Did I like where I lived? Did I like being married to who you assume is my wife? Was I going to break down in front of you and say,"God no, I hate my life. Please, Mister, take me away! Take to this fabulous place called Hilton!"

I glanced at my wife, and we shared another laugh. Was this guy for real?

He escorted us to a desk. The place was full of desks and lots of people were at them signing paperwork and discussing all the great things time share could do for them. He showed us where the food was, my real reason for being here since I assume they weren't going to show me any cash until the end. We got something to eat and sat down with him at his desk. Let the pitch begin.

"This is not about time share." he started. Really, that's not what your girl at the front desk said. "What if I could show you an opportunity..." At this point my hackles went up. Everyone in advertising knows the word "opportunity" means "a way for you to eat a whole lot of crap with little or no reward". It's a word an account guy uses when asking you to do a favor for a client. It's the word your boss uses when a client puts his business up for review and you know as the incumbent your odds of keeping the business are 100-1.

He asked more questions.

"How often do you travel?" "How much do you think you spend on hotels?" More questions, at the end of each reply he repeated my answers back to me in the form of a question as if he didn't know what I said and he needed to check. Some were valid questions and I just adored how every time I gave him an answer he checked it with my wife to see if I might be lying to him. At one point asking my wife if what I was telling him was true.

Then came the question about "making a decision today". My wife told him, very pointedly,"we don't make decisions that way. We won't sign anything today." I agreed. "I don't do business that way." I said, "People don't do business that way." ABC, a friend reminded me "Always, Be, Closing!"

Her tactic seemed to befuddle him. "I walk into Best Buy, not really wanting anything and sometimes I buy things right there on the spot." he said.

"I buy gum that way, sure. I don't buy property that way." I said.

We argued a little more about the virtues and vices of what to buy and when, suddenly coming to the realization that we were in the middle of a Mamet play heading towards Kafka. (See the link at the end of the post)

Finally, he asked a good one, "Why are you here?"

"Me, I'm here because you're worth $125 to me. Beyond that I don't mind listening to people if they have something to offer." I laid it out on the table fondly remembering Alec Baldwin. "What's my name?"

Now, I'm not the best negotiator in the world, but after the 30 minutes of back and forth I expected him to realize why we were there. I expected him to tack. If he had half a brain in his head he would have changed his tactics, dropped the used car salesman bullshit and talked to me like a person about their deal. After all "I walked on the lot".

I was willing to listen, I wanted the money and frankly, they started this. I just didn't want to have to wade through his schtick to get there. My wife told him as much. We own our own companies, she was in sales for years, drop the schtick and get to the deal. Tack, son, change your behavior to keep the sale going.

He was undeterred. Just like the telemarketers that get thrown when you interrupt their reading of a sales pitch. He stopped and went to consult his boss. We laughed. He's probably in the breakroom regretting his decision to pick us as his rubes for the day. He'll probably change tactics and we can move along.

Wrong again. He came back and launched into the same spiel of asking me questions designed to get me to agree with him. "Do you think it's smart to throw away money?", "Do you think it's smart to get something for nothing?" Do I think it's smart to put a gun to my head and pull the trigger? Do I think it's smart to burn $100 bills while dancing naked in traffic? Who was this genius?

I said, "I get what you're trying to do. Fine. Yes, to all of your questions. It is much smarter to not throw money down a toilet. I agree. Move on to the sale. How much and what do I get for it?"

"Well, I'm not trying to sell you anything." Really? "I'm offering you an opportunity." Again with the "opportunity". It had now become comical.

"Fine. What is the opportunity?"

"Let me ask you a question..." he started, I cut him off.

Fine, I'll tack. "I have a plane to catch, you have about 20 minutes to get through all this." I said.

"What? You committed to 90 minutes." he said.

"No, I didn't "commit" to anything and if you can't get to the deal without another question we can call it right here."

"Let me ask you...." Done.

We stood up. "Look, we're done here. You have my email, if you send me the information, I'll go over it and let you know." At this point we knew we weren't going to see our $125, but we did get free coffee, and a nosh. Still in the win column for me.

Will I still stay at Hilton properties? Sure, they're everywhere. Will I still try and get free steak knives if someone offers them to me? Sure, I'll bite. Will I see through your used car salesman bullshit and call you on the carpet for trying it with me because I find it insulting? You're damn right I will. I've seen how these guys were trained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI. Thank you Mr. mamet and Mr. Baldwin.

Tack, Hilton. Change the direction and adjust the course next time if you want to keep the sale alive. Next time you may be able to close.

Cheers!

The Blank Page

2011-04-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

It stares back you. Haunting in it's vast emptiness. Like looking into a blizzard without the excitement of motion. The Blank Freakin' Page.

Like a horror movie it can do you no actual harm, but it can give you chills and instill in one a feeling of despair. I have stared at a lot of blank pages in my life. At it's basest level it is my job.

As a creative professional my job begins with the gathering of information. I talk to clients, read way too much information about their business, pore through vast amounts of information that has everything and nothing to do with their business, get my mind in a whirl about anything and everything "them". Stir up every bit of excitement and energy about who, what, where, when and why they are. Then I sit down with a blank sheet of paper and fear sets in.

That's usually a great time to go to the movies.

I read a book once a long time ago, not my only book but this one was important to me. I have no idea what it was called or who wrote it and if you do, let me know because I would love to have a copy of it. It was an old book about creativity and how to get your thoughts moving in the right direction. It was short, maybe a hundred pages or so. It talked about filling your head with as much information as possible surrounding what you were working on, get your brain whirling as I said earlier, then walk away.

Walk away and allow your subconscious to process all of that information. After a little time the ideas would come more naturally because your brain would have assimilated all of the requisite info and your conscious self could then sort the relevant from the irrelevant and help you process the interesting from the dull.

You'd have to ask my clients whether or not they think the technique works well for me, but I haven't heard any complaints so I'll assume it's doing pretty good.

This technique doesn't solve the problem of the blank page, but it does help to calm the fear that pervades those initial instances.

I had a serious case of "creative block" a few years ago. I was working with a new partner (and it had nothing to do with her, it had set in a few days earlier) and I tried to tell her, but it was hard to explain. She thought it was her and her ideas that I couldn't come around on. That was not true. Her ideas were sound, but no matter how I tried I could come up with none, zero, nada ideas, nor could I come up with anything resembling a workable layout. It was, as they might say in Boston "wicked scary". I felt miserable. For me and for what it did for her.

It lasted about two weeks (which seemed like an eternity) and no matter what I tried nothing came into my head. It was as if I couldn't think properly. Everything I knew had gone out of my head. I actually thought my career might be over. Panic set in one day on a bus ride so bad I almost cried. Almost.

I got home that night pulled out a blank piece of paper and started drawing. I wasn't drawing anything. It was more like scribbling. I took a pencil and just created shapes, scrapes, scratches on the page. I tried to fill the page up, to cover it completely, to wipe out the blank page and replace it with an image, any image. I didn't care what it became I just had to erase the blank page.

Well, the scribbles and scratches, turned into doodles, which turned into more pages of doodles which turned into some figures and some little cartoons. (The examples here are not from that time, but just representational). Nothing substantial had come of any of the drawing except that the next day I had some thoughts. Not big ones, but enough to get back to work with my partner, create a few layouts and get through a meeting. The ideas went to the client, but did not sell. That honor went to a competing team, but the block had been taken down (notice I didn't say destroyed or eliminated, because it is always there hanging in the periphery waiting for it's chance to return) and I was back to creating.

Whew, crisis averted.

Well, look at that. I just covered up another blank page.

Cheers!

Opening day and some other bits!

2011-03-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Tomorrow, or I guess today is opening day for baseball season.

I've never been much of a fan of the game, but I do love all of the peripheral drinking that goes on whether it is at a game or just sitting in a bar "watching" it on TV. As I've discussed here before I do like a cocktail now and again.

I live in Chicago right near Wrigley Field , the home of the Chicago Cubs and I like to think of this as the silly season.

Everyday I walk my wife halfway to work. I turn around and she continues on. Then she walks home. Some days I meet her on the walk some days I stay at my desk, it all depends. We call it the silly season because we used to walk our great danes Hank and Pearl to work a lot during the year and if there was a game on things got silly. Any time you walk by a bar full of people having a good time with over 300 lbs. of dogs people are bound to comment.

The dogs have both passed away, but it was funny to hear all the requisite jokes. "Hey, you got a saddle for that thing!" "Damn, that dog's big!" "Can I get a ride?" No, seriously, dunk dude, I never thought of that! Annoying, but now without the pups I do kind of miss it.

So baseball is here, Spring can't be too far behind so I guess my thoughts will turn to advertising.

Used to be the springtime would bring a little extra work through the door. Clients apparently would get antsy and need to ramp up the pitches, refresh the pool, some folks would go on vacation. Things would just speed up a bit. It was nice.

This year things are picking up a little. Not as fast as past years, but I do think people are loosening their wallets a scoche. A lot of big accounts have certainly started moving around. Could be good news for many of us on the front lines, but I try never to get my hopes up. We'll see is always a healthy attitude.

Got a nice note from my friend Steve the other day about turning this blog into something helpful to others which is what his blog does (you can find him @ http://thunderclapcg.com/). His company is dedicated to driving new business for agencies and I like a lot of his thinking. Check it out if you get a chance.

I think it's a good idea, helping people. I spent a lot of last year trying not to get bogged down in politics and doing a bad job of it. (Sidenote: if I post crap on my FaceBook page you can hide me and don't have to listen to me, but stop trying to pick a fight with me if you disagree with my viewpoint. I don't jump onto your page and post my leftie ramblings so don't do it to mine. nuff said. Sidenote over) Of course, I'm still looking for what exactly it is I'm doing here, but if someone thinks of something let me know. I'm definitely gonna work with Steve's ideas and new topics are always good.

Helpful hint #1: Don't blog in the middle of the night.

Although I'm not really sure when I'm supposed to do it. I started tweeting and I'm still a little unsure what to do there. Everyone seems to retweet fantastic articles, which is great except I can't seem to find the time to read them all and retweet them to others. I have two novels I'm supposed to be reading right now, so I can design their book covers, along with work (which as I said has picked up), taxes are coming (I've already had the accountant file an extension prophylactically), man, it's busy.

I suppose I shouldn't complain. I could live in Libya or some other hotspot that's getting the crap bombed out of it.

Helpful tip #2: Stop complaining.

Honestly, I'm not a coal miner or a revolutionary, I'm not getting shot at in Afganistan or Iraq and I'm pretty sure my wife still likes me so what do I really (and most people in this country) really have to complain about?

That's enough helping for now.

Here's a pretty picture:

George Bernard Shaw. A very good writer. I like his plays a lot. He also makes a good subject for a drawing.

You may have noticed I did not (and will no longer) state that I am changing a subject before doing so. As I heard a long time ago, "Seques are for babies." Of course, "Segways" are for tourists, but I digress.

Cheers!

Father, forgive me for I have sinned...

2011-03-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

At least that's always the way it started when I was a kid. Confession, that is, for those of you who may not have gone to Catholic church when you were a child. I didn't go much and to say I'm a lapsed Catholic would be a slap in the face to every other lapsed Catholic on the planet. And no, this is not a religious post for I am not a religious man.

My sin has been letting this blog go fallow over the last few (okay 4) months. My sin was one of sloth I suppose against the new media of the world and myself. My sin has been learning to make time to actually sit, read, understand and comment on the world around me. I could say I've been busy, but most nights before I go to bed I generally waste a good hour or two reading HuffPo or playing Mahjong or doing something else equally wasteful.

Last year I challenged to myself to draw 100 pictures in 100 days and to force myself to sit here , day after day and record whatever came into my oversized bald melon. It was fun, but it was also a lot of work. After that I had a lot of trouble getting back into it. I wasn't sure if I had anything to say. I'm still a little unsure. I'll tell you right now I'm not sure I have "found" a voice yet, but I have decided to once more pursue this social media angle and see what comes of it. No apologies, just a lot more rambling. If you tune in great. If you tune out, s'okay. If you freak out, not really my problem.

My wife is an experienced blogger. I have friends who are always blogging. I like to read what they have to say and find interesting tidbits everywhere. I also find stuff I don't need, nor care about, but to me I enjoy the process of finding so whatever I come up with is a win for me.

For you, maybe not so much.

Subject Change!

I showed at an art show a couple of years back. Nothing big, a very large group show here in Chicago called "Around the Coyote". It was my first show and I was all proud of myself for getting in there. I sold a few pieces, not much, but enough to make me smile and pay for a few beers. Good show I say!

One thing that sticks out in my head from that weekend was something my wife said. I'm not sure exactly what the words were, I have trouble remembering things exactly, but the gist was, "Well, looking at your stuff I'm not sure what your point is." She didn't mean she didn't like my art, or didn't see a "point" in creating it, she just didn't see my "voice" coming through on the wall.

See, I had nudes, sketches, some abstracts and a bunch of other pieces all over the wall. I understood exactly what she meant and as someone who loves to buy art and look at pieces in museums I totally "got it". The entire wall was a jumble. It could have been a gallery showing ten different artists for as much as they had in common.

The problem is that's exactly how my brain works. It's hard to explain to people and some might say it's a form of ADD or something, but in my mind I'm always thinking of something. Not something specific, not something that would save the world, cure cancer, help the poor, make a million dollars or even how to get through the day.

It's a jumble that skips and slogs from one point to the next with no clear direction. Sometimes there are distinct end points like a job. You are asked to get a certain bit of work done, design this, concepts for that, strategic positioning for the other, whatever. You set out to begin the task and you know where you need to end the task. If you followed my work process on a map it would look like I was on a Sunday drive with my, "We're not lost, just a little misplaced" mother. I lurch this way, I turn that way, I clean a kitchen, I read the paper, work on other things and I flop around until I get to the end. I always get there and everyone seems happy with my work, but I'm pretty sure if they watched it happen inside my head it would scare the shit out of them.

It's one of the reasons I called this blog, "Bits and pieces of a fractured mind." It's kind of the truth.

Subject Change!

What the heck is up with Libya? I know people are getting hurt and I feel for them, but man, I'm not sure we want to be a buttinsky again in another international conflict. I saw a post from a friend the other day that said a Tomahawk missile costs $600,000 dollars. That's a lotta money raining down on The dictator there. Just a thought.

Speaking of politics, I'm not going to go into too much here. It's too easy to set people off. I'm going to try to stick to design and art issues, but every now and then something will come out of my head. It's not there for debate really, it's just what "I" think at that moment. If you would like to debate I will have cocktails with anyone who wants to debate, but I won't do it on the internet. Email me and we'll work something out.

Subject Change!

I saw this the other day, http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/japan-creative-response and wondered, "Really." Is everything an argument now? Some designers create artwork and sell it to raise money for the Red Cross in Japan and we're debating whether or not this is the way to help?

Seems to me, if my house was on fire and my neighbor decided to sell tickets and beer to people while they watch, but then donated all the money to me to help me rebuild I wouldn't think twice. He was trying to help. He isn't a fireman, he couldn't put out the flames, but he did what he could and I was the beneficiary.

That's the way I look at it. Artists can't fly over to Japan and help reset a nuclear reactor. Well, they could, but my guess is would be the best looking most dangerous freakin' place in the world and would still blow up, but it would probably make a very interesting statement as it did so, but that's not the point. They're doing what they know how to do and finding a way to make it work. They should be commended, not derided.

Some people brought up the comment of what you do with the poster or artwork. Should you hang it in your home? Is it a testimony to your goodness for buying one? I don't know. I think they should be put in history books to memorialize the moment. Back in the day they used to create memorials years after something happened and people raised craploads of money to do it. These days you can do it in an instant and send it all around the world in seconds. It's pretty powerful stuff if you think about it.

They didn't raise money to create a memorial they created a memorial to raise money and help people they don't even know. Wow.

At least that's what I think.

Comment freely if you want otherwise I'll see you back here very soon. I will try to be here once a week, but I may get sidetracked as I said earlier.

Back to where we started, who might one confess to about social media neglect? Mark Zuckerberg? Jack Dorsey? Ashton Kutcher?

Cheers!

2010-10-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

Well, here we are in the midst of election season. Are you tired of it yet? I know I am. The name calling, bile spewing, lies and distortions make for great fun, but after a few years of listening to it I'm kind of done. Politics is a messy business full of people not smart enough or talented enough to get into the entertainment industry. I suppose they have to do something for a living and to keep all those 24-hour news channels going. Keeps people in business I guess.

As one prone to doodling, today I have uploaded a few sketches done over the last couple of weeks. Inspired by the lovable antics of tea party hopefuls and the beautiful drawings of Heinrich Kley I post them here for your perusal. I posted the captions below because they can be hard to read.

Enjoy!

"How to Reform a Banker"

"The Tea Party aims... and shoots"

"Who Stole Sharon's Tea?"

"Don't Cry Palladino"

"The Constitutional Scholar"

I hope to get back into the "blogging" a little more in the future, but we'll see how everything goes.

Thanks for hanging around.

Cheers!

Summary Judgement

2010-03-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. My 100th barbarian image, inked and all. No, I didn't make it one hundred days, but I feel good that I completed the task (and 97 days straight was a pretty good run).

I posted the inked version and the pencil from the last post. I think I prefer the pencil. I am trying to work in ink, but keeping yourself loose enough to keep a sense of life in the image is something I still struggle with. I think it would also help if I drew smaller pictures. Whew, this one is about 20"x24" which is a lot of background to cover.

That said, I'm pretty happy with the image as it stands.

I have been very busy with work lately which is a good thing in this day and age. Although from the sounds coming out of my TV are telling me that things are looking up. I don't think we're out of the woods yet, but people are spending money, profits are up for oil and insurance companies, CEO compensation keeps rising. Heck, I think we're all gonna be fine.

Life goes on, as they say. If we stop and actually consider all the ills in the world, all the things that can stop us from moving forward, growing and just plain living our lives, I think we would just curl up in a ball and cry. No time for that.

I am always amazed at the heights and depths the human animal is capable of reaching. From the depths of hatred that can be seen across the world (easy Tea Baggers, I'll get to you in a few, be patient) to the outpouring of dollars and help given to Haiti. It is jaw dropping.

I know that people can be passionate about things that they care about. I am. I get very riled up when discussing (some would say arguing) about things. I once had a very, mostly fun, but people thought it was real, argument about whether or not Santa Claus should be investigated for animal cruelty and discrimination due to his well documented abuse of Rudolf the "red nosed" Reindeer. I do love me a good argument, but I try not to feel "hate" towards my opponent and I hope they feel the same.

The degrees to which rhetoric has come in this country truly makes me sad. We actually have people openly talking about rebellion as if we are some third world country run by thugs. What has turned people into this unruly mob? I would love to know.

Now, this is not a set up to bash Tea Baggers. I actually think they make some valid points. People are scared. Their jobs aren't safe, they've overextended themselves and are feeling the crushing weight of not only their debt, but the deb Congress has raked up over the last few decades. But they also make some wild allegations, lies and ginned up conspiracies. And their "leaders", if you can call them that, are only stoking those fires. To me that is to their cause's detriment. If they actually came out to have an intense discussion on a topic instead of just "riling up the base", I might actually take the time to listen.

I'll wrap it up for now, but I want to leave you with this thought for the day.

It's easier to find a parking space if you turn the radio down and concentrate.

Cheers!

So close!

2010-02-26T14:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, after way too long avoiding the inevitable, I am trying to get to working on this blog again. That said, I am going to try turning it into an image per week going forward. After 97 straight days of barbarians I crapped out. Below is the image I am currently working on.

This could be considered the 99 and a half barbarian image. I have been working on it sporadically for a few weeks and I am going to start inking it this weekend. I thought I would post the pencil first since my inking may ruin the entire thing.

Lately, I've been running my artistic life like Congress runs this country, sporadically, badly and mostly just not getting anything done. I could blame it on too much work. I could blame it on Republicans not allowing me to do my job, but the plain and simple truth is I have been lazy. Yes I have been working, but I have also been watching a little too much TV, drinking, hanging out with friends and avoiding art in general.

Why? I don't know. I love to draw and the barbarians were a hoot to work on. Maybe I just burnt myself out. Who cares. I am now trying to get back on the horse. I hope some people are still paying attention.

I won't rant on today because there's just too much to say, but I am ramping up and the rants are coming back. Healthcare reform, Liz Cheney, Walter Koenig's son, the Olympics and a recent MRI all come to mind as a starting point, but my thoughts are a little scattered right now due to some generic Vicodin that will help me sleep.

As soon as the inks are done on this piece I'll post it.

Cheers!

I'm workin' on it

2010-01-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

In trying to create a last Barbarian picture I have become distracted and the holidays didn't help.

As I say, I'm workin' on it, but until I can finish here's a quick article that made me smile. There are still good people in this world and we should all learn from it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-good-samaritan-06-jan06,0,4136827.story

Let's talk soon (I hope to try and finish something this weekend. )

Cheers!

I'm just sayin'!

2009-12-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

Just a few sketches from the other night.

I was sitting around watching TV and letting the pencil roam over the pages. In the second image I got a little more serious although I did stay very rough.

This brings us to Image number 99 of the barbarians project. I guess that means I really need to do something special for the next one. Yikes. I had enough trouble getting this far I'm not so sure I can top it. Well, these days I have been taking more time with the images, so hopefully I'll have something impressive to show you.

On to other topics.

Well, last time we talked (or rather I talked you read, but hopefully you had some intelligent responses that you mouthed to yourself or grumbled under your breath) I mentioned trying to do at least one nice thing per day as a way to help me, and you, get over everyone being so angry and negative all the time.

I truly believe that we have come to a point in this society where everyone only worries about themselves. I think ware truly in the midst of the "me" generation. Now, I don't want people to think I'm some kind of socialist. I understand wanting to get ahead, wanting to have a little more, but does it have to come at the expense of someone else?

Example: Just today I was driving the car and came up to a "Stop" sign. Some !@#$%^ pulled up alongside me and tried to fly by on the right. As many of you know, I'm not one to remain calm during this type of situation and gunned my engine to stop him from cutting me off. In my dream of dreams he would run headlong into the beer truck that was at the corner, but I was denied. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I was being mature, but I'll be damned if some immature idiot is going to pull that crap on me and everyone else who was waiting patiently at the crosswalk. Of cousre, just to teach "Leadfoot" a lesson I also drove the exact speed limit until he got fed up and turned, giving me a farewell salute that I heartily gave right back.

I have to admit, I've had it. People in this country are so self-centered, so worried about how they might be put out by anyone else that something has to be done. This may just make me angry enough to go into politics. Although as we all know my background would never stand up to the piousness of the voting public. Of course, these are the same geniuses (me included) that vote into power every year another egocentric, power hungry self-obsessed moron that just goes to Washington or the state capitol to get a better view on how to screw over the population.

Here in Illinois the papers are constantly stunned when a politician gets his/her hand caught in the cookie jar or up some young woman's skirt. I say to the newspapers find me a politician that isn't trying to screw us over and then I'll read a story with my mouth agape.

If I have to watch one more interview with an idiot from the previous administration blaming the current one for all the problems the last three administrations caused I'll puke and while I'm down there I'll remember how the current crop of morons in Washington can't seem to get anything done because they're all up there attempting to protect their powerbases instead of doing the job we're paying them for, which is to get this country fixed and get our armed forces back where they belong. Hey Joe Lieberman could you be a bigger jagoff?

Ugh. Well, thank God that rant's over. Too much coffee and NPR I suppose. I should probably go back to drinking too much and being oblivious. Which reminds me Friday's coming. Woot!

Okay, not the greatest of days to be writing on my blog so I'll take a breath and come back to you with something worthwhile. Maybe a short story or something.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Cheers!

OMG! Finally.

2009-12-09T09:52:00.001-08:00

Well, I am finally back to finish up these Barbarian images. What a month it's been. First let's start with today's image(s). There are two, but I'm only counting them as one since the actual barbarian image was drawn off of the first.

Friends of mine recently had a baby. Ray came into the world a little early and has to remain in the hospital for a few weeks, but it looks like all will be fine and his parents are able to get a little extra sleep before he comes home.

Anyway, my friend Susan asked me if I could draw a funny picture of him and I did. After seeing it I thought it would make a great barbarian baby shot. You be the judge, but I find it amusing. Of course, I also enjoy watching YouTube videos of people being hit in the head. What are you gonna do?

So that now brings us to number 98 of my 100 Barbarians project.

Well, what has kept me busy for the last month or so that I haven't been posting? I would like to say that it was trying to get a healthcare bill through the House and Senate, but those of you that know me know that I trust my government to get those kind of.....Aw, c'mon we all know that's not gonna happen. Democrats and Republicans couldn't come together to help anyone in this country except themselves even if we paid them. Oh, that's right we do.

No, I haven't been busy working on large issues, but I have been busy working and a little burnt out. I traveled a lot around the Midwest in a car talking to people in the yarn industry, I did a some freelance work, had a lovely Thanksgiving Day weekend, made a lot of phone calls and generally felt to overwhelmed to draw. I just had too much trouble putting pencil to paper. Call it artists block or artists complete avoidance or just plain lazy.

But that's over now. It's time to get back into the groove, draw a lot of pictures, rant and rave about whatever comes into my big, bald melon and basically stir up a few provocative thoughts. Okay, that sounds like a tall order, but I promise to do my best.

Let's start with X-mas? Has the war against it started yet? Or do we have something real to argue about this year? I, myself don't necessarily celebrate Christmas. Nothing against it and my wife and I exchange small gifts, but we don't get into it the way others generally do. If you celebrate, great, if you don't great. Please tell Glenn Beck I couldn't care less.

This year we are headed to Virginia to celebrate with my 92 year old mother-in-law. I think I've mentioned Mary before. She is a wonderful lady. She's losing some of her mental acuity, but her spirit is still there and so is her sense of humor. We'll have a quiet dinner because Mary can't handle too much excitement, but we always have a pretty good time.

Frankly, these days I can't handle that much excitement. I have tried to stop watching the news, driving in Chicago gives my blood pressure a rise and if I see one more act of littering perpetrated by anyone over the age of 4 they're going to get a real beating. People under 4 tend to be exempt becasue they're new here, but I might give the parents an earful.

What is it with throwing things away properly? Why is it so hard? Why can't you take your stupid Starbuck's cup and walk it the extra five feet to a garbage can? Why must you always leave them at bus stops, next to the curb or on top of a newspaper box? Did you grow up in a cesspool? (I use the term "you" to encapsulate all litterers, not "you" the people reading this....unless of course, you are litterers, then, well, you get the point).

Why don't we try this: Everyone try and do one nice thing a day. Just one. Help an old lady cross the street, pick up some random trash, give that person with a lost look directions. It is my belief that if people tried to do this on any given day, just one random act of selflessness they might see that it makes them feel just as good as it sounds when you hear of someone else doing it.

Moving on, well, actually it's moving on to sleep. Once more I have waited until late in the evening to post my random thoughts and am too tired to slog on with the rest of them.

Provocative thought of the day: If Dick Cheney can call the Barrack Obama a traitor on national television does it make him seem more or less pathetic as a human being?

Until tomorrow, pick that up!

Cheers.

Trying to keep up

2009-10-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Just a quick post of a sketch I did today. Man it is really hard to keep up with this drawing business when your real life becomes busy.

Number 97 Enjoy!

2009-10-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Tonight I have what might be considered a special treat. I have 2 sketches (Barbarians 95 and 96 for those keeping count) the first is just a guy I sketched during a meeting today and the other is a sketch I did at lunch while remembering the prologue to a story I had written last year. It was supposed to be the opening pages to a graphic novel and someday it just might be, but tonight I thought I would post the images and the prologue from that story for your amusement.

Enjoy!

Prologue

She looked down at his naked body and thought about what she was about to do. A smile crossed her face and a laugh began in her throat. She had almost loved him, this man. This pure, beautiful, naked man that lay before her.

She had known of him for only a few short years. Before they met she had heard the stories of his adventures. All the stories told in beer halls and courts across the Great Continent. She had heard the stories and wondered if any one man could have been that brave, that pure, and that beautiful. The very first time she saw him she thought all those stories might just be true.

It was shortly after the Great War. He was sent as an emissary from his King with orders to make peace with her newfound country. He was so strong. When he entered the room everyone turned to look. He commanded it. He deserved it. He was the epitome of strength and honor. She was taken aback at their first meeting. She hadn’t expected that.

The queen was a beautiful woman. She was so beautiful that men, even without her enchantments, usually fell over at the sight of her, but not him. No, this one was a different breed. She had tried to seduce him. Why not, she thought, to bed a king’s messenger was not new to her, but he would not be swayed. When she tried to cast her spells on him he sensed them and was powerful enough to resist her. This excited her even more. Here was a man that would take some doing. Here was a man that might actually be worthy of her.

Over the next few weeks as lower diplomats argued and worked out small details, they would take long walks together and discuss the bigger parts of the peace plan. It was on those walks that she saw where the stories had come from. Here was a man that was not to be taken lightly. He knew his way around her flirtations as well as he knew his way around a battlefield. She would push, he would pull, she would pull and he would turn. The verbal jousting they did was as exciting to her as an evening of passionate lovemaking. How could she ever forget a man like this, this man that lay before her now?

As she remembered those weeks her eyes lingered over his muscular body. His body was a roadmap of his life. The adventures, the wars, the barroom altercations, were written in the scars that covered him. A sword cut on his lower back, a burn on his forearm from an errant spell, discolored tissue around his knees that would never heal, the hairline cut from an assassin’s blade along his jaw line. Looking at the wounds she wondered if he was in constant pain. If he was he never showed it. His life was a life filled with violence. A life he was born to, but never seemed completely comfortable with. Pity, she thought, this man would have made a great king.

The knight lay there naked before her. The troll that had accompanied her had stripped him of all his armor and clothing. The queen held his weapons and holy symbols in a pouch in her hand. She would leave him here, stranded, thousands of miles from anything he was familiar with. She knew she could not kill him, no, she actually did have feelings for him, but he would not be allowed to interfere with her plans.

She began to recite the spell that she had worked on for so long, a spell that had cost the lives of a thousand slaves. As she whispered the incantation she saw the world trembling in her grasp. Yes, this was the moment of her greatest victory. As she finished the spell she knelt next to the handsome knight, licked his ear and whispered, “You were divine, in your time, warrior, but now you are just a man. Now and forever I will remember you, but you…will merely forget.”

With that she stood up, barked an order at the troll that was standing a few feet away. He came over to her and she cast again. This spell would take her back to her kingdom a half a world away. “Goodbye, Knight Commander. We shant meet again.” And with that she was gone leaving him with nothing. She had his armor, his weapons and his holy symbols. She had taken everything from him that made him who he was.

Or so she thought.

Hope you enjoyed it, maybe I will continue to post the story with images to go along. Let me just finish these barbarians first.

Cheers!

Finally!

2009-10-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

I'm back in! For the last few days Blogspot has been keeping me out. Who knows why? Computers get temperamental I suppose.

Sorry for the time away (if anyone was really worrying about not getting enough ranting and barbarians), but I have been on the road, got a little sick and couldn't figure out how to post from my Blackberry™. Now though I'm back and here are 4 images for your perusal. That brings us to 94 barbarian sketches. So I didn't really make it 100 days in a row, to be technical, but I'm going to be close and what more could you ask from a humble art director?

The first two pages are some sketches I was working on while on the road and the other two I did over the weekend. Very rough, but finding the time to draw gets harder with each passing day.

I don't know about you, but when I was 25 or so I didn't have a lot to do. Running regular errands, doing a little work, keeping up with friends and such, but days weren't really jam packed. My wife and I laugh that right before we met neither of us had a whole lot to do. Now, neither one of us can seem to get a few minutes to relax without having something come up that needs attending. And we don't even have kids!

I can't imagine how busy a person's life is with children. I have a dog and that seems like too much responsibility some days.

By the way, on days when a Great Dane has digestive problems you'll wish you picked up that cute little chihuahua you saw and thought was too little to be a real dog. Ugh.

Busy, busy, busy, that's life. Speaking of which I picked up a few days of freelance work and they expect me to show up at a reasonable hour so I have to shuffle off to sleep. Enjoy the pics and I will definitely be back here tomorrow.

Cheers!

2009-10-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

What is the point of telling a website to remember you when it refuses to? Facebook and Blogspot seem to be the biggest culprits of this little annoying habit. Ugh.

But enough complaining, here is number 90 and I'm going to let you enjoy it without all the pomp and circumstance of my ramblings because I'm tired and I don't feel well.

Until the 'morrow old friends.

Cheers!

Two for the price of one

2009-10-06T22:42:00.001-07:00

Well, here you go. To help me catch up on "100 Barbarians" today you get two images.

Both imagined in the same session. Two images from probably the same fight in my head. One sketch a little rougher than the other, but I think you get the point.

Now I'm down to eleven more images of barbarians and will keep posting this week, but it looks like next week I will once again be on the road so there me be another slow down. I know, I know, "What ever will I do without your daily drawings and observations, Michael?" is the question millions of people are asking themselves. My guess is you'll go on with your life as usual and good for you. You're probably spending too much time in front of a computer anyway. Get outside and smell the crisp fall air.

Oops, I thought I posted this last night. Obviously the cold I am fighting has creeped into my brain.

More tonight.

Cheers!

2009-10-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

This image I actually did earlier last week for my friend Brian at Influence People. His post this week is about giving sincere and honest appreciation. You should check it out.

Speaking of appreciation, I will only say it is a good thing. I know I work harder and try to do better if I see people appreciating what I do. I've also seen it work for me when I show people how much I appreciate appreciate them.

I used to take people out for lunch after we had finished a long or especially hard project. It was fun and a good way to let off steam. I've always thought it was an inexpensive way to show people how much you cared. You spent a little on food and had some great conversation, then it was back to the salt mine.

Day 86 of our 100 barbarians! Woot! Now I've got to do 3 more posts (I think) to catch up so I am off to do a lot more thinking to go with my drawings. I'll post another one later this afternoon. Still got to go to work y'know!

Cheers!

2009-10-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last Tuesday I went out of town and was computer deficient since last Thursday. I kept drawing, but could not publish. I tried it from my Blackberry™, but had no luck.

Now I'm back, baby and full of...well, I'm not really full of a whole bunch of new stories and opinions, but we'll see what I can come up with. This image is for Day 85. Just 15 days left in our "100 Barbarians in 100 days" postings.

I think after the "100" I'm going to try and branch out a little. I have been seeing some wonderful still life's lately and may try my hand. I did a little still life painting a few years ago, but my attention span just couldn't seem to keep up.

I went off to Wisconsin last week on a sales road trip. It was fun. I enjoy getting out into the world and meeting real people with real jobs. I've spent so much time in advertising and "meetings" that I think I may have forgotten what a real conversation can be.

I also like being on the road. It can be peaceful. Driving around letting your mind wander (while you try and read directions off a MapQuest™ printout and try not to hit and large farm animals). All in all good times.

I also saw a couple of good plays over the weekend. Although I will say the Eugene O'neill, depressing! Dude had some serious family issues.

Okay, enough for the first post back. I'm onto number 86.

Cheers!

Careful!

2009-09-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

You might slip and kill somebody! Oh, looks like you already did.

Accidents do happen, don't they?

Speaking of accidents I almost ran over a bicyclist today. It's not the first time. Cyclists in the Chicago area tend to not pay attention to street signs or stop lights. The odds of hitting one have to be pretty good for the amount of times I have jam on the brakes and yell profanities at them.

Thankfully, I am leaving the Chicago area for the weekend. My wife and I are going to Wisconsin to see some theater and take a little break.

We are headed to American Players Theater (APT) in Spring Green, Wisconsin. We'll spend Friday in Madison having a nice dinner and perusing the farmers market on Saturday morning. Then it's off to the theater.

APT is a wonderful outdoor amphitheater that hosts 5 (I believe it could be 6) plays all summer long. They have an ensemble cast that performs all the plays throughout the summer and fall and they always do a fantastic job. We've been going for years. If you ever get to Wisconsin you should look it up.

Speaking of looking up, did you hear there is water on the moon? Not a lot, but someday we may be able to use it as a launching pad for future exploration. Space 1999 anyone?

(And around the barn we go.)

I don't like slacks that have the pockets too far down on the sides. My keys are always falling out and I can never seem to get my hands in them to retrieve anything.

Dropped off some artwork for the Ravenswood Artwalk this weekend.

Made guacamole yesterday. I like tomatoes in my guacamole. Some people don't.

Have to remember to cash some checks and make some international phone calls.

(I'm back)

Anyway, besides bicyclists behaving badly I must say I am seeing more and more graffiti and littering popping up in my neighborhood. For some reason those two offenses are death penalty material for me. I' not sure why. Maybe it's the lack of respect for other peoples property. I don't know it just irks the heck out of me.

But enough rambling for this evening let me leave you with this thought:

Does the price of tea in China really have anything to do with anything and why should I care if I drink coffee?

Cheers!

Portrait of a killer

2009-09-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

This portrait is from the movie "The Man Who Laughs". It is an old German (I believe) film that Bob Kane used as a prototype for Batman's nemesis The Joker.

I was sketching it out knowing I had to draw a barbarian and then thought, "The Joker is pretty barbarous." My house my rules. It counts. It also gives me some breathing space to create more guys killing each other.

I am going out of town on Thursday and will have to try and sketch on the road, find a Kinko's and upload from there. We'll see if I can actually get it done. If not I'll post them all next week so I will still have completed a barbarian a day. That or I'll change the rules to,

"One hundred barbarians in 100 days (but not in a row)."

We'll see how it goes.

Cheers!

Shorter days

2009-09-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Today's image is kind of fun. It was inspired by my friend Brian's post on Influence People. He had a post about criticizing others as a no win situation due to the push back you get from the person you are criticizing (and I had some reference of a couple of sumo wrestlers). He ran this image on his post so I wanted to run it after he did.

It's funny where you come up with ideas. They seem to be all around if you're looking for them, but hard to capture when you actively try to chase them down. At least it is for me. Every time I sit down at the drawing board to come up with an idea my mind seems to go blank these days. Creativity is a tricky thing.

It's probably one of the reasons I've been posting images and just little short messages lately. I'm not going to apologize for it, but I would really rather do some bigger critical thinking on this blog and fitting it into my recent schedule has been quite a chore. I've been trying to stay out of the political realm because that's a zero sum game. I will come up for more of a direction for this blog soon, but for now please bear with me as I mill about directionless to see where the ideas go.

(Subject change. Hang on)

I have always found the word opportunity to mean one thing to myself and another thing to people in advertising. In advertising if anyone approaches you with an "opportunity" it usually means there will be no money, no creative control and usually a whole lot of work. I've decided recently that I will no longer be responding the same to these "opportunities". It's time for a change.

It's not that I don't like working hard, but the no money/no creative control option that people keep coming up with doesn't really fit for me. I was always under the impression that if you wanted someone to do something for you for FREE you offered them something in return. Apparently the rules have changed and I was not cc'ed on that memo.

My friend Brian understands this. He emails me with some thoughts and just asks if I have any images that might go with it. He leaves the creative part up to me. It's a fair trade. He helps me with the ideas and lets me be completely creative trusting that I am not going to offend his readers by being crass. We both benefit. That's an opportunity I enjoy.

Large charities seem to work differently. I have done more pro-bono work in my career than I care to admit and I have not been happy with one piece of it. I have never been able to use any of the work created to further my career. After the groupthink of some board of directors or "marketing" department gets involved the pieces are so mindless and uninspiring that I usually ask for my name to be removed and I throw them away.

The next time a charity asks me to do something they will have to give up something. I know they don't have any money, but what is it with giving up creative control? Do they think I am going to just put together a completely offensive piece to see what I can get away with? Do they think I value my own creativity so little that as a creative professional and communicator I am just going to throw all my knowledge out the window to do something "cool"? It's laughable that they would think so little of me.

I've got to run now, but we will explore this topic a lot tonight. I finally have an idea for a post, but time has run out for me because I have to be in a meeting in an hour.

Talk amongst yourselves. I'll be back this afternoon/evening.

Cheers!

She's a witch!

2009-09-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, more of a witch than a barbarian, but she'll do.

Cheers!

2009-09-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday night. A short post and an old picture. I did this one a while back, but I think it fits in the whole scheme of things.

Cheers!

2009-09-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

Pretty simple piece. Mostly because I'm too drunk to draw you a real picture and too upset to make it count.

Enjoy.

Cheers!

2009-09-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

Where did I leave that head?

Remember the ink pen I was telling you about? It's okay,but I don't know if I'm that happy with it. It sticks a little. Hopefully, time and usage will loosen it up. Oh, and animals are hard to draw when you don't have a lot of time.

I went to the theater tonight to see Arthur Miller's "All my sons." Great play, set just after WWII about a family trying to come to grips with the aftermath and some family secrets. I love me a good drama. It's much better when it's on the stage and not in your own house.

Short post tonight, lots to do in the a.m.

Think about this and we'll talk more tomorrow. Do you really think headhunters help? I have another meeting with one that I met over a year ago. They haven't gotten me any work, only one interview and now they're acting like they don't even know me. Is it me or should I be expecting them to see me as a piece of meat?

Cheers!

Before battle

2009-09-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Meditating before you go into battle. Clearing your head. A smart thing to do.

Every day when I sit down to work (okay, to look for work or to paint or draw) the first thing I usually do is clean the desk. This little bit of meditation, as I think about what I hope to accomplish during the day, is quite calming for me. I believe it helps me focus. It could also just be procrastination, but why linger on the negative?

I was talking to some friends the other day and they all seem to have a "ritual" of some sort before starting their day. Whether it's reading the paper, finishing that cup of coffee, or like me, cleaning your work area.

Of course, by the time I am three minutes into doing whatever it is I am starting to do, the desk and sometimes the entire office, becomes a complete shambles (there's an underused word "shambles"). Needless to say I am not a neat freak. I tend to get into a groove and keeping things neat and tidy just doesn't seem to fit into that groove.

Speaking of grooves, does anyone buy albums anymore? There is a store at the end of my block that has sold records for over twenty years. Yes, they have CD's, but they are still selling records. How cool is that? I wouldn't even know where to go to purchase a turntable.

I was listening to my Ipod tonight while I cooked chili for a party we are having this weekend. My Ipod is filled with songs from the 70's and 80's. This is the music that I enjoy, probably because I grew up in that era. I'm sure my college professor friends would say there is an proven link between the music and the carefree days of my long lost youth that I am constantly trying to reconnect with. Who knows, I just know that when "Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook plays I can't help but think of summertime in the city growing up. And when "That's the way I've always heard it should be" by Carly Simon comes on I get the distinct feeling that it is Sunday night and I have not completed my homework. Exciting and creepy at the same time.

I am supposed to go apple picking on Saturday...

(Does this post feel like the fractured ramblings of a confused mind? That's what it says at the top of the page so remember you asked for it.)

...but not a lot of people are going with me. A lot of people are coming over in the evening for cocktails, food and great conversation, but the shine, as they say, has worn off the apple of pretending to do migrant work.

I remember years ago we had a huge group that went (something like twenty people) and spent the day trudging through mud just to pick apples we could have gotten at a corner store. It was a fun time. I'm not complaining, I'm just remembering.

If I get one more email about how ED is ruining my life I may actually have to check into it. That, and I'm pretty close to to finding out how much money my friends in Nigeria are going to give me to help them release millions in Swiss bank account transfers! Yay!

Does anyone really buy this stuff? SPAM has been around for years, don't you think the human animal is smart enough to adapt? People, please, if it seems too good to be true it is! Look at Wall Street!

No, no, no, no economy talk today (struggle, struggle, struggle....gain control).

Did you ever notice the constant barrage of laundry that permeates your life. Even when you think you're done after you've just ironed 20 shirts you realize that you're wearing one and the cycle will never, I repeat never ever, be over. I don't think nudists have this problem.

Ah, anywho, got to call it a night, first of all because it is, and B because I have to finish a painting tomorrow, make a ton of phone calls and set up some meetings for next week. Which means I have to be at my desk bright and early to clean up the mess that I just finished making this evening.

And so the world turns.

Cheers!

2009-09-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

No. 76. Whew, still have 24 barbarians to go. I better start thinking of another project.

Used ink tonight. I found a fountain pen of my wife's, cleaned it out and screwed around with it for the evening. I think I would like it more if the tip was sharper like a crowquill pen. Just a little finer. The ink was also a little thinner, but I think that's just residual soap and water I used to clean it.

Speaking of cleaning....

Okay, I got nothin' with that. How about....

Just the other day I was thinking...

Who cares? It's late. We should all go to bed.

Cheers!

The gladiators...ooh look birds!

2009-09-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

I had composed 90% of this post this morning in the shower. Now that it is late at night I've completely forgotten whatever it was that struck me as so insightful this morning. Next time I think, okay I hope, I'll write it down. I always forget that you can write to this thing and just save it to edit later. It's not a Facebook post.

My memory seems to be taking a beating lately. I forget the simplest things and am distracted by almost everything that comes into my view. I leave the house knowing I am headed to the store, tell myself to make sure I grab some money and then promptly run down three flights of stairs before remembering that I needed some money. It's frustrating. It's not like I'm spending my time coming up with a cure for cancer, but my mind seems to be getting more and more muddled.

As my mother used to say, "You'd lose your head if it wasn't attached." When I was young I thought she was out of her mind, but lately I'm pretty sure I would misplace the damned thing, even with it's huge shiny veneer.

I always think to myself, "Someday I'll be smarter." Then I see our president (I no longer say "new", because after 6 months you legally have to stop saying "new") on Letterman sounding like he knows what he's doing and he's only 3 years older than me. I can't find my car keys and he can run a country. It irks me.

I used to think I was a pretty smart guy. These days I'm not so sure. After you search for a job long enough, even though the economy is in the crapper, you begin to doubt yourself. It's a hard thing to come back from. You begin to wonder whether or not you had the skills to do your job correctly in the first place. Then, you begin to wonder if there is another job out there you might be qualified for. Then you start to think about starting or buying a business.

My father was out of work for a few years in his fifties and he and my mother went out finally and bought a business. He figured if no one would give him a job he'd have to make one on his own. I'm starting to think that way.

But the problem keeps coming back to my memory. If I'm not smart enough to remember where I left my keys how can I be smart enough to run a business? Once more, it irks.

I don't want this post to sound like a big pity party. It's not. I do wonder though how you pick a new business or career to go into and know that it's the right decision.

Last year I almost bought a silk screen printing company. The deal fell through because they couldn't get their financials together to our satisfaction and at first I was a little disappointed. A few weeks ago my wife and I went to an art fair here in Chicago called the "Renegade Art Fair" and there were more silk screen printers there than I've ever seen in my life. The competition was fierce. I am so relieved I didn't buy that company now because I don't think it would have survived.

What are you gonna do? You move on with your life, look on the bright side, charge back up that hill and remember that grit and determination does...something, but I'm having trouble remembering.

Cheers!

Busy Weekend

2009-09-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Work, work, work, work. Well, if you enjoy your job it doesn't seem so bad, does it?

Speaking of work, I went to work with my wife this weekend and learned how to dye yarn. If you didn't know, my wife owns a small hand-dyed yarn company that produces yarn for knitters and people who crochet. It's called Lorna's Laces. If you see it in a store pick some up for a friend or loved one. Maybe you'll get a skein that I dyed!

She had some extra work to do this weekend and since the advertising business is bleak at best these days, I asked her if I could help her out in some way. She needed help dying yarn and I figured I could add a new skill to my repertoire (if you know any advertising agencies or clients that need a hand-dyer let me know). She didn't have me doing anything overly complex, just solid colors, but it was fun to work with her and learning new things is supposed to be good for me. One night this week I may learn how to do multi-colored yarns. Slow me down!

It was good for me. I had a great time and I think she appreciated it as well. It reminded me of when she first got into the business. We spent many late nights and weekends there those first few years.

A lot of people we know were working this weekend. It's something we all seem to be doing more of these days. It feels good to accomplish things, but it can become taxing, so if you're doing it make sure you take some time for yourself anyway. You don't want to burn out. Burn out is not fun.

Two flags!

(If you live near a Six Flags Theme Park you'll get that joke.)

Just noticed on Facebook that my friend Brian of the blog Influence People is going to Italy for a seminar. I am suddenly jealous.

I love Italy and really want to get back. If you've never been I cannot tell you how much you should go. It is a beautiful country. The food, wine and people are just wonderful and the art and architecture is nothing short of amazing.

I will say that I also want to go to Prague. I was having dinner with some friends last night and they said Prague was just amazing. Everyone I know who has been there just falls in love with it.

Here I go, just worked hard for one weekend and already I'm thinking about a vacation.

Maybe I should check out the ad industry in Poland? Or Italy?

Cheers!

Saturday Night

2009-09-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

A quick stroll through the swamps on your faithful steed?

I had this image in my head for a while. What if you could ride a bull as you do a horse. Scary for your enemies I suppose.

As you may have become accustomed it's Saturday night and the post is short. Tomorrow I'll have a long post about how I learned to hand-dye yarn this weekend. Until then...

Cheers!

Older and better?

2009-09-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

Who says an old guy can't enjoy a good beheading? Not me. The older you get the more... proficient you get. Wait, that doesn't sound good.

Moving on, I noticed the hair on my right shoulder this morning. Don't get creeped out, just yet. It was nothing special, I am not hirsute by any means, but while I stood there drying off I noticed that more hair had shown up on my right shoulder than my left and one of the little buggers was gray. I stopped looking right away and thus, for the time being, ended contemplating my mortality. I spent the better part of the morning trying to reposition this little gray hair as a fashion statement, but my guess is Heidi Klum would disagree with a wry "auf wiedersehen."

Let's talk about really scary things like aging.

I wear slippers now. No reason, I just saw them in a store and thought, "Hey those might be nice to wear around the house on a chilly night." What worries me more and more each day is that I find myself thinking of things I wouldn't have before. "Tums are helpful and even quite tasty." "Maybe I should try black licorice once more to see if I like it." "Where are my teeth?" Okay, the last one I made up, but honestly these phrases scare me as I approach middle age.

I am beginning to think that I am no longer the young buck I once was (I know what you're thinking, "Beginning to think? Ha!" but it's true). I just can't seem to wrap my head around being the old guy in the room. What used to be seen as "youthful exuberance" is now just "cranky old guy with a 'tude and, on a good day, a vocabulary."

Well, what are you gonna do? I can't stop time, but I can alter my situation by installing a screen door on my porch to kick open and yell, "HEY, YOU KIDS! GET OFF MY LAWN!" Embrace change as they say.

On another note, I've always thought that "time" cannot be a dimension. According to certain Euclidean space perceptions, the universe has three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. I'm not buying the fourth dimension angle because in time you can only move in one direction. In space you can always move in two (left, right, up, down, back, and forth). Some would argue that you can't move backward through time "yet", but I don't see that happening any time soon and I even have a reason why.

Time, to my thinking, is nothing more than a measurement of decay. Now, I don't mean decay as something horrific, although it does sound bad, but more as a progressive decline. If we hold that this is true then, per my theory, after each and every moment the previous moment ceases to exist. Which means you could never go back to it. It only exists as a thought in yours or somebody else's memory.

It could be why reunions are so scary and so fun at the same time. Your memory (and any errant pictures you happen to let someone take right then) are all that remains of that time. When you look back on them they are enhanced or diminished based on what you choose to think at that new moment. Conversely, it also is being viewed by everyone else at the party and this is where the scary part comes from.

(I have got to stop ending sentences in prepositions, but I can't stop myself. Except right there.
It's a bad habit that I gained from years of reading advertising copy. I have to stop over thinking it. It's not like famous authors don't do it all the time. After John Dryden first issued that doctrine it has been a thorn in the side of anyone on this side of grammar school. Bet you didn't know about John Dryden. I love the interwebs. But I digress.)

I heard a great phrase the other day. I think it was from a Harold Pinter play or Star Trek, I forget. Either way it went something like, "Memory is a velvet cloth placed over the tiles of our lives." Or some such. I thought that was just a great way to say that memories soften the harsh reality of our past.

As I get older that is the way I am going to choose to think of it.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have some meddling teenagers to scare out of my amusement park.

Cheers!

Man vs. Wild

2009-09-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

Hiding behind a tree with a couple of arrows in you. I bet Bear Grylls never had to deal with this.

Speaking of which, I love that show. Not that I am a hunter/camper/fisher guy, but man, you gotta give the guy on that show (and Les on Survivorman) credit. Those kinds of guys are tough. Me, I see a spider and squeal like a little girl. These guys would turn it into a meal.

I've never really liked the woods. I've camped in my life, but there's something about being out in nature that seems wrong. I'm an urban dweller by nature and the closest I like to get to roughing it is a Holiday Inn. I will admit to watching those shows and trying to remember everything I can though. You never know when your plane will go down leaving you stranded a hundred miles or more from civilization.

Survival is a funny thing. We watch people do crazy things on television, putting themselves in harms way on purpose, but did you ever think about how vulnerable you are on a day to day basis? People get injured and killed everyday just going about their mundane lives. I almost want to see a show where Bear Grylls or Les Stroud has to sit through an entire day of meetings. Traverse Michigan Avenue while dodging tourists and bike messengers. Catching a bus. Dealing with the idiots at the grocery store! All of them trying to kill them, not as fast as a king cobra or a polar bear, but just as sure.

I didn't quite finish tonight's sketch. I started to ink the barbarian himself, but then couldn't work out the background. I also did it on sketch paper instead of board or two-ply which turned out to be funny as ink went everywhere.

Side note: Prismacolor markers suck. I may have to go out and get a Rapidograph. I am using a crowquill pen and I love it, but I am having trouble building up the patience to keep dipping it in ink. I have always been a marker guy.

Got a lot of painting to do tomorrow and more practicing with ink and just to warn you I plan on reading a paper and watching the news tomorrow so the weekend posts may get political or at least funnier.

Cheers!

Oops!

2009-09-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

(It seems last nights post did not post. So here it is in it's very short entirety)

Y'know, nothing good ever crawls out of a pit in the basement.

Speaking of basements or at least outdoors in the garden since i don't have a basement. Rats. And I do mean rats. Got an exterminator coming by to try and drive them to other peoples buildings, but what are you gonna do when you live in the big city? Do you think anyone would ever wear a full length rat-skin coat? Would PETA be outraged? Or is this one idea they may go, "Well, they are rats. Kill'em!"

Gonna make it an early might and leave you With that thought because I'm tired and have a lot to do tomorrow.

Cheers!

Back and forth

2009-09-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Give and take. Up and down.

The art of compromise seems to be on vacation these days. Remember when a good negotiation was when everyone came away feeling they had gotten something? Why is it that these days someone must lose for someone to win? I don't get it.

I see it everyday. One person wants something, but refuses to give an inch to get it. They must have it all or they would rather the whole deal goes to pot. It's strange.

I took a class once on the proper art of negotiation. It was sponsored by the company I was working for at the time. It was great. A guy came in and taught us the subtleties (at least as much as you could pick up in two days) and really showed us how absolutes just ruin the process and people begin to feel cheated. I loved that class. Of course, when everyone went back to work it was business as usual and I never saw anyone use the techniques that were taught, but it was good information for me at least.

Absolutes get you nowhere. I know, people with all the power can and do use absolutes all the time, but in the end everyone they talk to will hate them. I, personally, don't want anyone hating me and think that those people will never get the respect they think they deserve.

I did some painting today (as I've said before segues are rare and sometimes very odd on this blog, hang on). I enjoyed it, but forgot how frustrating it can be. Even though I live in a colorful world translating that to canvas is quite troublesome for me. I like my little black and white sketches.

Tonight I scanned the entire page so you could see how my process works. I just sort of sketch around until something comes into my head then I try and finish that one out. I really like the super rough one in the middle, but couldn't quite figure out the composition.

It gets back into absolutes. (See, I got back on point. Sometimes I do like to run around that barn.) I sit there challenging myself to draw the entire picture correctly the first time and that never works. You have to move the pencils around and negotiate with yourself, the paper and the pencil to define the composition and realize your goal.

Some days that doesn't go so well. As you could see from yesterdays post I spent the entire evening fighting the composition and ultimately just banging out a sketch. It didn't feel good, but it had gotten late and something needed to go on the blog, so I just posted.

It's that way a lot in business if you deal in too many absolutes. Suddenly, something needs to happen and everyone tacitly agrees to do something inferior because no one wants to compromise. You just put it out there. You just get it done without realizing that every time you do that you sell yourself and your colleagues short. Compromise is what actually makes good work great and great work phenomenal, but that's just my opinion.

Now if I can just get my paper and pencils to show up for a meeting on time I'll be in business.

Cheers!

Quick sketch

2009-09-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I barely got that done and I'm sober.

Ever have one of those days where nothing, and I do mean nothing, creative is going on in your head. Whether it's filled with bees, or you just can't keep a thought in it for long? It is hard.

I spent the evening, after cooking a fun dinner, trying to think of an image. I sketched and did thumbnails, but nothing was coalescing in my minds eye. On days like this it's time to recharge. I need to go to the library and pick up a book or something.

Sad news about Patrick Swayze. Not that we were good friends or that I loved his movies or anything, but you do have to be touched when anyone dies in such a horrible manner. Cancer is, and I don't think anyone will disagree with me here, a terrible thing. I'm sure we all know someone who has either won or lost a battle with cancer, but these days it seems like more and more people I know are losing. It's tough. My thoughts go out to his family.

In other news, the Daily Show is back from vacation. now I can start getting my news again from the properly irreverent people who actually tell you the truth about what's going on in the world and summer is officially over. I can tell because today it was hotter than it's been in a long while and that signals the fall in Chicago. Someday we'll get our seasons straight. Maybe before we get the Olympics in 2016. I'm sure the athletes would prefer the blistering heat of a real Chicago summer when running around a track at the speed of Usain Bolt.

Not that anyone will be running that fast. That guy is amazing.

Moving on, did you ever get a note from your state saying they were going to take action against you because you overpaid your taxes? I tend to get these every fall. Apparently the state of Illinois doesn't like to have extra money on hand and they blame me. Man, I can't wait to win the lottery and take all kinds of money out of their coffers. That would teach'em.

Someday, someday.

Cheers!

Of yetis and other myths

2009-09-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend. I hope you did, too. Enjoy the sketch.

Cheers!

No swimming!

2009-09-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

At least no swimming in these waters! It could prove disastrous.

Got the inspiration for this drawing tonight while watching Iron Chef America. The secret ingredient was octopus. And while tasty, they are not the prettiest beasts are they?

I love watching that show. Even though they are not really secret ingredients. I think the chefs know what they're making ahead of time. Otherwise how would they have everything they need in stock? Either way I am always impressed with the food that is made and the inventiveness of the players. If you haven't seen it check it out on Food Network.

Went for a long drive today, out to the suburbs. Went to a yarn convention and then off to Woodfield Mall for lunch with an old friend. He was hosting a Paul Stanley art opening this evening. That's right, Paul Stanley of KISS. He is an artist and my friends gallery represents him. They sell a lot of paintings. I don't mind his stuff, but I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan. We got there a little too early to meet him, but had lunch with my friend and that is always good.

The yarn convention was fun too. My wife is a bit of a celebrity in the yarn community and it's nice to see people who love her work run up to her to talk her ear off. They get so excited. It's a great thing to see.

Tomorrow is another big day. We've got a craft fair to go to and some serious relaxing to do before Monday. Have a great Sunday.

Cheers!

Out for a stroll

2009-09-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

"Don't go alone. Go with a friend"--Jay Ryan

Just a few guys out for a walk. A little more abstract, but kind of fun.

It's September 11 and I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention it in some way. I won't dwell, but I did take a few minutes this morning to remember where I was and to think about all of the brave people that lost their lives that day. I also remember how that day brought a lot of us, and people from other countries together. I'm not going to go into what happened afterward because I want to remember the good that came out of that horrific morning. I hope you do too.

Moving on, I must say I had a great dinner tonight with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Our friends Neal and Mark invited us up to their house for a meal and a tour around their newly renovated home--it is beautiful. I also scored an old sink they were throwing away that Beth and I think would work perfectly in our small bathroom. Now I just need to install it. Neal and I also spent an inordinate amount of time discussing the benefits of the Kitchen Aid versus the Cuisinart. Good times.

I like to start and finish handy work around the house. It's all the work in the middle that I usually procrastinate on. I just finished a small TV stand for our family room. It only took me 5 short years to design it, buy the wood and put it together. It breaks down as 4 years and 325 days of planning and 3 days to put it all together. For the sink I have a goal of getting it installed in less than two years. I'll keep you updated as I move through the planning.

Alrighty then, it's late on Friday and I'm going to cut this short as I usually do on the weekends.

Cheers!

"Alas, poor Yorick...

2009-09-10T22:18:00.001-07:00

I knew him Horatio."

What better way to end a week than finding a the skull of an old friend? Whew, 64 barbarians and counting. Now I just have to ink them all and put them in a book.

Took a long walk today. I go around downtown every few weeks delivering postcards as a self-promotion. It was a beautiful day here in Chicago and I love the anonymity of being a messenger. Nobody asks any questions. They just guide you to the mail room and go back to their Iphones.

The sad thing was that a few people on my list were no longer with the companies that I had them listed at. These days hearing the phrase, "He's no longer with the company." always has a sting to it. They may have left of their own accord, but you don't really know until you track them down at the next job or see them delivering postcards. I like to think that they all left because they wanted to.

I also ran into an old friend who's company is closing it's doors. He seemed okay with it. He's that kind of laid back guy that rolls with things, but it was still a little sad. It's hard to build a marketing company and then watch as a recession comes along and everyone's first response is to shut down all marketing efforts. I saw a lot of it when the tech bubble burst, now this and even knew of a few back in the eighties when I was just getting into the ad biz. Tough stuff, but I know he'll survive as will we all.

The weird thing to me is that in a recession no one is spending money, right? So you would think that the first thing to do is to start talking to your customers more. To go out and try to convince them that your products and services are worth spending money on. You would think that marketing would be the first thing that you would increase. Now, bear in mind that I don't have an MBA or some other high level economic degree, but it just doesn't seem to make sense. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I'll be darned if I can figure it out.

In lighter news I went out for $1 burgers today with some friends. It's good to know that they still exist and they were fantastic. Duffy's Tavern on Diversey in Chicago, every Thursday in case you're in town.

Also, I have been emailing back and forth with an old friend, Brian. He has a blog that I've mentioned before about influencing people in your life (http://influence-people-brian.blogspot.com) and it always makes me think. He's got a lot of good information if you're into self-help and improving your interactions with others. You should check it out.

It's kind of cool. We knew each other in high school, but didn't hang out a lot together and even today I'm sure our world views are different, but I think we enjoy hearing other people's opinions and aren't frightened that others may not think like us. If he was ever giving a speech before congress, at my local comic book shop, or even on a soap box in the park I would like to think I wouldn't shout out, "You lie!" when he was trying to make a point.

This brings me to civility. Does anyone know where it's gone? I used to remember that you could disagree with a friend without shouting. That being respectful of others in public was something you didn't have to think about, you just did it. I don't think I'm dating myself here or fondly remembering a past that didn't exist. I know for a fact that there used to be rules to how we behave in public.

My mother and father drilled respect for others into our heads when I was a kid. You looked people in the eye. You listened before you responded. When someone, anyone, was giving a speech you kept your mouth shut. Not that you had to be a wilting flower, but you weren't supposed to go out of your way to be a d**k. And if you were there were consequences.

I'm not sure if that's so true today. Great, now I sound like an old man, "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!"

That said, I am an old man and that's enough ranting for this evening. Time to get some sleep and dream of simpler times like long gas lines, a recession, and bad clothing.

Hey, that 70's Show is on. Cool!

Cheers!

2009-09-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

No big post tonight.

Went out and had too good a time helping the stray dogs and cats of Chicago.

Enjoy the sketch and I'll see you tomorrow.

Cheers!

And another thing!

2009-09-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Where's my handbag?

Okay, I don't know where that came from but it just popped into my head. I need to get out more. It's hard when I am hiding from presidential speeches in my own home. Me and fourteen local schoolchildren huddled in a back closet trying to avoid the indoctrination process of the socialist....What? They're not socialists? He was just trying to inspire kids to do better?

Oh, never mind.

People are silly. I've said it before and I'll say it again, people are the only thing holding the human race back from greatness.

But on to other thoughts.

I watched a great documentary tonight, "Painting with Fire." It is a documentary on the great Frank Frazetta. He is a legendary illustrator that I consider one of my biggest influences. I actually had him do an illustration for one of my clients. Talking to him was so funny. I was gushing and stumbling ver my words as I talked to one of my "heroes". When I told him he was a hero of mine he said, "What? Why would you have me for a hero I just paint pictures. You should pick a ballplayer or something." I told him I couldn't because I was too nerdy to be a ballplayer so artists would have to do.

It's getting colder now and the days are starting to get short. Kids are back in school (unless their parents listen to Glenn Beck). Leaves are starting to turn color. Life is good.

I love the fall. I like sleeping with the windows open and pulling the covers up high. I like getting out of bed into the cold morning air. It wakes you up and gets you ready for your day.

(Subject change, hang on)

Going to a benefit tomorrow night for Chicago Animal Care and Control. It is their annual fundraiser for the abandoned cats and dogs in the city of Chicago. What is up with abandoning a pet? I'll never understand leaving something so helpless out in the cold. There's no understanding some people.

(Subject change, hang on)

I think I am going to go apple picking sometime soon. It's fun to wander around with friends picking apples and pumpkins and basically getting ready for the holiday season. Not that I celebrate much. The holidays I mean. Of course, I drink a lot and never turn down an invitation to a party, but the actual observance of the days was never really my thing. I think this year I may change that.

Not too much, but maybe a tree for the holiday, a fall planting in the garden (okay, the flower boxes off my back deck), fill the house with gourds. No corn stalks though, too creepy.

(Subject change, again?)

Hard to keep my thoughts straight tonight. Jumping around too much, a little wired. I don't know why. I think I'll go read a little now.

I really should let those fourteen kids out of the back closet and where is my handbag?

Cheers!

A barbarian's work is never done

2009-09-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Watch it with that pigsticker, son!

Wow, Labor Day already. It seems like the summer just flew by.

Geez, I had a post all set to go and it has completely left me. I saw my friend Brian at Influence People ( http://influence-people-brian.blogspot.com) has just posted a piece on "What's your Worldview" and I think I was supposed to get a piece of art done for that and now I am gobsmacked, as some of my friends from the British Isles put it. My apologies Brian, I'll send you something soon.

Okay, now that I am clearing my head, I think I was going to talk about Labor Day and what it means to me, but since it only means taking the day off, hoping stores aren't closed and winter isn't coming too soon I'm not sure I'll have a lot to say.

When I was a kid I guess it meant a little more to me. When I was in school it almost always started after Labor Day. This was your last weekend to screw around, stay out late and find some trouble before school and homework started. Of course, going back to school also meant seeing all those girls you hadn't seen all summer so it wasn't all bad.

I never did well in school. Apparently, I didn't apply myself. At least that's what the teachers told me and, with much reflection, it is now something I know. I don't apply myself much. I try, but I get distracted easily. It's something I'm still working on as I've said in previous posts, although in those I think I referred to it as staying focused.

I think back on school and wonder how much I actually missed by not studying harder. By not really trying to grasp what was being taught did I do myself a disservice? I think I may have. I would not be the same person I am today had I done things differently, but as a thought experiment it is interesting to think about.

Would I have become a lawyer or doctor? Okay, not a doctor, medicine and sick people are icky, but maybe a lawyer. I do tend to argue with everybody. Would I have become something more? Like a politician? The current President of the US is only a couple of years older than me and I never see him at the comic book shop? Wonder why? Maybe he grew up and I'm still having trouble with that.

I think about these things not as regret, but kind of like that million dollar walk people do. You know the one. Where you imagine what you would do if you actually won the lottery. You walk around and think about whether or not you would be the same person? What would you spend the money on? Who would give money to? So, you don't do that? It doesn't make me creepy, I have to think about something when I walk the dog, but I digress.

Thinking about what your life may or may not have been like is how we understand who we are. It's how we can tell kids, "Hey, don't do what I did, even though I'm pretty successful, most of that was just luck." We look back on our lives and think, "Y'know, I could have done some things better. I could have been a better person." And then, if we're smart, and I'm not saying I am, but if you are, you look forward and try to figure out how not to make the same mistakes again.

At least that's my new labor, as I'll call it being that it is Labor Day. I want to spend the next year trying to be a better person than the one I was last year. I'm not going to bite off more than I can chew. I'm going to start small. Try to remember things I always forget. Try to remember to tell the ones I love how much I love them. Try and finish all the things I always say I'm going to finish, but never do.

Wow, sounds like New Year's resolutions have come early. Of course, I've never been one for New Year's resolutions in the past so I guess I'll try Labor Day resolutions and if they work out I'll come up with something for New Year's. Maybe you've got a couple of resolutions of your own. Maybe this will be a whole new beginning for all of us.

Cheers!

2009-09-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just the sketch tonight.

I'll be interesting tomorrow. Enjoy.

Cheers!

Watch it!

2009-09-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to rant and on tonight because it's Saturday and I want to to get to sleep, but I did want to talk for a second about launching yourself out into the world and being afraid of what might happen.

It is scary to put yourself out there and try new things, but every now and then if you don't jump off that ledge you condemn yourself to standing there and watching the world go by.

It's like the scene in Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid, where we Paul Newman and Robert Redford are about to be caught by some lawmnen chasing them. They come to a point where it is shoot it out or jump off a cliff. They know that shooting it out gets them killed or jailed. So they jump. Scared as they may be, they jump. And they live to fight another day.

Not that I am condoning criminal behavior, but I am condoning, when you find yourself stuck in a corner why not jump? What do you have to lose. Go ahead and jump Based on the history of man my guess is you'll land in a better place.

But that's just me.

Cheers!

No Trespassing

2009-09-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

This one came out pretty nice. I found my old nib pens. I think I might ink this piece over the weekend. I have been looking at a lot of Norman Lindsay and Charles Dana Gibson (remember the Gibson girls?) this week and I have always loved drawing with ink pens. I'm excited. Yes, I know it's a nerdy kind of excitement.

Was reading in the paper today that having Barrack Obama speak to children in school is tantamount to indoctrination. Really? Do people hate this guy so much that as the leader of the free world he's not allowed to tell kids to stay in school and learn? Do we really think he's going to lace his speech with content that will have the little kiddies gaping open mouthed and spouting the party line?

Please, I've met children, while they may be "sponges" for information, but they're not as smart as every parent would like you to believe. Anyone out there know a paste eater? Ever seen a kid shove stuff in his nose, "'cause it seemed like the thing to do."? Trust me, they're gonna listen to Obama for the requisite ten minutes or so then go right back to devil worship and Harry Potter so everyone can just relax.

Speaking of devil worship, anyone know where I can find a goat?

Kidding. I'm not a devil worshipper so put down your pens. Although, in defense of devil worship, I saw The End of Days last night and that Gabriel Byrne makes a pretty good Satan. I liked The Usual Suspects better, but hey, at midnight a movie's a movie.

Ah, the fine sounds of tuck pointing. If you don't know what tuck pointing is then you don't live in a brick building. Tuck pointing is where workers grind out the mortar in between the bricks and refill it with new mortar. You have to do it every few years o any building to keep things solid. My building had it done, um let's see, 90 years ago! Which is why we're now having the entire building done. The joys of home ownership.

It's the Labor Day weekend so I hope I don't get too busy to draw and I am going to spend some time this weekend thinking about bigger topics for the next few weeks. We need a little brain food to keep this life interesting.

Don't drink and drive. Just find a pregnant lady to hang out with, they have to stay sober.

Cheers!

Some days

2009-09-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Some days you just don' feel like writing or drawing.

Cheers!

Dangerous Swim

2009-09-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

Be careful when you get in the pool. Not everyone wants to play.

I have got to start drawing earlier (or faster). These late posts are a little tough. It's not that I can't think of things to write. I just have a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Remember when we were young? Okay, remember when I was young? I would stay up all night working on projects, come home, get a few hours sleep and get right back to it. Yeah, and hangovers had a lot less impact. As my mother-in-law says, "Getting old ain't for sissies."

I saw a post today that said Texans are talking about seceding again. Hopefully it's just a couple of nutjobs out stirring up the locals. Not that I care. The last time I was in Texas I got food poisoning and was sick as dog, so I have no feelings one way or the other what happens there. What bothered me though was one guy saying he "hated", not disliked, disagreed with, was upset with, but "hated" the United States of America. That doesn't sit well with me.

Hate is a strong word and should be reserved for talking about bad drivers and talk radio hosts.

This country has been pretty great over the years. Yes, we have also been sh**ty to certain countries and peoples, but what country hasn't? Countries are run by human beings and you know how I feel about that bunch of idiots. Give a man a brain and the first thing he'll try to do is figure out is how to screw somebody over. Cain, have you seen your brother?

Anyway, enough about politics let's talk about design. Or something like it.

I went to a client today. It was a good meeting (as we say), but I gotta tell you I could have saved myself a whole bunch of time doing the layouts for this one.

The client is an old friend and I love him dearly, but he is the perfect "DIY Client". You know these guys. The ones where you sit there and think, "Well, why don't you just do this yourself so I can go draw barbarians." or something along those lines. Well, he doesn't know InDesign and Photoshop so he needs the extra hands.

I don't blame him. I blame myself. Even as I created the pieces I was going to show him I thought, "Why didn't you just have him draw a layout for you? You know that's the way this is going to go." And it did. He always likes my work, but he has a certain way he wants his layouts to look and I need to remember that. It will save me time next time if I can remember to do it that way.

I've had a lot of clients like that over the years. They tell you that they want your best, your expertise, your whatever-it-is you happened to have convinced them you have, and ultimately you're sitting in a meeting going over way too many layouts that aren't making them happy and you say, "If you have something in mind why don't we just lay it out right now." You pull out a pencil and sketch it up like some kind of police sketch artist and everyone gets to go home early.

Ah, well, if I start following my own advice maybe I will be able to start getting these posts done earlier.

Cheers!

Where's my helmet?

2009-09-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Oops, seems our boy here has lost his helmet and could soon lose much more.

Reminds me of how I've felt during some meetings.

You know the ones. You're on the ropes, no one likes anything you've created, no ones backing you up and you can feel the edge of the sword coming for the back of your neck. Will Caesar give the thumbs down? Eek!

But then there are cases when this is happening and, as the enemy comes up behind you, you strike out with one last gasp...and win the day! Okay, maybe not the day, but you convince them to take the work to the next level.

And that's all you need is one more shot.

I got the new issue of Communication Arts Magazine today. It's the photography annual. It is beautiful. I love the new paper stock they're using for the cover and the photography is, as always, phenomenal. Congratulations to everyone in the issue, nicely done.

I love looking through award annuals. You see all of the best work in the world and it always makes me want to be a better creative. It gives me the hope that the next ad will be that good. I just love that feeling.

I have a meeting with a client tomorrow and hopefully I will convince them to try something new, to reach for that brass ring, to have their Caesar give the thumbs up. That would be a good feeling.

Cheers!

Careful where you step.

2009-08-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you end up right in the thick of it.

I had a good time with this one, would like some more detail, but time does grow short.

Drawing larger scenes can be tough. I, for one, am quite impatient with my skills. I start to draw and within minutes I want to be finished. It's a problem I've been working on for a long time (no pun intended if there was one). It's called patience.

Patience can be tough in any situation. With credit to Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part." of almost anything. You order pizza. Is it here yet? You put a cake in the oven. Is it done yet? You load up the family truckster for a two week vacation. Are we there yet? It's hard.

Patience is something I do not have a lot of in certain situations. I believe it is, as they say, a virtue. I have met people with what I believe is infinite patience and I am always impressed. Like bus drivers. I see Chicago Transit Authority bus drivers everyday being cutoff, having people jerk to a stop in front of them, turning in front of them, people not knowing how to pay for a fare, overcrowding, and they just seem to take it all in stride. Granted at times one or two will pop off, but it is rare and I've been riding these buses for years. Infinite patience. It's a beautiful thing to see.

On the flip side there are people who work so fast you don't need any patience at all. I once worked with an art director who did illustration work on the side. He was so fast at drawing we used to joke that as you told him your ideas for a storyboard he would finish the frames just as you finished your sentences. It was a pleasure to watch him work.

I'm not really sure where I'm headed with this one, but I did want to get the word patience out into the atmosphere. I'm hoping it will help me. I have a painting in the next room on a canvas that needs to be finished. I'm about halfway there, but have a lot left to do so I will need speed and patience in a big tall glass for the next couple of weeks.

That said I leave you with this thought:
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."-Leo Tolstoy

Something I try to remember every day.

Cheers!

Gone fishin'

2009-08-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Once more our barbarian has gone fishing and all seafood diet is good for you.

It's Sunday, so I am going to rest and say, "Until the 'morrow fine readers."

Cheers!

O' Mercutio

2009-08-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is not the look that is barbarous, but the act.

I was looking through (okay spotted on the shelf) a book on Shakespeare today and this image came to mind. Not that I spend a lot of time reading Shakespeare. I've seen a lot of his plays and I am not a huge fan.

I was messing around with some washes and just sort of jotted down this sketch, I hope you like. It's not technically a bunch of barbarians, but the act was barbarous enough. Again, my house my bendable rules.

When you think about it even in civilized society we have enough barbarism to go around. This scene was based on the streetfight Mercutio and Tybalt have in Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt slays Mercutio because he is friends with Montagues. Not that Mercutio doesn't provoke the incident. It still comes down to two idiots trying to kill each other in the street.

Romeo and Juliet always struck me oddly, not because of the love story, but of the feud between the two families. I can hold a grudge if I have to, but I don't hold many. One I know of, but even it has softened with time. I can't recall the last time I was upset enough with anyone (drivers cutting me off and Glenn Beck being exempt from this statement) that I really hated someone enough to want to kill or wish ill upon them.

You hear about it and read about it in the paper. Two friends get mad at each other over something and one shoots, stabs, insert your violent act here, the other. Why? Especially when you're supposed to be friends? Even enemies. I know I have been upset with people, but would you ever go all the way home, get a gun, come back and shoot someone in the face for, what, pissing you off? Insulting your manhood? Making fun of your fashion choices?

The human capacity for violence stuns me at times.

I was talking to a friend the other night about how to help Africa in some small way (or big way we were kind of drunk) and I said, "I don't want to help anyone else in the world until all sides swear not to kill each other or chop off any more of anybody's anythings off." My friend thought I was being crude, but I gotta tell you, I honestly feel that until people resolve to not kill or maim each other I have a problem getting in the middle.

I want peace in the world. Heck, I want peace in my neighborhood, but I think that has to start with a resolution to not be violent.

And please don't mistake me for some kind of pacifist. If someone punches me in the face (and I'm still standing, of course) I will go right at them with all I've got, but I'm not going to start it.

And this rant is not about fighting. It's about people feeling that they can go around hurting others with no consequence. Not just Africa or the Middle East. Here in Chicago more children are killed (usually by other children) for reasons as lame as, "'He was disrepecting me so I opened fire." That is usually followed by something about not meaning to hurt or kill the innocent children that had nothing to do with the problem in the first place.

I know people will want to respond with gun laws and more, but I'm not sure how much that is the answer. I do want more control (no Tim, not complete control. Just sensible control. There is no sensible reason to own an AK-47 in the city of Chicago when a more effective way to get killed during a home invasion is to have the criminal take away your 12 gauge shotgun and blow you away.) over guns, but I wonder if it's something deep inside the human psyche that needs to be cured.

Societal or psychological? I'm not sure, I just draw the images.

Try not kill anyone tonight and I'll see you tomorrow.

Cheers!

Heads will roll

2009-08-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! Yea, time to cut off some heads.

I was sketching all morning trying to create a comfortable looking executioner. One must be happy in ones job mustn't one?

Okay, okay, I'm not into cutting off people's heads. Maybe just torturing some insurance and healthcare people for their outrageous costs, but that's another story. Today we should talk about art and design or something important like that.

Let's start with art. I went to the new Modern Art Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago recently and the art was fantastic. and the view of Millenium Park is great. If you come to Chicago you should definitely go. They did a nice job of bringing the outdoors into the space, and the art collection itself was extensive and impressive. I will say I wasn't that happy with the layout of the floors in and of themselves. Sure there's a bunch of rooms, but in my opinion there was a disconnected feeling to the exhibits within the building.

Funny story, we left the museum with our friends Tim and David and went for a drink. As we discussed the exhibit my wife, Beth, and Tim agreed that the most disturbing piece was a portrait by Lucian Freud. It's a fully nude man laying on a bed with a dog. They agreed that male genitalia is not pretty, especially when painted by Freud. He has a very...rough style. The funny part is I had to confess it was my favorite piece.

Beauty is in the eye I suppose.

People say art is subjective and I do agree, but I'll go one step further and add that isn't life itself subjective? Doesn't everyone have their own view that doesn't necessarily match up with anyone else on the planet?

My wife and I were discussing that this morning in regards to a dinner get together we're having at our house tonight. I'm not going to call it a dinner party because it's very casual. It's more like a dinner happening, with five good friends. But I digress...

(Please plant tongue firmly in cheek before continuing. Thank you, the Management.)

We were discussing the fact that I do everything incorrectly because she wouldn't do it that way. I calmly explained that it was she that was in incorrect because I would never do whatever it is her way. She's right-handed, I'm left-handed, she calls first, I just go places, she uses the library, I watch way too much TV. You get my point. We're all different no matter how much we think we think the same we probably don't. We think different. We act different. And that's okay.

It's actually kind of fun. When Beth and I first moved in together we each had over 200 CD's (I can still say CD's right? If you feel you must please replace CD with MP3) in our respective collections. 7, that's right 7 crossed over. It's all part of being an individual. As I say it's all subjective.

So the next time you think everyone thinks the way you think ask the closest person to you what they think. You might be surprised, and you should be happy about that, by the answer.

Cheers!

2009-08-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

Eek, while I was making a blueberry compote for tomorrow night's dessert I couldn't think of one thing to blog about. (Those of you that actually know me will not find the previous sentence odd. Those of you who have never been to my house for dinner will have to bear with me and hope for an invitation at some point in the future.)

It reminded me of the time I saw a mouse in my apartment and actually yelled, "Eek" as I hopped onto the coffee table. Bad days do happen. Thank Ikea and wood glue that table was strong enough.

But today is not a bad day, my friends. I am halfway through the Barbarians Project and have people coming over for dinner tomorrow night. Life is good and I aim to keep it that way, at least for the weekend.

I got to thinking earlier, as I am wont to do, and decided that arguing with people who don't have all their facts is a waste of time. Of course, I never like to have all my facts so finding someone to argue with could prove harder than my original estimation. I will say that I believe you still should be allowed to goad others into arguing for the spectacle of it. At least that's what I think FaceBook is for, isn't it?

How was your day? Me? Mine was okay. A little rainy, had a lot to do, but all in all I came out the other end feeling good.

Back to the compote. The wife found a great recipe for an ice cream cookie type of thing and we're trying it out on friends tomorrow. I have a few other things to make before tomorrow evening, but wanted to discuss baked beans, one of our other dishes. (Remember the segues in this blog can be hard to follow. Sit back and relax.)

We found an old recipe for baked beans and decided it would be fun to make. We hadn't made it in years and neither one of us could suss out the actual directions from what we wrote down years ago.

First pass, not so good. Too soggy and not as flavorful as one might have hoped. So we went at it again, drained off some of the liquid, added more spices and molasses (not sure how to clarify molasses, it could be a spice, but what do I know) baked the sucker for another hour and you know what? It's pretty good. I might still add more mustard, but that could be done at the table.

What I'm trying to say here is that whatever it is you're cooking, be it actually food or maybe a new business scheme or even a romantic evening with your partner, if you think it's going badly, take a step back, refocus and get back in there. You'd be surprised at what you can do after you think you've tried everything.

It's a theory I may refer to as the "Twice baked potato theory", or if I was from further south maybe the "Refried bean Theory". Either way, what I;'m trying to say is they both taste good.

Now it's time to focus on getting a beer and trying to figure out 50 more figure drawings. Does the work ever cease?

Cheers!

Get out of my pond

2009-08-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ouch. What a setback. Just as your running through the water some numbnut decides it's time for archery practice.

Well, what a day. 49 images done and only 51 left to go. Almost over the hump.

Today, or rather last night Ted Kennedy died. Sad. Not that I was a huge fan or knew him or anything, but he was a pretty famous and at times infamous person. He was and is a part of history.

Amazing that, being a part of history. Most of us will go about our quiet lives only known to very few people. We will have no real, lasting impact on the planet or be written about in history books. That's gotta be a kick. To actually know that people will write about or study your life in some history class in the future. To be someone like Ted Kennedy or Barrack Obama, man, that would be pretty cool.

Although, I would not want them to mention anything that I did before today. It could be embarrassing. Of course, tomorrow I could do something stupid and I wouldn't want that discussed. Maybe staying out of the history books is more my style. Let my idiocies rest where they are in the past.

Then again there's FaceBook. Dammit!

Why is it that everyone wants to remember the dumb things you did as a drunken twenty year old. No one ever posts a picture of you at twenty three helping some woman with her groceries or at twenty eight leading a blind man across the street. It's always a picture of you half naked with a beer looking like an @$$ with a caption like, "Remember this? Wow, you were funny!"

No, I wasn't. I was drunk and in a stupid bid to impress whatever girls happened to be around that was the best I came up with. You know, it's remembering times like that that make me happy not to be someone trying to make history.

Can you imagine someone writing a dissertation on how you acting like and @$$ may have affected world peace? Hunger? Reality TV? And then some college professor calling you up and saying, "Hey, we know you helped solve all the world's problems, but we have footage of you in a push up bra singing torch songs and vomiting. Would you care to come to Yale and explain how that helped you shape the future?" Yikes!

I don't need that kind of pressure. No, I'll write my little bits, create my little ads and hopefully pass into anonymity with 99.9% of the rest of the world content in the fact that I made a few people laugh and my family loved me (okay, liked me or at least I think they did, or do).

Ugh, let's just forget today too.

Cheers!

Incoming!

2009-08-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."

I have been reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and came across that little gem. What a cool, and oh so true, line.

People have trouble adjusting to great change. I know I do. I'm not one to be too flustered if there are no eggs in the refrigerator on Sunday morning, but when great change happens, such as losing one's job or the ending of a relationship, I know I have a little trouble righting my boat. It's natural. It can also be a great impetus to change even further. To push your life in a completely different direction.

A friend's mother used to say, "Everything happens for the best." As your wedding is being rained on, you lose your job or someone close to you passes away unexpectedly you may not believe this, but I have come to find that it's pretty true. I know I've lost jobs and always gotten better ones. It rained on my wedding day and I'm still married (13 1/2 years). I've had friends pass, and it forced me to reevaluate what I'm doing and how I affect those around me, which I choose to see as a good result.

Moving on, if you get a chance and want to see some very sweet looking pen and ink drawings pick up a copy of Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein. He added some sweet illustrations to accompany Mary Shelley's text. It's beautiful.

Today I was drawing and thinking about a new promotional piece for myself. I've already got the blog and the website, but the self-promotion never ends when you're a freelancer. I've already done some drawn pieces and I'm thinking about photography for this next piece. I just need to come up with something brilliant. I hope tomorrow goes well.

Didn't watch the news tonight so I am not real pissed off. It feels good to take a night off from the madness that is cable. Instead I watched a version of "Inherit the Wind" with Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards. Not as good as the one with Spencer Tracy, but it was nice.

I've got to get to the library, soon. The only problem is there is a police sting set up in front of my local library to stop motorists from running over pedestrians. It takes a lot of the fun out of walking over there. I suppose I could drive, but that would be even less fun without the possibility of scaring someone.

Butter.

Okay, today is a real fractured mind sort of day. I have been having trouble keeping my thoughts in check. It gets crazy. One minute I'm talking to the dog, the next I've got the theme song from Barney Miller playing in my head and I am having a heck of a time coming up with a point for today's blog.

(Patiently waiting for thoughts to align.)

(Still waiting.)

Water chestnuts! Love 'em.

(Back to waiting.)

(Whistling.)

Great change happens. Enjoy it. Roll with it and see where the river takes you, just try not to drown along the way. That seems like a pretty good point.

Cheers!

Fear and loathing

2009-08-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Why is it that I still think lizards are slimy when I know in my heart and brain they are not? It's just something that seems to be ingrained into me. I fear insects biting me, snakes and lizards attacking me. I fear sharks and never swim in the ocean. It seems insane, but there it is.

Fear resides in all of us. It's there for a reason. It's there to tell us not to walk down that dark alley, not to try to swim across a raging river. It's there to help us in many situations, but it is not the main tool you should be using. It is just one of many in your toolbox.

The brain is the toolbox the human animal and fear is a tool that can be used to hurt or help. I'm afraid, these days that fear is being used to hurt.

I have seen more YouTube posts, rants and raves of people yelling the stupidest things because they are allowing fear to control their actions not their brain. They are accusing instead of asking. They are yelling instead of discussing. On both sides. It's as if idiots have taken over the airwaves and now my country is filled with these jerks. Facebook, Youtube, cable news all stoking a fight that should be a discussion, forcing people to choose sides instead of bringing them together to solve a problem.

But that's America for you. All juiced up and raring to go at someone instead of coming together and working with each other to build something. It's what happens when we're bored. I don't think we should be bored. We've got two huge fights going on a half a world away. We're trying to rebound from the greatest financial crisis in the last fifty years and our healthcare system blows. Don't you think we should be sharing ideas and trying to move forward? Shouldn't we be talking instead of yelling?

Fear. Think about it and before you start any discussion with anybody. Are you afraid of them? If not then why are you yelling? To make them afraid of you? Should they be? Remember people have ears. They can hear you just fine if you keep your voice down. Remember that the person you're arguing with isn't out to kill you or take away anything. They're probably trying to help, but just not doing it the way you would do it. Is that a reason for yelling? For hating? For vitriol and spite? I don't think so. I think it's about working with people instead of against them.

In other news, tangentially related to that rant is my friend Brian Ahearn's blog (http://influence-people-brian.blogspot.com) Today's post was about persuasion vs. manipulation. I think he makes some great points about ethics and using persuasion and not manipulation today, but his earlier posts and ones that are coming up about influencing those around you are informative and entertaining you should take a read.

Personally, I think people in this country prefer manipulation. I think that persuasion is a forgotten art too subtle for the likes of this 21st century world. That people would rather manipulate than persuade. Persuasion takes too long.

Actually making a point and getting people on your side doesn't matter if you can just manipulate them into it (or better yet yell at them until they submit). You should remember though that persuasion lasts longer. Once someone finds out you've manipulated them, and they will figure it out, you're back to square one at the very least.

Persuade someone to see your point and they'll be on your side because they want to be there, not because you tricked them. It will make your relationship stronger and you will both be stronger for it. But that's just my opinion you crazy folks can do what you want.

But remember if you want to talk to me, my ears work just fine and I am not afraid of you. Snakes and sharks hell yes, but you, no.

Cheers!

2009-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

I talked a couple of weeks ago about going to the zoo just to draw animals. Let me say they never pose the way you need them to. Tonight I just drew the cat from memory. Not sure if he looks too much like a kitty, but I had fun.

Animals are tough. Unlike models they never stand in place. I have so many sketches of parts of animals that it looks like I'm drawing a veterinarian guide book. I usually supplement with photos, but there is something about being in front of an animal that makes it more exciting. When you see how large a tiger paws are or how a rhino actually moves it can take your breath away.

We have a zoo down the street from our house called the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's small and not all that impressive, but it has animals, hence the "zoo" title. They also have a neat little part just outside where you can walk around this secluded lagoon. Very Frank Lloyd Wright in it's prairie design and very peaceful. A good place to reflect upon the problems of the world I suppose. I walked through real quick, no time to stop and smell the prairie grass, I guess.

Have to actually do some real oil painting this week. I have a small show in October and if I don't finish at least one painting I'm afraid it will look bad. I have a "flying David's" on the canvas that stands about eight feet high and two feet wide. It's a fun piece of naked men falling and flying all over the place. I'll post a pic of it here when I'm finished. They're not necessarily barbarians, as a matter of fact I think of them as happy little gentlemen just floating about, but I think they'll fit in.

Enough rambling. Go to bed.

Cheers!

2009-08-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Lazy Saturday. It's about 60° outside. In August. How cool is that, no pun intended. I love me some Summer, but I like Spring and Fall better. Sleeping with the windows open and the covers all up around my ears. Yum.

Spent the morning cooking with my wife (we have a couple of friends coming over tonight) and the afternoon drawing pictures. Can't think of a better day unless, of course, I was doing it with a beer, but that will come later.

Anywho, enjoy the sketch, I have to recharge my batteries and come up with more thoughtful posts to fill your time.

Cheers!

2009-08-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Wrestling. Day 44. The week is over and it's time to think about having some fun.

So tonight it's just a sketch and a thought:

Read this photographer's journal post http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/#/0 think happy thoughts and call your parent(s).

Cheers!

2009-08-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

I drew a few images today. All of wrestling. All I could think of was the state of the country right now as people spit venom at each other and wrestle vehemently over the issues of the day. I don't know about you, but it seems like much ado about some important things, but mostly just arguing for arguments sake.

Whatever. I draw my pictures, look for work and regale you with stories and opinions you probably don't care about, but you have nothing better to do and it makes me happy that you show up. Thank you for your support.

Now, what shall we discuss? Naked men wrestling? Seems tawdry. Politics? Yawn. How about connecting with those around you, but not in the, "Ha, I've got you in a vice-like grip of death.", but in a, "We don't talk enough, maybe we should have a cocktail?" sort of way.

I met some old friends last night at a local pub. One of them had come into town from San Francisco for a few days and he pulled together a few people I haven't seen in long time. It was great fun. Catching up, laughing about old times and generally enjoying each others company.

It's something I think we don't do enough. Not drinking, I do plenty of that for all of us, but getting together with people we appreciate. Your life gets busy and you really only have two evenings in each week to get together with anybody. Life can be hectic.

Well, I'm going to try and change that a little bit in my life. I am going to try and get together with people I haven't seen in a long time at least once per month for the next year and see how it goes. How hard could it be? Send out an email, place a phone call, go have a few drinks, lunch or have people over for dinner. I gotta eat and drink anyway, might as well have some kind of structure.

Ooh, this sounds very bold right now as I am not much of a planner, but you gotta start sometime I suppose. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I'm actually getting it done. Who knows, some of you might have made the list.

Wow, listening to John Williams on the ITunes, brings back memories of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Good times.

Memory is a funny thing, I can remember whole scenes out of movies I haven't seen in ages, but my mother's phone number eludes me. I guess I just let my phone remember the important things and I keep all the goofy stuff in my head.

As a matter of fact, reading the preview of this post, and a few of the previous ones it must be hard to keep up with the ramblings of the insane. Try living in this head for a week, it's like a rafting trip through idiottown. All a jumble, lots of screaming and whole bunch of fun.

Well, I'm off to a networking event with a bunch of "green" companies. Better keep mum about my love of chlorofluorocarbons.

In the immortal words of Bette Davis, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"

Cheers!

2009-08-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

Careful where you sleep kitty!

More tomorrow.

Cheers!

2009-08-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sure it's not a fighting barbarian picture, but I'm sure that when the little guy hits his mark that's what she'll call him.

This piece is a little more finished than some of my recent pieces. It's called "Surprise!" I did it a few months ago, and while it's not necessarily a "barbarian" piece, I like it and wanted to put it up. My blog my rules as my father might say.

So what do you make of this little guy? He was actually inspired by some pieces I like to call the "Flying Davids" project. I was sketching during breaks in a figure class and began penciling little naked men "flying" all about. I brought it home and my wife loved them so I made some more. I actually created an oil painting that hangs in our kitchen of these little buggers. Someday I'll post a picture of that here.

It's funny how you find yourself just "messing around" and suddenly something turns out pretty special. I think that that is how some of the greatest inventions were probably thought up. Edison was sitting by a candle and thought, "Hey, if I could switch this on and off how cool would that be?". Mr Sham-Wow was wiping down his bass boat and thought, "Hey, if I had a towel that could soak up 50 gallons of water, how cool would that be?" You get the point.

I often wonder how many great ideas never went anywhere because people thought it wasn't really an idea.

As a matter of fact, I often wonder. Some would call this ADD, and if I was 7 years old I'm sure I'd be on Adderall or Ritalin or something. In the old days we were called daydreamers. The kids who couldn't really focus on what we were supposed to do because we were wrapped up in a world of what might be cool to do. I have trouble getting out of that world sometimes, but enough daydreaming let's get on to a real topic.

Like healthcare. No, wait, let's go back to dreamland, the people are nicer.

As you might have already gleaned from some of my earlier posts, I love to doodle. I find myself in a meeting and suddenly my hand begins to race around the page scratching out weird images and hash marks. I find that it actually helps me concentrate on what people are saying. Probably because the drawing is second nature and the focus that it brings allow my ears to open up and hear what people are saying.

I wish more people could do this, not doodle, but listen and actually hear what others are saying. There are times when I've been in a meeting and when I, or someone else speaks you see the rest of the room look up, but you know they're not really listening. They have that look on their face that my dog gets when I whistle. They kind of tilt their head and smile and you know that they're thinking,"I have to get my back waxed" or some other such nonsense.

I know I have trouble hearing people. I've been trying to work on this, but my progress, I'll admit, is slow. It takes a lot of practice to really hear what others are saying. Then to actually give a crap adds a whole other dimension, but you have to start somewhere.

Which brings me to tonight's point (okay, there's no real point, the title of this blog is "Bits and pieces of a fractured mind" so play along) I'm working on a pro bono project. It's a recipe book for a fine charity that helps dogs and cats find new homes. I would normally try to trade my time for creative control of a project, but this time I just caved early and said I'll do whatever, just send me your files.

Today, I laughed out loud when one of the recipes came across my computer and is for, get this, 9 gallons of Whipped Cream Horseradish Sauce! It actually says, "432 portions". This, I suppose, is so a layman can do the math and reduce it for a dinner party. But just in case you're having 432 of your best friends over for dinner you'll know what to serve with the prime rib.

As I typed this recipe I decided that my job really is no longer about trying to create good work. My job is about getting work done. There are times when you just have to realize that most people don't want good work, they just want to be done, so you might as well go along and not get your knickers all bunched up. Just enjoy the laughter and go on with your life.

Now, if you'll excuse me I've got to track down 6 and half pounds of horseradish root and 432 dinner guests.

Cheers!

Quick sketches

2009-08-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just sitting around tonight whipping up some quick sketches for a new piece. Loving the idea of a crocodile. Looked through some old Frazetta and Suydam stuff and got inspired, but a little too late at night.

That's the thing about inspiration. You never know when it will strike, but it is always exciting when it does. You'll probably be seeing a lot of animals with our barbarians over the next few days.

And remember, if you have an image you want me to post right alongside my own feel free to email it in. I love a good collaboration.

Cheers!

Siege!

2009-08-16T22:35:00.001-07:00

And so the battle begins. One force throwing itself upon the ramparts of another. Ah, I smell the hot oil boiling now.

That is almost always how I feel as I begin a new project. You're hurling yourself, once more, into the abyss. It's exciting, the challenge rushing up towards you, but when they pour that first vat of hot oil down onto you and your brethren, ugh, time to leave.

The key, and what sets people apart is the will to stand there, run over the bodies of the wounded and dead and rush once more into the breach. Or so I'm told.

I used to work with an art director who had a fantastic approach to this. He was a former marine who fought in the Korean war. He was a nice guy and a good art director, but what amazed me was his utter lack of anger when faced with client who just refused to listen or understand what we were trying to do.

He would just laugh and say, "Well, I suppose we'll charge back up that hill tomorrow." I am trying, after 20 years of art directing, to acquire that type of peace and understanding. That doing great things doesn't really matter in the day to day of advertising. That, somehow, you have to grind through whatever clients want and at the end of they day if they get mediocre work it is no reflection upon who I am. It is only advertising after all.

Argh, just writing that makes me cringe a little.

I have always tried to put only great work in front of my clients and was always taken aback when they asked for or forced the work into the mediocre realm. I know it is something to overcome on my part. It's their money and if they want to waste it who am I to try and convince them of something different? I give it my best shot on the first, second and third tries.

What are you going to do? Me? I'm going to draw my little sketches, write my little blog, love my wife and attempt to not care. The first three I know I can do. Number four, I'm sure I'll still working on it for years to come. Ugh.

Sleep well and cheers!

2009-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

I was thinking earlier tonight about genius. Not any genius specifically, but in the general.

This has nothing to do with tonight's picture, but I wanted to get it out there.

I was reading about Frank Frazetta. In my opinion one of the greatest illustrators of the 20th century. I was reading about how he trained with and worked with different artists, Michele Falanga, John Giunta, Roy Krenkel and others that I believe helped him add to his inherent talent.

It got me thinking about other artists and other geniuses. Van Gogh spent a lot of time with Gaugin. The Impressionists were concentrated in Paris. Michaelangelo competed with Raphael and DaVinci. Einstein spent a lot of time with the greatest physicists of the early twentieth century and they all created works of genius.

What struck me was that all of these people, and more I could name, considered geniuses in their respective areas, all worked with or near each other and I wonder did that contribute to making them each greater in their own right?

My theory, if you could call it that, is that you can achieve greatness on your own (I'm not blind to people who have toiled alone), but that when you surround yourself with greatness you can and will achieve it faster and it will last longer.

I want you to think about this and apply it to your own life. Do you spend time with people who are doing amazing things and allow them to challenge and help you achieve something greater? Or are you hanging around people who are on the same, or even a lower, level than you and you are not living up to your potential because you have no one to play your greatest ideas off of? No need to change your world, but a reason to examine it.

This topic strikes me as something that will keep me up for a few nights and since I've had a few beers I'm going to go to bed and contemplate this thought while I sleep.

But, before I go, I will repeat one of the greatest lines in movie history because I saw it earlier today and because I have always loved the sentiment and think it applies to our lives in a big way. Today's topic, we'll get back to tomorrow.

From Bladerunner, Roy Batty talking to William Deckard before he dies, "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched seabeams glitter in the dark at Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain."

Whew, what a great film.

Cheers!

2009-08-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight just sketches.

Also, saw Timeline Theater's version of the History Boys. Great play, wonderfully acted.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

2009-08-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Bad day in barbarian world when you get your @$$ kicked by a girl. Hehe.

As I sit here tonight pondering the world's twists and turns I can only think to myself, "Why in the heck are all my CD cases broken?" It's not like I open them all the time or play them that much, but since I have had to redigitize my entire music collection because of the untimely demise of my former back-up drive, the Pip, (for those of you who remember Gladys Knight that joke will be funny, for the rest of you try Google) I have noticed that almost every case is busted to some degree.

It boggles my mind. I like the word boggle, that and hullaballo are two that I am trying to bring back. If you think of any other really cool words that need bringing back let me know.

Well, what are you gonna do? Things break. You can't go through life hoping never to break things otherwise there would be no omelettes.

Breakage can just happen sometimes. Every day you start, continue or stop relationships with those around you. You could strike up a new conversation on a bus and thus begin a relationship, continue one with your significant other or friends around you or you fall out of touch with people you know. I think about this last one a lot. Not to the point of insanity, mind you, but it comes up when you look at FaceBook or I go back to an agency where I see people I haven't seen in a long time.

You wonder what happened? Was there a break? Did I or they do something? I think we all know what happened. Life happened. People grow and change and move on, make new friends, start new chapters. You can either look on these events with sorrow for the time you're losing or you can look back on what was and enjoy it for the memories you have and the person you have become.

I personally believe that every situation we go through in life makes us into the people we currently are. Change any aspect of the past and you would just not be the same person. It's good to know that nowadays we can all get back in touch in so many ways. I encourage you to do it. Who knows you may begin a very new relationship with someone from your past.

Remember, life happens and that's a good thing.

Now where in the heck is the CD case for "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? Damn you, Pip.

Cheers!

2009-08-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Barbarian number 35 and the days are flying. Bad news about Mr. I'm In Front, but what are you going to do this is a tough crowd.

So what shall we talk about tonight? Tough crowds? Being stabbed in the back? Gladiator sandals? How about healthcare? No, no, no let's not go there.

How about the interesting phenomenon of "It's not my job."

I was in the parking lots of Jewel (a local grocery store) and Costco in the last week and what is it with returning your cart to one of the many "cart corrals" or even, God forbid, back to where you found it? I have seen so many carts in Costco's parking lot that you wouldn't think there would be room for cars. It's as if people just believe that, "Well, Costco has employees it's their job to put these back." I find that not only rude and self-centered, but also costly. How do you think that guy gets paid? Not from the goodness of Costco's heart, his salary is folded back into the prices.

I have to say I am seeing more and more of this attitude all over town. People littering, leaving Starbuck's cups on top of mailboxes when there is a garbage can right next to the box. Argo Tea cups strewn about the neighborhood like so many leaves. Ugh, it's killing me. Are people so unaware of the world that surrounds them and just so lacking in manners that this behavior has become acceptable?

It just cheeses me off because I would like to know where people learn this from. It's not just kids littering and leaving shopping carts everywhere. I've seen men way older than me leave a Costco cart in the parking space next to them. and let me tell you the reaction I get when I ask them why they do it, "Well, somebody else will handle it." Arrrgh!

This sense of entitlement is enough to make me vote for assisted suicide laws so I can go buy a gun and start assisting.

I mean, is it just me? Am I the one missing the boat on this? Should I just leave my garbage wherever it suits me and leave grocery carts wherever I can? Is every minute of my day so precious to me that taking the time to put things back where I found them is not worth it?

Now I know no one that reads this silly little blog actually does any of these things. I know you're all discriminating, well-mannered types who care about the planet and your neighbors, but what can we do about all the other jagoffs out there can't get with our program?

Who knows, certainly not me, but enough kvetching. It's time to go to bed and dream of a world where things are in order and people are smarter. Tomorrow I have to go to Sears and, oh God, no.....

Cheers!

2009-08-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

The battle rages on.

Tonight our barbarian has encountered more barbarians in the swamp. Who knows which way this will go?

I drew tonight's image mostly during a meeting I had today. I was there to observe and help figure out where to go after the meeting. I started drawing this picture as I watched and listened to other people at the agency fight boldly against the onslaught that is a confused client.

The battle was amazing. I saw some people from this client last week send the agency in one direction. Was in a meeting yesterday where we were told we were heading this right direction and today found out that that both of those directions, while interesting, really had nothing to do with what the client wanted. I had to laugh. Not because this was a strange client, but because I have seen this so many times over the years it's as though they are all one big client.

Now, I don't have an MBA, and I'm never one to say that I'm the brightest bulb in the room, in fact I usually will tell you that I'm not really that smart, but I gotta tell you if the one eyed man is the king in the land of the blind how come I'm not president or Chief Marketing Officer of some multi-billion dollar corporation?

I can't quite figure it. I've sat in more meetings over the years and listened to people ramble on worse than me on a beer bender watching the news. It just boggles the mind.

Maybe it's because I don't have any high fallootin' degrees that I can't see the logic in wasted time and silly arguments? Maybe I just don't understand the real reason to choose a target then make sure that your marketing pieces are so broad as to try and encompass everyone with a thought pattern? Maybe I just can't see the genius that is running around in circles?

At least it always prove amusing and I give props to anyone that can hang in a meeting like that and still see the good coming out the other end. As for me, well, I tend to think that if it feels like you're wasting money then, chances are, you are wasting money.

If anyone can explain to me differently and help me understand the ways of big business I would love to hear it, because right now I am just as confused as I have always been.

Cheers!

2009-08-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

Stalking and hunting. Or is that hunting and gathering? Either way it looks like that is what our man is doing tonight. Pursuing whatever his next meal is through the tall grasses.

Just like the rest of us these days.

We are all hunting for something I imagine. A better job, a perfect mate, our next meal, the next great investment. Whatever it may be for you, know that with patience and persistence all things are possible. Or so they tell me.

Biathlon is the sport of cross country skiing and target shooting. You race as fast as you can from target site to target site, when you reach a site you have to calm down as quickly as you can to shoot a rifle at a the target.

I know that new business pursuits are much the same. You ramp yourself up, preparing as best you can, put together some amazing work for some new client and then calm down, present all the work and rush off to the next client to start the process all over again. It can be frustrating, exhilarating and exhausting all at once.

I'm not going to preach to you about the need to be careful when hunting at that pace. To watch out that you don't lose yourself among the job or whatever the obsession of the day might be. You should be smart enough to know that. What I will tell you is that as you hunt for whatever it is your heart desires remember that patience is the most important part. That's not to say you can just sit around and wait, but if you planned correctly and hunted smartly the animal will walk into the trap.

Before that happens though, you may want to double check that it is the animal you went looking for in the first place.

Cheers!

The hunt is on.

2009-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

No long post tonight. I don't feel well.

Enjoy the sketch. I'll be back tomorrow.

Cheers!

2009-08-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, no long post tonight. It is Saturday after all. Just wanted to throw up a quick sketch of a very nice lady disciplining some not so nice young men.

I wasn't able to spend much time on this post. I had some family in town tonight and didn't get to it until late.

I did it while watching Saturday Night Live. Is that show still funny? After a few sketches I actually switched over to watch Larry King interview Colin Powell. What scared me was they seemed funnier. Maybe I'm just getting old and watching these geezers crack wise was easier for someone of my advanced age to understand.

I still like to think that I get the jokes. Just the other day I was at the 4:30 dinner service at Old Country Buffet (33% off!) and the guy in front of me told the funniest joke to his buddy. It had to do with back pain, golf and his wife having an affair, I forget the punchline, but I laughed so hard I dropped the tongs into the creamed corn. My "friend" didn't seem to think it was that funny. Maybe he meant it more as satire and was expecting less of a guffaw and more of a quiet chuckle.

Anywho, I do just love that creamed corn.

Cheers!

2009-08-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read yesterday's post you'll be happy to know I didn't watch the news tonight. Instead I had a peaceful evening with my dog, drawing little pictures and watching Die Hard for the 3457th time. I think that Bruce Willis could really be somebody someday.

Tonight our barbarian and a female companion are moving through a forest. Navigating the unknown as it were. We've all been there at one time or another. Not in the forest per se, but navigating through unknown territory. Feeling our way through the darkness as we attempt to get from one place to the next.

Be it going to a new school, driving to or vacationing in another city or town or even one's first kiss, navigating through unknown territories is what makes life worth living. Discovering a new way to see or do something gives you that little jolt doesn't it? It tickles you in a way you might not even realize.

I love to discover new things. Some new things I can do without, but the actual uncovering of them is what triggers my excitement. It can be scary, but as the situation unfolds before me, I believe my enjoyment increases.

What is around that next bend? What hides behind that tree? Where did I leave my shoes last night? Questions like these will always pop up to delight and confound us, or at least me.

I thought I started this blog as a way to communicate what I was feeling and thinking, but I have found as I go on that I am excited each night by what I am discovering about myself and my abilities as an artist and writer. As I discuss the pieces that I am drawing and try to find parallels in the real world to try and be of some help, I find that I am gaining insights into my own way of thinking about myself.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's new territory for me, looking inward, and I kind of like what I am discovering. I hope you do too.

Cheers!

Queen of the hill

2009-08-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

Not really sure what to write about today. We are on Barbarian number 29. And she's a girl!

Is today's image an homage to our first Latina Supreme Court Justice? I wasn't really thinking about it until I watched the news (which my wife, for reasons about to become annoyingly apparent, does not like me to watch) and had to listen to right wing white dudes yammer on about racism. But then again, maybe she is a scary, hot blooded woman with crazy ideas who will try to legislate from the bench. She's just been biding her time until all the pieces fell into place. Those crazy latinas they plan everything years in advance.

I know it really doesn't matter what she does someone will take offense. I think I hear Glen Beck and Sean Hannity lining up already, that will be some profound discourse.

Is this what we've all become? Just a collection of people taking offense at the actions or perceived inaction of others? I don't think I've heard anything positive in this country for at least a year if not more unless it had to do with some IQ sapping reality TV show like American Idol. Yay to whoever the winners were I suppose.

It's as if all we can do is complain and whine and cry about how miserable our lives are. I don't know about you, but I have yet to see the bloated stomachs of half naked American children suffering through a drought. I don't know of any instance of tribes of people coming out of Montana to rape, pillage and cut off the hands of the people in Wyoming. I have yet to see the wholesale slaughter of a town within the borders of this country. So why all the gloom and doom? Why all the fear mongering?

Because the government "Cash for Clunkers" program is actually working? Because if the government starts it's own health insurance company the horrific specter of poor people actually having health coverage will raise it's ugly head while rich insurance companies may have to start offering me a reasonable amount of coverage to compete? The reality of gays and lesbians getting married and being able to go through all the crap heterosexual married couples go through (such as being allowed to sit by the hospital bed of the person you love or keeping together the life you've built with each other over the years or , heaven forfend, being able to slog through a messy divorce like 50% of the hetero couples in America today). Sounds terrible. Might as well kill yourself now.

Pish posh on it all I say. It's time for people to start talking to each other again. Pulling together. Actually understanding and quietly discussing issues with your neighbor instead of despising him or her because he doesn't hold the same belief system as you. It's time to figure out how to get rid of all the bile spewing TV talking heads and go back to actually getting some news on television instead of the right or left wing pundits pretending that the opinions they are spouting are actually facts. It's time for Americans to stop listening to those opinions and repeating them as fact.

Be happy that Bill Clinton brought home two journalists who were being held captive by a dictator. Be happy your duly elected president is having a beer with a couple of guys as a photo op and not taking another vacation to clip weeds on his farm. Be happy that Texas wants to secede from the union, goodbye have a nice day, I'll get right to work on that wall. Be happy that we live in a country where you can disrupt a town hall meeting by acting like the same @$$hole you were in high school and then try to call it intelligent discussion (don't worry you won't come off as a jerk).

Just be happy. Oh, yeah and be quiet.

Cheers!

Practice makes what?

2009-08-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Riddle: If you take what some doctors would describe as a pain killer and the pain does not go away can you still hear me screaming in the forest? Answer: Yes.

Put some ink to paper tonight. Tried to keep it loose and I am quite happy with the results.

As I typed that last sentence I thought to myself, "Man, people must think I'm a schizophrenic maniac from all the ups and downs he runs through on this blog." While I don't think I'm any crazier than your average Octomom I do think that I spend an inordinate amount of time riding the emotional roller coaster in the amusement park that is my brain.

I have always been one of those people who feel that no matter what job, project or crossword puzzle I have just finished I could have done it better, faster, cleaner. I look back on something, like a print ad or a piece of art that I have produced and wonder, "Couldn't I have done that a little better?", knowing full well that the answer is yes.

Why? Well, I'm sure that there is some deep seeded psychobabble answer (most likely having to do with insecurity,penis size and a set of Rock'em Sock'em robots I had when I was a child) that would scare the bejeezus out of me and you, but why go there? I prefer to think of it as having just completed a job successfully, if I had to do the same exact thing all over again I would definitely be able to do it better. It's called practice.

Practice makes perfect.

It's a simple tenet we learn as children. Practice makes perfect. But have you ever noticed that when we grow up that little phrase lands right in the dumper? It does. We push ourselves to be perfect. We push our kids to be perfect. We push our colleagues to be perfect. We wonder why no one on any road, ever, is as good a driver as we are. Why? Why so much emphasis on achieving that which we know, deep down, really shouldn't be obtainable. What do you gain?

I was watching Bridezillas the other night (Yeah, you read it right--Bridezillas, and no I didn't say I was flipping around and just happened to land on it. I watch it. Other peoples train wrecks are funny to me) and I couldn't help but laugh at how much people seem to think other people care about their weddings and that everything must be perfect or disaster will follow. Any little misstep and these people go crazy ranting and raving about how everything is ruined and their lives are over.

It reminds me of advertising, an industry where people work themselves to death, give up family and friends, stay up late night after nght wracking their brains as they strive to perfect work that, admittedly, the entire population of the world, spends every waking moment trying to avoid.

It's funny until you realize you've been doing it for over 20 years.

That said, I've got to go reexamine my life now. Maybe I'll check ebay for a set of Rock'em Sock'em robots.

Cheers!

2009-08-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

Every now and then you step into or create a situation that pits you against someone you love and respect. You think you're heading down the same road in a conversation and then a turn comes and you find yourselves at odds.

It sucks doesn't it?

It's nothing more than a discussion, but then one person (usually me, okay always me) pops off with something that sounds condescending or demeaning. You're not sure what to do and the discussi0n deteriorates. Bad news all around. The end to a wonderful evening.

How do you get back from that? Me? I apologize and hope to discuss what happened and why. Understanding why an argument started is the first step in making sure a relationship succeeds.

As for tonight's picture, the subconscious meaning could be related to me feeling the mounting pressure of a daily blog looming all around me. At times, I feel as if this whole project is going to swallow me whole. That and some serious pain in my leg has made me less understanding and cordial in the last few days. It may have also played a role in making me act like a prick in the first place. Okay, truth be told, I really am a prick and was just trying to add subtext.

Well, tomorrow I know I will find my way out of this maze and back to reality. I hope my friend(s) can forgive me for being a self-centered jerk and (I hope) I will try (once more) not to be the same self-centered idiot that always starts this problem in the first place.

Careful! Watch out for those tentacles!

Cheers!

Mirror Image

2009-08-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

Some days you just feel like you're fighting against yourself, don't you? Obviously that must have been what my subconscious was thinking of this evening.

We've all been there. You're arguing for what you believe in, but you know deep down, that there is no way to win. You keep on hammering away until you're exhausted. You rally and try one last time and then watch as all of your arguments crash helplessly against the rocks like a wooden ship lost in the fog. It's a tricky business.

Why? Why do we do it? I have been trying to figure it out. I often wonder if it happens across all industries or if advertising is a special kind of hell for masochists with Sisyphusean tendencies? I would imagine that it happens elsewhere because it seems like too much fun. I wonder if techniques on how long to watch someone try to save a good idea is taught in MBA programs or at Harvard Business School. I'll have to Google that.

I (and I know you, if you are in advertising) see it all the time in meetings. You watch as someone tries to argue a point. They are convinced they are right and firmly believe they have a chance to win if they present the argument succinctly and accurately. It's what they have been told their whole lives. From the other side of the room you can see they are utterly doomed.

Like a spectator in the Colosseum you watch as the half naked Christian picks up a sword lying in the dirt and waves it at his masters. The crowd roars and the half naked man feels his confidence rise. Then a gate opens, a lion rushes out and dinner is served.

Sometimes you're just out there amusing those around you. I know. I did it for years and it seems that I can still amuse the emperor.

You want to hear a funny story? I attempted a few years ago to go the other way. To stop fighting against the forces that were around me. I would move on. The Chinese call it Wu Wei, literally "without doing, causing or making." Allow the natural order of things to work with minimal effort on your part. Like a river flowing past and around rocks. Sometimes you must do the same. You just move on. So I resigned. I felt that I was a rock raging against a river and I let the river go. I stepped out of the river.

I recently found out that apparently the "river" didn't like that. I met with someone who told me that because I didn't stay and keep fighting it was seen as an affront, that I was not a leader because a leader would stay and fight to change things. She said this fully knowing that while I was in the "river" I was told that all my fighting was an affront and that I had to learn to get along with the way things were.

After the meeting I laughed for an hour. The circular logic was sheer genius. I had walked right back into the Colosseum for someone else's amusement and didn't even know I was there.

So do you fight or do you let it all go? I have no answer for you. I draw my little pictures and tell my little stories and hope that someday I'll figure out which way to turn.

Hey, look, is that a sword on the ground?

Cheers!

2009-08-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you came over a hill and bumped into a floating eyeball? Never? Really?

I drew a lot today and tried to let my imagination wander into strange areas. In the interest of full disclosure I got some pain pills form the doctor today that I think may have contributed to the opening up of my mind a little, but I digress.

Opening up my imagination is something I try to do every day. I think imagination is a wonderful tool that tends to tarnish quickly if not used often enough. It's one of the reasons I started "100 Barbarians..". It forces me to use my imagination every day, even when I don't feel like it and I think the practice is really helping me out in many aspects of my life.

Well, I've got an early day tomorrow so I think I will go try to imagine myself getting a full nights sleep.You try and imagine not running into any floating eyeballs as you come up over that next hill.

Cheers!

2009-08-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

A rough sketch I plan to work on more tomorrow. Almost one quarter of the way through 100 Barbarians. Not to make excuses, but I injured my foot this weekend and concentrating has hit an all time low. I'll load up with painkillers and a good nights sleep and hopefully have this a little more polished and a new barbarian tomorrow.

I'll also try to think about a topic that says a little bit more. Don''t want you all to become bored with my ramblings.

Cheers!

2009-07-31T21:00:00.001-07:00

No long post tonight. After a bust day and a punishing game of mini-golf I am ready for bed. So enjoy the image and I'll see you tomorrow.

Cheers!

2009-07-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, thank heavens it's Frid....crap. Don't you hate when you actually gain one more work day? I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Thursday only to realize when I awoke this morning that today was Thursday.

I'm convinced that sometimes my brain does things like this to tease me because its bored. Yesterday it had me convinced for at least 10 seconds that a realtors name ona sign read "Christ Sakes" I was laughing so hard until I realized it was "Christy Sparks". And they said dyslexia can be fun. I'm looking like a crazy person walking down Belmont Avenue and my brain is playing tricks on me.

"With his wolfskin mantle flung carelessly about his wide shoulders, and the great hors on his helmet adding to his height, he stood there in the swaying shadows, like some half-human thing, a brooding shape of the dark barbarismthat was soon to engulf the world." R.E. Howard from the short story Kings of the Night.

A beautiful sentiment that I plan on drawing much better when I've had a lot less to drink.This every day image hing is tougher than I originally thought.

And don't even get me started on Glenn Beck.

Cheers!

2009-07-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

And so we find ourselves in trouble. Poor man.

Hopefully tomorrow will find him in better spirits. That is, if I am in better spirits.

Ever have a day when you think it's going to go well, it turns into the Sh!##er, then pops back up and returns to the S#!!tter. Well, that was today. I got up in a fine mood, it turned before I went to work, evened out for a while, actually got better and then ended up back where I started. The rollercoaster that is our lives. Once again, ugh.

Some days I wish I was our intrepid fisherman and that the big nasty, whatever it is under the water would just take me down. Rest, relaxation that is what death can look like at times. No worries, no hassles, no smiling as you grit your teeth. Oh, some days I long for that big sleep.

But alas, that is not to be so, I actually, happen to enjoy life's pitfalls most of the time. What would we be without conflict. How interesting would life be without people around us making us crazy and driving us to the brink of insanity.

Yes, the world tries to drag us down into the depths of it's own misery, but fighting against that and surviving is the reason most of us are still here. Isn't it?

Cheers!

A little risk

2009-07-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Another rough sketch of our intrepid fisherman as he goes after his lunch. Looks like tough work. But yum, sushi, if he does it right.

I'm very tired today. Maybe it's the heat? Who knows. Did you ever have one of those days where everything is going great, you're running around like a madman, but at the end you feel like you didn't do enough? You didn't accomplish anything?

I spent the entire day concepting TV spots with a new freelance partner, came home, made dinner and drew some storyboards. None of it too taxing, but it was a busy day, and yet, at the end, I still feel as if I accomplished nothing. No one said that I hadn't accomplished anything. No one complained about anything I had or hadn't done. I just feel, in my own head, that nothing really got done. Ugh, I hate it when my own brain is my biggest obstacle. Don't you?

Don't you hate it when your own mind conspires against you? Like whenever I try to create on high quality paper.

It seems to me that every time I sketch or draw on a napkin, the back of something, a newspaper, whatever piece of scrap paper I find, I let go of any worries I may have and never try to turn the sketch into a masterpiece. I just draw. And the result are usually satisfying and sometimes quite interesting. Then there are times I'll go out and buy a high end sketchbook or some really nice paper, go to create something upon it, seize up, ruin the paper and have nothing to show for it, but a crappy drawing on really expensive paper. Arrgh, why take the risk? Why not just draw on scratch paper forever?

Well, I think we all know the answer to that. Without trying to draw on better paper I never will complete that elusive masterpiece. Without taking risks and attempting to be better, to do better, we'll never actually get to feel the sensation of overcoming something and creating something more than what we think we are capable of. I think it's the risk that creates the true reward.

Well, the voices in my head seem to have quieted down and I am feeling a little better now. Maybe Ill go ruin some nice paper before I go to bed.

Cheers!

Up @#$%'s creek

2009-07-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

How to get back downstream is what today's post is about. Today's intrepid fisherman is about to find out just how dangerous some situations can be. It looks like he'll need to use more than that little spear to get out of this one. Maybe he'll recruit the rough guys at the top of the page to help him out.

No matter what he decides it's going to take some imagination and thus begins our post.

Remember when we were kids? The stories and situations we would imagine for ourselves and the inventive ways we would come up with to get out of them? I used to imagine all the weirdest things when I was a kid, didn't you?

I wonder where it is exactly that reality sets in and we begin using our imagination less. We stop thinking "What if?"and replace it with "What for?". Inventors and visionaries are great with this question, "What if?" They try and imagine what would happen if they did something, not what they should do it for. Our government and most businesses need to start thinking like that again. Heck, we all need to start thinking like that again.

We all need to have a good brainstorming session.

If you've ever been in a good one you know what I'm talking about. If you think all brainstorming sessions are bull$#!t, then you haven't been in one that's run properly. I know, I've been in too many of those.

A good brainstorming session should ask the question, "What if?". A lot of people believe they are asking this, but what they are actually asking is, "What now?" The clock is running and we need the correct answer immediately. This is not a brainstorming session, this is an exercise in futility and quickly leads those in the group to ask, "What for?" and "Why am I here?".

A good brainstorming session should work just like a child's mind, albeit with a little, and I do mean little, more direction. It should be about opening up the floodgates of your imagination and letting it wash over the problem/situation you are trying to solve. I believe that the bizarre, the strange and seemingly idiotic imaginings of a good brainstorm are the genesis of the greatest ideas.

I'll admit, I often get bogged down in, "What for?", but I always try and come back to "What if?". It can be hard, but like anything else you have to train yourself to do it.

If you like that thought, try this tomorrow or the next day: Pick something that you need to do and run a mini-brainstorming session on it by yourself. It could be anything, even the most mundane of tasks. Look at it and instead of trying to solve it with the same old solution you've been using for days/weeks/months/years ask yourself, "What if?"

Spend some time trying to find another way to solve the problem, do the task or another way to get at or around it. You may not find a better answer, but then again you might. At the very least you might tap into that inner child we all have and have a little fun trying something new. At the most you may invent the next Ipod, Google or Sham-Wow. Let me know if you come up with something. I'd really like to hear from people that try this.

Me? Tomorrow I'm going to sit down and try to brainstorm our fisherman's way out of the predicament he seems to have gotten himself into.

Cheers!

2009-07-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

So, finally I got last night's picture to post. Apparently Firefox updated something which screwed up the blogspot stuff. Anyway here he is. I'm not very happy with the fella. I really ran into trouble last night coming up with something I liked and just defaulted to a character sketch.

I think tonight's image is much better.

I went back to "Mister Gone Fishing" and added a little monster action. I must say, I really prefer working in pencil. Every time I put ink on something I think it begins to look stiff. I think I am just freezing up and then trying to hard.

Ugh, last night was terrible. Don't you hate when you get...er, I guess we'll call it doodle block? I couldn't think of a single image. I just sat there with white paper in front of me for a couple of hours. It really drags you down.

I believe this happens in everyone's creative pursuits, you just lock up from time to time. I've talked to writers who've had it happen and met other artists who've gone through it. Have you? What was the thing (or was there a thing) that broke you out of it? I usually go back to books and look for inspiration or watch a movie. Today, I think what happened was we went to brunch with our friends David and Tim, and after brunch David said, "Hey, I'll pay for a cab to take us to a neighborhood and let's go explore!" Whoa! Simple, but very original.

We went into a neighborhood in Chicago called Old Town, I've been there many times, but never with Tim and David. There are some cute shops and we walked around for a while. I bought some spices at a place called The Spice House, and thought about buying some fancy olive oil at the Oil House (which happens to be right next door). It was so much fun and yet it was such a simple idea.

Sometimes, those are the best ones, the simple ones. You spend your time wracking your brain to be more clever, more interesting, trying to really show how creative you can be and then someone shows you the simplest way and everything becomes much clearer.

After we got home I immediately pulled out my sketchbook, and without really thinking just started drawing. I felt great and I think I'm going to try and remember this situation for next time. I get stuck, I go out and do something simple and fun, take the pressure off, relax and see what comes up.

What a great weekend.

Cheers!

Hopefully a picture?

2009-07-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

Trying to post tonight, but the image doesn't seem to want to load.

It is a really lame picture of a guy standing with an ax. My guess is that the computer has decided it wants me to work harder on the images. Strange.

Anyways, I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo today with my wife. It's not a great zoo and I was struck by how many single animals there were. I would think if I was locked in a cage 24/7 that having a buddy with me would, at the very least, take the edge off. I'm heading back one day this week to do some sketches and if I like them I will post them along with the barbarians.

I used to love the zoo and I guess I still do. Seeing those animals up close that you would never get to see in the wild (or maybe you really wouldn't want to see a lion up close in the wild) is a little breathtaking. The screaming children I could do without, but we had a good time. It really felt like summer without being miserable.

Seeing all those people out enjoying the day made me think, for a moment, that all is right in the world when obviously it is not. That's a cruel trick our minds play on us, giving us the false impression that everything is alright. I guess it takes some of the pressure off our brains to imagine that there really aren't two wars going on, the economy isn't still in the crapper and that universal healthcare may soon be a reality for all of us. I also have the recurring waking dream of winning the lottery almost every day.

Dreams are our very own little hiding places. They allow us to become whatever we wish, they set us free for the briefest of moments to explore all the possibilities that lay just beyond our reach. They, in my opinion, are a good thing. Not that you want to live in a dreamworld all the time, but that our imaginations can give us just a little vacation from our everyday lives.

But then again, I've always been a dreamer.

Cheers!

2009-07-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Barbarian number 15. Whew this is getting harder than I thought.

I don't even have the strength to post a huge or interesting blog tonight. I played golf this afternoon and stayed out too late this evening with my wife. I came home and quickly sketched our man here before falling asleep on the couch. No one ever said this blogging would be easy.

I promise that tomorrow I will be much more interesting and inventive. Until then. Enjoy.

Cheers!

Death of a King

2009-07-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight's post will be short. I sketched this out earlier this evening and thought that "The Death of a King" was an appropriate name. At some point I hope to turn it into a more finished piece. Sad would it be for a King of barbarians to die in his chair, but sometimes it does happen.

Death comes for us all at one point or another and we must be prepared to meet it.

Something to think about.

Cheers!

Friends 4 Ever

2009-07-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

A screen printing friend of mine created a poster that we had framed an hung in our hallway. The title is, "Don't go alone, go with a friend." I love that sentiment.

I've never had a whole lot of fun traveling alone. Sure, you can still see the sights and do fun things. You can meet new people and make new friends, but isn't it great when you go somewhere with a friend? I think you tend to just enjoy the whole experience more. You can discuss all the cool things you're seeing. Have a wingman to help you meet new people. Have cocktails and not look pathetic and alone (at least until one of you gets too drunk, yells at the waiter about his snooty attitude, tell him that the drinks are probably watered down, and then, as the two of you are thrown into the street you fall down and think to yourself, "Hey, we got to skip out on the check, sweet!" But I digress.). Yes, traveling with a friend is always better.

Today's image reminded me of that. That, and the fact that I need to draw more animals. Maybe tomorrow I'll draw gorillas? Or a leopard? We'll see.

How about that Billy Joel/Elton John concert, huh? (Stay with me, we're all adults here and segues are for babies.) I didn't go to the concert at Wrigley Field, but everyone I talked to said it was fantastic. Judging from the amount of people in the streets and the insane traffic jamming up my early evening drive I can tell you the economy is on it's way back.

And speaking of music, some of you who have been through it before will be happy to hear that I am redigitizing my entire CD library due to last weeks apparent suicide of my back up hard drive. It seems it had been depressed for some time because of it's "back up" status. I guess I should have let it be the main hard drive every now and then.

At least that's what the guy at Best Buy seemed to imply. I saw him right before I checked out with the new hard drive and it looked like he was relating my sad story to some colleagues of his. They were pointing in my direction and smiling. I think they understood what I was going through.

Well, I'm off to find some gorilla reference, walk my dog and think about how to let the new back up hard drive know that I am it's friend and I would love for it not to die like it's predecessor. Maybe I'll take it back to that one bar with the snooty waiter?

Cheers!

Midnight kiss

2009-07-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well now, here's one for the ladies. It's late at night and he must have made an unwanted pass. Too bad for him as his blood oozes from his jugular.

We've all been there, without the throat slitting of course, but we've all been there. I know that I have often overstepped my bounds whether it be during a some nighttime encounter, at work or even somewhere as casual as the dog park. You say or do something that someone immediately takes offense to. Oops, what's your next move?

Almost every day there is an occasion where we can over step our boundaries. We don't think we're doing anything wrong, we may just be offering to help, or asking someone a question that we believe to be harmless, but they believe to be inappropriate. It happens. Ever ask if the pregnant lady needs a seat on the bus only to find out she's just fat? Ouch. Been there. Done that.

What do you do when that happens? How do you smooth over something that you didn't think was wrong, but was perceived as horribly offensive? It's tough. Sometimes there's no coming back. You just smile and run as fast as you can. I know I'm not good at it. I have always seemed to have an offensive sense of humor.Political correctness must have passed me by in high school as fast as geometry, English literature and all those pretty girls.

Oops, was that politically incorrect?

Cheers!

Conjuring a little help

2009-07-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

We've all had to do it. You may have hated it, but looking back on it after it was done you probably realized that it was the smart thing to do.

Conjuring a little help.
You're in the middle of a project. Maybe it's work, maybe it's around the house, but you run into a trouble spot and after wracking your brain for hours you finally decide to ask for some help. It's hard, I know, I always feel terrible at first. You get that feeling that you should be smarter, better. That this shouldn't defeat you. You know what you're doing, why can't you do it this time?

Let me ask you a question. Has anyone ever asked you for help? When they did, did you feel that they weren't worthy of the help? That they were somehow less than the person you thought they were? Or did you just think, "Cool, let's fix the problem and have a cocktail." Then, afterward, felt better not only about yourself, but the person you were helping. I'm betting you did.

Good. That's the way you're supposed to feel. You, or someone you know, conjures up a little help, the project moves forward and everyone feels better for having contributed.

Do you ever wonder why politicians can't seem to understand this simple premise?

I do. Every time I turn on the news I am reminded that I voted for some people, and others voted for some other people, that we all thought were smarter than us, to go to work fixing the problems we're all facing and not one of them seems to get it.

Now, I don't have a PhD, an MBA or even a college degree. I still sometimes try and open my front door with my car key, which let's me know that I am not the brightest Crayola in our little box. That said, it seems to me that if I was given the job of fixing things with a whole host of other really smart people I might, just might, sit down with those people and work together to fix whatever the problems are, not just choose up sides and argue with each other till recess. The $#%^&*er's all act like small children, nothing ever gets done and we keep voting for them.

But, what are you gonna do?

Me, I'm gonna drive my house around the block a few times and then I'm gonna figure out how to conjure up a few demons to see if they can give us a hand. Let me know what you come up with.

Cheers!

Watch it with that thing!

2009-07-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

Sure it's a little late, but I'm still considering it Sunday since I like to work late and expect people would read a Sunday post on Monday anyway.

Tonight it's just a pencil sketch, but what a pain it was working it up. I feel like I've been fighting as hard as these two to get the idea out onto the page. I tell ya, some days you can draw for hours and not come up with anything. It's one of the reasons I like going to a figure class. The poses are right there. You don't have to try and make it up from your own head.

It's also one of the reasons I started to read Robert E. Howard again. I need a few more ideas. And that gentleman had a whole ton.

You might remember R.E. Howard as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. Last night I started reading Bran Mak Morn: The Last King.

Bran was Howard's "King of the Picts". A race of "...small dark Mediterranean aborigines..." who fought the Romans. Great stories filled with magic and adventure. I haven't read any Bran Mak Morn in a while and I forgot how much I liked it.

I love Robert E. Howard's creations. His writing career was not long, less than twelve years, but he left us with some great characters and wonderful places. I would recommend his writing to anyone interested in fantasy world's of magic and danger.

Howard's characters have always fascinated me. I remember the first Conan story I read. It was a retelling of a Howard story done in comic book form by, I believe, Roy Thomas and John Buscema.

For those of you who don't know Thomas and Buscema they were huge stars in the comic book world during the seventies and eighties. Roy Thomas was (and still is) a great writer of all things Conan and John Buscema was a legendary comic book artist. He passed away a few years ago, but his work is held up as the standard for any comic book or illustration fan. He is one of the reasons I actually picked up a pencil when I was young. He is one of my heroes.

The story was called "The Tower of the Elephant." In it Conan goes to steal a jewel from a wizard and discovers, held captive in the tower, a being most likely inspired by the Hindu god Ganesh (It was an man with an elephants head. Laugh if you want, but it looked so cool). It was a fascinating read and for a boy of thirteen it was an eye opener on so many levels. I've been a fan of the genre (and Mssrs. Thomas and Buscema) ever since.

I love reading stories of adventure, of swords and sorcery. I love drawing them too, as you can see. It's fun to imagine being in those world's where one never knew what fascinating creatures or magic might lay just over the next hill or deep inside a dark a forest.

What must it have been like back in the days of the Roman Empire? To be posted near Hadrian's Wall in Northern England and not know what lay beyond? Or to be on the other side of that wall watching these strange soldiers from another land building the thing. Think about that. Think about how wild it must have been. When you could travel to, what to you and yours was, the edge of the world, stand there and know, that with one more step, you would be going where (as far as you knew) no one had ever been before. Whew.

I like to think that if I were born in another time I would have been an adventurer, an explorer of some kind. In a past life I was most likely a ditchdigger or some such, but I like to think I would have been more. Y'know it's funny, when ever you hear someone talking about their past lives they always seem to have been someone famous or some famous persons chambermaid. No one ever finds out they were a bricklayer or a janitor. What's up with that?

Anyway, tomorrow I hope to bring you more discoveries from the land of the barbarians. Hopefully, you are enjoying my little exploration of the subject along with my strange thoughts.

Cheers!

Who's there?

2009-07-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I am not going to expand on my creepy rant form yesterday (just yet), instead I expanded the vision of "Gone fishin'", the post from the other day. I wanted to add a little more drama and mystery. I think I got that started, but I may add some more scary bits to the background. I'll keep working on it in the days to come, but for now the blog must go on.
I tell ya, it is quite exciting and exhausting to keep up with this thing. I guess that's why, as my wife Beth told me, 95% of blogs that have been started are now inactive (when defined as not having been posted on for 120 days).

I can see it. I can also see why columnists get paid a lot of money. Actually coming up with a hook every day is tough. I guess that's why I started the "Barbarian" thing, to help give me something to expound upon lest I devolve into some sort of opinionated rant or "Look at me in my boring life" type of blog. Eeww.

Anyway since it is the weekend I'm going to keep it short and go off to the theater to see a play about "Graceland" cemetery here in Chicago. It is where all the famous founders and architects of Chicago are buried. Maybe it will give me some inspiration for tomorrow's post. Maybe a barbarian in a cemetery. Mmmm.

Cheers.

Uh oh!

2009-07-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

A slightly more finished piece than the last couple, I hope you like it.

I have been adding water to my images in the the last few days. I can't figure out whether it's a subconscious thought about sexuality and cleansing of the soul or a subconscious belief that many dangerous things are hiding just below the surface. Me? I'm more of a landlocked person until sharks and crocodiles can find better things to do with their time besides eat human beings.

That is my biggest fear. To be eaten by another being.

I remember the first time I saw "Jaws" I didn't swim in the ocean for the rest of the summer. All I could think about was some giant animal with huge sharp teeth coming out of the depths to swallow me, not whole, but bit by crushing bit.

Lately, I have been thinking about that a lot. Not the huge terrifying animal, but what lies beneath the surface of my world. What is lingering out there looking to swallow me whole (or bit by crushing bit)? What is it that is out there looking to tear me apart? And why am I afraid?

Maybe it's just stress nagging at my brain, but then again, maybe just maybe there is something beneath the surface waiting. Patiently waiting for me to make a wrong move. A move that will give it the opening it needs to strike.

I know it sounds creepy, but don't you feel that way sometimes? Don't you think to yourself, every now and then, that maybe, just maybe, something or someone is out there looking for you? Ready to strike and crush you between their teeth.

More on that with tomorrow's image.

Cheers!

Gone Fishing

2009-07-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick pen sketch tonight. I had the idea of a large battle scene, but ran out of time. I've got to learn to start drawing these images earlier in the evening. Maybe the late afternoon.

I had trouble starting today, I think, because I was a little wound up from dealing with other customers shopping at Costco, looking for parking downtown, and driving through traffic past the Elton John/Billy Joel Concert.

Question: When one traffic safety genius is yelling at you through the passenger window to,
"Move your stupid car!" and the other traffic safety genius is standing in front of your car with their hand held up motioning you to stop who do you listen to? Who is in charge? Do you run one over in deference to the other?

I do know that the answer that gets the least response is,"Where would you like me to go you @#$%^&* genius?"

Anyway, breathe deep, easy.....there.

Now, let's begin again shall we? Fishing. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Unless, of course, he dislikes seafood, then you've just given him a hobby. Either way, nice job.

I don't fish myself. I have, but I found it a little boring. I enjoyed the drinking, but all that extra work of casting and reeling, baiting or tying on a lure, just kept getting in the way. My sister fishes and I have friends who seem to enjoy it. Many of them travel deep into the woods or the Everglades or wherever fish tend to hide. They spend days communing with nature and enjoying the solitude of life away from the hectic grind. It sounds quite peaceful really.

Maybe I'll recommend it to the traffic safety people.

Cheers!

July in Chicago, weird.

2009-07-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

It's Wednesday, okay, technically it's very early Thursday, but who's counting? Keeping up with this blog business is a lot of work.

Tonight I drew an image I'm calling July in Chicago. Why? Well, for most of the last two weeks we've been having trouble getting over the 70 degree mark, IN JULY?
I must admit I'm torn. The side of me that may actually care about what happens to our planet is starting to think that global climate change could ultimately hurt us. The part of me that hates to have his nether regions sweating profusely for 3 months every year, not so much. I know the debate rages on about what is and isn't good for the planet, but I am no scientist or political nutjob so I'll stay out of it and just say, "Man, it's weird."

Let's talk about weird.

Hairless cats. Tofurkey. Sarah Palin. Weird.

Weird–adjective

involving or suggesting the supernatural; unearthly or uncanny
fantastic, bizarre

I find a lot of things weird or at least strange, but the thing is I like weird. I know my wife likes weird because, I believe, she likes me and I'm weird. I play D&D, stay up too late, draw silly pictures and argue over the stupidest things. I don't care what anyone says in a one on one streetfight the Hulk beats Superman every time because the madder he gets the stronger he gets, but I digress.

I think we all need to be a little more tolerant of what it is we find weird, uncanny or bizarre. I know many people who don't believe the things that I believe, but they're still my friends. I know a lot of people who dress differently than me, talk differently than me, aren't left-handed. Like I say weird, but I try not to let those differences drive me away. I usually just make fun of them and they respond in kind.

Our planet has over 6 billion people on it. If I only hung out with the left-handed, sandal wearing, bald dudes, who think the Hulk is stronger than Superman (in a certain context) I'm pretty sure it would be a very small group. A good group, but a very strange group with nothing really to talk about.

Think about it.

Cheers!

Hey, I can see my house from here!

2009-07-14T20:09:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

Don't really feel like posting tonight so I'll just upload the image.

Enjoy.

Cheers!

Quick Ideas, sharp knives

2009-07-13T22:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's late, I admit it. I was having a lot of trouble coming up with a picture I was happy with tonight. I did a lot of thumbnails and finally came around to something that I like. I think it needs a little more action, a little more danger. They're two naked men holding knives for Pete's sake! I shudder at the thought. You will probably see a more finished drawing of them in the next few weeks.

I love thumbnails. Thumbnails are the most fun I ever have when I'm drawing. They're fast and loose. You can explore different themes very quickly. You put down a huge number of thoughts without worrying about whether they are good or not. You just draw. There's a purity to them and I find it to be cathartic to let my mind wander freely around the edges of a thought, drawing, project or situation and see what crazy fun I can have. I think it leads me to better problem solving.

I had gotten out of the habit of doing thumbnails. For a while there never seemed to be enough time to do thumbnails before someone came knocking at the door wanting to see the solution.

I was in a meeting a few years ago where I was asked to take a tagline for a new business pitch and create some kind of memorable design to be applied to all the materials and leave behind pieces. The conversation went exactly like this and I am not joking:

Boss: "Mike, we want a logo for the tagline on this pitch. The line is 'Blah, blah, blah blah.'"
Me: "Ok"
Insert pause no longer than 4 seconds.
Boss: "What do you got?"
Me; " What do you mean?"
Boss: "For a design? What do you got?"
Me: "You just told me the line, like, a second ago."
Boss (completely serious): "Do you really need a lot of time?"

I am not kidding. Of course, I created an interesting design before the end of the day (approx. 4-5 hours) because that's my job, but the conversation cracks me up every time I think about it. He didn't feel he had the time to find the right solution, he just needed the solution right then and there.

I think a lot of us have become used to the instant solution. Just react quickly and get the problem out of the house. The solution just needs to work, it doesn't need to be all that inventive. I think we have been looking so intently at the center of our problems for so long that that our focus has begun to blur and we really don't spend enough time exploring the edges of our minds to find creative solutions anymore.

Kurt Vonnegut once said, "Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

Sounds like a man who did a lot of thumbnails.

2009-07-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday night. Whew, what a fun weekend. Hung out with friends, hit a few golf balls, played D&D and threw together another blog entry.

In looking at this image after i was done all I could think was, "What would I think if I came across a skull shaped mountain? Would I go closer? Would I run screaming like a village idiot? Would I stand there transfixed until someone else made the decision for me?"

I like to think that I would venture inside. That I would take the risk because the reward might be greater than anything I could imagine. Although, if I saw one bat or heard a growl the village idiot option would definitely move in to first place.

We all do it. No, not discovering skull shaped mountains, but venturing into the unknown. It may be as simple as trying a new food or as complex as traveling halfway around the world to spend time a foreign country, but they can still be huge discoveries for each of us.

"Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the exciting, sometimes scary, but almost always exhilarating, unknown.

You see it. You decide to go towards it, you hesitate, you try and come up with a reason not to continue, then, after a moment you plunge in headfirst and hold on to the hope that you'll make it out the other side a better person or at the very least intact.

How about you? What have you discovered? Recently or not, do you remember a time when you launched yourself into the unknown? Was it fun? Was it disappointing? Were you scared? Think about that and if you want to post a comment. I would love to hear your story and I am sure you, at the very least, will enjoy remembering it.

Whew, I can't wait to see what I discover tomorrow.

Cheers.

2009-07-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

"Get thee out into the workforce that we might earn equal pay for the same job."

See, barbarians can be feminists. And no, I don't want to hear any whining about nudity. I've got some male full frontal coming for the ladies later in the series.

Actually, this image based on a sketch I saw done by Frank Frazetta. It is an homage, the original was looking into the man's face and at the back of the woman.

Hope you are all enjoying your Saturday, I am.

Cheers.