House of Many Colors

Totoro!!!

2008-07-10T10:25:00.001-07:00

The lid is off folkz. We can finally share with the world the project some of us have been so fortunate to have been a part of- "The Totoro Forest Project"! We were asked to do our own take on Totoro, and/or magical beings from our childhood, or our own forest or nature landscape that may have inspired the film. Some beautiful work came out of this. For details I will quote the talented Enrico... as details are rarely my thing.

"The Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to preserve Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got the inspiration for his much loved character “Totoro.” Over 200 top international artists from animation, illustration, and comics are donating artwork especially created for this cause. On September 6th 2008 Pixar Animation Studios will be hosting an art auction event featuring all these fantastic pieces of art. All the proceeds of this fundraiser will benefit the Totoro Forest Foundation. On top of the auction we are producing a wonderful art book of the auction pieces and we’ve also managed to secure an exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco."

It has been very inspiring to be a part of this ground swell. I can't wait to see it all together. I am sure it will be overwhelming and awe inspiring! Thank you so much to Dice, Enrico and Ronnie for all their hard work and incredible talent, and for giving me the op to join in! I am humbled.

Hope to see you all at the ensuing events!

from the heart

2008-06-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished a piece for a charity auction project, and, man, was it a challenge . It has been a long time since I have put actual paint to surface, and though I have been painting sporadically over the last few months, nothing with a deadline or even firm subject. And generally, I have been working digitally for so many years now, spoiled by the ability to "undo" or move and edit layers, that this pushed my head to new / old places. As hard as it was, I want to do more now.

I can't show the work here, but more info will be out about it later this summer. It has been an honor to be part of this project. Inspiring and motivating... Can't wait to see it when it all comes together! It will be really beautiful.

In the meantime here is a bit of older work, and don't forget to stop by the Oasis blog from time to time too.

Have an excellent June, everyone!

April

2008-04-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,
April is here. Spring is here.
My good friend Steve Moore has a great site called Flip Animation.
I have the great honor of being featured there this month. Thx Steve!
Stop on by!

Quiet Time

2008-01-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

Looking for a patch of quiet, ease, warm orange comfort. Days are growing longer. Mecury in retrograde is around the corner...see you on the other side.

2008 off and running

2008-01-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a new year. Still working on the short with the Maverix. And, frankly, glad to have the holiday season behind us. Here's a rough sketch from the short.

Happy new years to one and all.
May it bring more peace on many levels.

Inspire!

2007-12-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Maverix is throwing a holiday party in the finest Maverix Studios style- a fundraiser. This time it is for a local organization, Glide Memorial Church. Glide is a beautiful place. It is an inclusive house of worship that really walks it's talk. They have changed the lives of many, and help those who are in need. The fundraiser is specifically for the Children's Creative Arts Media Center. I have a couple of pieces that will be in the auction, along side talented notibles from our design and animation community, including our friend Patrick Awa, who will be in attendance for this one!

The evening will include food, drink and music and, of course, artwork from local artists will be up for bid in a silent auction, with the evening culminating in a live auction for the most sought after pieces.We figure it is a great opportunity to get an early start on holiday shopping while supporting a wonderful organization working with and for the under served children of our fair city. There will even be pieces by the kids that are part of the Center's programs. The theme of the show is INSPIRE: GIFTS THAT GIVE TWICE.

Come on by if you are in the area. It always a great evening, with beautiful art, and lots of friends old and new.

Time is my enemy

2007-11-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

I say this often enough, and the proof is in the... blogging.

I think about posting all the time, and yet make here so rarely.

Not that I don't have plenty to say, just fighting with Time all o' the time, ya know?

Keepin' On

2007-08-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Just trying to throw some work up every so often. Working hard on the short film project. Delivering a PSA spot as well. I'll let you know when that is out in the world. It looks good, thanks to all the talented folks at Maverix. Glad to be part of that crew these days. Hope everyone is having a good summertime. It'll be gone all too soon...

days long past

2007-07-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Found this in an archive. Some concept art for an animated segment (that ended up nixed)for a live action feature. Any guesses? Year was 2002.

Farewell to the formal site

2007-06-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided to let the "portfolio" site go. Wasn't keeping it updated, and figured noone was looking anyway. But as soon as it was down got emails asking where it was. Funny, huh? Ah well. Will try and be regular about this site here. Maybe folks will stop by more often if I stop by more often.

Thanks for stopping by!

From the Plantation to the Penitentiary

2007-03-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I've posted. Kinda lost the desire.

These are a couple of panels from a storyboard for the doc I did with HBO, "Unchained Memories". This scene didn't make it in, but was reminded of this part of my journey from the interview of Wynton on NPR today. Deep and inspiring on many levels. Check it out
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7813667

Who do YOU wish you could meet?

2006-09-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Uh, for me it's got to be this cat. I want to know his whole world. Nuba of the Sudan. The Nuba only have a lil' time left in this mad world -- you know the whole " let's make em extinct!" and all.

Open Source - Audio brain food fo ya arse...

2006-09-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hi There,
Thought I'd start including other web Thought I'm reading/hearing. Please let me know what you think about Lydon's show There's some real Mind nuggets out in Cyberland. Bye now.

powered by ODEO

New Blogger Jitters - Where do you begin?

2006-09-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Confession time: So I don't really know how to type, other than like a bird pecking for worms in the dark. And I'm pretty lame at outlining my inner life on a page the way my favorite bloggers do so masterfully, but I'm determined to get some thoughts into this frikkin blog before I rest, dammit. I write as a professional story guy on occasion, but don't journal or log my world in any way except through fiction/drawn images, philosophical digressions, and quoting my betters at every opportunity.

Bear with me as I figure out what this page is meant to be "about". It's in search of a voice ... I hear something if not a voice. Gospel voices, of the First Baptist Church of God on Crenshaw Blvd in Inglewood, Kalifornia, USA. Once inside the halls of that place, we were all back in Munroe, Louisiana, population 40, 000 broke as hell, getting "cheeoouch" on a Friday night, sweating out a weeks worries -- aching hearts every one of us. But the choir was hot, brotherrs and sisterrs, and stirring up something ineffable -- speaking another language that the secret self alone understood.

I hear Deltron, Fat Freddy's Drop, and Cesaria Evora, Osunlade and Robert Johnson and Lightnin' Hopkins. And SIGN OF THE TIMES too, if I'm expansive. I don't know.

All that ol' lightweight ephemera. To describe it seems like hyperbole. As if I know what the hell I'm thinking when this stuff is generated. One jumps into these commercial gigs with the survivalist mindset on.

Fleeting edges of ideas from ages of art-directors needing whimsey or menace or last months stale eye-candy -- just like they have since the early twenties, btw. Collected from years of making pictures just to sell ideas to folks who had plenty of their own...And occasionally hitting on something interesting at the heart of a commercial spot, or animation technique.

The list of products and icons is insane, the ad-agencies, television programming departments, production studios is sort of interesting if you cut it up and switched all the letters around, I guess. I should try it, and see what wisdom can be seen there. But even that ironic voice of experience is shushed by the smallness of all these images. At least, until I look closely enough to see some musicality and that hint of blues sensibility -- finding a "way out of no-way".

So here's to finding a new way to see. A new eye.

-- let's go.

Change

2006-09-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Back for Illustration Friday... Change.

Some stuff

2006-08-29T00:16:00.000-07:00

Just wanting to post a few things... still new to this and, like many, it's hard to find the time. Couple of pieces that started in pencil/ink and taken further in photoshop.

02

2006-08-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

something to begin...

2006-08-28T23:57:00.000-07:00

blogging at blogger now

2006-08-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

I had started a blog on my page at lulu but they have some crazy blocker for spammers that doesn't let folkz talk back to you/ "comment". I love the dialogue so had to skip on over here to blogger with the rest of the community... Hope you come back often. I will throw up old and new art as often as I can fit it into the weeks.

Peace