ArtForDorks.com

Local Min, Local Max X

Math.

Texas X

This is another unfinished doodle. I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that I really don't have the time to devote to an afternoon of refined drawing. I drew this while waiting for class and listening to Big Black. Little bits and pieces from the album crept in like: "This is Texas This is badass This is chain-gang This is mustang I am Texas I am Texas I am Texas..." ...then... "Got a foot and a half of unregistered steel Shake that sis, we got a street to deal Sawed-off Shotgun Sawed-off Shotgun (Space Invaders and Asteroids sounds) Bang bang bang bang " And so it goes....

Amorphous Blob X

Recently, I've found myself at a point with drawing where I don't quite know where to go next. I've been into the idea of visualization, mapping, mathematics, graphs and all that has seemed to come out of those combined interests are these amorphous blobs. Refined drawings fit for a wall they are not, but I'm finding out more and more that I'm coming to love them. I like to think of them as organisms that weave in and out of themselves and that also play between the idea of structure and chaos. I'm starting to focus on randomness and what that means and how we can use randomness in order to make things look more natural and less refined by functions and perfect curves. So, out of all of that, I deliver you...the amorphous blob.

IHC Website X

I'm am so happy to have just completed the website for my new place of employment, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB. The amazing and talented Alejandro Casazi did the design and I did the development. I wrote in some cool features by tweaking Wordpress' provided functionality. For instance, on the events and funding paging, it will always show the most recent upcoming event and if there are no upcoming events, it will show the ones that recently passed. It sounds so simple but this little task saves me a world of time and is easy for anyone in the office to update. Now that I've automated it, I can focus on my actual job at the IHC, program and events assisting. Please take a look at the site (www.ihc.ucsb.edu) and come to some of the events!

Mayhem X

When asked to sketch up an idea for the cover of the Independent's city hall issue, I took the idea of city hall mayhem and ran with it (maybe a little too far since they ended up going in a less chaotic direction). Here was the low down : Santa Barbara's entire city council is up for reelection. Like any rip-roaring-fun-time local election, there's a fair share of he said she said and a few outside interests (particularly one man from Texas with a lot of money to burn) who are pushing to get their pet initiatives passed. The other confusing thing about the election is that it's vote by mail only. These ideas are evidenced by the hungry mail box, funny looking people doing funny things like tearing down city hall and hitting each other with "measure B" bats and the cowboy riding a plane (...it's a plane....not anything phallic for those of you who want to go there....although I admit that it's an easy mistake to make, whoops) . So yes, it didn't graze the cover but it did get a bit of love in the Super Santa Barbara art show that opened last night. The show features local artist's takes on the future of our beloved city and ideas about building height limits and the like. It will be up for a week or two and for putting together a show in two weeks, everyone came up with some amazing stuff. Swing by and check it out, you can get all the info at supersantabarbara.com

Tusk Tusk Y'All X

Tusk Tusk : Paint on Wall : 15 x 8 feet? Let me start by saying how good it feels to have friends that like your stuff and let you do whatever you want to their property. I got a call from Chris on Saturday asking if I wanted to paint an "ugly yellow brick wall" before the opening of new motel called the Agave Inn. Chris feared that the guests who rented this suite would find that the aforementioned yellow brick view wouldn't match with the ultra-hip southwestern interior and wanted to paint a view for them instead. I said I was into the idea and drew up a few drafts. I personally liked the Walrus dude the best but I was fairly confident that they would pick one of the less left-field ideas I brought ( the other options were an octopus spelling Agave Inn with his tentacles and two old folks drinkin' margaritas...so maybe none of my ideas were "right-field"). I was stoked when Chris said the Walrus was his favorite too. He wanted the image to be totally random...and a totally random idea I delivered...zing! So, after a few hours painting a wall, a few failed attempts to describe what "tusk tusk" means, a few kids asking who the lady outside was and one free dinner later, the final result was delivered in time for the opening. So, if you stay in Room #8 at the Agave, you'll have a particularly random view. On top of that, if you leave through the back door, you'll be confronted by an over sized "HOWDY". Thanks again Chris and Kenny for encouraging my randomness.

Fabric Usage Worksheet X

This chart is an extension to our production tracking system. I chose to give it it's own post because I love how colorful it is, I like to think that It makes looking at the information a little more fun. What we are showing in this chart is how much of each fabric it takes to make 1 of a certain style. They are ordered by fabrication (i.e. organic jersey, hemp-jersey, fleece) and totals are shown at the bottom of each fabrication as well as a grand total grid at the bottom of the sheet. This helps the girls in development get an accurate picture of how much fabric they will have to order for a given season. Before orders are actually placed, they can just get a rough idea by style and after orders are input, they get an even more accurate number because for each production run, the system will automatically calculate how much of each style was ordered and multiply it by the yield. This tool also references our "Spec Archive" where the girls in development and the pattern maker go to upload spec's for each style and, if the spec is approved, the style shows up in yellow.

Buyers Area Admin Tool X

The buyers area admin tool is one of my more loved tools that I've built for Stewart+Brown. Most of the information for the buyers area like price, color offerings and sizing comes from the style archive which is always accurate and up to date. The rest of the information is controlled through this admin tool which has the following functions:

-activate / deactivate styles that will be displayed
-override default product categories
-add / update information about each fabrication that will go in the header of each page
-add / update background images for these headers
-add default color bars and override certain color swatches if needed.
-add / edit slide shows for each delivery
-add supplemental information for buyer to download
-test the entire site in the "sandbox" where you can view a preview of the buyers area before it goes live. This -sandbox area also has links next to every field that you are able to update in order to make navigating the -interface a bit simpler
-change the "welcome" image
-add / update showroom contact information
-change which season's are viewable
-each step has full documentation available

JakeMontefu.com X

Jake Montefu is a friend and a photographer and we worked out a little trade. I asked him to do one of his time lapse films for Stewart+Brown and I would build him a new website. His old site was in Flash and he complained that it was a big hassle to update it. To solve this, we built his entire site using Wordpress' back end. I created my own theme to fit the design he gave me and it all worked out well. Now a very happy Jake can update his site quickly with ease and add, rename and move categories to his hearts content. That's what friends are for. You can checkout his entire site at www.jakemontefu.com

Bookcase X

Bookcase : Pen on Paper I moved about a week ago, across town and into a much smaller and already furnished place and thus, had to give up most of my belongings. I justified it to myself as cleansing but that didn't help me get over the eerie feeling I had while bargaining a price for my books. It just didn't feel like it was supposed to be that way. I had gone through my life just accumulating these little books as reminders of where I'd been and what I was into and it felt like I was selling the personal history more than the book itself. But then I cashed the check, got dinner and it quickly was replaced by more practical thoughts. I kept the books I really really love, did I really need the others? So about a week later I got to doodling my old bookcase while sitting on the couch at Henry's house and I just got to thinking about how attached you can get to objects. I love that bookcase and how its shelves are impractically low and off kilter making it perfect for my "tiny" books and figurines. I also love that it came with some family photos circa 1981 in it too. I kept them in there, it's their house now. I suppose if I were smaller (about the size of a tiny book or a photo), I wouldn't mind living in the bookcase either. So yes, objects and ownership, deep thoughts for a Friday night. I really love the bookcase and I'm thinking about drawing other things I really love. Maybe get away from drawing people for a bit, though, to make it clear, I love people too. Maybe by drawing the things I love I'll never have to fully give them up because they'll fit nicely into my sketchbook and won't be a pain in the ass to move. They can all be about the same size and if I get bored, I'll make a me figurine and a tiny sitting room for tiny me and my tiny things.

TheFasterTimes.com X

I've signed on as a member of the "Faster" team as an aid for all things design and development. The project started a number of months ago and has since launched to a good start. I'm not quite sure whether to assign this to design or development because I've had a hand in both. I've added a few pages based on an existing design and moved elements here and there for increased functionality. Feel free to check out the site at www.thefastertimes.com

Very Jerry X

Jerry : Door Hanger for the Presidio Motel This is Jerry, any relation to Jerry Garcia is purely coincidental but encouraged. He's my 2nd of 3 door hangers I've drafted up for Chris and Kenny at the Presidio Motel. This is my ultra-hokey take on your traditional "do not disturb" sign, get it? Any who, Jerry will surely hang with you if you happen to make a trip over to Santa Barbara and stay at the Presidio, which is also encouraged. Enjoy!

Sea Snuggles X

Sea Snuggles : Acrylic and Accidental Bird Poop on Skateboard Greetings from under the sea everyone! I've been down here painting all of the scenery and you'll never guess what I've discovered! Under the big blue there's a major cuddle fest going on. Octopuses snuggling walruses, cuddle fish being themselves, sea urchin's playing cupid with their spines, you name it. In other news, this little skate I painted is soon to be up for auction to benefit the Montana Skatepark Association, I'll add a link to the online bidding once it's posted. I've been on a bit of a walrus kick lately and I've been trying to figure out how I've made the transition from elderly to walruses. There are some obvious similarities, they both wear glasses and prefer the cold arctic waters and sustain a diet based mostly in fish. How can you not make the connection? I left the board outside for a bit in order to let the spray enamel dry and, to my surprise, discovered later that a bird had so graciously left it's fecal matter atop my masterpiece. I'm no Dr. Doolittle, but I think this was some sort of bird "kudos". I do live near the sea, there's every chance it was a seagull in which case he was privy to the startling discovery I found at the bottom of the ocean and wanted to give me a little "wassup, we cool" in the form of an cloudy white blob. It's cleaned off okay, but the memory still remains.

Meet Russ X

Door Hanger Idea for Presidio Motel Meet Russ. His hobbies include high stress business deals, listening to Morrisey (hence carnation) and antique bear collecting. Quite a span of interests if you ask me, oh yes, and fish, Russ loves fish. Russ is the first of three characters that I'm creating to be the little "do not disturb signs" for the Presidio Motel. I'm not sure if he'll make the cut but I like him, we'll see. He'll hang off the knocker letting passerby's know the wishes of the rooms tenants. The other two characters are a Jerry Garcia type sheep dog and a bear who loves to read "Beary Potter." I'll keep posting as I finish each one.

News / Blog X

The Stewart+Brown news section needed its own custom theme so that it meshed well with the rest of the site so I created the custom theme seen here. I also programmed it so that a link to a style is created when a user enters a snippet of code with the style number of the item shown in it. That little snippet queries the store's database and returns an active link if the style is for sale or simply the style name if the style isn't on sale. The news section also feeds our newsletter. In order not to duplicate efforts the newsletter set-up admin populates automatically with the information from the blog and a person creating the newsletter just has to select which stories they want to show.

Lengthened Tee Story X

This is one of the favorite stories I've done at Stewart+Brown. We wanted to show how versatile our "Lengthened Tee" is so I sent an email to everyone in the office to make an outfit with one. The next day, I had everyone bring their clothes in and we flat shot the outfits and posted them on the website. I had each "person" holding something applicable to their position at Stewart+Brown just to mix it up. We also tied it into a contest for other readers to make outfits in an artsy fashion and I loved the response. We got a lot of really cool entries and it's always fun to interact with the people you're creating these stories for.

Buyers Area X

This Buyers Area is a password protected area on the Stewart+Brown site for retailers to go to preview the incoming season early. The design was based on our e-store but formatted so that the buyer can see each fabrication on it's own page. Currently, I have the buyers area linked into a number of back end tools that manage the production and development process. If someone in production decides we're not going run a color in a style, they can update it in the back-end and it will automatically update in the Buyers Area as well. This has really helped us cut down on communication errors and it ensures that buyers are always getting the most up to date information.

Gift Certificates X

These are two of the gift certificates I designed for Stewart+Brown. They are what you get emailed to you if you purchase a gift certificate form their online store. We wanted something bright, exciting and seasonal. The image on the top is the holiday version (note the snowflakes) and the bottom is the spring version (note the butterflies).

Stewart Brown E-Store X

The reskin of the e-store over at stewartbrown.com was my first major overhaul of a site's design. Having managed the back end prior to this point I was excited to add in increased functionality that would make it better looking as well as easier to maintain. Many of these features will be lost on those who haven't managed an e-commerce store and/or worked with miva shopping carts but the details include auto-generating colorbars, color changes on images and shop by look features to name a few. Head on over to www.stewartbrown.com/store to see if for yourself.

Canned Laughter #2 X

Hi Everyone! I'm happy to announce that I'm printing a little zine to go along with the Contemporary Arts Forum show. Some of my close friends received Canned Laughter, a little mini-zine I made last year around Christmas and I'm happy to continue with Issue #2 this year. If you'd like one, send me your address and I'll pop it in the mail. Feel free to leave comments or ask for extras etc.

Stewart Brown Site Update X

When we re-skinned stewartbrown.com we went for a look that was less cluttered and more striking. The wide homepage image seemed to do the trick. We designed it so that the larger image would stay put and the image on the right rotates between nine or less images, giving people on the homepage to see some of our outfit shots. My other favorite page of the site is the Collections Page. Each season Paris Miller, the Art Director, takes the images for the photo shoot and compiles them into some themed montage. I like this page the best because it's easy to navigate, simple and really lets the images speak for themselves.

Cat Show X

This drawing is about the financial crisis, repercussions of which recently became glaringly evident to me at the 2008 cat show. This was the 3rd cat show I've attended and it was by far the smallest. As I watched the judging of the Himalayans I chatted about the economy with a fellow attendant and her son (who was naturally too young to mind going to cat show with Mom) and the usual bustling was just missing from the event. From what I saw, they didn't even hold the parade of costumes. Everyone seemed bored. Mostly the cats - big surprise there. It's funny to imagine the event from the cat's point of view because it makes the absurdity of this quark in human nature glaringly apparent. A cats love directly proportional to the food they receive and human love isn't much different except that we like to add lots of significance to these things. This one lady apologized for her appearance because of the cat licking her hair all night - if that's not love then I don't know what is? Who are these people without the cat show? And really, with all this talk of Joe the Plumber isn't time we think about Jane the Catter?

Kraftwerk Keyboard X

Just thought I'd add this little blast from the past. It's my first applet in Java and it runs pretty weirdly, sorry, but the sentiment is there. Just hit play and the keyboard goes into autoplay mode, if you hit stop, you can play the keyboard yourself and make your own beats! • play with it

Gun Show X

I've taken to riding the bus. This doesn't particularly have anything to do with gun shows or the war buddies that may or may not attend them, but I feel like its something significant in my life and I only assume that a gun could also have a significant effect on my life. I didn't mean for that to take such a morbid turn, but I guess that's the way this little bus trip is rolling and I'd like to draw a few more parallels between the situations. The gun show was one of the oddest amalgamations of people I've seen. Take for instance the fact that I: 1. signed up to take part in a world war two re-enactment complete with tanks etc., 2. bought two E.T. pins and a t-shirt depicting Cristo's Marin umbrella's project. 3. talked a length about the decreasing frequency of gun shows in california with a man who warned me upwards of 6 times to keep safe distance from his toaster oven ( which was placed precariously among the "merchandise") The bus affords me similar pleasures. I met a couple traveling by bike down the California coast and I get to listen to one-sided phone conversations to my hearts content. I just feel like more of a member of the community. I plan on enjoying this sort of community activity for some time. That's why I liked these geezer's so much. I wonder how long they've been looking forward to this, or if they were just bored, looking to ditch the wives for a bit and decided to go out to the friendly neightborhood gun show. It has such an old timey appeal now don't it. Looking at stuff, and meeting people. That's what it's all about.

Amen X

: 11 x 17 : pen and ink on paper. Take a trip with me to Sunday Mass as the pews fill up with a veritable bevy of elderly goodness. This piece offers a glimpse at some of the highlights of my people watching and please note the kick-ass crochet sweater worn by my new favorite grandma. If I used color, I would have filled it in in it's exact shade of bright red-orange.

Hold Hands - Live to 100 X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
After griping about not feeling that rush of inspiration and soliciting cute elderly moments everywhere I went, the universe finally threw me a bone. I was at Trader Joe's yesterday with Henry picking up some food to get us ready for the Solstice festivities and just as we round the corner with hands full of Whiskey (for Mint Juleps), Lox (for Bagels) and Raspberry Jam (for work week toast breaks) this old woman hones in on us with outstretched arms. She walks right over and puts her hands on us and says "Hold hands and you'll live to be 100." More than just thinking "there's a freebie" I got to thinking how sweet that was. Soon though, my pessimist got to me and as we were checking out I noticed that she was still just kind of milling around the checkout lines. What was she doing there? Was she saying this to everyone or just us? If so, who sent her, what provoked this. I decided to take it for what it's worth and head on my way finishing the drawing later in the afternoon.

Cosmic Fugue X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
Good heavens it (was) Astronomy day at the Natural History Museum! Never one to miss my healthy dose of themed outing, I made haste to the event. There was a drawing to win a free telescope and when they were calling the raffle numbers I was seriously getting a little sick to my stomach with hope. I didn't win. Where would I put a telescope anyways? As a consolation I made this drawing. This guy had a telescope and he was letting people look at the sun (if you could see it through the fog....pretty boring). As it so happens, stargazing is more of a night thing and this guy clearly didn't make it out much during the day. I'm not sure if it was the nose coat of Zinka from 1988 or the full coverage hat with ear flaps that made this point apparent. I'm sure Aristarchus would have killed for such a sun-fearing get up. Shattered dreams of a telescope in my future aside, I'm almost positive I'll make it back next year.

Honestly X

: 11 x 17 : pen and ink on paper. Honestly, I can't spell, but nonetheless, can you really put anything else with a picture of Abe Lincoln? Maybe "Log Cabin" but that'd just be hokey though that's never stopped me before. Sooo yes, Abe, he's a fun one to sketch and I'd like him much better in glasses. I got to watching America's Funniest Home Videos and began thinking that it'd be nice to do a little American Diptych with Abe one one side and Bob Saget on the other. Then I began brainstorming words to go with Bob, I think I liked Saget-cious the best. It's kind of like sagacious now isn't it? This plan was quickly thwarted when I actually sat down and drew Mr. Saget from a freeze frame still of AFHV's Holiday 1996 episode. He could be the world's most difficult person to draw. You'd never know it was him by looking at the drawing. I think it's because he lacks really definable facial characteristics, like Abes grizzly jowls or the ever so chic Mao-mole. Come to think of it, Mao-mole kinda sounds like mammal - now I'm envisioning drawing of Mao with a small kitten for a mole - meow.

Let's Do Lunch X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
There's nothing like the Sunday family lunch at an empty sit down Mexican food joint. There's something profoundly boring about going out to eat sometimes. I was sitting at a table by the window when I saw the mini-van pull up. The side door rolls open and out comes mrs. scrunci here followed by her beau, who was dressed in an auto-mechanics one-sie (I'm quite sure this isn't the professional term for the garment). The group of em then stroll into the restaurant to sip water in silence. I left before they ordered so I didn't get to witness the excitement that the rest of the meal most surely held. It just reminded me of those days you'd go out to eat with your parents between the ages of 11 and 16. Nothing exciting about it, just filing out of a mini-van and getting food somewhere other than home.

Bonjour X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
I must say the French Festival disappointed me. It struck me more as a bastardization of French Culture more than a testament to, err, Frenchness. Apparently, if you throw on a beret and laugh with that distinctive "haw haw haw" you're French. There was even a booth selling cell phone covers- Is that supposed to represent the people who try to sell you fake Chanel along the Champs Elysee? I can only assume that if the French had an equivalent America Festival it would be a day of eating fat chunks of meat, drinking beer that tastes vaguely like beer and celebrating war. Oh wait a darn tootin' minute! We DO have America festivals just like this in America only we call them air shows. I'm being hypocritical, I love airshows. I love the way the new-metal (or is it nü-metal) blares from the speakers so loudly it's nearly indistinguishable save for a few resonating "rrraaarrrrsss" and you can't deny the deep sense of patriotism that comes with jets as they pass each other by what looks like mere inches. To make a broad generalization, all festivals are bastardizations of whatever the festival theme is. They represent only the stereotypical because if they didn't it'd just be lots of French people hanging out, same as usual, and what fun is that? I'd like to think that is what my friend Jacques was thinking about. I was waiting patiently on a rock next to the fake Eiffel Tower waiting for the Poodle Parade to begin while he just stood there about 10 feet away from me. He stood just like this, unmoving and staring. I was just wondering what he could have been thinking about. Maybe he was ashamed. He was facing the opposite direction as the festival happenings and all. Oh well, I really think organized community events are amazing. To get so many different people, from all walks of life out to act French is amazing and you can't help but "haw haw haw" a bit about the fact that you've all come together to watch to poodle parade. It's like we force ourselves to have some sense of camaraderie because if you tell most people you went to a parade of poodles, they'd laugh at you.

Style Archive X

The style archive is the backbone of our product information at Stewart+Brown. As each season is developed all information is entered in and edited through the style archive. This information then becomes available to a number of other tools that do everything from create line sheets to track the sampling process. This system ensures that each style meets a certain amounts of checks an balances. For instance, a style can't be offered in a color that isn't being offered to that fabrication and a product can't be sampled in a color that it's not available in. It seems simple enough but you wouldn't believe how easy it is to botch this information if it's not being tracked. Recently, I've added increased tools that track the production of the style. From the style archive you can see each fabric and trim the style uses, see what the orders for that style look like and manage each step of the process the style will need to go through in order to be produced. The style archive also populates our Buyers Area. Before this, we would create an image for each fabrication and any time something changed (which is often) we would have to open illustrator and change the image, resave and re-upload it. This got awfully tedious and now when changes are made, they are made with a click of a button and updated throughout the various avenues of our site. Also, in order to cut down on communication errors. Each time someone update a style, they have the option to send an email to everyone on the production and development team so that they can track it in their various records as well.

Quite Bored X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
There comes a time when you hit a bit of a creative roadblock. I can't help but feel a bit uninspired as late. Not to say that I'm sad, lonely or depressed. Things are really great but i just haven't happened upon anything that makes me want to draw about it. I feel like I'm trying to solicit a moment and this leaves me feeling kind of creepy. Looking for old folks doing cute things presents a bit of a moral dilemma about what I'm looking for and why I'm looking for it. Nonetheless, I went to the Vegabond for lunch the other day purely in search of some inspiration and even it failed me. There was a group of guys in the corner discussing politics which was kind of interesting but not making that switchover in my head to drawing. Then there was this other couple across the walkway from me, but I got a creepy vibe from them. I couldn't tell if the woman was looking at me or right past me. I thought about making a quick dodging movement to see if she reacted but just minded my business and kept gnawing away at my tuna salad (or rather, mayonnaise with lettuce and tuna). Oh well, right place at the right time I suppose. I guess that's all we can hope for in any situation creepy elder-stalking or not.

Hair Do Done Did X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
Again, I've strayed from my main agenda of drawing from actual living people I see around, but I think I'd like to see this person. This is my positive manifestation of what I'd like from the universe, you're move heavens. But on a more serious note, I got to thinking about the term 'hair-do', it's an odd duck now isn't it. What does the hair do do? When was that first used, were the barbers of ancient Babylon lazy with their verbs. Perhaps the ancient Babylonians were more concerned with beard-do's - bad joke, now I'm done.

See No X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
Oh what simple pleasures the sandwich affords. I've been toying around with the iphone sdk but I can't figure out what kind of little application to write. Daniel suggested a little program called "make me a sandwich now" that would offer you delicious sandwich selections in time of need. Maybe that was on my mind when I did this one. Really though, I just like the simple sentiment in regards to being elderly, or my ideas of being elderly. I feel as though many of the cafe counter regulars I spot just keep to themselves. A car could crash into the window, the ceiling could cave in and a humanoid race (adept at soccer no less) could come attack but as long as the cold cuts are safe, they think nothing of it.

Stargazer Billy X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
A little late on the draw here but if y'all remember, there was a lunar eclipse not so long ago. It just so happens that as a result or, emphasizing something already there, I've taken up a pretty hefty interest in astronomy. I do at times, like to fancy myself and ancient greek pondering the cosmos, but being neither ancient nor greek, I'm left to draw old men who are pondering the celestial bodies. This little picture is inspired by a guy who was standing on my corner during the eclipse with his telescope, I went ahead and took artistic liberties swapping the telescope for binoculars but the sentiment is pretty much the same. Maybe I'll upload a spacey tune in no time to go with it.

Chocolate Dandy X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
Dogs are great, furry and lovable. I've recently decided that if I were going to commit to a furry companion, I would choose a standard poodle. I've seen a few around and I like what I see. I was walking down the street one morning and I saw this old man (as I do) and a poodle. The poodle ran towards him and jumped up on a ledge and they sort of just playfully punched at each other in that very loving dog human way. Bouncing Poodle, Crippled Grandpa. Something about it just seemed simple. What is it about dogs anyway? Is it more the loyalty, the fact that they can't talk back or is it just the fluff? I remember a friend once saying "Sometimes, when I'm happy, I just like to look at dogs." and I think that's it. I admire the simplicity of dogs. Eat, sleep, poop and play. I bought this book called "The Complete Poodle" that chronicles how to raise show Poodles and also shows pictures of the champions. They're really regal, all oval framed and softly lit with poodle looking far into the distance. The poodle knows more than us in this picture, it sees the future, it sees through all your bull-shit, but it will never say anything, it will just look pretty and love you.

USA Donuts X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper. In all my ranting and raving about breakfast and greasy spoons I completely failed to take adequate notice of one of Santa Barbara's finest untapped resources - Donut Shops. Sugary sweetness at it's finest. This guy was a regular, stepping out a car with as many veteran stickers as wars fought since the revolution and a flag flying high from the rear window. It got me to thinking about war. I was recently watching a WW2 documentary on the history channel and was really disturbed by it. Sometimes you forget how real these things were, how brutal it all was....and then there's donuts. Thoughts of war in a donut shop - maple bar and coffee in hand.

Fly a Kite X

: 11 x 14 : pen and ink on paper.
I liked how this song seems to go with the picture:
The kite festival is where you can go to get a mean sunburn and some priceless people watching. I like the sense of community that comes along with it. You look around and think, these people all live around me, and they all love kites, life is good. Deep, isn't it. Well, if you haven't done it in a while, I highly recommend a relaxing afternoon of laying on a picnic blanket, eating snacks and flying a kite.

C you Never X

: 11 x 17 : pen and ink on paper. To cut straight to specifics, I can't say I was ever so much a fan of Arthur C. Clarke's novels seeing that I've never read any or even seen 2001: A Space Odyssey yet, in a more general sense, I have a profound appreciation of SciFi. I like space, I like reading, I like reading about space, but I think my likings lean a bit more towards science-fact than fiction. But for the sake of being cosmic, couldn't all of our profound knowledge just as well be fiction?
(cue space synth here.)
I got really into the late Mr. Clarke here primarily because of an interesting story I can across detailing how we recently recorded the largest gamma ray burst in all history. It's really incredible, the New York times did a nice little write up on it. And it just so happens that the blast blasted it's gamma goodness on the same day that Mr. Clarke checked out of life of Earth. Coincidence...I think not. (resume spacey synth)

Choco-Homo X

: 11 x 17 : pen and ink on paper. A trip to the grocery store can lead to the most pleasant surprises at times. I stood there by the eggs, checking in vain in any of them were cracked but really just spying. Is this creepy behavior? This guy was just standing there in front of the dairy, looking at the milk. Sure, I understand the options are endless, not having a set milk preference (i.e. 1%, 2%, whole, soy) can make this quite arduous. But as I watched, I saw him pick up a few normals before abandoning the idea altogether and just going for the chocolate. Well done indeed. Really, in a world of milk so consumed by percentages and words like "homogenized," it's nice to know that there's always tried and true chocolate milk is there to save the day.

Harborscape Tee X

This is another tee that I created for the Spring 2008 season at Stewart+Brown as a composite of one of my drawings (in grey) and one of Karen Stewart's drawings (in black). Karen made her drawing while on a trip to Portugal and with our theme relating to Portuguese seaside villages and songs I added in the rest of the image. We liked the look of classical maps and folklore so I added in the sea monster to give it that folkloreish feel.

Vento Tank X

This is a shirt that I designed for Stewart+Brown for the Spring 08 Collection. The collection was inspired by a trip to Portugal and the lifestyles of the people living there. While discussing graphics we were thinking about voyages and seaside villages and out popped the Vento tee, a stylistic take on a seaside voyage.

Eugene X

: 11 x 17 : pen and ink on paper. I've been lagging behind here and I just scanned this in yesterday. I don't quite remember the story behind this one, suffice to say it had something to do with ice cream. If memory serves me right, as they say in Iron Chef, I saw him down in the harbor sitting on a bench and eating some ice cream. Quite plesant if you ask me. It reminds me of this little snippet I read in Duplex Planet. Duplex Planet is a little zine with all the content generated from a retirement home in NY. David Greenberger puts it together, asks little questions and documents the responses. The dialog for this particular one went something like this: Rita: The first thing I do when I go to the fair is look for a place to sit down, whether it's next to the cows or the pigs. DGB: What's the second thing you do? Rita: Just keep right on sittin'. I loved that! It's so simple. I'm pretty sure it's what this guy was doin, right on sittin'. Right on! In other news, this morning was momentous. It was the first time I ever was posed the question, "You want the regular?" I've made it at last! Shangri-La! The moment was made better only by the fact that insantly after the waiter said, "How are you, young lady?" I've really got to start using that term more often, young lady. A lady I shall be, a young lady in a puffy party dress with ribbons and curls... who'll have the regular, thank you.

Newsletter X

When it came time to create a newsletter we at Stewart+Brown needed something that would be visually compelling, informative, wouldn't take much time to create and would reuse assets already in our store and blog. Howard Brown and I worked on the design together and I wrote the code as well as built the admin tool. I wrote the admin tool in PHP and had it query our Wordpress database to auto-populate editable fields. The assets in the newsletter come directly from our blog and e-store. When it comes time to publish a newsletter a user visits the admin tool and puts a number next to each post they want to include and also has the ability to edit the copy, the link and select which image from the post they want to use for the newsletter.

Smedly X

: 9 x 10 : pen and ink on paper This is an animal, I guess the most old-manish of the animals. There isn't much a story to him other than her reminds me of Smedley, my sister's lifelong nappy companion.

Bokonon X

: 11 X 17 : pen and ink on paper So for all of those who've read Cat's Cradle, I joined your ranks on Saturday and I'm very happy that you can all be part of this little granfaloon . I reserve my karass for something unknown, yet bound to happen, right? So yes, having read the novel, you may know who I've drawn. For those clueless to the first few sentences, this is Bokonon, the Calypso singer who's philosophical couplets punctuate the novel.

Married to the C X

6 X 6 : pen and ink on paper I'd like there to be more a story behind this one but it is what it is. I went to a nautical themed party and I had visions of the sea on my mind. This guy kinda reminds me of this guy who's always walking up and down Valerio St. I haven't seen him in a while but I drove by him the other day and he's just as he always is. Sailor cap wtih, Einstein-ish white hair flowing out the sides and always with freshly pleated polyesther pants. He's really amazing, I think Valerio street is sea and he's most definately married to it.

Whatevs X

9 X 10 : pen and ink on paper I was in a bit of an odd mood and watching TV and doodled this guy. I like him, he represents boredom.

Aeronautix X

98 X 6 : pen and ink on paper Bryan was nice to do give me what could be the best book of all time. It's a chronicle of the Great International Paper Airplane Competition and this guy if featured on the title page. There's so many great pictures of people intensely focused on airplanes, and it comes with paper to build your own plane with...I'll let you know how that goes.

Canned Laughter X

8 X 10 : pen and ink on paper I came home one night, a little tired and went digging for a record deep in the vault and came up with Percy Faith's Greatest Hits. There was this great little upbeat number towards the end and I contend that the music drew this, not me. Pretty campy, huh? I ended up putting "Canned Laughter" with it because I was listening to That 70's Show on the radio driving home from work. I couldn't help but notice the laughter and what a weird concept that is. Something about the two seemed to work together.

Well Timed X

8 x 10 : Pen and Ink on Paper This was a drawing of a nice guy that works at the OMSCI in Portland I met when waiting in line to buy a ticket for the Black Hole Movie (unfortunately, we were late for Creatures of the Deep in IMAX) at the planetarium with my cousin. He was really excited that we were going to see the movie and really wanted to tell us how relevant it was since they're recently found evidence that further supports the theory of black holes. This was only the beginning, he then went on to explain how the medical community frequently shuns cutting edge notions but eventually the truth surfaces...I liked him, he was awkward.

Buky X

: 3 X 5 : pen and ink on paper I spent a while making drawings solely on 3 x 5 cards. This one is pretty old but I always had a bit of a fondness for it.

Starry Daze Collection X

This was my first big graphics project with Stewart+Brown. After looking at the photos from this shoot and discussing them with Howard Brown (the companies co-founder and head designer) we came to the conclusion that it had a very storybook theme and we wanted to play that up with hand-drawn framing and text. I drew a number of frames and such with charcoal pencils, scanned them in and came up with some layouts. After some refining and editing the final result came together nicely. You can view the entire collection Fall 07 - Starry Days collection at www.stewartbrown.com

Kami Card X