new years eve

the weather calls for a very chilly night tonight. i think i'm just gonna spend the night someplace warm with my lady, papi and a couple of six packs of pbr. happy new year every one.

moving day

today was heather's moving day. half of the family is living in j.c. now. it was a busy day and there was no time for arts and crafts so i thought i would post this informative self-defense material. let's hope we never need to use it.

christmas has come and gone

so we're in that no man's land that is the time between christmas and new years. as always i was treated very well by my family and friends. everyone did miss out on what may have been the perfect holiday gift. there's always next year i guess. hint, hint.

merry christmas

it's a christmas miracle, 2 posts in one day

just wanted to show off the christmas present i made for my landlady mary jean. this is the first of the new birds i've made since the ones i did for shauna. he's a good one!

christmas eve tree trim

one of my favorite days of the year is here. i got together with papi and had a little talk and he agreed to be cool around this tree.the charlie brown special is all decorated and ready to go.

back for more

here i am again, begging at santa. all i wanted for christmas was some more turtlenecks and cardigan sweaters. the tree-trimming is under way and is coming together nicely. it's a bit tricky keeping the tree watered with papi around. who new cats liked pine-water so much. on the plus side he hasn't taken the tree out yet. these are some picture of what was our last christmas tree.

who is this guy and why am i sitting on his lap?

i'm working on my tree trimming decorations today, check back tomorrow to see my charlie brown special in all it's treelicious glory.

winter in jc

our first big snow of the year came today. here's some pics:

party time

after getting up at 4:30 this mornimg to get shauna off to the airport for the holidays and accidentally breaking her birthday birds i was too tired and busy doing repairs to do any new crafting today. i will be rallying for heather's fancy office party tonight. i'm just gonna slip into some of my finery and turn on the charm. yeah, this should be cool. i just hope i can keep up my strength so i can show off some of my newly minted dance moves.

for no other reason than how bad-ass it is

this is a real photo taken of a squirrel fight at a campsite in namibia. wow.

heather the pirate

for heather's 40th birthday shauna and i decided to each paint a portrait of her as a pirate. this is my half of the diptych, shauna's can be seen on her bee warblers blog

calling in sick

sorry all, i'm taking a sick day from blogging today. it's sad really, i have some good stuff to blog right now. check back in tuesday to see the fun paintings shauna and i made for heather for her fortieth birthday. for now this picture of papi when he was a kitten will have to tide you over.

potter party redux

as you may remember shauna and i have a fondness for potter parties. with the publication of this new little book we once again have a reason to read aloud to each other. to liven up the festivities i made shauna a magic wand while teaching up at the a-s wood shop the other day. we love the flying and the magic.

finally finished

at long last papi's house is finished. i spent the day painting on the ivy and flowers and wallpapering the inside.the wallpaper is a lovely floral, bird and heart print. very manly; if ever there was a doubt this all but confirms that papi has no testicles.
the flowers are tough guy too. i hope he enjoys it and doesn't completely dismantle it on his first visit inside.

every time I think I'm out.... they pull me back in!

i was called in to substitute teach at a-s again so no more progress on papi's house. so many promises broken on that one. i did do a little more wood-working in the shop, so consequently there is a five-thousandth unfinished project in my cue. this is a photo of the very rough beginning of a funky wooden spoon i'm carving.

lied again

as you can no doubt tell this is not a post about a finished house for papi. i was called in to work today at allen-stevenson so i was unable to properly craft today. i worked in the wood shop today so i was able to work on some more little wooden birds like the ones i made for shauna's birthday. i failed to demonstrate how i made those so i plan on showing you all now. this is a photo of the tracings on the board, the rough cut-out and a nearly finished smoothly shaped and sanded bird. check back for more progress in the coming days, and tomorrow for a finished papi house.

it'll be finished tomorrow

as you can tell from this photo papi is eagerly awaiting the completion of his new home. he can barely contain himself. it's a bit much really. calm down kitty, a little more foliage and some wallpaper and the new place will be good to go.

sure nobody loves to work but look at the rewards!

once again i'm sorry about the lack of blogjamming this week but we all must do what we all must do to put food on our families. giant towers of bananas and juicy, juicy mangoes aren't free ya know. check back monday for some new art and crafts. papi's house is very close to finished and as i'm typing this i'm taking a break from laying out the first two-page installment of the comic.

i'll be taking a few days off from blogjamming

i really hate to do it but this week is just too darn busy. i'll be working at cue for the next few days and there just isn't going to be much time for crafting or the comic book. i promise to come back strong toward the end of the week or next monday. please tune in then.

... now i'm blogging another pie

you may remember about a month ago i took my first trip down pie street. this is the pie my sister crafted for thanksgiving dinner. beautiful!

stuffing jam '08

here's some pics of our late night stuffing jam. the event was sponsored by herradura tequila and we would also like to thank the wu-tang clan for their generous support.

jesus jumped-up giblets

i finally got my hands on those giblets. this whole thanksgiving thing is bigger than i thought. enjoy this picture of my giblets.

yet another one of these posts

another day has gone by without any arts and crafts accomplishments. i was working today for a friend at the cue art foundation picking up and moving some art work for an upcoming show. i had some pretty nasty flashbacks of my old film production days being in that van driving around the city in traffic. any way, i promise some art tomorrow.

where there's smoke there's firefighters

after getting a late start to the crafting today there isn't any new art to post. i was called away to turkey shop for my first thanksgiving dinner i'll be hosting - that is if you don't count the spinach and rice meal i consumed alone in nepal in 2000. shauna and i picked out what by all measures appears to be a winner of a bird. oh yeah, and we woke up to a fire in the building next door to our apartment. no was hurt. i'm not really sure it was all that serious, the firefighters were very relaxed the whole time they were outside. at any rate one of the first things i'm thankful for this year is that that smoke wasn't pouring out of our kitchen. that bird is begging to be roasted and nothing must stand in our way. i can't wait to get my hands on those giblets!

very nearly there

papi's house is very close to finished. all that's left is to paint some ivy on the outside and some grass and flowers around the foundation.

guy le teach

so i know that i had promised to finish papi's house but i was called in to teach today. i'm going to have to finish up tomorrow. in the meantime enjoy this olde tyme print of a monkey providing nourishment to a child. really it's more or less just like my day at school but instead of porridge i'm coming with knowledge. and i'm not wearing a bonnet. oh, and i'm wearing pants and a shirt.

someday this war's gonna end...

this is taking me a lot longer than i thought it would. here is the day's progress; it's kinda barfy right now but i'm counting on it coming around. keep your fingers crossed that papi likes it!

kitty house inspiration

i had hoped to blog the finished kitty house today but it's taking me a little longer then i thought it would. sorry, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. in place of the finished product i offer you an image of the house that inspired my final design. i loved the brothel suggestion but papi is a boy; we've already taken his testicles i don't want to promote any further gender-bending confusion. tune in tomorrow to see papi's painted house in all its glory.

scratchy shauna

this is a sketch of shauna for the comic book. she's the final regular character. i'm not sure how i feel about this one; i'm still trying to work out a style. finn's much cuter in real life.

papi's new home

when shauna and i moved to jersey city a few months ago we radically upgraded our living situation. it only seemed fair that papi should be treated to some new accommodations as well. you may remember that i built his old house out of cardboard. it took a beating over time - papi had a taste for that particular cardboard - so i decided to go with wood on his new house. hopefully he won't chew his way through this one. this house was built last august one day up at the allen-stevenson wood shop. it has to be painted; i'm still trying to settle on a fun design or color scheme so if anyone has any ideas please share them with me in the comments section. heather, in an attempt to make papi the most spoiled cat of all time knit him the little blanket under his paw to cuddle up on in the new crib.

monkey art

i've got a full day of art teaching and a full evening of art openings so no new art of my own to post today. this painting is pretty sweet however. enjoy!

finished scratchboard owl

owl sketch

this is a first pencil sketch of another of the characters from the comic book. the owl is a part of the supporting cast for our hero's crime-fighting activities. hopefully tomorrow i will be posting a finished scratchboard version.

a couple more practice sketches in scratchboard

these panels are establishing images of the apartment on the evening our hero embarks upon his crime fighting career.

unearthed during comic book research

not sure where it's from or what it's about but i like it.

a little cross-promotion

today, for two reasons - 1) i haven't had time to work on the comic so there isn't much new art to post and 2) shauna's work is amazing and more people should be seeing it - i want to take a moment to promote the bee warbler's blog. the link can be found in my links section, so if you stumbled across this blog somehow i encourage you to check out her work - and stunning photos of eleuthera were she is staying for her friend christina and tommy's wedding.