smoke 'em if you got 'em

for ten years i was a cigarette smoker. during those ten years i justified my dirty and deadly addiction by describing a cigarette as "the icing on the cake" after anything good. despite some occasional crankiness and the addition of a few unsightly pounds i am so happy that i was able to quit and would never recommend that anyone take up the habit. last nights election results and some timely received federal and state income tax refund checks have restored my faith in our democracy. the return of intelligence and fresh ideas to the white house certainly has me breathing easier. it is my understanding that president elect obama enjoys an occasional smoke. all health concerns aside, i hope he enjoyed one last night after hearing the results announced. sweetest smoke ever.

shauna's birthday birds

every year i like to try to make something for shauna's birthday. this year i was inspired by a collection of carved wooden bird pins i saw in the book the art of gaman by delphine hirasuna. the book focuses on arts and crafts that were made by japanese american prisoners of u.s. internment camps during world war 2. the birds in the book were carved out of scrapwood, painted, lacquered and then fitted with a safety pin. I have been interested in animal dioramas for a while so rather than making a pin i decided to carve 5 different birds and set them up on a fallen branch i found in the lawn in front of jersey city hall. we hung the branch in the living room. i'm very pleased with how it turned out.

it was a nice little sunday... i just wasn't sure if there would be enough time

this sunday was one of those brisk fall days that's just perfect for a stroll through central park with your special lady and an old jelly jar filled with herradura tequila and lime juice. as luck would have it we ran into my sister heather in the park on sunday as well, running in the nyc marathon for the first time. we kicked the day of with a little burger time picnic party at grand army plaza with a to-go sack from the burger joint. that place never dissapoints and then bolted up to the 25 mile-mark of the marathon course to shout "run chicken run" and "hurry up, we're hungry for dinner" as my sister blazed by.it was a truly remarkable performance by heather, not only did she run a marathon but afterward she cooked a big birthday dinner for shauna and made it down to her local pub for a couple of pints. how she did it i don't know but i was tired all day today.
it's worth mentioning that i came up with the slogan for those t-shirts like the one shauna is wearing so f.y.i. my copywriting services are available. anyway, congrats to heather and a very happy birthday to shauna. love you both.

happy halloween

happy halloween everyone and a very happy birthday to my mum. i look forward to this day every year. don't know if it's the costumes, the spookiness or the great excuse to eat candy till your tummy hurts but i think it's awesome. the picture below is me and my sister when we were little kids on our way out to trick or treat. heather is still going through that pirate phase and i still love the comic book superheros. remarkably, all of these years later heather's mustache is only a little bit thicker now then it is in this picture. adorable.

not so much to post today

i'm splitting time working on a birthday present for shauna and the comic today so there isn't much to post until finished work is ready to be revealed. i've promised to post week-daily so here's a picture of me at my desk laboring away. yes, i do wear a jacket and tie when working at home and of course i keep a banana in my outbox. promise something a little more exciting tomorrow, it being halloween and all.

if this guy doesn't light your fire your wood must be wet

as i develop character sketches of the different regulars from my comic book i'll post first looks here. as long as there is going to be a character based on my cat there might as well be a character based on me.

first glimpse at my comic book hero

i've decided that my comic book will be drawn entirely in scratchboard. scratchoard is a thin board - really a very heavy paper - covered with a layer of chalk that is then painted over with a layer of black ink. the image is drawn upon the scratchboard by scratching away the ink layer with special knives. this is my first sketch of the hero character in this media. more images and details to come in the next couple of days.

papi and his special lady

i've gotten a bit of a late start to the day so yet another adorable picture of papi - this time with his girlfriend penny - will have to get you through the day. it feels a little intrusive photographing them like this, during such an intimate moment but it really is too cute.

i blogged a pie

i'm going to take a break from the papi sketches today - i'll get back to the comic book on monday with further details about the the direction it will be taking. when i first conceived of this blog it was supposed to be all about pie: pictures of pies, celebrity pie recipes, baking pies and of course racy pictures of the pillsbury doughboy and sara lee. then it got all arts and craftsy with monkey pictures and a thousand snap-shots of papi. well i'm taking it back to the beginning today. this is a picture of the first pie i've ever baked:it's apple. i've got a few things to work out, the filling is a bit apple-saucy but it still tastes nice. so golden-brown and delicious. the wooden implement at the bottom of the picture is a tool i made in the allen-stevenson wood shop for pulling racks out of a hot oven. hope this inspires some readers to get out there and bake. the world could always use more pie.

marker sketch

this third sketch was done first in pencil then inked over with sharpie. the style was influenced by mike mignola, the writer and artist behind "hellboy" comics. i can't say enough about how much i love his stuff - both his storytelling and drawing style. his books were a major inspiration for my trying to undertake this comic book project.

pencil sketch of papi

this sketch was done on the same day as the last one.

starting a new project

i'm in the earliest stages of developing a new project: a superhero comic book featuring a cat that looks remarkably like papi. eventually the comic will be serialized on this blog. i'll get into more details as the project progresses, for now this is a very early sketch i did in pen to warm up my drawing chops.

not cool man, not cool

there's not much i'm going to say today. just need a day to get over last nights game. i'll be back tomorrow.

you're welcome red sox fans

a bird, a fan in a hat and a healthy pile of poop; all in the right place at the right time. two more games to go till world series time. this kid has a message for rays fans and sox fans who thought this series was over. keep the faith.

it's doo doo baby

right about now the red sox need all the help they can get as they face playoff elimination this evening. it may have come this morning in the form of that greenish gift bestowed upon my hat from a dirty nyc pigeon. they say that's good luck, right? They won it all down 3-1 last year, and 3-0 in 2004. go bosox!

finished painting for woodfleet project

the woodfleet project

this is the initial sketch for a small painting i'm doing for a charity auction in cape cod this weekend during oysterfest. the auction is an annual event organized by shauna's office mate and friend katie. 5 1/2" inch long pieces of 2 x 6 lumber are distributed to artists, who are free to work them as they please. i haven't painted in a while so i've decided to do a big papi inspired little papi painting. the finished piece will be posted in the next couple of days.

salt dish and spoon

this is a salt dish - salt not pictured - that i made at allen-stevenson last year, and glazed this summer. the tiny wooden spoon i whittled from a twig while lying in a marsh in staten island several years ago.

tiny furniture

loyal blogjamming readers may remember way back to an october 2007 post when i made my first tiny chair in the allen-stevenson school wood shop. this summer i finally finished the project and built an entire tiny dining set. the clay pot on the table is shauna's; it is from a tiny town in california. i'm not sure if this town has a sparce population or the far more exciting possibility of a diminutive populace.

papi looking sharp

this is a piece from a printmaking class i was fortunate to take with kiki smith while i was at nyu. the image is a composite of laser prints of a digital photo of papi and a downloaded jpeg from google images of an audobon print. the printouts were fixed together with melted paraffin wax.