Photo of the Week 5

Another winter at the Michigan shore shot. Same spot (plus Dusty) in July below.

Photo of the Week, 4

That's Alice in her little coat at our beach entrance in Michigan. By way of comparison, here's that same spot a month ago.

Photo of The Week, 3

Normally this kind of photo, of a work in progress, would go to an area of my site called Sketchbook. I decided this week to eliminate that area. It was intended to discuss works in progress, and it was a great use of the web publishing capabilities of iLife '08, but I ended up feeling like I was duplicating efforts that are best served here. (If you'd like to see the area in archive, go here.) started the piece above (oil pastel smeared with turpenoid on watercolor paper) over break because I was dying to work in oil pastel again. They are so buttery and rich. It felt great. Last weekend we watched a documentary called "In The Realms of the Unreal." It is about Henry Darger, a guy who had a traumatic childhood (to put it mildly) then worked as a maintenance man in Chicago hospitals for sixty years. By night he wrote and illustrated a 15,000 page saga about a war involving an army of little girls. It's often gory and disturbing but also occasionally beautiful and charming. This massive work, as well as an autobiography, were only discovered upon his death by his landlord.



His drawings are traced, collaged, watercolored, redrawn, done in amazing layers. I've been inspired by Darger to take another direction with my piece above and try some of those techniques on this piece, using the beautiful Michigan beach as a background.

Ambulance 11 Revisited

Re-colorized and improved five years since original creation. It has been pointed out to me that this ambulance would not ordinarily be found on LaSalle Street, in front of the Icarus and Daedalus mosaic. Artistic license.

A print of the piece is going to hang on the wall of Firestation No. 98, part of the Water Tower District, where Ambulance 11 lives. A very cool Google Sketch-up Model of the firestation can be found here.

Winter Takes a Toll on Graceland

Yesterday we experienced record high temps here in Chicago, melting recent snow. So Alice and I went to one of our favorite places, Graceland Cemetery. I was surprised to see how much damage the ground and monuments have sustained. Many giant old trees have fallen, leaving enormous holes in the ground (which are somewhat disturbing to see in a cemetery.)

New cartoon: "STORIES"

Click on cartoon to enlarge.

First Alice photo of '08

Winter Storm

You can find a photo in the slideshow below that is the summer version of this shot.