SneakPeak of My Next Animation

I've been working all day to create the composition. This should be a fun animation to make!

Thanks!

I appreciate all of the Happy Birthday Wishes. Thanks Big Sis for the card and pic of my nephew. I can’t wait to see him! Lena, thank you for the card you sent.Your really are something else. Your words were beautiful. I’m putting something special in the mail for you! Let’s hope it makes it safely to Russia. Bobby, where would I be without all your advice and wisdom over the years. Thanks for being a friend and the phone call; I hope you had a Happy Birthday as well!The 19th of November must be a special day. Many thanks are owed to all my Facebook Friends. Walter, Sandra, Josh thanks for lunch and making sure my ass gets home when I’ve been out living it up.  Arney and Crystal thanks for being great friends.I’m truly surrounded by good people.J.Lake,Stephanie and Nikki thanks for the phone call. It is good to hear from old and new friends.Thanks most all to mom and dad!I can never pay you back for all the love and nurturing in my lifetime but I promise to do my best to make you proud. With that said, I am going to get in the bed and continue my lazy day of digesting Clint Eastwood movies. There might be a drawing about The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly in the works involving the three sides of my personality. Lets see if a Fist Full of Dollars gives me more great iconic moments. I hope to be doing the same thing next year, spending time with friends and enjoying the good moments of life.

    

 

 

Just the Start

Today is my birthday. I woke up on my concrete studio floor, after a night of partying and consoling the crew after a rough day of crits.My crits went great. I think I spilled ( It could have been someone else) every can of house paint in my studio. I chose not to clean it up because it was beautiful. I want to go home and get back in the bed but I also want to tough it out.

Catch you later,
Al

Crated and Shipped

 

Today has been a busy day. My drawings have been crated and shipped off to Jersey.My babies are off in the world to fend for themselves for awhile. I had crits with Stoney before he heads to Memphis. I hope my Memphis friends treat him well and that he has a good time. I'm sure Mom will take good care of him. Now I'm off to hear Hilary Wilder speak. Should I have a beer before her lecture? That sounds like a good idea. Nancy is throwing her a party. Maybe I will wait.

Busy Past Weeks

I’ve been super busy. I’m getting work to be ready to sent out, building crates and frames, and preparing for a show in the Spring, and critiques.What do I have three more critiques next week.  Every thing is going to come together. That is what I keep telling myself. Thanks to Arney and Arney’s dad for the crash course in building frames and crates from scratch and introducing me to the dado blade. Now maybe I can enjoy my favorite month. Lets start this day with some alone time, wine and a Romeo and Julietta.

 

 

 

 

 

  Lets Hope I can fill this weird little place!

Open Studio Day Setup

 

Wearing the Professor Hat for a Day.

Yesterday my man Josh needed a break from teaching his drawing class so he could get his paper done. Somehow after buying pitcher after pitcher of beer the previous night before he convinced me to babysit his class for a class period. Sometimes to be a good friend you have to be willing to be a sucker.My standard practice is to tell people to fuck off if they are trying to talk about important shit while I’m drinking-especially if a favor is involved. When I drink I get way more apologetic and sympathetic  than I normally am. The memory of the drunken phone calls for apologizing for shit that wasn’t my fault still haunt me. My art mom says happiness is having a short memory- I wasn’t blessed with that. The sucker quote is 100 percent my own.

I don’t have a short memory, make a good sucker, and happiness usually evades me. What I am is a great friend and filling in for Josh was no big deal. I actually needed to get away from this drawing that only becomes more troublesome the more I work on it . Actually this drawing is a painting because it reminds me of the troubles that painting once gave me. I’ll get to that later when I am ready to post pictures of it.

Teaching was me walking around making sure everyone had solid ideas and sitting around drawing in my sketchbook for a couple of hours. I taught the class in a old Bobby style and a Fred Stoney style. It was an intermediate drawing class so their effort is the measure of their work. It’s funny how your professor’s attitudes rub of on you. That’s another reason it’s important to pick grad schools were their are people you want to influence you a person. It’s funny to share space with cocky  undergrad student that don’t give a shit who you are or about the small accomplishments you have on your resume. You appear to them as some random dick that is making them do a project for a grade. My scenario was worse because I was a sub and had no impact or control on their futures. My love for art and desire that everyone loves it as much as me would probably make me a poor teacher, it sure as hell has made my a poor friend at times, because I call bullshit what it is. Honestly I don’t know if I could stomach giving a student an unworthy grade. My mind keeps going back to all the work I put in , which to some seems insane, but I just call it 100 percent effort. When you love something, 100 % is the only thing you want to give.

I don’t know if any of these kids love art but they all stayed and worked the full time. One snuck away with the- “I'm going to buy art supplies excuse.” Did I care? Not one bit. He had his project near complete. Go smoke. Go fuck off for twenty minutes. I’m just sitting  here cycling through my own thoughts via sketchbook and making sure no one burns down the joint. I came up with an idea that ties a couple of things together. I wanted to do a big drawing concerning my influence of video games, samurai’s and the book of Five Rings. I drew basketball men because NBA Jam was one of the best video games ever made.So many quarters where spent in the arcade at the Southbrook Mall in Memphis.I also thought about Mortal Combat, Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon, Karate Kid. I think I have a new idea combining my interest.

I’d like to think being around a group of people hammering away at ideas was inspiring in some way. I’d forgotten what it was like to be in a drawing classroom environment. Seeing kids head down staring at their own work is a good feeling. Still ,I never think that I want to be a teacher. I enjoy the making of art too much to set teaching as a goal. I think it takes really special people to do this job and they all should be commended. Grad school is not the place you go to refine your teaching skills or improve your chances for employment.The time in grad school should be selfish all about you time.Maybe the next time I have to fill in for someone I’ll come away with a different take. For now I am happy to stay in my studio most of the time and pretend I will never have to teach someday. Enjoy the Sketches.

Later,
Your Pal AL

 

 
P.S.
And this last one is of my teacher’s butt. She has a really nice butt. Haha..just wanted to see if you were paying attention-Honestly