Art and Stuff

Wow it has been an oober long time since I have updated my blog. I am going to try and be more on top of it this year. I have a lot going on and I think I have found my groove as far as my art is concerned. First, I am working on a comic book that will hopefully come out this spring. Stay tuned.

I opened up my Etsy shop for commissioned cartoon portraits.

I also opened up my t-shirt store with Designed by Humans. See below for one of the designs available. Things are moving along! Thanks for stopping by!

Personal Art Projects and Art Shows

So yes it has been a million years since I posted here. Let’s catch up!

I am a self taught artist and I decided I was going to start developing my skills. I joined the Oatley Academy and started doing the Magic Box sessions, which is a self paced class about digital painting. I have been pretty interested in digital painting lately. When my studio had to be closed down for a while, I started looking for an alternative without having to pay a monthly fee, so I decided to start doing some digital painting. I purchased the Cintiq Companion and started painting. Loved it! It allowed me to create a finished piece without the mess, and gave me mobility. I can now paint at Starbucks if I want. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love to paint and draw with traditional mediums. Now that the newness of digital painting has worn off, I am now starting to balance out the two. 

URGENT: Our Creative Future Is At Risk!

I am not very good at explaining things like this, so I am going to link to Chris Oatley’s explanation. : What “Net Neutrality” Means For Visual Storytellers“. Please take a listen, read about it and email the FCC today and demand they protect our future! TODAY IS THE DEADLINE!

Rejected…

 

A couple weeks ago I put in for several art entries for shows, exhibitions across the country. As an artist I don’t know why I have this insane desire to do this. Depending on the space that I am in at the time, it can be quite depressing actually. But luckily for me, I am in a fairly good place and at this point am not at all deterred or concerned. I just have to keep it pushing. My goal is to be a successful artist. And what exactly is a successful artist? Well I can give you my definition, because we all know that it is different for all of us and none of the answers are wrong.

For me success, is being able to:

(1) Freelance. Work my own hours. Be selective about what jobs I take. I will be in a position to be able to say no and not stress about it. I will be able to hang out with my kid, work midnight to 2am if I want and work in my pajamas if that is what is tickling my fancy at the time. I love the freedom of being a freelancer.

(2) I will be able to support my family on my freelance income. I don’t think the actual numbers are important here, but I know what they are and I know what I need to make in order to be comfortable. I know exactly how much I want in my savings account and what my monthly income needs to be.

(3) Allow me to travel with the kid. I want to expose him to the world as soon as possible.

(4) Not be defined by someone else’s brand. You know what I mean. As a designer, I have to support the brand of the company I am working for and quite honestly in this environment, as a designer, not getting much say so in the creative. Just pushing pixels. Sigh…

If I could name an artist who for me defines success. Whose life I’d like, it would be Pascal Campion. You can listen to a great two-part interview done by Chris Oatley, here is Part I and Part II.

Cry Baby

So, over the last few months I have been working on ME. Not necessarily my art, but on me. I have been working on my art, but more on that in a bit. Earlier this year, I started consulting with the straight-forward, tough love Ann Rea. An extremely successful artist herself. She came at a time in my life where I needed her most. I was close to throwing in the towel and just resigning myself to being a corporate graphic designer for the rest of  my life. BUT that wasn’t what I wanted. Deep inside I still wanted to be an artist, but was at a loss as to how to proceed. I had already gone through a dark time in my life. The year before I connected with Ann, I was depressed, I wasn’t drawing, sketching on a regular basis and when I did it was almost begrudgingly, because I wanted it so bad, to be this artist, that I was angry at my failures to do so up to this point. I kept up the facade of posting work on my Instagram, but other than that, I had nothing to say. I was angry, angry, angry. When I was consulting with Ann, I was a broken being. I was full of doubts about myself as a person and as an artist. I doubted everything about my work and that was a direct correlation to my feelings about myself personally. Through consulting with Ann I was able to break through alot of painful barriers, that up to that point I didn’t realize existed. I spent many days on the phone with Ann, crying. But it was worth it! I came through the pain and the tears with a new sense of self and what my purpose for my art was.

Shortly after my breakthrough I started tackling my skills directly as an artist. I wanted to improve on my storytelling skills as well as my artistic skills. I sent in my portfolio and was accepted and joined the Oatley Academy. I am currently taking Films on Paper and Painting Drama 1. I am several weeks into my journey and it has been really hard. My weakest points have been highlighted and fighting against that urge to just give up or take the easy way out or start feeling sorry for myself has been strong. But the urge to create a successful art career and to embark on my personal project is even greater.

What is a personal project? 

This is a term I first heard when I joined Oatley Academy. The personal project is that project you embark on and you are doing it because you love it. Money is secondary. My project is one based on the love of my son. My son is autistic and has experienced a great deal of teasing, bullying and general life problems that we would not give a second thought to. His path is a hard one but it is one I am determined to help him through. I started writing a memoir/journal to my son as a way to let him know that it was okay to be himself. Despite his differences, being different was okay, being him was essential to this world. The personal project that has been born out of this is called “In His World“. I will be updating regularly about this project as well as my other artistic endeavors. I hope to see you on the journey.

You can go to my site Hemingway Studios LLC to sign up and get art updates and  notifications of my upcoming “In His World” project. Thank you!

Been busy…

Well here we are in 2014 and I haven’t made a post since Nov 2013. I have been busy on my Instagram page as well as busy with an upcoming art show this May. I am going to be revamping this blog soon and start doing some illustration reportage. Be on the look out!

Save the Date!

Work in progress

 

Working on pieces for my show coming up the first weekend of December. (See previous post.) My newest pieces are consisting of jazz pieces and my bulls. This started out as another piece but I lost interest and flipped it over and started drawing another image. Definitely like how this one came out. Wasn’t liking how the other one was going. It will be a mixed media piece on a wood panel.

Upcoming Open Studio Art Show

 

Looking forward to having a show! It’s been a while 🙂 .

Art for the Philippine Islands

Hi friends…as you are all probably aware, Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) slammed into the Philippines on November 8, 2013. All of my family on my mother’s side reside in Cebu City and are all doing okay. But there are so many others who are not. This was my childhood home and it is still near and dear to my heart. I cannot sit by and scour the internet for news on how relief efforts are going without trying to do something myself. I know my efforts are small in comparison to the amount of destruction and suffering that the Filipinos are having to endure. My prayers are with them. I wish I could be there with them, I feel as though if I could somehow physically endure some of the pain, it would relieve some of the pain in my heart as well.

I have personally donated, supported other’s campaigns and done all I can as one person, but it just isn’t enough. So I find myself trying to figure out what I can do to assist them in every way I humanly and possibly can. Right now the devastation is fresh in our minds. The need for help is urgent. But there will be years and years of rebuilding ahead, the Filipinos are strong and their spirit is strong. We will persevere.

For the next few days I will be working on my project for immediate and continued support for the Philippines. I will be creating art and making it available for purchase with 100% of the proceeds going to the organizations listed below. I specifically picked these organizations because I believe the funds will get to where they are supposed to go, to the citizens of the Philippines. I will have available various types of art: originals, prints and cards initially. Please support the cause and if you do not find anything you like then please consider donating to one of the organizations below. Any amount is a good amount. It all adds up.

Organizations I will be supporting:
UNICEF/Haiyan  (Click here to read an article about UNICEF’s transparency regarding funds for Philippine Aid.)
World Food Programme

Also here is a list of organizations from CNN of relief organizations on the ground.

Also please feel free to share this post so to get the word out.

Thank you for visiting. You can click on the links below to read more about the efforts of the United Nations.

Typhoon Haiyan: amid ‘logistics nightmare’ UN agencies mount massive relief operation

Philippines: aid workers concerned about logistical challenges, ‘incredible despair’ of population

Morning sketch 11/1/13

This is done after blues artist Arthur Williams. He has a cigar in his hand in the original that I didn’t put in.

I also have a tumblr page you can view here. Thank you for visiting. Follow your bliss!