Secret Still

Most days make it pretty obvious to me that, by deciding to work at an inside job, I’ve really made the wrong choice. It’s hard to telecommute from the middle of the forest though. Who has a job for me that involves being in the woods most of the day? I don’t mind if it’s just a job guarding your weed farm. As long as you can provide health benefits and some profit sharing bonuses, I’m in. In the meantime I’ll just have to be satisfied with staring at Carey Roberts’ dreamlike landscapes. Not a bad trade-off really.

Casey Roberts

I would’ve bet good money that Peter Diamond’s work was all digital (which doesn’t lessen how awesome it is one iota), but I would’ve lost that money. Apparently he is just masterful enough with his ink linework that it fools even my trained eyes. I stand corrected, and possibly humbled. No, humble isn’t really my thing. Also, what the fuck is an iota?

Peter Diamond

Stolen from Beautiful/Decay, because I like the work and the story to go along with it.

Max Wittert

I think most people fantasize about what it would be like to be a kid again, but with all the knowledge and awareness that they’ve gained throughout their adulthood. Maybe that means that most of us are lazy and would rather have all the work already done for us, or maybe it means that most of us regret not living with the general fearlessness and freedom from responsibility that we had as kids. It does mean that we don’t regret having learned the things we’ve learned, and that’s at least some comfort. I, just to be contrary, would rather be a kid without my knowledge. I’ve learned so many wonderful things over the years, and dammit if it wouldn’t be fun to learn those things again for the first time. Knowing things never quite compares to learning things. Jesus, is that just another way of saying that the journey is more important than the destination? If so, please tell me to fuck off. What does this little exposition have to do with the artist whose name is in bigger letters up there? Well, Brian Cronin’s work would be the ideal picture book illustrations for that little version of me that has all my current knowledge. While other kids were believing that things were real with undying certainty, I would be sitting somewhere quiet, reading that picture book, trying to remember what it was like to be a kid, while knowing exactly what it was like to be an adult.

Brian Cronin

There’s something very comforting about Joe Kievitt’s lines and colors crossing and hatching there way across the paper. I don’t know if that says more about his art or my neuroses. Let’s just go with the former, since it leaves out the hours long introspective odyssey of self-awareness. Either way, you go enjoy some line drawings, while I sit here and look morose.

Joe Kievitt

Maybe it’s just something about Wednesday, but usually by the middle of the week there’s a nice angry core inside of me whose embers are fueling my drive to work. Wednesdays I listen to metal. Wednesdays I watch shark attack videos. It’s not a great day to schedule a meeting with me. It’s definitely not the day to use words like “workflow” and “action item” around me. But for Faro it’s the perfect day to send me some samples of  gritty, semi-angry, metal-powered work. That shit is just exactly what the doctor ordered. So while Bruce Dickson (I start off old-school in the mornings) is bringing my rage up to a nice healthy glow, Faro’s work is providing the perfect backdrop with neo-Egyptian monsters wreaking havoc on my screen. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that feels the anger on Wednesdays, so join me won’t you, for a journey with my favorite of the 7 deadly sins — wrath.

Faro

I think the first Swampy skull I saw was a great big, shiny, pink bastard at Albany Bulb in all its heavy metal monster glory. And like a lot of things in the world — when it’s in your mind, you start seeing it everywhere (especially because he chills in Oakland a lot). I didn’t know who was making them (Ert told me at some point), but I knew that I kept imagining these long dead titanic beasts roaming the land, crushing everything in their path without thinking, sludge metal playing in the background. Just real fucking awesomeness. Fast forward to a few days ago when I posted about the Living Walls conference (mentioned here). Swampy himself will be in attendance, and I was reminded that, “hey, I like that guy’s work.” As with all the things I like, I am now forcing you to look at it. LOOK AT IT. There, now go do whatever you want, I don’t care.

Swamp Donkey

Aside from having a name that sounds like he should be running out of an exploding building with several rescued hostages in his arms, Jack Hudson is also a great illustrator. With emphasis on the line work and color, Hudson pieces together his illustrations with memories and symbols like the best Jim Houser paintings, and a lot of humor thrown in for good measure. I guess you have to keep things pretty light when you’re defying death to save those hostages. When does he find the time to draw, though?

Jack Hudson

What I needed this morning was a few thousand cc’s of handrawn type delivered via opthalmic injection. Thankfully there was a steady supply in Jen Mussari’s portfolio, and my eyes got the essential vitamins and minerals they needed to keep functioning. Things were touch and go for a few minutes, but my retinas are just humming along fine now. Thanks, Jen, you’re a life saver.

Jen Mussari

I’ve been in the market for a new tattoo lately. I’m trying to find something medium sized, maybe something that covers most of my forearm, or I might even cross the line into the worst of all male tattoos — the leg tattoo. I was thinking of getting a wolf with eagle wings riding on a raptor that is tearing its way out of an American flag, but that’s really more of a back tattoo. My constant vigilance for tattoo ideas, makes me very receptive to any and all tattoo art, so it’s no surprise then that I got that special tingle when I came across Stasia Burrington’s work. Ink drawn, tattoo covered women? Yes, please. And of course her talents go far beyond that, but that’s the part that won me over. If I hadn’t already fucked up by getting tattoos on a variety of my body parts, I would definitely go for something more all encompassing like in Burrington’s work. You live with your decisions, I guess. Probably the reason I’ve learned patience in deciding on tattoos. Wolf Eagle Raptor is still a winner though, that one is a definite.

Stasia Burrington