Apparently, there is a very cool studio close by that can turn my kids paintings into high quality silkscreens. Which solves the problem of me not being comfortable selling originals. I’ll let folks know what the prices might be as soon as I can find out.

In the meantime: two new pieces I’m working on.

Games Industry Meltdown (almost finished):

I wanted to do someone screaming. But thought it would be cliched to have them screaming over newspaper headlines. So I used the Out of the Box catalog, and voila! A self-portrait of John’s psyche when a deadline nears. (Also: I *love* the juxtaposition of Gaming Fun with a Primal Scream (PS. I am neither bald (at the oment) nor smoking (at the moment) That’s the fun with LEITMOTIFS!).

Smoking Cow (just started):

The cow just looked guilty when I sketched him out. So I thought he should be smoking. And on the lookout for Mrs. Cow…

Also: for those of you in Madison, c’mon out to Gallery Night!

Here’s nice preview 77 Square penned on our studio.

I’ll also have all the Mythos Buddies and other toys I’ve done there. So: Games, Toys, Art (wit three fingers). Come see the totality of my professional existence.

Food and drinks available. I may even make Igor Bars…

If you hit my Facebook pages, you’ll prolly be quite bored with this. But I don’t think I’ve posted them here, yet. At least not in this form.

Anyway, this coming Friday, Madison is having a Gallery Night. Which has always been a well cool event to begin with. But now that I have a downtown studio, I’m aghast to find I’m actually taking part in it!

I think I’ve bragged about how much I love my studio before. I will most likely do so again in the future. But now, all eight artists who have ever worked in the Suhr building are putting on a show, and it should be a blast. We’re just one of MANY studios having a showing, and all are welcome! I think we’ll be putting on a swell shindig!

I’ll mostly have some Munchkin and Dork Towers original art up. I’ll also have some games going on in My Own Little Room, but oh but and, when it comes to “New” for me, I’ll be exhibiting some paintings I’ve done for Louisa’s room.

These all started after I did a surprise Valentine gift for Judith, of a portrait of Maude, her cat.

This was a 14″ x 14″ acrylic on vinyl painting I did, that inspired me to do some pieces for Louisa’s room. Like pretty much all of my work, it’s whimsical, but I also wanted to try out some stuff playing with Design and Color Theory (something I’m notoriously weak at).

So next, I did a Monkey. This was actually originally for a Sekrit Jonathan Coulton project, but I appropriated it for Louisa’s room.

This was followed by a Lion, that was more Pure Design:

(By the way – at this point, I must apologize to the 5,000 or so folks who subscribe to the Dork Tower feed on LiveJournal: it’s hard for me to put in LJ-cuts without these pages looking screwy for every single other person who sees this. I shall at least endeavor to keep posts this long few and far between)

Anyway, the Lion led (as Lions do) to a Giraffe that I’m quite fond of:

Here are some closeups: I really need to find someone to photograph these proper. An iPhone just don’t cut it…

And but so…also, a piece I call “They Would Never Let Poor Rudolph Join In Any Reindeer Gangs.” It is most emphatically not for Louisa’s room, and based on a card I drew that I just liked werra, werra much.

I know eventually I’ll put some stuff like this up for sale, but I have no idea what to charge…

One thought is to offer unique paintings of Munchkin cards. Ie, if I do a “Gazebo” painting, I’ll never paint it again after that. The person who has it will have the ONLY one in existence.

But that would also mean going back and recreating my old style from 7+ years ago. Am I interested in that? Dunno…

So, anyhoo, yes, by all means…come on down Friday! Art! Cartoons! Art! Did I mention <i>ART</i>? Refreshments! Games! Bohemians! Alcohol! DRUNK Bohemians! Drunk Bohemians who can kick Fanny Garver Gallery’s FANNY! Super happy music friend show (ie, I’ll be playing my mixes in the studio).

John

The new MC Lars video?

“Guitar Hero Hero (Beating Guitar Hero Doesn’t Make You Slash)”?

VERY funny “Apples to Apples” mention at 1:51 into the song…

John

I’m actually getting to really enjoy this latest mix tape (read: iTunes Playlist):

Turpentine – Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Swords of a Thousand Men – Tenpole Tudor
My Love – The Bird and the Bee
That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings
The Laws Have Changed – The New Pornographers
Sold! To the Nice Rich Man – The Welcome Wagon
He Doesn’t Know Why – Fleet Foxes
Take On Me – A.C. Newman
Happy Birthday – The Ting Tings
WeFight/WeLove (feat. Raphael Saadiq) – Q-Tip
Joining A Fan Club – Puffy AmiYumi
Rocky Took a Lover – Bell X1
Lake Michigan – Rogue Wave
Close To You – Paul Weller
Wedding Bell Blues – The 5th Dimension
Letter from an Occupant – The New Pornographers
Hey, Won’t Somebody Come Out and Play – The Little Ones
You Bowed Down – Elvis Costello
Daughter – Loudon Wainwright III

Still needs a couple of tweaks, and I want to mash “My Love” and “That’s Not My Name” together. But overall, I think it’s getting there.

John, the ex-punk, of course now melts every time he hears “Daughter” (discovered in the closing credits of “Knocked Up.”) And the mix reflects my recent obsession with New Pornographers, but what ya gonna do?

Needs a stronger opening, I think, but I do love EC’s “Turpentine…”

Anyway, this will get me across the Atlantic and back to my girls…

John

Once again: Reality, 1 – John 0

Apparently, the NFL has used “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” in its ads.

Ridiculous, of course. But really: any more so than using a song whose lyrics run

Hide on the promenade
Etch a postcard :
How I dearly wish I was not here
In the seaside town
…that they forgot to bomb
Come, come, come – nuclear bomb

So now, not only do cartoonists/humorists/whatever have to compete with a billion other people online, but reality as well.

What next? Bloc Party’s “Sunday”? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Tell Me On a Sunday”? ANYTHING by Taking Back Sunday?

Seriously flabergasted, here.

Come, armageddon! come!

John