New Moon Magazine Release

Hi everyone! Just an announcement that my artwork is appearing in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of New Moon. The magazine is available for purchase through New Moon's online store. The theme of this issue is "Things that go Bump in the Night." I had a whole lot of fun concepting for this cover. When I was little, I used to be afraid of the dark, and especially the strange shadows that you tend to see at night. For this artwork, I thought of those shadows coming to life on Halloween, dressing up in masks, and collecting dreams from sleeping children. Suddenly, those nighttime shadows don't seems so scary anymore....

In Memory of Katie

On July 21st this year, Katie McGee passed away at the age of 9. She was the daughter of our friend Bonnie, and the flower girl in our wedding. Shortly after the wedding, Katie was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. She had a very rough 3 years of treatment. Although she was positive and brave during this time, Katie lost her battle just before what would have been her final treatment, and passed away. It was Katie's desire to be cremated, and I was honored when her mother asked me to produce a piece of artwork to be engraved onto the urn's lid. Bonnie wanted a picture of an angel holding Katie's favorite bear. The line work had to be simple so that the wood carver could easily reproduce the drawing in wood. I was very glad when I showed Bonnie the artwork yesterday, and it was exactly what she wanted. There isn't much you can say when a child dies, but I am very glad to have been able to do this for Katie and her family.

End of the Hedge Maze

I work part time in the Young Adult Department of my local library, and am constantly surrounded by inspiration. These past few months, I've been reading "boy adventure" novels, such as "Airborne" and the "Pendragon" series, so that I can help those reluctant readers find books that might interest them. In doing so, I've really been inspired by steam punk and alternate/other worlds. So, I decided to incorporate those elements into my new piece. I wanted to capture feelings of discovery, challenge and even a little confusion. Setting the children in a hedge maze seemed like the perfect combination of quest and play. I also wanted to accomplish some portfolio-rounding-out with this piece by experiementing with different angles and colors. It was a bit of a challenge to set the piece at sunset and to keep control of what that would mean for the colors, but I am happy with the result. Overall, I am most pleased with the sense of "story" in this piece. Now if only someone would write the rest of the chapter so I can find out what happens to those two kids.....