Trolls, terra cotta. 2020
We artists beat ourselves up for not being able to make a living at our art. We get depressed when we're not making as much money as we need to live solely on our art. But I'm telling you that's okay. That you're doing *any* artistic endeavor at all is success--- the success is in the doing. And in an ever-increasingly capitalist industrial world, making art from one's own hands is a radical and subversive act.
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Klaus’ Greenman, 2020. Red stoneware, 15” x 15”.
Why do we try to measure success by looking at what we don't yet have?
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Ephemerata, oil 28” x 28”.
Style is where our ability bumps up against our ambition, so technically, we *always* have a style. That means too, that as our abilities grow and ambitions change, our style is always evolving…
Read MoreWhether you're looking at art in a gallery/ museum space or your own artwork, you want to be able to discern what the art is *doing* not just by the way a piece feels to you, but by some very objective and concrete observations that can be applied universally. Here are the components of objective critique of a work of art that I always used when I was teaching and assessing student work.
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A frieze of crows.
Not gonna lie to you, I too, have been a little confused about all the sculpture and pottery that I’ve churned out over the past 30 years and what it means to my trajectory as an artist. As I’ve also been a serious…
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Have you thought about the way we artists use repetition? If you identify your motifs, you will have acquired more keys to unlock the “why” of the work you do.
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Dragons are just a slightly different idea of dinosaurs …. This piece marks a turning point in my thinking. Oil on paper, 24” x 36”, 2018. The bright colors come from having a long career doing children’s books.
Trying to be something I really wasn’t meant that I hadn’t been paying enough attention to what my work was always saying to me. I lost my way because I got caught up in other artists’ journeys and what was successful for them, lured away by this idea that if I…
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Recent fired piece: Ophanim, terra cotta and manganese oxide wash, 8” w x 9” h. 2022.
Ever wonder how the ceramic process works? I'm fascinated by it and I think you'll be too once you know more. Ceramics, like many other art processes, is a multi-staged process. Here is my quick-and-dirty explanation:
Read MoreI’d gotten to a point in my ceramic work where I was becoming curious about the chemistry and wanting to have more control over the surface appearance of my work, but even more, I wanted to cut down on the cost of my glazes. Commercial glazes are hella expensive but worth it for the reliability, and making glazes from scratch was a nightmare— so I was told….
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Apotropaion with Serpents in terra cotta.
You— yes, you, Creative-friend, you literally make something out of nothing. You are the Pie-Maker and can make endless amounts of pie. A long as you’re alive and creating, there’s no shortage of pie. There’s no need to compete with anyone other than yourself.
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Is green my favorite color? Uh, yeah.
Several years ago, I put aside all friendly warnings and dismissed my trepidation and started mixing my own glazes…
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All coils firing in my warp reactor core.
When I began using my kiln in 2016, I began keeping a log of the hours that each firing took to achieve a certain cone or temperature. For a few years, the number of hours really didn’t change too much unless the kiln was really loaded but then I noticed…
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The Komodo Dragon interior spread was flopped right and used for the wraparound cover.
When I was just starting out in freelancing in 1992, company, Charlesbridge, contacted me to do the children’s book Creepy Creatures: Do They Scare You? I was utterly fascinated with getting to do the research to make the art. My very first book would be a bunch of the coolest animals! Teeth! Claws! Scales! Spines! Danger and grossness! Hooray!!
Read MoreThe great and venerable Western Publishing CO. sadly, was bought out by St Martin’s Press in the 90s but not before I got the chance to work with them on 5 books and a few pop up covers.
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Digital cover art. The 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac calendar which can be found at your local ag center or big hardware store.
In 2003, I began doing the Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Calendars for Yankee Publishing and today …20 years later, I’m still at it, working on 2024’s calendar.
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“Letterlocked” (WIP detail), 36” x 24” oil on hardboard. 2022
Anyone interested in becoming a freelance illustrator first needs to develop a cohesive portfolio. If you’ve been making images for a while and are acquiring many that are showing a particular personal style and content, then choosing…
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My 2022 wall space at IlluXCon!
Since 2007, Pat and Jeannie Wilshire have organized a group of artists for IlluXCon, a collectors’ show of fantasy art, which started in Altoona PA, and is now hosted by The GoggleWorks venue in Reading PA.
Read MoreI brought this recent drawing, “Death To the Dictator”, to IlluXCon 2022. Like most of my work, when I look at it, I remember where I was or what was happening at the time, perhaps down to what music I was listening to. All of my work is freighted with meaning for me, it becomes a sticky note of my space in the world…
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