Virtual Shop

I just opened an online shop for my artwork, at etsy.  Check it out! I only have a few pieces on there at the moment, but stay tuned...

Sometimes people contact me, and want to know where they can get work like the stuff I did for Starbucks or Fuego Stores. So, I recently made these small collages, and will continue to keep things in the 'shop'. Tell your friends!

Bennett's Bistro Painting

The Painting I made for Bennett's Bistro, on Mercer Island, is complete. The Private Dining Room just opened, with its dark wood wine racks and cork-covered walls. The room looks great, and I'm happy to have been a part of the new look. 

Nordstrom Fit Fundamentals

The video work done with World Famous is now on the Nordstrom website. Here are a couple of stills from the video.  And if you Click on 'Fit Fundamentals', you can find the whole video, shot on the set I made.  You'll also find everything you could ever want to know about buying jeans.  I mean EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, the cool loft door that I made never made it into the shot. I'll have to use it again on another project someday. 

Tony Fulghum and crew at World Famous did a great job with this project. Great camera work, and a beautiful job editing the final product. 

Eddie Bauer Flats

I have been doing work lately for Eddie Bauer. I recently made a few textured walls for an upcoming shoot at Iridio Studio.

Taco Time Advertisement

These are a few stills from a Taco Time television ad I recently had the chance to Art Direct. Here is a link to the ad on YouTube.  David Leonard directed, and we shot it on location in a Taco Time in Issaquah, WA. Oscar Lofgren and Fernando Dingler worked with me, building the sets, and on location.  To add to the stodgy ambiance, I made a quick little equestrian painting for the shot, which you can see in the middle shot. The Fancy Restaurant Set had to pull apart, and move quickly offscreen, revealing the Taco Time. (then go back together for multiple takes). 

Nordstrom Backdrops

I've been working with the people at Nordstrom a lot lately. Making backdrops for online and catalog photo shoots. The people at Studio N are always a pleasure to work with. Here is a small sampling of some of the backdrops I have made recently for them.  

Red Willow Vineyards

I had a great day painting at the Red Willow Vineyards, in the Yakima Valley. I am working on a big painting for Bennett's Bistro, on Mercer Island, and wanted to get out there to make some studies. I met Mike Sauer, who let me run around and set up my easel on his hillsides.  Mike has been on this land for years -- he was one of the first grape growers in the Yakima Valley. He took the great photos on Red Willow's website. The little chapel on the hill was built from rocks cleared from the land, and has become a real local landmark.  Mike sent me home with a nice bottle of wine from his vines, and I left him with a souvenir painting (the one on the easel), a picture of his chapel. It was a great way to spend a beautiful fall day. 

Nordstrom Shoe Catalog

Nordstrom asked me to do the sets for their shoe catalog. I made a bunch of backdrops, some flats, some on fabric. Kevin Zeigler did the Art Direction, and Gary Martino did the styling on this beautiful shoot.

World Famous Nordstrom video

I recently Art Directed another project with World Famous. This was a shoot for Nordstrom's website. Tony Fulgham directed, and Ryan McMackin was the shooter (that's him in the shot above). I made the set. Oscar Lofgren helped me. It was supposed to be a loft, with a wood floor, with 20 feet of wall, part finished, part exposed brick.  We had two days of shooting on the loft set.  I particularly like the way the big metal rolling door (on the left side) turned out. It was made of foam, contact paper, tape and roofing nails, and weighed a couple of pounds, but it looked like it weighed a ton.

I'll attach a link to the final product when I get it.

Anchor

I was asked by The Workshop to make a ship's anchor, as a prop for a TV commercial. It was supposed to look heavy, rusting and old.  It's made from pink foam and paint. 

The Tall Ships were coming to Tacoma, and people were getting in the spirit. 

Xbox 360 Video

Recently, I Art Directed an Xbox 360 marketing video for World Famous productions. The shot used the 'Cinemonster', which made a single moving shot, over and over again. The gag was that the TV screen stays in the same place, while the room switches out around it. Oscar Lofgren and Kaleo Quinzer worked with me in the art department, and over two very busy days we put together 32 different backgrounds. The Pause button comes in handy when watching this one.  Most of what we did flies by in the first ten seconds. If you look quickly, you can see me writing on the chalkboard.

Wall Street Journal Asia - Singapore Map

I recently did another map for the Wall Street Journal Asia. It was for a story about Singapore hotels with art collections.  I like doing these maps -- distilling a lot of information into a format that is easily understood, and hopefully, fun.

Steve Mumford

Steve Mumford is an old friend who has made a real name for himself as a War Artist. He has traveled several times to Iraq, and recently recently posted a new installment of work that he did while in Mosul. There's a great directness to this work. I feel like I know more about what it looks and feels like there from his watercolors than from photographs.  It's a real irony that in a world where seemingly everything is photographed, there remains a surprising immediacy to a watercolor sketch. Maybe it's precisely because of the mediated quality of the work. We look at it, and are made conscious of the presence of the artist-- the jumpy line, the splash of color, the quick notation. We think about the time involved in capturing the scene. In these watercolors, we imagine ourselves there. We feel the heat of the day, wonder what it would be like, and think about the scene outside the borders of the drawing.

A link to Steve's work is in the 'Links' column on the right. 

Medieval Modern

Mudpuddle Books just published 'The World's Best Board Games', which is a spiral-bound 'book' of magnetic game boards, with the 'six oldest and most widely enjoyed leisure games on Earth'. It's great for kids to take in the car. It's got chess, checkers, backgammon... I did the board for a game called Nine Man Morris, which I'd never heard of, but which is an ancient game, that 'reached it's peak of popularity in Renaissance Europe' (who knew?). 

They say the books will be available at Borders and WaldenBooks. 

Wall Street Journal Asia

I had an illustration appear in Friday's Wall Street Journal Asia.  It was for a story about a pub crawl in Sydney. And, no, I didn't get to go to Sydney. I remained strictly Up Over. Glad for the opportunity, though, and happy with the way it turned out. It also appeared in the online version of the Wall Street Journal.  Now, if I only knew anyone who read the Wall Street Journal...

 

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. I will endeavor to keep it interesting, to keep it fresh, and to keep it brief. Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think.