It should be a great concert and the LCO is in the midst of making some big slashes this year, so come on out for an evening of great 20th century music!

This is a new business card I painted and designed for Kansas-based author and good friend, Julie Tollefson. In addition to her own work, Julie also writes for Lawrence Magazine and is a phenomenal copy editor who has saved me from grammatical embarrassment on countless occasions!

Click the photo to see a larger version of the image (you may need to click it once more to blow it up within your browser window).

I was looking for an excuse to try Photoshop’s photomerge function and was pretty impressed with the job it did. Not flawless by any means, but it found and blended the content as well as I ever could by hand. My only complaint was that it was a 360 panorama, but I wasn’t able to tell it where I wanted the center point to be. This is probably a better tool to use for compositing 2-3 photos together within a smaller viewing angle.

I designed a background for a calendar page for a local bar in town using some hand-drawn calligraphy. I feel like I’m getting better at it every time I practice!

Hott Sheets Art Exhibition
When: Friday, June 25, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe and Studio, Lawrence

I’ve been thinking about starting a series of flat, graphic African masks since I really love working with the shapes, colors and emotion. This piece is an initial exploration of this concept, painted in acrylics.

This piece is based on the nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

There are some very colorful explanations of what this nursery rhyme means, so I thought I’d work that into the piece as well! I also wanted to work on some drawn type, so this seemed like a great place to experiment with that.

In case you missed it, I did a studio tour with Justin in early 2008 that was a lot of fun!

Event Details:
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Place: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery & How!
803 Massachusetts (Below Casbah Market)
Lawrence, KS

From the artist:

Imagine a world filled with hope for new beginnings where reflection can heal in a time of change. In the past it has seemed as if this prospect of change could only exist in the imagination. Presently, however, millions of disenchanted citizens have come together to transform a broken world. This change of mind has finally forced a reevaluation of the past onto a 21st century landscape. In this body of work, I observe the surrounding social and physical landscape to retrieve bits and pieces of its present state. As with any kind of change, there can be the worry for its sustainability. How long can change hold on before it becomes a victim of its lingering past? True change requires innovation, imagination, creativity, optimism, and action, along with the will power of people to transform ideas into reality. With the bad comes the good and with the good comes the bad. In an endless balancing act, one will outweigh the other at times. In these prints I critique the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the wrong and the right, to better understand this balance that continually exists in the world. In my imagination I can always dream of a better world, but to physically see hope in this vast sea of change, gives me assurance that beauty can prevail even when all seems lost.

Above image courtesy of Justin Marable

I was asked back again this year to do the graphic design for the Second Annual River City Reading Festival, an annual event that promotes reading to the Lawrence and surrounding communities. I was very excited to get to work with Lawrence-based artist/illustrator Lora Jost on a poster and series of bookmarks that advertised the event. The image above is the poster that Lora and I came up with for the event that happened last weekend.

I was able to be in possession of Lora’s original artwork for a couple of days to have it scanned and you wouldn’t believe how intricate the line work is.

The piece was created on scratchboard and it has a similar quality to a woodblock print. Lora’s work is really beautiful and I encourage you to check back here for a studio tour with Lora happening later this Fall!

These photos are from the event that took place at the Lawrence Public Library. The keynote speaker was Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.

This is Bobbie Hinman, the author of The Knot Fairy. I loved the wings.

There were a bunch of storybook characters on hand and I haven’t seen that kind of excitement in kids for a long time!

There was also some art projects involving found materials.

There were a number of musicians on hand throughout the day to provide music.

Singer/songwriter Melanie Dill was there to perform some of her fun children’s music.

Another kids activity was to create your own book snake. I don’t know what a book snake is, but it was VERY popular!

Keep your eyes open for next year’s festival!

In his words:

“The photographs culminate 40 years of my work in the topic of Chinese migration and the emergence of China in an unprecedented pace that shocked the world. I question the process and the cost of how these monumental and irreversible changes affect the faces of the ordinary common folk of this monstrous and diverse nation.”

If you’re interested in seeing more of his work, you can visit his website at www.pokchilau.com where you’ll find a nice gallery of his photographs and you can order his book Flow China as well as his first book Dreams of the Golden Mountain. Pok Chi’s images are fascinating, shocking, humorous, haunting and beautiful and his books are a great addition to any collection. As an added bonus, proceeds from the sales of his books will used for scholarships and charity!

Oh, and we were even featured on the front of a few newspapers you might have heard of:

Mainly, the processing is just adjusting the colors and adding a little vignetting and noise to the images. I really like the look and the mood that they create. I’m starting to realize a lot of potential in digital photography to produce “art” photos and I hope to do some more experimenting in the near future.

This is the Murphy-Bromelsick House that was recently renovated with the help of the guys from Struct/restruct.

OK, so one graphic design note: don’t you think Barack Obama’s campaign identity is way cooler than Hillary Clinton’s? Maybe it’s just me…

Not everyone was so excited to be there. Lots of standing and it was pretty hot with all of those people in there.

The energy of the crowd was very electric. People were holding up signs and chanting slogans. Everyone was very friendly and despite the waiting and the heat, everyone had high spirits.

Waiting in line to be counted. I was lucky number 13 in my row!

This is a new logo I’ve designed for Struct/restruct Associates which is a local design, renovation, construction, woodworking and building firm located in Lawrence, KS. They also specialize in historic renovations and masonry. AND, they offer unique, local reclaimed lumber in their projects which is a great way to recycle old lumber that is perfectly usable. They mill the wood and everything! Congratulations to Josh and Matt for getting this venture underway!

The show is Friday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. at the Love Garden, 936 1/2 Massachusetts St. and admission is FREE.

(The cover of “Answers” features one of Liz’s pieces to give you a feel of her work)

AND, if you’re not ready to turn in early that night, another great local band, Marry Me Moses,will be playing across the street at the Jackpot Saloon at 10 p.m. They released a killer album last year called Engine, Engine which has had a lot of rotation in my CD player since I got it. So, get out and support some local artists this weekend. You won’t be disappointed!

As a side note, one of my rock n’ roll moments was when Marry Me Moses asked me to shoot some publicity photos of the band (including the one above)!