the human animal

the perpetual god.

the survival instinct drives the ego. the ego turns to arrogance. the arrogance convinces the self that it is an all powerful god among animals. this god has the power to shake the earth from its orbit and wipe every animal from its surface. this god feels pity for the earth and its animals. this god hates itself... demeans itself. this god lives a life of shamefully secret self worship separate from the earth and nature for it has left the earth and nature behind.

monster ink

my tattoo apprenticeship at monster ink doesn't start for about a month but i was invited to hang out before to get acquainted with everyone better and get a feel for things i suppose. and today i stopped by to do just that. i spent some time drawing, got a little tour and just hung out. i made my first attempt at doing script and i feel with a bit of practice i could get it down pretty good. i also did a couple sketches while i was there. overall a nice easy going evening.

garrett showed me this cool set of drawing books done by an artist who's name i cannot recall. its a series of drawings spanning an entire year. one drawing per day. pretty much just sketches and studies. and its pretty rad. i like the idea of developing a routine about drawing tattoo art. a project like that will change an artist. so i got the idea of doing something along the same lines but way less intense. im going to try to post every week or so some sketches that i do. i figure it could be a good way to track my progress.

working on valentines day

well another quiet day. went to work, came home did a load of laundry, washed the dishes and painted all in time to go out with my lovely Emily for v-day. technically i haven't gone out with Emily yet but for the sake of this blog post i did that.



these took me longer than i had hoped but i finally finished them and I'm happy with them both.



good day

one day weekend

well i realized that if im going to get all the shit that i have obligated myself to done, i will need to speed it up a bit. unfortunately this revelation came on the warmest day this year so far which made it a little bit of a challenge for me to stay indoors and work. i went for a nice walk but managed to get plenty of stuff done.

this is a piece for a band of a coworker. pennyroyal. i would make a link but at no fault to shawn hebrank, who taught me to make links, i don't remember how.

but here is the piece.

it begins

well i landed a tattoo apprenticeship in st paul MN at Monster Ink. i start in march and from there i work my ass off in order to get things rolling as fast as possible. im more than ready to begin the transition into a career in tattooing. i feel pretty good, like i have taken a step. but being me i can't really let my guard down with myself and my work ethic till it is final and im licensed.

it is good on one hand to know that the hard work i have been putting in with art and developing a strong work ethic about art are starting to pay off, but i still feel like i have so much more to do that i cant help but feel like its just the beginning. which it is.

so 2011 is going to be the year of reckoning for me. i have already pretty much booked myself solid through the end of the year. i have the apprenticeship, full time job, BIG art show in the works and i have been commissioned to do work for a band. and the kicker is i wont make much money at any of this stuff. but i guess this is the sort of thing i have to do if im ever going to be a professional artist. its an eye opener already and i haven't even begun. i just hope im up for it.

ruff love

this is a portion of the piece i did for a benefit showing/ silent auction show for an animal foster program called second hand hounds. it will be held at cult status gallery this friday. so if your reading this and you live in MPLS, be there!

anyway, i havent been posting much as of late because i havent been finishing much. i have been doing several pieces at once one stage at a time. this piece is up first because i had to hurry up and finish it for the show but the rest will probably all show up here around the same time in a few weeks hopefully.

p.s. sorry for the low quality picture.