Haunted By An En-ti-ty

So, as expected, last week I finished up that cassette cover in record speed, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out:

This is for Assembly at Dusk's demo which you can listen to here.  They were pretty easy going about the artwork and I mostly focused on making something that was simple that would be readable and have impact at such a small size.  The name "Assembly at Dusk" immediately makes me think of bats congregating and they had sent me some lyrics involving a specter so I went from there.  I'm especially happy with the sky.  It seems like I'll never tire of painting clouds.  I still have to design a logo for them and lay this out but that should be done soon enough.

I tried to jump right back into my personal work for the show but because what I'm working on now is so big, I don't have a lot to show for it.  I finally got this big medusa painting inked and to the painting stage but looking at it this morning I'm not happy with the static face and might need to spend another day fussing over it before I can start the endless task of painting scales:

On a side note, this weekend I found out about and began obsessing over Hexenkopf rock, a supposedly haunted hill in Easton PA with a ton of local legend associated with it.  The name translates to "Witch's  Head" and it is supposedly the sight of all kinds of ghostly apparitions, has links to Braucherei practice, a strange glowing quality at night, and is responsible for all kinds of suicides, house fires and strange events.  At any rate after I read about it I rounded up my friends to go there the next day.

 Like most of rural PA it's beautiful, and surrounded by old barns and PA dutch cemeteries which I did quite a bit of creeping in. 

When you're up on the rock itself the acoustics are really strange.  When I climbed up I suddenly heard clear as a bell hundreds of chirping frogs that I couldn't hear as I approached.  The area is really pretty and the rocks are covered in moss and lichen. I also found a headless squirrel hanging from a branch.  It was probably a hawk but it COULD have been a witch.  Pretty sure that's how these things get started. 

I was also delighted to see this protective Sator Square hex sign on the adjacent barn.

Anyway, this has sent me on a spree of book hunting and I think a theme for some new stuff (after this show) will be Pennsylvania magic and folklore.  Top of my list is this book, which possibly can only be bought (for a reasonable price) from the Sigal museum in Easton.  Sometimes I really love Pennsylvania.

I Have Always Been Here Before

Oh hello there! As is always the case recently it's been WAY too long, probably the longest break I've ever taken from this blog.  As always no longer having a job where I sit in front of the computer has made my online presence pretty shaky.  I've also always felt that reporting about what I'm making should never take time away from actually making things, and lately I've been really busy.  In addition to starting new paintings for my upcoming show, I started dabbling in wood carving in order to make some amulets both for the show and to eventually restock my etsy store.  Money from the store should hopefully filter back into my art to help finance getting limited print editions made to sell at the show. Here are some of the little amulets I've made so far.  Some are just sort of prototypes:

The theme of my half of the show (this is a two person show with one of my favorite people/artists Alan Medusawolf) is loosely the evil eye and protection so I've been doing lots of reading about both so you can expect one of my long rambling entries about that soon.  Both Alan and I will include carved and painted 3 dimensional pieces that tie into our 2D work as a somewhat unifying theme so some of these amulets will be in the show.  I'm also working on carving wooden silver leaf tipped weapons for the show. Here's the only finished one:

And here's an arrow head for a full arrow. It's not painted yet and I haven't carved the quill:

I'm also hoping to do a sword and an axe, but carving these things takes a ton of time so I don't know how feasible that is.  I also have a lot of trouble multitasking and I'm starting to worry these little experimental projects will distract from making actual paintings.  So far I've done two small pieces as a warm up:

and I've got another piece underway which will end up being the largest most elaborate painting I've ever done.  I'm slightly worried about what I've gotten myself into here but I think when it's finished it'll be really visually impressive:

It's about a foot and a half around.  I'm going to try to keep a lid on what I'm doing so that everything from the show isn't on the internet before the show opens but I have to admit, it'll be really hard with this one.  I have a lot of ideas I'm really excited about and I'd like to finish as many of these pieces as possible before the show in July which means waking up extra early to draw in the morning before work and coming right home and getting back to it. Woof.

I'm also taking a short break from personal work to do a pretty simple commission.  Here's the sketch, hopefully it'll be started and finished soon and I'll be able to share it:

I hate to say this since my intention is never to abandon the blog or stop talking about books and ideas I'm excited about but while I'm really busy I'll probably post the most work in progress and updates in my instagram account, feel free to follow me at everlastingfaint or to look at it online if you don't have a dumb phone.  It's a semi personal account meaning there are occasionally pictures of my cats (sorry, can't be helped) or weird junk in my house but never so personal that it's terribly revealing.

Back to work!