Art Shows

A few gallery shows that I've had work in ...

In February, at UDC, a group of us cartoonists were in a show called cARToons, displaying a number of our original comic pages. My contributions were a few Dr. W pages from MAGIC BULLET, as well as "A Light-Hearted Comic For Dim-Witted Souls," which can be found a few posts down, on this blog. The show was handily organized by Teresa Logan, who also hand lettered the signs and took this photo of my display ...



For the end of March, and for a few weeks into April, I have two Dr. W pages at the 505 North Gallery in Frederick, Maryland. Rafer Roberts, of Plastic Farm, was a mighty organizer as well as participant, and this picture of the opening is courtesy of Steve Loya, of Splotch Monster fame.



Lastly, I have some drawings in the Fur to Feathers exhibit at the Schuler School, in Baltimore. The opening is on March 29 and runs into April. I have three bird drawings on display, including this fellow ...

Snowy Bird

A bird in the snow, for the snowy weather we're having in DC ...

October Owl

An owl for October ... for H'owlween, of course.

Coffee Shop Bird

I drew this bird in the coffee shop the other evening. Too late for Halloween, not really appropriate for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Plus, it sort of looks like it has breasts.

Super Bowl Bird

Color this guy blue with an orange breast to make him a Bluebird, the state bird of New York.

Color him yellow with black wings to make him an Eastern Goldfinch, in honor of East Rutherford, New Jersey - home of the Giants.

Make him black and white with a mist of orange under the wing and he can round out his duties as the Black-Capped Chickadee, state bird of Massachusetts.

Happy New Year!

"With a hat on my head
And straw sandals on my feet
I met on the road
The end of the year."

Bird - Random Imperfect and Obsolete

Apropos of nothing, irrelevant to anything and beholden to nothing.

An American Birthday Bird

Happy July 4th! In honor of the holiday, here's a bird for you.

It's not just any bird, though. It's basically the obverse side of the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, minted from 1916 to 1947.

Why that bird from that particular coin? For one, it's a great looking eagle, from a great coin design. It was also the last, regular coin in circulation to NOT feature a president.

Up until the 20th century, it was considered unseemly for a democracy to put its leaders on its coins. That was something that monarchies and imperial governments did. The United States - ostensibly deriving its power from the people - populated its coins with metaphoric figures like "Lady Liberty," "Freedom," Indians, Eagles, Wheat, etc. In 1909, though, they put Abraham Lincoln on the penny, replacing the Indian. George Washington got the treatment on the quarter in 1931, pushing out the Standing Liberty quarter. 1938 had Jefferson replacing the Indian / Buffalo on the nickel. FDR followed suit in 1946, replacing the Winged Liberty (aka Mercury Head) dime.

Walking Liberty held out just a little longer, giving way to Ben Franklin in 1948, who was replaced under expedited circumstances by Kennedy in 1964.

So, in honor of one of the best designed eagles in American symbolism, and the last coin staying true to the American ideal that refuses to idolize power, here's the god damned bird, already.

Boid

You look a little burned out, my friend.

Birdy

Not really apropos of anything in particular, other than it seemed like a good time to toss a bird up.

bright bird

... For a bright sunrise...

Breezy bird

A bird for a brisk, windy day.

Sunday Bird

Yesterday, I was at the Richmond Zine Fest in Richmond, Virginia. Matt Dembicki, Steve Loya and myself have done it the past few years, and this year was a typically fine day of art, commerce and beverages. Matt posted a great write-up with photos over on his blog. Steve has some amazing (and amazingly inventive) stuff on both of his blogs that you should check out as well.

Owl

A midnight owl for a sunny day. This was one of the images I was playing with for a role in "Shh - You'll Wake the Dead!"

Another bird...

... of the sort that is socially appropriate to give to people.

More birds and comics

After SPX last year, I started on a comic for a "Day of the Dead" show. I didn't end up doing the show, but I did finish the book... "Shh! You'll Wake the Dead!". All the comics involve skeletons, skulls, the dead or something in that vein. This is one of the pages I did (which, maybe coincidentally or not, also involves birds)...

Bird in the bush

Been a bit of a while, but in gearing up for SPX on September 11-12, I decided it was time to ramp the blog back up. Kicking things off not with a comic, but a bird.