well, ladies and gents, it’s a very exciting moment. school’s out–forever! i’ll definitely miss my friends of–can you believe it?–six years. they’ve taught me a lot and i’ll be sad not to see them every day. i hope we’ll all keep in touch. we had our final, ah, final review on thursday (and again on friday as one juror was a bit day late). compared to the rest of the reviews i’ve had this semester, it went pretty well. our jurors were also excellent–particularly incisive was the commentary of two principals of the paris-local firm kilo, linna choi and tarik oualalou. they presented that wonderfully elusive admixture of criticality, humor, and optimism that can really carry a jury. their work is also pretty exciting, so check it out! and of course, with the last day of school (ostensibly forever) comes the terrifying moment of the search for work. i’m looking at a few firms in europe already, but the states are hardly out of the question. perhaps more excitingly, i’ve finished work on my brand-spankin’ new barch graduate portfolio! i hope you enjoy and (as i haven’t printed yet), any comments (positive or otherwise) are extremely welcome. just shoot me an email. in the meantime, i’ll be tuning up the work section of the site a bit to ready it for this new addition. next up before a triumphant (though possibly temporary) return to the us of a? an ecstatically exciting trip to amsterdam, copenhagen, oslo, bergen, and (potentially) belfast, delft, goteborg, rotterdam and a few other places. everybody wish me luck! (…mostly in retrieving my eurail pass from DHL at this point)
hey, good kids. i’m not sure how many folks i’ve missed telling, but my time in houston–for the moment–is at a close. i left on 13 december, quite possibly never to return. it was an emotional moment–and i’m only being a little sarcastic. after living there on and off for six years, the south (or texas, anyway) has become a second home. it was weird to drive out on the ringroads and arterials and to see the shooting ranges and xxx stores and the gaptoothed lots peeling away like some kind of dermis to the eastern seaboard. this time i drove alone. it sounds like 1700 miles on your own in a car would be a nightmare, but i actually find myself missing it. despite taking what i consider to be the less scenic route through georgia and the carolinas (rather than tennessee and the skyline drive), there were some moments that were irreplaceable. mississippi’s highways at ten pm are almost totally empty and by the time you’re edging into alabama, it’s just you and two lanes hemmed in by the tall, tall trees. getting off the highway into the backcountry of southern virginia was probably the biggest highlight–it’s hilly and still verdant in winter. the perfect place for listening to some reimagined folksongs.
but before i knew it, i was back in new jersey. the sky is its customary white tinged with blue here most of the time. and, after some celebrations with the family, i’m steeped to head out again. this time it’s paris i’m going to. i’m nervous, but also really excited. my french could use a lot of work, but it was coming to me pretty quickly in the classroom–hopefully the city will be even easier. i’ll be there until may. so if you need to get in touch with me, shoot me an email or keep your eyes open for upcoming info on skype-ness. i’ll have my phone there, but it’s still not clear if it’ll work and/or how much i’ll be using it. i’ll still try and update this site every week or two, of course. and until then, here’s a little watercolor work to keep you sated–these went out as gifts to various people but were also technique experiments for upcoming comics.
i got a commission to do an illustration a couple of weeks ago of the book of ruth–a short section of the old testament detailing parts of the life of ruth and naomi in a foreign land. at this juncture it must be noted that “naomi” is an amazing name which is probably underused. then again, who wants to have a good name ruined by applying it to human beings? we should save our good names for pet rocks and movie titles. anyway, i decided to take a look at the project through the lens of a (slightly nerfed) alphonse mucha. mucha was an interesting choice because he was both someone who was–in a way–very empowering to women, depicting them in great abundance and detail at a time when this was somewhat uncommon. at least in commercial illustration. and ruth is kinda all about women’s rights (in a “we’ll be your barley-harvesting slaves and marry based on established rigorous customs” kind of way) but at the same time, those women (mucha’s women, that is) are generally scantily-clad and rather classically proportioned (ahem). so. good times.
charette’s knocking at my door.
also, for the folks as are int’rested in that sorta thing, the book of ruth is the origin of that famous piece of bible verse:
“…for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people [shall be] my people, and thy God my God: Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.”
i promised myself i’d be writing graphic novel as of four minutes ago, so please just take a look at a few sketchbook scans and enjoy. this is what goes in my architecture notebook, apparently. about 1.5 million blind contour drawings and incomprehensible notes on low-flush toilets. good times. i’ll be uploading some model photos in the none-too-distant future. cheers!
