Here's an old sketch for Earth Day. I'm always highly skeptical of branded special days as they tend to turn into more of a marketing opportunity than anything else. But caring about the earth for a day is a good gesture. It just doesn't seem right that keeping the planet in good shape is something people need to be sold on. Maybe the campaign just needs to be a bit slicker though...a little more like, say, an SUV commercial.

At the tail end of a busy winter painting season, I managed to finished up a few paintings and drawings including this conceptual one I call Distance. It was something I've had in my head for a long time, inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes strip. In it, Calvin brings a plane to show and tell to emphasize how much distance he will soon be putting between himself and classmates he doesn't like. I thought a traffic jam would be an obvious symbol representative of a place someone might want to escape from. Really, the underlying idea is more important though, that distance is a strong emotional state of mind, whether it's wanting to put distance between something, or wanting to close the distance and get somewhere faster.

A large painting at over four feet tall, Distance was built up in several layers of mostly acrylic. First a full fill of random notations and lists, followed by a monochromatic traffic scene. Then, on top of that, the hand and plane in a linear style, meeting up with the typographic message.

The appearance of Spring means it's time to think about getting your garden underway. Whether it's filled with inspiring blooms or tasty vegetables, gardens go with spring like snow and Far West jackets in the 90's go with winter...the natural world never stops its cycle.

Gardening brings to mind an old self-portrait I painted of myself as a carrot. Sometimes enough is enough with self-portraits and a differerent take is needed. Carrot Top was done in oil on a large discarded roof shingle of some sort. Roof shingles and expensive paintbrushes surprisingly do not get along so well together.