Blog blah blah

I realize this is an illustration blog, and though I’ve occasionally chosen political topics from which to glean inspiration, I normally just draw what Illo Friday tells me to an call it a day. But as the presidential election draws closer and the prospect of change, or not, becomes more palpable, it seems all the more difficult to separate life and art from politics. And although I consider myself […]

I will have my Vespa…oh yes, I will have it. Okay so here it is…I am but a poor, country graphic designer, not a wealthy person, yet not without the basic necessities of life either, like HBO but rich, oh yes, rich in spirit, having been amply blessed with a wonderful wife (more to come on that later…hon’), wonderful children, a lovely home, a career I’m passionate about, a

Recently I heard a quote that appeared on the t-shirt of a high school biology teacher; “We share 25% of our DNA with bananas—so get over yourself.” It has nothing to do with the image below but I love the quote. Click on the image to enlarge.

Suffice to say I know little or nothing about astrology—barely enough to be dangerous. And I don’t think I’ll ever get how the behavior of celestial objects a bazillion miles away has anything to do with why I keep misplacing my car keys but damn if this whole Mercury in retrograde thing doesn’t seem to be the real deal. Since the middle of November when apparently Mercury started moving

An open letter to all wise souls, old or new, this life or past, In case you don’t each have enough on your metaphysical “plates”, I hereby request a consult on the following rather eerie events involving….dum-dum-dummmm….me and snakes! And not only snakes but the ratt-ly kind and my recent tendency to attract them…wherein… A few weeks ago my sister Laurie and I were hiking on Mt. Diablo (now

So I’m writing this email to a friend whose father recently passed away. I begin typing. “Just wanted to offer our heartfelt condolences at the passing of your dagggggy966666666jsd”. I shoo Wilson off the keyboard. Damn cat. Made me smile though.

In response to some inquiries about the derivation of the name Foolish Fire, I will now provide some enlightenment…It’s basically about swamp gas, folks. That’s it. Pretty sexy, yes? Evidently electrical charges mixed with methane gas rising from your average swamp can create a twinkling lights affect or “foolish fire” that according to legend, compel some folks to enter the swamp seeking the source of the lights never to

I used to teach a class in beginning digital photography. One of the few standing rules in my class was “no damn cats” were allowed as assignment subjects. Beyond that I had few rules and even the “no damn cats” rule was not created because I disliked cats, per se. It’s just that I noticed my students when faced with last minute assignment deadlines would too often resort to

Okay all you venerable expert graphics tablet users….why can’t I draw even a relatively straight line from top to bottom on my brand new Intuos3 Wacom Professional Graphics Tablet without veering to the right? Is there a learning curve and I’m just behind it? I’ve tried tilting the tablet, tilting the pen, tilting myself, messing around with the control panel settings and prefs…nothing works and it’s damn humbling. I