im getting really tired of everything being bad bc like 12 ppl can't fill the hole in their hearts despite being billionaires

Hot girl summer is out, Edgar Allan Poe summer is in (asking a friend to wall me up in a quiet corner of their basement with a bottle of wine)

Dude's wanted a military parade for himself for years and he finally makes it happen and turnout is worse than at a medium sized city's farmers market on a rainy day while like 2% of the entire country went out to protest his bullshit

This is the first layer of a new etching. I went in to darken the foreground and added aquatint to the ground and sky because the plate has some big visible scratches on it that I don't think I can fully buff away. About to test print now. Wish me and ducky luck!

Love this for me as a copperplate etcher. Sigh.

These are my foster cats Orca and Oyster who are bunking in my workshop. They came to us as an emergency situation after a friend unexpectedly passed away a couple of weeks ago. They're going to the vet on Wednesday and once we know they are healthy, I will be hunting for a perfect home for them.

Gareth Thumbs-Jones has been getting bigger and sleeker and wider and brighter and is also very helpful on laundry day.

I am candying orange and lemon peel to make bara brith for this Friday's belated St. David's Day Artwalk at Greenwood Art Collective and my house smells amazing. If you are in the Seattle area this Friday you should come by the collective and have some and look at our spring art and grab a daffodil.

Allosaurus by night. Artbook drawing

Having watched a little of Elon's ketamine fueled bedazzled chainsaw juggling performance, I feel like Michael Alig is running the damn country now.

In case you need some nervous system regulation, here's Mega Mom Mazikeen with her special little guy Gareth Thumbs-Jones having a cuddle on the sofa. They're keeping my brain chemicals as modulated as possible in these deeply weird times

This is just to say I have fired the bureaucrats throughout your government Even the ones that were probably keeping planes in the air Forgive me I am not very smart So efficiency Much savings

everyone should have some massive, insane art project they can leave unfinished at the time of their death an epic poem in a made up language! seventeen intricate altars made out of trash! something with way too many antlers! amaze and trouble the world upon your passing

My etching for the year of the snake. I may go back in with some aquatint to really bump up the shadows and depth. This is my fourth year on my Chinese zodiac animals project. Looking forward to getting back to fur or feathers after two years of scales in a row.

Gareth Thumbs-Jones in his Nosferatu phase.

Anyone still buying art and silly little things made by artists when shit’s this scary are the goat. I could honestly cry every time I get an order if I think about it too much, little guys are the epitome of a non essential and you guys still like them enough to buy them anyways 🥹🥹🥹😭😭

ANGRILY MAKING MY LITTLE PICTURES LIKE AN IDIOT

Mazikeen has decided her minion is okay. She's groomed his eternal bedhead and will sit within six inches of him on the sofa in papa's office. Cathod du solidarity.

Gareth Thumbs-Jones aka Mr. Big Biscuits has been detrimental to productivity but conducive to good mental health and overall morale, so clearly he's here for the long haul.

I have also developed a new AI. It cost less than $3.00 to produce. Ask it any question and will respond with "shut the fuck up, nerd!"

Today we welcomed young Gareth Thumbs-Jones to the cat family. Kaesu was like a kitten herself again, chasing him all over the house. Mazikeen hates change and is currently eating her feelings and his leftovers. Moxie has exiled herself to her princess bed for a good sulk. We are awash in oxytocin.

It's official! Our new kitten is coming home on Sunday. Mazikeen will have a minion to tutor in the dark arts. Kaesu will have a new toy to help keep her old bones young. And Moxie will have something to be disgusted and outraged by since she's a cat and doesn't keep up with politics like her folks.

Here's the watercolor tinted version of my bleeding hearts etching. I think it has the requisite "torn from an old botanical specimen book" feeling I was going for. #botanicalillustration

Round two of etching on my bleeding hearts. I think I have added enough contrast. Going to add some watercolor to really pop the hearts.

First pass on a new etching plate of a more surreal version of regular botanical bleeding hearts. I have recoated the plate and am going back in to darken some lines and add shadows and dimension now that I see how it actually prints on paper.

Trying to be creative under capitalism is evil. What’s your brand? Do you have a large following? How are you selling yourself? Can you produce constant output so people don’t get bored? How are you special and different? Why should we care? Answer these questions, be pretty, and maybe you’ll win!!

Also jarring to me that we've never had any real collective mourning in the USA. More than a million Americans have died of Covid and, barring some very isolated moments, there's been no sense of coming together to mark the incalculable loss. No events. No monuments. Etc.

buying a cybertruck and putting it in long term storage so i can rent it in 30 years to filmmakers who want to convey "this guy is a dipshit" in period pieces

So this little gremlin is very likely coming home to join the cat crew in about three weeks!!!!

Merry Crabmas and a happy #invertefest to all who celebrate!

Merry Ratmas from Tampopo and the rest of our ratty family.

Merry Christmas! 🎄 Christmas card design I did for Papyrus back around 07/08? Ink and gouache. It echoes my illustrations for Clement C. Moore's The Night Before Christmas, published by Walker Books just a few years prior in 2005 (see following post).

For #invertefest I have an etching of a UK mason bee printed using the chine collé method of placing thin paper and a sprinkling of wheat paste on to the plate to collage and print in one pass through the press. That's how the wings have the diaphanous white effect.

For the last official post of #ArtAdventCalendar here is a portrait of my studio assistant and printers devil Moxie when she was a kitten. This has been a really fun way to start actively posting on this platform and I will definitely be continuing to share art here. Merry Christmas, Nadolig Llawen!

For Day 24 of #ArtAdventCalendar I present one of my favorite etchings, my interpretation of what Baba Yaga's chicken leg hut should have looked like if it was architecturally accurate. I grew up with these stories so I hid her skull fence in the roof molding and Vasilissa's doll peeks out a window.

sesame street isn't supposed to make money. the post office isn't supposed to make money. not everything is supposed to MAKE MONEY

For Day 22 of #ArtAdventCalendar I have my moon gazing bunny made for a Year of the Rabbit show in 2023. You get two bonus buns: one in the moon that a paint in by hand on every print as a remarque and the southern constellation Lepus (the rabbit) in the sky. The dark tones are made with aquatint.

In honor of @rafial.bsky.social 's birthday today, here is his favorite etching for day 21 of #ArtAdventCalendar which is inspired by the book Mozart's Starling. He kept a pet starling and possibly this composition was based on its song. I know everyone hates this invasive jerk bird but I don't.

For day 20 of #ArtAdventCalendar I present my "tardigreindeer" postcards I made for the Seattle Print Arts holiday postcard print exchange at our potluck tomorrow. This was a test plate I made years ago when learning spit bite aquatint and I used an eraser to make the antlers and painted a red nose.

I don't think I want a new year this time around, I want a gently used year like a 2015 or maybe a 1998 if it's in good shape idk

For day 19 of #ArtAdventCalendar, I have a print I made this year of many different moth species against a dark sky background that I made with aquatint - powdered rosin baked into the plate that allows for etching shallow rough patches that hold ink to create fields of tone, kinda like halftones.

For day 18 of #ArtAdventCalendar here is a test print of my newest plate. I'm enjoying tinkering around with my various mica based watercolors to achieve an iridescent effect on the eye. I definitely need to figure out better lighting to photograph it, as a basic phone snap doesn't look great, alas.

For day 17 of #ArtAdventCalendar, I have Crow Dance, one of my series of animals in silhouette printed with the chine collé method of placing thin colored paper on top of the inked plate, adding powdered glue, then putting the big paper down and running it through the press to print and laminate.

For day 16 of #ArtAdventCalendar, I have another mini etching about 4" in diameter, of a little baby Douglas squirrel. I love these feisty little guys so much.

For day 15 of #ArtAdventCalendar I have a tiny 3.5" in diameter etching of a dragonfly. The paper is much bluer IRL and the wings have white paper applied in the chine collé method. I also zhuzsh it with some mica powder watercolor after printing for an iridescent effect on the wings and body.

Welles is our modern Woody Guthrie. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8N9Smvy/