I have been working on some digital collages utilizing vintage illustrations of birds and some of my urban texture photos. So far, there are 7, but I have more to complete. I decided to take liberties with the colors of the birds where I could.
It's not really clear to me how, when, and why I came up with this idea, but I was going through a phase where I was experimenting with seeing how many images I could come up with using a basic shape as the basis. In these images, I started with a basic head shape that I manipulated to resemble different animals.
I have been trying for about 13 years to come up with series of dogs, and things finally came together with these new images of a few Labradors and a Wire Fox Terrier. A Pug, Golden Retriever, and a Jack Russell Terrier are in the works, among others.
My oldest daughter is turning 5 soon with a rollerskating birthday party on the schedule. So once again my wife needing some art for one of the kids has helped me to create some new work. I added some new background colors to the series for this one, gray and pink.
I have been buried this week with a motion design project that wraps up today. I am excited to start on some new art soon, but not sure where I want to start. We need to prep for the summer season here in the gallery, so I need to generate some back stock/inventory.
I have opened up shop on Mintd.com and on lov.li. These are two sites that allow you to sell your art, so hopefully, that's what I am gonna do. I had the opportunity to join Etsy earlier in it's development than I actually did, so I am hoping to avoid that mistake in the future...
For the past 2 years, I have been experimenting with developing a new format for the delivery of art. One that would be so affordable that artists could easily give them away, and patrons would be willing to pass these small masterpieces along to others, all so that artists could gain exposure for their work.
It's always fun to revisit some early subjects and try a different approach, mixing what new styles I have developed in the meantime.
In the next few weeks, I'll be sending lots of fish prints to England, to be looked after by Tracey Tucker at www.traceytucker.co.uk . Tracey is an amazing artist with a focus on the sea, and my fish prints will be available on her shop site, http://tbythesea.moonfruit.com/. 
Alright, I probably shouldn't say it like that, but hopefully it grabbed your attention. These sweet little birds are inspired by Japanese paintings, and are available on Etsy. Chirpitty Chirp!
This one is a companion piece to "The Enlightened Fireflies", and it was a tough one to get right. Now...tough is a relative term. Digital is certainly faster than traditional techniques, and it was not tough in the traditional methods sense. However, it took many, many attempts to get it right.
For all you folks out there in beautiful Seattle: You can now find some of my reproductions locally.
Okay, so I am on a major critter kick, what can I say?
Ah, the sensible owl. Before long I will start a barnyard critters series, a yard critters (cats and dogs), a crawly critters series (bugs), and probably a jungle critters one too.
May 3rd marked a milestone for me with another birthday, and my lovely wife surprised me with an overnight trip to Bald Head Island. The idea was for us to travel over by ferry, and for me to spend the entire time taking photographs. My wife went along for the ride, and I came back with 250 pictures taken.
I must thank Degan Beley for including me and my work in her article on Etsy for the Canadian magazine Ion. I had a very nice discussion with Degan about Etsy and the Etsy community, and the mag saw fit to include 4 of images with the article.
Lots of folks have been sending out the good word about my work into the blogosphere, and I am grateful for the exposure...
Slowly but surely, I am making progress on creating more critters for the Woodland Critters collection. My newest is the Crooked Fox. I had to decide whether to follow an alliterative pattern with the names of these critters, or just try to find some names that fit the personalities of the animals. I went with personality, and if there is a double bonus of alliteration, so be it.
So I was going full force on creating some new work in my Urban Naturals series (I have 31 new images in various stages of development), and I realized that a whole year has elapsed since I began my Saltwater Fish series. That's yet another series I have big plans for (I currently have reference for 100+ fish), so I thought it was time to get back on the "fish" horse, so to speak.
I am calling this series Rovinato, Italian for "ruined". I wanted it to be Lenti Rovinato, which should mean "ruined lens", but in talking with some of my artist friends, that seemed a bit much for a name.
I have a few new strains of work now. The gallery being relatively settled, I am now getting the chance to work quite a bit. Here's a little Spaceman that I now have for sale on Etsy.
Amidst all the gallery goings-on, I managed to get a little work done on what I am calling my Woodland Critter Collection. I am really enjoying trying to keep these simple and to try to capture what makes each "Critter" look like it does.
The space we are moving the gallery into was a Christmas shop, with mostly green walls and red carpet. We started by painting over the green paint, but the carpet must stay. Here are some views of the main gallery area half -painted.
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