2024 Year in review
It’s a couple weeks into 2025, and I’m just getting over a nasty flu. I’ve made some big goals and resolutions for the new year, one of which is spending more time updating this website. Before I get into any of that, I wanted to write about some of the fun projects that I got to do in 2024.
Early last year, I started getting into some digital tablet drawing. Thanks to my friend, Freddy, who gave me a giant professional Wacom Tablet. I started plunging into this style of drawing for graphic design, painting layouts, and illustration. Combining this with some AI generated references allowed me make some ideas more fleshed out. There’s literally so much to learn when it comes to tablet drawing that it feels like relearning how to draw. I don’t think I’ll ever stop sketching by hand, but I like using the tablet for things that will be reproduced, like t-shirts and comics. I’ve got such a long way to go with learning how to use the tablet and software. Its definitely a direction I would like to pursue, especially for more illustrative projects.
With the tablet I made a few new t-shirt designs for The Main Ingredient. One of the designs is a larger scale digital recreation of the Three of Cups from my Tarot deck. It’s got a few types of ETs raising their cups in cheers and celebrates the bar’s seventh anniversary. The other shirt is a parody of the old Marlboro Man ads.
The same company that printed these shirts, Team Green Duo, also hooked us up by printing vinyl slip mats for our local DJs. I already had the goat painting and DJ Larue requested art that professed his undying love for goats. I drew the cargo plane using the tablet for Grassy Noel.
Another big project I took on this year was for an artist in residence program for the i.d.e.a. museum in Mesa, Arizona. The good people at the museum gave me a wall in one of their classrooms to create an interactive paint-by-number style mural wall. I developed this process with Mike Butzine and Michelle Meyer a couple of years ago for the Glendale arts festival. It was an absolute thrill to have tons of kids come through the museum and take part in this event. We setup a video camera that captured a timelapse of the painting process. The i.d.e.a. museum has since gone through a major renovation, and the mural is no longer there :( BUT the new space at the museum is absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend visiting.
Another big project I did this year was a comic book for my dear friend Lard. The comic explores the origin story of the Lard universe, a total acid trip through the mind of one of the strangest artists that I know. Lard wrote the story and I did the art on my tablet. The comic has sold out, but I bet if enough people bugged Lard about it then they would have to print a second edition :P
In October, Green New American Vegetarian Restaurant sponsored our MF DOOM tribute show. We had at least fifteen artists make new pieces based around the late, great hip hop artist. I printed a zine (which I should be reprinting in the next week). We had two different DJ sets. And tons of the community came out to make it awesome. This was a really fun show and I hope that Green will let me do another show in this same style in 2025.
I finished a couple of murals last year. The two big ones are at The Main Ingredient. I painted that same three of cups design into one of their bathrooms. And I painted a MuX version of the classic Washington crossing the Delaware river painting. “Juicy” Joe Gonzalez and Galactic Turkey both helped on the Delaware mural.
Monsters Exposed issue 9. Cover art by Arthur Owsley
If I remember correctly, we published two issues of Monsters Exposed last year. This comic is a passion project that Buzza Wuzza and I put together. It was meant to be a bridge for artists who wanted to learn how to make comics. I think we’ve accomplished that and brought together a bunch of artists who otherwise might have gone under the radar. Look for many more comics in the year 2025 from us.
A handful of other fun things happened in 2024 including some other vendor shows, miniature paintings, and new projects involving laser cutters. If I can manage to keep on top of my resolutions this year, then I’ll be posting about those things shortly. Thanks for reading!
