Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo!


I hope you all have a tasty and fun Fifth of May! Not too fun, you have to work tomorrow. I will be celebrating by taking my son to swimming lessons and (hopefully) munching on some tasty tacos.

I painted the image above for 417 Magazine a few years ago and I love the colors and the inking of the senorita so I like to bring it out once a year. You may see it again next May. I like the hand-drawn feel, but I've always been bad at patterns so if I were to do it again, I would employ the help of my Mac for a little more consistency in the Mayan flare. Oh well, it still puts me in the mood for a fiesta! Arrrriba!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Art bike



I've been working hard on a unique project this week – decorating a bike for the Ozark Greenways nonprofit group. There will be 9 art bikes being displayed around downtown Springfield kicking off Bike, Bus, Walk to Work Week. We have a monthly First Friday Artwalk with all the galleries downtown so this is all in conjunction with that. My bike will be at the Good Girl Art shop on Walnut Street. It's in the middle of the store in a small room of pet portraits. That place is always packed so hopefully the bike and Greenways program gets some attention. This is kind of the inaugural year for this event, but Lori from the Greenways office told me they hope to grow the event to more artists next year.

I was glad to have help with this one given the short notice (four days). My co-creator is graphics guru Bruce who I work with every day down at City Hall. He did the photo collage in the center of the bike and I did acrylic paintings for the wheels. It took both of us a lot of time to figure out how to piece our idea together for "A Night on the Town," but I think it came together nicely.

If you get a chance on this rainy weekend, stop by Springfield and Good Girl Art to see it in person. Circumstances prevented them from organizing an auction or voting for this year, but this may be a possibility for future years. The bikes should be on display for two weeks. Now that this is done, maybe I can catch up on some sleep! Enjoy!
Currently listening to Dashboard Confessional – "Dusk & Summer"