Monday, June 6, 2011

Raffle Winner Bellen!

Bellen's Family
This is Bellen Drake's family portrait, she was one of 2 winners from my Japan charity raffle.  I had a lot of fun doing this.  I would like to thank everyone who participated and helped promote the raffle.  I was amazed we raised so much money!  I hope you like your family portrait Bellen :)

I got quite a few emails about how I did the raffle.  I actually got in some trouble with Paypal for doing it.  I would not recommend doing what I did... It's sad there's really no alternative.  If you're raising funds through Paypal, they require you to be a certified non-profit or you formally represent the organization you're raising funds for.  I was neither, I just wanted to do something and I couldn't think of any other way.  They also strictly prohibit raffles and lotteries... but hey I'm a monkey wrench.  I thought they would let me slide for charity sake, but I was wrong.

Paypal contacted me 2 days after the raffle was over and suspended my account.  They asked me to prove that I was either a non-profit (401C) or a representative of the non-profit.  The alternative was to refund all the money!  I had already wired the money to the Japan Red Cross so a refund is out of the question.  All I could do was email them my wire transfer paperwork and hope they'll accept it.  In the end they restored my account, but gave me a stern warning against doing something like this. 
*warning heard guys!*

A few other artists and friends were not so lucky.  Paypal suspended their account right in the middle of their charity fundraisers.  It was a big nightmare for them!  I'm so sorry I sent them down that path.  If only there was a way to donate directly to a charity via Paypal and have Paypal notify me that someone has donated on my behalf.  Am I making sense???  There's no way to do that now.  I think a lot of good can be done that way... it's almost like a micro-loan situation.  We're more likely to make donations through a friend's request than marathon drives and TV commercials.  Being able to raise funds as an individual gives it a personal touch, it's grassroots and I feel it can really pull a community together.  With that being said I'm not a professional fundraiser and I don't do this a lot. 

Paypal is a wonderful way to do business online.  The only other option is Google Checkout, but they're still relatively new.  I know their policy is just to protect the consumer against scammers and frauds. I think the market is big enough we need a few more alternatives to Paypal.  

If I ever do this again I'll probably sell E-cards (along with the chance to win a set of crayons :P).  It'll have to be a "sales" type exchange instead of "gift".  That just means Paypal takes 3%, but in the scheme of things 3% isn't bad.


bellen
Now back to Bellen's crayons!  This is Bellen, she's a photographer in Seattle.  She requested that I carve her with a camera.  I modeled her camera after the Canon 1D & 5D series. 

charles
Charles the father.  I tried to capture his wonderful mustache/goatee thing.  I also really like his shirt.

eben
Eben the son.  He's a soccer player!  I think I've had a lot of practice with soccer players by now :P

delphi
Delphi the daughter.  She has a cat that she loves.  This was my first time putting an animal into the mix.  It was a good challenge, I'll do doing more combos like this.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Textiel Plus

textielplus
I'm in the summer issue of Textile Plus.  Thank you Coco, Dorothé and everyone at Textiel Plus!

textielplus2
I'm so honored to be in the same issue as Nick Cave!  I recently saw his work at the Seattle Art Museum.  Sadly today was the last day to go see these amazing suits.  He's my new art crush.

Textiel Plus article
Click on the image to view large.  Sorry folks it's only in Dutch.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

GESCHA's Crayon Politics

The crayons
I'm so excited about how this project turned out!  I was approached by Matt Senga on behalf of Gescha to create the cover art for his new album "Crayon Politics".  This is Gescha's first solo album and I'm so honored they chose my work.
For more info about Gescha go here:
http://gescha.bandcamp.com/

Spell it out
We wanted to make something simple that would be eye-catching as well.  We went with his name spelled out sitting on chess pieces.  I'm a big fan of the rainbow!
G - sits on the king
E - sits on the pawn
S - sits on the rook
C - sits on the bishop
H - sits on the queen
A - sits on the knight

Crayon Politics/GESCHA CD album cover
CD album cover

Crayon Politics/GESCHA vinyl album cover
Vinyl album cover

Crayon Politics/GESCHA Insert/interior
Back/insert & interior
The black & white image is artist, Christian Faur's work.  He stacks crayons to make an image, each crayon acts like a pixel.

All mixed up!
I just wanted to give a great big THANKS to Matt and Geordie!  I hope you guys are as thrilled as I am about this.  Good luck with the new release!  We'll have to grab some beers if I'm ever in Saskatoon Saskatchewan ;)


Check out his lead single "Love Pirate"!

Friday, June 3, 2011

KSAT: Artistic Games & Biggles Flys Again

You & I
A few months ago Yasmine Tashk contacted me about KSAT, a Paris based zine focused on the idea of collaboration and artistic games.  In this latest issue artists are paired up with musicians.  Each artist chooses a song from a list of musicians and makes a piece inspired by that song.  It was a fun idea and when I heard "Farewell" by Biggles Flys Again I was immediately on board!  It's such a beautiful and melancholy song, I felt my work resonates perfectly with his music.  Biggles Flys Again is Dublin based musician Conor Deasy, he makes quiet bedroom folk pop.


flyerjaune
KSAT Issue n°4 - MUSICAL ISSUE :
What inspire the musicians while composing music ?
What do their music inspire to other visual artists?

Release Party/Exhibition & Concert:

Saturday, June 18 at 4:00pm - June 19 at 7:00pm
Gängeviertel
Valentinskamp
Hamburg, Germany
Musicians are:
Biggles Flys Again
Dent May
Matthias Kranebitter
The Debutante Hour
MmMmM
Young Michelin
Papir
Mungo Park
Woog Riots
Kid Bombardos
The New Spring
Boom Boom du Terre
Bradien
Da Brasilians
La Boutique Fantastique
Dead Gaze

Visual Artists:
Lizer Van Hattem
Diem Chau
Rasmus Westman
Matthias Reinhold
Sara Escamilla
Rémi Jacquinot
Mia Frykholm
Jelle Kos
Sarah Marguier
Mikey Heller
Sarah Roloff
Kazuma Eekman
Marilou Klapwijk
Léo Dorfner
Steingrim Veum
Clea Hance
Yasmine Tashk

Thursday, June 2, 2011

John & Jessica

The couple
A recent commission for John & Jessica who got married on May 27th!  Congrats guys, wishing you many happy years!

Side shot
Another shot from the side.  I really like how the flower in her hair turned out.  The white and grey combo was chosen by John.

The Groom
The groom's crayon.  He had wonderful long curly hair, but decided to cut it for the wedding.  I was looking forward to making a long haired groom.

The Bride
The bride's crayon.  This was a wedding gift for Jessica.  John had a hard time sneaking a shot of her in the  dress.  I hope she likes them!  The color turned out very well.  I had to ad lib on what the back of the dress looks like.  We decided to keep her glasses on, it gave her that lovely geek factor. ;)