Wow- another three years later and I have come back again!  

So a lot has happened again since my last post!  Wouldn't it be boring (or nice depending on the person) if nothing had changed in three years!  

And since I don't feel like writing very long blog right at this moment, I will just share that I would like to start up this blog again as a way of putting down some thoughts for my next show, coming up in 2017.  

And not just any show, but one that once upon a time had been one of my be all/end all goals.  Something that I had hoped would happen a long time ago, then almost did, then didn't.  Some time passed and then when I am least expecting it to happen, here I am writing this.  And it's still a big deal to me, so the pressure is on!!  

So the details I will share later on, but I will be creating almost all new work for this.  Something that I have not had the chance to do since I was in graduate school.  

I've let the many ideas I've had swirl around in my mess of a brain for a while and now have decided after some suggestions, to just start.  Which is the advice that I give all my students in my studio classes, so I'm not sure why I was even waiting.  

So friendos; I hope to make this a regular thing.  I'll need to set up some sort of reminder I think (technology has done wonders for this artist!).

Rock on Wichita!  

Nearly 3 years later....

What kind of a blogger am I anyway!!!???  Three years later I'm writing a post..... does anyone even read these things anymore? 

Since it has been three years since my last post, I will give you a quick update on the last three years....

2010- Two exhibits of my work at a local gallery, moved into our a house of our very own, mutually agreed to part ways with said local gallery. 

2011- Busy busy!  Coordinated the arts portion of a summer program for North Dakota youth, taught a summer, spring, and three fall college courses.  Found out wife and I were expecting!

2012- Super busy spring- taught 5 college classes, Baby Boy Ethan March 4th!!, applied and interviewed for two FT art positions (rejected), made 8 new prints in the summer!  One fall college class.

2013 (so far)  4 (FOUR) college classes... Missing printing, but have a few projects lined up.

Besides all this I had a touring show travel ND and MT and quite a few smaller shows in the last three years.  Also have started painting and making a few ceramic pieces.  Life is fairly good- can't complain much!

More soon.

e.

Ch-Ch-ch-Cha- Changes!

I really think I should start writing a blog more often! It's been 8 or 9 months since my last entry! Since then... lots of things have happened... My wife and I bought a house for one! Art-wise 2010 was crazy busy. I had a ton of art to frame for a touring show AND make enough new work for an exhibit of newer work. On top of that I have been teaching more and was finally able to move to a part-time position at my FT job I've had for 16 years! So mostly good things were happening. .. After doing all that work I decided to take a little hiatus from printmaking and started doing some painting and experimenting with other mediums. Have spent way more time at home which has been really nice.

Earlier this year my main gallery that I have been showing my work in decided to part ways with me, which I see as a good thing and have been thinking about doing the same thing for a while.

A couple really cool things have happened recently too. In May I will be in Professional Artist magazine! I think it is going to be a one page article, but I'm really excited about that!

So many printmaking adventures- so few blogs!

So it's been like a year and a half since I've posted anything on here! Sorry about that, but I think now would be a good time to start posting more regularly. I have two big shows coming up this fall and will probably be spending quite a lot of time here printing. Currently I'm working on two prints- one of which is the largest I've ever attempted. The last one that I tried close to this big almost totally failed- but I was able to salvage three out of 15. I'm really hoping this one goes better but I'm starting to run into the same problems as with the last one.

"NEW!" and Another Storm

I was invited to exhibit in a group exhibition at Third Street Gallery in Grand Forks, ND last week. The them is "NEW", and I think I'm going to show my "newest" (kind of) print, (it's from a monotype workshop I took last June) and try to make a new print as well before the deadline which is January 6th, so it's coming up very quickly. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for the second print yet, in the past with short deadlines I've done screen-prints. They can be done quite quickly. I need to decide quickly though! I will post some pictures later on when I decide what to do.

Oh, and we have yet another storm here in North Dakota, it's not nearly as bad ass as last weekends and probably not considered a blizzard. So we are off to a wonderful start to the winter here!

BLIZZARD!

Saturday we had our first blizzard here in North Dakota this winter. That same day we had a print sale at the studio where I make all of my prints. The combination didn't seem to work too well, even though the weather was fine up until 7pm when the sale ended. They started forecasting the storm late in the week and by Friday the grocery stores were filled with people stocking up on food, by some accounts mostly bread and milk.

My finace and I were going to stay in Fargo with some friends but were worried about our dog and cats so we decided to try to make it home. I was a bit hesitant about this at first but was pretty confident we could make it. We live on a farm about 35 miles west of Fargo, and the drive took us about an hour compared to the normal 30 minutes or so. Several times we ran into "white-out" conditions, for those of you who don't know what that is it's when all you can see in front of your car is the hood and if your lucky the line on the side or middle of the road. It's not fun, especially when there are semis and other vehicles on the road with you. Apparently that's the most common accident in a blizzard, being rear-ended. Fortunately that didn't happen and when we were feeling pretty good until we pulled in our driveway and found a 2-3 foot high x 4 foot long drift. We had two choice get out and walk from there or back up and try to ram through it. We chose the latter, which was quite fun! We made it through and were stuck here until this morning when a neighbor came with a tractor-snow blower and cleared out our yard.

It was actually pretty nice being stuck here for a few days. I made several trips outside to take photos during and after the storm and feel kind of refreshed. There isn't much to do when your stuck, so we got lots of rest and relaxation. It was kind of nice.

Can't Sleep

Well it's about 3am and I can't sleep tonight for some reason.

Last week was pretty great I had two sales at different galleries and an invitation to exhibit 25-35 prints. I started working on what I was going to show and haven't quite decided, but I need to soon because the show is in February. My main gallery in Fargo has also moved and expanded into a bigger space, it's very nice and I'm excited to continue working with them. Their website is www.ecce216.com
I've been working on a series of trees for the last three years. Trying to make each one different and unique. The idea was to do a series called "30 Trees" and I've been numbering them "Tree #1" on so on. So far I have 26 done and working on the 27th. I should be done by the end of the year I think.
The cityscapes I started working on in graduate school in 1999 and I think I got tired of them in 2003... ran out of ideas and motivation to do them. I've just gone back to them in the last year or so and feel like I will probably make at least 4-5 more. I have the sketches done anyway. Who knows it might be a long time before I get them done.
Right now I'm out of paper pretty much so I'm going to have to figure out a way to buy some paper soon. Last time I used a credit card... not good. I think this time I'll be able to use some of the money from selling prints to buy some paper... good.