Flower…

I painted this last week. It’s attached to a story I started and am still not quite sure how to end. This is the image I had though.

As Summer Fades

This past weekend I was an artist at a two day art festival in Detroit and enjoyed the wonderful Fall weather. Ah, Fall, you read that right. Here in Michigan our seasons cannot mind their manners and they trip into each other’s months. It’s rather annoying, I have to say. So here are some pictures from The People’s Art Festival and from Flint that I took this evening. Enjoy.

Er, uh, HI!

if by chance you stopped by my tent at The People’s Art Festival this past weekend and now find yourself trying to figure out who the hell I am, well, hi, my name’s Chris. thanks for stopping by.

for more info on me, head to the right side of the site and you can read all about me.

poke around here, there is plenty to see.

thanks

chris

Needing the Judgment of Others

So, I have this new book out, right, you know, it’s a quaint little tome I call This Beautifuo Darkness maybe you have seen me talking about it.

A million times.

Well, see, with a new book out and all it begs to be read, to be owned, to be loved, and to be reviewed. Ah, but how? I am struggling with that very thing right now. I am loathe to purchase copies of the book to send them off in the blind hope that it will be reviewed. Then there is the whole -hoping for good reviews. I believe in the work so it will be seen as it will be seen, but how the hell do you get it seen.

Gah!

What sucks is that I am the WORST person to try pimp my work because I never do it justice. And I have a built in govern0r that won’t allow me to plug, plug, plug the book.

I need reviews though, for sure. Just like I need sales.

Hmm, think, think, think…

c

Back to the Bricks 2009

For those outside of the Mid-Michigan area something called Back To The Bricks means very little to you but for me, and for those of us who live in the Flint area, it’s a pretty big deal. Back To The Bricks is Flint’s annual car cruise and show which brings hundreds of cars and thousands of people for a several day crusie and then a two day ‘park and admire’ sort of affair right in the downtown district. This is an event that is just in its fifth year but which has grown tremendously with each successive event and which has really become a show piece for the revival of the city. For me, the event is a boon and annoyance – anything that helps with the revival and the positive image of the city is a good thing to me, but I also live downtown and have to sorta sit tight for a couple days while they do everything. All things being equal, I love that this is an event to show off Flint and to show that Flint is far from dead and, while it has a lot of work to do, there is potential here. There is hope.

I took these pics during the week of the event and feel it shows some of what was onhand.

Flint!

This is a terribly silly picture I drew and then colored in Photo Shop. I work at a screen printing shop and had this, or a version of this as an idea for a t-shirt. It’s simple and hopeful and silly and I sorta love it.

Three for the Back Room

More fun with Photo Shop. I like all three of these guys, each has a personality and they seem like they are a Be-Daazzler away from a party.

Ya think?

Too Cute To Shoot

Here are some new pieces. Two I drew then colored in Photo Shop, the other is a new painting. All are silly. All I had fun with. Not much to say story-wise, other than the fella in the painting is a cousin to a guy in another painting I did.

Enjoy.

But, I Don’t Understand…

So, let me tell you something, nothing, as a reader, is more frustrating than not knowing everything. I get it a lot as a movie goer as well. I wanna know everything, I wanna see everything, and dammit, I don’t want a cliffhanger.

But then there is the writer side of me, who doesn’t explain everything, won’t explain everything, and thinks that part of the story IS that there are blanks left to be filled in or left open.

And in the middle there is a great, big gap.

I just watched a movie which had a mysterious masked killer and not once do you get the answer as to why he does what he does and who he is. And it is a big aggravating because you wanna know. You want all the cards so you have a better feel for what exactly you just saw. From an early age we are told everything in our stories, the who, why, what, and how. It’s a way to teach us, and it’s very effective. As we age we already have those habits so when we are given stories – in history, daily life, or through the arts – that have no clear resolution we reject them. Dammit, we want the ending. We want to know why. We want to know how. And we have our reason to know these things, if just because we want to know them. I mean, curiousity is the greatest gift and worst curse of the human animal. It pushes us to the stars but also drags us into the gutter. But why on earth would you not want the answers?

Sometimes though, the answers are not there. Oh, sure, if the creator thought a lot about things they could come up with something but you have to reach. It’s weird to say this, I know, but the thing is that in the course of, for me, writing, some questions don’t present answers. They don’t present them because you don’t need them. If the story flows without telling why this happens or how it happens then why bloat the work with information just to do it? I have a story in the new book that specifically leaves out the details regarding something and I meant to do that. Sure, I can make something up that fits but, well, it’s more fun to have people guessing. The guessing involves the reader more and lets them take part in the story telling. And it leaves that little bit open to interpretation.

The imagination is perhas the least used part of our mind these days. So much is handed to us, explained to us, and just obvious that we forget what it is to imagine what other possibilities are out there. And it’s sad because so much of our childhood revolves around our imagination, so much of our growth and maturing and intelligence stems from it, yet it withers on the vine when we reach adulthood. How sad.

Sure, I want to know everything, I am human and therefore greedy for knowledge but sometimes, sometimes the beauty of a thing lay in the fact that we cannot fully understand it, and for that, I am pretty thankful.

c

Be Bold, As They Say…

We really need to meet these ‘they – wise folks, those cats.

It is not a popular idea but dammit, who cares. Be bold.

If you write, if you draw, if you make music, whatever you do, get it out there. Release it to the world.

Blog it.

Post it.

Print it.

Press it.

Release it.

Now, you will never been seen as a ‘professional’ this way but we should all be so lucky as to have our passions make us money. But, that being said, you CAN make money with passion, and better, you make more passion with it. By releasing your works into the wild y0u are investing in the greatest bank there is, and that is you. You encourage yourself to keep writing, to keep creating, to keep doing. You encourage yourself to keep working at what you love. I am tired of reading about hobby writers, or hobby artists, or hobby musicians.

To hell with it.

Yes, there is a difference between U2 and a U2 cover band as their is a difference between Stephen King and someone writing like him. But passion makes us all equal. Take your art seriously and you take yourself seriously. Never underestimate what you do.

Sure, not everything you do is going to be great, and people will not like all of it, but keep putting it out there. What is there to lose? You need to make your standards, not someone else. Be aware of what you do, and open to critique, but don’t let people tell you what you should and should not do with your art.

Not every artist will find fame, fortune, or their ideal audience, but we all have a right to fuel our passion and to share it, things we too easily forget.

So, what are you waiting for? Go do something.

c