The lake is guarded by the watchful birch tree.

Text Pieces

Printmakers Today

I am delighted to tell you that six of my linocuts have been included in Printmakers Today, a beautiful, 256 page, full color book presenting the original prints of 63 contemporary artists. Each artist is represented by six images and an artist's statement. The reproductions average about 4" x 6", with some like my Justice linocut reproduced at 6" x 9".



All of the artists represented in the book are artist-printmakers. In other words, these aren't artists who work primarily in another medium and have been invited to make prints by a professional shop - these are all folks who have ink in their blood. It's great to see a collection of top-notch original prints by true printmakers lovingly reproduced in full color in such a handsome hardcover book.

Printmakers Today is published by Schiffer Publishing. It was expertly compiled and edited by Jeffrey B. Snyder. Amazon has listed a release date of June 1. It's a real winner, you should add it to your library.

Animal Head

See more of this artist's work at Rachel Draws A Lot

Dear Mister President

Dear Mister President was a FIMP Book of the Month from 2006.

Rachel Draws Dinosaurs

This is a two-page spread from a book about dinosaurs that Rachel is drawing. This book flickers in and out of existence as pages drawn on her Magna Doodle. You can see one of the dinosaurs walking from one page to another. She often draws multiple pages of a story this way, drawing a couple of pages, erasing them, drawing the next ones. . . You have to be present to witness the story. But one thing I've definitely learned about kids is that you definitely have to be present.

I've started to collect Rachel's daily drawings at Rachel Draws A Lot.

The Red Menace

An animation from images that Steven LaRose and I were batting around back in 2008.

"ME, An Autobiography" by Darrell Kinsel

The Fiji Island Mermaid Press is delighted that Darrell Kinsel has added his "ME, An Autobiography" to the FIMP "ME" book library.

This is an ongoing project in which FIMP provides the format and the questions, and you provide all of the answers! Darrell's book is the 26th in the gallery - is your book next?

If you're interested in participating, you can get the details and a downloadable blank book here.

I'm wearing just the right number of hats

Two pages from FIMP's "Body Language: A Dictionary of Nonverbal Human Communication"

Best Parts List Ever

We bought a string of lights to hang on our picnic table umbrella. It came with a surprisingly thick set of instructions, including this parts list:



It was a relief to spread it out on the floor and compare it to the drawing to see that we did, indeed, have a string of lights.

FIMPTRAVEL presents Great Dog Walks in Hamden Connecticut!

If you're in the area, you should try this dog walk. Let FIMP know if it's still great.

How To Be A Magician, In 3 Easy Steps

Life's Questions Answered

6 pages from "Life's Questions Answered by the good citizens of Hamden Connecticut, as found in the Hamden Journal Photo Forum".



The local paper would do a "man on the street" style feature every week, with photos and quotes from passers-by answering that week's question. I gathered these up, and presented the answers as published, with only one small tweak. I changed the questions.

New blog links for your reading and viewing pleasure

I added a few links to a few blogs that you should take a few minutes to check out:

More Regrettable Incidents in a Life Filled with Bitter Remorse, which you will find in the Blogs of Interest sidebar under "David Fullarton", because I couldn't be bothered to type "More Regrettable Incidents in a Life Filled with Bitter Remorse." David Fullarton makes pictures with words on them.

Simon Goode A talented book artist. Besides following his blog, you should check out his website, especially his wonderful book Agglutination.

Bike Snob NYC Some really great writing about things bicycle in New York City.

Slice Harvester Some really great writing about things pizza in New York City.

AL'S

Out driving around last weekend I saw a very large sign by the road that looked pretty much like this:



By large we're talking billboard size. I loved it for a couple of reasons. It gave you no clue about the business (store? restaurant?) except that it was owned by Al, and it got the apostrophe right. It was very legible. A good sign that said almost nothing.

So I started thinking about signs I'd seen that weren't as good as AL'S. I decided that if I were to be forced to open one of those fake stores in a place like Williamsburg or Epcot Center, I would name it:



Then I challenged myself to come up with a business name that would be so repellant that I would refuse to shop there. Not repellant due to political concerns, or the nature of the business, but from being the polar opposite of AL's sign. So here it is:



It gets the apostrophes wrong. The backwards "N" is in quotes, just like the annoying backwards "R" in Toys "R" Us. It doesn't tell you what you can buy there, but you know the place has a very sickly sweet smell that makes you wonder how the sales staff tolerate it for any length of time. It uses multiple fonts, and is hard to read. It has cute fake olde spelling.

Though, I have to admit, one of my favorite store names was one of the models for this. If you drive through Blawnox PA you will find "Pianos N' Stuff". I've always loved that name. I've never been in the store, but I'm always intrigued by the vagueness of the "stuff" combined with the much more specific "pianos". If it were my store, there would be mostly pianos, with a few mops, lightbulbs, and bags of dog food scattered about, and maybe one of those rotating hot dog grills or a cotton candy machine. Y'know, stuff.

American Dreaming

The cover and a two page spread from "American Dreaming", one of the artist's books that FIMP has mailed out over the past 10 years.

Makes A Lousy Gift!

The first two pages from "Makes A Lousy Gift! 6 Things You Shoudn't Give That Special Someone: A Catalog of Poor Choices for Discerning Persons".

Spring is in the air. . .

What with the snow melting and green things starting to appear around the yard, I thought I would post this energetically misregistered image from an old postcard, to help encourage Spring to keep springing.

Uncle FIMP reads "Once Upon A Time", the true story of Martha the Passenger Pigeon

Here's Uncle FIMP presenting the tiny book "Once Upon A Time" in its entirety.

Draw every person, eat every pizza.

The guy who is trying to draw every person in New York City made this drawing of the guy who is trying to eat a slice of pizza from every pizzeria in New York City.

Two great projects. Two great blogs.

Casting Call

When creating an angry piece of political satire, an artist or writer needs to pick just the right animal to portray a crazed power hungry military dictator. FIMP's book "Casting Call" presents 6 animals that didn't make it past their first audition for the part.

Still Waiting, Episode 2

Here's the sequel to "A Different Place, A Different Time, But Still Waiting", in which Estragon once again attempts to lighten things up with a joke:



Here's the first "episode", in the event that you want to watch them in order. A little film festival, no doubt.

Lousy Names for Boys

Have a new baby around the house? Here are two names for the little darling to cross off your list. Musky and Gristle are two of the excellent suggestions to be found in FIMP's "Six Lousy Names for Boys".

Right Answers Wrong Questions

Here are the first two pages from "Right Answers Wrong Questions". This is the only FIMP book where I made separate linocuts for each page. Linocuts reproduce wonderfully on the xerox machine! A couple of these tiny prints packed quite a punch. I made a separate edition of the Suppress Dissent linocut, adding a background plate and playing with the color. A pretty satisfying book.

The Quantum Theory of Monkey Superposition

This is the first two pages from FIMP's book "Understanding Quantum Mechanics".

Did you know that the typical "wave" travels in a clockwise direction at about 20 seats per second? Or that the quantum theory of monkey superposition can be used to elect a president? Amazing stuff!

This book got me in a little trouble at an open studio session. I had a bunch of little books out for the browsing public. One of my younger readers, maybe ten or so, studied this book and noted the "Hello Kitty" that I had used for Schrodinger's cat. She looked up and said, "That's not very nice." I was properly ashamed of myself.