Horizontal Skydiving…Nobody Walks to LA part 2

I know what you’re going to ask, “Under the correct circumstances, can an unattended glass of fruit punch become self aware?” And I’m going to ignore that question and just continue on with my originally intended post, that being the update of my trip to Los Angeles and back, on my bike, for the Sketch Theatre Book Release and Gallery Opening…..I mean….seriously, what the hell kind of a question is that?!

My ride, packed and ready for the road. (Notice its beautiful, shinny bug-free-ness)

Milque Toast, my travel buddy, is getting antsy to go. We are a few hours late on leaving thanks to a kitchen disaster, involving a garbage disposal exploding. (Notice his beautiful, shinny bug-free-ness)

The first day was the hardest and longest of the trip, and contained all of the total jaunt’s mishaps, including: having a semi truck’s tire tread flung at me from the car in front while going near 90 miles per hour. Luckily, the tire hit low enough to get whisked under my bike, but in doing so managed to whip my right leg off the bike and open a gash in the knee. I managed to keep the bike up, regaining control after getting speed wobbles at high speed. A few neighboring autos pulled over as I did to make sure I was alright. I called it a day after this and stayed in the first hotel I could find, where I mended my knee with super glue (not kidding! Amazing on deep cuts!). There I discovered that I had the funniest looking sunburn caused by not putting sunscreen on my hands during the morning ride through Colorado….and after a Good Nights Passed Out Face Down on the Bed, I went outside to find that the tire that went under my bike had hit the roll bar on the right hand side with such force as to bend it back into the engine (as seen above). I decided to take it a bit easier on day two. (which I have no pics to document…we now jump a day to my one and only day in Hollywood)

Milque Toast and I sharing a bottomless mug of coffee from what is becoming my favorite spot to stop in L.A., Café Muse….if having only gone to a place twice now can be considered enough of an attendance to warrant a favorite place recommendation…which I believe is a Yes.


Milque Toast patiently waits for me to take this picture before we visit the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. We missed seeing the artwork from the Anniversary show, but got to see original Coop paintings, so who could complain?

And finally we arrived at the Gnomon Studios. Milque Toast poses with the incredible Lily Feliciano, the Executive Producer of Sketch Theatre, the one who originally invited me to become involved, and just all around amazing person. The breasts in the background are unidentified and completely unintentional…really…seriously…

The innards of the Gnomon Workshop’s Gallery…with many (if not most) of the sketches that are contained within the Book’s pages. All were up for bid in a silent auction. I was bidding on a Travis Louie sketch (not the one that hung above my own sketch….but seriously, how cool is that?!), and the last time I looked before the bidding was overwith, I was still the high bidder. Enough time has now passed that I have to concede that someone else got a bid in at the last second…and I now hate whoever that is with every fiber of my being (kidding…congrats to the winner)

Milque Toast in front of our new favorite drink, Absinthe. We tipped this drink tender well, for even though he was stocked with whiskeys and vodkas and other such sot after beverages, he did spend the majority of the evening making absinthe drinks for everybody.

Milque Toast with Dave “the Chung” Chung. I met Dave and his wife, Desiree, early on in the evening and hit it off with them immediately. Dave has an awesome style, and an incredible ability to quickly freehand his vision in pen on the page….his sketches are better than my finished drawings.
As an example of what I’m talking about, GO HERE to see one of my favorite sketches he did under the Sketch Theatre lamps.

And here is the BOOK that this trip was all about. I had no doubt that the volume would be impressive, but I was still impressed by every detail taken to produce such a book! The design, the printing and binding…everything about the book is amazing!
It was published by Baby Tattoo, who are also responsible for a few other art books in my collection that I cherish. I think it’s safe to say that they are a company that I’m starting to more than admire greatly.
The book has already been reviewed HERE, by the cool folks at Nerd Reactor.

Here Milque Toast poses in front of the expansive Salt Flats in Utah. Sadly, this is one of the only scenery pics I took during the entire trip. One of the problems with having planned out such a long journey within such a short period of time was the inability to stop and enjoy areas like this further….and there was a lot of beauty to take in.

Just look at this badass bike….got to and from Los Angeles, over 2000 miles, without incident or complaint. (Notice the beautiful dull bug-coated luster)

Nobody Walks to L.A.

I’m a little late on doing this post, that is, I really should have written about this over a week ago. That being said, I’ll just get into the meat of it.

For those of you who know me, or have been following me in any of my various forms of social media outlets (blog, Facebook, screaming out of my studio window into a megaphone made from luncheon meats stitched together), you might recall a drawing I was fortunate enough to do for an ongoing online project known as Sketch Theatre.
A quick recap for those who are giving me that blank stare that I’m all too familiar with: I did a drawing for Sketch Theatre. That’s about the quickest recap I can do.
A little more in depth: Sketch Theatre best describes what they’re about in the Mission Statement, but the process is this: they film artists from various fields drawing and use the footage to make a short film of the process.
Its fairly genius actually, and completely surprising to me that it hadn’t been done before, at least, not to the success that Sketch Theatre is doing it.

Like I said, a little over a year ago I was extremely lucky to become a part of this, and had traveled to L.A. to have my own drawing filmed.

The reason I’m bringing all of this up is because of the fact that I’ll be travelling back to L.A. in just a weeks time to join the Sketch Theatre Crew and many of the artists who have participated for the release of the first Sketch Theatre Book:

Needless to say, I’m excited to be a part of this, and there is no words to describe how amazing it is to be listed among such other artists that I’ve admired.
So, if you are reading this and have the ability to attend at all, please do! It’s looking to be a great event.

I’ll post more info on where and how to get a copy of the book when I learn it at a later date, for those of you who can’t attend.

Hope to see you there!

Insert Silly Title Here:________________

CRUMBLY NEVERTHELESS RELEASE

AVAILABLE HERE

Taking a year longer than I had anticipated, not only am I happy to say that this book is finally available, I’m downright relieved! This assembles the entire collection of crumbly nevertheless drawings done over a few year period.

Several people have expressed interest in acquiring a signed copy of the book upon it’s release. I have seriously considered the best way to have this happen, and unfortunately, an actual signed copy just isn’t feasible. The books themselves do not come through me, but straight from where they are printed. In order to get a signed copy, the book would have to be sent to myself first, taking twice as long for you to get your copy, and costing twice as much in shipping, yada yada yada.
So, the best solution that I could come up with is this:
I have a number of printed title pages from the book. If you are interested in a signed copy, send me a copy of your receipt (it doesn’t contain any financial info, just proof of sale and a shipping address) and I’ll send to you a personally signed title page with an original sketch or drawing or doodle.

If you are still interested in an official signed copy, message me and I’m sure we can work something out.

Thanks to everyone for the support on this project and the patience to see it come to light. I hope that the book is enjoyed as much as I enjoyed drawing everything within it!

What started out as doodles, for artist and writer S. Fisher Williams, evolved into a few years worth of drawings exploring techniques of an unconventional drawing tool for fine art, the ballpoint pen; as well as an exploration into an imaginary world of dark humor, the tragically cute an untold fables.

A Case for End Credit Theme Songs…

Now, I want you all to bear in mind that as I write these words, my stomach is trying to kill me. I’m not saying that my stomach is a little upset and is sitting in defiance with it’s arms crossed at the bottom of my torso, no…I’m saying that at some point it acquired a gun and a saber and a pirate’s voice and we are in the process of dueling until one or both of us are mortally wounded, and then the end credits start rolling to a crap song written by the director’s nephew.
This really has nothing to do with the original intent of this post, it’s just that I sometimes have trouble thinking of intros along side the fact that I’ve always felt my readers lack a basic exposure to Pirate Stomach Battle Films necessary to fully enjoy the intro I just wrote……why are you looking at me like that?

In any case, going back to the original intent of this update, which was to give you all a quick update on some goings on, the first being the state of my website. Some of you might have already seen, the website is currently in a sort of limbo state.

The reason for this is because I have switched between web hosts (which some of you know can take a little bit of time for the name servers to propagate and files to then be moved); But I’ve also decided that the site needs a complete overhauling. So, I hope to acquaint you all soon with a new updated version that is a bit more streamlined and makes a bit more sense.

And just a quick mention of a few things I ‘ve already told you, but you might have forgotten when faced with the horror that is Pirate Stomach Battle Films:

● My CafePress Store has been made a “pro account”, meaning that there will be more things offered on a regular basis…

● There have been more prints added to my ImageKind Store, and again, more to come, hopefully on a regular basis as well…

● “Ϣ” is a really cool looking character that I wish I had more of a reason to use…

…..and lastly, I have officially killed off the Crumbly Nevertheless Blog, doing so for a few reasons: First, there hasn’t been any reason for me to keep up with new updates seeing as I ended the drawing series over a year ago; Second, the impending FINAL version of the Crumbly Nevertheless Book is at press, and while I’m aware I’ve threatened this before and might be jinxing the whole project by even merely mentioning it here while I await the proof copy that is to be mailed to me, I’m still finding myself optimistic enough to announce that it WILL be soon available (god willing) and better represents the series than the blog.

Plus, I didn’t completely kill off the blog without leaving a trace. All of the posts were incorporated into this here blog, before the final blow was dealt and the shallow grave was filled.

Of course, there will be more on the book as soon as the proof copy arrives and (again, god willing) is approved.

Am I forgetting any updates that you should know? Probably. But if so, I blame the blood loss as a result of the Pirate Stomach Battle from earlier. Seems I’m losing the fight. It also seems that I sometimes have problems with conclusions to these posts……and then the End Credits roll.

A Tragedy in the Form of Promised Things…

I have threatened to do a lot of things over the past few years: finish various projects I started, in some cases, years before; Find a cure for sleep; Create artificial life from a variety of luncheon meats sewn together and then train it to ride the bus and make people very uncomfortable.
While many of these things I’ve threatened might never see the light of day, for reasons ranging from being impractical, not having the time or being illegal in most or all States, I am happy to report to you dear readers that I have finally made good on one of these long-time threats, that is, actually making a Pro account of my Café Press Store in order to offer more than one of any given thing. And while this might not be as exciting news as, say, reading about a man made of luncheon meats being torn asunder in the city streets by countless birds while a bus of horrified onlookers slowly start to feel a wave of relief, it…..well, it……let’s just move on.
So, in christening the new store (or the promise of the new store, as there is still a lot of formatting and additions to be made as I write this) I have added a few new items, as can be seen below.









 
The coffee mug pictured above is entitled “Winter Scene” and was especially draw for drinking out of….whatever that means. No, actually, it means that this image will only come in mug form….at least for now.
I am in the process of designing many more mugs, and can pretty much predict that down the road, coffee mugs will dominate this store as they are quick and easy items that are made to hold one of my favorite things on this planet.

While I can’t say this bumper sticker is very artistic, I will say that it goes with my philosophy of nonsense…I can also say that there will be many more, just for the fun of it all.
Like I said, right now the store is rough and in it’s settling stages. There are just random items on the storefront that I’ll need to put in sections or do away with altogether. I’m also hoping to add at least one product per week, give or take…and some most likely will be sillier than others.
So check the store often, at least to see some artwork that I’ll not post anywhere else. And of course I’ll be posting updates of such things here.