First real post of the blog.

I’m trying to leave modern social media behind where I can. It doesn’t serve my purposes and I miss the microcosm of the art itself. I’ll still post things of course as I finish them, but I think the blog format is better suited to writing out what I’m thinking, problem solving, impact, what I’m trying to communicate, and sharing what’s in my sketchbook.

Art is made by & occasionally broken by context (See Duchamp’s “Fountain” for the most obvious example) and the nature of social media obliterates context. My contexts might be small or only within my imagination, but there’s more to drawing something than “cool creature standing looking cool”. Maybe I’ll be able to break out of that more often in a space I have room to think in.

This fellow is a demigod character who’s had the same rough design of a black body, naked tail, a skull face, big claws, and horns for years. The ratios just change every now and again. He’s a demigod of old growth forest; his realms lie in death, deconstruction, raw elements, and early succession.

I don’t really find most monsters monstrous. I love the curves and contours of skulls. I like things that look like they’re very old and very worn. Death and decomposition are fascinating processes. I adore animal predators of all kinds. I like hunting around for animal remains because there will be something to watch, inspect, or maybe even take home. I love things for what they are not what they do for me. I’m not a fan of human-centric symbolism. I’m a die hard fan of basing that symbolism in biology and ecology.