Sunday, February 17, 2013

Tim Paul - Love Series complete

So, I really fell behind, and now I'm trying to catch up. We had a challenge of a three part autobiographical series leading up to Valentines day. I did my first one, but I really wasn't happy with the execution. So I redid it along with the other two.


I often joke that me and my husband meet the old fashioned way. At a bar on dollar drink night. We had both seen each other, and thought each other cute. But it was me that made the move. I had copies of a self published zine comic with me, that I was going to give to a friend who didn't show up. So I wrote my number on the back, and while he was inline to get a drink, I went up, and said:

"Hi, I just want to say, I think your cute, and me and my friends are heading out, but here are copies of a comic I write and draw. Read them if you like them, call me, my numbers on the back."

He stopped me from leaving, and asked me what my name was. I told him it was Tim, and asked him what his was. When he told me it was also Tim, I asked what his last name was.
Thankfully it wasn't the same as mine.

So I said, "Well, if anything, this is probably the weirdest pick up you've ever gotten."

"No" he said, "It's the best I've ever gotten."

"Well, on that good note, I'm going to go!"


Right from the start, our relationship was marked with a lot of similarities. Such as I was the only other person his friends had heard say "Got my Christmas Goose Early!" something Tim would say all the time, when someone would touch his butt. Or that we both liked Emmett Otters Jug band Christmas.

One morning, after Tim had spent the night, we went out for breakfast, and on the way home the temperature dropped an it started to rain, making us wet and chilled. When we got back to my place, we both collapsed on the bed. A few seconds later, at the same time, we both said. "hmmmmm cozy" like Homer Simpsons would. Then a few seconds later we both said, "Creepy". We have always said the same thing at the same time, often with the same inflection of tone.


We got married 9 years ago, in what we call our Mass Cult Wedding. Tim entered a contest the W Hotel in Chicago was having, where they wanted 5 couples, straight or gay, come down and get married on the spot. The catch being that one half of the couple wouldn't know, and the other would propose on the spot, if the other half said yes, get married right there! All 5 couples said yes, and we all went upstairs and got cleaned up, made over and dressed.

It was suspossed to be on Valentines Day, but the upper Hotel Management didn't want to give free rooms on what is one of their busiest days, so we had to do it on the 13th. Friday the 13th.

So we got married on Friday the 13th. 

If it's not a little off or weird or against tradition, it doesn't seem to be right for us. 

Scott Brundage- Valentine's Spoils

Stuck in a car for 8 hours, Friday, on my way to VT, had to draw on my ipad in the car.

Luckily, my lady had a good seven pounds of chocolates from her students. I appropriated them all for myself.

Jeffrey Alan Love - Tainted Love Two Times


I missed the deadline yesterday, so here's two for today.  I've noticed before that acrylic tends to stick to itself when I paint on facing pages of sketchbooks.  For the "tainted love" theme I thought it would be fun to paint a man and woman on facing pages, perhaps lovers, separated when the sketchbook is open, together when it is closed and we can't see them.  A secret love.  But when they are pulled apart the acrylic rips and pulls at itself, and wounds them.

Kristina Carroll - Tainted Love

Feeding the Beast - pencil
This is about the love of self-destruction. We all have had something in our life; whether a habit, a toxic relationship or a self-image, that is bad for us but we delicately nurture and feed because it gives us comfort on some level.

Pardon the lateness, I actually did do this yesterday but didn't get close to my scanner in time to post it before bed.

Scott Murphy - Tainted Love

Judith and Holofernes. 



I ran out of space on the bottom of the page for this one unfortunately. Good fun though.

Alice Stanne - Tainted Love

Love potions, make sure you don't pick the one that's tainted...


Saturday, February 16, 2013

Marc Scheff - Tainted Love

Cheat alert! This is an older sketch but one I still like. Zombie heartache.



Jeanine Henderson—Tainted Love

Not sure if this completely fits today's challenge topic, but thinking about it made this little forlorn character appear in my head...


Carly Janine Mazur - Tainted Love

Past its expiration date...

Ricardo Lopez Ortiz- Tainted Love

Hey guys, really sorry that I haven't been able to keep up lately. Having a 9-5, plus getting some Illustration work on the side doesn't leave me with as many hours on the day as I would like. But I'll catch up!

In the meantime here's some tainted love.

Tara Jacoby - First Love

Classic love story. 
Fall in love. Move in together. And it all goes to hell.


P.S. Sorry about the series being so late!

Narciso Espiritu - My Love 2: Adventure Time


The months immediately following Stephanie were times of rediscovering myself and adventuring into new territories. Although, these things aren't really that new. I guess it was an explosion of independence.

The way things started between Kasey and I were kind of in the shadows, since we had both just gotten out of relationships. You could say it was good for both of us, to get a release, but it just started out of fun. Like all things that start out of fun, it got serious. See, Kasey's ex-boyfriend, Raymond, and I were just starting to be friends... right before Kasey and I began seeing each other. (Awkward, and of course, big, heavy guilt.) Regardless, Kasey and I were spending so much time together that we created a bond. We ate at new places, explored new places, met new people-- she even got me into a workout routine (a routine I really have to get back into.) With bonding and all that time spent together comes feelings and ya...

Since I was just coming down from a seven-year relationship, I didn't want to lie to myself and say I was ready to fall in love again so soon. More importantly, I didn't want to lie to Kasey. She was and is too bright an individual to do that to, and I was done lying to people. In the end, I really valued her being there for me--really, being there for each other. That summer would have just been filled with ice cream and video games and I wouldn't be half the person I am today. (I would probably be twice the person after all that ice cream.)

(Ray and I are okay now, by the way. Or at least I like to think we are. [Sorry again, bro.])

Narciso Espiritu - My Love 1: Learning About Ourselves


Joining the Month of Love group, I knew that I would eventually be tackling some issues I've been dealing with for a couple years now. It was inevitable. Many people have encouraged and suggested dealing with my issues through some creative process, and Month of Love seems to be an appropriate vehicle. However, making this narrative was a lot harder than I thought. I found myself digging up wounds and tearing up some scars create visuals for "My Love," which explains my five-day delay.

My relationship with this woman, Stephanie, felt both long and short, wonderful and challenging-- like many are. Needless to say, Steph taught me a lot of things. I was stuck inside myself when I met her, and she helped bring me out. I was a messy person, and she helped clean me up. (I can still be pretty unorganized, but I'm trying my best.) She made me a better me.

I learned a lot of things about myself from our relationship, regardless of how we grew distant just as we reached our closest, regardless of our love became more and more great and complicated , and regardless of how we finally pushed each other away, I learned-- I like to think we learned-- more about each other, but more importantly, about ourselves.

I may be less experienced than most people my age when it comes to love, romance-- hell, even picking up a date, but through Steph, I became the person I am today, and found the person I want to be tomorrow.

Part Two: Adventure Time

Friday, February 15, 2013

Jeanine Henderson—It's Raining Love

Sorry for so many posts tonight! Just getting caught up- such a busy week so great to just have fun drawing tonight!

Jeanine Henderson—Unexpected Love, part 3



Within just a few months of dating, John & I traveled to Colorado, Maui, Vermont, the Poconos, Austin, and then to celebrate our first year took a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway from Portland to San Diego (1400 miles in 8 days in a very small convertible without killing each—that's gotta be true love!) The adventure's continued ever since—and it's the best journey I've ever been on, with lots more to come! (I know, I know...cheesy! but true! haha)

Jeanine Henderson—Unexpected Love, part 2


Trying to catch up on overdue posts! :)
After John & I left the bar the night we met, he walked me to the subway, and gave me our  first kiss on the corner of 6th Avenue & 14th Street. Then he said "we should do this again—you have my card, call me sometime." I asked if he wanted my number...he said no! Ha! Talk about mixed signals! Lucky for him, I texted him the next day to say hello, and he asked me out right away. We pretty quickly fell for each other after that, and so the journey began...

Marc Scheff - Bitterness INC

Two weeks later, Choe flew back to San Francisco where I was throwing an underground party called Bitterness INC. I built a ten foot glowing heart in three dimensions to hang in the center of the warehouse, and Chloe brought her dancing shoes. I remember sitting inside the heart fixing something when Chloe appeared in the opening, smiled, and gave me a big kiss. I don't know when we said I love you, but I remember that moment as the beginning of falling in love.

Other notes: One of the guys who organized the scavenger hunt co-organized this event with me and is now one of our son's godfathers.

Further note: Chloe is six inches taller than me. This image makes sense, actually.


Scott Murphy - Skull Love

As far as i'm concerned, there's never a bad time to draw skulls. I was messing around with some charcoal dust for this one. 



Kristina Carroll - Cat Tryst

watercolor
For some reason on my morning walks lately, I've been coming across pairs of cats interacting fairly regularly. And whenever I do, it always seems as if I am interrupting something intimate. They immediately stop what they're doing and stare at me until I leave, and I walk away feeling slightly ashamed.

Jeffrey Alan Love - The Sword from Toledo

When I was 6 my father went to Spain for work for a few weeks.  When he came back he gave me a sword.  It wasn't just any sword, however.  It was a sword from Toledo, which as any child of 6 who is obsessed with knights, swashbucklers, and pirates can tell you is famous for its steel and the  swords made from that steel.  It was like a tale of old - my father journeys to a distant land to bring back a sword for his firstborn son (my brother also got a sword, but that's beside the point).  The sword seemed huge, larger even than me.  As I've gotten older and grown the sword has shrunk to normal size, but the immense magic that it sparked within me, the limitless places it took my imagination, still remain. 

Carly Janine Mazur - Car Rides

5"x7" collage and acrylic on masonite, in a car

A month or two into getting to know each other and building a close friendship, John took me to go ice skating. We were supposed to meet up with two friends of his, but they overslept. After John and I skated around for an hour looking like idiots, he suggested lunch. We ended up at a vegan place, tucked away in a back parking lot a few towns over.

As I got out of the car, he sat down on the hood, and after a moment of looking out into space, he asked me out. It caught me by surprise, but the moment was perfect. To this day I still think our friends flaking out on us was all part of the plan for John to woo me. Regardless, we started dating two days later. The rest is history.

Since then the car has been a staple in our lives. We have gone on so many adventures, whether they started off with a destination or not--sometimes the trips just resulting in the two of us driving around for hours for the fun of it. All I can say is I hope the adventures never end :)

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Kristina Carroll - First Love Story: Part III


 Then one day, I waited for Chris to meet me after school and he didn't show up.  I was a little bit worried but convinced myself that he was just sick or something. However when I called his house later, he wasn't home and he didn't meet me the day after that either...

Later that week, I found out he had been walking Misty Powell home from School. He was no longer my boyfriend.

- The End -

Part I
Part II

Ricardo Lopez Ortiz- Love Triangle?


Hey guys! Sorry for going awol on everyone, I've been extremely busy this week and was unable to post anything the last couple of days. Here is one of the reasons. I have the piece above in a show at Bottleneck gallery here in Brooklyn. The show is called "Get a Room" and it is a tribute to the greatest "couples" of our time.

I decided to go with the amazing "Love Triangle" of Buster Bluth and the two Lucilles in his life. If you're in the area swing by the opening tomorrow. It's a great little gallery.

60 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11249


Get a Room Valentine's Day Preview Sale
 8PM-10PM Eastern

Click Here: Preview Sale

Upcoming Exhibit:

Get a Room

Friday, February 15th - Friday, March 8th

Opening Reception: Friday February 15th from 7pm to 10pm 

Online Sales Begin Saturday February 16th ~ 12 noon est.

Cheating: My 29 Year Love Affair




Today I should be posting my 3rd in a series of my love story "challenge" which I planned to do related to the current love of my life. However, as she well knows, I've never really given up my lover of 29 years. She's smooth, sleek, always available, and SO responsive to my touch. I fear I'll never give her up. This Valentines post goes out to my well worn, but dearly beloved Staedler Mars-780. <3 She gets some special dark chocolate almond bark today. 

Love story coming this weekend. (sorry all)

Marc Scheff - Long Distance Love

Chloe went back to Boston. She was a law student and I was the Creative Director at a t-shirt company in San Francisco. We both spent a lot of time on our computers. We said that the distance was to great to commit, but we sure committed a lot of time to instant messenger.





Alice Stanne - Love Inventories (Pt.2)

In this book we decided to cover the first time my boyfriend came to visit me at my parents house. This was a pretty big deal for us; his parents didn't approve of our relationship and he had to say he was going somewhere else. But we had the most wonderful weekend going around to all my favorite places. Seeing how excited he was by the places I loved I knew he was the guy for me. (Again he drew the covers just like the first time.)

The middle section reads:
I took you to all my favorite places at home, including the Bistro for breakfast, where you didn't bat an eye at my carb intake.

Scott Murphy - Love Quest Part 3

Having been together for nearly four years thus far, Lis and I have been going as strong as ever. I can only hope we continue to grow and learn and love and adventure for a long long time. Here's what our future looks like:



This was also the valentine I gave to her today...she loved it. It encompasses pretty much everything we enjoy (except illustration, but I guess it is an illustration..so that counts). I wanted it have a similar feel the album covers by our favorite band Manowar! Who's original covers were done by Ken Kelly, they're ridiculous and awesome. Also, that's our future dog when we don't live in New York and have space for it.


Happy Valentines!

Scott Brundage- Present Day

After college and some years more, I finally wore her down. It didn't hurt that my awkward stage finally ended at age 28. We had our first smooch on a dock near her folks' house.

Jeffrey Alan Love - Valentine's Day


Carly Janine Mazur - Coffee Talk

7"x5" collage and acrylic on masonite, shot on location!
While my brother was off in California, John, a coworker of my brother's, would take me on late night trips to our 24-hour diner. Up until that point I had only spent time with him in the company of my brother and his group of friends. I always felt like an add-on, and not truly integrated.

At the diner we would sit for extended periods of time until the wee hours of the morning drinking cup after cup of coffee, getting to know each other better and better. We talked about video games, books, movies, television, art, anything and everything. Slowly but surely, a mutual love was brewing...

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Scott Murphy - Love Quest Part 2

So Lis and I became official after dating for about a month or so. Ever since, we've been nonstop in our seeking out quests and adventures.


Over the years we've managed to travel to Canada, Spain, Turkey, England, Scotland, Norway, and countless places in the US. I couldn't ask for a better travel partner in the whole world. 

Kristina Carroll - First Love Story: Part II



Chris and I talked on the phone a few times.


 

He even came over once to play on my jungle-gym with me.


When he gave me a big, purple ring from a cracker-jack box, I knew it was serious. I mean, our names were sort of the same so it was clearly meant to be.

And for two whole weeks, he continued to walk me home. This was pretty much a record relationship in 6th grade and I was very proud.

( Part I here. )

Alice Stanne - Love Inventories (Pt.1)

I asked my boyfriend to help me with this project since he is the source of the inspiration. We made a little book cataloging all of the most important parts of our first "date." So I asked him to design a pattern for the cover of the book, while I did the insides.



The middle section reads:
You told me you had a joke, "There is a penguin on one shoulder..." and you wrapped your arm around me. "That's the end of the joke."

Kate Feirtag- Love at First Site, Part 2

On the other side of the screen.  Colin and his standing desk.

Jeanine Henderson—Unexpected Love, part 1



As a single gal in NYC, I dated all walks of life, entertained friends with my ridiculous stories, and even filled sketchbooks inspired by the hilarious losers I'd encountered. And after 7 years of online dating and set-ups, I met John one very random night at a bar. I'd spent that day dreaming about places I could move where dating might be easier, and he'd been on a bad match.com date just that afternoon! We were both just having dinner & drinks with friends—so not in the least expecting to meet someone we'd fall in love with that night. Maybe it was just all the beer...but who says love doesn't happen the old fashioned way anymore? ;)

Cynthia Sheppard - Eleven Blue Roses

My Love pt. 2

Brendan and I had known each other as friends, and later as band mates, for almost 7 years before we went on our first date. I took the train into NYC to meet up with him in December 2006. He bought me a bouquet of blue roses from a street vendor, but removed one rose and gave it to an old woman. She smiled. I smiled.

Scott Brundage- High School

In high school, Bonnie and I were good friends. I drew her many many pictures.... to be fair, I drew a lot of girls pictures, but Bonnie's were the best ones.

I still got shot down every time I asked her out.

(I never really drew a picture of her in a steel bra riding a unicorn, but that sort of thing would have made her laugh. That was usually the goal.)

Jeffrey Alan Love - Sleeping Muse


Kyle Smart - Meeting Amy

Amy was the first person I met when I went to university. We made a pretty bad first impression of each other. I had a thick northern accent and spoke way to fast for her to understand, and she was hungover. We lived in the same halls of residence together. Its weird how things turn out. 






Scott Murphy - Love Quest Part 1

Back in 2010, after much difficulty trying to meet females of a like-mind in New York City, I decided to ask a few pals about my options for meeting a quality mate. A good buddy said, "Well there's this online site, it's decent." I thought to myself, "Online dating! That sounds extremely desperate and ridiculous!" But being too much of a wuss-face to actually talk to anyone in real-life anyway, I decided to give it a shot. It was free anyway. The site was called OkCupid. So I signed up for an account and made a profile just for the hell of it. It wasn't so bad, and I could actually search for people who shared the same interests as myself. After going on a few dates with people from there, I narrowed my search down to only those which most closely matched my own interests. Eventually I sent a message to Lis who was the most interesting of all the people I was closely matched with. After some emailing, we decided to meet in person. I was excited and terrified.

I decided that we could meet for dinner and followed that up with some tickets to the Upright Citizens Brigade. For some reason we met at 3, even though the show wasn't until 7. We met in the city (meeting a person you've only seen pictures of a few times before can be quite scary), but my fears were cast off as she was as beautiful as ever, and we went off and got dinner at a nearby diner. Actually, as a side-note, we had our first dinner next to Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye, I hadn't seen the show, but she knew him and I recognized him) and discussed how crazy that was. In any case, we finished with dinner within about an hour and thus realized we had at least 2 hours before our comedy show would begin. Not knowing what to do, we walked over to Madison Square Park and sat down on a bench. It was as awkward as it always is when talking with someone whom you've never met at length, but I found that we had so many things in common it became fairly easy to talk forever. We chatted about art, tattoos, traveling the world, our love for skulls and the grim, and lastly our love for heavy metal. The remainder of the date went well, and we would continue to see each other thereafter.....