The Open Window Lets The Rain In

so, over the last two days i have probably gotten more emails than i have gotten in the last 6 months combined. i am still in process of responding to all of them, and am about 90% through the pile. a lot of the emails are for commissions that i am really excited about.

so my plan now? finish a commission a day, while still doing my client work. so far (as in today) it has worked fine, but i assume i am going to collapse from exhaustion, or my hand is going to be permanently deformed by the end of this.

one of the reasons i have requested that most of the commissions be in black and white, is my desire to brush up on my inking skills. i feel that over the last few years my ability to use a brush has declined greatly, and i am hoping that practicing every day with these commissions will help me out a lot. a handful of these commissions (both tattoo and wall art) are simply "draw whatever you want", which while at first seems incredibly daunting, have ended up being a lot of fun.

this was done for the amazingly talented and beautiful Jenna Sunde, who commissioned me for a wall piece.

this while not really a commission, was done for an old friend in celebration of his son's birth.

so a question that has come up a lot over the years, is why am i so picky about doing tattoo designs? it's not really a matter of being picky i guess. i think a lot of people assume that i am just generally against tattoos, which is pretty funny considering the fact that i myself am rather heavily tattooed. tattoo art is a huge inspiration to me, and i have the utmost respect for tattoo artists (and half the time wish i was one myself).

quite honestly the real reason i usually decline offers, is i don't really think my work is up to par with something you would want on your body for the rest of your life. there are a lot of things to regret, and i can only hope that my work is not one of those things for people....hell, i have the name of a watercolor brush tattooed on my hands for the rest of my life, i know a thing or two about tattoo regret. an ex-girlfriend of mine once said that you can never regret a tattoo, because they can only remind you of who you once were. now i would like to point out that this ex of mine is completely covered in tattoos of my work, and i would bet my right leg that she is regretting it now. i am a firm believer in being able to be ashamed of who you once where.

but in reality, i love doing tattoo work. there is something so simplistic and beautiful about it all...i just have to ignore the fact that people actually get them done. i also have come to the realization that my line work is ridiculously hard to replicate with a tattoo machine. i know of a few people who can do it well, all of which i can count on one hand (though, obviously there are probably a lot more).

i hope this kind of explains my trepidation about tattoo designs in the past. but, thats the past. i have done a handful of designs over the last year or so that i am extremely proud that people actually have gotten. my dear friend rachel (co-gallerista of The Lloyd Dobler Gallery) asked me to design a tattoo of a water tower for her....and after a lot of complaining, i did this:

she got it done later by esther garcia here in chicago. esther is an absolute genius when it comes to tattoos, and i am truly jealous of her skills and line work. here is a photo of rachel's piece half done, the fills were finished a few months later and look absolutely stunning:

an old friend of mine and extremely talented artist and tattoo artist becca fiduccia, contacted me a few months ago about doing a half-sleeve design for her. becca asked me to design it completely un-directed, which made me extremely nervous. she got the design done by omar at skin abrasions in oak park, and honestly it is probably my favorite rendition of my work i have ever seen as a tattoo. unfortunately i do not have a photo of her finished tattoo, but the design is one of my most successful ink pieces i have done in the last few years:

becca offered to repay me in hours under the needle. normally i would have been super excited about this, but i basically had 3 days to come up with something i would want on my body for the rest of my life. and after thinking about it for years, i decided to get a design of my own work. now let me tell you, this was by no means an easy decision. i am still a little uneasy about the whole situation. but man, you've gotta love chipping sparrows beating the hell out of each other:

nearly 9 hours straight and still not finished. and now i have to wait for becca to come back to town to get the fills. my apologies for terrible mirror photo, bad tan lines, and gross neck beard (i can't exactly stand up long enough to shave these days)

this may possibly be the longest and most uninteresting post i have ever written.

so with this huge load of commissions (not to mention actual client work) to finish, i plan to post most of it on here and let people know what i am up to. it's good initiative to actually start posting on this blog again. tomorrow i have two tattoo designs to start and hopefully finish one, as well as take tons of reference photos for the secret secret never ending project.

10 days in from visit to ER, and the first round of antibiotics complete.

oh, and apparently the combination of heavy doses of ibuprofen, vicodin, and muscle relaxers disable you from using a shift key appropriately.