Been kinda Busy

  We start off with some new Hakos.  These are the Automatons of Professor Tinkerbot.  I'm calling them Tinkerbots in the tradition of mass media calling Doctor Frankenstein creature "Frankenstein".  Later on, we'll get a glimpse of Professor Tinkerbot's world.






Next up is "42 and the Suntriffids".  I could have called the walking sunflowers something else, but I'm not ashamed or afraid to acknowledge my inspirations and influences.  I remember watching the 'Day of the Triffids' on channel 40 (in Sacramento) way back in the Creature Features era, though I don't think it was actually on Bob's show.  It didn't scare me so much as got my head working out the idea that plants may be silent, but they're far from static creatures and could very well have a society of their own with history, language and even art.

 And now for something silly, "Alien Panda Attack"  was started as a layered piece.  Just an experiment in combining chalk pastel and paint.  Next thing I know, I start seeing this flying saucer shape, so I decide to add a Panda to it and a bunch of explosions.  The colors are not neon, they just kinda came out that way.  Pastels have such vibrant pigments.

 "Astronomy" also began as an experiment...honestly, I think all my work is an experiment.  I took two 8 x 10s, scraped the remains of my pallet; all the pools of paint, and slathered it on one of the canvases.  I then pressed the two together and gave it some time to bond a bit.  When I began to pull them apart, they kinda slid against each other. I saw the hill and what looked like an elephant sitting on it, so I painted it. 

A guy I know, Ben Poulsen, posts up these hilarious videos. One of them is an animated ad for a comic called Zblucops Turbo Justice, that's how come the Cinderbot has stars on his hands and while I haven't read the comic, I've got the feeling that the over the top feel of the story fits with "Awesome Robo - Cinderbot" and his exploits.  Eh, it's a start...

 It's called "My Own Way" mostly because the Duran Duran song was playing when I finished the piece.  You could also say it's all about my way of art.  Sure, I could go for photo realism, surrealist or 'fuzzy fun happy little glowing windows' but i like my style the way it is for now.  There's still some accuracy and even some sentimentality, but it's my way.





And then there's "Water Breather" titled thus because it's better than just calling it "Untitled". Maybe it's just a character development thing.  I sometimes make pieces that had no clear start but will eventually take root in a story and continue...so maybe there will be more of this squid-thing.

"Take the Wheel" comes from a dream I had about the pink trees I paint and classic cars.  In the dream, there were all these  ruined and rusting cars with shrubs and trees growing out of them. There was also this sense of weightlessness. 

"The Island of Professor Tinkerbot" exists in the Titania story.  Some would say I got influenced by Avatar...actually no.  I've been putting floating islands and mountains into my work since the 70's when I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.  The concept of floating islands has been around for centuries and even has a place in mythology.  I could burn a few pages listing all the stories, but I'll encourage you to do so instead.  In summary, Titania is populated mainly by machines.  There are some humans, but they're rare.  The current story moves around a fantasy-steam puck kind of world.  I've been working the story out for some time now, but mostly it's been source material for paintings and models.



And that's pretty much what I've been tinkering with these past few weeks.  The Tinkerbots seem to be taking the lead in my efforts and I feel I may have a publishable book soon.  Not sure if it will be an illustrated novel or a full on graphic novel.  I may just go ahead with an earlier concept of telling the story in verse and accompanying it with paintings and models.