Dahhhhhh. Been really busy. I’ve let the blog go silent for a bit… but that means I’ve got a lot of work to be posting here for a while:) Been really productive, being creative, having lots of great fun.

So theres this thing me and a few guys came up with… BRAZILLASAURUS. Check out our humble beginnings as a blog… it will soon fill up with wonderful things.

Brazillasaurus is the brainchild of four dudes that love God, art, storytelling, and fun. It will be a written-narrative-photographic-outlet for the aforementioned gentlemen. There will be art. There will be stories. There will be love. There will be gnawesomeness. We’ll be heading down to Brazil as a part of the RESOUND team. We’re going to hit the ground in Rio and spend a day in an orphanage just hanging with the little ones, we’ll be spending a day in one of the worst hit areas of a recent tsunami that left massive destruction, and we’ll be putting on a Resound Worship Conference with a focus of spreading the love of Jesus and encouraging creativity in worship.

Now this is all “the plan” although everything and anything can change once there. My focus will be to find stories and follow those threads. We all really want to have very meaningful connections with each person we encounter. I’ll be bringing my cameras to document, to capture stories, to connect with people, to encourage, to instill wonder, fun and love in the hearts of children, youth and adults.

Now… since we’re a bunch of broke artists:) We’ve brainstormed and come up with this crazy thing that I believe will grow because of its massive hunger. Brazillasaurus is an avenue for us to sell off some of our art to raise money so that this trip can actually be paid for. None of us are getting paid to go down there (its a missions trip!) and the only expense that is covered is housing while there.

Head over to our shop and fish around for something. If it catches your eye, dont think twice!! Buy it, pay for it through paypal and you’ll have some awesome art to hang on your wall along with contributing to something much bigger!

PLEASE!! Share the heck out of this post on facebook!!! Link at bottom of post:)

And for some fun follow BSaurus on twitter: @brazillasaurus

Here is a little design work I did for Vinelife Church in Boulder, Colorado. This is a 6×9 flyer which will be sent out by mail and handed out at other events around the country for the next few months. The art and design for the whole conference is a collaborative effort including Luke Humbrecht and Chase Beck. Between the 3 of us we’ll be putting together some killer stuff throughout the summer and fall for this thing.

The conference itself is going to be an amazing time. It’ll be a full weekend of teaching, equipping and mad creativity oozing everywhere. It’s gonna be all about the arts…..arts…..arts.

I read this book a little while back and am going through it a second time. This time around I’m going to be posting some excerpts and thoughts as I go. 1. Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn’t I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever?

So true but often very overwhelming and very counter to how we’ve been conditioned. As artists we get ideas all the time and I’m not sure about you but I think most of us let the majority of those ideas slip by. We can easily convince ourselves that the idea isn’t really as grand as we first thought (when the rush of emotion is tied to it). Our brains start to resist by throwing in a dash of doubt and the reality that solid ideas require lots of work and follow through. Somebody else can do it better or already has, right? I’ve seen this pattern play out in my life over and over. I believe the first step in over coming this is to acknowledge this resistence.

Nobody knows for sure whether an original idea is going to be good, or even great. But the fact that it came to you one night at 3am or during a quick daydream during an important office meeting means something and I think you should go with that gut instinct.

This chapter  touches on the fact that original ideas that start to take root and grow will also begin to change you. This makes sense for sure. You have a great idea that you believe in and you start putting things together with the crayons, glue, and paper and get all excited about it. You’re glowing from the inside out and some people might not like that, they might be put off because of the natural cynicism this world imbeds in us. They’ll compare themselves to you and may start to feel inadequate because more of your attention is on this ‘idea’ and why don’t they have an ‘idea.’ etc. They’ll shoot those little doubting phrases at you about how its not practical or even just give you the little “Hmm, yeah, I like it,” and then change the subject while you over analize the glint in his eye and tone of his inauthentic, artist destroying voice. You can see how some little feelings and observations can snowball into massive self doubt which can snuff out the flame.

Bottom line is. When you have an idea that is your own. Don’t compare it to anything else out there. Don’t you dare care about how it measures up to someone elses idea. Put in the work and chase the light, make it happen and realize you will face resistance along the way. The journey is never easy. Even just flying from Denver to San Diego for a beach vacation isn’t easy, you’ll be so excited about the destination that you’ll speed past the sneaky police officer who is about to write you a ticket that cost half as much as the vacation. Don’t let that stuff ruin everything. Put a smile on your face and keep driving. Right?

Let me know if these kind of posts are worth your time? If you really digg it then theres a twitter, digg, and facebook button below. peace.

Right? And I don’t think its just true for artists. I think any time that anyone is walking on the path which brings them the most joy and satisfaction, the thing that burns in their heart, the thing they are truely passionate about there comes a wave of resistance and then another and then another. There is always something that just needs to come up and get in your face to distract and stress you out thus keeping you from the ‘thing.’

I find this to be true in my life. Its very dangerous, especially in this day and age when our culture has been forming our young minds into thinking that things should come easily. But its not easy, the thing that we’re, (let me say) “were made to do,”  that thing is not going to be easy and if we give up everytime we hit an obstacle then we will be tormented on the inside. This brings up another point;  our focus and measurment of ‘success,’ I believe, is skewed.  Its not the final grade that counts, its not the final product, its not the size of the bank account. Success measured in all this gold and glitter is a false end and will lead you to want more. It seems that when success is measured in a tangible outcome there will always be dissapointment.

The success is in the process.

The process is the point.

There are obstacles in the process, victories and defeat. But to learn and to grow and to push through and realize that all of this is where the magic lies. This is where we live and love… in the process.

Is this relevant? Ring true with you? Lets talk about this. I’d like to hear your thoughts –

Check this out from shmattson!

Leave it to the Swiss Army to create a beautiful way to haul their ammunition around. Now, you can peacefully use these handmade bags to haul your items on your bicycle’s rack. Made from a heavy duty sage green cotton twill and saddle leather, these bags measure 11.5″ Wide x 9.25″ Tall x 4.12″ Deep. Their capacity is approximately 3 liters. The lid is held in place by a leather thong.

I’ve added a simple but effective rack mount to each bag which secures the bag to your rack’s horizontal rails just like a pannier would mount. Then, a nylon strap and buckle hold everything on and in place. They will fit any standard diameter rack tubing–Nitto, Tubus, Blackburn, Old Man Mountain, Jandd etc.

They are all one-of-a-kind. Each has it’s unique patina and character. I will do my best to match them up to make a pair. The leather ranges in color–honey, auburn, espresso. The majority are in the honey to auburn spectrum. They have been used and do show signs of use. The leather might have some scuffs and discoloration. The fabric may have some very light stains.

Generally, they look pretty great and it’s remarkable they are about 25 to 45 years old (they are all dated–mostly from the 1960′s). They’ve all been cleaned by hand and the leather treated with preservative.

From Old School Tools
This listing is for a custom-built bow made from Elm wood (Ulmus sp.), an excellent and under-appreciated bow wood. The style is based on some of the oldest bows known, the Holmegaard and Ringkloster bows…both discovered in Danish bogs, and around 6,000 years old. Despite the extreme age of the finds, this is an effective and well-thought-out bow design, which I’ve tried to closely replicate.

Each bow is custom-made at the time of order…because of this, it may take me up to two weeks to finish your bow and get it in the mail. Overall length will vary between 60-68″ long, depending on draw weight and length desired…since the shape of a bow depends on the piece of wood it’s made from, no two bows will be exactly alike, but they will be very similar to the bows shown in the photos. Please convo me with any questions or requests; I want to make each bow as suited to its owner as I can.

Tattoo by Fish @ Th'ink Tank Tattoo, Denver

I’ve had sleeves sketched out for years but have luckily never had the money to actually get them embedded into my skin… Some of my ideas were far from timeless and went with the current trends back then. But some things that have always been on my  sketch pad waiting for skin have been both a lighthouse and a victorious looking old school ship.

Last September I finally committed. I found a legit artist in Denver. Fish at Th’Ink Tank Tattoo in Denver Colorado. Awesome artist and really good guy, he also has a sick clothing company called ELC Mens. I started with the lighthouse coming up my forearm with an olive tree taking up the backside of my forearm. The lighthouse holds a lot of meaning to me. First off I grew up outside of Boston and some of my fondest memories were coastal trips where lighthouses were scattered. The other part of it comes from my spiritual faith and how God is light. In the darkest times it may be hard to see but its there if you’re looking and on those sunny days, its right there, easy to see. The olive tree signifies not only my daughter, Olive, but creation in general, there is a flock of birds flying out of the top of the tree – which will continue into some awesomeness up my arm – I’ll have another post about that later. Anyways… the birds also signifying creation and how we are sent out into this physical world but remain spiritual beings. This isn’t 100% finished yet, I just got a piece on the inside of this bicep last week which I’ll post on here soon, just letting it heal up to take pictures of it.

Tattoo by Fish @ Th'ink Tank, Denver

After going through a few appointments to get this up and running I realized that when you do start getting tattoos, your ideas will spring to life and you want more. I wanted more for sure and wanted to get my family tattoos on me next. So I went with a time piece. A pocket watch for my wife with the words ” Tess, my love forever”. This one will eventually get some color later this year but I will be having some other pieces added to this arm in black shading first.

Tattoo by Fish @ Th'Ink Tank, Denver

Then I went on to get this piece for my son Boston. Its based off the first tattoo my dad ever got, it was two roses and my name. So forming a tradition… here it is. It’ll be colored in later this year. I think.

So, tattoos in general have definitely become a part of my life. I love the art, the culture, the history. Just touching the surface recently and mentioning that my great-great grandfather was a tattoo artist to some guys at Think Tank I really found out how amazing all this is. They flipped out about how amazing that was and really encouraged me to do some research, which I have and I’ve got some big plans in the works on archiving all my grandfathers art work and such. Its gonna be an awesome journey through tattoo history for sure.

All of these are by Fish at Think Tank, all the artists at that shop are jaw dropping good.  I’ve also got a piece by Shawn Deegan from Perfection Tattoo in San Antonio, he’s been working on my brothers skin for about a year now, amazing work!

Put in the work

Life is funny then it’s not so funny then its funny again. Being an artist can be fun and then at times not so fun. Theres ebb and flow. I’ve noticed that it’s not so fun when I fall into a wave of thinking that awesome things will just happen by themselves. I can just sit there and watch amazingness pop out of nowhere, but I’m always waiting for it, dreaming about it. I confess, I have been a lazy artist. Instead of putting in the work, I end up believing all the excuses my mind can come up with on why I need to put this project off or wait till friday to start that project… then the ideas fade and nothing happens.

LAME!

FRUSTRATING!

I’M OVER IT!

Anyways. My latest 2 and 1/2 year excuse for not running after my dreams was because I’m married, have 2 kids under 3 years old and I’ve got an 8-5 job only for the money. Well, my wife is insanely supportive of the artist and free spirit in me, my kids are just awesome and I do want to spend as much time with them as possible which I need to do in the evenings and on the weekends, my job- its serving its purpose by paying some bills. So I have no excuses for what is actually just straight up laziness.

This morning I woke up at 5am, was at Starbucks working on art from 5:30-7am. My new creative schedual booster. Instead of waiting for inspiration. Create it. You guys feel me?

Polaroid Chocolate film through Mamiya Universal 100mm 2.8

See through the eyes of a child.

(click for larger view)

So, I’ll be posting from my iPhone most likely for a bit till I pick up a computer but anyways. I feel like I am in the midst of a major transition. I’ve been working for DPA Microphones for 3 years this July and it’s served its purpose, making money in a stable environment. Its become a safe haven of false stability for me and Im more and more growing into the artist that I really am and need to show it, to give what I’ve got, not to some machine but to people. I’m finally acknowledging my uniqueness and fact that I do have something legit to give to this world. AND you do to!! So, this transition Im talking about will hopefully get me freelancing full time soon or who knows, just as long as its mad creative.

With this blog, I’ve been really stuck in trying to figure out what this will be about and have used my ‘figuring it out’ as a crutch to not actually doing anything. Thats ending. I’m gonna figure it out and change this thing as we go.

Im gonna just post stuff. Hopefully cool stuff. I hope all that read this will enter in to discussion and collaboration and just plain spreading ideas and the love!

And another little diddle is that Im working on a portfolio site finally, which is a project in itself to organize and build without a computer of my own, so I’ll post a link from this blog to it soon but for those who read this post you can link to it here.

peace.