Ronald Reagan

On February 6, 2011, former President Ronald Reagan would have been 100 years old.  Here are some photos and my artistic takes on the 40th President of the United States.

Official Whitehouse Portrait 1981

Rancho Del Cielo 1984

My first caricature of Reagan 1992

Paper Sculpture 1995

Patriotic Ronald Reagan 1999

Reagan Wrap 2002

Official Whitehouse Painting

Ronald Reagan and Ice-T in my "Bedbugs" comic strip

Quilted Fetish Bears

These are called fetish bears or Zuni bears.  I don't know which one (or both?) is correct.  After blending the wood and malachite designs, they were passed through a pasta machine and cut into squares.  I chose each individual square for exactly the right spots on the bears.  (I don't slop anything together.  That's why I'll never make a fortune doing this stuff.  I work too slowly.)
I made a tool to do the embossing or quilting.

Julia Roberts

Many years ago, I did india ink and airbrush caricatures on illustration board and then cut them out with the intention of adding them to a real photo background.  This one of Julia Roberts was finished in February 1992.  The five alternate backgrounds were done in Photoshop about five years ago.  The first one is my favorite.

Daniel in the Lion's Den

It's Sunday, and here is one of my bible-based paper sculptures, "Daniel in the Lion's Den".  The main thing I remember about this project was the pain I endured making the stone background.  The stones were made by dripping inks and paints onto very thick watercolor paper.  After the paper dried, the stones were cut out and rounded around the edges using an embossing tool.  Much pressure was needed because the paper was so thick.  Long story short, I couldn't do any work for over a month because the nerves were damaged in my thumb.

"Gus"

My computer is sick and I am limited by what I can do with my art and Photoshop.  I am also limited by what I am able to do on this blog.  This will be the situation for the next two or three weeks.  Until that time, I will be posting whatever my system will allow me to post.  Here is a poem and a paper sculpture about a one hundred and four year old man named Gus.  It was part of a feature I did ten years ago called "Paper & Poems".

This is about a man I know
Most people call him "Gus"
The nicest man in the world
He never says a cuss

He lives around the corner
On the same block as me
He makes the bestest cookies
And gives me some for free

The oldest guy I ever met
About a hundred and four
I hope he lives much longer
Fifty years or more

Gus has a girl friend
Her hair is in a bun
He calls her "Young Chicken"
I think she's ninety-one

Gus will never lie to me
He always tells the truth
When he feels the need to laugh
I only see one tooth

I like to talk with Gus
He knows just what to say
Now he wants to take a nap
I guess I'll go and play

Hummingbird Lines

The line work on this hummingbird looks like it was accomplished in about 30 seconds.  The sad truth is that it took about 2 hours.  The reason, other than I am painfully slow, is that I don't want to create something that has been done before.  Hummers have been drawn, painted and sculpted a kajillion times.  This hummer may look simple, but it will become a really cool polymer clay pendant with nice lines and style.  I hope.

Malachite Beetles

For those of us unfamiliar with polymer clay, it has to be conditioned before it can be used to create magnificent works of art.  Conditioning clay means one has to keep squashing it over and over until it is thoroughly mixed and warmed up.  One Saturday, a couple months ago, I made a slab of clay to resemble malachite.  By the end of the day, my hands were colored alien green-blue.  As an added attraction, my thumbs had several blisters on them.
Here are some of the results taken from my malachite slab, Malachite Beetles.