Chaos or Order

You decide.

Make use of your time

So I have two twenty minute breaks each night at work. I figure I can make use of that time todo some sketching. This is just a rough composition. The story idea is a fantasy type tale (humans vs giants) set in post apocalyptic future. It actually draws from a story idea I came up with while at scout camp a few years ago.

Make use of your time

So I have two twenty minute breaks each night at work. I figure I can make use of that time todo some sketching. This is just a rough composition. The story idea is a fantasy type tale (humans vs giants) set in post apocalyptic future. It actually draws from a story idea I came up with while at scout camp a few years ago.

Busy bee

So I started a new job last month, just more warehouse work for now. But I also started training for a government job. Tack on the course load of two college classes (photoshop and illustrator) and the fact that my wife and I are expecting a child in April of next year. I don't have much time for any personal work right now. But when I do find the time, I've decided to stay away from skulls. I really need to branch out with other subject matter and push myself to expand on my talent.

Long board round three?

So I sanded down my long board a few months ago removing the old design I had painted. Here is the new concept in the works. It's going to just be black lines on the wood. Maybe a little color. Haven't decided yet.

I'm still here

Do not fret, I am still alive and painting. Heres a few projects I've done over the past few weeks.

This is just a simple tattoo design I put together.

Practicing with painting figures. I did not want it to look natural so I used blue for the shadows. 

This is a collage I threw together the other. I'm not sure if I am finished with it yet.

Dreamscape

I had a very vivid dream last night. This room or patio was in it. I thought it was very cool.

I need it all

I've been up for 21 hours, running on 3 hours of sleep. I can't seem to take my eyes away from my computer screen. Times like this, I feel like if I go to sleep I will miss something or not experience something. The fact is, if I don't go to sleep I will miss out on the full potential of tomorrow. But I have a hunger to see everything, I want to ability to watch, read, and experience everything this world has to offer. Maybe this state of mind could be interpreted as a need to experience the world (at least the digital world) so that I can fully understand the human condition.

Deutschland!

Suicide Horn

I found the reference picture for this on reddit. The thoughts it provoked told me that I had to paint it.

The rams horn, constantly growing, pushed straight into the skull, killing the ram. It's rather poeticreallyI, a metaphor of how aspects of one's character can go unchecked until the damage is irreversible. 

Tax Reform: Reduce and share the burden

For the final week of my economics course we were asked to examine tax reform:
In 2012, The governor of New Mexico, Garry Johnson made run for the presidency as a third party candidate from the Libertarian Party. This political party stands firmly behind the idea of a consumption tax. It their belief that such a tax system would create a more equal tax burden across the board; everyone would pay a flat sales tax close to 23% rather than have 23% of their income with held. A consumption tax ("Fair Tax" as they say) would remove all corporate corruption and lobbyist efforts, as corporations would no longer be able to battle for tax cuts and benefits. Now it could be argued that such a tax system would reduce revenue for the federal government. One of the externalities of taxing consumption is the Internal Revenue Service would become obsolete, reducing federal spending. Others would try to argue that taxing consumption would only further harm the lower class and those below the poverty line. Mr. Johnson suggested that a "probate" would be implemented to make those living in poverty exempt from having to pay a certain allowance of taxes. This article asked Mr. Johnson how a "fair tax" would impact social security. Simply put individuals would only be able to get back in social security what they paid into the system, there would be no account for inflation. Ultimately, the Libertarian party would fully support the abolishment of social security as they believe it is the responsibility of the individual to plan for their future, rather than rely on the government to save you money and provide for you. 
The second article I found, addressed the recent topic of raising minimum wage and how this would not solve income inequality within this country. Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors to President George W. Bush, believes that raising the minimum wage ignores two critical steps; economic inclusion and the ability to work and earn. Tax reform focused on dynamism (opportunity for commercially viable innovation) and inclusion (mass prosperity) would better address this social issue. The current tax code does not promote the growth in human capital within our economy and raising the minimum wage out right ignores this option. Mr. Hubbard suggests that the government should provide education vouchers for low income families, including their children. He also believes that the Earned-Income Tax Credit should be altered such that families without children should be getting back just as much as those with children. This credit is meant to reward families for their hard work to provide for themselves, and short changing families without children does not promote growth. 
Both stances provide some solid options for improving the issue of income inequality. A consumption tax is such a drastic change that I believe it could cause a chaotic shock to the economy of the United states. Such a program could not smoothly begin operating out of nowhere. A gradual transition of sorts would need to be implemented in order for this new tax system to be effective. I believe such a system would be best started at the state level. Once states remove their income tax programs and begin charging higher sales taxes, a federal transition could begin (add sales tax a little each year and reduce the income tax each year until the income tax is no more). As far as Mr. Hubbard's plan is concerned, I see two flaws. the first is that creating new programs such as education vouchers simply creates more paper work, more bureaucracy. Secondly, he states that "Greater support for inclusion through training and worker or employment subsidies must be financed, of course." Of course, such programs would require research and more federal spending, which only creates a further tax burden. His ideas only create further government involvement within the lives of US citizens, not something many of us would want. I believe that through continued debate and diligence, a solution to the troubled tax system of this great nation will be found. Ultimately I am in support of a consumption tax and reduced government spending. Such a system would hold individuals and corporations accountable for their share of the tax burden. The reduction of the IRS and reduced federal spending would reduce the tax burden for each individual.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/29/5-questions-for-libertarian-presidential-candidate-gary-johnson-on-tax-and-entitlement-reform/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tax-reform-is-the-best-way-to-tackle-income-inequality/2014/01/10/112710ea-68ca-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html

Squiggles

I spent about an hour outside yesterday spraying a few canvases. This is by far the easiest step in my painting process, but also the most enjoyable. It's easy to loose yourself in the moment and gestures as you run the spray can from side to side. In the past I used wooden board as my canvas. The different textures it provided, created very interesting details within the pieces. Lately however, I found the texture to be more cumbersome. So I have decided to try a few paintings on canvas.

Instead of laying down a flat colored area, I just kept painting lines, building up the layers until I could no longer see the white canvas.

Start with a few simple lines...

Then a TON of orange

Primary colors

Ready for content

Desensitize America

You hear it on the news almost every day; people shot, homes lost, mother nature strikes back, the horror! I've heard it so much and seen it so often that it's hard for me to feel much. Am I alone in this lack of emotion? I'd like to think not.

Recently I've been watching Madmen and I've noticed that during the JFK assassination, as well as the MLK assassination, people were deeply upset about the events. The tragedy hit them all personally. Why have the times changed so much?

For the longest time, disasters and death in the news have not compelled an ounce of emotion to work its way to my surface. Then the rain came. It was just another summer thunderstorm, moving through the area, no big deal. Wow Lightning! But for some reason, this time was different. The amount of rain created a flash flood in the little town of Clear Spring.

I spent my teen years growing up in that town. I hated that town. I hated it when we moved there and I couldn't wait to get out when I graduated high school. I didn't hate the people I knew from there, just the "there". Something about the small town environment and the lack of anything besides homes, a few stores, many liquor stores, and parks; I had no feelings for the town itself.

Like I said, "then the rain came."

I got news that the town was flooding. No big deal. I had seen the potomac river flood near my house, never did any harm (there was a cow one year that went over the dam). This time was different though. Pictures started to surface of the damage, of the once dry creek bed roaring with muddy tides of destruction. I felt something. I knew those houses, I drove past them a hundred times. Something felt familiar. I no longer hated that town. Theres one picture that shows the row of building along the main street, they had yellow papers which read "condemned". That feeling was growing stronger, until it finally broke through. I feel sorrow and pain. The feeling cannot compare to that of those who were directly affected, but I finally felt something real.

So I ask myself this, why did it take this terrible event for me to feel something? The fact that something familiar to me has been changed and destroyed has prompted me to finally feel something. It would have otherwise been just another news story, but it's not. It saddens me.

I am thankful for those that were there to help. My prayers go out to all those in Clear Spring and the surrounding area that have been affected by this.

Banksy

I've loved Bansky's work sense the first day I saw it. I cannot remember what the first piece was that I saw because I must have looked through every single thing he had done over the course of a day.

Anyway, theres a new show up... 

The night shift

I don't know what it is about staying up all night that I enjoy. Maybe it's the quiet; no one around to bother you, no one on the roads, nor the stores, there is nothing in your way. Maybe the lack of people creates a sense of freedom. This in turn gives me a sense of creativity that I can't find during the day. Whatever it is, I like living the night shift every now and then.

Luminous - iNO Visual Artist

Found this great video of ultraviolet spray paint.

Externalities of college education

I am currently studying externalities in my economics course at Hagerstown Community College. My experience at Gettysburg College along with my current struggle with student loan debt prompted a short investigation into the positive and negative externalities associated with higher education. 
Higher education holds a lot of benefits for those enrolled in degree programs. Over all, individuals with a college degree will be able to make more money over the course of their lifetime. In addition, a college degree opens doors for professional advancement, which in turn improves your social status. There is an element to higher education however that creates negative externalities for the country as a whole. The federal government began providing students loans in 1958 through the national Defense Education Act. Many student loans through the federal government are subsidized such that the government pays any interest on the loan before repayment begins. By creating a loan program that makes access to higher education more easily attainable, the federal government is able to bring in revenue from interests on loans. In 2013 in was reported that student loan debt through the federal government had surpassed the 1 trillion dollar mark. This is a huge negative externality associated with higher education. The government has taken on the burden of student loan debt. With loan forgiveness programs such as forgiveness for teachers and medical professionals, as well as a cap on how long individuals must pay back on their loans, a part of the 1 trillion dollar debt will never be paid back and thus the potential revenue decreases.
On the opposite side of the issue, college educated individuals create a positive externality for society as a whole. These individuals will be more likely to pay taxes (as a result of higher income). Further more, it is found that a college education makes individuals more engaged in politics, creating a more informed group of voters. Finally, the recent for push for STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) related studies will provide the nation with an innovative work force that will aid in the foreword progress of this country.

Drawing again

Some days I sketch, other days I paint. It's been a longtime sense I've actually drawn for sake of drawing and made a finished piece. 

This is a compilation of iconography from the band Coheed and Cambria. Not complete but I like the way it's turning out.

The depths of life

You know they say tomorrow is a new day. But what they don't tell you is that the hurricane won't be out of town yet and the streets will be flooded with struggles. The waves will crash on your door, blow out you windows and drag you under. There will be moments when you feel the surface approaching, just out of reach. But then another wave comes crashing in and you are pulled to the bottom of the ocean. All you want is a gasp of air, all you have is suffocation, all you need is lifeline to pull out back from the depths.

I'm still praying for my lifeline.

Rx in progress

Finally made this painting. It is a portrait of a plague doctor surrounded by pill bottles. I came up with the idea as an examination of how pharmaceuticals are used to cure anything and everything because no one is normal, everyone is sick.

Life can get in the way of art, or is the other way around?

I've been rather busy lately. I've done some sketching, but nothing I feel like sharing on here. Over the past few weeks I've put more emphasis on school work, work work, and my wife. This has left little time for me to paint or work on that children's book that I should be slaving away on. At the end of the day I wish I had a few more hours to lock myself in studio and draw. I doubt I would get much done though as I seem to have hit that period of creative block and lack of motivation. We'll see if I can find some time in the next few weeks to come up with something to post for you all. Until then stay happy.

Painting progress

So I took a little time away from going insane and decided to do some work on my paintings. The three piece ghost piece has been getting on my nerves so I just decided to sketch out some skeletons with ink and I painted them in with yellow. I actually used my finger for the yellow paint. For the "Gods Revived" painting I began to fill in the flesh/bone tone on the figures and started adding some of the cloth detail.

Projects

I took some time this week to start packing up my studio for the move. There are something's I will not be able to take to Texas with me. It sucks but I can sacrifice some studio space for a new place and new people. I also took the time to work a few projects.

I finally painted my longboard. I used the idea of the yellow bird that I did an illustration of not too long ago. Over all if think it turned out great.

I also started on a new painting of "The Gods". I did not like how the illustration on paper was turning out so I took the old painting of the god of capitalism and sprayed over it. So far I just have the layout and figures sketched out.

Finally I did a quick sketch of my comic characters in pen. I like the raw look of the gesture type sketch. I did not use pencil by I wanted to see how they would look just sketched out in pen.

Busy Bee

The past month has been rather crazy. I started taking two online courses. One is on the basics of adobe creative suite. I have a basic understanding of illustrator, photoshop, and indesign, so so far it's pretty easy. I'm looking foreword to learning how to use flash and dream weaver. The other class is on advertising and public relations. It's pretty self explanatory and basic common sense knowledge of how advertising works.

Besides that Jackie and I have been trying to figure out if we can make a move down to Houston, TX. We are both excited about being somewhere new, somewhere that provides opportunities for us to grow (unlike the town we are in). Hopefully we can both find jobs down there pretty soon.

So take all the excitement of college classes and trying to move, on top of the joys of living in our place, makes for a rather hectic month. By joys I mean utter frustration. We've had to have our furnace worked on twice and something happened either with the electrical or the Directv box that caused two TVs to fry. Fun stuff to say the least.

Longboard

So I decided to add some work to my longboard. I taped up the original the original work on the board and added some spray and some ghosts and of course I had to add a skull and banners.

Call ended

Here is a sketch I did last night. Just playing around with the idea of phones being an extension of our self identity. It also touches on how wired our hearts and emotions are to the internet and the Information Age.

The rose and the bird

For the longest time I have wanted to get a tattoo of a yellow rose. Before I was born my mother gave birth to boy, his name was Aaron Bard Adlon. Sadly he did nothing live to be more than a day old. Every sense I can remember, my father would always come home on that date (February tenth, twelve days before my birthday and seventeen days before my mothers) with yellow roses for my mother. Years later I would join a fraternity who's flower was a white rose. This flower represents brotherhood, something god blessed me with, not through a blood brother, but through the brotherhood of men joined by love, truth, and honor. Then a few years ago, my greatgrandmother (my mothers grandmother) passed away. Everyone in the family knew that she loved bird watching in her later years and her favorite bird was a gold finch (I believe, I know it was a bright yellow bird). I always find a strange connection in that my father buys my mother yellow roses for my brother, my greatgrandmother's favorite bird was yellow and that yellow has always been my favorite color. It's odd how we can find connections between the little things in life.

What is your education worth?

This post has been long over due.

In high schools across the country, students are being fed the same line; go to college to make more money. But it's not that easy. I find myself swimming in debt. My decision to go to college was not fully thought through. Now granted I would not be the person I am today if I had not gone to Gettysburg College. But there are so many things I would change if I could. I've learned more about what it really takes to survive in the real world over the past year and half.

Just because you earn a degree does not mean you will get a good paying job. Now granted I went to school for Art, but I have class mates that seem to be doing alright with similar degrees. Here's where I messed up. I never took the time to look into internships, never took the time to gain real job experience before I left college. The second mistake I made was not double majoring. If I had double majored in Art and Sociology (rather than just a minor) maybe I'd have a viable job. Maybe I would not be drowning. But I didn't.

The biggest mistake I made was paying as much as I did for college. I graduated with a BFA and enough debt to pay a mortgage. Not the smartest thing to do.

So here's my advice to anyone looking to go to college for anything.

- Work before you go to school, figure out what it is that you really want todo
- Research schools, find the right program
- Understand how student loans work, just because a bank lends you 40k does not mean that you will be able to pay it back.
- Double major.
- Find an internship to give you experience
- Finally, college is not for everyone, some days it feels like it's just a medal of social status that weighs me down

Resurrect the Gods

So I've decided to revisit the "Gods of Modern Day Society". This was a concept developed and illustrated during my senior year of college. Here is the sketched out try pitch of the gods of Power, Capitalism, and Knowledge. The background of the image is filled with angels of Labor, Justice, and Obedience. I haven't decided yet how I'm going to color this image. This will be a challenge because I'm using comic board for the illustration (which does not handle wet paint very well, but might be able to hold up to ink tense pencils). I'll post more of the progress as I get around to it.