Just Remember the First Time You Saw the Man Dance....

I know I will. :)

I have been a long-time fan of Michael's for going on 16 years now.  My very first album (ever) was his 1987 release "Bad".  I was around 8 years old at the time -- and I recalled lying on my bed with one of the older school cd boom boxes propped in my window.  As the sun went down, I would turn off the lights and  click on this tape and play it for hours and hours...

Tracks like "Bad", "Speed Demon", "Smooth Criminal" and "Liberian Girl" melted the night air....

It was magical.

Later on I would collect his albums, attempt the moonwalk (unsuccessfully ;), and become inspired by his music videos, style, determination and work ethic.

My beautiful mother (who bought that first MJ cassette for me) even told me once that she thought that it was made in the stars for me to be so into Michael Jackson.  It just so happens that I was born the very same day that his hair caught on fire in that Pepsi commercial (January  25th, 1984).

Mom told me that she watched the news coverage on the TV when she was in the hospital with newborn-me and informed me with a laugh that that was really what started my admiration for the man. ;)

On Thursday evening -- she called me to tell me that she had  burst into tears when she heard that he was gone. :(

Am I saying that I believe that Michael Jackson was some sort of saint?

No....absolutely not.

As everyone in the press has pointed out (and will for many months to come), Michael had a lot of demons.

He was a supernova of a talent who was plagued by bad judgement, low self esteem, distorted perceptions, and a shady inner circle that enabled him to self destruct.

I'm not denying this.

However....that's not the way I want to remember him.

I want to remember the first time I listened to "Bad" all the way through or the electricity I felt the first time I saw "Scream" for the first time or how badly I wanted to dance the way he did in "The Remember the Time" video.

I want to remember the way I felt the first time I saw the man DANCE.

For all of his glaring flaws, the man has left me with a lot of joyful and -- yes -- magical memories that I'll keep forever.  Like a lot of other fans, I am beyond shocked and heartbroken and without the words to really express what his music and artistry meant to me. 

Where words fail ...I tried to fill in the gaps with my art.  I don't know if that effort was even remotely successful, but just know that it is coming straight from my heart.

Below is my all-time favorite summation of the amazing legacy that Michael is leaving behind:

Sad Day....

Michael Jackson

1958 - 2009

Farrah Fawcett

1947 - 2009

Thelonius Monk and Alice (take two;)

Here is one more example of some of the fun I've been having lately in Photoshop (above).

This is the alternate version of my "Go Ask Alice" header. Let's just call it the "Think Pink" model. ;)

(Click on image for larger version)

I think that I kind of like this one better than the original, actually. Hmmm....

Anyway -- in all of the jazz heavyweights that I mentioned in my last post, I somehow completely forgot to include an example of Thelonius Monk.

Monk was not only a prolific piano player/bebop composer (pioneer of an extremely sparse/angular playing style) , but also an extremely eccentric human being. Notoriously strange both off stage and on,  he was actually plauged by mental illness the majority of his life (a lot of sources that I've looked at have theorized that he was probably schizophrenic).  

One of the more famous examples of his.....well.....kooky behavior was the fact that the man would play just one or two notes and then  randomly stand up in the middle of playing a set and spin around randomly in circles while the rest of his band carried on behind him.

The man certainly marched to his own drummer -- so to speak.

Anyway, it kind of surprised me that the vast majority of my class didn't like or "get" his music at all. I thought he was an interesting character and a great player.

So interesting, in fact, that I am doing my final presentation/paper on the man -- which I will probably be spending the vast majority of my time this weekend finishing up.  I'll certainly have to update you guys in the future on how that turns out.

In the meantime -- here is a clip of Thelonius Monk from the documentary, "Straight, No Chaser".

"Chelsea: Remixed" , Jazz to Feed the Soul and Updates Galore....

So many things to discuss here at "Out the Other Side" -- so lets get to it, shall we? ;)

First let me start out by saying that despite blistering hot temperatures and the recession (already in progress) , I'm  holding up pretty okay over on my end.

I've been primarily busying myself lately with (freelance) job hunting and promoting my illustration work.

I've also been seriously contemplating the possibility of moving on to art school at some point after graduating from Western Carolina University (and have researching accordingly).

 As far as the job hunt goes, some results may vary -- but occasionally I'm finding a few patches of light within the storm clouds ...which is always nice.  I'm taking at least a little solace in the fact that I'm not the only person who is finding the job market a fairly depressing place right now. Currently, I'm doing all I can to stay happy, focused, and busy.

Above all -- I'm trying to stay positive (which is a tall order from anyone after you've heard "no" a million times in regards to your services.  I'm hanging in there, though. I know that it's all a big exercise in character building in the end. :)

Speaking of busy -- along with working on assorted papers

, classwork and listening exercises for my whirl-wind summer Jazz Appreciation class (more on that later) , I have also been busy creating new art and trying some new things aesthetically/technically. 

Exhibit (A) of this effort would be "Chelsea : Remixed" (see above).

While it's not an entirely new composition (see original below) , it was a happy little pixel-based experiment for me that I'm hoping (in due time) could  lead to some more fun  and increasingly experimental Photoshop-based stuff.

I have been itching to go in a new (or , at least, different) direction with my illustration work for quite some time.  Quite frankly, I was getting a little bored of my own work. 

Maybe "bored" is the wrong word.  More like "uninspired".

 I was beginning to feel like a lot of most recent work (no matter how well received) was becoming more about technical gymnastics on my   end.  I still very much love the "Superflat"  vector illustration style that I have been working in to date .

 However, maybe it's just me -- but I was had kind of feeling like I had burt myself out on it a little. I began to feel like I was burning the viewers of my work out on it as well. I also felt like I was buying myself a one-way ticket to "one trick pony land" -- which is just a depressing thought altogether.

That's not to say that I feel that my previous work is bad or  lacking in soulful intent.

 Quite the contrary. 

In fact -- recent pieces like "Mother of Violence"  and "Sharkbait Tango" were coming out of a pretty damn infected emotional wound.  A lot of that work is my most personal (digital work) to date and a labor of love/anguish.

Maybe it's because of the fact that some of my most recent "Superflat" inspired work has been coming from a darker emotional place that I began to feel like I needed to go in a different creative/technical direction for a little bit.

Re-enter: Adobe Photoshop!

Litterally-- after a depressing night of sitting at my Mac and trying trying to force a fresh idea out through my fingertips (which, by the way, only rarely works for me) I decided to dig out the original lineart for my "Chelsea" character and start doodling....

The end result may have not been the most technically sophistocated piece of illustration in the world but that wasn't even the main break through.

The main breakthrough was that *gasp* I had a lot of FUN re-coloring Chelsea!

Really?  Fun creating art?  You don't say?! ;)

It occurred to me then that not only did I really like (and had, apparently, previously underestimated) the more organic places that I could take old artistic ideas -- but more than that , utilizing Adobe Photoshop as more of a digital painting utility was a hell of a lot of fun for me.

I like the fact that my hand (at least appears to be) in the compositions. I enjoy physical act of coloring in my work (as opposed to the manic click n' drag that I was doing 

with vector illustration).  I'm interested in how I can continue to use Photoshop and Illustrator together to (hopefully) come up with something amazing some day.

Hell -- I'm completely convinced that working with pixels and brushes in Photoshop is satisfying some deep-seeded child like need to color on stuff (I was a terror when it came to walls and ceilings as a chid. ;)

Anyway, the point is that I'm feeling inspired and pretty excited about how the extensive experiementation with bruhes and "digital painting" techniques now could play out in my work later.

One other thing that has been a great joy (and surprising inspiration all unto itself) has been the Jazz Appreciation class that I'm taking this summer.

I'm actually re-taking it as a grade replacement (personal tragedy at home was the main reason I didn't pass it the first time around).  

I'm glad I'm re-taking the class for the grade , but honestly, the class has been such a blast and a half that I seriously could have taken it for no credit and been okay with that. 

 Mr. Don Miller is my professor and he's an incredibly witty and knowledgeable California guy (as well as a sax player...which is something we have in common :). 

He covers the material (which is already entertaining) in a compelling way and we always have a laugh in that class.  It's been refreshing and fun. :)

The sad thing is that I've felt more at home and relaxed in his music class this past month than I have in several semesters within my own art department (which really isn't a department so much as it is a bad dream at this point).

That kind of makes me sad ....but there is only one more semester to go.

In any case, I'm going to end this already far too long blog post with links to a few of the things that have inspired and moved me the most during Jazz Appreciation class. Here's a mini-lesson :)

#1)  "Black and Tan Fantasy" by Duke Ellingtion (bandleader and  swing music legend)

#2) "Deacon Jones" by Louis Jordan (leader of one of the first 'jump bands' which were the precursors to Rock n' Roll as we know it :)

#3) The brilliance and tragic self-destruction of bebop innovator,  Charlie Parker. 

#4) Charlie Christian ( 1st jazz guitarist to go electric and widely considered  to be the person who first popularized the electric guitar)

#5) Miles Davis - "Birth of the Cool" ( 'nuff said ;)

#6) One more from Miles (my favorite -- "Nefertiti")

#7) "Double Drummer" by Magnus Lingren (my favorite example of 3rd Stream jazz)

#8) Finally, none other than Avant Garde/ Free Jazz legend, John Coltrane letting loose on "My Favorite Things".

New Header!

At long last -- I've finally gotten around to designing a new header for this blog (see above).

It's entitled "Go Ask Alice".  Isn't she just precious? ;)

*Ahem*.....okay, so maybe that's not quite an accurate description of her. ;)

Anyway,  stick around, kids. I'll have some more content and some more fun stuff to share here on "Out the Other Side" in the near future.

In the meantime, I hope that everybody is having a wonderful (and hopefully, air conditioned ;) summer! 

Now without further ado, here's a little bit of silliness that has been one of many things keeping me positivily giggly thus far this summer.

Here is a hilarious clip from the  (now unfortunately, defunct) BBC sketch comedy show, "A Bit of Fry and Laurie".

 

By the way --  in case you're playing along at home, the sir to the right would be none other than Hugh Laurie ( aka Dr. Gregory House from the Fox TV show......well.....you know ;)

The sir to the left is Stephen Fry -- british comedian/actor and the other half of "Fry and Laurie".  He will be playing the Cheshire Cat in the upcoming Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" . :)

Dreaming

I could watch /listen to this over and over all day long. :)

New Places to Check Out My Portfolio!

As if there weren't already enough places for potential employers (or the general public, of course) to find my work online, here are a few more locales / links to whet your appetite:

Behance

Us Trendy

Pxldust

and (as always) -

Coroflot

How's that for being thorough, eh? ;)

I am also going to take this opportunity to spotlight several of my fellow creatives that greatly deserve much more attention to be paid to all of their amazing work:

First off is my girl, Ciara Pickering, over at "Little Me Design".  She has recently gotten to check out the much talked about exhibit, The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion (which runs until August 9th, 2009 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).  Currently, she has an incredibly compelling account of her experience within the exhibit up on "Little Me Design" (which you can read HERE  ;).  It's a fantastic write-up of an amazing artistic /sensory experience that couldn't have involved a more fantastic fashionista. Go check that out now! 

Next up is the fantastic illustrator/graphic designer, Angela Lauren.  Currently hailing from Los Angeles, her website can be located HERE.  I assure you , it will not disappoint.  With nine years of experience working with top clients such as Sketchers, Universal Music Group Publishing and Disney,  Angela's portfolio is full of fresh, raw, and edgy art.  Her  use of color and texture in her work are gripping and her layouts are all, of course, spot on.  Definitely a must see!

Finally we head down under to check out Australian illustrator, Eamo Donnelly.  It doesn't take long after clicking into his website (which  is over HERE ;) to figure out how completely amazing this bloke is. He has done many gorgeous full page spreads for Blender magazine; as well as other incredible work for ESPN magazine and Mountain Dew soda.  The detail of his work is simply astounding and (for obvious reasons) I am also greatly attracted to his highly expressive illustrations of popular musicians.  There is also plenty of Aussie pride exhibited in his work (which oftentimes utilizes a very warm/tropical color pallet that is classic Australia.) With a soundtrack of native Aussie birds and critters in the background (which , by the way, has me greatly yearning to return back to Australia myself at some point) , I could certainly get happily lost with his work for a good long while.  My only hope is that someday I will be churning out work that is half this amazing at some point in my career.  Truly an incredible body of work!

Well -- that's it for now. I think that it's time for me to grab a good  book and take advantage of some beautiful sunshine! ;)

Sign O' the Times....

(Above: My old "Prince Graffiti" illustration and "Prince Mural")

Despite all of the musicians that I have written about at length since I launched this blog three months ago, Prince (who turns 51 today) has been sadly overlooked.

Most people who know me personally would probably find this incredibly surprising. This is  especially surprising given the fact that I know the majority of the man's musical catalog forwards and backwards and own just about every single movie that he was ever in (among other things ;).

Yes -- as far as I'm concerned, Prince is a little mad guitar toting  powerhouse in 4 inch heels. What's not to like? ;)

In any case, Prince definitely does not celebrate his own birthday (and hasn't since he became a Jehovah's Witness in 2001).  However, while I respect his choice not to celebrate, that  is not going to stop me from marking the day of his birth by looking back on a few of my favorite purple clips.  All of the following are from the 1987 concert film, "Sign O' the TImes" ;)

"Sign O' the Times"

"If I Was Your Girlfriend" 

"Hot Thing" 

"Housequake"

This Just Made My Morning!

So in the interest of keeping destractions down to a bare minimum this summer, I decided to do without my tv for the two months that I will be attending summer session.  That has been working out great up until yesterday when my lack of a televison caused me to miss out on Conan Obrien's debut as host of the "Tonight Show".

Oops... 

Thank goodness for that little thing called the internet. I'm looking forward to whenever the full first epispde is posted online so I can finally check it out for myself.  However, if the rest of the show makes me giggle as much as that cold open (above) did, then I'm sure that I will be in for a treat! :)

I've been a big fan of Conan Obrien for many years now.  He's been a source of inspiration for  several of my older artistic projects. (see below)

Circa 2002/03: 

Once upon a time, I even owned a headshot signed by the man himself. I sent him a likeness of himself (that was painted on the outside of the envelope) and he was gracious enough to send me a signed photo which read something like "Christy, Thanks for the cool art! - Conan".

 That autograph, sadly, met an untimely demise by well-meaning family members who were transporting some of my things while I was out of town (damaging the autograph in the process).  In any case,  it was still a cool memento while it lasted. ;)

As strange as it may sound,  Conan is sort of like a hero of mine.  Not only do I think that he's hilarious (his quirky silliness certainly makes me laugh) but the guy is not afraid of a challenge. He started out as a relative unknown underdog (as a writer for "The Simpsons") . Expectations were pretty low for him whenever he was thrown into the gig of replacing David Letterman on the "Late Night" show.  He had never had any prior on-camera television experience and his show was highly panned in the beginning (it was nearly canceled in the very beginning.)

Conan didn't exactly have the odds in his favor when he began "Late Night with Conan Obrien" and yet by the time he taped his final "Late Night" show this past February he was an Emmy winning late night host. His old show was highly experimental and sophomoric but he won over an audience of young insomiacs and Conan even had enough street cred to spare to be called in to host the Emmy's on several occasions.  

...And now he's the 5th host of the "Tonight Show".

He's a former late night underdog who now has the most coveted seat in late night land.  It's kind of inspiring , in a way. 

In any case, I have no idea how Conan is going to do as the "Tonight Show's" new ringmaster.  I predict that there will be a lot of bumps in the road and a lot of experimentation in the months to come.  However, I'm sure that no matter what , it will be a a hell of a lot of fun to watch. :)

Oh, by the way -- I actually have a brand new Conan inspired piece in the works right now (to coincide with his big move to "The Tonight Show". ;)  Keep your eyes peeled for that.  Who knows -- maybe if I send it to him, I can finally get a replacement autograph! ;)

Hot Summer Nights on "Honey Avenue"

So after a few weeks with my family (which was , surprisingly, mostly free of the usual dramatics for once), I am back on campus for the upcoming summer session.  While I've been preparing for class (which starts tomorrow) , I have also been hard at work sending out resume's, researching jobs, typing cover letters and (as always)  illustrating for my little life! :)

After fussing over it for  a little over a week, I am happy to finally unleash "Honey Avenue" out onto the world. (click image for larger version)

After spending months working on a series with less than happy subject matter (mostly due to the fact that I was in a less than happy emotional place when I conceived it) , I decided to switch things up entirely with this one.  After a much needed break, I am personally in a much better place and am, therefore, ready to explore some subject matter that reflects a little bit of that newfound warm n' fuzzy vibe.  It is, after all, closing in on summer vacation season, so I decided to warm up my color pallet a great deal and create something a little sexier , a little urban and a little more grounded in the real.

It's really funny -- a lot of times, the things that inform my art are sometimes a little unexpected.  The inspiration for "Honey Avenue" is no exception.  I actually got my inspiration for this one after watching a Mcdonalds commercial.

I'm serious -- this all started because of a Mcdonald's commercial.  It was one of the new adverts that recently came out for "McCafe" (which, by the way, I first experienced in Australia 2 years ago. The States are quite a bit behind with the whole 'McCafe' thing ;). 

In any case, the commercial (see below) featured neo soul recording artist Dwele hawking "McCafe" coffee within this really yummy/warm color palette.  I'm not sure why, but the ad made a big impression on me. I have always been a huge fan of neo soul music anyway and had originally wanted to spin "Honey Avenue" into more a neo soul-themed playground that centered more around the music (which may still happen at a later date).

I belive that "Honey Avenue" wound up being more of a comment on sensuality, bi-racial lovin'  and (depending on how you read it) prostitution. However, I think that the general color pallet and chill vibe from the McDonald's ad still carries trough to "Honey Avenue".  Additionally, I was also thinking about the old Ernie Barnes painting, "Sugar Shack" when I was creating "Honey Avenue" (Check out an old episode of "Good Times" sometime. That painting is featured during the opening credits ;)

Here for your viewing pleasure is the aforementioned McDonald's commercial as well as "Sugar Shack" by the late great Ernie Barnes. :)

"Sugar Shack" by Ernie Barnes