Marathon Weekend

I was in high school before I realized you could go to a McDonalds even if you weren't on vacation. It was around then (I wasn't that bright) that I realized most kids didn't grow up playing in a family band. My family band, The Stucky Orchestra, made up of my grandpa and aunts and uncles and parents and little cousins played all around south central Kansas in gazeboes and churches and floats in parades. We made fun lively music and if it wasn't the best band you've ever heard, it might have been the sweetest. Somewhere in high school I discovered bluegrass and old time music (via some important friends and an Old & in the way and The New Lost City Ramblers tape that got stuck in my car stereo for months) and realized that was the music for me. They say a poor fiddler is better than a bad violinist, and that was absolutely true in my case. I've played with friends and strangers all across the country, and even with a few of my fiddle heroes.
In July of 2013 I went up to Ohio and spent three days with my buddy Jesse Henry and the great band The Field Dogs writing and recording an album.
It was one of the most intense and amazing creative experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Here’s a beautiful video of one of the songs.

Jesse Henry and The Field Dogs - "Stay With Me" from Thinking Eye on Vimeo.

Duck Crossing II

This is what I did during spring break.

Jesse Henry & the Field Dogs

Classy guys

First Flight

The owls are not what they seem

Here's the awful truth: for the past several years, I've been working start to finish digitally, and I stopped using my sketchbook very often. When I did, I was frustrated that I couldn't draw in it the way used to when I drew in it all the time. I'd still draw everyday, but it was different, and it was mostly for jobs. About a year ago I started using it again for preliminary sketches, studies, and fun. I've come to realize the power of the sketchbook is that it makes me think and process in a different way than drawing digitally does. I can see and revisit my past work and there's a different and more immediate tactile experience*. The ever present need and fear to get it right or make it perfect is gone (or at least muffled) and I can concentrate on other, more important aspects.

A few days before we moved up to KC, I finished my previous sketchbook and replaced it with a sketchbook from Walmart, which had paper with the consistency of oatmeal and fishhooks. I finally got through it last week and have been enjoying drawing on regular paper again. It's like being able to breathe again, which is to say I do not recommend the sketchbooks from Walmart.



*To which you say "OF COURSE there is a different and more immediate tactile experience drawing on paper rather than digitally, Jesse." However, one of the most amazing things about drawing digitally (or at least on a Cintiq) is how natural and familiar it feels.