The Net

The internet is a funny place. You put your work out there for people to see, but sometimes you forget they are looking...(especially people across the globe)

http://csbhagya.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/featured-artist-jon-macnair/

http://rassionmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/next-level-jon-macnair/

http://daycoloring.blogspot.com/2009/07/jon-macnair.html

A very long process

Today I got word from artist Paulo Barros in Portugal that he finally received the artwork I sent to him nearly a month ago in our art trade. I guess the package I sent got intercepted by customs control and was being held captive. They sent him a letter saying he had to write a document of commitment of honor and then wait two more weeks to receive it. Craziness.........

But he has it at last and we can BOTH stop wondering about it. And he likes the work, which of course makes me happy.

Brief Tuesday update

Just wanted to mention what's been going on lately.

sorry, it's bulleted.

-all my art got to Double Punch Gallery in San Francisco this week (one piece had broken glass) in reasonable shape. I am thankful it was not more.
-got some nice emails from people and some art purchase inquiries.
-Joined The Honeycomb. I was invited to become part of this arts collective or sorts. You can read more about it here:
http://inthehoneycomb.com/
-got some writing to do for an application. I hate writing about art, but it needs to get done. I have procrastinated far too long.

That's all for now. More later. I am going on vacation on Friday and will be gone about a week. As much as I love drawing, it will be nice to get away for a while.

RUBY MAGAZINE

The new issue (#38) of Ruby Magazine is now online and I am in it! I'm really excited to be part of this publication, which has showcased tons of very talented artists. A bunch of my more intricate, larger drawings are featured.



The other artists featured are:
Nick Van Woert (USA)
William Edmonds (UK)
Carolyn Monastra (USA)
Liang-Yin Wang (Taiwan)
Joe Penrod (USA)
Katharina Trudzinski (Germany)

http://www.ruby-mag.com.ar/site/index.html

More boxes and bubblewrap

I just sent two boxes (20 pieces) off to San Francisco today with art for the Double Punch show. They should get there in 3 days if all goes well, and hopefully all in one piece too. I will be uneasy for the next couple days until I hear from them and know there was no broken glass involved. Ugh. All the more reason to start painting on cradled wooden panels. I will try to be optimistic though. It is UPS after all and not the horrible regular usps. They just don't care at all. I sometimes feel like they purposely handle things labeled "GLASS: FRAGILE" as roughly as possible. I used all the bubble wrap I had and really tried to cushion everything really well, plus not everything had glass. 11 out of the 20 pieces I sent had plastic covers, not glass ones. Also sent an art inventory with all the info for each piece, labeled each piece on the back, and made a labeled exhibition layout (suggestion) for the art.

Still need to send then images for the website and a bio. After that it's t-shirt design, zines, and applications.

"Consulting the Wise One" SOLD!

It was a long haul but I got all the artwork for Faesthetic done. It took pretty much a week (the alotted time) nonstop to do it, but I am proud of what I am giving them so it's all worth it. It's an excellent chance to gain exposure and I wanted to make the most of it. Also, I shipped a piece off to NY today that was bought recently.

pictured below:







Kinda sad to see it go (it's one of my favorites) but I know it is going to a good home where it will be appreciated and taken care of. Geez, it sounds like I'm talking about a puppy or something. Anyway, now that these two things are done I can get back to working on stuff for the Double Punch show, which is rapidly approaching. I also need to finish up a t-shirt design.

Today was a long day of drawing. I think I probably drew for 10 or 11 hours. My eyes are shot for the night. Making headway but it's slow. More tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Double Punch Gallery Exhibition Promo

This is the flyer for the upcoming show at Double Punch Gallery I am excited to be part of this month. I'm very happy to have my work amidst the work of such great artists!

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the opening because I will be in Colorado. However, if you live in San Francisco, be sure to check it out!

My New Stapler

I know it seems stupid to post an entry about a stapler, but I am ridiculously excited right now about this PaperPro Long Reach stapler I just got. It's awesome. Now I can staple zines! When I hold it I feel like I'm holding a loaded weapon or something. The thing is BIG. They recommend not having it anywhere near your face when you staple because the staples come out with such force, you could take your eye out. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, it was expensive (for a stapler) but I consider it a necessary piece of equipment. It's an "investment" stapler. Haha. Definitely an improvement to the crappy little mini stapler I had before.

I've been working on three things today. The shirt design for the band Unholy, the drawings for Faesthetic, and gallery stuff for Double Punch. Last night I organized what I imagine my section of gallery to look like by laying the artwork out on the floor. I took some pictures and tried to make it look as balanced compositionally as possible. Kinda tricky. Sent some images to the gallery to use on the promo flyer today.

Things are going slow but steady with the art for Faesthetic. I almost have one drawing penciled out. This stage always takes so long because I'm really starting from nothing and not sure how it will look. A lot of erasing.

Discovered a nice post about my work today on someone's blog HERE.

also found THIS.

Okay, back to work.

Lots of stuff happening lately!

-I got my artwork back from Fenario Gallery in Oregon today (relief)

-Working on a t-shirt/poster image for a band

-got word from Double Punch Gallery in San Francisco today about an upcoming show I will be in. JULY 25th. I get an 8' x 10' wall to display my work on. I need to decide what artwork to send. The show is called "We Are Awake" and will feature new works by John Casey, Nick Mann "Doodles", Shawn Wisenau, and me!

-Working on 2 of my own zines. This is a first attempt.

-Also, just found out today that I have artwork featured in the new TEST EVERYTHING zine. The theme was "I'll See You in My Dreams"

-Working on new stuff to be featured in Faesthetic! I got bumped up from issue 13 to issue 12!

Mail from Abroad!

I was very happy to receive this package today from Paulo in Portugal who I traded art with recently!

You can see more of Paulo's work on his blog HERE!


Included with the artwork was some stickers and a little painted bird.


I love this part of the painting with all the creatures, some familiar and some not. I like how the cat is playing with a little ball.


This is written on the back of the work. Nice little drawing too.


Here's a close-up of the little bird.

I gave in and paid to upgrade my monthly traffic quota so now my website is back online.

Off to Portugal! (Haha....no, not me)

Went to the post office today to mail something to Portugal. It's some artwork I'm trading with a guy named Paulo. It's sort of my first official art trade with someone I don't really know, so hopefully it will be a good experience that will encourage me to do more trades in the future.

In other news, I exceeded my traffic quota on my website, so now it's down for the rest of this month. Sucks. I mean, it's great so many people are looking at my work, don't get me wrong, but now no one can see the site until next month unless I buy a larger quota. Kinda don't want to do that, but maybe next month will prove I don't have to. I think I had an increase in traffic this month from two interview things I did and from being featured on illustration mundo. But on average I was getting about 53 mb worth of traffic daily. I remember when I didn't even used to get that much a month, so I'm adjusting still. Adjusting, not complaining mind you.

If I get as much as I'd like done today, I may even gesso some cradled wood panels and try to decide what to do with those. If not today, then tomorrow.

Framed art follow-up

A while back I sold a sketchbook page to a guy in Syracuse. I requested he send me a picture if he ever got the drawing framed, and he was kind enough to do just that! Mine is on the bottom right.

He said "Hanging next to your art on the left is a piece by an artist named Al Columbia, then a poster for a mexican siamese twins murder movie. Directly above is a heart of a young vampyre boy and a haunted doll."

I think it looks very at home on that wall :)

Commissioned Piece

gesso, india ink, gouache, micron pen on found paper
9" x 11 1/2"

This is a commissioned piece I did for my friends Nikki and Alan. They wanted it in the style of the other animal head portraits I had done with similar media. I don't normally do commissions in the style of a previous work, but they're good friends. I had some fun with this though. It's a portrait of their bulldog Cecelia.

FAESTHETIC!

Oh, I forgot to post my good news. On Friday I found out that I won an art grant from Faesthetic! Basically, I will have my work featured in their publication, Issue #13. If you don't know Faesthetic, you should definitely check them out. They are a great little art publication based in Toledo, Ohio. This is what they say on their website:

"Since its inception in 2001, Faesthetic has grown from a photocopied zine into a high-quality Arts magazine with international participation and readership. Originally an annual, we now release 3 issues a year.

Never to be taken too seriously, Faesthetic is made by artists, for artists. Not so much eye candy, as it is brain candy, Faesthetic supports making art for art's sake. From day one, our aim has remained the same: to provide an affordable, original and accessible showcase for some of the best creativity and new art the world has to offer!

We give the artists interesting themes and a limited palette to challenge and bring out unexpected results. Instead of focusing on ad sales, we focus on quality content. Faesthetic is currently 100% ad free!

We’ve been honored to work with some of our art heroes over the years, and just as honored to be able to help talented newcomers get some of their first printed exposure alongside established contributors."

This is a picture of the current issue.

Another Portrait

I'm still on this portrait kick, so I did this yesterday. I had an oval mat that I wanted to use, and I had an idea to do this for it. I'm really getting into drawing beards and different kinds of headwear. I like trying to think about the sort of materials these things would be made out of considering the kind of environments the characters are living in, and what would be available to them.

I mixed some brown ink in with the india ink to add some warmth.



India ink and colored ink on found paper
8" x 10" - oval measures 6 3/4"h x 4 3/4"w

NEW miniature portraits!

These are the portraits that I've been working on this week. Just finished painting and sanding frames today.

Just finished drawing a series of six mini portraits today. They are of the various characters I usually draw and maybe one or two new ones. I spent today doing ink washes and a lot of scanning. Then I did a lot of cutting, taping, gluing, using the hairdryer, and then more scanning. Now they're in their oval mats and ready to be put into frames. Tomorrow I will be sanding frames and then spray painting them black. I'm so happy I got this spray paint. It should make things a lot easier! Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny, so it should be perfect weather to do this.

Today I got a few things accomplished. I made a trip to the nearby Joanne's fabrics. Yes, it's full of old ladies buying scrapbook materials and silk flowers, however I got some good deals on frames. They were having a 50% sale on them. I also got some brushes for real cheap and some spray paint which I need for picture frames. I'd been painting them myself and I figured if they're black or white, I might as well spray paint them; far easier. So I went there and then came home and framed some stuff. I also am working on these little mini portraits right now. The main inspiration for that was because I have these little oval cut picture mats that I've been wanting to use for a while. I have 2 done so far and about 4 more to go. Well, 4 are sketched out.

Also, some cool news! I'm finally trading art with someone. Paulo from Portugal contacted me and asked to trade and I gladly accepted. Pretty cool! The internet is pretty amazing like that sometimes. I already picked out my drawing from him and I will draw him something to trade.

GOB Magazine

Today I have a mini interview on GOB Magazine's blog!

Check it out!

Framing

Today I spent a lot of time framing artwork. I painted a bunch of frames white and varnished them. I also backed some artwork and scanned some stuff. Overall a productive day. Here's a picture of the stuff I framed as well as a few process pics.

So I finished another drawing last night. I was having some difficulty deciding whether it was actually "done" or not, but in the end these things always resolve themselves. Since I've moved I've finished two drawings and completed my website makeover. So far so good. I think before I start some more drawings I should work on painting some frames and putting things in the frames. Also, I told myself that after I finished the drawing I was just working on, I would start emailing some more galleries. I just wanted to create something new before I did that so I could feel like not all the work was old work. It's always good to refresh the portfolio with something current.

There's a couple side projects I want to work on as well, but those will have to wait until the frames are done.

More updates soon.

Another sold piece!

I found out this week that I sold one of the two pieces that went to Fenario Gallery in Eugene, OR for the "Menace to Propriety" show. I'm really happy that someone liked it enough to buy it, even in these hard economic times.

If any of you are curious, the piece that sold was "The Abduction." (see May 10th blog entry for picture)