2014: The Year in Review at DREGstudios!

Strange Days, strange days and a few more strange days filled my life and art "career" over the past 12 months.  I've been drifting back in and out of calling what I do a career.  Is it a career? a hobby? a passion? a lifestyle? a daily therapy session?  Monetarily, my art brings home only around 5% of my income (on top of my day job in the marketing biz) so am I an amateur? Alas, the problem with labels, titles and positions in life muddying the waters.  All I know for sure is I take solace in my work no matter the storms I'm weathering.  I find home at my drawing table and find hope in the universal art spirit.  Thanks for tuning in with me.  Here are some highlights from 2014 at DREGstudios...

The Gift of Art

Grandma with her portrait of Jesus

This year for Christmas, I invited my immediate family over to the house for Aurora and I to host a fun-old-fashioned-family Christmas! This was a treat because its the first time in quite a while we'd all been under the same roof together for such an occasion.  I gave all the family members copies of the C is for Clarksville on the Cumberland book I recently had artwork featured in.  I also created custom portraits and artwork for all my guests.  I was scrambling to get everything framed before Christmas Eve and forgot to scan all the illustrations.  Fortunately, my sister got some great pictures of everyone holding their new eye candy!

FOCUSED dOOdle

This past week dealt some changes to my general outlook on my life and my future.  No matter how hard we plan and chart our course, our footfalls the next day seem to be guided by more powerful forces than our own ambition.  Sometimes we find we've been focused on the wrong things and have to step back in order to re-align our thoughts.  Today I'm feeling a bit like my older self and remembering to keep the child-like wonderment of art, friends and fun in my life.  The Universe puts certain folks in your path for guidance when you need them.  I experienced such visits over the weekend which helped get my sight grounded again and realize I was already home and already where I needed to be the whole time.  Looking forward to the holidays with my loved ones and to the journeys ahead next year...

5th ANNIVERSARY

Today is a pretty special day here at DREGstudios.com.  Exactly five years ago, I made my very first blog post.  It was another 18 months or so later when I decided to convert my existing website completely over to the blog format.  In hindsight, I couldn't be happier with the results of consistently updating my friends, family and fans of the day-to-day workings of my craft.  Art is my hobby, my therapy and my passion.  It's a religion which drives and revives me.  It's my medicine and encompasses a great deal of my own personal sense of worth and accomplishment.  Writing has always been my second love and this blog has served as another outlet in itself fusing my words with the images I create.  Thank you for taking the wild ride with me and here's to 5, 10, 20 and 50+ more years sharing the joy of art with you and your fresh eyes!  Knowing you are there keeps me going... 

Topsy-Turvy: More than One Way to Skin a dOOdle

The Grind dOOdle (Changes)

Everything changes, even when you're running in circles.  The cycle expands and contracts and facilitates its own change by push and pull...


"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."

~ Confucius

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."

~ William Blake

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

~ Henri Bergson

PIG'S HEAD SOUP (The Outrage of Justifiable Homicide)

Much of the general public here in the United States is in a reactionary mode rooting from the continuous and seemingly warranted executions of minorities by Police Officers.  How do we deal with the outrage caused by these high-profile deaths?  How do we bring attention to the issue of addressing racism and fanaticism within our broken and misused Justice System?  From the extreme of looting and burning to the targeted peaceful protests which shut down the traffic of major cities, citizens are crying for help.  We are crying for help because the people who are supposed to protect us are at war with us.  They are armed with military-grade equipment and shielded by their job title from prosecution when they break the very laws they are employed to enforce.