Back to School (P/GD)

I'm midway through my nursing program! It feels like I just started school, and then it also feels like I started school about 100 years ago. Below are some graphics I made over the past semester, just to prove I've still got some skillz, and I still find ways here and there to be creative. Thank you to everyone who's supported me through this - three more semesters!

Hotter Than July (GD)

A congratulations image I sent to some li'l genius in NYC who just opened her art show in NYC called Hotter Than July, a celebration of all things sexual. It's up May 2 - May 9 if you're in that area. For more information or to check out some hot porn artistic images, CLICK HERE. Congratulations, Savannah - now get some sleep!

(I) Thank You, 5A!

It's the end of another semester of clinicals, our semester-long hospital rotation. This semester, nine of us were at SF General for our Med-Surg I clinicals, with my team of three assigned to Unit 5A. It's my third semester, and definitely my best in terms of feeling comfortable, learning a shit ton, and liking the nurses I worked with. There's just no good way to properly thank a team of nurses for being open to having students - it just makes a world of difference, working under professionals that actually want to teach you. The above illustration is a poster design that we put up in the break room, along with an ample supply of coffee.

Thank you 5A, and see you next semester for Med-Surg II! Woot!!

Win some, lose some... (I)

Not every project works out the way you hope. I made this at a request from a friend who told me to do whatever, which means I put her and her friend in a horror/suspense film context. She didn't get the reference, so she didn't use the image. Ah well - I like it anyway. Do YOU get the reference?

Wedding Bash Invitation (GD)

My incredible brother is getting married at the end of this month to his girlfriend of eight years and the mother of my beautiful niece. As my wedding gift, I made the invitation. Tiffany wanted a western theme. The skull in the image is a picture of one hanging on my mom's garage, on the property where the wedding is to take place, and the flowers are natives to California and Hawaii, two favorite states of the bride and groom. Their festivities are going to be casual and fun, and I'm very much looking forward to bearing witness.

I Love New York

Precious

I just want to walk this city, always
The background blur in a thousand photographs
Gliding along with all the old ghosts of me
Whose sentences begin with, "Do you remember...?"
And I answer yes, no matter the truth

I take their hands, hot with their exertions
I can feel the birds in their muscles
Suddenly they need a different train
They're on the wrong street
They're gone, but they never go far

Their hearts are stuffed with old Time Out pages
The free events circled
They breathe coffee
You can play them the whole song
But they'll only hear the last line

                                             -New York City, 25th and 9th
                                              14 January, 2014

Happy Holidays 2013! (I)

Hello all! Thanks for all your support this past year! Despite the pressures of nursing school, I've managed to put out some fairly deece things, I hope you've enjoyed them. And I fulfilled my resolution to publish at least one thing a month! Yeah!

Above is the image I made for my holiday cards this year. The creative process is fascinating to me. Being a largely untrained artist, sometimes I have to let the pencil do what it wants, and either I like what I see or I start over. Forcing a design out if it's not coming is just painful. This year was like that; I had a really different image in mind, but I couldn't make it work. (It was a little alien sitting on a wall looking at a star, but it kept looking like a giant penis with feet. Not so Christmasy...or not the holiday vibe I was going for.) So I started doodling, and this li'l weird dude came out with his floating cats. Huh.

Happy New Year, everyone. Everyone here at Owl_Henry (which is just me, of course!) wishes you a happy and safe holiday wrap-up. See you in 2014!!

(I) Super Ed!

The image on a thank you card I designed for our cohort's class rep, who always works so hard for us. I used zazzle.com for the actual card, and I highly recommend them. Thanks, Edward!

 

Happy Birthday, Sonja! (I)

Holiday card design for my dad (I)

My dad asked me to design his Christmas cards this year, so I made three. I chose three symbols of our family's favorite place, Big Sur: a sprig of lupin, a redwood cone, and a golden eagle's feather.

If you'd like to purchase some for yourself, or another of my various holiday card designs, please check out my Cafepress site.

Chris of Thrones (I)

Christopher and his dog Echo are way into Game of Thrones, and that's okay. Here's a portrait I made of the two of them as John Snow and Ghost for his birthday last month.

Halloween Radness 2013

Another year, another birthday...the radness continues. Here's last year's image.

Lillian's First Birthday Party! (GD)

Two very dear friends from my grad school days are quietly raising your new favorite presidential candidate in Bakersfield, CA. Yesterday she celebrated her first birthday! Below is the invitation I was commissioned to make for the celebration. If the party was half as delish as the lovely Lillian, I'm sure it was the party of the year. Where were you??

Happy October! (I)

Two images of myself I recently created for my Facebook profile, which has become my artistic medium of choice. The first is my yearly tribute to Halloween and the best month of the year. The second is me as the vaguely-psychotic nursing student I've become. Below those two are some photo references I used. Happy Fantastic, all!

She Creatures (I)

Another year, another show poster project for my high school teacher friend! This year she's directing a play called, She Creatures, and my main objective for the poster was "KEEP IT SIMPLE!" I have a real problem with this, year after year. Last year's blowout for Dr. Horrible was a lot of drawing, a lot of layers, a lot of time spent. My own fault - I have a specific vision, but I don't work very fast, and there's probably shortcuts I could be using in Photoshop. The big nightmare was Midsummer a few years ago - man, that was epic. But ultimately, I was really, really happy with both of those.

She Creatures is a somewhat abstract piece involving various mythological creatures climbing out of Pandora's famous box into their individual vignettes. A phoenix, a gorgon, a sphinx, a shapeshifter, a dragon, a selkie, a unicorn, and a mermaid all have their uniquely-realized scenes. I made the beasts into primitive cave drawings, which I think makes them more mysterious - a sense of the familiar and unfamiliar at once. The light bursts around them make them look a little like constellations, and I like that (unplanned) aspect of the piece. The background photo is a room in my mom's house, a bright red wall that felt right, and the box is actually a fancy tea container. I love this design - simple and eye-catching. Boom.

Check out the other posters I've created for the Mira Loma Black Box Theatre by clicking below:
All In The Timing (2009)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2010)
Almost, Maine (2011)
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - The Musical! (2012)

Morty raps! (Audio)

Morty raps. Your summer is complete. (Click the pic to listen.)

Nursing School Project (I)

People keep asking me how nursing school is. The truth? Kind of awful. The program is excellent, the teachers are knowledgeable and friendly, and I couldn't have asked for a better cohort of fellow nurses. But the amount of information I'm expected to cram into my head and actually retain? Terrifying. I'm excited to be a nurse, to have graduated and found a job (which, according to everyone I've spoken with - only a small percentage of whom are nurses - will be no problem), to be able to come home at night, plop down on the couch and watch Mad Men without worrying about all the homework I'm avoiding...that's the dream.

Below is the image I created for a final group project in last semester's Pathophysiology class. Nursing school is intense, but I have to say I'm loving all the information I'm being exposed to, all the questions I'm answering (even if I have to look up those answers five times). Hopefully it'll all stick at some point and I'll be saving lives in no time. Pray for me.

S.O.F.A. 5: "The Fall" (V)

The S.O.F.A. series follows a Survivor Of Fabulous Attachments as she attempts to live her life without gays. The ever-excellent Heather Louise Mack allowed me to co-star in this one, which you can watch by clicking the picture below. Want more S.O.F.A.? Click on the links at the end of the video to watch the other four, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates! Enjoy!!

The Goat (I)

My good friend Michael Shipley makes his San Francisco directing debut with his production of Edward Albee's 'The Goat.' It promises to be excellent, so get out there and support, San Friscans! (Oh, and I did some artwork for the promotional materials.)

K is for Krakens! (I)

The niecelet turned 2 a few weeks ago, and her grandmother wanted a t-shirt design to celebrate this historic event, something involving krakens, perhaps...? This one was a wee bit rushed, but that doesn't mean I love that kid any less. Release the Kaiya!!

Viva LOVE! (I)

I like to pretend I'm not into love, that my little black heart doesn't even register that kind of thing, but secretly - and I want this kept strictly on the way down low - I'm a sucker for people pairing up (or whatever your particular algebra is in your relationship) and committing to each other. And sure, sometimes I feel like that little crippled kid in the Pied Piper story that can't quite keep up with the rest of the group and gets left out of Candy Mountain, or the last unicorn that can't get on the ark 'cause Noah's all like, "Listen, we're doing couples, dum-dum," but mostly I just feel a very quiet joy when people I care about find people they care about.

This image was for a card I made for two of the most wonderful men I know and their recent engagement. Congratulations, my friends - I wish you all the happiness you can possibly cram into your lives!

Waterman (GD)

I designed this image for a t-shirt celebrating my epic brother's participation in the most recent Surfabout competition in our home town. I like that's it a picture of my brother taken by my dad and put on a t-shirt by me, so we all come together in that way. Want one? BUY ONE!

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen, 1920 - 2013

Man, if there's a guy more responsible for shaping my imagination when I was a wee, I can't think of him. I don't typically get upset when wonderful people pass away after long, wonderful lives, but it does make me pause and think how blessed I was for their presence. Jason and the Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and, of course, Clash of the Titans were all pivotal visions for me. I watched them over and over, especially at Christmas time when they always seemed to be on TV. I was too young at first to really pay attention to anything but the amazing creatures, but there wasn't all that much more to these movies anyway. Well done, Mr. Harryhausen. Rest in peace.

Shining Me (P)

My new medium is the Facebook profile pic. All praise Photoshop!

Good-bye, Robbie. (I)

My wonderful friend Robbie departed SF for a choice career move to New Orleans. My present for him was decorated with this image. Kind of a rush job, but I like it.

I miss you, kitten!