WFTE Illustrated Cover Work
This is based on a reference photo from Lynsey Addario’s Book Of Love and War. That book has a lot of great stuff in it.
I’m getting down to business on a cover for the illustrated edition of Waiting for the Enemy, and this is the first version of the cover that I did today. It’s probably going to make more sense to do it in oil or to clean it up in photoshop to make it look cleaner than this. I don’t really want to, but I am going to listen to the advice I get. Seeing a painting in person and seeing it reprinted are not the same, so I want to make sure that I make the best cover I can make. I also won’t really have control over the printing of this since it’ll be made available through amazon and that means if it looks bad, then it’s my fault and I can’t blame anyone other than myself. And I definitely don’t want to blame myself. Who wants to take responsibility for their own failures?
War Babies.
I am currently at work on some commission stuff, but I am also still working through these war baby ideas. I had an idea yesterday that I didn’t have much time to mess with until today. I want to do it as a physical painting, but I was already working digital today so I just kept after it.
This is a digital painting, and I hope to do a physical version eventually. The title is “Baby Steps”.
Bookcon 2024 Report
This was the only picture that Penelope was looking in the direction of the camera, but I think it captures the mood.
I am extremely thankful Tina and the girls helped me make Bookcon a priority this year. It’s been such a long time since I wrote anything that wasn’t aimed at making my kids laugh that I’d forgotten I had a bunch of other interests in the world of letters. I’ve talked with my friend Hugh J. Martin (a veteran and poet friend of mine) about coincidence in the past, and I do believe many of the “crazy” interactions we have in our lives probably aren’t all that crazy to anyone other than ourselves. But yesterday, my table was beside Jim and Marianne Zarzana’s. They were both great to talk to, and I’m grateful that is where Grace Downey and the crew at the library put me because meeting both of them made the day a lot more enjoyable.
The crazy coincidence of the say was not that I was seated next to writers at a book convention, but when Jim and Marianne left to teach a workshop for an hour, their friend sat-in for them to sell their books until they returned. Tom O'Grady was his name, and we chatted a bit about this and that before Flann O’Brien came up. I can’t remember how we got onto the subject, but Flann is one of the writers who helped get me through my Ph. D when I was nearing my wits’ end. O’Grady was not only a fan of O’Brien, but he’d written articles about him, and then he pointed me to The Parish Review where he has at least one article online currently (something about a pub O’Brien was banned from it seems; I wanted to read it yesterday, but when Bookcon was over, it was quickly apparent that I still had 3 kids and my wife had a conference she needed to pack for; reality dropped the hammer on me quick and hard). Then O’Grady mentioned that a friend of his had just recently completed an Irish language biography of Flann O’Brien and that this friend works at Notre Dame. So it seems there may be more Flann O’Brien in my future.
Okay, fine, Hugh. So you say this is no big deal. That could happen to anyone.
Then O’Grady brings up my military experience to see if I might be interested in learning that one of his daughters (of which he has 3, just like I do), happens to be a correspondent for The Washington Post for the war in Ukraine. Of course I was interested because I am in the process of returning to writing and making art about war and to have more information about the people it is affecting currently will help me to do a much better job of understanding it so that I can do my job better—be it in fiction, nonfiction or painting. So, offhand, I mentioned that I’ve been reading a writer recommended by my friend, Hugh. The writer is Luke Mogelsson, and O’Grady says, “Oh. My daughter is friends with him.” Now it is not surprising that two writers living in Kyiv writing about the war know one another because I assume there are only a few places where journalists stay, but still, it was a nice coincidence to hear that too.
Talking to a stranger about common interests was, of course, not the main goal of the conference, but I never would’ve had this opportunity to have this interaction if a bunch of things outside my control had not happened exactly as they did. The one thing that was essential for me to do in order to make this happen was for me to sign on as a participant in Bookcon and then for me to be there in the seat. It is a coincidence that I was seated next to a man with 3 daughters, who wrote about Flann O’Brien and whose daughter is friends with a writer whose work I am a fan of, and that this man was merely sitting at the table because he was “pinch sitting” (as he liked to say) for his friends while they taught a free workshop at the South Bend Public Library. But had I not said hello, asked questions, and then answered his with honest engagement then surely my time at Bookcon wouldn’t have meant as much.
I don’t want to merely spend time talking about coincidence because there was a lot of good that happened yesterday. My wife and daughters stopped by to say hello. I was glad to disappoint my daughters when I told them I hadn’t sold any books yet. I did walk away with more money than I entered Bookcon with, but I gave more copies to people I chatted with than I sold. Not a good business model, I know. But yesterday what I got more than anything else was a sense of the community that is right here in Michiana that I would not have known about if I had stayed at home.
A great moment was when Dan Breen of Pan-O-Ply stopped by the table to share the current issue with me and let me know that it is a magazine dedicated to local writers and artists. Since my main goal currently is to be involved in art and writing locally, there wasn’t a better person to meet. If you are a local artist or writer then you should check out their website and submit something. I will be soon. First I need to tackle a couple commissions so that my plate is cleared off before summer arrives and my kids start staring at me with wild-eyed wonder and saying, “Daddy, I’m bored,” at 6 a.m.
I don’t now that the folks who stopped at the table want their names scribbled onto the internet, so I will just say I had a few great conversations with people. A couple counseling students came by and gave me a lot of hope for the future with the way they talked about their goals, both of them working toward their degrees while mothering small children. I tip my hat to them because studying is tough enough when you don’t have little ones dependent on you. I talked to an ROTC student attending Notre Dame who plans to go to medical school after finishing her degree in Neuroscience, and I was again given hope for the future because anytime someone who is healthy, intelligent and hard-working chooses to serve the country in that way it reminds me that no matter what things may seem like if you watch network news; good people are doing good things in the world to keep the wolves at bay.
Another great moment was when a woman stopped by with her friends and (husband?) to chat a little, and I found out that her husband worked on A-10s. Those are, and likely always will be, my favorite planes. So it was cool to be able to talk about them for a little while. Yes a coincidence, but this also happened to me once when the guy installing my garage doors let me know that he was in the Air National Guard and is a crew chief for an A-10. There was a squadron based here in Indiana, but I believe they are getting shipped someplace else and being replaced with F-16s. Maybe that’s a story for another time.
Lastly Adam stopped by to talk. He is the library’s social media-er. I don’t know the full job title, but I do know that he had something pretty great to say about advertising. He and I commiserated about how gross it feels to “sell” yourself, but what he said was that doing social media work for this Bookcon and other library events was great because he gets to tell people about things that are free. And that made me pretty happy too.
It took a lot of people to make this event happen, and I’m grateful to them for their work. We are lucky to have such great libraries here in St. Joseph County, and we’re lucky the folks who work there are so engaged in bringing people in the community together to show that we have a lot of interesting stuff going on. It is a big world and there is a lot to be seen out there, but don’t forget to look around where you live too. There’s a lot more worth looking at in your backyard than the internet would like you to think.
Bookcon 2024 Saturday, 11-3
Tomorrow is Bookcon at the Main Branch Library Downtown. Click the Bookcon logo to see all the details at the SJCPL official website.
I have one more illustration that I hope to complete before I pack everything up for tomorrow. But as of this moment, I have quite a few things to show in addition to the copies of two of my books.
I’ll be selling my essay collection Operation Iraqi Freedom is My Fault, and I’ll be selling my book of fiction Battle Rattle and Other Stories (that book includes my Kindle Single Best Selling books Waiting for the Enemy and Battle Rattle as well as the novel High Desert Rats). All of the work is related to war and its effects on the families that participate in it. That’s what I spent most of my time writing about before my children were born, and now that I’m starting to get back into writing, it appears I wasn’t finished thinking and writing about that subject.
This is one of my war baby watercolors. Why War Babies one might ask. If I knew then I would probably stop making them.
The books will be 10 dollars tomorrow in person. Battle Rattle and Other Stories can be bought on Amazon for $14.99 at any time, but in order to get a copy of Operation Iraqi Freedom is My Fault, which is no longer in print, this will be the your only chance for a while. I have plans to try and get it republished in the future, but until then, these are the last ten copies that I possess. I will take cash, but I won’t have any change. So Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Pay all work for me if you don’t have a ten dollar bill, or a combination of bills that add up to ten dollars.
Watercolors and sketches are for sale as well. I’ll probably have a painting on display behind me from my War Babies series; that will be for sale too, and all oil paintings are 3 dollars per square inch. I’ll have it marked so you won’t need to bring a ruler and a calculator. Any pencil sketch is 60 dollars. Watercolors in 11x17 are $375. 12x18 is $435. One of these days I’ll have prints available, but for the time this is what I have and this is how it goes. I’m happy to discuss commissions too.
There is some stuff in the binders that is violent, so don’t let your young kids flip through there unless you’re okay with them seeing some comic book style violence. None of it is photorealistic or anything, but I don’t want kids to think they’re going to see Peppa Pig or something. This watercolor of the camel wrapped in Razor Wire is an example of the most extreme stuff in there.
Oh, and finally. If you do purchase one of the sketches or watercolors, then I’ll arrange to get it to you sealed and protected. I will not be able to hand it to you immediately tomorrow unless you are willing to risk walking out with it as is. If you buy it, and you choose to take it out of there unprotected, it’s on you. I am not responsible for it getting destroyed once you have paid me and received it. I’m sorry, but these are one of a kind, and that means if you destroy it, then it is gone forever.
I am working on some projects that do not have anything to do with war now, but it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be able to walk away from the subject completely. I would imagine that each generation believes their war is the last one. How could anyone ever be so stupid as to go to war again after X? Well, it has happened again and again, and I can’t recall who it was that Kurt Vonnegut was talking to at that cocktail party about anti-war books, but they were right. Anti-glacier books are the way to go if you want to write books that people can link to actual change.
I’m very grateful to Grace Downey for putting this event on, and I look forward to meeting some other writers in the community as well as talking with anyone who has the time and interest to stop by. I’ll be sketching, selling, signing, talking, and probably snacking at some point. Feel free to come by and flip through the portfolios and ask me questions or just chat about whatever. I’ll be there from 11-3. You don’t have to buy anything to talk to me. I promise.
Brown Eyed Babe Illustration
For the physical illustrated edition of Waiting for the Enemy that I’m working on right now, I’ve decided to include a few stories that were not in it in the past that were published long ago. This illustration is for “Brown Eyed Babe which was in Berkeley Fiction Review issue number 30.
The story is a kind of fairy tale, or as close to one as I’ve ever written, but it really does seem to have predicted the way my life was going to go. Or maybe it was just subconsciously guiding me where I needed to be? I don’t know.
Regardless, it’ll be in there as a little preface to the rest of the stories that are much more grounded in reality. I’ll add “Spectres”, and I think also “Deflated.” This way it’ll be the book I wanted it to be in the first place and it’ll give folks who have a copy of the old book an excuse to get this one too.
Boots and Bosnian Roulette Illustrations
Here is the final image for Bosnian Roulette.
Here is the final image for “Boots”
These illustrations are intended to one day be part of the illustrated physical edition of Waiting for the Enemy that I’ll make available on amazon later this year. If you are interested in seeing these 11x17 illustrations in color, this weekend will be a good opportunity because I will be at SJCPL Bookcon from 11-3 at the St. Joseph County Public Library Main Branch along with a lot of other local authors.
I’l have books and illustrations for sale. PayPal, Apple Pay are all preferred. I will not have cash with me to make change. The books are also available on amazon and you can contact me directly on the website for questions about buying original art and for commission questions.
Bosnian Roulette Illustration
Since “Book Con” is this Saturday, March 23rd from 11-3 p.m. , I have decided to illustrate one of my stories each day leading up to the event with the hope of doing all five from my collection Waiting for the Enemy prior to book con so that I have them with me for folks to look at in person when they come by. I’m not sure I’ll color them all. I am not totally sure what compelled me to color this one, but I started it, so now I have to finish it.
The goal will be to do these and then re-release Waiting for the Enemy as an illustrated version sometime before Christmas of this year. I’m not going to hard commit to that since I have other projects and kids and a wife and a dog and a cat and I believe I have friends that I should see once in a while. Anyway. I’ll find an excuse not to complete it on time.
War Baby (Quality Control) In Art Around the Bend
The Folks at the South Bend Museum of Art chose this painting as the one to include in the show later this year. I’ll post the rest of the details about the show later, but it’s going to have work by 75 artists from around the area, so it’s a great opportunity for people to see what kind of work is being made in our community. Of course I’d be honored if anyone went to check out my work in person, but it would also just be a good chance to show your kids that there are a ton of ways to make art that don’t look like Disney, Illumination or whatever. I’m not bashing those places; I am trying to make sure that my kids know that they can make art and that if doesn’t look like someone else’s style guide requires, that doesn’t mean it is bad.
I don’t know what all will be in the show, but I do know it was open to all forms of media. So I’m looking forward to seeing what other local artists made. It’s been a rough stretch here, but knowing this will be displayed someplace where people can see it helps to lighten some of the dark spots we’ve had to endure.
Bridge and Sunset Study
I’m working on a logo for the Street Medicine South Bend organization and in conjunction with that, I’m working on a larger painting that hopefully captures the spirit of the organization’s goals. But in order to do that I need to do some bridges and sunsets. I had about 35 minutes yesterday, so I was able to get this done in that time.
The main lesson I learned here is that I need to get some new brushes.
Snailiarty Eats Too Many Mints
For a long time I was concerned with separating the things I did, and sectioning off different things I did to maintain some kind of arbitrary “professional” persona. I’m not sure why I was so concerned with that, but I am done. I make a lot of different types of things. Some of those things are silly, and some of them are not (they might all seem silly to some, but that’s not my concern.)
I wrote and illustrated a few books for my kids over the past years, and I turned one of those books into a cartoon that I posted on youtube. I’m posting that here so that people can see that it was something I did.
Part of the reason I want to do this is because I think it’s absurd to chop myself up into a bunch of pieces in order to present different selves in different places. I don’t want my kids to do that, so I’m not going to model it anymore.
If you want to check out Snailiarty Eats Too Many Mints, voice acting by myself and my daughters, then here you go. It was, and is, one of my favorite things I’ve made with my kids over the years, and I don’t want to pretend that all I think about is war and the military despite writing and painting about it so much. Enjoy.
Submission for Art Around the Bend finished.
The deadline for submission for Art Around the Bend is March 1st, so I got it done. One of the 3 paintings I’ve submitted will be chosen for display at the museum for their local artist show later this year. So if you wanted a chance to see it in person and see some of the other work being shown by local artists, then you’ll have a chance to do that.
The three paintings I chose to submit are all military themed, and I guess it’s because that is what I have been working on and thinking about the most recently. They are all for sale, and you can contact me directly to arrange that.
If you buy the one that is selected to be displayed in the museum for the show, then I won’t be able to deliver it until after the show is over.
One Veteran’s Life #1
War Baby: Quality Control
Raid (For Hugh J. Martin
War Baby. It's Okay.
All right. I’m gonna be done with this I think. 18x24. Oil on Canvas Panel.
This will be, most likely, one of the two paintings I submit to Art Around the Bend. Depending on if it is dry or not, I may bring it with me to Bookcon as a display. Like all the rest of the work it’s for sale. The only caveat with this one is that if you wanted it, then you’d have to wait until after the contest is over since it is possible that it’ll be on display at the museum while the contest is on.
Naval Mine Park
I started work on a 30x40 painting of some boys playing around a naval mine that’s stuck in the mud. I don’t know what I’ll title this one, and I don’t think It’ll be done in time for submitting to the Art Around the Bend contest, but if by some miracle it gets finished then I’ll definitely do it.
This first photo is of my original sketch that I taped above before doing the charcoal drawing on top of the canvas that I’d washed with some blue and brown acrylic paint so that I wasn’t working on a completely white surface. I’ll have the sketch with me for sale during the Bookcon next month.
This is the second progress shot. As I worked on it, the UXOs became more a part of the story of the painting so I started to add some more. The way I see it is that the boys are playing here, and part of the game they play is that they dig UXOs out of mud and stack them up like blocks or something. There will be shelled buildings in the background. Some of the decisions I make happen as I am painting and some of them happen when I’m cleaning up my kids’ vomit.
Art Around the Bend Submissions
The South Bend Museum of Art is putting on an exhibit of local artists, and the deadline is March 1st. I got a bit behind last week, but today I was able to really focus and make headway on a couple of paintings that I plan to enter.
This top one is “A Veteran’s Life”. It’s a 16x20 Oil on Canvas Panel. I think it’s self-explanatory.
The second one is called “Quality Assurance”.
This is actually a slightly older photo. I don’t know for sure these will be the two paintings I submit yet, but I am leaning that way.
This last one is a watercolor that I did to get a better idea for a painting that I plan to do called “It’s War Baby”, but I don’t think I’m going to have time to get this done before the submission window is closed. I have no idea why I am compelled to paint these, but I do know that it’s been beneficial to get them out of my head and onto a surface.
SJCPL Bookcon 2024 March 23, 11 a.m.-3p.m.
Our local Bookcon approaches, and I have done little to promote it or to promote the fact that I’ll be there. I will be there and I will be ready to talk about my books and to sell you a copy of Battle Rattle and Other Stories. If you want a chance to get a copy directly from me, this is your best bet. I’m grateful to all who buy one through any venue, though. It’ll be 15 dollars for a copy from me, and I think it may actually be $9.99 on amazon currently. Not sure why there is a discount on it since I never authorized one, but I guess I’m not in control. Which surprises me none.
In addition to copies of my book, I’m hopeful that I’ll have about 15-24 illustrations in a binder for folks to look through, and I will be selling those originals as well. The pen and ink 11x17s will be slightly less than anything that has been colored, and if there are any commissions that come about, those prices will have to be determined on an individual bases. But do know that for paintings it is going to be something around 3$ per square inch, and illustrations vary quite a bit based on complexity and size. Don’t be afraid to talk to me about it, though. I still have to come up with a number I feel good about for these, but it’s not going to be less than 60 dollars. But you can still look at them for free.
I’ll post some of the illustrations in progress on the website as the time for the event nears, and I will look forward to seeing anyone interested in military fiction, non-fiction or military-related art. Don’t be afraid to say hello.
This is the pencil stage of an illustration titled “Naval Mine with Small Boys.”
Not Selected for Andersen Center Fellowship
I set a goal to apply for the fellowship. That required me to finish five paintings before January 8th, and I met that goal, and I applied and did not get selected. But this is a good reminder that I do not “need” the fellowship to continue to make art, and that I do not “need” the fellowship to know that my art has value. I hope those who are selected for the fellowship are people who do need the space and time to create the best art they can. I’ll keep on doing what I am working on here, and plan to submit a couple things for “Around the Bend 2024”.
One of my main goals this year in addition to looking for additional commissions is to build a stronger local community of artists, and that means I have to do things locally that help me to further that goal.
So I’ve got till March 1st to decide what I’ll submit to that, and then in March I have the South Bend Local Author Fair at the downtown library to get ready for as well. I’ll keep looking for more opportunities and contests that align with the work I am already doing.
I hope that the way I go about accepting this news and the way I use it to fuel my work going forward is a good example for my daughters. I got a lot of paint for Christmas. It’s time to slap it on some canvases.
Bazooka Jane
I have been having a lot of ideas lately, so in order to make sure I don’t lose them, I am making an effort to get sketches done for anything that doesn’t disappear after a night’s sleep. Most of these will end up on canvas at some point.
I started in on day 2 of this Bazooka Jane painting. Right now all I’m trying to accomplish is the rough block-in and making some lighting decisions. I feel pretty sure the girl is looking at something here, and I’ll figure out what that is once I spend some more time figuring the rest of the painting out. I decided to work on this so I could take a step back from “One Veteran’s Life” for a bit.
Lost Naval Mine and Kids
I am working on some illustrations to have with me for the Local Author Fair (I need to check the name on that), so that I can also sell the orginals while I’m sitting there convincing people to buy copies of Battle Rattle and Other Stories and also, possibly, Operation Iraqi Freedom is My Fault. All the inked ones will be 11x17 on Bristol board. The idea is to one day have illustrated versions of the books, and then do larger paintings of any of the stuff that feels like it should be bigger. This is one of the ones that I plan to do a lot larger and do in oil. I don’t know when I will get to it, but now that I have this down to this point, I am ready to get busy on the bigger one when the time arrives.
One Veteran’s Life
I am changing the title of this painting from “A Veteran’s Life” to “One Veteran’s Life” and, probably, this is going to be a series. So it’s gonna be “One Veteran’s Life No. 1” The reason is that I don’t mean for this to be mistaken as what I believe all veterans’ lives are like.
I’m gonna work on the baby a bit more. I want it to be small, but it might be too small right now for me to paint the pose easily. After the paint dries, then I can play around some more. I should probably just do a charcoal version to get it right. Maybe I will. Maybe I will just keep wasting paint.
The flak helmet still needs work, and I think I need to get some more anger lines on the soldier’s face. But each time I walk away it feels like progress.
