The Brand Is Your Mind
I spent Thursday and Friday watching high school students compete at State Skills USA in Grand Island, Nebraska. These are kids who …
The Brayer and the Razor
I almost shaved my face with a brayer this morning. Let me back up. Many of you know what a brayer is, but for those that …
Joyful With a Soulful Mourn
I am not a man who cries easily. But there was a moment standing in the bleachers of the Stormont Vail Center in Topeka, face painted …
Smoke and the Unnamed Thing
Ugh. Re-reading this through the editing process is…not really uplifting. I almost thought of not publishing it at all because it seems …
Common Ground: The Hunt for the Right Images
The last time I wrote to you about Common Ground, I was still in the intentions phase, the why, the process, the Bali residency and what …
The Graveyard Was Never a Failure
Earlier this week I came across a short video that opened with a phrase I suspect many of us have used privately about ourselves: a …
The State Medalist Portrait Series: An Introduction
I’ve been teaching art at St. Patrick’s for a while now. Long enough that the room feels like mine in the way that only …
The Rose That Knows It Will Fade
I heard the question before I understood why it mattered. A friend asked it casually, the way you ask something when you already suspect …
At the Speed I’m Actually Moving
The week has been rough. Not in a dramatic or catastrophic way. Just rough in the quiet, persistent sense that comes from holding too …
Making at the Pace of Human Life
AI assisted image creation Tio custom moodboard MJ I love to journal. This week I journaled more than normal. Not for content. …
The Studio as a System
Digital Art Goes Rogue September 2023 I’ve been circling an idea I thought I had put to rest, publishing another magazine. Not a glossy …
Common Ground: Why These Images. Why This Process. Why Now.
Gordon Parks Photograph, August 1942, his first assignment for the FSA. “Ella Watson, a charwoman employed by the government in …