Mid-2022, I was commissioned to create two bookend racoons. The style and color was determined by several examples the client provided from various ETSY/Pinterest photos of other types of metal animal sculptures. "Panel" construction and rusted, not too realistic and not too cartoony. They wanted one racoon sitting, with its front paws raised over its head. (Like a thief caught in the act, or a "WOOT WOOT!" raise your hands in the air pose.) The second racoon needed to look like it was in motion, climbing down the books.
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​Before I cut and assembled the final metal versions (seen here in front of the Polynesian head), I wanted to make sure that the individual segments I created from my sketches would work when I started assembling them. To test my engineering, I printed out paper versions of each racoon and assembled those with hot glue. Lifesize paper models of the finished design assured me that my metal versions would work.

This was a fun project! And now those two scamps are living in their forever home in London, England.

​In 2014 I had the pleasure of getting a design chosen for the Downtown Colorado Springs Rotary Club's annual fundraiser, which at that time was called "Butterflies and Friends" and is now called, "CS Flight." This annual event has raised  hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Rotary Club and for Colorado Springs School District 11 art programs by calling artists to create designs for large landscape art butterflies (from a blank template they provide) which are then auctioned off to attendees at a gala event. 

​In 2015, the organizers approached me and two other previous year artists to create butterflies for the developers of the University Village Colorado shopping center to have 3 custom, permanent pieces on display at their property. The piece I created for them was "Spitzweg Yellow".

​German romanticist, Carl Spitzweg's 1840 painting, titled “der Schmetterlingsjäger”
(the Butterfly Hunter), inspired this design. It depicted a butterfly hunter stumbling across some giant butterflies in a tropical forest. I thought that it would be a nice homage as well as apropos since these landscape butterflies are gigantic.

​My vision was of a chunk of concrete -- a remnant from the prison, like a column -- with a battered cafeteria lunch tray atop it. Maybe the tray was stained with the blood of its victims. Maybe it had a comically distinct impression of a person's face embedded in it. Embossed in the concrete slab were Walter's immortal words.

​I knew it would be nearly impossible on my budget and in the limited time I had until the exhibit's intake (9 days) to pour a column of concrete the size of which I had in mind and then have any hope of it curing in time or of me moving it, so I decided to scale down the idea to the size of an end table. I built a form frame out of two-by-fours and heavy particle board, designed to support the concrete and a flexible sheet of Lexan plastic, which would serve as a smooth, curved surface for the front of the piece onto which I would set letters for the embossed quote and credit. (Plexiglas, I learned, broke when bent around a curve this tight.)

For a pour this smooth, to maintain the integrity of the embossed letters, I went with Portland cement and sand, which provides the optimum strength while guaranteeing a smooth finish and reduced air bubbles.

​I added a cubby hole to the back to help reduce the weight of the piece and also so the owner could make use of the space (for their Rorschach mask, grappling-hook pistol, fedora and overcoat).

​The letters were laser cut wooden craft letters, which I hot-glued to the Lexan, upside down and in reverse, since I was working from the top down. I used hot glue so the letters would not pop off under the stress of the Lexan being bent when inserted into the form frame.
​I ordered the stainless steel lunch tray online from a restaurant supplier, beat it up with a sledge hammer and welded a peg onto it so it could be mounted in a hole in the concrete and appear to be balancing on one corner.
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​After curing, I hand painted the embossed letters with black acrylic.

Well, I have fifteen of my Facebook friends' birthdays left for the year. Those fall on eight days, so technically, only eight doodles remain to be posted and I've already drawn five of them. In fact, SIX friends are on just two of those days, December 14 and December 22. Quirky nonsense doodles, some of them and some so far have been winter-themed, since I tend to stick to snow-related themes when I'm looking at snow falling outside my window.
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[Come to think of it, I believe I have a friend whose birthday falls on Christmas Eve, but it's not showing up in the Events/Birthday list on FB, so he must not have the birthday notification set up. Hmmm... do I break the rules? Maybe. Just maybe, for Christmas.]

Like I said in my last blog post, I was hoping to have some of the doodles leap off the page. I guess I took myself a little too seriously with this one. So much happiness. That little amphibian is jumping out to give a big birthday hug!

If my calculations are right counting upcoming birthdays for Facebook friends--and barring any new friends coming on board--I only have 24 doodles to go before the end of the year. Eight of those are already in the can, waiting for a birthday to pop up.

A couple of my new favorites are in that batch of eight, not so much for their great cartooning, but for the expressions of joy and sheer weirdness. Like one that has a happy dinosaur being "fed" a birthday present by a time-traveling mad scientist.

I'm a little sad that this project is coming to an end. It makes me want each of my last sixteen FB birthday doodles to really leap off the page. But, sticking to my original rules, no pressure, just fun!

November is upon us with its cooler weather and leaves blowing around in the streets. Last week, after being particularly happy with how this doodle of a pickle on stilts turned out, I decided to create a new series of FB birthday doodles this month, titled "Happier Than..." as in, "I hope your birthday is happier than a pickle on stilts," or maybe, "I hope you are happier than a taco chugging Tabasco Sauce on your birthday."

Maybe they will make sense. More likely they will be non sequitur, which is OK because that makes me chuckle. Both, non sequiturs and the phrase non sequitur make me chuckle. Like duodenum or underpants. They're funny. Hmm... another idea just popped into my head. Vegetables wearing underpants might be a theme for later this month!

So, I decided to make a slight change to my birthday messages in 2019. This year I am doodling a random birthday cartoon and posting it on friends' pages. To keep it fun and spontaneous, I draw the toon right out of my head, sometimes add color, and don't care about fine-tuning, content or recipient. Then, when Facebook tells me it's somebody's birthday (or multiple peoples' birthdays) I post the doodle on their page.

The rules I'm giving myself on this project:

1. Fast draw, quick ink, no computer clean-up besides scanning.
2. Only post where people have allowed Facebook to announce their birthday (except in the rare cases of very close inner circle friends whose birthdays I know)
3. Don't look ahead. I do the drawings first and the doodle falls to the next recipient.
   
4. On days where the birthday is shared, they share the image.

It's not every day that someone I know on Facebook has a birthday. Once a week, three a week, one on a given day or multiples. So, there's no "draw one every day" pressure.