It's story time!

Do you think it would be fun to write a story and use some of my drawings as illustrations?

You do? I knew it. You are so great!

Here's the link: http://storybird.com/dwell-deep/
Have fun!

Love,
Sam

p.s. Tara Lazar wrote this one and it's pretty funny (at least i think so!)

Pie in the sky

Did you know I miss you?
I really do.

I'm sorry for everything too, you know.
I see both sides, you know.

I hate that I've hurt you.
I hate that you've hurt me.
I hate that you won't forgive me, even though I am so so sorry.

I hate that we are all three so self-destructive.
Were you always that way?
Was I?

I long for everything to be right.
For peace.
For my self not getting in the way.
For no more regrets that hang like heavy heavy bags of sand on my ankles.

[thud, thud, thud.....silence.]

Pie in the sky?
No, this is real.
This is no dream, it is coming.

or it's here.



love,
sam

p.s. if you click the image and then click "all sizes" above it in flickr, you'll be able to read the words on the original illustration (they're separate from what i wrote here.)

mermaid!

i'm still working away on the nesting dolls...

and busy with some other side projects.....

so, that's right! you get to see my sketchbook!

and yes, that IS a mermaid. it's okay, she's amphibious, so even though i didn't draw any water, she's surviving just fine there with the rest of the land-dwelling creatures.

love,
sam

the swift current

i am a mess today.

big heaping, tangled, knotted, jumbled up mess.

crazy crayola scribble.

there are things in my life that i would very much like to control, which sadly, are out of my control.

there are also things in my life seemingly within my control, which sadly (again), i seem to be effing up.

it's like i learned to juggle and then just kept adding more and more balls until that critical point where they all start falling out of orbit like large pieces of hail.

it's hailing expectations and to-do list items around here.

and i bruise so easily.

love,
sam

heaping, massive, enormous shop update

well, that was a teeeeensy bit of an exaggeration, but i did honestly put up a lot of goodies in the shop today, including:

3 paintings
2 styles of journals
3 styles of cards w/ envelopes
1 new limited edition print

so there you go!

love,
sam

moleskine doodle

inspired by a wolf parade song... i promise more goodies are coming tomorrow!

love,

sam

p.s. sorry to all my twitter friends who will find this "old news"... but then again that's part of the fun: you get to see everything first!  :)

daily illustration

well hello there!

here's Robot Accordion Man... just for you! this is an actual daily illustration, not just from my moleskine like i'd said...

how is this possible? you ask, remembering how i said i was short on time.

well.

turns out i have more time than i think when i don't spend the whole evening playing with my new iphone. (insert sheepish grin here.)

love,
sam

daily illustration

well i hope everyone had a great labor day weekend. we did (see post below for evidence of apple picking!).

i am freelancing away from my computer all week, so posting might be a little lighter... and since i won't have time to do full out drawings, you're getting views inside my sketchbook :)

enjoy!
sam

daily illustration

today's is just a quick little illustration of a favorite g.m. hopkins quote (thanks to the morgans for getting me a book of his poetry a few birthdays ago).

the in-laws are in town for the holiday weekend, so i'll be out of pocket until tuesday.

hope everyone enjoys some non-labor on labor day!

cheers,
sam

daily illustration

there was a huge storm that came through town last week and destroyed many of the trees in the northwest corner of central park, where i often take my afternoon walk.

i came upon a particularly large, freshly-cut tree stump and was compelled to count the rings. 83.
i stood there on the stump for a bit, thinking things over.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

my father died two years ago today.
it's really weird-feeling. hollow.

love,
sam

p.s. the daily drawings are still up on my flickr, where i had first dealt with my grieving.
also, you can view the above illustration larger by clicking on it and heading over to my flickr.

daily illustration

a poem about blowing your nose.

salud!
sam

p.s. you can view it larger on flickr by clicking the image.

i made a book.

you can go see it on flickr. i recommend clicking the "i made a book" box at the right of my page to read it in order... they got all crazy when i uploaded them.

p.s. what would you be/do if you joined the circus?

i'm not here.

i float through my days, feet never touching the ground. i float down my street, across the town and in my apartment where the ceilings are high, i float way up to the top.
and i'm touching everything with rubber gloves so i don't leave a trace - because i'm not really here.

i'm in 1988 playing scrabble with my father. 1989: raking up leaves on that interminably long driveway and my father is shaking his head at me while i am screaming about caterpillars, which truly frighten me. i'm in the garage in 1997: sitting in the front seat of the jetta, which itself sits on blocks, as my father takes apart the struts and shocks and puts them back together again from memory, only to realize he forgot a piece, so takes them back apart and puts them back together again, a second time.

i'm in 2007: a few months before he died, cutting and laying stick-on linoleum tiles with him in the tanning salon while visiting from florida. i am coming up with a good solution for fitting the angled end pieces, and i think he is proud of me for it. we always bonded over problem-solving. that, and our dry sense of humor... mostly enhanced by my mother's theatrical tendencies (which i also inherited, much to my chagrin.) but we had the common sense and the sarcasm to ourselves.

it was hard for him to watch me grow up. it was hard for me to watch him grow old.

so i'm not really here. i'm floating. i'll be back soon, but i just can't tear myself away.

illustration

she always had this one recurring nightmare...

daily illustration

although the odds were stacked against her,

what with her shyness preventing her from participating in class discussions
and her teachers' doubts about anything getting through her "thick skull,"

she was, in actuality, a very good student.

daily illustration

she is really shy.

she gets a lot of stares. and questions.

you wonder to yourself, how might that be, having a pumpkin for a head?

she'd tell you: it's fun at halloween, but for the rest of the year it pretty much just sucks.

daily illustration

almost didn't make it on this one... had an illustrator crash, but here you go!

daily illustration

so i figure if i want to be an illustrator, i need to practice right? so i'm starting another daily series... of illustrations. whatever pops in my head.
here we go!

sam

unicycle

i really like this little lady....