Hurry up and slow down, or where the Canteloupes roam.

Artwork and Branding in progress

"Panda Cavalryman" is the latest 4 inch by 4 inch artwork in my wood panel series.

I have been all over the place as of late, working on new illustrations, trying to get new ideas down on paper and started, fighting with the drivers on my graphics card not liking Windows 10, and all kinds of updating my branding standards and items.

All new fabulous branding stamps, courtesy of the amazingly awesome people at www.rubberstamps.net!

I still have a lot of artwork to add to my online store, and boy will I have a lot of new art at Planet Comicon along with what I hope will be my new final complete booth setup, and one or two new works (one of which you can see a small preview of below) at the upcoming Chicano Arts Festival.

Giants at the Nelson Atkins Art Museum

I wish that 1. my lawn was bigger, and 2. that I had the money to have these sort of things built and installed on it.

I cannot imagine the planning involved to have taken these and created them in three dimensions.

I haven't been able to swing in and check out the museum shop, but I hope to all heck they have a making of video of this effort! Aren't these just freaking amazing! If you are in the KC area, you must go check these out.

My absolute favorite was the one on the right above.

I love how the sheer size of these makes them feel like some Easter island sort of sculptures, like long forgotten pagan gods. In my head it felt a bit like what I imagine it was like for some of the actors on the Lord of the Rings must have felt like interacting with the massive puppet of Treebeard the Ent.

Art supplies for a new project

I love my local Utrecht store (yeah yeah, I know it's Blick art now)

Ever since I started using Montana and Alien paints in my work, I have loved that I can pick up new fat caps for the cans to maximize and vary my work output and paint jobs. I also ended up picking up a new linocut tool for the project below.

The Strormtrooper helmet from ToysRUs was procured on my last run up there, for what I hope will turn out to be a very cool little custom art piece. I will have a few other images on my Patreon page, and a series of videos showing time lapsed carving on this sucker of the feathered Aztec serpent and some other designs.

The image you see on the right above was about seven hours into it, in a very rough state. So much more to do with it, if all goes well with it.

Take another piece of my heart...

Just a few that are waiting for transport to other animal rescues, or for adopters to come and save them.

I've had more than a few fosters that I have taken care of for a few evenings, and most all of them hold a special place in my heart, but there were three, one especially whom I got so attached to in just two days, that were older dogs, all dumped off from the comfort of their home at a pound in Arkansas.

If these eyes don't tell you a story, then you have no heart...

I don't know or care who owned these three prior, but Lil Bit, as the sweet 15 year old beagle above was called, captured my heart and then broke it when she had to go and be reunited with her other two companions from her previous home up in a new rescue in Iowa. I probably would have adopted her if I could have, and she so reminded me of my old dog Violet who passed away just a few years ago. For being 15 years old, this little girl is a firecracker, and within hours had claimed the couch as her own, and made this grown man cry like crazy when she left. I remember every foster I have ever had, and I will not ever forget this one.

I always hope that I don't depress people with my animal posts on here or Twitter or anywhere else, but I also remember that, especially on this site, animal rescue and the things I've gone through, hell they things that THEY have gone through, DO affect my art.

One cannot create in a vacuum, and everyday elements weave their way into the art and stories I tell.

Sunday with animals

Being a bit depressed, I decided, that would not do, and was grateful for a chance to go to the KC Zoo. I'd not been in quite a while, so I was happy to see that new exhibits that were larger were in place, and that major plans are underway to expand and grow the zoo to better facilitate and educate people there.

Nothing wrong with a bit of bird color to swoon the eyes, and some sea elegance on display to soothe the mind.

I'm not one to want to correct people, actually that's a lie, yes I am. The only thing that drove me nuts during this visit were the parents, some of them, that maybe didn't know anything about a particular animal when asked about it from the children/spouse they were with, and these are some of the insane things I heard...

1. While in the crocodile house: "Dad why are these crocodiles not moving?" "Well, these are not the big man eating ones, these are specially bred crocodiles that are domesticated for this display."
2. While looking at the hippos: "Honey, why isn't there a bigger fence around these?" "Because hippos aren't dangerous like our wolf-dog is, you know how our dog will rip off an intruder's face? Hippos just eat seaweed or something."
3. While nursing a migraine from the first two, now standing by the jellyfish tank: "Mom, these jellyfish have no brains, I bet they would die in the wild..." "That's good! Yes, you are right, and here's a funny fact, if you ever are swimming in like a pond and see one, pee on it. Yep, kills them, according to Animal Planet."
4. While waiting in line for the new AirTram: "I don't want to ride it. It's too high!" "It's fine honey, if we fall, I brought my pepper spray. Cantaloupes (this man was meaning ANTELOPE, in reference to the Onyx herd, but now all I can picture are $%&#ing cantaloupes running from passive aggressive hipster vegan lions) don't like pepper spray."

Number four almost made me want to jump off the tram (also to demonstrate that the FALL from a height of 30 feet or more is far more dangerous than the herd of round horned fruit that was evidently below us), for the part of the human race that just never decided to learn, read, or absorb any information after the age of seven.

I seriously want to come dressed as Ant Man on Halloween and pose with this giant ant in the tree of life sculpture.

I seriously am getting some great new material for my stand up comedy act just from going to places like this and listening to the masses exchange... "knowledge".

So as I close out, please remember to be kind to your fellow beings, support your local artists, bring headache medicine and a sense of humor to the KC Zoo!

-Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Update: Small short film I did from KC Zoo added.