6) The Collaboration Project -began July 2018
This is a project that came out of a personal experience within the social services system. I thought I knew a lot about the invisible trials & tribulations my community faces. I did not know anything. This project was designed to work with non-artists for a deep look inside of their experience, and to give that experience a visual image. The overall goal is 90+ images intended to be printed in book format at project completion (expected sometime 2020). Here is the project link that was utilized. This project as intended was upended by the Covid pandemic. The project was put on hold for so long due to the Pandemic, I do not know if it will be completed as intended or returned to as it now stands.
5) Odd Freelance Illustration & Fine Art Projects
Movie Sketchbook- Defying Gravity, Magazine Illustration, Children's book on Facing Fears (unpublished), RIT NTID theater poster, CJR Magazine Illustration, Toast Art, Book Cover, (Curated) 2005 Women's Invitational Exhibition in conjunction with the Women's Hall of Fame (Batavia NY), Magazine cover and interior Illustrations, Skeptic Magazine, One of 4 illustrations for the Travel Channel show "the Dead Files, Bra for "Bravo for Breast Health" -Thompson Breast Imaging Health Center: U of R Strong Health (the buttons bra won an award, and was done by my wife Christie), a 2024-25 YWCA of Rochester wall art project using parts of a wall from a temporary emergency shelter to create inspirational imagery of women.
3) Old Reclaimed Creative Furniture/ House Art
1) Comics & Sequential Art
2) Demonstrations
Fairport High School (mixed media to digital/sketch to digital), Monroe Community college (perspective charcoal), Victor High School (charcoal, paint to digital), older MCC Comics & Sequential Art single pages. The rest are older college class mixed media painting and drawing demonstrations from RIT, Nazareth, GCC, and MCC
Odds & Ends of my artistic pathways
These are some odds & ends that I do from time to time.
I have a lifelong love affair with comics, and at one point thought that is what I wanted to do. I soon learned that through an 8 page trial and error of pencils for 'Shadow of the Bat', it was not my life's purpose. I also taught (1) Comics & Sequential Art at Monroe Community college a few semesters. I have done (2)demonstrations as part of teaching for many years. I occasionally like to tackle (3)reclaiming old furniture and home areas to work on a creative reimagining. I saw a short film on an island in Mexico, Xochimilico; also known as island of the dolls. I have always enjoyed the look and concept of the wear and tear of time on materials. It tells a story. So I started saving things, and have an always evolving (4)sculpture in my backyard. At first it was just letting things age, but then it became a lot more about me and my life. And lastly, every once in awhile I take on a (5)unique freelance Illustration or Fine Art project. I have created a sketchbook for a movie, sketches from mediums, and had artwork used in a few odd shows, and a (6) collaboration project with non-artists focusing on subjects often hidden and invisible, with a book in mind at the end. (7) the best of Inktober 2014- and many month long art challenges.
7) The best of month long art challenges 2016-
Each October there is an art challenege, a list with 31 prompt words is put out. My first year was 2014. At first, I mostly followed the rules- ink. But as years passed, I added to the materials. Along the way, My wife Christie started "Penci-uary" (January), and I added "Mixed Media May". After year one, I still use the prompt- but use any materialsI want to make the art. In 2020 (of course, because why not- everything else happened that year) Inktober had some controversy. It's a long story, but the creator of the challenge really angered a lot of people that participate. So, I renamed my month long challenge to: "art31" 31 days of art-making in October 2020.
Alan Gordon
"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."
4) Backyard Sculpture
Time keeps going. It does not ever stop, it never lets go- and it shows on everything it touches. It's a little bit of death, and a lotta bit of story. I gravitate to the horror, the creepy; the wear and tear of stories otherwise lost. Regardless of why I chose to use dolls, I did. Leaving them outside to wither, rot, and fall apart. Letting nature do the story telling. And then, after a few years, I decided to add some chapters of my own. Combining the uncertainty of being raised in a house with alcoholism, and a love of the unknown and horror. Struggling to get beyond the first steps in any relationship. Feeling tied down, broken, lost. I am using nature as an element of chance and as an eraser, and objects to retell my story because words lose their meaning. And this story just keeps on going on. Each spring is rebuilding and finding new meaning. My blog has a few entries on this project. As of summer 2020, there is a second installation with a completely different concept.