February Inspiration

It has been nearly 7 months since my last post. I got bored with blogging about things and feeling like I was locked into a box of having to update the blog every week. I got lazy, stopped making weekly art, and gained 30 pounds. Maybe the reemergence of this blog is my attempt to make more weekly art, to document my inspiration, and to be more productive overall. Lately I have not been jumping into art shows just because I could. For now I am just focusing on MAKING art and building a better body of work that actually reflects my ideas and style. I recently picked up an unpaid illustration job for a food magazine. The project was to create two pieces illustrating the story of a guy going out to get pad thai after nearly getting shot in his apartment. I can almost relate to the story considering we live in latino gang influenced community. Pilsen for the most part is pretty laid back, but it can have it's moments where you want to get out of the hood. But back to the illustration project, a color limit of black, white, and chartreuse was given. I think putting a limitation on the project really helped it come out better than if free-range was given. Once I got down to actually drawing, I pumped these out in Illustrator in under 2 hours.

I like the way they turned out. Sometime in March I will know if they for sure will be used for the story and will get a copy for the near future. I will update more once I know.

Finally to document some inspiration I recent came across. And no, not all of it is art related. Lately the Juxtapoz Magazine blog has been inspiring me significantly. The Occupy movement is pushing my art direction. Some spiritual videos I found as well as some documentaries we found on Netflix have given me ideas to build upon. Here are a few to hopefully inspire you as well.

SUPAKITCH & KORALIE - VÄRLDSKULTUR MUSEET GÖTEBORG from elr°y on Vimeo.

I absolutely LOVE the line work in this mural. I want to know what paint markers they are using!






This sculpture by Thomas Jackson. It's plastic cups floating in a very vibrant forest. For some reason the contrast of green forest with bright colored cups draws me in then I reflect upon playing in the woods during my childhood, building forts out of fallen trees, mud, and leaves.

I am obsessed over how great this digital illustration is. I want to learn how to do this to my illustrations.

Post-Apocalyptic Cover Illustration | Timelapse from DEISIGN on Vimeo.

I recently found this video series that talks about spirituality and how mathematics, dimensional theories, and conscience play an interactive and interlocking role. This is 95%, almost exactly, how I think and what you could consider my religious views. I love math and how things connect.


Hope you liked everything. Look forward to some tutorials coming on my process of different art techniques. I plan on illustration some of my girlfriend Courtney's fiction writing as well. Hopefully this will be a fun weekly process maybe even a weekly web comic is to come! -Chris. http://theunholyharvest.com

ello blog world,
I never update this nowadays. I am trying to find more time to do so. I never think stuff I do is important or relevant enough to blog about. Anyways here goes my attempt at blogging after being away for a couple of months. Sorry if my thoughts flow randomly around with no direct connections. What should I even talk about? hmmm... I guess I could talk about my recent trip to the Field Museum with CourtKaz...aka the lovely and beautiful girlfriend, her mom, and sister. Or I could blog about how I am trying to get my mom up to Chicago to visit us for her birthday. Possibly even talk about my adventures riding fixed gear around the city, and my attempts with Court to implement things in the book "No Impact man"... eliminating trash, consuming less, cooking more if not all meals, and our attempts at growing our own organic produce in our Pilsen apartment.

Frankly, I am too lazy to write about tons of stuff like that. I like photos and links way more. So what I will write about is what I am up to today.

-cleaning.
-Subway lunch.
-grocery shopping.
-cooking chicken and shrimp carbonara with homemade bread.
-watching Black Swan with Court.
-working on the zine/ sticker packs


I am working on a few new paints. I am looking into opening my own gallery with my income tax check. Tired of writing.
Hasta luego!
-Chris.

Someday it's Sunday

Today was my day off from work. I usually try to be productive and I am usually for the first 2 hours after I wake up. Then I become bored being in the apartment all day and just end up watching tv or browsing aimlessly around on the internet. However today I decided to update my website and blog. I started designing a new website, for which I purchased a new domain name. (theunholyharvest.com)... it will be basically a portfolio site of all my artwork. A place where people can go learn about me as an artist, explore my style, and checkout my resume. The link is now live, so please check it out and spread the word!


Speaking of new things... I ordered a new bike Thursday night. I had to get a new bike because my schwinn frame bent the rear dropouts and axel the other day when I went out for a grocery store trip. The entire rear wheel locked up. I guess that is to be expected considering it is nearly a 40 year old bike with original parts. The new bike is a fixed/singlespeed flip hub. I am going to put my riser bars on the bike when it arrives. I have been constantly tracking the package through UPS which states it will be here at the apartment Tuesday before 8pm. I am so excited. Hopefully the weather here in Chicago becomes more spring-like. Courtney is ordering a new bike as well.

This summer will be so epic.. late night bike rides through downtown and to the beach.


Even on bikes, its hard to go to Target and pick up groceries and 34pound boxes of Fresh Scoop cat litter! We usually just ride the 18th St bus with tons of target bags full of stuff we bought...such a hassle. So recently, Groupon was offering up a Zipcar deal. We got a free year membership and $30 in driving credit all for $30 (a $70 original cost). Zipcar is basically a carsharing program large cities have. You just reserve a car for a particular time, use a special card to open, then just drive it around from the various lots they have throughout the city. Rates are around $6-$10/hr. I highly recommend it to anyone in the city. Our particular car was a Kia Soul ( the one from the hamster commercials).

My zipcard wasn't working so we had to call customer serivce. Zipcar has amazing customer service! Once in it was really fun to drive around. It was the first time I have drove in Chicago. Courtney was a bit nervous. It was a great experience however.

While we were in the zipcar lot near racine and 18th we discovered a World Gym there. We were 30 minutes early to our reservation so Court decide we should go checkout the membership rates. We ended up taking a tour of the gym and now she has a membership there. It was fairly cheap. I will probably get a membership as well, just so she has someone to go with. It is definitely a hidden gem of a gym! Above the gym is a loft building. We found it online last night and it looks veryyyy nice. It is a bit out of our current budget at 1300/month considerably higher than the 700 we pay split 3 ways now. Nonetheless it is still amazing and still in Pilsen. Here are a few photos of the condos we are interested in:



On the art front, I made my first sale of the year. An old friend from school contacted me via Facebook wanting to buy one of my new pieces. It was an abstract piece I did, added a stencil by graffiti artist DOLK, and wheatpasted some text... basically an experimentation of color and composition. This painting is on a long journey. Chicago to Seattle. It's nice to get my art spread out in homes around the country. States that currently have a my artwork include... Illinois, Tennessee, Cailfornia, Kentucky, Wyoming, Mississippi, Arkansas, New York, and soon to be Washington... plus an international location of Berlin, Germany. Its mainly tourists that would come into the gallery I used to work at in Memphis. Hopefully I can get more work out there. I price my stuff fairly low to do just that... I want my art to be afforable and young people like me being able to have a piece of original artwork. I know I could never afford gallery pieces that I would see. I didnt own an original piece of artwork from another artist until a couple years ago. Checkout my website ( http://theunholyharvest.com) for purchasing work from me directly. Most prices are posted on there and it links you directly to my Paypal account for purchasing with a debit/credit card.

I am trying to be more productive. Recently I came across this website called Illustration Friday. Its basically a forum for illustrations to get a weekly topic to make a piece based on that particular and random topic as well as getting feedback and exposure. I plan on doing the projects every week. I even went out to Blick downtown and picked up 6 sheets of illustration board. This week's topic is "LAYERS". I am still not sure where I am going with this one. I will be sure to post on Thursday or Friday.

Oh, and I thought I would add in a cute photo of Courtney:


Have a good week, everyone.
-Chris.

Snowpocalypse.

Hello,


I have been busy working a 9-5 warehouse job since November and have not had much time to blog about my art/life. Hopefully I will be investing in an iMac by the end of this month thanks to my beefy tax refund check. This warehouse job isn't something I want to do forever, yet it gives me funds to save and build my studio, make more art, and possible finish up school.

Courtney and I recently invested in a new television. We needed one since our tube tv went out and we had just got a Wii with wii fit to stay in shape during the winter. We randomly just went to BestBuy in the south loop and bought a used 40" HD flatscreen. it was a bit of an ordeal caring it without a box in the back of a taxi to our apartment in Pilsen. Its so awesome! I have never been one of those people that were all geeky about HD and technologhy, but I am so stoked to have this. The other day I went out and bought a Blu-Ray player at target so we can fully utilize the HD capabilities. So far we have added to our Blu-Ray movie collection 1 movie per day! Inception and Couples Retreat.

Couples retreat really made Court and I want to travel to Bora Bora.

It doesn't even look real its so beautiful. I might not be able to afford Bora Bora, but I thought at least I could afford my amazing and beautiful girlfriend a nice dinner for Valentines day in 8 days. I have been looking around and all restaurants are booked full. The ones that have openings are charing 120-200 bucks for a couples reservation/dinner. We both work that day as well, so I think we will just cook something new and French at the apartment and exchange gifts. Our limit is $35. I have still not found what I am getting her. Everything I want to get her is over $35. She likes the color purple, fixed gear bikes, timbuk2 bags, good books, writing, tina fey, tattoos, burlesque, cute dresses, knitting, glitter, mac makeup, etc.... any ideas???

On art related topics, I had a botched show in Lakeview. I wasn't really prepared nor where they. I have learned from the experience however. I have been dedicating more time to painting, slowly growing my portfolio and ETSY shop. A new website is in the works as well. I found this cool portfolio site for artist called OtherpeoplesPixels.com. I highly suggest it to anyone who makes art. Its a 14 day free trial and $16 a month thereafter.

I created one of those digital barcode things. (QR code image)


If you scan it with a smartphone app, then it links you stratight to my new website. I will be adding these QR codes to the back of all my paintings and new work, as well as business cards.
Hopefully it gets more traffic to my site and links, possibly resulting in more income from my art. Currently I have no major illustration projects or shows, so I am taking small gigs.

I am offering up blog banner design/illustrations for $25. Any size! Ad design for $10. message me on my website to inquire.
My paintings are for sale like always as well... Here is a small preview of what will be going up for sale as soon as i finsh them up:








Oh and I almost forgot, why I original began this blog... to show photos of the epic snow we got the other day here in Chicago. The following are photos from Court's i-phone from the past few days as we watched the snow pile up over the cars. Even Oliver and Nico were amazed. Check the photos. Being from Tennessee, this snow is ridiculous! 3rd biggest blizzard in Chicago history! 21inches over 24 hours.






Neways, off to watch the game and wait on Court to get home from the bakery.
-Chris.

Snowpocalypse.

Chicago is getting SLAMMED with snow right now. I got out of work 2 hours early...and even though it usually only takes me 20 minutes to get home, it took me an hour and a half. While outside is wreaking havoc with thunder, lightning, insane winds and inches and inches of snow, I was able have a productive evening making art.

Expect it up in the ETSY soon.

I also found a new website to create a website on. So far I really like the look of it and it's a great portfolio site for artists and designers. CHECK IT OUT!!

The snow storm outside has created a lot of great photo opportunities. Courtney took the photo above when she ventured into the storm. Then I snapped this photo of our cats on the window sill watching their first huge snow storm.


I'm thinking it's going to be a snow day tomorrow. Court already has a snow day called and I don't know about work for me yet...

Good night.

Blog Block

I have been attempting to blog about several major things going on in my life recently, yet I can never seem to sit down and write up a blog post about it. I just have to be in a particular mood to write out a post. Still have not quiet figured that out. Maybe it is the fact that I use my girlfriend's computer and I think if I had my own computer I would blog more often, as well as investing in a good quality camera to upload photos easily and make the blog more visually pleasing. But nonetheless several things have been going on since I last wrote a post on here. I turned 25 on the 12th. It was somewhat surreal. I never really thought of myself being 25. Everything is great though.


Courtney and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary on the 22nd.

It doesn't feel like a year has passed at all. When I first really hung out with her, we were in Northwestern Memorial for a small surgery she had. I did not want her to be alone so I went with her scared out of my mind that she would be alright. Now nearly a year has passed and our love is going strong. So many great times shared. Living together since May, getting kittens together which are growing big everyday. We recently purchased MegaBus tickets to go to my parents' for Thanksgiving. First time Court will be meeting my parents. Hopefully it goes well. My parents have never really saw any girls I have dated before, so it will be cool to have her there for the holiday. Plus I have not been home to Tennessee in over a year. I do miss my family, and the older I get, the more I cherish them. I understand family life more. It should be exciting as well because the fact Court has never been to the SOUTH! I cannot wait to show her around like she did for me in Michigan. We have also made plans to travel to her parents' for the Christmas holiday. I have already met her parents and family during our summer vacation up a few months ago. I really like going up there. Its like I have a second family there. Hopefully during our 12 hour holiday traveling, I can get some drawings in the sketchbook.

A few weeks ago I signed a contract with Studio Within for a January solo art showing. I have yet to really do anything for it. They have two floors of space which comes along with tons of wall space. I want to find a particular style to show, yet it is so hard for me to pick a certain style of painting. I am all over the board...abstract, surrealism, illustration, graffiti, photography, ceramics, etc. Time is constantly ticking and I am feeling stressed. I want to make lots of money yet also want to have fun painting. I plan on getting a few sheets of birch wood and making 12"x12"x1" wood panels to paint on for the show. One sheet at Home Depot makes 32 panels... all for under 50 bucks. I am sure the month of December will be a sleepless one.


I started an Etsy shop for my art a couple of weeks ago. Only three paintings are uploaded so far, but more awesome things are to come soon...sticker packs, t-shirts, prints, stencils, vinyl art toys, etc. Check it out. All my stuff is priced for a down economy. I know its hard for me to afford art, so I am sure it is for most people as well.
Hopefully this motivates me to make more art, as well as brings in a steady revenue.

Tomorrow I start my 2nd job. Somewhat nervous on what it will be like. Its just a wicker basket warehouse supply company, but first days at anything are awkward as it is. Hopefully it will go well and I can bring in some extra cash for awhile. I would really love to save up a bunch and start my own design business from home. Maybe buy a desk and a mac, some adobe software, and tons of books to learn since I cannot afford to attend illustration school like I have always wanted to. I guess if you have enough determination you can make it in anything. Maybe thats just what poor people say to make themselves feel better. =P

But yeah, I will try to blog more, write more, post more art on here. I have really been slacking. I am 25. I have to get the ball rolling ASAP!

Adios!
-Chris.

Goodmorning,
I fin it strange that goodmorning is not really a word until you separate it into two works... good and morning. I guess the English language is kind of crazy anyways. Probably not a crazy as Oliver running wild around the apartment meowing and making bird noises. This morning Oli and Niko where both cuddling in bed with Court and I. The sun was shining brightly through our double-windows. It was a great start to the morning. Today is our 11 month anniversary of dating. One more month until the magic 1 year mark. Pretty exciting. She just started her LID diet (low-iodine). She must be on the diet for 3 weeks due to her yearly scans relating back to her thyroid cancer a few years ago. Sometimes I forget that she went through something at such a young age; I no longer see the scars. I only see her beautiful face looking back at me. I remeber the first time we really hungout hungout was when we went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to have a surgrey on her neck related to her cancer surgrey three years prior. Staying at the hospital, sleeping on a mini pullout chair when I barely even knew this girl. I just knew I didnt want her to be alonne there and I want to try to make her happy. Funny thats pretty much how our relationship started...I am still making sure she will not be alone and make sure she is happy; or at least that's what I am trying to do. However she will say it started Halloween night or so, Or even the day we rode the redline to Evanston to get paint markers where we almost went to jail from doing tags on the train. Fun times. Anyways out of support for Court, I have been doing the diet with her. Of course I do eat a bit of chocholate here and there just because I need sugar somethimes. We made goulash last night. It was pretty good actually. Tonight I am going to make a potatoe and beef stew. Maybe pick up a bottle of wine since it is our 11months!
Other than that, not much is going on. Still job searching. Making stickers for sale. Working on new illustrations for a salon/gallery show in November, finishing up some commissions too.
Here are a few photos I will leave you all with (stickers I made last night) and a finished commission for Karen:

15"x20" acrylic/marker on illustration board.

Here are a few Stickers:






Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be back updting here on Monday.
See you later,
-Chris.