Best Friend Now Published Best Friend!

My BFF Troy Little has recently been picked up by IDW publishing for a hard cover version of his graphic novel Chiaroscuro. The serendipitous turn of events came about when Troy contacted his comic inspiration and closet-Feminist Dave Sims, creator of Cerebus, for a foreword to his hard-won book. Mr. Sims wrote a thesis on why he wasn't going to do it and published Troy's Letter and his response to it on his blog, The blog and mail posting. Dave gave Troy a lot of praise but felt that Troy needed to establish himself first and then associate himself with the dirtiest of the dirties of the comic world, lest Troy hinder his comic book future. Fair enough Mr. Sims has tons of comic book street cred, he supported himself doing comics. He also has some very stauch beliefs about "the ladies" and this gets him into a lot of shit. He's allowed to say what he wants we live in a free country. Once Troy gets established (2nd printing) Dave will reconsider writing him a foreword. That's totally cool, something else to be hard-won and I believe Troy will get there cause he's hardcore. Regardless, Mr. Sims published response on his blog garnered the attention of IDW president and Cerebus fan Ted Adams. Teddy received a pre-copy of Troy's book, liked what he saw and contacted Mr. Little to talk. The rest is history. Troy now has to pick out cool things like ink and paper stock. Hooooweeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! Those are probably some of the sweetest decisions to make, like what kind of ice cream do you want. Anyway I am proud of Troy, wish him the best, and am completely inspired to go out and meet my artistic fate. The book is intriging and we should all go out and support this emerging artist. Check him out at www.meanwhilestudios.com.

Woebegone Sea Dog Finds Shelter In Siren's Song!

Delayne Corbett's 2nd Place winning sculpture, "Catch of The Day" captured my imagination. It's been a long four weeks laddies. The sculpture contest went off without a hitch. The theme was PEI and we had a lobster, a kitchen party, St. Dunstan's Basillica, a Viking, and a boat and mermaid. The Sculptors had 3 days and most worked through the night warmed only by passion of the art and cinamon schnapps.

New Improved Gloves For Hard Working Snow Monkey; Moral Improves Dramatically!

Corey works hard and we kind of need his hands pink and fleshy instead of black and flaky so:
Before.
















And, after. He went on to stomp many a box. Corey is also a ninja.

Suprise, Suprise Something Else Manages To Explode On A Fracking Freezing February Day!

I didn't do it. I had nothing to do with this. It only looks like something I would have something to do with. I'm innocent, I just took the photos.

Holy Crap! Giant Pile of Man Made Snow!

Thousands of gallons of water
Massive Hydro bill

65 dollars and hour to rent

60 hours of continuous snow making

Taste like shit

Lamp Submitted For Northern Lights Awards Fine Craft Contest

The Nothern Light Awards are awards for American travel writers who write about Canada. They asked Island Artisans to submit pieces to be juried for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards. This is my submission. Mahoganny and hand blown glass, wed together.

I got a lot of inspiration while doing this piece. I normally do a very oriental, symetrical design. The glass in a cube form on a wood base. But I tried to do something different, mainly because I didn't like how my first design hid the wood. I put the glass in a new configuration with a lot of empty wood space. The "kite" figure of glass and the "empty" wood space achieve a certain balance. The wood also plays a more prominant role. You can see the grain pattern. The mahoganny is also 2 inches thick. Heavy. Present. I think the result is interesting and opens a ton of new possibilities. There will be more "versions" of this lamp. I want to colaborate with a glass artist who can slump (melt glass into forms) and fuse glass. I was so excited I scribbled ideas on the wall just so I wouldn't forget.

I hope I win!

Feel free to order your own make out lamp.

Use it up, use it up. Don't save a thing for later.

Late Night Visit To Fire Department Yields Snow

Last Tuesday night we were determined to make snow. We had the snow gun, we had the cold. We had the fire hydrant and the high pressure pump and we had them sheltered. What we didn't have was the proper PEI hose thread to Ontario hose thread coupling. Mel (My boss and comrade) took a trip to the old Charlottetown Fire Department. Winston, a bespeckled and and massive fire-gentlemen greeted us and our confused ramblings about thread and water leakage with the cool look of a man determined to make some Jack Frost magic. He grunted, he prodded, he asked exasperated questions. Two trips later we had our solution. We hooked up that snow gun, fired her up and when the first flakes fell...

Two very, very happy supervisors. And we were all happy. I learned something about fire hoses and visited a fire station, Winston (our hero) saved the day and got a coffee and donut. Allen the "Snow Man" (He runs the snow machine) was happy to see it running and begin crafting snow. By morning there was enough snow to begin work. A week later there is a pile of snow 30 feet high.

let it snow. Some water guy, me, mel, kim and Allen the snowman.