i will destroy you news

Friday, October 14, 2005

The Blot Show!

My visiting artist show and lecture at The University of Tulsa went really well. I managed to make it through my first gallery talk without making too much of a fool of myself. I'd never given any kind of lecture before, and have managed to avoid talkingabout my art for most of my life. But, I guess it's inevitable that you have to do something like this someday...Though I was really nervous about talking, I was lucky to have my interview with Rich Fisher for the local NPR station, KWGS, that morning. When I was a student at T.U., my part-time job was engineering and editing Rich's interviews for the show, Studio Tulsa. I never thought that someday I'd come back as a guest on his show, but it turned out to be a really great interview. Rich is really good, and it helped that we're old friends. So, the interview eased my nerves about the whole experience. I managed to babble on about my art and stuff for a 30-minute interview that aired the morning before my opening. Then, that afternoon, I gave my gallery talk to about 50 students and teachers and other Tulsans who came out for the show. I was still a bit nervous, but I managed to babble on for another 30 minutes, or so. Many students had questions, and a few other attendees, including local artist Tom Pershall, had some interesting questions and things to say about my art. I should have prepared a little better for the event, but I guess i managed to wing it pretty well. I'm glad that my first experience as a visiting artist was at my alma mater, where everything is familiar. Some of my old teachers and friends were there, and it made the whole thing a lot easier and even a little bit fun... And now I have to go give another lecture next week at the San Francisco Art Institute. The show looked great... I took a bunch of pictures before the opening, but unfortunately, many of them came out a bit blurry (I don't know how to use my mom's camera i guess). The gallery's lighting is so good it makes my paintings look better than they really are. And I was really happy to see that my comic pages looked good on the wall. Normally I'm not much of a fan of comic art hung in galleries, but I think it came out pretty good. Thanks to Teresa and Mary for helping to put the whole thing together. Thanks to David and Steven for doing a beautiful job of haning everything. And a huge thanks for my old prof, Virgil, for making this show happen. Unfortunately he didn't get to come to the opening because he had surgery the day before. But luckily I got to go visit him at his home while I was in town.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Check out my friends: Part 2

Okay, this guy isn't an artist, an animator, or a cartoonist... I'm sure anyone who would be on my site probably already knows him, but I thought I'd post about him anyway...

Greg Saunders is a helluva guy... He's my best friend and all that crap... But he's also the man behind the best little political blog around- The Talent Show, and he's the co-writer/co-director of Brother, Can You Spare a Job? the anti-Bush political cartoon that I animated in 2004.

About 10 years ago I was at a diner called Village Inn in Tulsa, OK. I went to the men's room to wash my hands, and there I found a guy who was washing a Conan action figure in the sink and laughing. He then looked at me, pulled a string in the back of the Conan figure and it started rapidly moving it's arm as if it were masturbating. The man holding the doll started laughing hysterically and ran out of the men's room. I was a little disturbed and thought perhaps the guy was a bit challenged.

A couple of weeks later I met this guy again, and it turned out to be Greg. He wasn't retarded or crazy, just a guy with a great, though sometimes warped, sense of humor. We soon became best friends and were inseparable for all our years in Tulsa. When I moved to San Francisco, he moved to L.A. and began working at Disney as a systems administrator for their websites. When I finished school in S.F. I moved to L.A. and he helped me get my job at Disney.

A couple of years ago he started his blog, The Talent Show, and he is brilliant. I read it first thing every morning. He also posts regularly at This Modern World, the blog of the political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow. Greg recently got married to Kristen who makes cool purses and stuff. (and i designed her logo, too!)

Check out my friends: Part 1

Taking a cue from my pal, Patrick, I'm going to start regularly featuring some of my friends and other artists who I think deserve more attention. I'm gonna post about them in no particular order, so there's no favoratism or anything... Some of them are artists, some cartoonists, some animators, some are all of the above...

Anyway... Since I'm taking the idea from Patrick, I'll start with him.

Patrick Morgan is one of the first people I met when I moved to L.A. and started working for Disney. Not long after I started there, he left to begin the life of a freelancer. And a couple of years later, I did the same.

Currently, Patrick is working as a background artist and character designer for a new Nickelodeon cartoon: The X's. He aslo got me on board and I'm proudly working, with him, on my first T.V. cartoon. Though Patrick is working primarily as a background artist on this show, his real strength is in character design and caricatures. He recently published his first hardbound sketchbook that serves as a great portfolio of his range of talents. He's also been working on developing an animated series featuring his own character, Whaleboy.

One of the things I've always admired about Patrick is his constant drive and hard work ethic. He never stops... And he's always working in his sketchbook. And now he has a new art blog where he's posting lots of stuff from his sketchbooks.

Patrick has been a HUGE help to me in my freelance career. Most of the freelance work I've found, in the last 3 years, has come through him. I owe this guy so much, he doesn't even know. He has always been a great friend, an inspiration, and an enourmous help to my career. Check out his book and the next time you need a character designer for an animated series, give him a call.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Back from Tulsa

So, I survived my first time as a "Visiting Artist" on my trip to the University of Tulsa. I had a great trip, saw a lot of friends (some I'd forgotten) and had a good show at the gallery. My interview by Rich Fisher, on NPR's Studio Tulsa, went really well. I think I pulled off the Gallery Talk okay- there were about 50 people there, and I babbled on for over 30 minutes about my art.

I'll post pictures of the show and the opening in a couple of days. Until then you can enjoy this shot of a new chain of convenience stores in OK. The Kum & Go where you Pay at Pump.

Monday, October 03, 2005

iwilldestroyyou.com updated!

I've finally managed to get the comics section of my site put together. There are lots of sample pages of several of my comics, previews of upcoming projects, and many other miscellaneous comics-related things. And links to where you can get them.

www.iwilldestroyyou.com

More to come in the future!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

shows, interviews, lectures... YIKES!

I'm giving 2 lectures and an interview this month!?!?

First- I'll be interviewed for the KWGS NPR show Studio Tulsa on Oct. 6th. When I was a student at the University of Tulsa, my student job was a recording engineer for this show, hosted by Rich Fisher. Now that I'm having an art show at the University, Rich has asked me to be a guest on his show. I think it only airs locally, so if you're not in Oklahoma, I don't know if you can hear it. Which is probably a good thing, because I'm not even sure if I want to hear it.

Second- I'll be giving a gallery talk at the University of Tulsa's Alexander Hogue Gallery before the opening of my show next week. The talk is on October 6th at 4 pm. The opening follows from 5-7 pm.

Third- One of my professors from the San Francisco Art Institute, Richard Berger, has asked me to give a lecture for one of his classes. That will be on the afternoon of Oct 21st. Not sure what time. S.F.A.I. is where I got my MFA, and Richard was one of a few teachers who I really liked while I was there.

So... now I have to figure out what the hell to say.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Links...

I finally figured out how to add links to the sidebar of this blog. It's still in progress, and I'll be adding more of my friends and sites of interest as I think of them. Please check out all my friends' stuff.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Ottawa Report!

I'm back from the Ottawa ’05 International Animation Festival

It was a helluva week. I saw a lot of amazing animated films and met a lot of really cool people. It was scary and nerve racking to see my cartoon on a big screen, and left me feeling a bit humbled. But I feel inspired and determined to learn more about animation to make my own films better. Anyway... here are my thoughts on some of the highlights of the festival... Warning- I'm not really a good writer, just giving a sortofa book-report on what i saw.

Let's start with the Feature film category...
It was a big disappointment that all three of these films were really really bad. I think they should not have given out an award for Best Feature this year. If I had to choose one, I would’ve given the award to the Estonian film, Frank and Wendy. Frank & Wendy had some good stuff in it, but it was tedious and too long. It would have been much better had it been chopped up into a series of episodic short films. It’s failing is that it doesn’t work as a feature, but I did enjoy many of the episodes within it.

Empress Chung had a few moments as well, but mostly it was a big turd. I was skeptical going into this film, but I hoped to see something new. I suppose some credit is due for it being a first in Korean feature animation, but it suffers from too many horrible Disney formulaic clichés, pathetically realized characters, and bad t.v. style animation. Let’s call this one an unfortunate bi-product of the current line of crappy Disney sequels being produced cheaply overseas.

The judges decided to give the Best Feature award to The District, a “raunchy hip-hop look at Budapest’s downtown quarter District VII…” Raunchy doesn’t even begin to describe this piece of rancid, festering shit. I absolutely HATED this movie more than anything else I’ve ever seen. Every single bit of it was horrrrrrribble. The story is appalling. The characters are irritating at best- but mostly detestable and lack any redeemable qualities. Don’t even get me started on the gratuitous glorification of prostitution with a musical number that included the line “dripping off my chin, we’re drunk on spunk!” Or the basic philosophy of the film, which is poetically summed up in three words: “money, money, pussy.” The jury and many of the viewers turned into apologists as they applauded the film’s "innovative" and "interesting" visual style which blended cut out photos and graffiti-style drawings… I suppose making a movie using animated scabs, toe-nail clippings and human feces would be innovative and interesting, too, but that doesn’t make it good. Not even it's satire of Bush and other world leaders could save this horribly misguided film. I only pray that The District doesn’t become a beloved cult hit and I’m forever plagued by it like Shrek or Napoleon Dynamite- formerly at the top of my list of most hated movies.

Now on to the stuff I liked… I liked most of what I saw. It was a really strong festival overall with a huge range of styles and talents. I left feeling really happy and inspired at all the amazing stuff being made in the animation world.

Now onto my own category- Music Videos. I didn’t win, and I didn’t expect to. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to show my film to such a large festival audience, and it was a great experience to go to Ottawa. But I am left feeling that maybe my cartoon wasn’t quite up to par with the rest. I am still very proud of what I did with the Muffs Video, but I’m still learning. It’s only my 2nd independent cartoon, and I felt like it looked more amateurish than the rest of the festival. But getting in the festival allowed me to go and see so much amazing stuff that I’m left inspired and determined to keep learning and perfecting my own skills in animation, and hopefully I’ll get to go to Ottawa again in the future. The winner of the Grand Prize for Music Video went to Andreas Hykade’s Walkampf- a gorgeous, psychedelic cartoon that was just stunning and perfect in every way. Another award was given to Reuben Sutherland’s Hitchcock- which is a beautiful, and surprisingly funny ballet of hybrid cars.

The New Media category was of a much higher calibur than last year (in '04, my cartoon "Brother, Can You Spare a Job?" was selected for competition). I think I enjoyed nearly everything in this category. Especially The Chase, Manage Frei, S.P.I.F., and Out on a Limb. But the award was very deservedly given to Mole In The City, directed by Roque Ballesteros for the company Ghostbot in San Francisco. This little internet short film is worthy of becoming a Nick or Cartoon Network television series (except for the blood and guts). It is beautifully designed, well animated and perfectly written and directed. I met Roque, who is a very nice guy, while there and was happy to hear that he is developing some ideas for T.V. animation.

One of the biggest surprises for me, this year, was the experimental, abstract films. Normally I’m not a fan of experimental, abstract films, but this year surprised me with several stand-outs. Curse of the Voodoo Child by Steven Woloshen, Tower Bawher, and _Grau were all very interesting. But my favorite was cNote by Chrise Hinton. It is beautifully directed, and felt like an animated journey through the history of abstract painting set to a free-form jazz piece. It perfectly blended everything I love about abstract art and free-form jazz. It was gorgeous to look at, and surprisingly riveting to watch.

The most hilarious film has to be Bob Log III’s Electric Fence Story by Sebastian Wolf and Tinka Stock- what can I say about this? Apparently Bob Log III is a real person who has a lot of hilarious tales of drunken mishaps. This one, about a failed attempt at cow-tipping, was made into a short stop-motion animated film.

And the unintentionally hilarious Jona Tomberry by Rosto- this film is so ridiculously pretentious and full of itself that it deserves a special award for hilarity. I have to give it credit for an interesting visual style and some innovative use of C.G. and live action… If Rosto directed a Dimu Borgir video (or a video for any other black metal band), I’m sure it would be totally awesome. This film was just ridiculously pretentious, and it was made even moreso when Rosto got up in front of the audience to introduce it by telling us to “open up your minds and don't try to 'GET IT' (pointing to his head) but instead just try to 'GET IT' (pointing to his gut).”

Top favorites:
Icthys by Marek Skrobecki- A perfect stop-motion puppet film about a man trying to order dinner at a fancy, but slow-serviced, restaurant. The subtlety of timing and emotion make this film hilarious and horrifying at the same time.
Chestnuts Icelolly by J. J. Villard- there’s just something about this punk-rock animator that’s just perfect in my opinion. I really can’t describe what it is about his films, but they’re just perfect in every way. Raw. Angry. Funny. Ugly. Beautiful…
The Old Crocodile by Koji Yamamura- a classic legend about an old crocodile beautifully animated in a simple ink on paper style. The story, apparently an old Japanese legend, is told as a fable that reminds me of Kipling’s Just So Stories.
Meaning of Life by Don Hertzfeldt- I’ve seen it three times now… it gets better every time. At first it’s hilarious, but underneath the humor is a frightening, bitter reality. The depth of this film continues to impress me as a cynical outlook on humanity is juxtaposed with the beauty and wonder of the universe. On second and third viewing of this film, I find myself more affected by the mood of the piece than the surface level humor. And this is the appeal of much of Hertzfeldt’s work… it may be too early to tell, but in time this may be seen as his masterpiece.

Biggest Disappointment: The Moon and the Son by John Canemaker. My hopes were high for this film- a biographical exploration of Canemakaer's father and their dysfunctional lifestory. I have great respect for Canemaker's films and especially his books on the history of animation. But this film was so self-indulgent and whiney, I was left really disappointed. It has moments of great beauty and his approach to animation techniques is really interesting and well conceived... but the story? I understand that the film must be a catharsis for Canemaker as he explores his anger towards his father. In that exploration, you expect Canemaker to come to some kind of understanding or have any kind of revelation about why his father was so angry. Maybe Canemaker wasn't ready to make this film. In the end, we’re left with all the same problems, questions, and anger as when the film begins. Canemaker learned nothing from his exploration of his problemed childhood. His father died ten years ago and he still hasn’t learned to get over the anger he feels. The film isn’t just self-indulgent, it’s immature. It feels more like an amateur student film than a masterpiece of one of today's great animators.

And on that note, I’d like to turn to my absolute favorite of the festival. Which actually is an immature, amateur student film. But it’s just so perfect and wonderful… It’s not the best made film, and it really doesn’t have that much animation in it. But it really struck a chord in me. Bow-Tie Duty for Squareheads by Stephen-Flint Muller reminded me of the kinds of films my friends and i made when we were bored on a Sunday afternoon and decided to wander around town with a video camera… but we weren’t nearly as ingenious as these kids. These kids inventively poke fun at billboards, signs, buildings, streelights, and whatever else they see around town. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s one of the most genuinely charming, hilarious and heart-warming films I can ever remember. I could watch it over and over again and always find something new to love about it. If I could only choose one of the many amazing films I saw last week, and make everyone in the world watch it, it would be this one.

There were many other enjoyable films I'd recommend to everyone, including: The Back Brace, Milch, Workin’ Progress, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, City Paradise, Novocento Pianiste, Surly Squirrel, Dying of Love, and At The Quinte Hotel.
Also Death By Heart by Malin Erixon was one of my favorites of the whole festival. Though it’s not really a comedy, it’s understated whit and unexpectedly charming ending made me laugh out loud. It’s a lovely, simple little tale about losing a friend.

I could write more about all these films, but this post is getting long already... so I'll wrap this up...

So, to end this, I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to Chris Robinson and everyone else who work to organize the festival. And a big thanks for accepting my film and giving me the opportunity to come up there, see it on a big screen, and spend a whole week watching awesome cartoons. I also wanna thank all the cool people I met and hung out with all week- Myron, Ward, Amid and Jerry, Signe, Pat, Gary, Sebastian, Malin, Emru, Roque, and other people I'm forgetting at the moment... THANKS!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

iwillestroyyou.com updated!

I finally got around to updating
several areas of my website.

1) The animation section is now up

2) New illustrations added to the
magazine and album cover sections

3) New paintings added to the
2005 art gallery in the art section

i hope to have the comics section up
within a couple of weeks.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

art for disaster relief...

I'm horified by what's happening in the country right now.

Many artists are organizing there efforts
to make art for disaster relief.
Basically, you buy a piece of art,
and the money gets donated to a disaster relief fund.

check out these links:

Warren Craghead

Meathaus

Web Comics Telethon

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Oklahoma!

I'm getting ready for my show in October.
The University of Tulsa (where I got my BFA)
has asked me to have a show in their gallery.

Half of the show will be paintings
and half of the show will be comics.
Should be interesting to see how
it is received in OK.

Opening October 6, 2005
@ The Hogue Gallery
University of Tulsa Art Dept.
2935 E 5th Street
Tulsa, OK 74104
The show runs through Oct 28th.

Animation World Network!

I was interviewed by Joe Strike for
his article "Animating to Memorable Music Videos"
Among all the others featured,
he asked me all about my video for The Muffs.

Here's a link to the article

Friday, July 22, 2005

O' CANADA! ...again!!!

Q: What could be better than spending a week in Canada with nothing better to do than watching cartoons?
A: Getting to do it again!

Last year Greg Saunders and i were surprised to have our cartoon "Brother, Can You Spare a Job?" selected for the Ottawa International Animation Festival '04.

My music video for The Muffs' "Don't Pick On Me" was selected for the Music Video category for the OIAF '05- YAY!!!

Here's the list of animated music videos I'm up against:

Die Toten Hosen ‘Walkampf’ / Andreas Hykade / Studio Film Bilder / Germany
Mad Action ‘Smile’ / Jonas Odell / Filmtecknarna / Sweden
The Muffs ‘Don’t Pick On Me’ / Tom Neely / I Will Destroy You Cartoons / USA
Phoenix Foundation ‘Hitchcock’ / Reuben Sutherland / Joyrider Films / United Kingdom
Rheostatics ‘The Tarleks’ / Justin Stephenson / Trace Pictures, OZ Media Group / Canada
Xploding Plastix ‘Joy Comes in the Morning’ / Scott Friedman & Joe Ledbetter / Exhibit A / USA

It's a competition (and i won't lie- it'd be cool to come home with an award), but I'm just really excited to go watch a lot of cartoons. There's so much great animation going on in this world, but no one ever sees most of it outside of festivals. Last year i blogged about all the great stuff i saw at OIAF'04. Great films that really should reach a much larger audience, but probably never will.

This year, I'm looking forward to new films by John Canemaker and Henry Selick and special programs about Gary Panter's work on Pee Wee's Playhouse... but those are just the guys i've heard of- I know I'll see a whole lot more amazing stuff while i'm there. I can't wait.

for more info check out the OIAF'05 site

Friday, July 01, 2005

Don't Pick On Me

I'm really really happy to announce that i have finally finished my first music video.

It's a fully animated video- written, directed, and animated by me. It's for the song "Don't Pick On Me"
by one of my favorite bands: The Muffs

I hope that we will be able to get it up online somewhere soon.

update: The video is now up on the Muff website. Check the "Muffs Media" section and go to "Videos." to watch it!

Drawn!

YAY! I check the Drawn! blog every morning for a little inspiration. They've got a great eye for good illustration, animation, etc and they post about it all the time.

Well, today i found myself on there. YAY! Thanks for the link!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Sacré bleu!!!

If you live in France, and you want to hire me to do animation, you can now find me at Mr. Hyde.

Mr. Hyde is a production company that represents 50 young, independent film-makers from around the world. I'm extremely excited to be a part of this. I may soon be directing commercials for French T.V.!

Thursday, April 07, 2005

AI24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out I was selected to be in the American Illustration 24.

If you don't know about this book, it's an annual, juried competition for illustrators.

I'm shocked, but extremely excited that I got in this year.

Other names, that I recognize, in the book with me this year: Gary Baseman, Oksana Badrak, Calef Brown, Chester Brown, Evah Fan, Tomer Hanuka, Peter Kuper, Michael Kupperman, Eun-Ha Pak, Jeff Soto, Rallph Steadman, Mark Todd, Gary Taxali, Adrian Tomine, Esther Watson, and about 300 other artists.

The book comes out in November!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

A.P.E.

I Will Destroy You Comics will be at APE this weekend (April 9th and 10th).

I have joined forces with Jesse Reklaw and Flash Pham's Global Hobo Distribution Co. and we will be sharing several tables with several artists.

I have one new mini comic called "Henry & Glenn 4-Ever" debuting at this convention.
This mini-comic is the first published work of Igloo Tornado, an artists' collective that I started with my friends: Levon Jihanian, Gin Stevens, and Scot Nobles.

The Hobo booth will also have an art gallery with lots of original art by lots of artists, including me.

So come on by the Hobo booth and fill your bindles full of good comics, art, and t-shirts.

Check the A.P.E. website for times and location.

It's Time for a Kartoon Kocktail!

Kartoon Kocktail will be happening on April 8th in San Francisco.

This is the 2nd annual collection of independent animation curated by Jesse Reklaw and Stefan Gruber.

I'm not showing the Muffs video, as i planned, because it's not finished yet.

BUT i have created a 1 minute animated intro for the festival that i think is very funny.

In addition to that, there are several great cartoons and animated films showing this year.

Please come out, have a Kocktail, and watch some Kartoons this Friday!

For more information, and the location, visit the Kartoon Kocktail website!

BEST SELLER!!!

"Lost In The Grooves" edited by Kim Cooper and David Smay
and illustrations and cover art by ME!

The book is now #10 on the L.A. Times paperback/nonfiction BEST-SELLER LIST!!!
Check out the last page of March 27, 2005 Book Review section.

It's also already in it's second printing.
If you don't have a copy, head over to
your local independent bookstore and get one!

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