Some Stuff Happened Since July . . .

Time sure flies, and that time has been full of assorted creative and wonderful things!

Here's a list of some of what's happened since I got back from the ISSA gathering in NC (I wrote about that in the last post):

1) I completed a drawing I had just started and taken with me to NC. It was accepted into the Art at the Classic art show as part of the 2014 Draft Horse Classic and received a first place in the "Anything Goes" division. Below are some photos of "Fuzzdorable" in progress along with the finished board, it's a 5" x 5" board, colored with inks.

2) Three pieces of my dog art were in the "Dog Days of Summer" art show at Alpha Fired Arts. Velvet, the chihuahua painting sold. A portion of the proceeds benefited Front Street Animal Shelter.

3) I completed a number of mini scratchboard drawings, including this one of Pepper, who belonged to Carla Bratt, a friend of mine and a talent gourd artist. These mini boards are 2" x 2", you can see many more in this Facebook album.

4)"Show Goat" was in the Rocklin Fine Arts "Animal Kingdom" art show held in conjunction with Woofstock.

5) Six people attended my scratchboard workshop at University Art and we had a terrific time.

6) I'm gearing up "Sibling Hearts", an collaborative show with my brother (P.Y. Simpson) that's part of the Auburn Art Walk, and the 3rd annual Newcastle Art Studios Tour. Both events are on the horizon in October.

That's it for now, I have a few more things to share, but I'll wait for the next time I have the urge to write a blog post. Thanks for reading!

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"Dog-A-Palooza" at the Auburn Art Walk

I'm working on a series of photos for "Dog-A-Palooza", a solo show that opens on April 12th. The show will be part of the Auburn (CA) Art Walk and my friends at Dancing Dog Productions are hosting. Dancing Dog is at 1101 High Street in Auburn. I'll be at the Art Walk on the 12th from 6 - 9 pm. The show runs through approximately June 10th.


This is Idgy, the shop mascot at Dancing Dog. She's a charismatic cairn terrier mix.

I got the idea for this show because I wanted to come up with something that was less time-consuming than my traditional work. After some pondering, investigation and discussions with a couple of other artists, I decided to do a series of photos mounted on boards. I take lots of photos and have a huge reference library, with a large proportion being dogs, so dogs became the subject of the show. In addition, to try and create some additional buzz, I committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of works at this show to two local dog rescue groups. I'm a supporter of Chako Pit Bull Rescue & A New Hope Animal Foundation (ANH), so I contacted them to make sure they would allow me to use their names in conjunction with this show. Some of the photos in the show are of puppies rescued by ANH and dogs belonging to Chako supporters.


"Snuggly" - Pit bull pups rescued by A New Hope Animal Foundation

To make these pieces, I run the photos through a few gyrations in Photoshop, print them & mount them on an archival 6" x 6" board. I Dremel the edges and ink them, spray the surface with a UV sealer and finally, coat the surface with a couple of layers of acrylic medium. I attach a hanger to the back and the board is ready to hang. No framing needed - another time-saving plus!

While each photo requires its own adjustments to get the look I want, you can see the basic process in this video.


There's also a scratchboard drawing of this little guy, see it in a previous blog post.

I'll have 10 of these photos in the show in addition to a few original drawings/paintings. Although I still have a few pieces to add, you can see the show catalog here. Note cards of the photo images and originals will be available too. Of course, if you are unable to make it to the Art Walk, you can contact me regarding purchase of any of the items in the catalog, including note cards.

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