This probably requires a little explanation. While I was cleaning the office last weekend, I came across a sketchbook that I used when I was a kid. I’m guessing the first few drawings are from 7th or 8th grade and the last few marked pages are from my senior year in high school. For me, browsing through the pages of this book is like reading an old journal. In it are loads of experiments in pencil drawing, charcoal, watercolor, stippling, colored pencil, and even some aerosol airbrush. Artistically, the contents are mediocre at best, but it was astonishing to see how engaged I once was in learning how to make art.

As I was flipping through that tattered old Mead Sketch Diary, I came across several pages containing collages of cut and pasted typographical compositions. They’re all fairly simple and rough, but that was intentional. At the time I was in my sophomore year of high school and had a very specific source of inspiration: a local zine called Delusions of Grandeur. Each photocopied issue was filled with music reviews, poetry, drawing, and witty collages of random typographical nonsense. I’m not really sure who was behind it, but it rocked.

So that’s it, really. I was inspired by something I thought was cool and wanted to do it my own way. I think that’s a lesson we could all use to re-learn every now and then. I’ve scanned the pages from this section of the old sketchbook and I’ll try to post a new snippit every week or two. I thought this particular composition was interesting as the phrase “User Friendly” has become a lot more commonplace since the mid-nineties.

Everyone has always asked me how I got to be so artistic. Ok, well nobody has ever really asked me that, but I’m going to go ahead and tell you anyway. It’s genetics. Yep, I come from a family of artists. I guess that’s kinda like coming from a circus family, except that I can’t do any neat acrobatic tricks or spit fire - even though I try both fairly often.

When I was a kid, I spent many a weekend at art shows and craft festivals helping my mom run her booth. My mom was a crafter. She used to make all sorts of poured ceramic things. She even made her own molds and had a kiln in our garage. She hasn’t done much of the commercial crafty stuff since she hurt her back, but she’s got a lot of skill.

My dad is a cabinet maker, which is an art in and of itself, but he also has a lot of other creative outlets. He can make any kind of animal you can imagine with a pair of scissors and cereal box. Yes, a cereal box. Giraffe, turtle, lion, otter, fish; it doesn’t matter, just give the man a small box and he can make one. He also does a lot of painting. Some of his paintings, like the picture above are traditional oil on canvas or wood. My favorite though, are his 3D paintings. He cuts up small pieces of wood, Plexiglas, driftwood, and rope and glues them on a surface to create river and ocean scenes with docks and boats in realistic perspective. He’s an all around artistic guy and has what I like to call a “popsicle stick” sense of humor. One which my wife tells me I’ve inherited as well.

My sister Jenna is an education major at UCF and wants to be a teacher. On the side though, she enjoys photography and pottery has won a few awards with her art. She’s a very creative person and I’m sure that will rub off on her students someday.

Then there’s my brother, Jered. Jered is a Registered Nurse stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California. Very few people know that he has an artistic side as well. In fact, he just emailed me some of his MSPaint artwork this morning:

Aren’t those great??? Click on each for the refrigerator-door worthy 1024x768 versions. I love my artistic family.

My opinions expressed via MSPaint:

Hands down, no doubt about it! FileYeti is a much better name for a file management app than SumoFile or BrontoFile. A yeti can kick some sumo @S$ and eat brontosaurus for lunch.

I’ve posted the first of a series of “Turn of the Century” wallpapers in the artwork section of my site. I’ll try to produce one per week and all will be based on the postcards and turn of the century nostalgia that inspired this redesign. My motivation comes partly from my desire to share my inspiration, but also because I am always looking for new wallpapers.

Ever since I installed the BGChanger that Russ wrote, I’ve been on a constant quest for more images to put in my backgrounds folder. Some of my favorite wallpaper sources include dlanham.com, veer.com, vladstudio.com, shiftedreality.com, savinoff.com, pushby.com, goodbrush.com, and bearskinrug.co.uk.

Know of any others that I should include in my list?

Hey kids, Penny-Arcade is having a coloring contest! Did I mention I used to love grocery store coloring contests?