So I was working on  new article

www.adventgradepress.com

or you can find it at

www.avproductionsblog.wordpress.com

Read and feel free to share your thoughts here or on the sites. I would love to know what you all think.

So I have not done it yet, but the more I think about it, the more I want to work with a digital program for some of my artistic ideas. Render in a stetch through pen and polish it with a digital medium. The only problem are the people around me that say I should get a real job.

That art will never pay your rent and it is a waste.

I wonder if that is how writers and poets and musicians feel. That the years of schooling to learn a meduim was a waste. Sigh....I sigh heavy because everything I have worked for, years of  thoughts and ideas have fallen on deaf ears and little studio time. I suppose with friends like mine who needs enemies right.

We have morphed into a socitey that feels one's occupation is only worth the green it is printed on and I wonder if the world of the arts will become like the national parks or 4th of july back yard barbeques, "you won't know what you've got till it is gone, a big back yard turned into a paved parking lot."

How should a person feel when they ask you to look at there work; be art, prose, written songs, the arts. They ask you to look at there work and for you to give them feedback. You the older artist or a little more inclined to give an opionin tell that person their work is Amaturish at best. Yet turn around and say, "Will you pay me to redo it?"

With a straight face mind you. Why would an artist want to do the work of another artist. Why would an artist steal the ideas of someone's art that Amaturish. How could you make, "better the ideas of something that has already been produced?" Oh wait that has been the argurment of Marvel and DC for years. That has been the argument of Image and Vintage Comics for years. That is how rivaleries are developed. One company tells the other I can do it better because you are Amaturish at best. Well I am not sure if any of them asked each other to pay eachother for ideas or sketches.

That is what happened to me the other day. An unknown artist came up to me and said, "Your stuff is Amaturish at best, will you pay me to re-do it?" All in one line. I had to tell him no. I am under the firm opinion that what one man does not appreciate, another will. What one man does not pay for, Another will. I can't wait for someone to come up with a story board of my work and say they had the idea first. If I don't get paid through my own merit. That is what the courts are for. Certainly not above getting paid by any means necassary. Especially when it comes to buying and selling ideals. I tell people all the time to come up with there own ideas. We are taught from a young age not to plaguris, yet that is all I see. Regurgitatingly Mimiced Ideas. Not a single person trying to buy into innovation and calling someones art Amaturish while at the same time wanting permission to resale and idea that they never thought of. Begs the question, "If my Art is so Amaturish where did you get the Inspiration to even look at it, let alone want to draw what I drew or want to speak on what I spoke on, as if to claim you can draw too?"

When I run across people like that, That take me back to highschool in there presentation I have to walk away because I am trying to elevate in life, not repeat faliures or walk down empty culdsacs looking for something out life. That is what that man, can't call him an artist, reminds me of, an aimless walker. A leach, one that calimed to be have been artist for a long time. I claim him to have been a theif for a long time. An uninspired thief with no imagination, only a double forked tounge trying to sell dreams to a dreamer.

Have they not seen from my work that I am the "Dream Weaver"  who has a stroke of genius someone aught to pay for. I mean everyline. If there was not something to it, then surely this unknown aritist would have looked the other way, instead he asked permission to take my work and call it his own. How interesting.

I was reviewing one of my posts. I had it in the art section. It was about comics, to comparrison in one story verses another. There were a few that did not like the post. I supposed it was because they did not view comics as art. they did not place the dedication needed for comic and creative draft to be in the same line of work as say, an Artist.

I am confused. When we look at animation, creative writing, technical drafts and spreading a digital desgin. Do we not see the creation of some of the greatest Anthologies. Do we not see the possibilites of giving a story life through graphic desgin as ART?

I guess not when somone comes up to me and says what does comics have to do with art? What does Anime have to do with art? what does Invader Zim have to do with art? Well considering it is bad art from most standards and will never see the likes of a museum I suppose it is not art, by any classical standards. Yet it generated and developed a collobarative mindset that few can say they achieved through going to an arts academy. It inspired Pokemon Go and how many of you can tell me you have not played it. It inspired https://www.amazon.com/Flight-One-Kazu-Kibuishi/dp/0345496361 which I really recommend illustrators and ARTIST's alike to read to help broaden there perspectives when it comes to the conversation of what is art. To learn what this man and his wife had to do to make a theme fly, how well it flew in just a few years and how it is influenceing your children and modern media weather we like it or not.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/the-best-comics-graphic-novels-of-july-2017/

A lot of you would not consider this art as well huh? Maybe because you do not like the message, does not change the fact that it is art. That it is here, That it is considered the best we can produce in 2017,

Now if this is not art and I should not be upset that people have come to enjoy it...them please tell me what is ART and why have these story lines and illustrations so entranced us as readers and or creative thinkers?

 https://adventgradepress.com/2016/07/son-of-a-sun/

This was a portriat I did of my son. I even made a short script, that I have yet to complete.  A lot of personal feeling behind being a father that is not able to be there for his child.

In short my life has been complicated and art has been a refuge.

I have come to find that as an artist, the more and more I try, the harder it becomes to find things that inspire me.

I am not sure who to present my work to or what community should be involved in my work.

I suppose that is why everything comes off so clustered. Being a traveler can have something to do with that I suppose. Never really knowing who to speak with about what the art should be doing other than inspiring people to want more from themselves and those around them.

Only sometimes we become comfortable in what we like and things won't change for the sake of change. They will only last and remain the same. I suppose that is why we have classics like Mucha, Claude, and Marvel Universe.

I am not sure if that is supposed to be funny; It is an observation I have made. There was  an arab man recently, suppose 2011 is recent that came up with a comic called "THE 99" every hero from the Marvel Universe or the DC universe was rendered and corrected to speak on the Arab problem.

https://www.minnpost.com/global-post/2009/09/99-allah-inspired-comic-wildly-popular-islamic-world-set-make-its-tv-debut

My question is, where is the Arab culture in the American Marvel Universe? Why was that considered a Forbes list of great ideas and why has no one said, "Hey stop desecrating a great artistic ideal with horrible plot lines. It made me ashamed of being an illustrater to know someone would take an old style of art and inks, put new faces on them and call it there own idea. Not cool.

Made me want so much more from my own art and inspiration and makes me feel horribly old to know it is time for a change and not know where to start.

Illustration may not be where i need to go cause the music is the same and cover albums, the vintage ones won't need my perspective when the giant "Superman S" can just be superimposed in a thousand different ways to tell the same story.

I need help finding my verve agian.

So I am at an impasse. There are a lot of fundraising sites out there. Yet I have not found one that will last.

I had visited Patreon not too long ago and held off from using it because I was not certian the site would be there in the next few months. Low and behold today when I tried to access it and take some of my work and promote it there. The site was none-responsive. Kickstarter is supposed to be good as well. Only well after the flash and jazz of selling there funding projects they end up as useful as Linkedin.com.

Everyone tells me I need to work on my sickability. To hand out products for free until people get to know and trust me. I am a Capitalist at heart and find it hard to listen to those that say give your life work out for free. Then there are those that say, "Do the work for the Love of doing it!" I interpret that to mean, "Enjoy being broke."

There is this, "New-age Zen," doctrine associated with the online opportunites with the art district that I am not sure I am comfortable with it transfering into proceeds. There are so many people that tell me how, "happy they are," But when you ask them what there return rate is on there ideals and prodocuts they are selling, they say, "What?!"

As if they did not think about that when they advertised or set out into this market of "GoFundMe.com"

It is like when I go to the bank and they say, "I don't know why your pay-pal account is not registuring sir, it works for me." then you rebuttal, "Oh, yeah, how much have you been able to transfer from your pay-pal account to your checking?"

"Oh I don't have anything in my pay-pal, but I know the accounts are linked, cause Pay-pal told me so."

I am stunned into silence.

The New Americanna is the death of Common Sense.

Comic-Con is the show of the year all the time for artists like me. If not comic-con you could find me on the universties passing out cards to people just to come and look at my work. Sometimes I feel like doing it again, cause I really believed that was the only way to do it. Just have, "No Fear of Falling," and jump right in it. It worked for a single guy with no family or responabilities. I have a lawn mower I need to take time to rebuild because it has an oil leak.

Everyone says, "You did not go to school to learn no trade, so why are you under that car or lawn mower, or messing with the plumbing?"

Someone has to do it. So I read and I tinker till I get it right. No I never went to school for illustration and I say this with pride because well anything and everything we want to do, really takes "Determination," and as (Scar Face) said, "I know I come from the gutter, I know I come from nothing, but when I talk to the right people and build up my connections, I am going to the top."

Not sure if I should have quoted Scar Face. LOL. But I remember a radio station in NC hmm I believe it is the one that plays @ State University late at night, would play that conversation as an Intro every night. So everynight as I am dreaming I am hearing Scar Face remind the world what he wanted. I have not taken the time to see if they still jam after hours, but I am certain the DJ really felt he made it when everynight he could tell the world his story, Through that intro of course.

It is that struggle to the top that I remember my college experiance to be, my trips around the counrty and so on. It is that struggle that makes, "Black Amethyst," not only a good art piece. But a good read as well.

Man I love my job!

I was in the car driving home from work and I remembered what inspired my sound, my art, my verve. What made it uniquely my own. Not only that every piece has my stroke. That when you look at it, you can't help but say, "Yeah he did that one."
That scratchy grudge feel is a tell all. I suppose it was Weezer, The Offshoots ( out of Bellingham Washington) , Celco Green, Gorillaz, Everclear will definetly have to a band I say has an influence on my vision.

At least the vision I present now. I might even see a little of Fort Minor. The good old days when you woke with a cup of joe and thought for the summer I would go hang out with the tour and party until the sun came up next year.

Things are different now and I suppose my art should mature, I was still listening to Everclear while I was coming home from work and I miss the gigs and bar jams, the fun. So when I present my art it is way to show where and how I grew up. Maybe next year Ill present some more "Grown up" art, but this year will about refelction. Cause I am not that old yet.

I remember when I turned 16 I was learning to post my work online and advertise myself.

The first person to respond to all of my letters and resume's was IMAGE COMICS.

They offered me 60,000.00 to give them scripts and prints and I believe the manuscript to one of my stories. That was so much money I balked. I could not believe anyone wanted my work. Liked my ideas, saw any worth in my craft. I never did take up the offer. I am sure many of you today would have looked at me as I look at myself. (Idiot)

Most would read this story and believe it was the words of a sham-artist. I hold a lot of pain behind listening to my parents who said such a contract was phony and not worth your time. "No one has that kind of money!" they said.

To this day I can not remember what the story was. I can barley rememeber the art. I am sure it was black and white inks, cause that was what I grew up with. Black and white comics, no color no real story. Just images that spoke volumes. I look at my art today and wonder how have I grown in the arts and how have I stagnated. Compared to most of the newest prints and what people consider art. I can not see my growth. I see a lot of my childhood and I wonder. Am I still worth 60,000.00

I like to think I am.