The books are currently available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Below, you can find the covers for the books, as well as a few images. 

First things first, I suppose, would be to talk about the updates to the Pixel Gallery as well as the Branding and Advertising Gallery. 

The first pixel art I have done in a few months, I decided to do a bit of fan art after watching The Legend of Korra with Chris. He has been a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender since it first aired on television, so he introduced me to the series. After falling in love with the storyline and art style, I decided to pixel Aang from the original series and Meelo from the second. 

The second update is a logo I designed as part of my spring semester at the University of Baltimore. For a corporation near and dear to my heart, The Book Thing of Baltimore, I chose to depict their philosophy of recylcing old books to new owners. 

In that same vein, I am excited to be working with a new client on a branding project for her new business. I am always thrilled to help a startup build their corporate identity, so it should be great fun!

I am shooting a roll of Fuji's Neopan 400 in my Black Slim Devil lately. I really want to get back into shooting a bit of instant film, however. I have a refrigerator full of film, both Fuji and Polaroid, but I have not actually shot any instant film in nearly a year. Once I finish with the roll loaded in the Black Slim Devil, I might load another camera with one of the packs of Fuji FP-100c45 color instant film I have in the fridge—but I really do still favor black-and-white film over color. Unfortunately, I do not have any of the FP-100b or FP-3000b left. The good news? The Fuji FP-100c45 film can be used to make negatives for enlargement, should I choose to go that route. 

As most artists do, I often doubt my ability. And, on the aforementioned days, such doubt can hit incredibly hard. It is then that I am most grateful for the kind comments I get through my website's guestbook, e-mail, comments, and on other sites such as DeviantArt and Flickr. You may not realize it, but compliments (and even constructive criticism) can really make an artist's day. It means their work is being seen—that someone cared enough to say something about it. 

So, to everyone who comments: I really do appreciate it, and I thank you most deeply.  

In other news, I uploaded my first poster designed for my Advanced Print Design course to the graphic design gallery. For your convenience, I'll include it in this entry as well: 

You can find these, as well as the author's other books here on Amazon. I must say, it's always a thrill to see my work posted publicly; it never gets old. 

I think the most surprising aspect of this semester is that I was able to survive three classes on Thursday evening. I think, judging from that first day, it will be annoying but, ultimately, bearable—if only for the knowledge it is bringing me closer to graduation. Of course, I am also looking forward to taking two classes this summer, which will accomplish the same. 

Chris is having knee surgery on Monday, so we are both a bit on edge; I made sure to have film on hand. There is something cathartic about the process of documenting life's misfortunes. There is an understanding gained by shooting photographs, even the chaotic nature of life can, somehow, be more bearable by taking control through art—no matter the form.

(Click for link to the Amazon Page)

BIOL 101 Humankind in the Biological World
SOCI 100 Introduction to Sociology
WRIT 300 Advanced Expository Writing
CMAT 351 Project Management I
CMAT 497 Special Topics in Communications (Advanced Print Design)

This is the first time I have ever been frantically swapping classes around this close to the start of a semester. I think the classes I've decided upon will be the best to take at this point in time, however. Every single one of them fulfills a degree requirement. The first three classes are core education requirements, and the last two are requirements for my major.

Unfortunately, I am not able to continue with my job at The U.B. Post, as it would put me over the credit allowance. In addition, I am already taking an advanced design class, so I don't want to burn out on design classes, as was the case when I attended MICA full-time.

I look forward to posting work from my Advanced Print Design class throughout the course of the semester, so stay tuned!

Thankfully, the professor, Valzhyna Mort Cortese, was not a sadist; she gave us the literal translation of each symbol. It was up to us to make sense of the mostly-nonsensical way the words were written in the original poem. I am quite happy with how my iteration turned out.

The Story of Ch'ang-Kan

My hair scarcely covered my forehead
when I played, plucking flowers by the front gate.
You came on your bamboo horse,
circling the garden to play among the green plums.

Together in Ch'ang Kan village,
too young to know hate or suspicion.

At fourteen, I became your wife.
Ever bashful, I lowered my head in darkness to face the wall.
You called one thousand times,
but I could not turn back even once.

At fifteen, my the furrows of my brow vanished,
and I wished us ever together as dust with ash,
often thinking of your embrace, unwavering.

How do I now ascend the widow’s walk?

At sixteen, you left on your voyage,
travelling beyond the Keu-Tang Gorge,
where the boulders heap up the swift river,
and the fifth month brings unpassable rapids.

Why now do the heavens cry out like the sorrows of apes?

The footprints you left—they are covered in moss…
moss so deep, I cannot sweep them away.

The autumn winds bring their falling leaves.
The butterflies of the eighth month arrive
from the west in pairs, to play in the garden.

My heart aches at seeing them…
I sit alone, sorrowful,
for, the vermilion in my face is fading.
Even now, I look for your letter to tell me
you are returning from the three gorges.

But, I look forward to when we meet again,
far away from the garden,
all the way to Long Wind Sand.

Opening Sentences:

1. The beautiful, golden sunrise rose over the orange-drenched field as the sun’s rays stretched out like yellow fingers over the waving sheaves of wheat.
2. This really long time ago—no, seriously, like, a really, really long time ago—all these people, I think they had a name, but it is not important, lived peacefully in this group of villages in these green mountains somewhere far away.
3. Once, there was this guy, and he was walking down the street, and he met this other guy, but it wasn’t the guy he meant to meet, so he kept walking.

Character Description:
She walked in with her inky, raven hair shimmering in the sparkly, sunny light from that big window with the long curtains. The silk blouse, red as raw ground beef, pulled tightly across her great, squishy pendulous breasts which felt like yeasty, unbaked bread.

Closing Sentences:

1. And so, the tides of time drifted onward, as she bobbed up and down in her memories like a marshmallow on a chocolatey sea of Hershey’s hot chocolate.
2. After his father died, he felt a great sadness, not unlike that kind of sadness you feel when you scrape the bottom of the peanut butter jar with the knife and know you have to go to the grocery store soon instead of sitting at home eating sandwiches—that kind of sadness.
3. And then they all died; the end.