Homeless not Hopeless (thankful)
I saw man after work one day. He was standing in the median on Buford Highway. I am one to see what's on the surface of things, to notice the homeless and have my heart broken. I have a friend who looks at things beyond the conventional, let's say easy, initial thoughts.
There are so many people who are hopeless in the world. There is a lack of hope. Can I say this another way, perhaps we can look at it in this light, there is a lack of hope in the air. I said the same thing three times, 'hope'fully my point is coming across.
I see the homeless, and I think hopeless.
I stopped my car that night, it was raining. I had some left-over pizza from work that I was bringing home, but the man's sign asked for food.
I gave him my bag of pizza, and what happened is he took my hand, looked me in the eyes, and simply said, 'thank you.' I was filled with hope, this man was full of hope.
Let's approach this again. I see the homeless, and I think hopeless. I see my classmates, and I see hope for the future (i.e. a job, a family, etc.)
But I fail to take their hands, look them in the eyes, and get to know them.
I hope for hope in the hearts of everyone I meet. I hope that hope can well up in me, and overflow to those around me. I hope, for the hope of glory found in the freedom of Grace in the ghost who walks on water.
Take Every Thought Captive...
This is a lot of fun. Also, it sucks a lot. Thoughts creep into my mind all the time, and I hate some of those thoughts. I heard it said that if people new what was in 'your' head then no one would want to be your friend. Unfortunately I believe that to be true, at least in some small sense.
Perhaps I believe it to be true because it is true for me. Taking the thoughts is sometimes just not enough, sometimes they need to be beaten to death.
The Card...
It took me a while to actually decide to do this. Then it took me a while to get the design done. Now it's taking me a while to get it printed, but that's alright. The process is allowing me time to know that I truly do want and feel the need for this. It's my business card! woohoo. Now I guess this means that I am legit...hopefully...maybe...
Anyway, the time has come for me to advertise myself as a source of illustrative talents.
Above is the final product (still under construction, but ready for the initial invasion).
Below is some of the progression to this point.
Snow in the ATL
So last night it began to snow, and the result for today was a snow day! Here are a few pics to show the beauty and the joy
To dream of happy evenings...
A section of a panel for a series about a boy who has a big imagination and often takes walks with his mother.
Christmas Cookies
This was a labor intensive process but very very rewarding. Over a period of 9 hours of expirementation, success, failure, and triumph the cookie world was born.
This was done at Andrew and my apartment with the much needed help of Andrew's cuz Leah.
Best Froth Evan!
I was making cappuccinos for some peeps at work the other day and this is what happened. It truly is a work of beauty, if I do say so myself...
Me as You
Paintings I did for church!
It's to serve as a reminder about community. Christianity, this whole Jesus thing, is not about me and my beliefs. It's more along the lines of a people who are living and learning together what it means to love God, and love people.
And it's about the whole city, not just that building in which you gather.
It's about the city, the people living in it and making it. It's about the homeless man sitting next to you at the bus stop, and the snooty rich man driving his fancy car as he passes you on the wrong side of the road, and that girl that you like, and the neighbor two doors down, and the coworker who couldn't imagine working without, and the 'friend' you would rather not be around, and the boss you may or may not like, and finding Jesus in every one of them.
New glasses...New hair...New me?
So it all began with a girl. Yes, everything is the fault of that darn opposite sex. Anyway, I blame it all on a girl. It occurred to me that I needed to see. This is a revelation that came over the course of a year. I decided that I didn't want to wear my glasses anymore for very specific reasons-of which you should feel free to ask. So for almost a year I went without seeing as well as a 'normal' person would see. In my mind I could see well enough to get by, and that's all that I really needed. As it turns out, not seeing the beauty of God's world is like death.
Me without glasses, but still with long hair.
So I went to Decatur Eye Care on the suggestion of a friend-great people by the way. They filled out my prescription and I tried on a few glasses. My faves were the Arthur glasses (I dubbed them as such). They are thick round frames. SO awesome! The issue with that was a matter of nearly $300. Although I would love to give Decatur Eye Care all of my business, I can't afford that.
After I arrived home I searched the web for glasses online. I came across eyebuydirect.com. They were running a buy one get one free deal, which allowed me to get two pair of glasses for only $40. And directly below you will find the result. Being able to see again is such an amazing blessing.
I think having poor sight is a blessing as well. If you have eyes that see well, then I imagine it is harder to appreciate everything that you see on a daily basis. When I put my glasses on and look at the world that God has created, the world that we all live in, and when I can see the faces of everyone around me, I feel that I am given a new vision of life. I am being blessed with a renewed world.
It's me with long hair and glasses.
I work at a Pizzeria. I have been working there since June of this year, and I do believe that from the very beginning Bryan-my boss- wanted me to cut my hair. It has been more of an issue the last couple of months, and for the last couple of months I have been telling him that it is going to get cut, but alas, it was still long. Can't lie, I really like the long hair, over time it just grew on me (literally and in the figurative).
The tipping point for me was when my speech professor walked to the front of the classroom the other day, started to walk back out, and stopped when she saw me. From here I quote her verbatim, with exasperation in her voice, 'You have a lot of hair, is that a wig?!' Yeah, so, well, I guess that's what really convinced me to get it cut.
It turns out that my friend Ruth is amazing at everything, and I will quote her now, 'Now I ain't braggin' but its understood that everything I do I sure do good.' Just take a look at my hair, she cut it.
Me with glasses, and cut hair.
Now this all begs the question, who am I? Is this a new Matt, or is this the same Matt? Is it possible for someone to be the same after experiencing life? Do people really stay the person they have always been? Is it the glasses or the hair that make the man? Or are those outward expressions a reflection of the change of an inner man? Or is it all the exposure to culture that causes someone to change his person, appearance or otherwise?
Well, here I am for the examining. Hopefully my person can be somewhat revealed in the things that I post, and that you might discover who Matt is (and then you can tell me so I can know).
I have a Cat...erpillar
Sooo here is a little adventure through my .ai adventure. First, I chose this awesome sweet image of a caterpillar from google (thank you google). I made sure it was a decent size to be sure I could get some good detail.
This is the point where I began using the gradient mesh. It was an awesome discovery, and one that took some time to really understand. Almost all of the work I did initially had to be deleted and re-worked.
After more than 30 years- I mean, hours- came the final piece of work...enjoy.
Bowtie!
That's right folks, I bought a bowtie, and might I add, it is fantastic. I have been on the lookout for a bowtie for quite a while now. The other day I ventured to Little Five Points with a friend, Patrick Manangan. This was my first time experiencing the famed hip locale in Atlanta. It definitely lived up to its rep. We didn't have the time to really see all of what it has to offer, but we made a trek into a couple different shops, when finally we made it to this awesome! vintage clothing shop. The bowties were right near the front, though we didn't notice those until after asking about it. There was so much going on in this place, shirts, jackets, button ups, vests, ties, hats, pants, suspenders, and bowties.
After staring at and touching all of the ties I finally came to a decision with the awesomest one there-it's red and has little blue and white outlined paisleys all over it. I kind of fell in love instantly. I bought the bowtie then Pat and I went to eat at a little pizza shop a few stores down the road. While we were waiting for food we tried to figure out how to tie the tie. That proved to be futile.
Finally, today, I tied it right! So naturally I took a bunch of pictures to show off how awesome it is...enjoy a few.
Buckhead Buck...
Here you see the Buckhead Buck. This is my vision of him at least. Sandy Springs in North Atlanta has turtles, and downtown Atlanta has cows, now Buckhead has Bucks! All the time I am learning that Atlanta is a thousand times better for networking in illustration than GRap ever was to me. There are obviously many many factors that I have effected in both cities, so the stats are skewed, but Atlanta has been good to me.
I heard about the BBA's need for painters for a launch of a fundraiser event and I was all too happy to participate. I am not exactly sure from whom my boss heard the information, but Sharon Silva was my main contact for the project. She was very enthusiastic and appreciative of my involvement, and I was enthusiastic and appreciative of the opportunity to get my name 'out there' in some way.
The original concept design of the Buck was done by famed MAD magazine illustrator Jack Davis. Several of us artists painted from his template. I decided to paint from an art nouveau perspective-mainly Mucha inspired, actually, very Mucha inspired
Click here to link to an online article about the launch.
An Arthurian Portrait
Here is work that I did back in the good 'ol Kendall days. This is actually one of my favoritest works that I have ev done. The drawing is done in prisma color pencil with the background of the matte board showing through. The style is different than most all of my other works, and I would love to explore this direction more.
The theme is sort of a self portrait of me as Arthur- from the famed Marc Brown books named Arthur, also the PBS kids show (which I love by the way). This is based off a book cover of a said Marc Brown book.
LOVE Again
There once was a man. There once was a man with a shirt. There once was a man with a green shirt. There once was a man with a green shirt and an idea.
The idea he had was to make a shirt design by hand. He didn't have the resources to do screen printing. So he used acrylic ink and a contact paper stencil.
Then that amazing shirt got wet and the ink bleed all over the place, but he didn't care.
He wore that shirt anyway.
Eventually the paparazzi caught wind of its amazingness...
Love
So I was talking with my friend Evan, the guy for whom I am doing the musketeer shirt design. He was mulling over other shirt ideas, and we were discussing interesting ways of designing more than the image. That being said, he really inspired me to get down and do my own shirt design.
I stole the image that I worked so hard on in the christening of ichLOVEthys. To say I stole it is to say that it wasn't really mine in the first place, in full honesty I only took the initial concept and inspiration and ran with it, really really far. Thus, the image is mine to utilize how I will.
Right after work that evening I bought some acrylic ink from Binders and used the remaining balance from my Associate of the Quarter gift card from HomeGoods to buy a few shirts-one from TJMaxx and two from Marshalls.
On the way back to the apartment I stopped at Publix to purchase some amazingly awesome Sweet Leaf Green Tea with Mint & Honey. It's a must have in any sort of inspirational endeavor.
The remainder of the night, from about 8 in the evening to 1 in the morning- with one stop to eat din with my roomie and view an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show via Hulu- I worked on the composition and application.
And the result is a truly creepy image of my holding the final product!...more or less.
Here the shirt is being modeled by a very attractive man. I realize that it is probably stepping over some boundaries talking about a man like this, but what can I say, when I see an attractive man I can't hold it back.
Come to find out that I need to find a way to set the ink in the shirt before I wear it. Let me say this without too much laughter... I sweat, I know, crazy right!? anyway, apparently my sweat caused the ink in the arm pit region to bleed into the adjacent shirt area.
I guess that experimenting means that you sometimes make mistakes, even when the overall project turns out great.
The Rad Dad of a Guitar Hero...
I painted an awesome (if I do say so myself) pick gaurd. I haven't found a decent enough printer yet to get the image on to the hp printable contact paper that was donated to me for experimentation. The painting was done for my friend Rigo, and I happened to have this rad pic of his dad drinking coffee out of a glass cup from the Sparrows Coffee Tea & News Stand.
This is an ode to Rigo and his Dad.
Perspectivegram
I have come to a relative resolution with my ambigram design. This is what I settled on. The whole project was full of distress and agaony. Ambigrams are not for the faint of heart. Not for pregnant women, or for those on blood pressure medication.
Hopefully the next attempt I make will turn out better, for now I shall be satisfied...
