Viking Einstein & Orphan Annie Earhart

I was in Iowa this weekend for the wedding of my friends Matt & Kate, i.e. Viking Einstein & Orphan Annie Amelia Earhart. Needless to say, there is a story here, most of which is apocryphal at this point. For reasons none of us remember or understand, Matt has been joking since college about getting a Viking Einstein tattoo. Gradually, this has morphed into me just thinking of Matt as Viking Einstein. So when it came time for Matt's wedding to the very awesome Kate, I decided she would definitely need an alter ego to keep the formidable Viking Einstein in check.

And that's Orphan Annie Earhart. She can sing, she can dance, she can fly airplanes! She'll try out new karate moves on you if you get too close! That's what I'm talking about.

The artwork was based loosely on a completely epic photo taken by Kate's photographer friend Alexa, which they used as their wedding invitation. The card at the bottom goes with the artwork, and features Einstein's handwriting. Minus the heart around the = which kind of makes it look like a card for a gay wedding. Oh well, Kate's a self-proclaimed gay man at heart, so I guess it works. Besides, it was Iowa!

Almost a Cucumber Pirate...

Cucumber card for my friend Amanda. She gave me a facial for my unbirthday, which was pretty amazing. I have to say though, I was disappointed by the lack of cucumbers on the eyes...I was really looking forward to being spackled in mud, then cucumbers on the eyes, like some kind of napping garden pirate! But no. Oh well, still awesome. Also awesome? Duotone! (the flip side of the chartreuse is hot pink).

Random Studies in the Romantic Chaos

Wedding card for a librarian couple. This book title seems to capture the notion of marriage pretty well, I imagine. Hopefully they won't take the cracked liberty bell between the hearts as a bad omen. (Their ceremony included a lot of Irish bell-ringing...) and this, from the poet Gwendolyn Brooks:

Exhaust the little moment.
Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold
it will not come
again in this identical disguise.

Cowboy Ikebana 2

I asked my japanophile artist friend Season if it's real ikebana if I selectively cut leaves off. (I wanted to know how I was doing on the cowboy-to-geisha scale of flower arranging). She said yes, but I quickly ascertained that she was just trying to make me feel better. "What you're doing is more chabana, which derives from nageire...people who do real ikebana spend hours finding exactly the right flower...then there's wabi-sabi and the principle of asymmetry..." she trailed off.

Loud and clear, Season. With Season dropping the c-bomb, I was forced to do some research on the tea ceremony, during which I determined, unsurprisingly, that I was light years from real ikebana. Which, for all my blather, is totally fine.

Pictured: Bangkok orchids and trash orchids from last week, mystery foliage, grape hyacinth, tulip stem.

Billie Holiday 2

+1 hour of work

Billie Holiday (Lady Sings the Blues)

I just finished reading Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. It's a fictionalized biography in verse of the jazz singer Billie Holiday, known in another life as Eleanora Fagan. I've always loved Billie Holiday, so I thought I would do a portrait of her. I spent about a half an hour in the room with a blank piece of paper before nerves made me finally do something about it. Here's the portrait after an hour's work. More later!

Crazy Thing for Love