“It’s Easy”

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to write this and not put out a public update by publicizing it...if you stumble upon it, enjoy the read-

"I's Easy"

Life is not easy; it’s not easy for anyone…not for me, not for you. It’s made to be challenging…life is messy, full of mistakes and hurdles that you can’t always overcome. I have had my share over the years and it never gets easier and you can’t outrun the past and you can’t forget what you’ve done and you just hope that one day you might get the chance to make it all up…to have the chance to do it the right way and to make right from what you have once done wrong. Well, at least I hope I might get that chance.

I have been told that I’m not an artist on many occasions.
I have been told that I’m nothing more than a hack.
I have been told that my best work is nothing more than a bunch of poorly fabricated crap that only marginally passes for artwork in the same way baseball cards do.

I have been called a cheat.
I have been called a thief of ideas.
I have been called a fake.
I have been called a horrible person for saying those things that are difficult to say; where stronger men would stand tall and stay quiet, I sat and spoke and I am horrible for it.

I have been called a sap.

I have been told that I just don't know what I am talking about.
I have been called many bad things and each time I hear them, I wonder just a little bit deeper if they might be right, even just a little bit.

I know who I am and I am fine with it; I love the man I have become. I feel that I have a deeper understanding of things because of the criticism I take but yet, I am constantly trying to grow and try harder, to be better, to find ways to silence my critics, to find love in the places where I have found none and to prove my worth and integrity to some who find it difficult to understand why I would and why it’s important for me to do so.

I have been told that my ideals are worthless.
I have been told that my theories on life are flawed.
I have been scrutinized by my peers for simply not knowing the real truth about things when I believe that open-mindedness begins with understanding what you hate the most about something.

I have been called worthless and stupid.
I have been called silly and insane.
I have been called a liar about things because I am different in the way I think.

I have been told that I just fall short of expectations.
I have been told that I am simply not good enough.
I have also been told that I was too good, which is just another way of saying that I wasn't good enough; it just means that they don't want you-no matter what.
I have been told that the world is not what I see it to be and that my reality is nothing but false.

And possibly what hurts the most of all is that I have been told to just give up.

But here I am, writing this; ever consistent and as driven as I have ever been, maybe even more so. I will not stop or slow down or rest and I will make my legacy the way I feel it needs to be. I am in control of words that people will read when I am no longer around to speak them and my destiny will not be made from small minds that believe their own slighted opinions about the way things are or were.

I have been called many things and I have been told who I seem to be.
It would be easy for me to call them all liars and to refute the words they speak…
But a time or two, I have been called a genius and I have been told my heart is big and that’s why they all must have been telling the truth.

It’s easy to think about the good things and it’s easy to wish and to dream; it’s even easy to move on from a feeling when all it does is hurt you and leave you enraged.
But life is not easy, as I have said before; it’s filled with obstacles and decisions that all have the potential for pain.

You have the choice the same as I, to live your life until you die…you can take a chance where one might not exist, to possibly be hurt or told that that you too are worthless but what if? What if that one time you try and you give everything you’ve got and it just happens to come out right and you wouldn’t have wasted an unmade shot? What if a little happiness was just that easy? After all, the only reason you don’t think it could be that easy is because in your experience it never has been…but if you were to look it up in the dictionary, never does not have the same definition as always…never keeps happening until that one time it doesn’t anymore.

It would be easy to come here and not read the whole thing…
It’s easy to think that I am full of shit.
It’s even easy to keep believing blindly in the things you still believe will never change but it’s just as easy for me to decide stay and wait.

Thank you...I love you all; (+1)

-jason

The EPIC Series: "A Beautiful Day" & Happy Mother's Day

Before we get into the Artwork, I would like to wish everyone out there a very Happy Mother's Day; especially to all of the New Mommy's out there, such as my friend Amanda who just had a beautiful baby boy just a couple of days ago; to all of my family, my Aunts and Cousins who were great friends to me and that have helped raise me these many years; to my friends, whom allow a crazy guy like me be a part of your children's lives; to all of my 'other' Mom's who continually fear for my safety and wish a better life for me whenever they get the chance; to all of the Mom's out there I have lost over the years- Flo, Rosemary, Mrs Grundler, Sue- just in the past few months;  to both of my Grandmothers, who are no longer with me today but are certainly smiling down upon me; and to my Mother, I know sometimes I am a complete pain in the ass but I know I am the luckiest boy to have a Mom as good as you-and I wouldn't trade you for the world.  I also want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there who has wiped a dirty butt and made chicken soup and made the medicine taste better and given up their free time and money to make sure that their children had the best life they could possibly give.  I could never fathom all of the sacrifices you make on a daily basis to provide the best for the ones you love but I do know what they mean; take it from me, I remember each and every time anyone of my Mom's out there did without so I didn't have to and so will your children.  I know it doesn't seem like much when you are doing it but it counts; it counts every time and it counts big.  It counts in ways that you might not realize for a dozen years or more but it counts.

See, right from the beginning, my Grandmother took 10 minutes out of her life one day when I was 4yrs old to show me how drawing one circle was the key to drawing anything I ever wanted to draw...and now, well-I got really good drawing circles.  My Mother always encouraged me in whatever I wanted to do-even though sometimes she pushed me to do more than I wanted because she saw my potential-and now, I am a pain in the ass who doesn't know when to give up.  My Aunt Karin inspired me from the beginning with her approach to food-she just didn't cook or bake, she made it seem more like she was creating artwork of her own and I was always excited to see what she would make next.  My friends Mary, Jodie, Jinx, Shari, Corrynn, Andrea, Nikki, Cyndi, Mayfair, Jenny, Jenny, Nicole, Terra, Aereana, Alicia, Jill, Angie, Susy, Brenda, Lori, Heather, Jackie, Katie, Maria, Michelle and Ronda-you have let me meet your children and take a peek into their lives long enough for me to fall in love with them and I thank you.  To my friend Trish who will celebrate her first Mother's day next year.  To My two wonderful sister-in-laws-Kelly and Grace, I am a lucky brother and uncle to be able to watch your children grow up AND at the same time have the patience to put up with me.  And the Mom's along the way that I never asked for but got anyway-Ms Iaccino, Judy, Mrs Hauger, Mrs. Corwynn, Patsy Miller, Mrs Bronson, Bonnie Kendall, Joanne Meier, Mrs Christie, Mrs Willimann, Sherril, Amy as well as all of the amazing Mom's that are no longer with us- thank the lord someone was paying attention because I am sure a few of those times I might have killed myself doing something stupid if you hadn't smacked me on the back of my head.  Lastly, I would just like to thank you for reading this and for taking the time to read a bunch of names that you probably can only wonder about the kind of impact they must have had for me to turn out as great as I have-Happy Mother's Day to you.

This Mother's Day, I would love to be able to give you all a kiss but since I can't...I suppose a tiny piece of artwork will have to be good enough - even though I know that in a perfect world, it would only just begin to tell you how much you mean to me and just how much I love you all.

AND NOW...here's a new piece of artwork for all of you...

When originally I came up with the 'EPIC Series', I had original sketches dating back to 1997 that I always wanted to incorporate into the series because I had always thought the ideas had merit.  One of those sketches became "Sweet Dreams" (one of the first released originally in 2007) BUT...I always meant for there to be a 'pair' in the series; I had a moon and I needed a sun.  I never came up with a good concept for that second piece before I decided to abandon the series until that fateful day when I was 'URGED' or inspired to dig it back out.  I pulled out my original designs and quickly cobbled together what I thought would be a great design after a certain phone conversation I had.  BUT then, I decided to alter the design quite extensively after I found out my friend was going to have a baby and when I completely decided on what to do (at the time I had about 8 weeks to finish it) everything seemed to go according to schedule UNTIL...Last week, I decided to take a small break from doing the artwork to finish a short story I had written, "Olive Park" and it was a welcome distraction and then, wouldn't you know it-someone has to go destroy my deadline by going into labor all early...geeze...Thanx Amanda!  So I had to take a break from finishing "Olive Park" which I was doing while I was taking a break from finishing the 'EPIC Series' so I could do the next unscheduled piece in the 'EPIC Series' because I don't really make deadlines to actually use them...WOW.  So anyway, Here it is, just in time for a new Baby and Just perfect for Mother's Day and for Mom's everywhere- "A Beautiful Day".

Thank you all, I love you very much.

A Pause from Artwork and "Olive Park"

“A Pause from Olive Park”

I have decided to take a small (very small) break from completing new artwork to finish something else that I have put off for far too long already. Some of you know about a short story I wrote a while back called “Olive Park” and even though it was completed, I always felt like the last half of the story needed some elaboration; it just seemed rushed to me. So, yesterday I began the long and arduous task of rewriting most of it…well, at least 70% of it. It’s true that I am only scratching the surface having only one day into it so far but I also felt like I haven’t written much in the past year or so and I thought I needed to give you just a little something here-you know, while the feeling strikes me. Writing a love story; based on a true story nonetheless, is a very tiring job and it gets you thinking about a great many things while you are in the process. I want this to be so much more than it already is; I have always felt like it was an unfinished story and I just keep thinking that it’s just not right. The truth in the story lies in events that happened so long ago and I guess the one thing that I have always hoped for (and the real reason why it never seemed quite finished to me) was because I was always holding out for a happy ending. Olive Park deserves a happy ending; I want a happy ending and although things have happened since the actual events occurred that briefly made me hopeful that I was close to one, it just never materialized. Now, as I sit here and relive every moment of that story, I see the end in sight and I shutter at the thought of how I will write an ending to a story that doesn’t end happily. It makes me wonder about life and love and what’s in store; I know that every ending is only the beginning to another great adventure but I want so much for this story to have a happy ending that I have had this reluctance to finish it for many years. Maybe deep down inside I don’t want Olive Park to end; maybe that’s it or maybe I want it to end badly just so I can write the next bit, like a continuation. I think I want something to just jump out of the blue…someone to just jump out of the blue to help me make this story complete. I want that reason to come to me that makes me want to tell the world an ending; a reason to shout it to the world…something amazing that only happens once that I can be proud to be a part of; something just as unique and just as special as Olive Park was or maybe even more so. Not so long ago, I thought I might be able to write that ending; it would have been an amazing ending but twists and turns are always present in my plots I suppose and any chance at an ending or even a new beginning fell quite short. Even now as I take my mind off of the story I have been rewriting to think and dream a little, all I can do is think about how fantastic it could have been. I even have this little argument with myself about why I don’t just write that wonderful ending but I always lose that one because I don’t want to write a story that is completely true right up until you get to the end-and then what? The end will be fabricated; fake…like a wish that never came true-as if I were hoping for something great but settling for whatever I could think of. I know how stories go and I know for certain that the best stories just happen. No matter how good you are at guessing or planning how you want a story to go, there is just no substitution for what real situations that could arise (and have arose) instead of that clean story you have planned out in your head. Within everything I have written, there has always been some truth but this story, Olive Park is just something more finite to me; if it ends badly then deep down inside I will feel that when everything is said and done, I will have ended badly. It’s true that this is only a little sliver of time out of a lifetime that happened a half of a lifetime ago but it is still my life. The search for love in every fairy tale and love story has some sort of realization or moral to the story that makes you think or understand or even relate it to some time you went through it. It should make you feel good and happy to finish it with the main characters; having been through everything along with them. It should be a triumph of soul to reach the top of that mountain together and feel accomplished and I suppose that I want that more than anything for this story. I know the way I really want this story to finish and I will always hope that I will have the opportunity to write that ending but I hope someday I will be able to rewrite this ending into the one ending that I never could have imagined it to be. I know there is at least six new characters that I would love the chance to introduce…now that- that would be a great ending and the perfect beginning to an even more amazing story; that is for sure.



-You know, just sayin’.



-jason

The EPIC Series: "Read My Mind"

Sorry I was late-I had a small power outage and my server went down for a bit...

This next piece was one of the most difficult pieces to do; the original which was done in 2007 (below) needed a complete over haul (by my standards BUT I still wanted to keep the same type of basic feel to it:

(the 2007 version)

I wanted to keep that same feel but it needed a bit more color and cleaning up-at first glance, it pretty much looks the same but all 200+ layers with all of the separate drawings had to be redone completely.  I really wanted to do this over because the meaning of this needed to change this time around and I am glad I had the chance to go back and make it right.

Well, without waiting any longer, here it is-the next in the 'EPIC Series' - "Read My Mind"

Thank you all and have a great night-new blog tomorrow.

PS: Don't forget to follow me on TWITTER by clicking there and hit follow!- -CANuSLiDE->

-me

'ninety-nine' returns...

For those of you wondering where my series 'ninety-nine' went, well it's back up after briefly being MIA.

'ninety-nine' is a series of digital paintings that were done at the end of last year; if you would like to know more about them, check out the links to the right of this page-I hope you all enjoy them.

And for my next piece of artwork in the 'EPIC Series' - you only have to wait until Monday; I am not quite sure exactly which one I will decide to give you next but I am sure you will enjoy the surprise.

Thanx again for all of your support and have fun reliving 'ninety-nine' again.

The EPIC Series: "Crazy Hot"

This is another piece from the original 2007 pieces that I decided to redo and touch up a bit.  I haven't really thought about it until now but usually, I talk a little bit about each piece of artwork and give you some mash-up of thoughts and whatnot about what you see and how they made me feel-you know, what was in my brain at the time when I came up with it.  I suppose I haven't really felt like opening up about what I was thinking about at the inception of the artwork and ideas but I think what I will do beginning after this piece is to break them down in a group-one by one to catch up to the present.

"Crazy Hot" is like all of the pieces in this 'EPIC Series', special because all of these pieces were hand picked because of the story they tell from beginning to end.  This one in particular is basically about that one girl; the one you can't get out of your head...the one who defines something more than beautiful to you-the one that you just have to scream out loud in your own head.  And for this one in particular, I HAD to change a few aspects of this piece of artwork because what I thought (or who I thought) of that meant "Crazy Hot" to me had changed...I never thought in a million years that it would change to the point that I would need to alter something like this-it's kind of just crazy to me...to think that I would find the epidemy of this piece is just insane but I did.

Well, Here is the next in the 'EPIC Series' - "Crazy Hot" - hope you enjoy it-
-me

The EPIC Series: Making of "Mistakes+Failures"

I have never tried to breakdown how I go through drawing a picture or designing anything but I figured that this would be a pretty neat one to do.

First, let me say that although I did a quick sketch on paper, I never did scan it in-instead I decided to free-hand the entire thing.  I would liken this picture to using acrylic paint or chalk because even though I did draw all the lines and things you see here, there was a heavy amount of me 'pushing' the 'paint' around and 'smearing' the colors with my pen...so, not a traditional drawing by any means but IF I had to do this on a canvas, it would have been done exactly the same way-well, except that here I could fine tune the colors and I didn't need to wash paint off my hands when I was done.

Ok, on to what I used...

Primarily my wacom tablet and pen with Photoshop but for a small portion of it, I had to use Sketchbook Pro.

The pen I am using has a nylon tip but I replaced that with a felt tip for all of the grey areas after they were drawn in-I pushed the color around like I would if I were using chalk or charcoal.  Ok, now for the breakdown...

I began with a black background and on the next layer, I put down my basic white and more black around it-I put a 'red' border around where I put the 'paint' down so I could tell where my drawing was.

The next step for me was putting basic color and lines down to give me an idea where my shadows and grades would end up.

Here I started blending everything together and cleaning up edges...this would just be the first step in many that I would use that felt tip on my pen.

Now this is interesting; note-that it was here, after I began cleaning up most of the head and eyes, working my way down the jaw that I discovered that I drew in (5) teeth between the canines instead of (4) -this is where I shaped them and fixed the number of teeth.

Now this is starting to look much better; by the time I got to this point, I was about 4 hours of drawing into it.

Ok, this is my skull, I needed to make a few layers of this one to overlay each other for more depth.  I eliminated the 'red' outline because I didn't need to worry about the grey edges on the drawing anymore.

I needed to darken the layer to add a little depth, this was done multiple times and when I put them transparently over each other...

...and making highlights and lowlights on different pieces...

...They begin to resemble our finished skull.

Now to begin working on that background-I removed a lot of the black (but not all of it) around the skull and put in my streaky lines using that nylon tip.

I started laying down the yellow color highlights around the edges and fading it gently...I also brushed out a sort of 'splash' around the skull; eventually I will have to adjust the color because I just wouldn't be happy with it.

As I began adjusting the color, I wanted a sort of 'hell fire' that the skull was coming out of; for this I used a stippling technique and put in dark shadows as I went along.

I darkened the entire edge of the canvas with reds and blacks to give it some more depth.

There were a total of 43 different layers by now and I was still adding darker layers of shadowing for more depth.

I drew in the white tear so I could render it using my felt tip brush later but first, I added that sphere that wound be exploding in the skull's mouth.  This was achieved by 6 different drawings, layered on top of each other-these were more precision drawings than the chalk type...small pen tip and a lot of concentration.

Now you see that I have finished drawing in all of the layers of drawings for the exploding sphere and the layers for the sphere now total around ten by itself-although I would adjust the color slightly in the finished product, the drawing would be done...right after I carefully made that tear look realistic.

And here we are, the finished product...I hope you understand a little better about what I go through to make one of these; this in particular was about the average-quite a lot of them have much more going on and require many more individual drawings and layers to look as complete as they do.  This one topped out at around 78 layers.  I hope you enjoyed checking it out-maybe someday I will actually tell you how I got the idea, what I was thinking about as I was doing it and why I wanted everything to look like it does-but that will have to wait for another day.

Thank you all for checking it out-NEW blog tomorrow and maybe even some more artwork before I release Friday's piece...
-jason.

The EPIC Series: "Mistakes+Failures"

I have to admit, I really didn't like the idea of releasing this piece so close to Easter but really, that's what always seems to happen when I have a 'less than happy' piece of artwork that I want to do but this one needed to be done.  "Mistakes+Failures" is a very special piece for a number of reasons; first off, it will be the first piece I have ever done where I give you a breakdown of how it was created.  Secondly, it is the first piece in a long while that has a sort of dead feeling to it. Lastly, I wanted to make this because this is how I felt...I felt like I needed to push all those mistakes and failures I have had in the past few months together and give you what I felt it should have looked like to me.  If I looked in the mirror, this is how I thought I looked and how on the inside and outside I knew I deserved to look; after all, it's how I really did feel.

I hope you all like it-later tonight I will release the breakdown; the making of this piece but for now...

Here's "Mistakes+Failures"

-jason

The EPIC Series: Things To Come

So far, I'd call this release pretty successful...although I didn't do much advertising for it and I pushed it through faster than I normally would but I guess you have to move when the mood hits you.  Anyway, I thought to myself a couple of days ago, "Self, we have a rare opportunity to show people what's on the production side with this series of artwork and I think it would be cool to-don't you?"  Now, aside from talking to myself, I thought this idea wasn't totally insane and I have decided to show you a little glimpse of the process.

I have always thought of my 'EPIC Series' as containing a certain kind of artwork; those clean, heavily layered and emotionally filled pieces.  They seem to have a more specific nature to them compared to a lot of my other work; they are really a hit or miss for people.  They might 'look good' in a technical aspect but you really either get it or you don't.  In most cases, one will jump out from the rest and grab you where the others might only give you a smile at best...witch is the case with most artwork you see; after all, not everyone likes most of what Picasso has done (not that I am comparing myself to Picasso), but everyone has at least one Picasso that they just enjoy more than the rest.  I just hope that someday everyone will understand completely why I do what I do-aside from enjoying it.

Now, I know I told you that the next piece you would see is called "Crazy Hot" and it is a previously released piece but it has been heavily overhauled-it still looks strikingly like the original because I used the same exact techniques and I believe it invokes the same feelings but it is much cleaner looking in my opinion.  However, I am moving the release of "Crazy Hot" back to Friday and tomorrow I am giving you an ALL-NEW piece called "Mistakes+Failures" instead.  Tomorrow early afternoon, I will give you the finished product and then around 5pm I will release 'The Making of "Mistakes+Failures"' which will be a series of pictures that you will be able to see how the process moves from a blob of an idea to a finished product.

The piece you will see tomorrow, "Mistakes +Failures" is a piece that was not on the original list of artwork from 2007, it is a recent addition (more about that tomorrow) that should bring you a little insight on just how much work and how many different elements and drawings go into one single piece of my work.  It was a unique opportunity for me to do the artwork and save things step-by-step to show you how it progressed.  Next week, I plan on giving you a piece called "Mexico" and "Read My Mind" (which has probably been the one piece that has been altered the most from it's original form) and quite possibly one more all new piece that I have not decided on yet.  There are just too many pieces with close to the same amount of progress to decide which one will be the next one yet.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the blog and check back tomorrow for an ALL-NEW piece of artwork.  I hope you liked them so far...
-me

The EPIC Series: "Hold On"

For starters, I need to clear something up...you see, in a previous post, I said something about getting a two-line email and that's what started the ball rolling again for my artwork and this 'EPIC Series' and instead of trying to explain the email or the message or whatever, I have just decided to copy it right to here so there's absolutely no chance of there being an issue about who it's from...you'll know it if you wrote it, if it doesn't look like something you sent me-you didn't...it's that easy.  Ok, so here it is; all the way from March 20th, 2011...


"So when are you going to get off your ass and do some artwork? I hate that you have stopped. I really do."


Right after that message, I came up with the preliminary idea for "Oh My Heart" and within the next few days, I began putting other ideas down and combining them with previous ideas from my 2007 Epic Series that was unfinished...and you know the rest...


But today, I have something special for you; it's a NEW piece from the 'EPIC Series' called "Hold On" and I absolutely loved doing this one...I just hope you like it half as much.


TOMORROW: A short blog with things to come...swing on by and tell your friends; this is going to be EPIC.


Thank you-
-me.

The EPIC Series: The Artwork List

Hello-thanx for stopping by and checking out my NEW 'EPIC Series' - and as I promised yesterday, below is a list of artwork that is slated to be dome in the next couple of months...but you will notice that there are more than 40 pieces listed...well, some will be cut to bring the total to 38.  See, all of these designs are in some sort of current production state, as time goes on-some things won't look so good to me or are not quite as finished as I would like them and might be missing something-those will be the ones I cut.  This series is meant to only contain what I believe to be my best work to date.

In 2005, I released my 'Signature Series' and it was good but I knew I had more in me...I could do even better.  The 'EPIC Series' is sort of a continuation of that-all the artwork in this series begins with hand-drawn artwork-no computer generated crap...I design every line to be in the place it needs to be; I do use the computer to speed up some processes and for clean-up purposes, also for some other more 'tricky' techniques that I have decided needed to happen for the artwork to be complete.  In 2007, I really wanted this series to be everything I knew it could be but I just stopped after 10 pieces, (releasing the 11th in 2008 actually) until a while or so ago when I got a simple email consisting one one single sentence...and then, all of a sudden, it just all rushed in-it came back to me!  I just wanted to do them again and off I rushed to dig out my original sketches and ideas-carefully choosing and putting them together so I had an idea of where I might be heading and how long I had to take to do it.  Well, the first 2 are out, one old one and one new one and on Monday you will get another all NEW piece called "Hold On" and Wednesday you will get the re-worked version of "Crazy Hot".

I hope you enjoy everything-I really do think this is going to be pretty good...
-me

“Epic Series” (2007) 2011 edit

“the most epic thing I could think to do was to design something that had my heart into it; that would have been impossible without you…thank you for your brilliance-I am only as good as the people around me and I am lucky enough to have the best.” 

By: Jason Marshall

* - denotes possible cut 
gray - previously released
yellow- currently available

1.      “Read My Mind”

2.      “Tarantula”

3.      “Sweet Dreams”

4.      “Crazy Hot”

5.      “Hold On”

6.      “Why Do I Keep Counting?” (title may change)

7.      “Real Love Waits” *

8.      “Little Wonders” *

9.      “ROCKSTAR” *

10.  “Bleeding Me”

11.  “Love Revolution”

12.  “Welcome to the World”

13.  “Super Fantastic”

14.  (untitled frog) *

15.  “Army of Roses”

16.  “Live Proud”

17.  (untitled RED)

18.  (untitled rainbow-bolt)

19.  (untitled blue design)

20.  “Archimedes The Great”

21.  “Decaf” *

22.  “What You Do To Me”

23.  “Torn To Shreds” *

24.  “Let Me Fly” *

25.  (untitled earth)

26.  “Hello Love, Goodbye Hate” *

27.  “Among Friends”

28.  (untitled letters)

29.  “Window in the Skies”

30.  “Broken Radio”

31.  “Mexico”

32.  “Love and Light”

33.  “Rhythm of Love” *

34.  Heart + Soul” *

35.  (untitled silver tubes)

36.   “1337” *

37.  (untitled playing card)

38.  “News of the World”

39.  “Love You Like Mad”

40.  “Back and Forth”

41. "Oh My Heart"

42.  "Mistakes & Failures"

43.  “Hesitate” *

44.  “Grenade” *

45.  “It’s So Good”

46.  “My Life in Minutes”

The EPIC Series: "Sweet Dreams"

It's amazing you know...all the things that can happen at any single moment; I mean, I have literally hundreds of pieces of artwork that are only pieces of ideas and a few lines on a napkin-lists of the titles for all of these pieces yet to be realized and then, right in the middle of it all-I decide to just quit on them.  Sure, I have done plenty of artwork since 2007; about 430 of them had official releases but these 30 something ideas just sat there after I carefully picked all of them for specific qualities.  Then, years later, as they sat there waiting...a moment seemed to just pop up out of nowhere-a few words from a simple email and I couldn't help but be inspired.  I quickly sifted through my original lists, rewriting titles, making little sketches, deciding what I needed to change about the ones I had already done-all in all, it was pretty amazing to say the least.  A moment in time; that's all it ever takes...you can sit there and ignore them all you want but when a moment moves you no matter what happened in the past, I believe you need to take it and try your best to make it everything you always wanted it to be and sometimes-only sometimes...if you decide to put your whole heart into it, it might just turn out to be something EPIC.

Artwork List and blog tomorrow-

Thank you and goodnight; here is "Sweet Dreams"

The EPIC Series: "Oh My Heart"

Thank you all for swinging by to see the beginning of what might be some of my favorite artwork.

I will do a proper blog in just a little while to begin the release and re-release of my 'EPIC Series' - but for now, here is an ALL NEW addition called; "Oh My Heart" -I hope you like it.

This will be Epic.

In 2005, I began to design a new kind style; I started to think of artwork that really meant something to the people who wanted to check it out...to put it simply, that work had heart.  Those 37 pieces in my "Signature Series" are some of everyone's most favorite to this day.  In 2007, I decided that I wanted to continue creating pieces like those only cleaner and with more heart than I had put into them before.  I started them out and I decided they couldn't be a continuation...they were in a class by themselves.  I thought to myself; "I think this is going to be epic." and up until 11 pieces into another 30+ series, that's exactly what it was...

“the most epic thing I could think to do was to design something that had my heart into it; that would have been impossible without you…thank you for your brilliance-I am only as good as the people around me and I am lucky enough to have the best.”

But then, something horrible happened and I just lost it.  I couldn't finish it...nothing I did was good enough.  Soon after, I went on to create many other pieces and series like "November BLK" and "Special BLK" as well as the "INCIRCLES Series", "The Wild Hearts Collection" and most recently, "ninety-nine" -as well as many, many others...

I have always wanted to go back and finish them, possibly even redo or "fix" a few things that I was never happy with and of course, push them out in High Definition.  I think that time is now.

Next week, I will be re-releasing ALL-NEW versions of the original 11, 2007 pieces of artwork as well as attempting to give you the UNRELEASED and UNFINISHED pieces that belonged to the series as well as a few last minute additions-all reworked and all new of course.

So I hope you get the word out and let everyone know that this should be a reason to start checking it out everyday again.

Thank you all for your love and support-as always, all of my artwork is free for personal use and if you'd like to use it for something different-just shoot me an email...I am pretty accommodating.

-"Smile...things could be worse; I could be an accountant and you'd be looking at a spreadsheet."

-me.

Well?

What do you expect to see...?

Because there will be no artwork here from me.


BUT-
If you happen to be here just looking around AND you happen to be a budding new film maker who has some time on your hands-and you want to direct something that you might get a little famous for, shoot me a message-I have a project I am working on that needs a bit of direction - let's just say that my future happiness completely depends on it.

-jason

If you're looking for something new in the artwork area, check back in 2012...maybe I will have something by then; K? Thanx.

One Year Ago...

One year ago today, my life changed forever; I wouldn't know it at the time but it did.  I wish I had the words about me to properly explain to what extent my soul was touched.  A simple favor, an innocent task and with a look...I knew.

Sometimes you just don't have any idea the impact someone can make on your life but remember, just as quickly as you can find something amazing, that is just as quickly as you can lose it.  Still, I am a better person today for having that opportunity-no, the privilege of having met the single greatest person that I have had the chance to meet. (+1)

-jason

Thank You and Goodnight.

I hope you all enjoy my artwork for many, many more years to come; it was my pleasure to share them with all of you...you have been my greatest inspiration and I will never forget that.  In all of the years I have been creating all of this and more, you have all given me a reason to keep going...to continue to create bigger and better things; to always attempt something new and exciting.  Sometimes, I was even lucky enough to have the opportunity to have one of you touch my heart in a way that I couldn't begin to explain and even so, all good things must come to an end.  I have thought hard about everything for the last two months or so and I have tried to continue to bring you the wonderful artwork that I have for so long.  It has been a great 12 years of creating wonderful dreams come true and smiles on your faces as you look at all these things I have done but I cannot continue to do it anymore.  I cannot predict the future nor can I say without a doubt that I won't feel like giving you new artwork eventually but I can honestly say that it won't be anytime soon and for that, I am sorry.  I feel like I am letting you all down but there are just somethings that I just can't control.  I have tried to keep doing what I normally do but it's not working.  The quality I am use to giving is just not there and I won't give out some half-ass piece of shit with no feeling in it that I decided to throw together just so you'll have something new to look at.  I do know that I am not planning on even attempting anything new until at least 2012...I know there is only one thing on this earth that could possibly change my mind on that -but you shouldn't get your hopes up, I can tell you that it doesn't look good at all.  I hope you all know that I love you very much and that I thank you for your years of support; hopefully I will see you all in a year or so and maybe by then I will finally have something amazing to show you.

"For all the amazing times, in every wonderful way; it was all about a little love when life seemed to get in the way.  The world, it might get cold and the sun certainly won't shine quite as bright; but the tiny flicker of those memories, I will always look to that light.  It wasn't for the masses and I didn't do it for the fans; not Jamie hadn't a clue that it was all for you in the end."

Thank you and goodnight-
-jason
(Artwork from 1994-2010)

Valentine's Day (cont')

nevermind...forget it-I was stupid to think things might be different.

sorry.

For Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day-

There will be a post this evening...something special and important to me-thank you. (+1)

Of Note...

I am sorry.
I can't change the past.
I only have one regret in my life.
I can try and do better in the future.
I will take the experiences I have had and apply them the best way I know how.
When I let my heart speak, it is the truth.
When my mind gets the best of me, things can go wrong.
My heart will not change.
My world will always be missing something.
I will keep going.
I will not stop believing.
I would rather have 10 more minutes than no minutes at all.
I will never settle for less than I have found.
I will never find more than I have.
I will not change my mind.
I am me.