posted: November 12, 2011

Signal-Return- Teach, Serve, Connect, and Produce.
 
A couple of the large reasons I have been A.W.O.L. from Drawger these past few months have been both that I have assumed the role of Chairperson of my department at CCS, and that I have been involved in an amazing collaboration- Signal-Return.
 
Last night we held our preview opening at Signal-Return, and it was one of the most special nights of my life.
 
When I was asked to participate in this project over a year ago, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew then as I do now that this would not only be an amazing venue for artists, illustrators, and designers, but for writers and the Detroit community as well.
 
In the process of working on this project I have gained a lot personally as an artist and person. I have made friendships with my fellow board members and director that have changed my life forever, and they are as much of an inspiration to me as the project itself.  I am excited for what is ahead! I can’t wait to work together with them as we hold workshops, participate in the Detroit community, and invite artists (i.e. many of my fellow Drawgerites…) and other creative minds, and truly make this a space where everyone feels welcome and is willing to truly collaborate and participate.
 
Be on the lookout for some amazing workshops in the immediate future, workshops that deal with learning letterpress, binding of books, and creating posters and broadsides.
 
Be on the lookout for amazing printed material for sale in our storefront! Come on down to Detroit’s Eastern Market to do your holiday shopping!
 
I want to take this opportunity to personally thank my fellow board members- Toby Barlow, Helen Ectors, Ryan Schirmang, Megan O’ Connell (our director), Leon Johnson, Michael Stone Richards, Rebecca Mazzei, Blake Vanier, and Amy Deines.
 
I also want to thank the many individuals and volunteers that have been such a great support to us so far- Christian and his team of M1/DTW (our architect and responsible for designing our beautiful milwork), Naomi, Amanda LeClaire (for taking a ton of photos of construction from week to week...), The fine folks from Eastern Market Corporation, Eric McClellan, Andrew Davis, Christian Mulligan, Aaron, Lucas, Mark Stead, Fosdick printing, Inland Printing, Don Schultz, Andrew and Dave Churchman, Jessie Doan, Phil Cooley, Bryan Baker, Mark Moreno, and many more who I know I am forgetting at the moment. Please forgive me for my poor memory, and please remind me to include the names of those who I have forgotten.
 
Here below are photos of the construction process from the start to where the space is now. We hope to work with you soon.

posted: May 10, 2011

posted: February 12, 2011

It has been too long between this and my last post here on Drawger, and these past two months have been quite momentous for me in almost all senses of the word.  I have come close to posting this or that, but when I get it all ready, I lose my enthusiasm for what I was about to post so I have waited.  I have a lot of new work and news to share, and I will post that later.

Last weekend my wife and I decided to give our old, jank sectional couch away, and I am glad to have seen it go. We bought it a summer ago so that we could seat all of us together, and have a couch that our kids could trash without us worrying about it. It was the type of couch that eats everything that falls out of your pockets, and I lost everything from my cell phone to pens to my money in this thing.

One of these things that were lost in this couch was my Parker 45 fountain pen that was my go- to pen for everything. Before it fell out of the couch when I was moving it into the moving truck, I thought that I had lost the pen in one of my travels. In the meantime I was able to make due with other stuff that I have, but it just wasn’t the same, and I even bought an inexpensive Rotring pen to use for whatever job came my way. The problem with a lot of what I was using is that it just didn’t have the same feel, or line quality that I got with the Parker. The Rotring leaked a lot, and skips like crazy. I don’t ever recommend getting one if you want to get into the fountain pen/ portable dip pen thing.

I filled the Parker 45 with ink, and to my surprise it wouldn’t write. I tried cleaning it in an ultrasonic cleaner, and everything else I could think of, but no dice (* side note- I was eventually able to use the Parker. I found out how to properly clean it via the Internets…). When this sort of thing happens I get can’t let it go, and in my search for something online that would replace my Parker, I found an amazing pen that only costs 14 bucks- the Noodler’s Ink Co. piston-fill fountain pen.

This Noodler’s pen can be taken apart completely, and is so easy to take apart that it only takes using a Q-tip to do it. You can also swap different nibs into it, and if you are careful to clean it out right away, put all kinds of ink into it.

The problem for me when I travel is whether or not I should bring my crow-quill pens and such, and this Noodler’s pen solves that for me. I can take this with me anywhere and load it with whatever permanent ink I want, and if I clean it out right away, it won’t clog up on me. I have been using Noodler’s ink in it, but I am sure you can use a variety of ink.
 

posted: November 27, 2010

I recently was invited by my good friend and artist Andrew Davis to contribute work to an interesting project. He was contacted by a gentleman who is filming an independent film at an abandoned church in Detroit. When Andrew described this all to me a couple of weeks back i didn't know what to make of it, but i was intrigued, so i went over to the space to check it out and speak with the filmmaker. The church was most likely built sometime in the early 1920s, and used to be a Catholic church. It has a vast interior that my photos don't really capture, and hasn't held meetings or been occupied since 1988.
The filmmaker had the permission of the building's current owner to film in there, and the owner was open to the idea of artists adding to the space in soem sort of way. the idea was to prepare the space for it's next life as a community center.
My thinking was to remember what this space meant to those who used to inhabit it, and to add not detract from it's integrity. I hope that this was accomplished. A big thanks to Andrew Davis, Jeff Mullin, and Ray Domzalski for teaming up and assisting me with this.