A new Wall

This month I was due to have an art show at Verite Coffee in my own Madrona neighborhood, however the show was cancelled due to a double-booking with a school group. Sad news, considering I had just spent the last two weeks furiously completing and framing pictures, several of which featured somewhat twisted versions of Madrona houses and buildings.

To make up for, they offered me an October show at their Capitol Hill Location: the one with the huge walls. The one where you can see the art blazing out across Pike Street when you walk by. The one that's a favorite stop on the Capitol Hill Art Walk (though, perhaps more due to the cupcakes than the art). Seduced by walls, i said yes.

Life has a weird way of closing doors and opening doors at the same time.

So my existing art will be horribly swallowed by the giant walls at the store. I can probably fit my whole existing inventory on the back wall alone. The plan is, over the next four months, to make at least 5 huge dungeons, 24'x28' or bigger. So I'm going to be pretty busy.

Another consequence of this change is that I realize it's time to finally let the Year of the Dungeon come to and end. I don't mean this blog, which will continue to have a trickle of activity. Rather I'm letting myself off the hook for posting microdungeons to the blog in any kind of regular schedule.

So that's the story. I'm not quite sure what any of this means except that I really hope there will some extremely cool dungeon art showing up on this blog pretty soon. Fingers crossed.

Things Change

This last Saturday my Mom died. It wasn't unexpected. We had time to prepare, not that you can prepare.

At the same time, my grand niece or nephew is about to be born. This will be number 10 of those, I think. I sometimes lose count.

My Mom could be a very tough woman, though she was secretly tenderhearted. She raised me firmly in the tradition of the Catholic Church (and thereby determined the shape of creativity forevermore). She also taught me the basics of critical inquiry while watching Star Trek and the Nightly News with me. I like to think that Captain Kirk held up under scrutiny a bit better than Knowlton Nash, but neither of them got a free pass.

She will be missed.

Waking up Again...

I'm slowly coming out of hibernation again, and making plans for the new year. New Years is kind of a big deal. If you're going to do anything interesting with your year, now is a good time to think about it.

So what's up for this blog in the new year?

• More Microdungeons: I'm not done making these little things, not remotely. There will be a new microdungeon every week, maybe two.


• Other Art: And I've been drawing some new and weird art, so I'll be posting some of that.


• Old School Gaming Stuff: because old-school is awesome.


• Another art show: Cafe Verite in the Madrona neighborhood, June-July 2011! This show won't be explicitly dungeon themed, but there will be fantasy maps aplently.


• Writing projects: The Purple Worm Graveyard, a Labyrinth Lord Adventure; and a sequel to How to Host a Dungeon


• Mercantile projects: And I have some commercial projects, including an Etsy store to sell some art and prints. I'm very happy to have a decent career that means I don't have to rely on art to pay my bills. However, when I can make a few bucks at art, that means less financial pressure, and more time for interesting projects. So a big part of my plans for this year is to spend less time working and more time drawing.

Hibernation

I'm still hibernating...

It's a weird transitional time right now. I'm forced to realize that so much has changed in my life in the last 4 months that going back to the same-old isn't even an option.

I'm back from Canada and the news is that my Mom is doing much better than anyone, including her doctor, considered possible! She's currently recovering in hospital. At her age a heart attack is always a serious matter, but the current news is good. Thanks to everyone that sent prayers and wishes.

At work, the big software launch is imminent, which means there will be some pressure off in the consulting business, which means a bit of a break, hopefully. This has been the biggest and busiest few months in my career history, which has all sorts of implications for what comes next.

With lots of time on the plane and in hospital rooms over the last week, I decided to take a bunch of movie stills from the old Tron movie and play with the design aesthetic to see what I can make of it for some weird cartography and illustration stuff. So now I've got a big stack of new ideas to play with.

The Year of the Dungeon art show was also an unforeseen success. I really did not anticipate the response (Thanks ya'll!). That opens up a whole bunch of options for me artistically.

Plus the Purple Worm Graveyard and How to Host a Dungeon sequel are quietly mutating in my desk drawer.

So the upshot is that I may have a modicum of time and even a bit of capital to play with over the next few months. There's a strong potential for life-chaning awesomeness in all this.

But in the meantime, I'm working, thinking, and hibernating.

Gigacrawler

I've had some unfortunate family news and so I'm off to Canada and away from my computer for the next week. My Mom's health has been not so great for several years now, and last weekend it took a turn for the worse. My mom happens to be as tough as nails and bounced back almost immediately, so for a long time we thought it was just a minor episode. But it turns out to be pretty serious after all.

In the meantime, for endless hours of gamer-style enjoyment and creativity, I recommend you look at gigacralwer.