You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2009.
My office held its first annual pumpkin carving ‘contest’ today. I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years, but with the help of my trusty $2.99 pumpkin carving kit from Target, a favorite childhood activity was relived. I’ll blame my rusty carving skills on a 10 year hiatus from the sport. Everyone had a good time carving, no one suffered an injury, and all the pumpkins turned out nicely…Happy Halloween.
I just received word I’ve been chosen to participate in The Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta‘s, Chairish The Future fundraiser again next year! The Furniture Bank works tirelessly to help those moving out of homelessness and fleeing domestic violence get back on their feet. By providing bedding and other basic furniture needs, the Bank facilitates a smooth and timely transition for clients into their new homes. Artist’s participating in the fundraiser will be creating works of art from ordinary pieces of furniture and selling them at auction. Last year’s event raised $40,000 with all proceeds benefitting the Furniture Bank. I am fortunate to be participating in this event for the 3rd straight year. Below are my entries from previous years. You can see lots of last year’s entries here: Chairish The Future 2009
This particular client generally comes to me with character driven illustration needs, which I must say, are my favorite to work on. She was designing a wedding announcement for a couple who was not afraid to get away from the calligraphy and the flourishes. I did not get the full story on what exactly all the details meant, but each one was important to the couple and uniquely their own. It was a quick 3 day turnaround and one of those projects that feels more like fun than work.
I mentioned I’ve been working on the August Dog Rescue project a few posts ago. The website is nearing completion thanks to the help of a talented friend and I wanted to post a few sneak peeks. A donation page is set up in the mean time here: August Dog Rescue
A shout out to my buddy, Michael Galardi, who recently completed an 11,000 mile journey biking across the nation. He took off last January 1, just he and his bike, on a mission to discover America and encourage, inspire, motivate and teach others along the way what can be accomplished when you put your mind to something. His trek across 48 states took him only 8 months to complete! Michael documented his travels which you can check out at The Jolly Green Ice Machine. Congratulations on a truly incredible accomplishment.
I became an uncle this past March! My mom wanted to do something special for my sister, as this was her first, and she had come up with the idea for me to make a baby book for her. I thought it was an awesome idea. I was a couple of months late getting the book to her as I juggled it and other deadlines, but I was happy with the finished product. I’ve only been able to meet my nephew once, in person, as he does all his giggling and drooling from Dallas, but I’m looking forward to seeing him again soon.
A good friend of mine approached me a few months ago with a project. She had been involved in dog rescue and rehabilitation for several years in the state of Texas. As her reputation for good work grew so did the demand for her time, energy and resources. But there was only so much she could do as a single volunteer. She decided she had to do more and began looking into starting her own non-profit rescue. I was contacted to help create a professional looking aesthetic for the foundation.
Happily accepting, my first task was the logo. The name transitioned a few times throughout the process as she settled on exactly how to focus the groups efforts and, not to mention, having to avoid a ridiculous infringement claim from another dog-centered business.
Finally her vision had its official name: August Dog Rescue. After a bit more tweaking, the logo was completed as well:
A website is currently under construction and should be live in the next few weeks. For the time being a donation page is in place at www.augustdogrescue.org. I’ll post again soon with some sneak peaks at the site. It’s going to be fun and informative and look a hundred times better than any dog rescue or dog-anything based business out there. It’s understandable that most non-profits don’t have the money to spend on design or websites for their organizations. I wanted to help August Dog Rescue stand apart from the rest by donating my efforts so they can get the word out and spend their money on what really counts – the dogs.
I try to make it to the open figure drawing class down the road from my place once a week. As an artist it’s important for me to keep up with my drawing, and I find being able to simply sit and draw for a few hours a week very relaxing. I’ll post an image from each week’s session if there is anything worth showing.
My 10 year high school reunion was this past week. I attended the same private school from kindergarten through my senior year in high school. I have at least 10 other siblings and cousins who all did the same. This year also happened to mark the 40th anniversary of the school and they held an alumni art auction to benefit The Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya, Africa – an organization the school supports through its missions.
Although a small school, it did have a strong art department that I was fortunate enough to enjoy. So when I was contacted about participating in the auction I was excited for the opportunity to give back. I don’t remember ever considering a career in art as I was concentrating on the still life’s of draped cloth and fruit all those years ago. But here I am, 10 years later, a professional illustrator and designer. I’ve loved art and drawing for as long as I can remember, it’s just I don’t think I realized I could make a living out of it until much later.
All of the participating artists were mailed a 12″ x 12″ panel to paint on (or whatever medium they preferred). As I do a majority of my work digitally these days I was a bit hesitant to send my high school art teacher a painting. I was a bit rusty and there were certainly some trouble spots, but overall, I was pleased with how it turned out. And the best part is the auction raised nearly $8,000 for the orphanage!
Tex Grubbs Illustration 