MARCH MADNESS

An ad poster I made for a video game store I was working at. It gave me a chance to reuse a retro video game font I had created for a school project. The font was based on the video game Rygar; I faithfully recreated it using a glyph editing software, and ended up with a complete font. I had also created fonts based on Final Fantasy, Castlevania II and The Legend of Zelda.

ENKIDUDE LOGO

A variation of my current personal logo. The design is based on the character Enkidu, from my favorite myth, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I'M AN AFRICAN APE AND SO ARE YOU

A bit of graphic design I did for a digital printmaking class.

I was watching a lot of on-line lectures about biology, and I was amused at one in which Richard Dawkins told someone else "I'm an African ape", referring to human taxonomy.

SELF PORTRAIT

A self portrait for professional use. This was a digital photograph that I altered in very subtle ways using Photoshop. The most dramatic change was that I had not shaved this day. I digitally removed the hair on my neck and cleaned up my beard. There are other changes that are not detectable, which of course is the point!

MARRIAGE IN THE BIBLE

I was annoyed that the opponents of marriage equality often claim "marriage has always been between one man and one woman". Of course this isn't true. Marriage has evolved over time, has differed across cultures, and conversely, many cultures have tolerated or formalized same-sex unions to various degrees. It isn't even true in the context of the Bible. The Christian Bible depicts several types of marriage arrangements, and none of them resemble modern marriage. This information was taken from religioustolerance.org, which thoroughly delves into social issues from all angles, and is an indispensable resource for those interested in any issue relating to religion.

EDIT: This is getting more attention right now, and now I'm getting some truly dumb hate mail reprimanding me (I am an adult, people, not a child), because, they claim, marriage customs had changed by the time the New Testament was written, and the New Testament is what's important.

Now, forget for a second that that's only one interpretation. Yes, plenty of Christians have not just tossed out the whole Old Testament like it doesn't matter, and there are rather serious theological problems that arise when you attempt to do that: namely, Jesus becomes pointless since he was supposed to fulfill Old Testament prophecies and redeem humans for our "original sin", and you just tossed those things out as well, so now he's just a guy saying stuff; and your god Yawheh, rather than an eternal being, looks like a petty deity who changes his mind about everything once in a while on some PRETTY important moral issues. Slavery? Child marriage? Animal sacrifice? Stoning gays to death? Oh, those things are totally fine... up to a certain point in history! Then I shall decree that it is no longer so! Even though I already let a bunch of people and animals get hurt by those things for centuries. Um... what??).

Not to mention when we are talking about the Biblical world we are really only talking about a very specific handful of people and cultures the Bible is focused on; and the rest of the world had thousands of other cultures, and they had their own marriage customs, and there are thousands of religions on this planet other than Christianity; and in America we live in a diverse, *secular* nation that guarantees religious freedom...

Forget all that. Never mind how utterly tiny these people's worldview is. They are mad at me because, they say, marriage changed... ***CHANGED***.

Changed. It changed.

Way. To. Miss. The. Point.

MOUTH

MARIO AND YOSHI

THEY FIGHT

This piece was a commentary on the inherent tension between the Abrahamic religions and gay civil rights. I addressed the issue in an irreverent and humorous way.

Digital illustration, shown in Third Gear graduate art review, 7th Floor Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY

This piece was in a group show titled, simply, 2D, at the Project Lodge in Madison. It is an illustration that dramatizes the scientific method and its superiority to irrational methods of understanding the world.

Absolute Certainty (digital painting, 16 x 20)

Unlike mathematics and logic, the natural sciences build theories around facts and evidence; they cannot and do not attempt to prove assertions with 100% accuracy. Hence, "absolute certainty" hovers above both towers and beyond the scope of the natural sciences.

TINGLE GETS A FAERIE

I created this fan art in appreciation of one of my favorite blogs. The character is from the popular Legend of Zelda series of video games.

Tingle Gets a Faerie (20 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

The blog in question published the piece, which you can see here.

THIS IS NOT PAINTING

I was asked to participate in this show by a fellow grad student, Paul Baker Prindle. He organized the event and planned it to take place in the (then unoccupied) UW-Madison Sterling Hall physics building. The pieces featured images mined from my experiences as a gay white male growing up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

Horned One (20 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

Evolution (20 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

Trinity - Left (16 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

Trinity - Center (16 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

Trinity - Right (16 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

Totem (16 x 20 digital painting, 2008)

*Features partial list of non-human animals known to exhibit homosexual behavior

Caryatid (12 x 16 digital painting, 2008)

INU YASHA

My partner liked this show so I decided to draw a naturalistic version of the title character.

NORTHWOODS GUY

A self portrait.

BEER AND COFFEE

...are delicious.

CHARACTER DESIGN

Original characters for a book I was writing. I had designed most of these before, but here I was learning digital painting techniques and experimenting with a cel shaded aesthetic.

FISH TATTOO

I designed this tattoo for a co-worker. It was in honor of a friend of his who had died. Inked by Fatty at Fatty's Custom Tattooz in Washington, D.C.

Some early design ideas:

SELF PORTRAIT

ZONGKER CHARACTERS

I was asked by my partner's cousin to design some characters for a video he was making. I had just purchased a digital drawing tablet and was still getting used to it.

BALLROOM MASK

Just something silly I made for a ballroom dance. We were given blank white masks to decorate with paint, feathers, sequins, etc., but I just painted my own face on it.

FIELD GUIDE TO HOMOPHOBES

This was intended to be the first section of an illustrated book I wanted to write about homophobia, specifically the many arguments against homosexuality or gay equality. These are meant to be slightly-offensive stereotypes, and for anyone who has had to deal with anti-gay bigotry, viewing these should be a cathartic exercise. However, the remaining sections of the book would evolve past making fun of people, and more critically deconstruct anti-gay arguments themselves. All of these characters are directly based on people and arguments I have encountered in my lifetime, either in person or in the media.

Continue to see them all with commentary: