The Trouble With Spoons.

I was fortunate enough to have been asked to illustrate writer Mary Lochner's personal account of suicide and compulsion for the Anchorage Press, our city's alt. weekly. The Trouble With Spoons ran on Thursday July 31, 2014. It was a long and taxing process, but the outcome was immensely satisfying, albeit so emotional to see on the page. I commend Mary for her deep bravery in telling this story, which is a difficult one, and I strongly encourage all my friends and family to read it. Here is one image from page two.

You can read the full story here. I'll be adding more images later. (From the story) "And if you’re reading this, and you’ve lost someone to death, then I am about to tell you what that person would say to you now, if he or she could. And if I am the one who’s gone—and I hope that day comes 90 years in the future, because 123 years seems like a pretty good run—then I am going to tell you the same thing. It is this: I love you. I want you to be happy. And everything’s going to be okay."

More from "The Trouble With Spoons"

Both my illustrations (the spoons) and the color paintings (the background images) were used in the design of this double truck.

Spoon detail.

The full double truck.

On the Cover

of the Anchorage Press this month. Illustration is for Mary Lochner's piece "The Trouble With Spoons." (See above posts for more info.)

Got a sec?

Check out my other blog "Sic Vita Est" (also known as Merlin's Bicicletta) by clicking on the link.

(Polaroid shot by me in Beijing, China, circa 2007.)

Update (because it's been a while)

I've come and gone, come and gone, and come and gone again.

2011/12 has been a whirl-wind, no doubt. After leaving New Mexico in July of 2011 I moved in with my life partner in Portland only to take a job in AK for the fall/winter. From NM to OR to AK, just like that *. Then, without warning, I was back in Portland living a disorganized, albeit liberating hand-to-mouth existence. And waiting. For what, I wasn't sure.

But in May (2012), it became clear. I was waiting to come home again, for the first time. I've never been so in love.