Nothing like a banjo tune after a long days work.

First post of 2008!!!

Cereal Killers: Buffalo Chips

Here's a piece I just finished up for Von Kreep's Cereal Killer's book. Check out the other groovy ghouls at the Cereal Killers Blog!

Timmy and Tammy's Train of Thought

Hey guys! I just finish illustrating my first children's book called Timmy and Tammy's Train of Thought written by Oliver Chin. Thanks again for everybody that posted helpful comments on my work-in-progress images months ago -the critiques have been so helpful. This has been a lot of fun for me to work on. If you want to read the story and see more you can order it here.

Finally, some Southern Folks...

Weder Maker 5x7 Acrylic
The Coyote Caller 5x7 Acrylic
Clifton Clawhammer 5x7 Acrylic Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

This should make more sense of why I changed the name of my blog to 'Southern Folks'. Over the years of gallivanting the countryside and mingling with older folks has inspired me to work on illustrations that celebrate the simple things of life in the South. The idea is to paint different people and places every month that reflect southern folk life from years ago. To me it's these things in life: family, community, and southern hospitality, that makes the South the best place to live. Hopefully my illustrations will reflect that spirit.

Recapturing Grandfather Mountain

Edgar and Ellen

My New Friend Simon

Last month I met an amazing new artist named Simon. He's 11 and can already draw like nobody's business! Look at that composition and caricature! The boy's a genius. We decided to draw each others favorite character from The Wizard of Oz.

Kitty Kitty Wuwoo

Here's a random illustration. Yes, my work is influenced by The Provensens and the other children's books from the '50/'60's.

William Wilberforce

Anti Slavery Pioneer William Wilberforce

Few men have changed history as profoundly as the English parliamentarian William Wilberforce. Beginning in 1791, and moved by his conversion to Christ, he began the crusade to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. It was a crusade that would try his soul and cost him his health for the next twenty years. His fiercely unpopular crusade against the slave trade consumed his health and cost him politically—but he could not stand idly by and see the imago Dei, the image of God, enslaved and abused in the holds of ships. He endured verbal assaults and was even challenged to a duel by an angry slave-ship captain. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.

Check out the movie Amazing Grace, which tells the first half of Wilberforce's life and struggle. It is incredibly well done and the tale should be heard by everyone.

Johnny Jet-Pac!

Raise a Ruckus!

Dixie Dash!

Here's a piece I did for my friends down the street for Christmas. After looking at Miah Alcorn's Double Dash illo for two months (update your blog!) I decided to go out and buy a used Gamecube, just to revisit my glory days playing Mario Kart on SNES. Little did I know that kids would be coming out of the wood works to challenge my skills. The backyardigans, grades 3, 8, and 9, showed their strength but were no match! On the tracks I made them look like a buncha gulls. (inside joke) But the 3rd grader was so good I had to make him my official tailgunner.

New Look for '07!

My friend Chris Garrison asked me one time what I liked to draw the most. It kind of took me back for a second. "I liked to draw a lot of different things," I told him. "Wolverine, maybe?" But over the years I've found a great interest in drawing people, places, and events around here in the South. From Cajun folks in Louisiana to the Gathering O' Scottish Clans on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, people I know personally as well, people I've read about from the past, the South is full of inspiration for me!

One note: My beliefs and depictions of people (hillbilly hoedowns, for example) don't necessarily represent everyone that lives here in these southern states. There will be a southern theme in future posts, but don't think everyone down here is a mudriding, NASCAR luvin' redneck just because I find it fun to draw a lot of 'em. Also, I'll still be posting little odds and end illustrations from time to time.

Happy New Years!

Give someone a goat this Christmas......seriously.

Give a life changing gift to a family in need this Christmas!

Last year my wife and I decided to find an organization and donate to families in need. I remember listening to The World Vision Report, a weekend newsmagazine and radio show capturing the human drama behind global issues and events affecting the world's poorest children and families. After researching their credentials on give.org we couldn't think of a better organization.

Since then I've been listening off and on to the World Vision Report weekly program. I always enjoy learning about people and their cultures in other parts of the world. After hearing these reports and stories told by the people themselves I'm always left with my heart broken. Hearing about their conditions always reminds me to look outside myself and to find ways to help others.

This year we decided to donate a goat, one of the milk producers- "the big three" being goats, cows, and sheep. Surprisingly, one goat can change the lives of three families! Children's health will be supported by the increased protein in their diets. And families will be able to improve their living conditions by selling the animals' offspring, as well as surplus dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt.

The thing about World Vision is that 96 percent of their field staff works and lives with these people in poverish regions, so they have an unrivaled understanding of how to best serve children and families in their area. Check out their catalog for other needs and ways to give a life changing gift this Christmas!

worldvision.org

Listen to the weekly World Vision Report here.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Day....RUMBLE!

386th Annual Thanksgiving Day RUMBLE! Who will be the victor this year??
If anybody is interested in reading a children's book to celebrate this time of year I found good a one! Squanto And The Miracle Of Thanksgiving This entertaining and historical story shows that the actual hero of the Thanksgiving was neither white nor Indian, but God. In 1608, English traders came to Massachusetts and captured a 12-year old Indian, Squanto, and sold him into slavery. He was raised by a Spanish monk who shared with him the Christian faith. Ten years later he was sent home to America. Upon arrival, he learned an epidemic had wiped out his entire village. But God had plans for Squanto. God delivered a Thanksgiving miracle: an English-speaking Indian living in the exact place where the Pilgrims land in a strange new world. Pretty cool, eh?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!