Awesome def! Loving it.

Great stuff Def.
I brought you up in conversation the other day. I was with some friends having a few after work beers and the topic turned towards art, and specifically narrative art and visual art, and the places where these two meet.
The somewhat portentous goal that art sometimes strives towards is to answer the question 'What does it mean to be alive'?, but another task can also be taken on by artists and that is to answer the question 'what is it like to be alive?' I mentioned your work to my fiends as and example of art that, to my mind, addresses this question. It is possible, we theorized, that the answer to the 'what is it like...' question contains within it, by an Escher-like twist of mental topography and perspective, the answer to the 'what does it mean...' question.
Keep up the good work & good luck in Tokyo. (I was just in Tokyo last weekend...what a full on experience that city is.)

On a side note, I really liked your North Korea missile panels. it reminds me of an incident back in the 90's when NK was sending the Tepodong missiles over Japan. I remember one Sunday morning lying on the futon in my Leo Palace. There had been a certain amount of drinking the night before, let's say. There was an earthquake and and as I rolled over the sun shining through a gap in the curtains shone directly into my eyes. So there was I, a little (!) booze befuddled with the room shaking, everything rattling away and an unbearably bright light in my eyes. My mind immediately reached the conclusion that the Dear Leader had gone nuclear and that the blast wave would be along in a couple of seconds or so to snuff out my existence...
So I rolled over and went back to sleep...

Thanks all!

@dont get me started, yeah, I feel you on that topic. I’m not going to pretend that I’m making something Japanese, but there is definitely a conceptual influence from the old Japanese culture there. I studied some zen-adjacent culture in university, and one of the biggest gut-punches for me then was the concept of haiku, moreso than the work. While Europeans were doing this very floral sort of hyper-descriptive poetry, haiku was sparse and required the reader to make associations. Those diary strips, four in five are disposable, but that fifth one captures a moment, hopefully a human one. Sadly, I need the not great ones to set groundwork for the better ones.

I just got back from Tokyo, and wrote a one-pager on the plane that I’m really excited to share, but it’ll take a day or two to get it done.

Looking forward to seeing it def.
As for your diary strips, I'd say the proportion of them that capture the human moment is a bit higher than you suggest.

This reads like the opening of a Stephen King novel!

Very atmospheric!

Ha ha, that made me laugh def. I swear I've been down that alleyway in Tokyo.

The same atmospherics could be used to tell the story of what me and a co-worker used to refer to as the 'David Lynch Shotengai'. (Covered shopping street for the non-Japanese speakers)
It had a collection of shops selling weird combinations of items; 'The dog food and light-bulb shop' and the 'futon and plastic cutlery shop' all staffed by the most aged persons you ever saw. The weird thing is, even though I walked through that place regularly on my way to and from work for a number of years, I never saw any customers in any of the shops. How they stayed in business was beyond me...perhaps 'other forces' were at work!!

Keep up the good work.

Slowly starting off the year....

So excellent in every way!

Thank you sir, I’m on to the next thing, hopefully worth your time.

Two illustrations for a short story on Medium.

You've totally mastered perspective! (I'm so jealous)

I also like the reflection in the lens of the spectacles. Nice touch!

Here's a new version of my Politician.

Any resemblance to any actual politician is...not entirely...coincidental. I stitched together the head using images of about half a dozen different politicians, the ones who regularly make the news with their vile and stupid acts.

Super. The composite face does indeed have the look of the archetypal politician. Blood and money completes the picture nicely.

Mike_L wrote:Super. The composite face does indeed have the look of the archetypal politician. Blood and money completes the picture nicely.

Thanks! I honestly could not name the politicians I used for the image. I did it months ago, maybe a year, even. Ryan, Santorum?...Cruz, maybe. And some others.

So...I did this thing. Stitched together from stock photos and such. Finalized with the "Fine Edges" effect. The car and owner on the right is some South African pastor, the other is another pastor, from the US. Originally there was no cross-shaped bling on the former, but I find it ridiculous how EVERY fucking person walks around with a cross around their neck, no matter how much of a fucking scum or sleazeball they are.

There were three crosses on the church, one on each tower and on the middle part. I replaced one, including the small spires with satellite dishes and placed lightning rods on the other, guarding undeserved wealth.

Interpret elements of it however you will, though. If it isn't clear, the figure on the cross is a scarecrow. Because a sheep, nailed to the cross, in the same position, with its skull sliced open and brain missing, would've been too graphic.

Nice! It's like a matte painting with a comic-book feel.

Mike_L wrote:Nice! It's like a matte painting with a comic-book feel.

Thanks! I just didn't want it to immediately look like several pieces from different photos cropped together.

Loving my iPad Pro and Apple pencil. So brilliant.

Nice halftones with hatching and cross-hatching.

Mike_L wrote:Nice halftones with hatching and cross-hatching.

Thanks. The pencil has pretty amazing pressure sensitivity. I’m using it a lot for work sketches. Main app I’m using is called Concepts. I find the workspace is better suited for how I use it than say Autodesk Sketch.

https://concepts.app/en/