Here is a large smiling sun (titled "a brighter future) I painted for this Saturday's benefit show at the Thunder-Sky gallery in Northside. This is the second edition of "Shelter in Place", a human rights benefit show curated by my friend Holly Prochaska. The first one was an awesome experience and very successful, and this one should be as well. Any piece of art or artist-made goods (photographs, handbound mini-books, prints, etc.) purchased will have 100% of the proceeds donated to a charitable organizations such as the ACLU or Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center. The opening is this Saturday, 6-10 PM at Thunder-Sky, Inc. Also, the upstairs show "Time Warp", a unique show in conjunction with both Thunder-Sky and the Pique gallery in Covington opens the same night.

Made a poster for one of my all-time favorite bands: Sweden's Träd, Gräs & Stenar. I could go on and on about the legendary T,G & S (with their latest record from August, they are now simply going by "Träden") ... but, instead, I will just say that this will likely be the best show ever. Tomorrow at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, part of a US tour the band is doing with Endless Boogie.

I love this shot I discreetly captured at one of the animation workshops I hosted earlier this year.

Now available in the shop: the "Colourblind" tote bag. 100% natural & machine washable. The perfect tote for groceries, records, or just about anything that fits in a 15.75" x 15x25" opening!

Unfortunately, the forecast of about 12 consecutive hours of heavy rain put a literal damper on yesterday's annual Westwood Art Show. However, due to some fantastic improvisation, a smaller version of the show went on indoors, located at the brewery across from the park (and with the live music split between there and the Muse Cafe coffee shop down the street).

The show also printed these beautiful bags and buttons featuring my artwork for this year's poster, and they are fantastic. Thanks again to the Art Show and Westwood Works for asking me to do this year's poster, and hopefully a return to drier outdoor conditions next September.

Over the summer, I took a trip to the amusement park "Holiday World" with my sister and two young nieces. It is located in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana (population: 2,481), a small town in which Christmas music and santa statues permeate every single corner. While driving on I-65, my sister and I could have sworn that we both observed three large crows on the side of the highway taking turns eating out of a Chinese food takeout container. When I got home, I animated it.

I was honored to be asked to do the poster for the 10th annual Westwood Art Show, coming up next month. It is one of my favorite events every year (had a booth of my own last year),, taking place in the beautiful Westwood Historic District. The graphic is also going to be on tote bags for sale at the festival (the first 50 of which will be given out for free).

With summer winding down (must resist inclusion of "where does the time go?" trope ...), I wanted to mention a few things about the various Floating Shape Workshop projects that have taken place the past few months.

- The Cincinnati Film Society was kind enough to publish an article that overviews FSW's (past and present) happenings this summer. Thanks, CFS! Speaking of our latest collaborative film, it was recently submitted it to an international youth animation festival. Fingers crossed.

- At the end of July, we did something brand new: hosted a workshop in which we created a collaborative short film, completely live. FSW was set up at 5th annual Good People Festival in Covington, Kentucky (we were there last year making flipbooks & zoetropes) alongside our pals at Robot Inside. I animated a short introduction and then had a live set up with a camera, animation rostrum and basic supplies. Then, each child/family who passed through while at the festival had the opportunity to add to the film by creating their own short scene (via either a simple cutout animation or filming a flipbook). It was an experiment in the truest sense of the word, but I was pretty proud of how the final result came out. I would estimate that about 25-30 children added to it in some way (pics and video below).

- Finally, our last workshop of the summer will be this Sunday, as will be hanging out with the Mini Microcinema during the annual "Second Sunday on Main" celebration in Over-the-Rhine. This is a free flipbook workshop for children. The previously scheduled workshop on August 15th at Westwood's "Wooden Hill" is currently being rescheduled for a future date.