Hipstamatic

Design For Non-Existant Project

I took this photo the other day and thought it would make a great CD cover. Made up the song title. This is the kind of thing I do when I have free time and am not with family or painting. Below, is a second take on it for a song by Elvis Costello I've always loved.

Kickstarter Children's Book Progress

I have been working for the past couple of years on a children's book titled, Kevin The Tall Horse. It is the story of a very tall horse who with a little help finds his way home after being lost with his head in the clouds. Anyway, here are some of the pieces from it. I hope to launch this soon via Kickstarter. I've been working on a video and will hopefully get this out for the public to see in the coming month.

Small Paintings

A few shots of the paintings I've been working on and selling on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/koeb

Latest Painting To Sell On Etsy

This is the most recent painting to sell on my Etsy page. Many thanks to those who have been purchasing the work. More will be up soon.

Small Painting Sale

From now until the end of the year I'll be working on some small paintings and selling them on Etsy. The prices range between $30 and $100 each.

I've received a positive response since I began a couple days ago and have sold about four pieces in the last three or four days.

Above, are two of the sold works. These are about 5" square and were painted in acrylics and inks on half inch pieces of wood.

Please stop by my Etsy page to see other works.

Recent Work

New Painting

I've added a new painting to my website.: http://www.koeb.com/paintings_progress.html

Illustration Section Up

New section up on my site: http://www.koeb.com/illustration_1.html

Hipstamatic Photos

Recent photos taken with the Hipstamatic application.

Painting as Illustration

This is a personal piece I recently finished. Soon after finishing it I was asked by a friend, Derek Olds if I would be interested in creating art for his upcoming CD. I showed him this painting and he asked if he could use it. I love album covers, and am happy to have it be connected to his work. Have a listen here.

Large Digital Banners

Some years ago I was asked to create digital art for large scale banners to promote the services of a print vendor in San Francisco.

Here are some of the images used.

Small Paintings

Commission

Commissioned by a friend last year. Came across it while looking for something to post. Acrylic and watercolor on canvas. 11x14 I think.

My Age

After swimming for the first time this year I passed by a mirror and for the first time realized I look my age. I have few if any wrinkles but maybe it's the lack of hair on top of my head or my bloodshot pool water eyes but the man looking back at me looks almost 50. I don't feel this age. In fact, I've been exercising so much lately that I'm in about the best shape I my life. Not in 20 years have I been as fit. But, there is no denying that the face in the glass looking back at me is older.

It isn't just the face. My body hair is turning gray. The skin on my cheeks looks older. But more than anything, my outlook is older. I speak with younger people and feel the difference between 28 and 48. I realize that I'm old enough to have parented most of the people I interact with on a daily basis. Yesterday my son said that I'm from the 1970s and he's from 2013. It was funny but there is a ring of truth in it. Most of his life is ahead of him and most of mine is behind me. The realization of this is somewhat alarming but I'm ok with it.

With all of these thoughts, the biggest are these: will I have the time to do the things I want to do before my time is up and if I have the time, will I use it to do these things? I've wasted too much time already and let fear stop me from pursuing things. I no longer want to do this and hope I get a chance to make good on my skills and creativity.

Away From Myself

Do you ever feel tired of all of the things you like? Feel that you've heard every song on every cd you own and listened ad-nauseum to all of the songs in you itunes library? You've looked through all your art books and graphic novels and are just tired of it all and want something new?

I've been feeling this way lately. I have too many things I no longer want but can't part with, too much music with no one to sell it to, too many pictures I've made that sit in flat files or on a rack with no place to show them. I'm tired of them as well. I've seen them too much. I can't imagine anyone else wanting them either as that no one is knocking on my door to buy anything and I can't seem to find the interest to put them together in a book or paint over them. The only thing that interests me is the painting I am currently working on.

More later, just curious. Maybe I need to get away from myself and take a long bike ride or trip somewhere.

Sad days

I hesitate to post this as it is not really my story but rather one belonging to my mother. Writing it is an attempt to heal and to console myself and help other who have had similar experiences.

The year began with sadness. My cat Oliver, my best friend for 14 years finally succumbed to hyperthyroidism and became so ill that I had to have him put to sleep. It was one of the saddest experiences I have had. I don't know why, but in my mind and heart, I believed he would always be here. Hopes of a man with a boy's heart I guess. I buried him in our backyard with a grave marked by a ring of stones and a small piece of slate for a headstone. It was late January, the day before I took my son to see my mom in California.

It had been a few years since the last time I saw my mom. Too may years really. Though I enjoyed driving around San Francisco, and even finally seeing Alcatraz after never seeing it while I lived there, the sights were overshadowed by sadness.

Jack, my mother's beloved companion for about the last ten years had been suffering from both prostate and liver cancers. Last spring we learned of the liver cancer and that he would be undergoing chemotherapy. At the time of our visit, his body savaged by both the disease and treatment, Jack was a shadow of his former self. I don't really want to go into all of my thoughts and feelings about seeing him. Suffice to say, it was painful to see a once healthy and robust man with a kind heart, sweetness, and deep love for my mother suffer and watch my mom try to cope. My own father died 20 years ago and though I never thought of Jack as a stepfather, he was very dear to me.

Jack was a very special person. He was kind and sensitive, funny, and creative, and in the few times I met him, welcoming and loving to myself and my family. He created rocking horses and small faceless dolls called "peekaboos" which leaned against furniture in his small house. His living room sported several cabinets which contained at least 500 ceramic teddy bear statues. I asked my mom what she thought when she first saw this and all she said was, "oh boy, I'm in trouble." It was a good visit in that we got to see them, my son got a chance to bond with my sister's family, and my mother and Jack got to enjoy him. For Jack, sadly, it would be the last time.

I did not know whether he was going to get better or not, but did not have false hopes that he would. About a month after our visit my mother called to tell me that he wasn't going to make it, that he had a very short time left. After this and until a phone call from my sister telling me of his passing, every day I would go to work, try my best to do my job and take an interest in people, all the while waiting for a call to tell me that he had died. I can't think of a worse state of being than waiting for someone to die.

He finally passed on March 12. He leaves behind children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and my mother. Though she was only with him for ten years, I believe he was the great love of her life.

Playing with Paint

Sketches to Finish

I came across these scans of sketches for an illustration I did some years back about police corruption and the treatment of prostitutes by police for Washington City Paper, art directed by Jandos Rothstein. This will give you some idea of my process of exploring an idea or subject. The finished illustration is below. It was created using techniques I learned from a video of a demo by Marshall Arisman.

1999

Some Of My Very Earliest Photoshop Work

These pieces, or variations of a piece are some of my earliest explorations into Photoshop. I think I was using PS 3 or 2.5 at this point. I first began using Photoshop in 1992 with a friend's computer and Photoshop 2.1. In addition to using Photoshop I was experimenting with a program called Studio 32. I liked using it in that I could create drips of paint and sort of emulate painting.