Riders of Theoden

Ink & Sword will be participating in the Bust Magazine Spring Craftacular tomorrow on Saturday, May 4 from 11am-6pm. Can't say enough about how much the folks at Bust Magazine have it together when it comes to putting together a great event. I'll be debuting 2 new woodblock prints and 4 new hand pulled screen print projects including a 4 color poster. I started the process a couple of months back and it's been quite a journey getting to this point. The bonus being this fair is in my neck of the woods in Brooklyn and in Dumbo, which was my stomping grounds for the many years I lived in the neighborhood after moving from north Cali. It's also where my great grandfather emigrated from Derbyshire and joined the U.S. Cavalry. I wasn't aware of this, when I first moved to the exact neighborhood he relocated to begin his new life. It'll be good to come full circle. Per mare, per terram.

now playing: New Order - Temptation

Small Steps

Manufacturing and manipulating matter on a molecular and atomic scale is in our immediate future. There is a technology that may someday allow humans to live much longer, get rid of heart disease, cure cancer, make diamonds from matter, fit all of the information of all the computers of the world in something the size of a sugar cube, make and produce food products to end world hunger and potentially change everything as we know it. Richard Feynman envisioned the idea of miniature robots building complex tiny factories and creating products so complex they'll be built by their own manufactured machines. Will our technology indeed surpass our humanity? What will be the consequence of transitioning to completely non-biological forms and having the ability to construct or reconstruct entire bodies thus marching humans to a state of immortality. There's a theory called the Malthusian check. A scholar named Thomas Malthus came up with the idea that a society growing to a tipping point will ultimately reach it's sustainable limit. He said, "the power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man". It will be an even smaller world if he's right. Whatever the conclusion may be, the inevitability of such a drastic advancement in our ability to change, manipulate or alter the very nature of our world will either magnify what Henry David Thoreau described as men becoming "tools of their tools" or enable a higher purpose of humanity because of the miraculous gift of longevity to life. These questions and ideas and perhaps a redefinition of humankind will be answered in Nanotechnology.

Image © 2013 Ink & Sword

now playing: Nick Cave - Into My Arms

Swim

Doubting Thomas. One who is habitually doubtful according to my dictionary. Now, I don't know if the original Saint Thomas deserved such a negative moniker being that he doubted the idea of someone, oh I don't know, coming back from the dead. Quite reasonable I suppose. I've received my fair share of doubting Thomases. When I consider how often people have told me what I hope to accomplish is absurd or inconceivable, I probably would have never left home. It's harder to swim upstream. Security is your worst enemy. Believe in something. Anything. It means shedding the blanket. It may mean someone you love will disagree with you and then you'll have to venture and fight for it. And when you're in the thick of it, remember to look across the stampede because chances are you'll find some other reckless soul smiling back at you and doubting the impossible.

Blade Runner poster. First of the brand new Directors - Cinema Series. Illustration © 2013 Ink & Sword.

Below: Blade Runner screening notes from studio execs. Some of the notations include, "the picture is deadly dull" and "movie gets worse every screening". 

now playing: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Soundtrack

Flux

Looking up, looking onward looking past. Makin' plans, makin' moves and movin' on. A compass pointed north, south east and west. Expect trouble, to be off course, nothing but the worst of course. The best reason is the whole point. For everything in between.

All images © 2013 Ink & Sword

London

Paris

San Francisco

now playing: Flume Possum

A Resolution

Romans deified Ceasar on the first of January and the month itself is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and endings. The Chinese New Year, including the Vietnamese and Tibetan transition are also celebrated this month. Interestingly the Aztec New Year (thanks for the scare guys) falls in March as do Sikh, Iranian, Balinese and Hindu celebrations. In April, the Assyrian New Year occurs followed with the Tamil New Year, Bengali and one of my favorites to witness, the Water Festival known as Thingyan in Burma or Songkran in Thailand. More festivals exalting the new year cycle happen in summer as well as the Autumn seasons. Seems the world is toasting everyday is new. Another opportunity to tackle an old impossibility or different one. In transitioning with new questions and quenching new answers, we ignite the ability to take action. Janus was a god with two heads. One face looking forward and the other backward. The connection between yesterday and tomorrow can always be made, today, with something new.

Pet PSA Illustrations © 2013 Ink & Sword

Pet PSA Illustrations © 2013 Ink & Sword

now playing: Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1