Guest Artist

Some years ago, I had a student, Chris Fan who would tell me often, "Mr. Wales, my grandpa is an artist and art teacher in China." Sometimes he would add, "Someday he'll come to visit and he can show you how good he paints." One year this family gave me one of Grandpa's beautiful paintings as a gift. It was done in the traditional Chinese style, in which they use calligraphic brushstrokes. The Eastern approach is much different than much of the art from the West. Many times their goal is to depict something beautifully with as few brush strokes as possible. Students must master many techniques before they even think about originality.

Then one summer during an art class, this artist paid a surprise visit. Neither he or his wife spoke English, but he immediately sat down, got out his art supplies and showed us how he made a painting. While working, he spoke in Chinese while his grandchildren translated. He made us all try it, and he was very encouraging about our efforts -- (even mine, which were not that good). He looked at some of the paintings of mine on the board, and remarked enthusiastically about my paintings and some of the children's art, including the work of one boy who was very pleased with his drawing of Superman.




This is one of my favorite memories as a teacher. It's a kind of thing that wasn't even planned -- it just happened spontaneously, and was a once in a lifetime experience for me and the kids.

Victoria Fan-Gorman says,

My grandfather's name is Chu Chun-Fu. He majored in Chinese painting at Beijing Art Institute in China. Once in Taiwan, he taught art in high school his entire career and also gave private lessons. His students hosted an exhibition of his paintings, and my grandfather then published his entire collection. One copy of the book was given to the AAHS library in 2000.

First Peek at the Fluke Book

The Fluke show is one week away. Here's the book for the show that will include my comic. It's a really nice book - 80 pages with screen printed cover, saw blade belly band, and an "extra goodie" inside.

There will be some available for purchase online, but not until after the show.

If I were in Georgia, I'd go to this!

I can't make it, but one of my comics will be in the anthology book made just for the show.

FLUKE is a mini-comic festival that has been organized by Athens-area comic artists, underground publishers and their enthusiasts since 2002. Conceived as a venue for the discussion and exchange of timely ideas related to mini-comics, zines, and other independent publications. The organizers say,

FLUKE is not a large comic convention or merchandising-saturated extravaganza. This isn't to say we don't like our share of stuff--'cause we do. However, we have kept the organization of the event as simple as possible to ensure that it remains focused on work and ideas rather than merchandising.

FLUKE is in Athens Georgia on Saturday April 4th and opens at 11:00 AM and closes by 6 PM. It will be held upstairs at Tasty World and the admission is $5.00.

Jeff Foxworthy on School Employees

YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off.

YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered.

YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon or if it going to rain, snow, hail....anything!!! Without ever looking outside.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe, "shallow gene pool" should have its own box on a report card.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

YOU might be a school employee if when out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August and June.

YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the "lounge."

YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the UHAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.

YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.

YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly answers this question, "Why is this kid like this?"

YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that matter!

YOU might be a school employee if the words "I have college debt for this?" has ever come out of your mouth.

YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year!

Scenes from the Art Show

We had a great turnout at the art show last night at Heroes Your Mom Threw Out Comic Shop. Here I am showing my comic to a potential customer, who, as you can see, is immediately riveted and enthralled by the plot of the comic.
Actually, a big surprise of the night was looking up to see my old friend EJ Maryott. We went to school together at Mansfield University, where we both were members of the prestigious group of rogues and scholars, The Sixth Floor Mutants. It was great to catch up with an old friend!
Proprietor Jared Aiosa cleared the racks and let me fill up a section with my comics. All the other racks, he took down and turned the place into an art gallery for the night. I can't believe he did that, and for all his efforts, I deem him Best Comic Book Guy Ever!
There was a lot of my original art on the wall. There was tons of art throughout the shop, but after this picture, I got to talking and forgot to take more pictures! My wife tells me that men are not good at multi-tasking and I suspect she's right.

I Read the News Today, Oh boy

There's an article in today's Star-Gazette. I hope we get a good turn-out, if only because Jared Aiosa is going to a lot of trouble to completely dismantle his comic shop to turn it into an art gallery. He really is serious about supporting the arts -- especially for those of us who can't afford such things as mats and frames and such.

Creativity is something anyone can enjoy, and it's good to share your results from others, see what they are making and get feedback.

If you are out and about tonight in the Elmira area, come check it out! 6:30 at the Heroes Your Mom Threw Out Comic Shop on 128 W. 14th St. in Elmira Heights.

There's a Cosmos full of Conundrums to Crack

Sometimes I like to just sketch, without necessarily worrying about the drawing being for any certain upcoming story or project. Here are some sketches I've done of various panels from comic books. I like the Silver Age comic book vibe, with a more humorous approach. Sometimes I just sketch a panel because I thought the layout was innovative. I hope I'm storing away artist secrets in my mind to use later, adding another tool to the toolbox.

The sketch above is from a classic Hulk story, The Brute that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom. I kept the characters the same, only made them more like caricatures. They used to pack in a lot more dialogue in each panel then.
I think this panel is from the same story, but as you can see, sometimes I like to substitute my own characters.

These are a couple from a Superman/Flash team-up.