It Begins With A Bang

It started with this:

Or rather, this:

Cute thing about the above illustration; it had been so long, I'd forgotten how to sign my artwork.


As a kid I was good at art
And I was good at science.
I went to college
For science.
Didn't make art for 25 years.
A quiet life.
Then along came Lafferty.


I saw an opportunity. I'd been in a vacuum for years. I'm not the sort of person who creates art in a vacuum.

Neil Gaiman led me to R.A. Lafferty. Lafferty, like me, is of Tulsa. I found the East of Laughter Facebook group. Then, before I knew it, a door was opened. You've seen, perhaps, what happens when you open the door to a vacuum. Everything inside explodes out.

Several of my illustrations will be appearing in the third volume of the Feast of Laughter serial (http://www.feastoflaughter.org/), a fan organized collection of appreciation for the man and his art.

There exists a short stack of Lafferty inspired artwork, mostly created in the 60s, 70s, and 80s when the man was alive and his books in print. To stand out from other artists I downloaded a free copy of Inkspace and taught myself how to draw in vector. It's a clean but tedious process akin to tracing a pencil drawing with inky Play-doh snakes. I could see what worked in previous volumes. Black and white worked, so that's where I started. The illustration above, Lafferty Bang Bang, was my first.


It has been enormously freeing, after so many years, to have a creative outlet and the Lafferty fan base has been nothing but supportive. It's been wonderful.