I salute the East Austin Studio Tour for a tremendous job they did this year putting everything together and creating such a strong voice in this community. They still have a few kinks to work out, but by and large they excelled over past years efforts. I admit I approached this year a little sluggishly and was a little ill prepared. After the overwhelming response I got to my work, I hope to come back even stronger as I plan to take over the world!

Below is a piece that I created collaboratively with my Beautiful wife April Garcia. This is the image we put in the book and we are thrilled to say it just SOLD this week! We’ve done collaborative pieces in the past and struggled with the idea of ownership, meaning what part of this can I destroy and what do I have to keep. Sure, there is always going to be a power struggle, but I think we are more comfortable with what we are capable of artistically that we find ways to help each out.

If you look at the image in the book, it doesn’t actually look like the finished piece. What we did was first create the image digitally, then go back and try to recreate it. We wanted a fresh image and when due dates come up, push comes to shove and there is no way we are going to have camera ready art until the tour is over. We started working on a canvas, but half way through realized we were painting on the one with the wrong dimensions. What happened was we reconfigured the illustration to fit and ended up with what you see here. That’s just part of the process and in the end I am very pleased with the way every detail turned out. See you next year!