Hello All,

Well, it seems we have the fiber/weaving business in a stable place for a moment, and now it’s time to open the flood gates back to Art and Illustration!

First bit-o-news: TPOT #3 will be on its way soon. It’ll be a pretty neat issue, a kind of reconciliation between styles, genre, and TPOT itself. I’ll relate more info as it comes closer to being printed. (Good news also on the TPOT front- TPOT is in its very first brick and mortar store! Collectibles Etc. in Lexington, Ky!)

Secondly, I broke down and finally put myself and Nydwyn Green Dragon Studio on Facebook… ([link] and [link]) It’s pretty crazy how many people are on there… So friend me if you’d like and be sure to fan NGDS to catch the news on the wind!

Third, I’ve got a little bit of time for some new illustration work, so hey all you editors out there, My schedule has some slots again.

More changes and such in the works with EVERYTHING, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays Everybody!

All the Best,

-CJB

Hello All,

So, it’s been a while to say the least. What have I been doing? I’ve been ‘a weavin’! It seems that the fibers business is taking off quite well and since there’s been a lull in illustration, I’m happy to do something else for a while. Like a lot of other artists out there, I have to constantly create things and painting just sometimes doesn’t cut it. Doing something tactile and more relatable is a huge breath of fresh air. I also find myself a thousand times busier with the fibers stuff than I could ever imagine. The results are worth it though.
One of the strangest things is that I get a LOT more respect as a Weaver/Textile artist. Usually when someone introduces me as ‘Oh, this is C.J., he’s a fantasy artist,’ I get a wincing eye and a smirk. Lately though, people have been getting to know me as fibers person and it goes like ‘This is C.J., he’s a weaver and textile designer,’ and people go ‘Oh, Wow, that’s really neat!’ and I get smiles and pleasant conversation. It’s one thing to ‘suffer’ for your art, but I never realized how much of a drag it was to my self esteem to not be respected.
With that said, I’ll be focusing my efforts on fibers for a while which will effectively shut NGDS down indefinitely. We’ll see where it goes, I’m sure it’s going to be a hell of a ride!
To see what I’ve been up to fibers-wise, go visit our new website- www. silverwheelyarn .com - [link]
or on Deviant Art-
and on Facebook- [link]

Also, A most sincere Thanks to all the Favs, Watches, and wonderful comments while I've been busy.

Thanks Everybody, See you soon!
-CJB

Nope. I've felt like I've been in a Chinese prison for a while, but in reality I've been terribly busy.

What have I been up to? Well, I've been working on illustrating a book (that I did not write), working on TPOT, Helping start a fibers business and trying to heal a pulled butt muscle. I managed to redo a catalog of about 90 pages in between too. I've been BUSY.

The Book illustrations are nearly done (stay tuned for that later), just the cover remains, the fibers business is going to take more time, and TPOT is... Well, TPOT #3 is in the mix somewhere. It'll get done, it's just hard tellin' when. Other secret projects are in the mix too, so think of it as a kind of weird colored Kool-aid that'll taste better than it looks. Oh Yeah, you know what I mean.

Don't forget-
TPOT #1 is still for sale here- [link]
And TPOT #2 is for sale here- [link]
I've got just a very few (like ten or less)of TPOT #1 Limited edition left, they're $10 with free U.S. shipping. Find out more here- [link]

Hopefully I'll be able to upload more stuff for ya'll soon, but in the mean-time I'd love to hear from you!
Talk to you soon,
All the Best!

-CJB

Hello All,

It’s been REAL cold here’a’bouts lately. We had a very dreadful Ice storm that covered the whole mid-section of KY with at least 1inch of solid ice, with snow on top of that. Here in good ole Lexington, KY, we had 1 inch of ice with about 3 inches of snow on top. Just yesterday, (Feb. 6) temperatures got above freezing. Since the power and phone lines were questionable, I took the liberty of building an igloo out of all the ice in my backyard. It got to be 5 ft. high before it decided to melt. Now it’s just a big mound of slush. I tried to dig a hole yesterday and found a bonafide layer of permafrost underneath. There goes my bulbs…

Enough about the weather. We’ve got The Price of Tea #2 available now, along with the unlimited version of The Price of Tea #1 in two different formats. You can purchase a printed version from our partners at Indyplanet.com, or you can purchase the .PDF file version from my website. Go to the new NGDS Store [link] page to learn more… (I have to plug the printed version though, there’s nothing like having a printed object in your hand, as they were designed to be experienced, and they look great too!)

As briefly hinted before, the website [link] has undergone a few changes. I’ve updated the Green Dragon Gallery, added/fixed the brand new NGDS Store (where you can acquire everything we’ve printed and my sideline of original Block Prints), and made everything a bit more compatible with the Firefox browser. The TPOT site is still hard to navigate with Firefox, but we’re working on it. The Store is really the new showpiece, it took a lot of elbow-grease to get everything working properly so that now you can order with Paypal, have a shopping cart, and etc…

Also, It looks like I’m going to stay pretty darn busy for a while, so forgive the lack of updates. I really am hard at it. Honest. I just can’t show you most of the stuff I’m producing right yet.

Stay tuned for more blog action though, I need to give that sucker a better workout.

Talk to you soon!

Hey Folks,

I hope everyone has had a good Holiday season and such. I know I'm looking forward to New Years. I think it can be said that everyone has had a relatively bad year, or a very weird year at the least. Looking back I see all the bad stuff first, but then I realize a lot of good stuff happened too. Should I punch 2008 in the nuts or shake its hand? Maybe I'll do both in one strong and swift motion.

I must give a big Thanks to all those who supported me when our car got smashed. Just knowing that so many care is a great boon indeed. I've been kinda shook up about it for a while now, and it seems like the trouble's nearly passed. But Damn, was there a hell of a lot of distractions over the past 3 months. Not only do I work slow, but the holidays and other unfortunate things kept me too busy. I should have had TPOT #2 done and out by January, but it looks like the end of January/beginning of February is the expected release time. Stay tuned for more info on that.

2009 seems like it's going to keep me pretty busy. I think I'm going to stay put instead of traveling to shows this year, unless something really awesome pops up. I will be sending Art to various shows, so if you frequent conventions in the Mid-West and Eastern USA there's a good chance you'll get to see some of my work.

May 2009 bring us all prosperity and joy, and might we all be safe in the process.

Talk to you Soon,
All the Best!

-CJB