In 9 months, I will be a graduate of Carleton College. But before that, I have to graduate. And I’ll be damned if they don’t pronounce my full name correctly at graduation. The college agrees, and so they sent out a sheet to all the graduating students that included a pronunciation guide. Here, for Carleton’s and your reference, is that guide (as always, click for larger):

That was yesterday, actually. I titled this as a True Story, but I won’t archive it as such. It’s just not juicy enough!

Sorry, this isn’t a new true story (though I’ve got a few ideas in the works). Rather, this is just another random drawing I did the other day.

Anyway, it’s a turtle with a baseball stadium on its back. Sharpie again (“Ultra-Fine” and “Fine”) this time around. Not sure where the idea came from, or just where in the hell this turtle thinks he’s going.

In other news, I’ll be flying to Toronto on Sunday for two weeks of Canadian and East Coast (New York, Cape Cod) vacationing. I’ll try to keep updating. Expect a couple of true stories out of this trip!

One of my favorite bands, Gomez, is due to release a new album this Tuesday, March 31st. I’ve been waiting for quite some time for this! And to show my excitement, I painted this for the (anticipated) first single of their album, Airstream Driver (for a while, this was available as a free download from their website, but no longer). It’s a great song, and if any indication, A New Tide will be a great album. My roommate Peter and I plan on driving somewhere out of Northfield next Tuesday so that we can buy it as soon as it hits stores in the U.S.

And since I forgot to update on Monday, here’s a picture of a regretful man:

See you on Friday!

Growing up in Wauwatosa, a close Milwaukee suburb, one of the biggest local attractions was Mayfair Mall. For about 17 years, I lived in a small neighborhood sandwiched between the Mall and a golf course. As it took less than 10 minutes to walk from my front door to that of the mall, I spent a lot of time there as a kid. It started expanding in the mid-90s to include a Barnes & Noble and an 18-screen movie theater. So I also spent a lot of money at Mayfair.

Lately I’ve been trying to focus my art on what’s relevant to me, and specifically my childhood. The new banner, a pen drawing of the skyline of Milwaukee, is an example of this. The view of the Mayfair Mall North Tower (above) is another. I passed that tower nearly every day on my way to and from school, or when walking to the Mall.

A graphic novel is in the works, I think. I recently read Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth (some wonderful images here and here). This summer, I want some of my own illustrative work to come together to tell a story. So I’ve been working from photographs and memory, trying to capture the feel of 1990s Milwaukee and near suburbs. It may be a while before I update about this again, since I’m beginning to wrap up Winter term at Carleton. In the spring I’ll be independently studying illustration, and hope to get some more serious groundwork done toward this. Then, hopefully, by the summer, I will have something substantial completed.

Until next time.

On a whim last night, in lieu of creating a semblance of a DVDFest movie for Lenny Dee, my friend Jameson (whose blog you will soon be able to find at http://jamesonsiegert.wordpress.com), decided to have a small Photoshop competition. We had been discussing a certain photo that advertises for an upcoming dance, the purported popularity surrounding it, and the fact that both Jameson and I could easily outstrip its creator’s Photoshop skills without breaking a sweat. We did, and finished up not too late last night with the following works (Jameson’s, followed by mine):

So I guess the theme for this one was Will Smith, in the poster for the 2008 film Hancock, in a rave setting. The theme for the next Jameson vs. Scott? I have no idea. If you like, you can submit your questions and suggestions in the comments box.

Oh, and vote for who you think should be the winner of this Photoshop competition, the first in the series of Jameson vs. Scott.

Another project in my Painting and Drawing class from last fall focused on toads. A little history is required here: in September 2007, just before school started, my girlfriend Lisa and I stopped, on a whim, at PetWorld in Milwaukee. And we bought a toad, a Great Plains Toad, whose name we debated for the next several hours while driving to Carleton. While I initially suggested “Tybalt,” (as in “Tybalt the Toad”) Lisa came up with “Bartleby,” and we both agreed that it suited him well. The name comes from the 1853 Herman Melville short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Our Bartleby was far less morose than Melville’s titular character. In fact, he was quite the opposite.

On the first day we arrived, after setting up Bartleby’s tank in Lisa’s room, we left for dinner. When we returned, we found him calmly sitting atop the tank, as if he’d been waiting for us. It turned out that if the top of the tank wasn’t properly fastened, he could jump, open a lid with his head, grab on, and climb on top. It wasn’t the only time we found him in a place where he wasn’t supposed to be. He enjoyed hiding in the corners of Lisa’s room, underneath her bed, and in her winter boots.

Pets, except for fish, aren’t allowed in the dorms. Bartleby was our secret, and even when Lisa made her documentary on pets at Carleton, she decided not to include Bartleby in it (fame would probably have gone to his head anyway). When it came time to leave for the summer, we decided at the last minute to leave Bartleby at the pet store in Northfield. And in September, when we returned, we were told that he had mysteriously escaped one night.

We think he was trying to find us.

I focused on toads for the first part of my Painting and Drawing class as an outlet for my strong emotions toward Bartleby. I had few pets growing up, two turtles when I was 6 or 7, a beta fish three years ago, and then Bartleby. Over the year, I grew attached to him, and it was hard to accept that he was gone.

And you can find a photo of the infamous toad Bartleby himself here.

So if you’re in Northfield, and you see a toad resembling either the watercolor or the photo, and he responds positively to the name Bartleby, please let me know. I miss him.

I just got home from school a few days ago for Thanksgiving, and will be leaving soon. Earlier, while cleaning out my room a bit, I discovered (the only) two pages from the first journal/diary I ever tried to keep. Every few years or so, I’ll try writing in one regularly, which inevitably fails. The one I found dates from the balmy summer of 1994, when I was six years old (almost seven, actually). I think it offers a lot of insight into my now long-gone childhood. I’ll try to punctuate and spell exactly as I found it (slashes indicate that I wrote the words too close together, and wanted to show that they were separate words). You can find it below:

AUG. 5TH 94   FRI

LAST MONTH I WeNT TO GRANDMA’S BeACH HOUSE IT WAS A LOT/OF FUN!. I ALSO FOUND LOTS OF SeASHeLLS. A DiFFERENT DAy I GOT BACK AND THeN A DiFFEReNNT DAy I STARTED SWiMMiNg LeSSON’S.

BeFORE/WE WeNT TO MASSACHUSETTS MY FREIND NeAL TOOK GOOD CARE OF MY TURTLE. YeSTeRDAy I WeN’T DOWN A POLE IN THe DeePEST PART AND TOUCHeD THE BOTTOM. ALSO I LeARNED TO BReATH & BLOW iN THE WATER. WHEN I WAS GOiNg BACK FROM THE/MALL AS YOu EXPeCTED I WROTE A PART OF THiS PAgE. I SAW 20 GOLF BALLS!.

ALSO THiS SUMMeR I LOST My FiRST TOOTH & I LeARNeD TO RiDE A TWO WHeeLeR!. I/ALSO WeNT TO BiBLE SCHOOL/I LeARNeD ABOUT 5 ANiMALS FiSH LAMB SNAKe ROOSTeR/&/DOVe. I/ALSO ReAD 10 BOOKS & THE LiBRARiAN GAVE ME ARR!. IT WAS A TiCKET TO THE/ZOO!. ARE GARDeN IS GOOD!. MY BiRTHDAY/iS COMiNg UP!. I’M/GOiNg TO HAVE IT AT LeAPS & BOUNDS!. I WiSH I HADN’T TOLD JiMMy TO SPiLL HiS JUiCE. ME AND PAUL DiD THAT. I’LL TRY TO TeACH JiMMy NOT TO DO THAT. PAUL/JUST/DiD/SOMeTHiNg. GOOD. WHEN/I WAS/DONE WiTH My DRiNK JiMMY TOOK My ICeCUBE JiMMY GOT iN TROUBLE. MATT WAS ANNOyiNg US!.

AUG. 6 1994

TODAy I WENT TO THE BAKeRY WiTH My DAD AND/GOT A STeGOSAURUS COOKiE WE ALSO GOT A DONUT WiTH SPRiNKLES. WE ALSO FOUND A BOTTLE/AND GOT AN iDEA. WE’RE GOiNG TO MAKE A PUPPET. i FORGOT TO TELL YOU i’M A REAL ARTiST. i DREW LOTS/OF PiCTURES. I GOT A BUZZ CUT.