It’s been almost 6 months since I created a new blog post. That’s definitely a departure from my intended once-a-month blogging schedule. Alas. “Man proposeth, God disposeth,” as the saying goes. There’s a little bit of King James English for you. Got to love the -eth suffix.

Still, a lot has happened in the last 6 months. Since I haven’t yet managed to turn my art into a steady source of income I’ve had to resort to doing some odd jobs around Anacortes, Washington, where I live. I’ve developed many skills during my years in the monastery (and before) that seem to be in high demand in the small town of Anacortes. It’s a popular retirement destination, after all, so you can imagine a lot of elderly people that need help with all types of things. Gardening, painting, cleaning, home repairs, and care-giving are some of the things people want to pay me for. Now I just have to figure out how to get people to want to pay me for my art!

Speaking of art, I have had some noteworthy developments which I’d like to share with you.

It’s that time of month again. I mean that time when another one of my character designs steps onto the stage. This is Hermez, the second character under my new Modern Gawdz™ line.

Hermez is an all-around great guy but, due to his all-around greatness he can be somewhat arrogant at times. He’s working on it. These things take time!

When I launched my art business in early 2018 I wasn't sure what direction it would take. It wasn't long, however, before I came in contact with Kevin Espinal (AKA, KVN ELVN) via social media. Kevin was getting ready to launch his personal sneaker brand, KVN ELVN, and he was looking for 11 characters that could be licensed for use with his sneakers.

Though I've designed many original characters over the years I didn't have 11 characters that all belonged to the same fictional universe. Instead, I agreed to design a new set of original characters expressly for this unique licensing proposition. Thus was born Modern Gawdz, my series of 11 original characters (loosely) inspired by some of the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology.