Week One: Introduction

This is what I look like.

Hello, my name is James. You can call me Jim if you like.

While I am currently self-trained, I recently began studying studio art at Saint Xavier University.

Some things to know about me:

• Art is, and always has been, very important to me.

• I love music and collect vinyl. I'm really into Bang & Olufsen turntables.

• I am married to a really smart/cool wife, and we made two completely insane little boys. 

Over the years I've worked in graphic design. First in newspapers, then in private agencies, and I now serve as an art director for Trade Show Executive magazine. 

While the field of graphic design can be very commercial, I have been able to keep my art very personal to me. In my non-work life, I've collaborated with friends, completed several commissioned works, and amassed stacks of drawings 

that pile up in my closet.

My current passion is learning new techniques and experiencing art in different mediums.

I love photography, and look forward to exploring that more.

The following portfolio is an essential collection of my work, and like all living things, it's always growing.

Enjoy.

Oh! I nearly forgot. If you'd like, head over to my instagram account. My photo work is fun, stupid, beautiful and authentic. I think you'll like it. www.instagram.com/hollycross

The Great & Powerful Oz

Created for a community theatre production of the Wizard of Oz in 2007, 
I established that I could keep the head when the play finished its run as my fee. 
Cut plywood on a pine framework, the head was painted with standard house paints 
that I mixed to create the aquas and pinks I wanted to capture the haunting appearance 
that Oz used to intimidate his petitioners. It measures roughly 8' square.

I used paint rollers and brushes to lay color down. Plasma discs were placed behind 
the eye cavities, and were set to pulse to noise in the room. When Oz's voice boomed, 
lightning in his eyes reacted. We lit the head with blacklight floods and one red lamp. 
Dry ice fog surrounded the stairs the head was placed at the top of.

The Gardener

I created this piece earlier this year, based on my 6 year old son, Simon. 

The Gardener is a garden gnome, mischievous but friendly. 

Simon is stringy, athletic, has a mop of blond curls on his head, and is almost always 

in a rebellious state of undress. 

Process: Drawn and inked with watercolor markers on 18"x24" Strathmore drawing paper. 
No pencil sketch.

Funny Story: Upon seeing the Gardener for the first time, Simon immediately responded with 

a burst of laughter and asked "IS IT ME?"

Skulking

This is a study of a design I made for a friend's guitar. At the time, I was obsessed with 

medieval roses, and loved the idea of the rose being carved into the forehead of a skull. 

Drawn in 2B pencil on Strathmore 11"x15" watercolor paper.

Flame Circle

One of my favorite designs, I've used this on everything from my guitar, to my shoes, 

to painting it on a desk top. Inspired by the stained glass museum at Navy Pier in the early 2000's, 

I wanted an inspiring, halo-like design, and for years believed that this would be my first tattoo. 

It didn't work out that way, but I may still get this inked in someday. Measures 8" square. 
2B Pencil on drawing paper.

The First Plate (cover)

The First Plate is an idea my wife Sarah and I had for a children's book, featuring a cave-boy, 
who tires of eating food off the ground, and begins a creative process to develop a plate.
This is the art we plan on using as the cover of the book.

I used Prang watercolors to paint the 12 layers that make up this piece without sketching first.
I wanted to convey distance and I really like the playful white outline on each layer.

Painted on heavy watercolor paper, and layered into an 8.5"x11" size.

Dark Alliance

Drawn in 2B pencil, this is just a fun sketch of two underwater acquaintances, 

descending into the depths. I was interested in the idea of movement under water, 

and I'd been drawing whirlpools a lot. I decided to come at this from a different angle, 

literally, and tried to capture the idea of two animals diving simultaneously.

Drawn in 2B pencil on an 18" x 24" piece of Strathmore drawing paper.

Beware the Killer Amish

I was raised Mennonite in NW Ohio, and grew up in an area where the Amish 

co-existed with our community. Comic, friendly, but inherently mysterious, 

they are such an intriguing segment of Americana. 

Observing them randomly switching into Pennsylvania Dutch or German when 

they wanted to mask their conversations, I remember being confused and intimidated at times 

by this otherworldly people. At 20, I drew this picture of a zombified amish man, 

developing a story about a traveling undead preacher, his cart driven by an undead horse. 

Over the years, it's remained one of my favorite ties to my past.

Drawn in Uniball Vision pens on a 5" square of yellow paper.

Tied

Last winter, I lost my job as a communications director for an historic non-profit, 

and opened my own consulting firm shortly after. As the year progressed, I found myself

contemplating a return to the corporate workforce, and this picture came out of that. 

I love ties. Always have. They've always seemed to be the bright fish that swim in the sea 

of corporate suits, and I have no aversion to wearing one. 

That said, I was contemplating the leash-like qualities that they have, and evaluating 

whether I wanted to dive back in to that type of relationship with an employer.

2B pencil on 18" x 24" Strathmore drawing paper.

Krazy Kat meets the Gardener

This was an assignment for my graphic novel course this semester, in which we were asked to 
make a single panel piece combining one of our characters, and a George Herriman inspired comic. 
I sketched the scene, combining multiple techniques of Mr. Herriman, 
and inked it in using Watercolor Markers. 

It is on a 11.5" x 6" heavy landscape sketchbook paper that I bought at the Tate Museum in London 
earlier this year.