life is strange. a couple years later, i find myself an Associate Dean during a university merger/acquisition, which is... not a direction i thought i'd take. i'm definitely not bored, and quoth an original and spot-on aphorism from my mom, "life is weird, but sometimes it's ok."
so last time (er, nearly three years ago), we'd wrapped on Spooky Basement. my brother and i needed a new project to work on, and he and his delightful partner developed a truly clever idea. kid bro is a truly accomplished horticulturist, which has served him well as a creative and stress outlet over recent years. here's the pitch: develop a line of plants, in Halloween containers (and some even in custom Boglins-style cardboard cages!), to be sold at conventions. The extra kick is that each plant variety has a "creature card," as though they're RPG-style monsters; think Akira Toriyama's (RIP RIP) Dragon Quest lineup. And thus, Creatures from the Plant Lagoon was born.
we ended up doing two series: an initial run of ten monsters, and a Series Two of seven more. Go check out the Instagram page for con photos and such, but they were wildly successful at their inaugural horror con. the subsequent "generic" comic con, less so. as is known, horror fans are legit.
here's a photo of some of the offerings, although you'll want to check out the Insta for the full booth, boxes, and effect.
i won't dump all 17 critters below, but i patched together sampler boards of a few of my favorites for the website. as always, click to enlarge.
so! that occupied a couple of fun weeks in the summer/fall of '23 and early '24. otherwise, not much to report on the art front. i nabbed a very choice Wacom Movink tablet in mid-'24, but to date have only had time to use it for my brother's bd present. as you may know, we grew up in the H and frequented Six Flags Astroworld (also RIP RIP) with a grimy intensity. Fright Fest was something special, and featured the horrifying (to our wiener baby selves) mascot Pumpkin Head. urban legends sprang forth like wizened tendrils from his shadowy tread. my brother was featured on the 2022 Halloween episode of the Forever Bogus podcast and told one of these tales to the hosts' delight.
it only felt right to capture it on a t-shirt for his bd.
until then.
/.n [while listening to Haircuts for Men. at least some things don't change.]
