This was one of my favorite panels.

Find the difference between morning and night.

This was in the time piece vestibule as you enter the store on 63rd and Madison.

I stink at being a tourist and checking out the sites you are “suppose” to take pictures of. I still have a great time usually. Amsterdam was really cool as a place and the people I met were great. I accompanied my girl, Molly Crabapple, for her book signing for ABC Bookstore. It went very well. We made some new friends and met some I already new.

Klaas. I met him in the US last year at a caricature convention. He lives a few hours outside of Amsterdam and came in to hang out.

Malia and her husband Highland had a boat and took us around the canals. Molly and Malia ignored Highland and I as we all had a great time.

Not their boat.

I’ve done a few things since June. I’m behind. Amsterdam! I went to Amsterdam. I have the flight stubs to prove it. More on that later.

I helped Travis Louie finish framing up and delivering his show at Joshua Liner Gallery. It was fun for me anyway. Travis of course had to deal with all the little details. I just helped where needed. I drove a nice little 2007 Shelby Cobra Mustang GT500 up to the Rhinebeck area. This time I managed to avoid the deer on the way and going back. What a sweet car! Ballsy! Digging the Mustangs lately.

Travis’ driveway. This car looks cool no matter where you park…. example below.

Supermarket.

Travis next to Mr Pumpkinhead. These were some of his largest paintings. He said he wanted to collaborate with me on a really big painting. We’ll see if either of us has the time. HA!

Parnelli Jones 2007 Mustang, Amsterdam, Hermes windows, will get their own entries. I’ve been doing some cool stuff.

I will have a table in artist’s alley at New York Comic Con this Oct. Why would I mention that? you might ask. What would I see at your table Fred? I’m glad you asked, person I can’t see reading these words. Here is a page from Mirror World created and written by Thad Williams. Characters designed by me from Thad’s descriptions. It went two issues and the company went belly up.

Mirror World could have been set in New Mexico. Fred, why would you mention NM out of the blue like that? Why, this lets me bring up how the air force painting is going! I just have these brilliant segue. It’s sick, I know.

And speaking of cars…

2002 M2 BMW. Stopped in Mt Kisko, NY to pick up Mark Texeira (TEX) and then drove up to visit Mr. Travis Louie farther upstate. Along the way, I managed to hit a deer in the ear with the left headlight of the car. It put a dent in the trip.

Along the way, Tex’s cat demonstrated that death can also be a present to be laid on Tex’s doorstep.

More later!

My trip to Holloman Air Force Base…

White Sands, NM

Predator in the hanger.  Or the civilized way to kill people?

Toranado in the German Air Force. Soon to be obsolete.

Track to nowhere. Holloman AFB.

Lecture at Fashion Institute of Art (FIT) tomorrow! Wed. March 24th 2010.

Come see me mumble my way through how I got my first job in illustration if you are in New York City! And maybe a beer afterword.

I’ll explain later.

I’ll be attending the opening at Copro Nason Gallery July 11 for the group show “Monsters”. Travis Louie is the guest curator and there will be a bunch of great artists in the show as well. Here is a review at Erratic Phenomena.

The story of my visit to Travis’ place to frame and then mail my art to Copro Nason. I signed a 1968 Prsche 911 out of the car club. Picked up my friend Steve Ellis who was also in the show. A stick shift from 1968 while being well maintained at the club, is not a good car for a trip over 40 minutes. Ours lasted 3 hours. Because of traffic and getting lost and with breaks, it turned in to about 6. Had to give the old girl a break every now and then. After about 20 minutes on the highway, I realized I was going to have 3rd degree burns on my clutch ankle if I didn’t move it to a more uncomfortable spot above a metal bolt that magically blew piping hot air right at my foot.  There were no air vents, at least that worked, to dry out the windshield if it fogged up. We had to leave at least one window down even when it was drizzling or I’d be driving blind.  Shifting sucked! 1st gear was down and to the left. It was a hard gear to find especially when I had to down shit quickly. From 1st it was esy to shift it in to 4th gear by accident. The front hood which is the trunk, leaked. Fortunately I didn’t put anything that could be damaged by water there. I had a Molly Crabapple’s water color in there but I had wrapped it pretty tightly in plastic. Molly is also in the Copro show.

Once at Travis’ place he went in to framing mode and put us all to shame. I gave Mark Elliot a ride in the car as well. He was there dropping off art also. Travis took the back seat as Steve took the passenger side while I drove us on a supply run. I don’t know if Travis will ever get in a car like that again. It was a challenge to drive, but I actually enjoyed it.

Sketched in Moleskine while on the train. My good friend, Travis Louie, gave me the initial spark for this idea. I recently had the experience of sitting in on a lecture from Barron Storey at the Society of Illustrators. I’ve always dug his work and now I love his attitude too! I also had to do some quick gestures as he spoke.

I’m moving in to a new studio. I’m excited to see how it affects my work. More windows!

Here is the sketch for a painting I’m working on for the “Monsters” show at Copro Nason Gallery in July.

I had a perfect weekend. Thurs. Paul Booth worked on my arm tattoo. Friday, I signed out a BMW z8 convertible, drove to East Stroudsburg and stayed in a bed and breakfast with my girl, Molly, and um , there was something… something else. Oh yeah, I JUMPED OUT OF AN AIRPLANE AT 13,000 FUCKING FEET! I didn’t jump, it was more of a plummet. At the entrance to the airstrip, I saved a 4 inch snapping turtle that seemed to have been confused between what a pond felt like and the middle of a road. I put him back and proceeded to what I thought would be my eventual “bone shattering sort of falling into earth death” with the calm that I saved a little snapping turtle. It was the most amazing experience I ever had. I fell around 120 mph horizontally and then drove a stretch of road at 120 mph in a vertical direction! Sunday we drove over to visit Ron English and he showed us around his studio and home and neighborhood.

At the car club.

2 hours before testing gravity.

That would be me in the blue suit throwing up… out?

That’s the Delaware Water Gap.

One of 6 still-life studies with gouache on Bristol. My favorite coffee cup.

I don’t do this promotion thing very well. I posted it to the right. I have a drawing in the “DRAW” show at Shooting Gallery in San Francisco this month. Last count, there were about 400 artists in it. I feel like a fish in a school, or a cog in the machine, or a “Where’s Waldo” thing. Where is Fred in this show? I think I’ll need a neon, talking, fire works shooting frame to bring any attention to my little pencil drawing. I did do some singling out in my own way by putting it in my “PREVIEWS” section. I guess you can present-view and after-view it also.

Just for kicks. I had the opportunity to see what a Lotus Elise can do. I went to the “Gunks” but it was too cold to rock climb.