Drawing Commissions

Here's two drawing commissions I finally finished. Slower than Christmas, please forgive me! Thanks George and Amber (and all the rest) for being patient with me. The Batman one was lots of fun!

Sketchbook Pages from ACA Comics Residency

I had the honor and great experience of taking part in a three-week long residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida this past October. Things have finally settled down long enough for me to post these sketchbook pages.

(An outdoor yoga session taught by Ellen Forney and Lara Antal.)

(Clever hats on a boat tour.)

(Birds and houses and trees seen from the boat.)

(Gabby Gamboa, Lark Pien, Eleanor Davis, and Leela Corman in Gainseville, Fl.)

(Sketching one of the ACA interns, Greg.)

(Greg seated, three views.)

Residency! at Atlantic Center for the Arts in October

Here's an excerpt from an email I just received from the Atlantic Center for the Arts:

Dear Jessica Ruliffson,

Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you of your acceptance as an Associate Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts’ October 8 –October 28, 2012 residency session with Master Artist Dean Haspiel. We are looking forward to hosting you. Throughout the three week residency, you will meet within your discipline with your respective Master Artist, with the daytime and evenings open for interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration, in addition to the opportunity to work on personal projects and goals.

Digestate Anthology Kickstarter Campaign

(The newest incarnation of credits-whoa!)

I've been asked to contribute work to this really wonderful food-based comics anthology, Digestate by J.T. Yost. The effort is crowd funded and needs your support. Read below and watch the video for information about the project. I'm putting some ink drawings of chickens and cows up for donors--they could be yours! When you donate there is a large variety of original art and mini-comics by contributors that can be had, so essentially  you're buying affordable art and supporting a good cause. If you pledge $20 you get a copy of the book, it's going to be gigantic and full of awesome. Help me get published!

(Bok Bok!)

it's all in the hands of a lazy projector
Andrew Bird - Lazy Projector

The Boys on the Fourth Floor

I went to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday morning with Victor Juhasz, Michael D. Fay, and Fred Harper. We visited wounded warriors who have recently returned from the theater of combat in Afghanistan to get stable and begin physical therapy. It's during the slower season in the year, winter, when fighting is less intense, so there were only seven soldiers there that day.

Joe is 21 and was hit by an IED last month near Kandahar. He seems to be doing well, was fitted for prosthetic right lower leg and was being discharged to a residential building on base that day. He had a lot to say about the war and was interested in continuing his military career after physical therapy. I found I was slow at getting a likeness and neglected to put the battery in my camera (didn't bring audio either) so I was feeling pressure to get it right. He was really great to listen to, I liked his subtle sense of humor.

Zac Blaisdell was recovering from arm surgery to regain rotation in his left wrist. He had been hit by and RPG in a bazaar in Sayadabad over a year ago, nearly blinded in his right eye, and had injured his left knee and arm.. He had been out of the hospital for awhile and has been playing golf regularly, though he says he's not the best. Since he had the surgery a few days prior to our visit, he was pretty sleepy but was so kind to answer our questions. We had to wear surgical gowns and latex gloves. It is hard to draw with latex gloves on because your hand gets sweaty and pulls at the paper so that your hand slows down. It was very dark and quiet in Zac's room, and there were no decorations on the walls since he had just returned from surgery. It was peaceful. He smiled more than I thought he would, a little grin every once in awhile. He was incredibly sweet. His mom told some funny stories about the president visiting and trying to get into that crazy gown thing, apparently he had a hard time with it.

Derek McConnell was the last soldier we visited. His room was bright and loud, the TV was on. His mother and fiance were there, and there seemed to be a lot of action. He was a really awesome guy to talk to, very bright and alert, and very happy to take off his shirt and tell us about his injuries--a truly remarkable spirit. (You can read more about his recovery process on the blog his mother is using to document his progress, Walking With My Wounded Warrior). All of the men we spoke with were very calm and possessed a clarity and maturity in looking at things that is rare in most people of any age, especially young men. When Derek talked about his plans for the future he said, "I want to be really good at walking", the way I would say "I want to make a comic in gouache". They're all very determined to fight, and you could see that in Derek very easily.

I have so many comments and thoughts that it would be hard to post them all here, but I will be creating a comic book about the trip in time, to be published in time for the Small Press Expo in September and will post it here as well. It was an absolutely incredible trip. The other artists I went with were really inspiring and very funny and kind, and all the people we spoke with at Walter Reed were great. Lots of thanks to Michael and Victor for navigating through the red tape for all of us. I am hoping to return to Bethesda with the group this year to speak with the veterans again.

Charmingwall Show June 4th

I'll be showing these wee little paintings at Charmingwall Gallery on June 4th, a Friday. It's on West 4th Street. It's a cool concept called the 6x6 Project, the participating artists buy canvas from the gallery and they're hung together in a salon style grid. There's a wine reception and the work stays up for a month in the gallery and 3 months on their website. If a piece is sold you get an 80/20 split, which means you have a decent chance of getting your initial investment returned. Stop by the gallery and go for it, the openings are always a blast and it's cool to be in a show with so many talented artists. Plus it's in the West Village and not Red Hook so your friends from Jersey will totally come.

Ok?

I haven't gotten alot of sleep lately but I have been really lucky to get work done and see many inspiring friends. I wish I could work on these a bit longer, it was a rush to get these done in less than a week. This project made me realize I haven't painted (especially on canvas) in a super long time, and the gouache was not into the surface at all, it kept beading because I added too much water.  But a fun time indeed!

Swampy

I am making a series of drawings for a comic book residency, here is the first one, it's not finished yet but I wanted to preserve this stage/show it off because I am pretty excited about it. The brush pen was drying out and the paper is a nice soft texture with a heavier weight so I got some cool brushy things happening. I basically picked a bunch of stuff I wanted to draw and put it all together for fun. I had an idea for a story but I'm a crappy writer so I thought this would help me get past the dread of not being witty or cool enough to make it in the first place.
Also my friend Suzan told me about this embroidery thing, Hoopla, it looks pretty cool and it's FREE to enter/no limit on submissions. Get stitching everyone!

Waiting For Spring