The Chicken Suit

Yup. It happened. The chicken suit was acquired and promptly donned on a beautifully grey day in Portland this week. Portlanders, in case you're wondering who that was dressed up as a bright yellow chicken walking across the Burnside bridge or crossing the road (har!) in front of Powell's, or having a Maple Bacon doughnut at Voodoo Donuts, it was me. I'm an illustrator. I drew a children's book titled "Chicks Run Wild," hence the chicken reference. This silly stunt was part of a crazy promotion to get people to know about the book, written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun. Honestly, I probably would've worn the darn suit even if we didn't get 300 fans or friends on Facebook. But I'm happy to see that we exceeded our goal—a full week before the deadline! That's awesome.

So, here you go, Portland. Here you go Oregon. The United States of America. THE WORLD... Ward Jenkins in a chicken suit:





My Presidential pose.


My Profile pose.


Oh, hey. Look at that. I'm about to cross the road. IMAGINE THAT


Why did I cross the road? To read Chicks Run Wild, of course.


Chicken admirers. Sadly, I wasn't Bieber.


It's hard work, this shameless promotion-thing.


This is my favorite part of the whole book-drawin' experience: reading the book to the kiddos.






I paid a visit to the library to sneak a copy of the book in the bookshelves.


The librarian totally caught me!

More photos soon. To see more check out:

The Chicken Suit on Facebook.
Chicks Run Wild on Flickr.

Now you know, I'm a man of my word.

hello, little snowflake

Thank you for showing up today.

because we all should be so lucky

I love watching my wife take photographs. It's like witnessing magic happen right before your very eyes.


Taking a walk with Andrea on a foggy November morning as the trees slowly emerge from the mist is nothing short of awesome.


Autumn. Trees. Color. Yes, the obligatory leaves-changing shot.


A little beaded home. She probably took all night to work on it, too.

Built Like This

So, for the weekend this is happening: Built Like This and I couldn't be more proud of the wife. She's got some serious Polaroid skills, that hulaseventy chick. I should know. To see her photos enlarged and up on walls is a sight to be seen. Come this Friday for the opening reception from 7 - 9pm at Arkay Workshop in the Mission, San Francisco. It'll be cool to finally meet you. I mean, you've been talking about it for like, forever.

Oh, and on the same weekend, this is happening:


It's filled up, but worth noting because, well, it's my wife! And she's heading up a Through The Viewfinder workshop!

It's a hulaseventy weekend in the City by the Bay, this weekend, folks. Hope to see you there!

Photobooth Friday (finally)

It's been a long, long time since my last participation in Photobooth Friday (Wow. Not since April of 2008?), but I'm glad to say that a trip to the Ace Hotel this past Sunday was worth coming back for.

We (Ava, Ezra & I) call guys with big beards here in Portland "Mr. Beardy" - "Look Daddy! There's a Mr. Beardy!" If you want to see a prime example of a Mr. Beardy (besides myself), check out the dude who works behind the counter at Stumptown right next to the Ace. You'll thank me for it.

Currently enjoying:

• My wife's polaroid collection.
• Hansen's Vanilla Cola: real cane sugar FTW.
• My new(ish) Cintiq 21UX: thank you, Hugh. You're awesome.
• German visitors: Mathias & Jördis (and little Mari), best house guests EVER.
• Almonds: magical nuts that are supposed to change my life.
• Twitter: because Facebook can be annoying. Like real life.
• MY SECOND KID'S BOOK IS DONE.


Not enjoying:

• Third anniversary of my Aunt Bo's passing away because of stupid cancer. I miss her.
• Andrea out of town. Again.
• German visitors having to leave to go back home. Goodbyes suck.
• Waiting to get paid.
• Waiting. Period.

Relic

Ava trying out an old Smith-Corona typewriter. A couple of days before this, Ava asked me "what's a typewriter?" when the word was brought up in conversation. I actually had to describe the contraption, which sounds so alien if you think about it. She's played with one before, so I had to jog her memory a bit. "Oh, you know, Ava -- that thing where you put the paper in it, and it has all the letters like the computer, but different?" "Oh, yeah...."

Both she & Ezra love to play with these things. Ezra likes to smash all the keys down to watch the typebars get all entangled. Ava is very meticulous with each letter, pressing each key very firmly.

Oh, I have to say, this picture was taken over at our good friends Christina & Daniel's house.

Rabbit-ghosty-thing from Halloween Past

Finally found it. This is the photo that I mentioned in my Ghosts of Halloween Past post from two Halloweens ago. Mom came through for me and did some digging in the attic (or basement) to resurrect this nice photographic relic for all to enjoy. Much appreciated, moms.

I'm 11 months old here, forced to wear some blanket-with-rabbit-ears sort of thingy, tied by....an ascot? I'm told that I have such a strange look on my face because my mom was laughing so hard while trying to take the picture.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays around the Jenkins houshold. The windows are filled with paper pumpkins & ghosts, the yard is covered with acres of stringy, fake webs, and yes, the pumpkins have been gutted and carved. There was a slight fear that it would rain tonight, but perhaps that was just an ugly rumor. Let's hope & pray that it was and that our little genie & Spider-Man will have a nice, safe & dry night of trick-or-treating.

Enjoy your candy, kids!

The b-boy show through the eyes of my kids

It was late. All the people were gone. The dancers had left the building, and the only ones hanging around the Grassy Knoll after the opening were me, Andrea, the gallery owners: Robert & Renee, and the kids. The kids. Boy, let me tell ya: Ava & Ezra were real troopers throughout the entire evening -- I was so impressed by how well they behaved by the end of it, I almost thought that they had been replaced by someone else's older kids. I could tell they enjoyed the evening. But by this time, it was well past 9:30pm and they were getting bored, waiting for us older folks to shut our traps and get us on home.

So, to pass time, Ava grabbed my camera and took some photos.


I love this shot.









Ezra then grabbed the camera and took some shots himself:


Apparently, Ezra's a short little guy.


Ava on the wheels of steel.




Ezra finds a leaf on the floor.

The b-boy show

Photo by the wife.

Wow. I'm still speechless, and it's been over a week since the opening reception for my solo show "b-boy". First of all, I want to thank everyone who came out to support. It was an exhilarating experience, from conceptualization to research to sketching to painting and, finally, to exhibiting the work. It's been one of the most difficult projects I've ever taken on, but also one of the most satisfying. I'm extremely proud of the work I was able to crank out for the Grassy Knoll Gallery and my only hope for those of you who stopped by that evening of October 2nd is that you caught a mere glimpse of all the hard work that was put into it. A wild ride, but completely and totally worth it.

I've put together a Flickr set from the show, along with some work-in-progress shots, in case you're into that sort of thing. I know a lot of you artist-types usually are. Checkit: b-boy.

Also, check out more of Andrea's photos from the opening here.

Not one for the words, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves (with a few captions, for info's sake):








This was the first time I had a chance to see all (or, almost all) the paintings together.


For the wood and cardboard pieces I used india ink for the linework. Loved the pure blacks I was getting.

I even employed Spidey to help out:






The following two shots of me laying out the paintings the day before the show by Andrea:




Day of the show:





Gallery co-owner Renee Marcotte makes it all official by putting up the labels.




It was wild to see people I knew there. Even wilder to see people I didn't know.

Here's what they were checking out:



Moon Patrol Crew was amazing. Really made the show. Thanks, guys for putting on such an incredible performace.


Ezra wanted to get out there so badly. He was ready, getting up slightly after each dancer, but would sit back down when the next b-boy hit the floor. Seriously, I would've paid money to see him get out on the floor and do his version of breakin'.

To see more photos from the evening, check out my b-boy Flickr set.

And be sure to see Andrea's amazing photos here

For those of you who weren't able to go to the opening reception and want to see the exhibit, you can contact Renee Marcotte at 1-503-449-7484 and she'll be able to set up an appointment for ya. The show will be up for the entire months of October and November. If you can't make it to Portland, yet still curious about what it's all about, you can see all the paintings at Grassy Knoll Gallery's online store. Yes, they're affordable.

Again, I'm so thankful for everyone who showed up last Thursday, the 2nd. It was a memorable night for me & my family.