New Illustration

The following illustration was done for Education Week and accompanied an article demonstrating the failings of the "What works Clearinghouse" (WWC), an initiative of the Institute for Education Sciences and designed to "help the education community locate and recognize reliable evidence to make informed decisions," and to "provide educators with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education." Whew!

rough sketch

final drawing ( i scrapped the original layout and, at the directions of the art director, made it less "cartoony")

Final illustration colored in Photoshop

A Year in Review:

This year was especially good to me as I move forward in my career as a fine artist and illustrator and I want to thank all of you who have supported me and my work by going to my shows, by purchasing my paintings and prints, and by sending me your kind words of encouragement and by spreading the word about my art. Thank you so much and I look forward to more of a good thing in the New Year!
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BLOG
Speaking of new things, this year I finally added a blog to my website where you can check in regularly to find out what I am up too and get a better idea of how I work. In 2008, I'm hoping to include photos of paintings as they develop, stay tuned!

PRINTS
If you are looking for a special gift for someone this holiday season, please consider buying a limited edition print of one of my paintings. In April I finally was able to make limited edition archival prints available on my website.

Note: If you do not see a print of the painting you would like, please email me and I can make a special order for you.
Also, if you are interested in purchasing a print, live in the DC area, and would like to avoid the additional shipping and handling costs by picking the print up yourself, please contact .

RECAP OF SHOWS & EVENTS OF 2007
- Transformer Gallery's 4th Annual Silent Auction, Washington, DC
(this was the second year I was asked to participate in this, had a great time, and witnessed a little bidding battle for my piece)
- Artist Collaberation, Art Whino Gallery, Alexandria, VA
- Arts on Foot, Penn Quarter, Washington, DC
(this was a wonderful event, and I definitely plan on doing it again next year!)
- ArtRomp20, Warehouse Gallery, Washington, DC
- One Word Project, Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC
- Art in Heat, Warehouse Gallery, Washington, DC
- Artomatic, Washington, DC
- Everything but the Kitschen Sync, La luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
(my first show outside of DC…. Looking forward to more!)
- In a Land Far, Far Away, DCAC. Washington, DC

PLANS FOR 2008
It looks like next year will be just as busy and exciting as this year as I work on a new huge (I’ll explain later) series of paintings, a children’s book for Rolling Thunder, Inc., and begin work on a big public awareness ad campaign for a very important international ad agency (look for news about that in January), and begin lining up shows! I’ll make sure to keep you up-to-date and please keep reading the Blog and checking in for new paintings!

2nd SpeakeasyDC Postcard

Here is the second of the 3 postcards I've been hired to do for SpeakeasyDC's 2007-2008 season.

rough sketch

final blue line drawing

final illustration colored in Photoshop (nixed the text around the speech bubble... way too busy!)

Sneak Peak

I thought I'd offer a sneak peak of the painting I have in Transformer Gallery's 4th Annual Silent Auction this Saturday. Should be a fun time!

My Daddy's Somebody

Artist Collaboration

I'll have two paintings in this:

Opening Reception:
Friday, November 9th, 2007, 6-11 pm
Show runs:Nov 9th – Dec 1st, 2007
717 N. Saint Asaph St Alexandria, VA 22314

Art Whino Permanent Gallery

Art Whino opens its doors once again with two new exhibits: A solo show by artist Rick Reese and the addition to 20 new artist to the Art Whino Permanent Gallery featuring the work of its artists' collaboration from around the world. The event, running from 6-11pm, will include music by HoneyLab's DJ David Christ Superstar. The music will have a live broadcast by Orcradio.com


Alan Defibaugh, Anna U Davis,
Aunia Kahn, Brooke Grucella,
Decoy, Emily Greene Liddle,
Erase, Fanatic Ladies,
Gregory Ferrand,
Jason Daniels Jason Snyder,
Julie Steiner, Laurel Hausler,
Candace Keegan, Lisa Selby,
TMNK, Richard Alan Haugh,
Richard Salcido, Rosemary Covey,
Shawn Huddleston

Artist Rick Reese:
Southern California born but Northern California raised artist Rick Reese has been painting and drawing for as long as he can remember. He got his start in the Comic Book and Toy industries where he continues as a freelancer to this day. Rick spends his days painting, surfing, or teaching at Cal State Long Beach where he indoctrinates his students and paints on things that don't belong to him.

In ArtWhino's continuing effort to work with Non Profits to promote arts in our communities, Art Whino is happy to announce that they are working with the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative. ArtWhino is donating proceeds from this and future events to further help with their mission. To read more about them go to DcCollaborative.

Busy with Illustrations

While I've been working on new paintings, I also have been squeezing in illustration projects.
The following illustration was done for Education Week and accompanied an article promoting the idea of using military educational techniques in the civilian educational system.

This is the rough sketch I sent for approval

Blue line final drawing

Final illustration after I colored everything in using Photoshop

I’ve also been hired to do three illustrations for SpeakeasyDC’s 2007-2008 season. Each one depicts 4 of the monthly themes.

Rough sketch

Blue line drawing

Final illustration colored in Photoshop

Halloween Freaks

For those of you who didn’t know it, yes, my wife and I are Halloween Freaks. My wife has a good excuse: Seeing how she grew up in a country where Halloween is not celebrated, she is now making up for the almost 30 years she didn’t get to put on a costume (she’s also an actress, so that helps too)! What’s my excuse? Uuuuuh. I like candy?

Last year we were too busy to make costumes, so this year we went a little crazy making costumes for the “El Ocho” (Day of the Dead) party at Jared and Kate’s. While sitting on our balcony discussing possible costumes, my wife hit on the winner: Las Catrinas, (based on the 1913 zinc etching by Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada). We chose to be the skeletal bride and groom that are part of the Dia de los Muertos cast of characters.

So once we agreed on the plan, I got to work making the half-masks using plaster covered gauze strips and wadded up pieces of towels, we picked up the perfect wedding dress for my wife (made for a production of Camelot) and a really nice black suit for me at the annual Arena Stage costume sale, and stopped by the neighborhood Dollar Store to buy fake flowers.



Because we are such Halloween freaks, we put on the costumes again on the 31st and were definitely a hit as we walked up and down our street being stopped over and over again to pose for photos. And to our delight (my wife’s in particular) we walked away with the neighborhood’s “Scariest Costume” award and later won the best costume prize at Asylum in Adams Morgan.

Halloween’s over, we’ve put the masks away, and now we’ve begun to plan for next year’s costumes. Yeah, I know, we’re definitely Halloween freaks!

Making the base mask for my wife

Putting on the lower jaw

The final product!

“El Ocho” party with Las Catrinas, Scott and Mike, and Jared and Kate.