Ordinary Hurricane Time!

Better late than never?

ORDINARY MAKE UP TIME!

All my heroes are weirdos.

I’ve been writing these, but not drawing because of time management issues and feeling overwhelmed. But they’re coming back because it’s good, necessary work. And keeping up with my responsibilities without making art feels empty and hollow.

Lil' Ghost

This is my favorite month of the year.

Ordinary Time!

When your kid is your ridiculously optimistic hype-man with a beautiful outlook on life.

Ordinary Time!

I started making regular diary comics in 2010. I started with a one year comic, making an entry for every day. Since then, I made them more seasonally. Eventually, they have evolved into these strips.

I hadn't quite been married for two years when I began, and now I have been married for 15. I've been making these things for all of Jules' life.

In any event, I never expected a day when Jules would understand what I am doing with these comics and request that a moment be documented. It was hilarious. And it was special as well.

After nearly a thousand pages of comics since 2010, which have caught the eye of some cool people from time to time, have never amounted to anything in the realm of "publishing" or being able to be anything other than a hobbyist. But if all I end up doing with these things is build a record for my kids to feel some kind of connection with me later in their life, then I think that is as noble a reason to move forward as any.

Ordinary Time!

We're in a bit of a hurricane right now. The power keeps shutting off and coming on. We're pretty safe, and a little bored.

My goal is to draw 4 strips today. Here's the first one! I'll post more throughout the week, God willing and the creek don't rise.

Ordinary Time!

Ordinary Time is back from a little break.

I took a brief break, and now we are back with another collage. This one compiled from an out-of-date Humanities text book. 

You can look for new comics concerning prayer, Practicing the Presence of God, and an "unordinary" trip to L.A. to visit Homeboy Inc.

Ordinary Breaktime!

I have struggled to catch up with this comic since April. I am going to take a break for two weeks and pick up there.

This is the truest depiction I could conjure of how I have felt this summer.

(the kids were annoyed that I used their stickers)

Ordinary Time!

What even is the point of making art if you’re not going to draw weird religious imagery from time to time?

Ordinary Time!

Summer adventures and summer blues.

Ordinary Time!

Some scenes from our trip to Steinhatchee at the start of summer.

Ordinary Time!

Teaching isn't a very sexy profession to draw, but I am a bit proud of this milestone, and I also found it helpful to remind myself of these streams of thought that my students and I explore throughout the year in our various subjects and books.

Pent Up Pentecost!

Reflecting on the overlap between physical health, mental health, and faith.

This was inspired by the music of Mavis Staples and the art of John Hendrix.

Easters!

If your friends don’t laugh like this, what even is the point?

Easters!

I was recently at the National Gallery in D.C. I did not know what to expect, I didn't do research beforehand. I just showed up with my school on our trip.

I was exploring the impressionists when suddenly I came face to face with Van Gogh's self portrait. Tears filled my eyes. I have been fascinated with his work for 20 years. To "look him in the eyes" like that was very unexpected. For me though, it was the texture and the brush strokes. I could see him making those brush strokes.

It was a treasured moment of beauty.

Post-Easter!

The world is a broken place, beholden to death. But death is broken too.

Post-Holy Week: Holy Saturday

I was going to write a long thing about the Harrowing of Hell, but honestly I am tired. I'll just say that Christianity is so freaking mythic and weird, and I love it. My background is this non-denominational sexy marketing church for a culture that has a hard time with WONDER and MYSTERY. My culture pretends to be "utilitarian", but then celebrates spending $700 billion on a military big enough to destroy the world in the name of "defense". There is this impulse to explain away the weird stuff and make Christianity acceptable to "rational" thinking folks. This is supposedly so that more people will "accept Christ", but I think it has more to do with making Christians feel normal and blending in.

You know what my biggest takeaway from the Trump/COVID era is? The "rational" nature of most people is AT LEAST as crazy as believing a virgin conceived a normal human being who was also the WORD of the Living God. I am not feeling much of a desire to blend in with the culture I am surrounded by. 

So I am leaning in to my quiet contemplative, mystic faith over here. And I am going to make some weird little comics about it.