I know that is a weird title for a post, but it is true. As you may have noticed in a previous post, I am about to be a godparent as Angel and Pat are bringing a Wee Baby Girl into the world. Not only are me and Effie going to be godparents, but Effie actually helped name the wee baby. The spelling is still up in the air, but me and Effie’s favorite is in the lead. Mariella Lee Matthews, cool name, eh? (go vote)

So what is this about getting some mojo back. Hell, I have tons of mojo, but pieces of it occasionally fall by the wayside. One of those Pieces was my urge to create art. At one time I was considered a pretty good artist following in the fauvist and colorist vein. I was mainly inspired by Mattisse and Gaugin and to a lesser degree, Van Gogh. But something happened in late 2003 that stopped my art. Effie almost died.

That was a bad evening. Effie had serious abdominal pains. By morning things had become worse. We rushed her to the hospital in Worthing which is right on the English Channel. It turns out she had a huge ovarian cyst that was toxic and had twisted. It was leaking toxins into her body.

Effie had emergency surgery and a lengthy recovery. Of course you know it all turned out well, but it was horrifying at the time. After the ordeal, I no longer had the urge to paint. That lead to my podcasting and web media adventures, but the art mojo was gone.

Well, it is back, big time. It is different though. Where before everything was color and bold, now I am more into illustration. Almost crumb-like. My first piece is an abstract experiment, and not too good, but it is leading to a new direction. I am going to be starting to illustrate books for Wee baby Mariella. Effie is onboard to help out as well. The first book I am doing is an abstract alphabet book. After that I am going to start creating modern and sci-fi renditions of popular public domain children’s stories. I may even get SJ in on this and produce some animations or audio to accompany.

This is not a way to make money, just a way to make memories, which is more important. The art mojo is back, and when that happens, there is no saying no to the mojo, so creating we go! I will be creating a site for the new stuff soon. I have not been excited about a new project in some time, so this is cool!

Plus, there may be at least one more actual painting in me. I mean, there has to be a piece to accompany ‘After a Hard Day At Play,’ which is of my niece Riplee.

Cheers!
Eban

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