a new painting!

Title: Happy Hunting Ground. 30 X 43, gouache on paper, 2016.

NEW WEBBY!!!!

I'm proud to announce the birth of my updated website!  Many thanks to Bruce and Carolyn for helping me make it happen.  go check it out.  www.janeryder.com

DO IT! GO LOOK AT IT NOW!

A few pen and inks.

I have to come up with a t-shirt design for a print exchang (more pics once the due date arrives).  Lots of brainstorming....here are a few doodles.  All pen and ink.

A Recently Completed Painting.

Effigy Mound. 30 X 17, gouache on paper, 2014.

I like to keep things scary by working up to the ABSOLUTE final moment possible.  Why oh why do I work better under pressure?  Such a curse, such a damn curse. 

This is the final piece for my show, Iowa Dirt (thanks for photographing it, Teresa!).  I finished, photographed, matted, framed, and packaged it yesterday.  I will be shipping it to South Dakota in a couple hours and I couldn't be happier.  Yay!  Complete, I feel so giddy.

No. Sleep. Till Brooklyn...or Peoria, Illinois (in my case).

Wow.  So it's been awhile.  Ten days to be exact.  It was a pretty gnarly weekend...gnarly in a good way so here it goes. 

1. Wake up at 7am.  I have to be in Peoria, Illinois by 1:30pm to meet my friend, Bruce.  Bruce and I are going to perfect the new website we've been working on over the past few months.

2. Hop into the car at 8:30am and drive 3 hours to Galesburg, Illinois where I spend 300 freaking dollars on art supplies.  I leave the store feeling very, very, poor.  I hit the gas, I'm still forty minutes from P-Town and I've got a schedule to keep.

3. I pull up to Bruce's house at exactly 1:30 (and I am completely astonished, I predicted this well), wipe the gunk outta my eyes and get down to the nitty-gritty.  I plug in words, numbers, organize images, and learn how to run my own website.  Bruce is a God.  I feel confidant that the new website will be beautiful...the best part?  I can update everything on my own.  I feel so empowered.

4. Its now almost 4pm and I have a date with Elizabeth.  I haven't seen her in years.  I grab some coffee for our coffee date, go to her house, meet her new cats, we wax nostalgic, and then we hug goodbye (the cool coin is a gift from Elizabeth!).  It was a short visit but a positive one.

5. Wow, it's already 5!  I hustle to the casino in East Peoria where I meet Rik. We (he) gamble for a minute before our STEAK dinner.  The casino rewarded Rik's patronage with free steak!  I ate a Filet Mignon.  That damn piece of meat cost 38 dollars.  Thanks, Rik!  Next time I see you the steak is on me!

6. Oh god!  It's already 7!  I have to drive across town to meet up with my ol' college buddies.  Juice, Steve, Shannon, Rishika, Jessi, Beth, Tony, Steven,  and I sit on the floor of his kitchen and laugh for two hours!  It was so lovely to see everyone.  I miss everyone so much.  It's all about quality time, not quantity time.

7. If it wasn't for the predicted ice storm I would have spent the night.  I left Peoria at 10pm and made it to Iowa by 1:45 where I was greeted by my fella', our dog, and a big ass pot of beef stew.

So, wow.  I can't believe I did all that in less than 24 hours, I managed to do everything on my list and do it exactly on time.  I was so pooped on Sunday that I could barely move.  But I managed to mix business with pleasure and I feel happier because of it...Also, I failed to mention all the cool things I saw while I was driving.

1. four coyotes.  two of them were perhaps courting.  They ran in front of my car and I almost hit them going 60.  Damn were they fluffy and beautiful.
2. A huge bald eagle flew above my car for 1 minute.  It was HUGE.
3. I almost hit a hawk.  The hawk was so close to my windshield I could see it's cloaca.  TMI?  Who gives a fuck?
4. A herd of 40 + whitetail deer.

Fossils and Curios from Iowa.

I picked up display boxes when I went to the pawn shop the other week.  Four of them.  When we got home I spent the better part of 5 hours organizing fossils.  I'm totally normal, I swear.  Obviously, not all of these objects are fossils...there's some raccoon jawbones, a boar's tooth, an old geode bit, some native American artifacts, and a Shriner pin (like the beaver?), an old ass gnawed up deer bone, petrified wood, a wheat penny, and some fool's gold.

I think the display boxes look good and in case there are any questions about the giant glass arrowhead I might as well answer it now.  While browsing the racks at the pawn shop I came across an arrowhead that was napped out of some kind of brownish grey glass.  It was made by some guy in Ottumwa, he probably pawned it for a couple of cigarettes.  The owner of the store wanted ten bucks for the thing.  I offered him five (coz it's really pretty cool) and we had a deal.  Five dollars well spent.

It's pretty cool that I found all of these things.

I Turned 30 Yesterday.

I turned 30 yesterday and had a delightful owl themed birthday!  It was pretty fabulous and I wanted to share some of the cards with all of you wonderful people.  I love that my friends and family know me so well.

Trevor surprised me with a Rage Comic themed birthday card.  I love the Forever Alone guy.

Kyle knows I love me some cute prairie dog action and got me this adorable card.

Ali added a monkey tattoo and a coin to my ever expanding collection of coins and curios.

Geoff is quite the artist and drew me a long legged basketball playing fish hipster.  woot woot.

Chloe is turning into quite the lil' lady.  She made me this card and a whole bevvy of other incredible presents including: an owl cake, an owl centerpiece, an owl keychain, and an owl cutout!  Thanks, Pinegar Family!  You guys rock!

And Juice never disappoints with a well timed mailbox greeting.  It's to know I'm not being thanked for being an asshole.