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Old Becomes New

It was brought to my attention yesterday that there were a number of prints which were not available in the current incarnation of my site – the result of starting anew on the store I suppose.

Looking through the collection, and cross-comparing, I’ve found at least 40 available prints of at least 15 artworks which never made it back to this site when the rebuild was done.

I’ve added a few tonight, and may add a few more soon. Mostly these are my darker works from over previous years.

I’d also like to start moving ahead and making screen printings of a lot of my engraved images, though I am not quite sure if I am going to make special screen prints for wall hanging, t-shirts, or other items in this course – I believe I will be leaning more towards the t-shirts, bandanas and patches – as I’ve already giclees of most of the engravings.

There will also be some books returning. I am remixing my comic book, starting from the ground up in a lot of places, deleting scenes, adding new ones – and leaning more towards the serious and slightly comedic intended work – less towards the wacky shock humor bit it had become. I’ll have related merch for that when done, but if anyone is interested in any of the remaining comics (there were only 100 of which printed), well just go ahead and contact me for those.

My children’s book, 2 years in the not-making, is next on the slate – I do however have two painting commissions to finish (one of which a book cover for a fave author), and some book illustration (interior work) to do for another author friend of mine.

Anyway – I see a lot of great things coming for this site, and will have a lot of news to give in the coming year. I have a good feeling I will find more time to get more of these projects off my plate come January – but for now – watch for the release of two new paintings (and giclees from them) sometime between December 25th and January 10th.

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Sepia Saturday – Free drawings

On Saturday November 28th of 2009, Spend more than $100 My Store, and receive an original 8.5 x 11 inch drawing, drawn on 400-lb 4-ply archival bristol board in pencil.*

Pencil sketch for example of general drawing style, not one of the drawings offered

*Terms:

1) The theme and style of the image will be chosen by the artist according to your purchase, and made to mesh well with your purchased items. For example: A purchase of a giclee of “The Rescue” might yield a drawing of an airship, while purchase of a couple of “Conception” prints might produce a drawing of mechanical insects.

2) The artist reserves the right to end this promotion should an unforeseen high amount of interest be expressed in the form of purchases (but will still make good on all sketches owed up to the point of cancellation).

3) Drawings will be shipped with their corresponding purchases, and as a result there may be a delay of up to one week on shipping (but only if there are a lot of drawings to be made as a result of this promotion).

4) Offer Ends at 11:59:59 PM Saturday November 28th, 2009, Pacific Standard time.

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Goggley Stripey Elf – By Liz Amend

My sister in law Liz Amend makes these incredible fairy figures, and figures by her are always in rather high demand. This one, I just *had* to post here, as it has stripeys and goggles and a very cool nut-shell helmet. It is available here on Ebay.

Harden is an intrepid explorer and photographer and it looks like he is off on another adventure! He wears a little acorn cap (sculpted of polymer clay) and goggles. He has a tiny camera to capture all the amazing things he will see, maybe he might even see a human! Harden measures about 7 inches tall from his head to his toes, but will measure taller with his stand (not shown).

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Of Books and Other Things

I’m getting closer to being done with this series, and finished with the book… well, the art book anyway.

The shirts and bandanas will likely be available months before the book – They will be decorated by the cover image, but not the cover text, and are pretty amazing. I’ll be screen printing all of these on my own this time around – hopefully that will make them extra special, at least to to some people.

Airships and Tentacles
Airships and Tentacles

I was going to wrap the book up with some pencil and pen and ink work, some watercolors and gouache, but I’ve received a book cover commission from an artist I could not stand to have turned down, and that author wanted something similar to what I’ve been doing. I’ve also been asked to do some similar-themed interior illustrations for another author as well. So, this book will be delayed by a hair, but will also be several pages thicker when released.

Anyway, this post has knocked down the post for the November Sale, so I am just going to remind you here that through November 1st through November 31st of every year, my prices are their very, very lowest (because I don’t want to be buried in shipments the week before the Gift-Giving Season). You might want to take a look around my store (if not the entire store, look at the November Sale Section).

Here are some items which are coming soon, though maybe not in time for Christmas. The shirt is now available – though the tonal striped tees I wanted originally are no longer being made by the manufacturer… bummer:

One-Color Four Corners Airships and Tentacles Bandana
One-Color Four Corners Airships and Tentacles Bandana
Two-Color Forehead decoration Airships and Tentacles Bandan
Two-Color Forehead decoration Airships and Tentacles Bandan
One-Color Airships and Tentacles Dusty-Brown Tee
One-Color Airships and Tentacles Dusty-Brown Tee
Two-Color Airships and Tentacles Dusty-Brown Tee
Two-Color Airships and Tentacles Dusty-Brown Tee
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Your Assumed Name for this Mission will be…

Example Image
Example NameGen. Since the Crash, I guess I chose the wrong font - but the skipped -f- sort of gives it a bit of charm (I'll still fix it eventually)

The new Adventurer Name Generator (not to be confused with the Secret Mission Adventure Generator) is finished. Give it a spin – a new name every day for you, or someone you love, or someone you don’t love very much at all.

Like the mission generator, every day you return, the names you enter today will yield different results. Results are particular to the day of the year, as well as the name, and if you keyed in every name in existence in a day’s time – you would still not see all the results available.

Give it a try here: http://www.mykeamend.com/namegen

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New Facebook “Fan” Page

For those who have been following me all these years, you’re probably well aware that I don’t go crazy much with the friendings or the social networking thingers.

Sure, I make myself available on all these thingamabobs – myspace, facebook, twitter and the like, and make their whereabouts well-known – and I am happy to do a return add on (and actually interact with) most anyone who is not (obviously) a social media douchebag.

I do not, however, do not spend any of my time looking for people to add – or mass adding people in hopes that they might like my work.

Actually, the chances of me adding you out of the blue, not knowing you, not having met you at an event, are incredibly nil.

I see such self-marketing as the highest form of socialmediadouchebaggery, and have I’ve grown a serious distaste over the years for such things. Even though I know it is good for an artist to market oneself and all, umm… No… not for me.

I suppose this is a direct result of getting add requests three times a day from artists with 39,560 “fans”, whose master works include a paint-by numbers looking kitten on a toilet eating a taco, and a cookie tray with 5 colors of paint poured on it, glued to a can of deviled ham and a fake mustache for no good reason.

If however you decide to become a “fan” (*shudders at that word*), you will be privy to special offers, special sales on one of a kind items, and the occasional “Crap! I need to pay my crime-scene cleanup service bill! – what can I deep discount???!!” posting.

So, if you’re interested in keeping up on my artwork, want to be on the lookout for sales and special offers, or simply wish to maintain your internet love affair with pictures of my unshaven feet, you can find my new Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/mykeamend

We’re waiting for you!!!!!

… Well, okay… we ate all the cake – and the game of “Truth or Dare” has already devolved completely into “naked time” with commando block sprinting… but someone did mention you by name, I think.

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November Sale

Winter is on its way, and in order to make our Holidays better, yours and mine, I am holding a big November Sale.

Giclees are the main thing on sale this month – some of which there are less than 15 of remaining, ever, out of 50 that will be out there in the world, ever.

Beth and I would like to get into our apartment before winter hits, which will require a new electrical box, having the stove connected, and a lot of work and investment all the way around. Help us towards this goal, and help yourself to prints at the lowest prices we can ever offer.

Now is your best chance this year, perhaps ever, to get these prints for yourself, friends, or family. Not only are the prices incredibly low, but reserves being what they are, some of these may be gone completely by the month’s end.

I’ve organized a section in the store for this sale, click here, or look for “November Sale” in the store categories (lower right side of this page).

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Steamcon and Vampire Ball Aftermath, plus: Sorry if I gave you the Plague

Cold… very cold. I’m probably burning up though. A bit dizzy, very hungry… no food in the house really, and it’s too late for delivery. We have two cats, a bag of rice, and I am sure I can find something resembling soy sauce if I look hard enough. I am however trying not to use up my options.

I’ve read up on this H1N1 thing: Next stage: My head pops off and sprouts tentacles, and then we all have to deal with Kurt Russel until the end of the thing. In Grand Rapids… lots of shelter. I need only kick a Yeti out of his ice cave.

Right now I must go outside and start yanking distributor wires, as per the President’s mandate on flu, second after “going back to school”…

… or so the dancing ad ladies on myspace tell me.

Steamcon, as I hear, went incredibly well. I am reading rave reviews about the event, and was informed by the promoter that we sold most of the prints we had sent there. A serious thank you to all you people who made purchases there, and another to the promoters and everyone who helped, from organizers to patrons – you are all incredible.

What?? Why wasn’t I there? Where was I?

Well, aside from having the flu very bad, which isn’t an excuse because that happened afterward – but something you should consider when you think about rattling my cage…. aside from having the flu… Well, even with month’s of notice, there was no way Beth and I could scrape together what was needed for flights to Seattle and hotel stays and shipping our things to Steamcon. We are artists – and as a result, our budget, after saving up – was more or less the “We have $20 for gas and $40 for tickets (if we don’t worry about next week) WEEEE! Let’s go” variety…. which was perfect, considering there was just that sort of event in just driving range, on just that night… with Voltaire, Bella Morte, Versailles, and Hellblinki Sextet (for these great acts links below)

… If it makes you feel any better… I got the flu.

[BONUS! – some pictures, pre flu]
Vampire_ball001
I am not this short, nor is Steven (of Ego Likeness) this tall (though he is tall) I am sitting
on the floor, unaware that Beth has been waiting minutes for me to notice the camera.
At the Table, moments before, Donna (Ego Likeness) had mentioned really liking our interview
in Weird Tales Magazine. I was surprised – actually, I had given up on seeing that
interview see print – forgot to ask when it was being published. I suppose they interview
well in advance, or have to push things back and forward as editors and magazines do.
Maybe they had to edit all the crazy out of mine. Anyway, it was a very nice surprise, and
having such news given to you by a favorite musician…  who just happens to have
copies of the mag… even better.
Vampire_ball002
Opening Band: Versailles. I liked them, will have to give them a closer look.
Vampire_ball002
Donna Lynch. Looks so much better in person, yet I have many more bad photos on my flickr
account.  I am not good at show photos with a point and shoot, not at all.
Vampire_ball002
Hellblinki Sextet with Voltaire. Not the same as the Skeletal Orchestra, I’d imagine,
but not better, definitely not worse – just a different sort of awesome.
Vampire_ball002
Voltaire‘s eyes started to glow, and then snack foods appeared on all the tables.
This may not be what he was trying to do… and perhaps I should be glad for this.
Vampire_ball002
Valerie from Hellblinki Sextet posing for Bethalynne. Aside from the band putting
on a fantastic show, they were all pretty damned amazing people in addition to their music-ness.

More bad photos at flickr.com/photos/mykeamend

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Pieces to be Available at Steamcon

This is a listing and gallery of the original artworks and prints I plan to have available at Steamcon, pending their approval.

Steamcon, is a large Steampunk-themed event held in Seattle Washington on October 23rd-October 25th of 2009 at the Seattle Airport Marriot hotel; It will be an amazing event, though, sadly, I will only be there in spirit.

I have however spent all weekend hand-embellishing many of the prints I am sending to the convention – look for them mixed in with the standard prints (labeled the same, and equally priced). Some are easy to spot, some not so easy.

If you are interested in grabbing prints there, please , I recommend you do so early and make the print shop your first stop – I was only able to send 50 prints total, which amounts to 5 or less of each print.

… the originals of course are even more rare – one of each in the world and all – so please take a look at the art show. Quick-buy pricing is available for all, but each only until the first bid is made.

Clicking any image below will give you  a better preview of originals and prints available.

[nggallery id=4]

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New Pricing, New Price-Saving Options on Giclees

Summary (for those who want just the details without the explanations):

1) There is now an option to buy giclees unstretched and unmounted.
2) Shipping on these items has been greatly reduced as a result.
3) Gallery mounted giclees (no need for frames) are now available.

~~ For people who want them before they are all gone, but do not have the money for a stretched and mounted piece (or the related higher shipping cost), you can now get giclees unstretched.

You can have them stretched and mounted at Hobby Lobby or similar stores for $20 to $30 at a later date, or do it on your own for about $10 in stretcher bars.

~~ For people interested in stretched giclees, but the cost of framing is an issue, I have now also made gallery mounting available (elegantly thick sides for wall hanging without frames).

Note – my standard stretching and mounting is done with stapling in back and tight folds… something loosely defined as “gallery wrapping” (but actually a side wrap or museum wrap), and also something that some might see as “ready to hang”.

My “Gallery Mounting” is done with custom-made stretcher bars, and the supporting box frame can be made 2 inches thick (or more).

For super-custom display, I can also make these deeper and/or hinged with shelves or other storage inside. I can even make them for recessed setting if you have some construction know-how … but to avoid the freakish chance of being backlogged with multiple unexpected orders, those are on a person by person basis.