I've been extremely absent from dA (and all other social networking sites) for a few months now. Primarily, this was due to me illustrating some 180+ images for my new book, Poetry For Beginners. Some may remember me posting samples of my work from my previous book, Democracy For Beginners, a while back... Well they good people at For Beginners asked me back for this new project and I ate it up whole. This time around I took a different approach to the art. I treated the book as if it were a writing journal and my illustrations as if they were one-off, on-the-spot, on-location ink sketches. No pencil, no eraser, minimal planning, just pen to paper drawing from observation and imagination. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and as I found out, I'm pretty kick ass at drawing birds! I'll be posting selections of the work as soon as a get a green light from the publisher so check back here in the coming months.

In other news, I am leaving for Spain on November 2nd. I'll be traveling with my wife and daughter for 3 weeks, starting in Madrid and working our way south to Seville, Cadiz and Granada - then driving along the coast up to Barcelona where we will stay for a week. If any of you folks out in dA-land live in Spain or will be passing through, let me know! I'd love to meet up, have a drink, hear your suggestions on your favorite restaurants and music venues or simply just say hi. I'm really interested in seeing what is going on in the Spanish Art World so if you have any suggestions for galleries I might like, please drop me a comment.

I'm not going to have regular internet access while I'm away so expect more art to come when I return home in December. In the mean time, I hope you all enjoy the beautiful Fall weather and holidays!!!

Much Love,
Reuben