More “Spoke Up!” Pieces
Here’s a few more pieces that will be in my upcoming show. These are all 8″ by 8″ acrylic and ink on canvas.
And a work in progress, diptych portrait of my bike, Crusher:
Robots Are People Too… Again
When I was five years old, I wanted nothing more than to have a comic strip published in a newspaper. I then put that dream aside for about two decades, but it finally came true when the Portland Mercury debuted Robots Are People Too today. Here’s a closeup of the strip, a redo of an old favorite, and in color! Click it for a slightly more readable version.
“Spoke Up!” Work Day
Remember last week when I said I’d have a robot comic in the Portland Mercury on the 21st? Totally lying there, they’ll actually start on the 28th, so stay tuned. Anyways, here’s what has been keeping me from working on Baby Otto or other robots: Quite a while ago, I think I mentioned that I’d be having a solo show of my paintings in January, and well, it’s getting close to January, so as I’m finishing up these paintings, I’ll be posting them here.
The show is called “Spoke Up!” and is a collection of paintings inspired by biking around Portland, especially at this time of year when it’s all cold and rainy. The pieces will range from my more illustrative style to things more painterly.
“Rain Gear?”
“Roll”
“Sunrise” (Work in progress) Based on this print.
The Blossoming Zeplin Family Tree
No comics today, just some history.
It was an unseasonably bright and sunny day in Portland yesterday so I decided it was a good time to go spend with the kid. The one big thing that has spurred me on to do more research into the real life of Baby Otto, and thinking that he might have living relatives still in the area, is the fact that his headstone looks a little too new compared to the other graves from the same time period, as though it had been replaced at some point. Well, yesterday that thought wouldn’t leave me so I went into an hours-long frenzy of internet searching, and I came upon this… (Click to view the whole thing)
This is the US Census record for 1900. The first thing I noticed is also the reason why I couldn’t find any record of siblings on my first few research attempts; everyone else in his family was born in Germany. At the time this census was taken, Otto was less than one month old, and besides his father who came to the US in 1896, the rest of his family, Emma, Ernst, Minnie, and Frida, had been in the US for less than a year. (I found their immigration papers as well, which I’ll probably show later if people are interested in the real story as well as the comic?) Through further census records searching (1910 and 1920), I know that Ernst and Minnie both had children (7 combined). Sadly, most of the 1930 census records were lost in a fire at some point decades ago and aren’t available and all newer census records are not archived in the same way so I could not access them last night.
Finding out that Otto had three siblings and at least seven nieces and nephews (some of whom could in theory still be alive in their mid-80s to early 90s) does not really change the scope of what I’m trying to do. I always knew that I would be researching Otto’s real life at the same time that I was fabricating a new one for him. The story will continue as planned.
Let me know if you all are actually interested in the historical information behind BOZ. If not, I’ll just stick to posting the comics. Personally, I find researching Otto just as fun as drawing him.
Putting The MINI Back In Mini-Comics
I printed up these tiny minis because I used one of my final projects for school as an excuse to get started on Baby Otto Zeplin. They cover the first week of his life, and I gave one to everyone in my class. I think I should’ve made them even smaller.
For those of you who have no idea what The Life and Times of Baby Otto Zeplin is all about, here’s the back story: “Baby” Otto Zeplin was a real child, in fact he’s buried in the cemetary across the street from my house. He was born on May 9th, 1900 and died just over eight months later on or around January 13th, 1901. (In my research I’ve found that in the early 1900s, death certificates would often list the date of death as the day the certificate was filed and not necessarily the actual date of death, hence the “on or around.”) His gravestone sits on the edge of the cemetary, near the fence, and I noticed it on one of my first days living in Portland. The stone simply says “Baby Otto Zeplin” and then lists his birth and death dates. There was something about the name Otto Zeplin that really struck me, especially in conjunction with the term “baby” before it. In the past 15 months, I’ve grown increasingly obsessed with the idea of this child and what his incredibly short life must’ve actually been like at the turn of the century in Portland. I cannot find any record of siblings or possible living relatives, so in a way, I feel like I have taken him in and accepted him as part of my family. I plan on illustrating all 250 days of Baby Otto’s life, but also give him a chance to do all of the things that he in no way would have been able to do in his short time on this earth, or even in the time period in which he was alive. It seems like the least I can do.
Eventually, the text will be a typeface based on a handwritten alphabet I made, but I didn’t have the time to finish that before the due date for school.
MAY 9TH, 1900: In Portland, Oregon, a child is born to Peter and Emma Zeplin. They have yet to decide on a name for the child however.
(I absolutely hate the nurse’s face. I neeed to fix that.)
MAY 10TH, 1900: Peter and Emma finally decide on the name of Frank for their newborn. Everyone agrees that it quite suits the little fellow.
MAY 11TH, 1900: Everyone except little Frank, that is. He visits the courthouse and has his name legally changed to the more regal, Otto.
(My first celebrity cameo! That’s President William McKinley in that portrait!)
MAY 12TH, 1900: The freshly-named Otto is swiftly grounded for his first act of defiance.
MAY 13TH, 1900: While stuck in his room, Otto finds a sousaphone in the closet and teaches himself to play.
MAY 14TH, 1900: The next evening, Otto receives a standing ovation during his first sousaphone recital. People rave about it for weeks.
MAY 15TH, 1900: Exhausted from all the excitement of the night before, Otto takes a nap.
December 14th, 2006 :: “An Explanation”
I apologize for not updating on Monday as I had promised, and I’ll let you know it has nothing to do with the bulk of this post’s content. I was still finishing up some final projects for school and as long as I was on hiatus already, it was too easy to not just continue it for a few more days. That being said, here’s the deal: Robot-A-Day, as you have come to know and love, is finished for the time being. This isn’t a recent thing, I’ve been mulling this over for months now and it has been an incredibly difficult decision to make. When I first started, my goal was just to do it for a year and then stop. Over time, the site totally outgrew its initial purpose of just making sure I was drawing everyday. The ironic thing is that I’m even more obsessed with robots now than when I started over 13 months ago. Now, for those curious, my reasoning…
To put it simply, running R-A-D as I have been has somehow completely stopped me from working on all other projects besides schoolwork. As mentioned above, this site was created as a way to keep me drawing at a time when I was unemployed and uninspired. It was there to help raise my drawing skills back up to a level at which I was happy. And the thing is, it totally worked, but the skills that I’ve gained drawing robots every day (as well as some of my recent art-schooling) are now opening up other opportunites for me. For the past few months, as I’d start to work on some other project at hand, I would remember that I hadn’t drawn a robot yet, so I’d stop everything, toss something cute and metallic into my sketchbook, maybe mess with it a bit in Photoshop and post it. By the time I was done, I would either not have time or have completely forgotten the first project. This has happened on a nearly daily basis for months now. It’s obvious that my other projects are suffering, but I feel that the quality of my robots has been suffering as well, and that has been a major factor in my decision.
The future of R-A-D: Just because I’m not doing robots every day does not mean that I am getting rid of the site. The thing is, I probably will still post a lot of robots. (A new site name of Robots-Almost-Daily has been suggested.) Robots are still a huge part of what I do, but I also want to show everyone the other things that I get to work on that make me happy. Over the next few weeks, the site design and layout will change to reflect its new purpose as more of an all-purpose artsy blog. I will not be updating on any specific schedule, but I would venture a guess that the site will still get updated three to four times a week. Now that I can show anything I want, there will be a lot more content to go around.
BIG NEWS! I’ve been putting off mentioning this for a while now, until it got closer. Starting next Thursday, the 21st, The Portland Mercury, a local weekly paper, will be running new and vastly improved (as well as in color) “Robots Are People Too” strips. It’s a trial run for now, but I’m hoping it lasts for a while. What that means for those of you NOT living in or near Portland, OR is that I can promise you at least one robot post every Thursday. For those of you who DO happen to live here, you can be one of the nearly 50,000 people that will see my comic on the back page every week. Like I said, it’s a trial run so write letters, send emails, make them keep me!
Lastly, thank you to everyone that emailed me robot art during my hiatus. I’m sorry I could not find the time to post them. I really hope that everyone who has made R-A-D a regular stop on their daily internetting will keep coming back. I have a lot of things coming up that I’m very excited to show you.
Internet hugs,
BT Livermore, proprietor
PS: The first installment of my new big project, The Life and Times of Baby Otto Zeplin will be posted later today and will be fully explained for those of you that have no idea what I’m talking about.
December 5th, 2006 :: “Not Really An Update”
Sorry to have to do this, but I’m sick, I’m in the middle of finals at school, and I haven’t been sleeping much lately, so I’m absolutely exhausted. I’m putting R-A-D on a short hiatus until next week. If anyone happens to send me a robot, I will gladly feature it, but otherwise I will see you all on Monday with some sort of update.
December 4th, 2006 :: “On My Back”
Here’s a little something from my sketchbook from the last week. I ended up using this image for an illustration class project.
December 1st, 2006 :: “Always Left Out”
I apologize for the sort of half-assed post today, but with finals at school being in full swing, I didn’t get as much “robot time” as I’d have liked over the past week. The pissed off little robot on the left got cut from the final version of R-A-D’s new header, and let me tell you, it is not happy about it.
What are you doing this evening? If you happen to live in or around the Portland, OR metro area, you should maybe think about heading to Muddy Waters Coffeehouse at 2908 SE Belmont, say somewhere between 5 and 8 pm. You just might run into the opening reception of the “Machines Are Beautiful” show, a show in which I have two robot paintings. I helped hang the pieces last night. It’s very interesting to see everyone’s interpretation of the word “machine.” Maybe some pictures on Monday if I can remember to bring my camera.