Myke Amend - Strange Fiction Horror Fantasy Illustrator and Artist

I need to check in on this thing more often.

It looks like they improved things a little.

Is everything still taken over by Russian spammers, or has that changed as well?

...with Cover by Bethalynne Bajema, Forewords by Steven Archer (of Ego Likeness) and Samantha Stephenson (of Frenchy and the Punk), also with added notes from Voltaire, Veronique Chevalier, Andy Heintz, Paul Devine, Joshua Pfeiffer, John Strangeway, Brigid Ashwood, and Robert Brown.

Buy the book here

Preview it on Issuu

( I wish I could just embed it here, but LJ seems to be blocking the needed code now :/ )

There is less than 1 hour left to vote. It takes ten seconds to do it.

If *you* do, a friend of mine gets $5,000 for things like a food license, and an ice cream stand in his art gallery/music venue/open bar/toy store/book store.

I know a lot of you don't live near here, but this, for artists, art supporters, and others makes for one more great art gallery in the World, one that fellow artists and makers can show at (no matter where you live) and a great idea to inspire galleries in your area to do the  same.

Just click "I endorse this idea" - again, it costs nothing to do so and almost no time.

And please share this post. I *know* we can make this happen. Here is the link:

http://startgarden.com/ideas/detail/ice-cream-gallery-toys

So, we had a kid on the way; Now we don't.

It has happened before, just not so far in as this time around.

Again there is that mix of surprised and anxious and even happy, swallow it down and take it in stride, pass on the urge to start to get excited... then the second you're semi-thinking you're over that hill, bam... emergency room visits, months-long miscarriage, tons of doctors visits, blood test, and hospital stays for the girl.

I guess it is a life event, so I am logging it.

There is this thing about me... I put cigarettes out in my hands, grab things from fires, super glue and stitch wounds shut, am overly calm on my way to the emergency room... I don't demand anesthesia, or pain killers... and when things *should* be emotionally wrong, when I get royally screwed, things go seriously downhill, in the middle of an emergency situation, or in times of great heartbreak... I am still coasting, and rather unresponsive to anything I cannot fix, cannot undo, or do anything about.

I am not unaffected. It simply makes no sense to me to scream when injured, more so it seems silly upping my heart-rate for such things when I am bleeding. There is no amount of tears and beating walls that will ever bring anyone back. There is no point in struggling to save what is already gone. I am no good to anyone if I am not paying attention.

... And mostly, I tend to feel that since I expect nothing good, and am unsurprised by the bad, there is little that hurts me, even when I feel badly that I should - almost to the point of *desiring* it.

I think I have come to the conclusion, that in order to feel that, I must first know what it is like to have some semblance of hope and optimism.

Caring, is there 100%, but it more feels like I am serving as a guide, support, guard... ushering others through all of the bad, and, ideally, on their way. Otherwise, being there, hoping they manage to get safely away from the center of everything wrong, which often... always... seems to be me.

Original available here

A handful of limited edition giclees here

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Digital painting. 16x20 inches at 400 DPI - many layers of swirling spirits in clouds and smoke, airships, buildings, and the main figure - each element decorated intensely with glyphs and scripts down to near-microscopic detail in each inch of the painting.

Mini-painting - 8x10 inches in acrylic on birch panel.

New offers (added to the 30-some pre-existing):

W'ere officially over 50% with our kickstarter, with two and a half days to go.

That sounds bad - but we've seriously made most of our progress over the last 4 days... as kickstarters should go. Still, we'd feel much better if we were a bit closer to that mark by the end of the day, so, we've extended more offers and rewards.

I've also lowered the prices some existing ones - and made it more clear that the Steampunk/Steampulp coloring book for grown up kids, the Airships and Tentacles Scrap Book, and the $1 downloadable art, come with most every higher reward...

Also the commemorative tee shirts, your name engraved in the piece of art, and other such things come with most of the mid to higher level awards.

~ The ChaiThulhu Original Painting (bottom of this post) reduced to $999, with tee shirts, coloring books, downloads, and a lot more extras.

~ A new offer from Bethalynne Bajema, wherein she will do your portrait in the style of her Black Ibis cards, make a card of it, and slip it into the actual deck (which you will receive by mail) - also includes tee shirts, downloads, coloring book, etc...
Also: 

~For Bands - I have a pretty sweet album cover deal, including prepress/layout/typesetting... tray cards, Cd booklets, CD imprints, and even custom art! (plus the tee shirt, web banners from our site, etc..)

~ For Business owners or other people who would like a newly designed website - I've got a deal where I design yours, populate it with a nice amount of content, throw in a free domain name, host it for a year, and even throw in the tee shirt, a banner ad from our site to yours, and a tour of our lab for you and your friends/companions. Logo refreshes/reworks are included, and you get a lot of big files you can use for collateral materials and other advertising needs.

Below: ChaiThulhu painting (12x24 on wood panel in acrylic paint)

3 more days, and I can finally, hopefully, stop talking about the project, and actually be working on it.

I think about this aspect, and it is too late now, but if I had taken 16 to 24 hours a day, for 45 days and applied it to making new work, or doing contract work.... which I haven't been able to do much of this entire time... I could have made what we're trying to raise, and then some.

If I had a time machine, I could at least tell myself how to go about the kickstarter campaign in a different way, so we could have completed our goals weeks ago - with a lot less time during that period spent on filling up the internet.

But, we are nearing 50% there, with three days to go. If we have another day like yesterday, we'll be too close to *not* make it... so I am going to think of what else we can do, exhaust all avenues, and (apologetically) continue to be a broken record for just two more days.

I look forward to the days when I can again promote others more avidly, and do so simply because I love their work... which would cover much of everyone who has promoted me these last few weeks.... along with many people I don't even know.

I also look forward to the days when we can scratch ourselves up on rough edges, get greasy and grubby, and maybe a bit burned - curse and swear at the infernal device with the satisfaction of doing something, and not these frustrating birthing pains.

Thank you everyone who has been with us through this, and everyone just joining us. We are almost there - and with a little bit of help and good luck- we'll be there in three rather anxious days.

If you would be so kind, please continue share our project with others for these next two days. We'd really appreciate it - and your sharing does us a lot more good than we can do just posting ourselves.

... Yay ^_^

I don't know how many people following me read this journal, but right now I am hoping a lot of you at least skim it.

My friends and I want to build a 20 foot tall kinetic sculpture, with a 25 foot long, 8 foot tall spinning painting in the middle, which will also feature a zoetropic animation (like the old victorian style animation you may have seen on "The House on Haunted Hill".

It will have animated sculptures around it too - all powered by wind - and all electricity powered by wind.

We will also have a display of steam engines and generators as art, and will be showing people how to build these things from things around the home.

To make this even more ambitious, we would like to take this huge sculpture to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, and to Maker Faires all over the country (hopefully one in your back yard).

We are offering things at INSANELY low prices as rewards for pledges - you can get original works of art for half of the selling price, downloadable prints for $1, and all sorts of awesome things in between.

But, if you want to help - but cannot afford $1, or don't have a bank account or amazon account, you can still help us GREATLY just by spreading the word: Twitter, facebook, myspace, DeviantArt, Livejournal, or whatever places you might haunt.

We have 5 days left on [Our KickStarter], and this is very urgent. I've been working 16 hours a day at its promotion for 40 days now - and even still, I cannot do enough on my own. We need you, and we need you badly, to just take a few seconds out and spread the word.

Visit our page, see how awesome this project could be, and consider how much you would like to be a part of this and make it happen.

I hope you will.

Thank you,

Myke Amend