A New Decade, and the past one..

Hello my friends. Yes, this is a real picture of me taken about 6 months ago while filming a documentary. I wanted to start the New Year by really scaring you!. lol I've got a lot to talk about. Most of it good, a little bad, but don't worry I am not going to "Bash" anyone, but i do want to teach young artist things to look out for that will clue you in to "This is not a good thing" When I said i was gonna tell the dirt on a few people a couple of blogs ago, you would not believe the letters i got from people who was worried that I was upset with them. The people I was actually talking about never said anything to me. However, one of them wrote Cheryl and threaten her if I said anything about him. To make this short, he ruined his career his own self by stealing from some of the top writers in the horror business and got busted. He was also stealing my art. But he got his, so that is good enough. With the exception of him that made me think that I don't want people to think I may be upset with them over something silly. My main goal is really just to educate folks who want to work in this business the bad things to avoid. I support this business 100%, good and bad. Nothing in life is all good, but I hopefully can help you to not make some of the mistakes that I and others have made.

I have been doing this forever it seems, and I have seen tons of folks come and go. The bad ones always get theirs. Karma is really cool that way. So once again, my goal is to educate, not "Bash". First, lets talk about Contracts. If you are working for a company for the first time and they are wanting a good deal of work from you, then you need a contract. Now there are a lot of places out there to get general "For hire artist" contracts. I have a link to some over to the right, there free. Not everyone can afford Lawyers when they are first starting out. And with both parties signing, with at least one witness and a notary, these are perfectly legal. But earlier this year I was dealing with a couple of jokers that where sending me phony contracts. I knew they where not real, and even paid a lawyer to check over them.

What he told me to do is this... He said that the "Jokers" where trying to make me think they had a big time lawyer out of NY that cost up to 1000 bucks an hours to make up the contracts, but the truth is, they looked like something a high school student wrote. He said the first thing is that any legit law firm always has a letterhead and a watermark in the paper. These contracts had none of that. He also told me that when I am presented with a lawyer representing a client that wants me to work for them is to call the lawyer, talk to him or her. Have them explain to me in more detail what the contract means. That is what they are being paid for.

So I approached the Jokers about their "Lawyer" once they told me that their "Lawyer" said I could not sign any of my work. That it was their property, not mine. So Basically i told them what "Clowns" they where and told them to kiss my home boy ass. Because of their lies and Bullsh@t I wasted over a month of my time. And the last few months, I have watched them go down in flames. Karma, I love it.

The other Idiot, where not even gonna talk about. Just remember the old rule, "If it seems to good to be true.....

I guess this blog isn't just about the last year but the last Decade, as we head into a new one. Overall, the last 10 years have been rough on all of us. For me it has been about upheaval, growth, career and a lot of change. But when I look at the last 10 years as a whole what i see is the birth of an artist, and all the events it took to get me to this place right here, right now. All the things I couldn't understand "why is this happening to me?" are now very plain for me to see. In the end, it all was about putting me on a path that I just couldn't seem to find on my own in my early years, and that path is where I am now and what I am doing now.

Just this last year has been amazing. This time last year, I was still living in NC, hardly working in carpet anymore, not sure what the future would hold for me. I lived near Charlotte and worked there, and the economy was booming there until about 16 months ago, then the bottom fell out. But it had been going downhill since Bush went in office, but since Charlotte is/was a boom town, you didn't notice as much.

Then in February the person I had been working with for about a year asked me if I wanted to come with to Michigan to work. He lied like hell to me and told me he had all kinds of work lined up for us to do. So i came, things went bad for a while, but during all of that I meet Cheryl, and we fell in love. Something neither of us ever thought would happen again for either of us. But it did and my art career started going off the charts. I think knowing that I was with someone that actually believed in me made all the difference in the world. All of a sudden, I decided I wanted to live again. Before, I just existed, slowly dying. I mean my health had really went south in 06 and I was smoking way to much, drinking way to much, and taking to many damn pills. I just didn't care. Then Cheryl changed all of that. I quite smoking and started working on my health which has improved greatly these last few months.

But I was in the hospital 3 times in 2 months, if they gives you any idea how bad I had gotten. Now I exercise, I take my meds like I am supposed to, the whole 9 yards and my body has come back strong. Those of you that have kept up with my blog this year know what I went through, and Cheryl did too. But she stood by me and helped me to heal and took care of me. Now, because of her, all the dreams I had as a young man are finally coming true.

This year I have been interviewed in several major publications as well as doing art for them. The Darc Karnivale book is huge. I got to 17 paintings for 16 of the best horror writers in the world. So not only does the book feature these awesome writers, it is like a homage to my work as well. To this point in my career, this is my crowning achievement. I have been on TV in shows and featured in commercials. I have been interviewed on radio and so many publications it would take some doing to do a list of them just from the last 5 years. They tell me I'm big in France and Japan. I have done 2 interviews for French horror magazines. But even with all of that, I consider Darc Karnivale my Oscar award, and it should be up for sale very soon now. I will let you know when its up!

This year, so far I have 3 months booked up, but I am going to dedicate half my time to doing personal projects this coming year. Some of that is going to be to build a portfolio of horror/steampunk oil paintings. Yep that's right, I am going back to working in oils again. Mostly because of a theft stealing a lot of my art supplies and tables when i moved to Michigan I've had to work digitally all the time until I could replace all the things that where stole from me. I will be getting a new easel this month, and then I will be ready to rock again, and the visions i have in my mind to do, I think you will all approve if you like my dark work.

One of the big things that will not only start this year, but for years to come is this. I can only say this much for now, so forgive me, but it is enough to give you the concept. The project will be called "The book of Rose" Yes, it is like a new chapter to Revelations from the bible. No, I am not religious, but I am playing on the whole Armageddon thing. That's all I can say for now. I am in the process of getting trademarks, copyrights and such. Once that is done, I will tell you much more. But it will feature tons of art by me just for this, plus me writing the whole deal, including the Mythology and History behind things that where never revealed before. This is going to be my pet project and legacy for those that I leave behind. It will be turned into a role playing game as well, and much much more.

And here is the big one that is going to shock a few people. A few years ago when I was training under Master Horne and Todd Lockwood, I created a project called "The Dark Angels" and we traveled the country with me using my real name that i used during my training. It disbanded for a lot of reasons I don't want to get into, but i learned from my mistakes, and the Dark Angels will live again. I already have 2 of the models for the job, and still have one more to go. But these models are very different than the original idea I had, these ones are truly very dark. Once I have everything worked out with the ladies involved, I will share some photo's for you and start up a fan club for them. This will secure their futures as far as future money and opportunity's go, and Gary I think that we're gonna write that book soon now. The one about the "Dark Angels"

So my friends, we'll talk more about these things in the months to come, but a lot of cool things are coming, and let's all pray that this decade is full of magic and love. Peace and Blessings.