Christmas Sockeye

Gyotaku is an ancient Japanese art form of, well, taxidermy I guess. When Japanese fishermen would want to preserve their trophy they would cover the fish in ink and lay paper over, thus making a "print" of the catch. I have been doing these since I was about 12, but only recently got back into the swing of things again and picked up the medium. The process is tedious and there's definitely technique involved to get a respectable print, but every detail - scales, scars, fins, teeth, etc. shows up right there on paper. I take it a little further and add watercolor in just for some realism. Plus it allows me to paint, which I thoroughly enjoy and rarely get time to do anymore. Oh by the way, these are spawning Sockeye Salmon. During fall and winter they travel upstream in a river near my home and turn a beautiful deep red with green heads and tails. The color I've added here doesn't do them justice. Enjoy!

CITYgames launches

I took an extended weekend today (monday) and was home doing holiday decorating, both fun and a royal pain in the butt, when holy cr@p look what showed up at my door! This is a board game I created for a company three years ago. As much of a challenge it was to complete (you have no idea the amount of copyrights, logo usage fees and legalities that exist within a city) it was a fantastic learning experience. Everyone was happy with the final product so no complaints here. Next time around, however, there'll be a million things done differently in it's inception.

The game is all facets of trivia about Seattle and here's my shameless plug - Makes a great gift for parties, birthdays and holidays (say like, Christmas). Job relocators will have fun learning about The Emerald City or play at home with the fam! Look for it in stores in the coming months or buy online now at www.citygamesseattle.com.