Procrastination is an art major's best friend.

I've got quite a bit to do today and so of course I'm procrastinating and writing a post on my blog instead of being responsible and working. I finally finished my print of the banjo player that came onto our train in Switzerland. It was my first real foray into the world of color woodblocks and I learned a lot from it. One thing we ended up having to do in this print was use a dark brown instead of black. It still reads about the same with the added exception of some warmth. The black was too stark and cold and just didn't flow well with the other colors.

Today I looked out my window and saw this doll that somehow made its way onto our roof. Naturally I grabbed my camera, crawled out the window and took some pictures. Truth be told it kind of gives me the creeps. Why is that? If instead some little girl were playing with it I wouldn't give it a second thought but since it's on my roof I can't help but think that it crawls over to my window in the middle of the night with homicidal thoughts and watches me sleep, just biding its time for the perfect opportunity. Well, it seems to me that said opportunity was today, when I walked out on the roof without a safety harness. It could have waited until my back was turned and given me a little push towards the edge. Matt: 1, Creepy Doll: 0. Better luck next time.

I may have gotten a little carried away with that last paragraph. But here are some pictures:





































I also learned today from Scott Hansen's blog that one of my favorite bands The Whitest Boy Alive has recently released a new album. Scott has a single on his website you can listen to (I already have 4 times) or you can download the album in its entirety on iTunes now, or wait until the 30th when it will be released on cd.

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who gave input, but the polls are now closed. I decided to go with woodandpixels.com. It has a certain feel to it that continues to grow on me. Don't bother going there, it will be a while yet before I can get something put together. As soon as I do I'll post a link so you can all check out the showcase of my work.

A contest for people who like my prints.

I've been in the process of trying to find a domain name for my yet-to-be-designed website and I'm having a bit of trouble. Turns out that Matt Nelson isn't altogether a unique name and pretty much every variation of that theme has been taken. I had toyed with the idea of matthasnarcissistictendencies.com, but I really have a hard time spelling "narcissistic" and so it's probably a lot to ask of anybody else, though I feel it is somewhat memorable. Then I though that I could just shorten it to the more user-friendly "n.t.," as in matthasnt.com, but then it reads Matt hasn't. Matt hasn't what? And I don't want people going into the experience of my website with that negative conotation. I've toyed with a number of other ideas, most of which are completely unoriginal, which probably speaks volumes about who I am and the level of my creativity.

And so I am opening it up to you, whoever might read this, to give me any suggestions you may have to help me out. Knowing that people like winning prizes (at least I do so I assume that other people do too), if I pick your idea, or even if your idea inspires me to do something else I will reward you with a print (of mine) of your choice. That's a 30-100 dollar value. You can't put a price on that.

So here comes the fine print:
1. My website will showcase (that's a nice word) my portfolio of both printmaking and graphic design work so the name needs to either incorporate or ignore both of these aspects. 2. Jurying these ideas will be done entirely by me in what I will assure you is a completely unbaised manner. 3. Please don't be offended if I don't choose yours, it doesn't mean I don't like you or think you're great. It just means I don't like your idea. 4. All entries must be in by 11:59pm mst on Thursday, March 5, 2009. 5. I have a "plan b" in case I don't decide to go with anybody else's idea, I'm just not completely sold on my own idea.

Game on!