The art my hero produces.

Unless you know me personally, you probably don't know how close I am to my family. My family is the reason I do what I do. Why I am humorous, why I am expressly positive, and why I do artwork. My parents gave me the greatest childhood one could ask for, and for that I am forever grateful. My parents are the reason I graduated college entirely debt free, and for that I am forever in debt to them.
Their example of love and courage and humor should be learned from by all. My favorite quote from my mom is "screw 'em if they can't take a joke." Tonnie and Gary Hovey just recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, an increasingly uncommon milestone for marriages. And they still love each other.
I obviously have alot to live up to.
My dad is one of the funniest people you'll ever talk to. My endless jokes are all from him. About a year before I started at CCAD my dad began doing stainless steel sculptures with nothing but flat-ware. The sale of these bad boys are what got me through college. He worked a full-time job and worked on sculptures every night on the side to support me, my three sisters, and my mother. My dad has had Parkinson's Disease for the past fifteen years. I don't know if I could do what he's done in one hundred percent health, and yet he continues to be an example of great believing and humor in every situation.
Case in point: Dad will stumble often enough, and so he carries a cane. Most times he just walks with it by his side, not using it for support. When asked why he has the cane if he doesn't walk with it, my dad said that if he does fall, he can throw the cane at the ground to break the surface tension. I don't pick my heroes for nothing.
He finished his most recent, and my personal favorite, sculpture: Great Neck. How cool is this!?

The website looks terrible, but his work is beyond cool: hoveyware.com

Robots and Kincade

Well this has gone through heavy change, and the change will only continue. Little miss unfinished in the background will get an overhaul, and the greens will be majorly toned down, not to mention the highlights made to be not-so-prevalent. We don't need everything in the picture to look like it's plastic wrapped, now do we? What do you think of it so far?

Ender's Game

New cover progress! Sorta. O.K. so I've been working on my own ideas lately, but those won't help me land a book cover as well as a painting of an already published book, right? Hell, I don't know, but it's worth a shot... This is just the black and white study in charcoal. The finish should be in oils...

Portait

When it comes right down to it, I am not a painter. I draw. 'Tis my specialty. Charcoal is that fine line between the two, and the one media that has taught me more about painting than even paint. I love portraits, in any case. Anyone want their face up here? Anyone want to sit still for an hour?

I am alive

So these are terribly awful shots of my painting in progress, but I had to prove to someone, perhaps myself, that I was indeed being studious. The shadow behind our main character is actually going to be another person running, so this painting has a ways to go yet. But it's pulling together kindly.

New Project #2

I am doing a piece based on Oondu's theme, robotics/mechanical. Someone will be running for their life in it. To get reference that wouldn't look posed or stiff I would need to capture someone in motion. The painting will look sweet. This does not. This, in fact, looks mildly insane.

The Bandit

Here it is: Cowboy piece. I really slowed down on the noir piece. It wasn't pushing me in any new direction, so I got frustrated. Thus I busted ground on "The Bank Robbery." I started this sucker on Friday night. It is most of the way done, I might touch up some things here or there, but mostly I want it to keep a very messy energetic feel. And if anyone would like, I would love to hear which artist you think (out of that list) I was most inspired by for this piece. It might just be kinda obvious. The light made the thing look really yellow, but i used mostly burnt umber and yellow ochre, so one can imagine how very not-saturated this painting really is...