First of all, I went to the Maryland Deathfest VII a couple weeks ago and had a blast! Great bands (Destroyer 666 and Bolt Thrower TWICE, two of my favorites), lots of great people, some of whom I've been talking to for a couple of years but had never met face to face, and a lot of good promotion and trades on behalf of the label.

Some new stuff coming up:

The illustration for Ares Kingdom is about 95% finished (just have to add some text and a couple of other details) and has been approved by the band. It is a very large watercolor over pen drawing, and will be included in the CD, gatefold LP, and maybe other things such as a poster and t-shirt. Probably the best band I've ever worked for. If you like death/thrash metal and haven't checked them out, you need to, and maybe some of you overseas can see them on their European tour with Nocturnal Graves this fall!

Starting a couple of other projects. I'm sketching for the cover for a 7" split EP between Graveyard and Redimoni, great death and thrash metal bands from Spain. I'm going to put a lot of effort into this, as it's great promotion for myself as well as the two bands (plus I'm fond of the Redimoni guys and their music), and will be the first full color acrylic painting I've done for a cover.

I'm also taking a shot at doing an illustration for IDIB's shirt, which will be difficult as the band and my label partner have to all agree on it.

Also in the works is something secret... which hopefully I can reveal soon.

On the non-metal side of things, I graduated with my associates in commercial art (Communication Design at CVCC)! It's taken me a while (3 years of classes and another year and a half procrastinating).

My beehives are doing well, some more than others, and I might check for honey soon. Hopefully the bear doesn't come around this year, as it caused a lot of pain and misery for me last year. Hopefully we have a good amount of honey which we can make a lot of mead from.