I hope you dig,

b

(serious artist)

For a while Amber and I have been talking about selling some of the drawings I have been doing. For a long time I thought she was ridiculous. I figured that some of my family and friends might buy one to be nice, but who else? But when I did “Little Sister” there were people I didn’t even know asking to buy it, which was shocking. After that and after Amber convincing me that she would take care of all the “smart parts” (ie: business parts) I finally agreed to try and sell some.

Then we got “stuck” in Dallas for 3 months last summer while I was waiting for a job in Muscat, so that allowed us to research art printers, shippers, and all manner of things needed to run this thing. Then I was suddenly called up and told to get on a plane for a job, so we “tabled” the art store till next summer (2012). So here we are, summer 2012.

Amber worked really hard at getting all of the “things” together to make this happen. All I had to do was keep drawing, which is awesome because that’s pretty much the part I’m good at in this here “outfit”.

Recently I was invited to a house show in Austin, and we figured that we better get this whole art store up and running before showing up. So while I am kicking it here in Muscat, Amber has been working hard putting the finishing touches on our online “art store” (it goes live today here ) and then she will go represent the “Black people” at the house show. This is pretty exciting for us because we have been planning and working towards this for a year.

This is our first foray into this world, so we will see where it goes, but for right now both of us are really excited and it has been a fun project to work on together.

I hope you dig,

b

The FeedMagnet guys named him “Inkbert”.

So FeedMagnet has been going for some time now and it has been amazing and inspirational to watch them work so hard at making it a successful business. Turns out running a profitable business is kinda hard, this is why I stick to drawing things for successful people and successful businesses and not running one myself.

They contacted me the other day and asked me to do some more work for them because they moved into a new office and needed some art on their walls. They wanted “Inkbert” to move from the screen to their walls.

So I did these two pieces.

They remind me a lot of my buddy Jason who is the brains behind this here outfit and hopefully represent the two sides of his business: crazy, exciting, scary, and long long long days of hard work.

Hope you dig,

b

Hope you dig it

b

I realize I’ve been going through kind of a Texas phase. Hopefully I have it out of my system so I don’t go becoming predictable.

Hope you dig,

b

Hope you dig,

b

]]> http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/03/22/bareback/feed/ 1 http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/03/21/oman-portraits/ http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/03/21/oman-portraits/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:08:31 +0000 his blackness http://www.houseofblack.org/?p=2948 Some shots from a festival celebrating Oman and its heritage and traditions.

Hope you dig,

b

The all black outer garment the women wear is called an “abayya”, and it serves to cover up the ladies when they are out in public. It’s a cultural thing, as opposed to an Islamic thing and the style of it varies greatly between tribes, villages, and countries in the Gulf. Sometimes it’s simple, black, and all covering. Other times it is split up the middle to show off the dress underneath or even bedazzled with sequins and rhinestones. Usually though the women are wearing either brightly colored clothes underneath it, or if they are in the cities they are rocking some very expensive high fashion gear under the abayaa.

The women also wear some sort of head scarf, this is mandated by Islam but the fashion of them vary greatly depending on where you are. In the UAE they are almost exclusively an all black sheer material, but in the interior of Oman and along the coast they come in all manner of exciting colors. In my classrooms I even see head scarfs with expensive logos like Gucci, Chanel, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton logos on them, but whether they are legit or “genuine copies” is way above my fashion skillz.

The face masks “burqa” are traditional cultural clothing, also not mandated by Islam. They vary like everything else by fashion, family, and tribal association. The ones seen here are traditional interior Omani Bedouin.

The men’s outfits vary as well depending on tribe association. The guys directly below are wearing the traditional Oman hat that sits high on the head and has intricate embroidery work around it.

Many of the Bedouin tribes wear some sort of turban wrapped material around their head, and everyone is wearing the ever-present long white (dishdasha/ kandora). These are well suited for desert living: loose, long sleeved, and white.

PS: this guy is carrying a bucket full of honey bottles, an expensive local delicacy  here in Oman.

But like all cultures, many of the younger generations are bucking the traditional styles and wearing other colors of dishdashas. This brown one is a bit more tame but they come in yellow, baby blue, and pink.

Also of note is the older guy here adjusting his “wizar”, underclothes. This is what you wear under your dishdasha, think kilt. It isn’t indecent to be seen outside your house only in your wizar, but you wouldn’t want to go to the store in it, kinda like a bath robe.

Hope you dig a little exploration of some of the cool things we get to see out here in Oman,

b

]]> http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/01/24/sinaw-souk-part-two/feed/ 3 http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/01/19/sinaw-souk-part-1/ http://www.houseofblack.org/2012/01/19/sinaw-souk-part-1/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:58:06 +0000 his blackness http://www.houseofblack.org/?p=2911 We live in Muscat which is quite a modern-ish town, however if you drive 10 minutes outside of town, in any direction, you get into “old-school authentic” Oman.

Some friends came into town and wanted to do something “adventurous” so we decided to take them to “old school” Sinaw and see the “Thursday Bedouin Souk” (souk = market). Sinaw is a town/village 2 hours outside of Muscat and every Thursday becomes a Bedouin, the semi-nomadic people that live in the deserts, trading post. It’s kind of like the Arab version of Canton 1st Mondays, but with way more camels.

Being a proper American there is no possible way to resist taking pictures of camels in Arabia, which to our Arab friends is hysterical kind of like someone visiting Texas and being overly enamored with the amazingness of cows. However here are a few shots.

The Bedouin come in from the surrounding areas to buy and sell all sorts of things, including camels. This is a cute baby camel being examined by this guy. Cute baby camels serve two main purposes: 1-they turn into giant slobbering adult camels or 2-they turn into dinner. People eat baby camels for weddings and special occasions, kind of like veal.

Amber and our visiting friend’s kid checking out a goat. We didn’t buy it.

There is more to the market and I’ll post another post looking at some of the other areas soon.

hope you dig it,

b