oxyborb: 2020

Teaching myself how to draw a chameleon, then painting one

The first attempt. Never really sketched a chameleon before. I studied a few examples of live chameleons. I decided it was important to have spikes on the back and chin, and blank stare-faces.

My fifth go was pretty good. I started thinking about the way stripes/colors would work. I added mouth scales. I thought about how many toes they have.

My second try at color didn't quite get it, but it was a start. I got the idea to use the eye as ridges for the accent colors.

This one got the color right, but not quite the form.

I ended up using the form of number 5 and the color scheme of 9 to create this painting. I love how it came out. I gave it to my mom for Christmas.

20 $%&#ing 20

This year....

The worst year for America--perhaps the planet--in my entire lifetime.

Me?

Personally, I have been OK. I have an excellent, wonderful, beautiful, hilarious, perfect girlfriend. My job remained in tact, and I've been given new responsibilities (doing the artistic direction for a performing arts school, pretty cool!). That is a blessing, and I don't discount that I work in the arts and maintained a full-time job. I had a major virtual show, which was amazing. Earlier this year, I had a very big challenge at work, though. Man, it was hard.

Members of my family had COVID-19, but no deaths. No friends lost. Blessings. I got my teeth fixed. My teeth also pain me a lot. I guess, I made progress. I can smile in public now, anyway. I definitely gained weight during the pandemic. 2021 needs to be the year that changes me.

My art moved a lot after the pandemic first hit. When we were forced to stay home, I used any free time I had to work on my novel, do edits. After the summer, my art slowed down, as my work took over again. My work is art, though. I guess it all works out.

Maybe the worst part of 2020 (...in my little, insignificant cutout of the world...) was cancelling my road trip to Disney World and Harry Potter World. That was a bummer.

Good things that kept me going in 2020:

Dungeons and Dragons with friends.

Playing Jackbox Games with my Discord Server.

Poker with my girl.

My girlfriend.

I went on a New Year's hike with Gabe and his mom. That was on Jan 1. A good workout!!

Fluxx.

Painting.

I bought a VR headset. Perfect timing. Can't go anywhere? Well, now you can go anywhere in VR. I played a ton of Skyrim, No Man's Sky, and other games.

Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.

I upgraded my phone. My old one died.

2021

Beats me. I have no idea what next year will be like. Hard to guess. More pandemic fallout, for sure. I hope the vaccine comes quick, and that the world gets back to normal.

I want to go to conventions again. I want shopping at nerdy stores to be fun again, and not a germ-atorium. I miss being out and about. I guess, all in all, I just want to create more art in the new year. I want to see students back in schools (when it is SAFE for them and staff). I want to create more. I want to reschedule a Disney trip. I have secret plans, too. :-D

Stay safe, ya'll. SEE?!? you in the New Year!

Brighter Side

I'm probably not the only person feeling a bit down about the state of the world.

I was supposed to go to Disney World at the beginning of the month, but I know how minuscule that problem is compared to what the world is going through. Quarantine and social distancing does make me a little batty. I miss people! The idea of Halloween being cancelled is sad. That's like my spirit energy, my happy place.

Anyway, the brighter side.

I guess, acknowledging how awful the world is and will continue to be.... acknowledging the revolution the USA is going through because of the murder of George Floyd.... acknowledging that 502,387 globally have died and are continuing to die makes any of my issues potatoes shrunk to singular atoms...

I have been using my free time wisely. I've been making a ton of art. I've been working extremely hard on my writing. I made some major changes to my novel, and it's sooooo good right now. I'm super hyped for it. Man, I never thought I'd have this much free time to focus on art. It has been a deep dive. I've been really trying to avoid timesuck-type things like video games, and instead, immersing myself in art study and practice. That part has been great.

I hope to get more done before my job starts back up in August (I'm a theatrical technical director). Anyway, hope is hereafter (<- a phrase from The Unraveler, meaning hope is the dream of the future)! I am sure that things will get better. I am sure the world will grow stronger because of everything going on.

COVID-19, a blog entry

The world is an absolute mess.

My brain has been trying to piece it all together. I think it always comes back to... we as a society have allowed, even encouraged, some dreadful things to happen. To fix things, we have to dig through the mud and listen to each other.

I love being an American. I love the USA. I see many amazing things about my country, but I’m wise enough to see the glaring problems. Most of them are connected.

In fact, I believe most of our issues boil down to greed.

These Sidewalks Are Suicide, a poem

Even water can feel like flames

within your lungs.

Storm stifles on the fly.

It suffocates the turf that kept us dry,

and free from the birds.

We’ll climb toward their beaks,

but it gets worse!

Because these damn sidewalks are suicide

when the people

they walk

in stride

in stride.

Even the sun knows all the shit I’m in.

Its rays will warm the ground and dry my skin.

I cannot crawl,

though I’ve tried!

My body’s fried onto the blacktop.

And them,

with their massive machines used for grinding below,
only by their unfortunate attitudes
will they look down and see our own,
and only by that extreme rare chance

will they be charitable enough
to ignore our hideous exterior
and lift us from this inevitable death
and the hopelessness of breathlessly crawling along the bottom of an endless flood.

Because even the sidewalks are suicide

when the people

they walk

in stride

in stride.

For fortune is to be simply tossed back into the grass,
where earthworms have a chance to survive the rain.

Song Version
(written by me, performed with Brian Wood and Scott Weber)

oxyborb · These Sidewalks are Suicide

I support you!

Right now, I'm trying to listen, educate myself, and see, more than give my (frankly, unneeded) opinion. But, I wanted to say this publicly.

I stand with Black Lives. I recognize that systemic racism needs to be addressed immediately. George Floyd was murdered in cold blood.

I've been thinking about my students a lot. With COVID-19 leading to an early summer break, this'll be the longest I go without seeing them in person. To you, students, I hope you're well. I see you. I support you. As a white man, I can never know your pain but I will always struggle to try. Stay safe. You are the future, the ones that will decide where this country goes next. We're counting on you to eradicate racism, because my generation surely has failed you.

VOTE! That is such a huge thing. Voting is the key to changing this country. The younger you begin to vote, the better the world will become. And, make your friends get in on this voting thing, too.

Stage Cross, a painting

My painting is complete!

One of my goals was to make this a painting that was highly reactive to light. The amount of light and direction you're standing determines how this painting looks. More sharp light or angle, more sharp points. Also, the actual light in the room determines how well you can see the red seats in the background. She's a character from my book.

Painting is a skill I am taking up because I want to be better at it. I'm new, so I've still got a lot to learn. I am happy with this one, though!

Stage Cross

normal light

dark

bright light

face

face 2, bright

Thanks for checking this out. If you enjoyed, why not read my short story about what happened at Azkaban next?

My Top Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Choices for Fighters Pass 2

Geno from Super Mario RPG

Geno is not the most deserving, but he'd be an interesting character. His moves in his game are very unique and fun.

Steve from Minecraft

Steve is a gaming icon on the level of Mario and Sonic. His moveset has extreme potential, and his stage would be amazing.

Crash Bandicoot

Crash would be fun to see in the game, as an icon of early Playstation gaming. Imagining him VS Banjo is really cool. I have a good feeling he'll happen!

Rayman

Ubisoft deserves a spot on the Ultimate roster! No character fits better into this world than Rayman. I'd like to see how they make him float for an amiibo.

Infested Kerrigan from Starcraft

This would be an extreme WTF character. I love playing as the bad guys... Ridley, Bowser, K Rool... Kerrigan is the icon of Starcraft, which was a game that appeared on a Nintendo system!

Dragonborn from Skyrim

To get an Elder Scrolls rep... would be awesome. Give him an axe instead of a sword... shouts, magic, and a dragon.

Dream ideas....

Skull Kid

Sackboy

Waluigi

Gengar
Cooking Mama
Maxwell
Chibi Robo

Dillion

Scorpion

Ganon (pig form)

Short Fiction, Poetry, and Other

Short Fiction:
#threewordscarystories - Twitter Trends
spots of the earth had sunken in
An Odd Osment Moment - Twitter
The King of Azkaban - a fan fiction
Craftsmanship, Overpacking, & NL Terry
Ghosts and Giants- a fan fiction

Poetry and song:
Sea Lampreys - Comedic Poem & Song, YT
Eclipse - YT
The Other Night
Caterpillars of the Commonwealth
thoughts, like jellyfish
Dime a Dozen - YT
it surrounds and binds us all - YT
grip - Tumblr
Jan&Feb(so far)
Shimmer Vertigollo

Other stuff:
My Sketches, a collection of drawings - Tumblr, Updated Frequently
These Sidewalks Are Suicide, a rock album
My Paintings, a collection of snapshots
Flexible Figure, a comic
The Squid Lady, a painting
Stage Cross, a painting

Best-of Collections:
Part 1 - Azkaban, Praying Mantis, Smash Brothers

All works (including writings, drawings, and photography) by David Harrison Aye unless otherwise noted. Thank you for the support!

About D.H. Aye

Halloween is the blood that pumps through my artistic style. I paint, draw, design sets, play instruments in bands, act, direct, etc, etc. However, the primary focus of my life is writing fiction with a core rooted in fun.

My full name is David Harrison Aye, a writer and artist from the St. Louis metro area. The big thing I’m promoting right now is a novel called The Unraveler, which is a YA fantasy through this world and under with a skeletal rat. I also have an assortment of short stories and poems.

straw men burn and leave no bones

______T h e

The Poet Rosalyn

Prince Kobias always wanted to explore the abandoned Brine Family Theatre. After investigating every secret within the four hundred and forty-four rooms of his home at Castle Oversalt, you would think his talent for uncovering hidden passages would help him sneak into some run down playhouse.

Dewlap the Gat

But boards and mortar block every window and door, leaving the prince and his friends to merely speculate about why the building has been left in disrepair (and what remains inside).

High Executive Arch

One evening, Kobias notices a man walking through the theater’s wall, but even after a close inspection, there is no telling how he did it. The next morning, 15 years after the last closing of curtains, the theater is suddenly being reopened by the mysterious thespian, Ehro, with a new staged play titled, “The Ratking’s Unraveling.”

A kudanite

Anticipation builds throughout the city, yet even Prince Kobias never imagined that this would be a performance to die for.

A vectorman

My novel, The Unraveler, is a 90,000-word YA fantasy that aims to bring readers a fun adventure through a theatrical world and under. This website is dedicated to my journey to seek representation and, with any luck, publication.