Crafting a Creative Story … About Me

Posted on June 26, 2017 by portfoliolongo.com

I mentioned in a blog post last month that I had begun a process, which I said I would elaborate on in detail at some point. Well, I’m not going to elaborate on that just yet, but I will say that one of the goals of the process is for me to be able to have something coherent to say “about me.” I will also say that I’m working with Adam James Butcher, artist and coach. So in the spirit of showing my work, when it comes to this sort of work in progresss, here’s a one minute, thirty-one second video that I did in Videoshop that represents a draft “illustrated about-me statement” that I hope to improve upon. Your feedback, as usual, is welcome. Please feel free to chime in on this or any other post.

A byproduct of this process is my ABOUT page.

Andrew has never been the same ever since

Posted on June 20, 2017 by portfoliolongo.com

A rite of passage, a transition ceremony of sorts! Andrew’s identity changed when he left the group of non-shoe tyers and became a member of the shoe-tyers group.

Click on image to enlarge it. Incidentally, this actually happened in the mid 1990s, a couple of years after completing my doctorate, and it encapsulated in a single episode my sociolinguistically-oriented dissertation research in a bilingual Kindergarten classroom near Washington, DC in the mid 1990s that was undergoing a reform of its mathematics curriculum. Learning is identity change. Andrew has never been the same ever since!

Let me get this straight…

Posted on May 13, 2017 by portfoliolongo.com

I’ve begun a formal process, one that I’ll elaborate on in due time. Suffice it to say that this process requires some reflection, and that this illustration is an autobiographical by-product of that reflection. I won’t include any analysis of this real event in my life at this particular point, but I do hope to so as soon as I’m able to coax out a pattern or two.

This drawing was done on an iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and Paper by Fifty Three.

Learning To Walk By Rolling With Health

Posted on May 8, 2017 by portfoliolongo.com

I’ve never reblogged anything, so I hope I’m doing it right. Why am I reblogging this post? I’m doing it in the names of learning and inspiration for the few special people who follow my illustroblog.

Check out my niece’s blog as she literally learns how to walk again as a writer, an adult, a person living with MS. If you’re like me, you’ll learn something about your path and how you make your way on your journey more gracefully. She’ll crack you up too; that’s kinda’ a family thing.

Outstanding in His Field

Posted on May 27, 2014 by portfoliolongo.com

Every time I’d see Karl, I’d ask him about his donkey, and each time he’s say, “He’s outstanding in his field.”

Update: The Karl I was referring to was Karl Runser, whom I work with at ILGARD, now the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service. Sadly, a couple of months after moving back to Athens, OH in 2023, I learned of Karl’s passing. Please take a look at Karl Runser’s obituary. He was a man of integrity, honor, and wit, and it was a pleasure to get to know him on road trips to meetings and workshops throughout the Appalachian counties of Ohio. As outlined in his obituary, prior to working at Ohio University, Karl was Managing Editor of the Athens Messenger.

Check out this 1997 C-SPAN video to see Karl talk about the Athens Messenger: https://www.c-span.org/program/vignette/athens-messenger/175405

I drew this donkey on an iPad Pro using the Paper 53 app. I was thinking of Karl the whole time.

Remember Diagramming Sentences?

Posted on December 20, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

It took some real carpentry skills to diagram sentences back in the day, didn’t it? Not only did you need to know grammar, but then you had to build a contraption on which each and every part of speech could rest in suspended animation indefinitely, correctly, and comfortably! It wasn’t easy. Imagine building this one!!!

I added this image/poem on Dec. 18, 2024 because I believe it helps deepen our understanding and appreciation of grammar and the architecture of expression.