ILLUSTRATOR CHRIS KOELLE

I started out life (or elementary school actually) as a visual artist who bailed out of guitar lessons on account of my second grade hands not being able to keep the strings down. I was that that kid who sat on the back row of risers in choir every Sunday night doodling on a scrap of discarded bulletin, more interested in scribbling to life monsters and army men living in my brain with one of those tiny church pencils than I was in learning how to sing songs from "Down By The Creek Bank." Basically, I liked to draw. All the time.

And while I'm not very good at it anymore on account of all my soft rocking leaving little time over the last few years to stay practiced up, I still love discovering new artists and art and living vicariously through their brushstrokes. It makes me want to rent a cabin the woods somewhere, buy up all the paints and canvas I can and go at it.

Thanks to Andrew Osenga's blog I stumbled onto another artist (and a his friends) who's inspired me to paint again and dumbfounded me with his brand of often grunge-ish almost always dark illustration. Chris Koelle's work is flat out beautiful. See for yourself and then visit Chris' blog, the Portland Studios artists he works with and his personal on-line gallery.

(All images are completely ripped off from Chris' various sites and will be removed from this post if he gets really really angry)