I would describe my paintings as thoughts emerging from my finger tips.

Jonathan Grauel, Director of Media Design, carbonhouse, inc.

Jonathan Grauel, director of development at carbonhouse, will be on hand for a gallery night with the artist for his gallery show, VILLAGES / a collection of visual interactions, at the Warehouse 242 Gallery, Friday, December 5th at 7:00 PM.

Also be sure to get your copy of the the companion book created for the show.
On Friday, September 26th, the Gallery at Warehouse opened its fall show featuring Jonathan Grauel’s work: VILLAGES / a collection of visual interactions.  Opening night saw over 150 visitors attend, mingle, talk with the artist, meet the surgeon, and experience the work first hand. The show presents an evolution of Jonathan’s work from sketch through completed art.

VILLAGES explores and expands on Jonathan’s ‘village’ series. The show reveals some of the mystery behind the process of creation, and the way the loss of a finger from his drawing hand has impacted the way he makes art. This visual trip through live environment sketches, inked gray panels, oil pastels, and 3D installation interpretations is a stunning examination of getting there, being there, and what lies ahead.

The gallery is open for visitors every Sunday 8-12:30 and by appointment through the rest of the year.

Jonathan Grauel was also featured in a cover story of the fall issue of OrthoCarolina Magazine, which features his work and the story of the incredible surgery that has enabled him to continue making art.

Let’s make fists!

Jeffrey Brown, Writer and artist

As a creative design firm, we find inspiration from other creatives. The weekend of June 20-22, the Heroes convention took place in Uptown Charlotte. The Convention was started in 1982 by the gang at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find —one of the premier comics specialty shops in the country.

Most of carbonhouse attended the show at some point–as well as many other creatives from around town (Shoutouts to Studiobanks and Marty Kelso).

There were many great guests this year, but what always stands out for me is the Top Shelf Productions‘ booth. They publish outstanding, contemporary graphic novels by some dedicated artists.Two favs generally make the trek to Charlotte—Jeffrey Brown and Alex Robinson. These two excel in the little episodes, slices of life stories and I highly recommended you check out their work.

One of the great things about the Heroes Con is the chance to talk with your favorite artists/writers; they can even provide original sketches for you for a minimal charge. Jeffrey had a great idea this year to create convention trading cards. Three of us had our portraits done by Jeff with a running theme. A little back story: last year Mr. Brown created a self portrait for me with him saying “Let’s make fists.” Jeffrey took that theme and ran with it. Below are Jeff’s sketches of us, which assemble a nice strip. Thank you, Jeffrey Brown!

View more photos from the convention here.

Contemporary Graphic Novels that satisfy:

Blankets by Craig Thompson
Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier
Epileptic by David B.
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Sleepwalk: and Other Stories by Adrian Tomine