The Happy Hobo Trading Post Blog

I want to be like Mike

2010-01-31T12:56:00.001-08:00

My buddy, Mike, is such a rad artist. I've always wanted to be as awesome as him, so I bought a little sketch book just like his and I got the same type of pen he uses, and I am now posting a couple of my sketches on my weblog, just like he does. The sketch on the left is in mechanical pencil and is a good idea for a TV show. The one on the right is a greeting card idea to celebrate Didn't Get Eaten By Zombies Day. More to come.

Snow-pa!

2009-12-27T07:56:00.000-08:00

This has been a busy Christmas! Scout and I made a snowman that looks like my grandpa (Sarah calls him "Snow-pa"). It's been six days since we made him and he's still hanging around the back yard (one blessing of the cold, cold Utah weather). Below the picture of Snow-pa is the quilt that Sarah made for me out of my old t-shirts. It was the raddest Christmas present ever. Merry Christmas!

Eat You Heart Out, Martha Stewart!

Finished Guitarzzz!

2009-12-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

I finished the Guitar painting for the very thoughtful lady that requested it for her husband's B-day. Now having finished Micah's shoes and this project as well, I'm not sure what will be next. Any suggestions???

Guitarzzz!

2009-12-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

I've been hard at work on a commissioned painting that a lady requested for her husband's b-day. It's a painting of forty guitars. All I have is some photos of it, but I thought I'd post some up anyway.

Halloween Poem

2009-10-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! "What time of year?" you're thinking. Halloween, duh. Every Halloween for the last three years I have written a cute Halloween poem. So here's this year's:

Down the haunted gravel road
Across the haunted bridge.
Through the haunted pumpkin patch
Beyond the haunted ridge.

I walk to school each foggy morn
With no one else but me
And say "hello" to headless ghosts
And wave to haunted trees.

And with a grin upon my face,
I guess I'm pretty brave.
I'm not afraid of eyes that gaze
From far beyond the grave.

I'm not afraid of creepy ghouls
That lurk in murky ponds,
I'm not afraid of witches
Or their warts or magic wands.

I'm not afraid of screaming winds
I'm not afraid of lightning,
Cause if I'm late for class,
My teacher turns out much more frightening!

SHOES!

2009-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Since school started I have been on a serious hobby hiatus. This blog has suffered unjustly and to make up for it, here are some pictures of the shoes I painted for Micah for his B-Day (which was back in April, and I just now finished the shoes. lame.).

Craft Lake City (was a long time ago, but now I'm writing about it)

2009-09-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I can't type without the letters being bold and underlined. This is weird. Anyway, I'm finally blogging about Craft Lake City, which transpired a month ago and was awesome. If you didn't know, it was awesome. My beautiful wife, Sarah, watched over my booth while I played fun music for drunkies at a wedding and reception in Park City. Sarah, and my sister Hannah, did a great job and a lot of stuff got sold. Plus, one of my favorite bands, Cub Country, played at the festival. I'm bummed that I missed it, but Sarah brought a vinyl and t-shirt of theirs and I am stoked. Anyway, Sarah had people sign up for a raffle for some free stuff from the Happy Hobo Trading Post. I'm going to conduct the raffle this week, since we're finally done moving to our new place and I'll have some time. Look for it soon!

What Cool Siblings I Have!

2009-07-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

First of all, my cool and nice sister Hannah is so radical. She posted on her popular crafting blog about me. Check it out. She is so cool and nice. She will be (wo)manning my booth at Craft Lake City (a very cool alternative arts and crafts festival in Salt Lake that I'm lucky to be a part of) with my beautiful wife, Sarah. Hopefully my super cool sister, Britta, will also be there. I will not be there, as my wedding band will be in Park City playing a posh wedding/reception late into the night. Speaking of cool siblings, my brother, Micah, posted an awesome video of a treasure hunt that we organized for the grand kids at our family reunion this year. The video is SO rad- Check it out. I'm such a happy dude right now! Here's a picture of one of my heroes-

Greeting Cards!

2009-06-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Greeting cards sure are hot. Below are some greeting cards featuring some paintings of mine. These can be purchased at my Happy Hobo Shop or at my Etsy Shop. In other greeting card news- my buddy Dan will soon be starting a greeting card business and he has asked me to submit some stuff to put on cards for him. I will draw up some stuff and ask you folks to let me know what you think. OK Peace out for now.

Monster Waves!

2009-06-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more monster paintings inspired by my and Sarah's recent jaunt to beautiful Santa Cruz. Fun!

Happy B-Day, Wolfman!

2009-06-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

Some of the Wolfman's buddies and their ladies decided to throw him a Birthday Bash! This painting, appropriately named "Happy B-Day, Wolfman", shall be featured at Friday Night Flicks THIS FRIDAY NIGHT (June 5th) at Pioneer Park (700 East 1000 South) in Salt Lake City. It's going to be so much fun to be there, so come along and bring some friends!

Monsters enjoying the Outdoors

2009-05-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

These fellas do enjoy getting out and relaxing. Dracula goes night fishing, while Frankenstein's Monster plays a mean game of croquet. These two paintings will be on display and available in print format at Friday Night Flicks in Liberty Park (SLC) this June 5th. Come check 'em out!

Two more from the Universal Monsters Series

2009-05-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here we have two happy monsters enjoying the great outdoors. Again, these paintings will be featured this summer at Friday Night Flicks, where I will be selling prints, originals, greeting cards, etc. It's going to be fun and free and I will be raffling off some goods. So, come hang out and check it!

Summer-time Fun! LOL!

2009-05-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so stoked for this summer! Why, you ask? Well for one thing, I have a vendor booth at Friday Night Flicks, which is a very cool weekly festival at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City. The Gallivan Center puts on so many cool events in the summer like the free Twilight Concert series, etc. Anyway, Friday Night Flicks includes a totally FREE awesome outdoor movie experience, with totally FREE awesome popcorn. there are also totally awesome vendors like me selling and giving away stuff...for FREE. which is awesome. Anyway, I started a small series of paintings in honor of movie coolness. The theme of these paintings is Universal Monsters. I will be selling prints and originals of these new friendly paintings, along with other prints and all new greeting cards. It's going to be epic! So, if you are living in Utah, or around Utah, or in the Western Hemisphere, or on Earth, you really need to come enjoy the festivities. If you need to know when and where to go for a date or whatever on Friday nights in June and July, click here and start making plans. Come see me and we'll enjoy some cool movies together. Wooo!

Here's a Sneak Peek at the new Universal Monsters series-

Well-Read Sea Dogs

2009-05-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I had been working on a large painting for my parents' house. Here it is. You'll notice, my new best friend, that the image here looks like it was cut in many pieces then glued together. That's because it was too big for me to scan, so I took multiple pictures of the painting and pieced them together as best as I could. My parents had me do a poem for this, and I'm painting the poem on another piece of watercolor paper, so I'll post that later. Hope you like it!

Rodney Mullen

2009-04-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

Rodney Mullen is the greatest skateboarder ever! What else can I say? Many attribute him with inventing the kick-flip... if he didn't invent it, he has certainly added to it over the years. I like it when someone isn't simply content to be good at what they do, but is constantly going outside normal parameters and creating new ways to be great at what they do. Rodney Mullen has always done that.

I haven't been posting too much new stuff because I have been working on a huge painting for my parents' place. They have a little area downstairs for the grandkids where they keep their cool books and toys and they wanted a painting and poem for the wall. Here's a photo of an unfinished part of it-

I'll post the rest when I finish.

Gnarls Barkley!

2009-04-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I realize Gnarls Barkley consists of two people, but they team-up so well, it's like they have ONE BRAIN! Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo have made some of the greatest post-modern tunes in recent years, in my opinion of course. If you haven't listened to "The Odd Couple", you're missing out. Go pick it up and prepare to be amazed.

New Blog- Robo Bandito!

2009-03-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

NEW WEB SITE! What's that you say? A New Collaborative Art Blog? Yes. That's what I say. I will be joining forces with the powerful Kolby Doggins and the omnipotent Mike Carpenter on a new blog called ROBO BANDITO. This blog is going to be Off Da Hook. There will not even be a hook near this blog, it will be so far off da hook. Go check it out, and check often for new off-the-wall awesomeness.

OMG! I'm so excited!

My hero, Elizabeth Cotten

2009-03-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Cotten learned guitar upside down because she was left-handed and could only borrow right-handed guitars from friends. Despite this setback, she became an amazing folk guitar player. Her discovery came while she was working as a nanny for the Charles and Ruth Seeger family. As you probably know, this family was deeply involved in the music industry. They overheard Elizabeth playing a pretty tune on a family guitar and offered to launch her into music history. Although she was well in her 60's, she accepted a record deal and a rigorous touring schedule. She later won a Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional recording. Her songs have been covered by the likes of Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia. In short, Elizabeth Cotten rules (ruled)!

Dance Party Under the Waves

2009-03-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have more Hero ACEO's to post, but I thought I'd shake things up a bit. This painting is the biggest one I've done so far (it's only 11" x 30"), so I posted a small image of the whole thing and larger detail pictures. This one was so fun to paint, I think I'll do another Dance Party on land. Fun!

Here are some close-ups of the details-

BRUCE LEE!

2009-03-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have loved Bruce Lee since I was a tiny fellow. I remember listening to my cousin Devon relate a scene from "Chinese Connection" when I was really little and the images that came to my mind were so exciting. When I actually watched my first Bruce Lee movie, I was so stoked. My imagination hadn't even considered some of the killer moves that Bruce Lee was capable of. In this painting, I have captured Bruce doing what he did best- disarming an afro-toting henchman in a gay-looking vest. And looking good doing it.

Hercule Poirot

2009-03-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

This one's for my mom and dad. We always used to watch this show on PBS about a witty French detective named Hercule Poirot. Sarah and Scout were out of town last month and while channel-surfing, I stumbled on an episode. While watching, all these great memories of watching this cool show came flooding into my brain and I decided to add him to my list of heroes. enjoy!

We Want Matlock!

2009-03-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

What can you say about Matlock? He's the man! At a loss for words, I've compiled a few Simpson's quotes about Matlock below. Enjoy-

Lionel Hutz: "Mr Simpson, don't you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night, the sound wasn't on, but I think I got the gist of it."

Grampa: "I'm an old man. I hate everything but Matlock. Ooh, it's on now!"

Grampa: "I say we call Matlock. He'll find the culprit. It's probably that evil Gavin MacLeod or George 'Goober' Lindsay.

Bart: Grampa, Matlock's not real.

Grampa: Neither are my teeth, but I can still eat corn on the cob if someone cuts it off and mushes it into a fine paste. Now that's good eatin!"

Quimby: "And this proposed expressway will bring increased commerce to our local merchants."

Grampa: "What's in it for us?"

Jasper: "Yeah, give us something we like or we'll ride you out of town on a rail!"
Quimby: "Ahem, well, uh, what do you people like?"

Jasper: "Sleep".

Crazy Old Man: "Sexy dames, and plenty of em."

Grampa: "Maaatloock!"

Quimby: "Well, I suppose I could name it the Matlock Expressway."

mGood Evening

2009-03-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

Here's Al Hitchcock with a creepy raven perched on his expensive suit coat. This card is dedicated to Kolby because nobody appreciates a good Hitchcock movie as much as Kolby.

Who's your hero?

Train, Say your Prayers, Eat your Vitamans Too

2009-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

The Hulkster's in the House. This card is dedicated to Darin, because he is currently going to school to get a doctorate in being a Hulkamaniac. here are some quotes of wisdom from Hulk Hogan's album, entitled "Hulk Rules"- "Always go swimmin' with a buddy, work real hard and always study", "When you're out on the beach, you can see so much. Look all you want, but you better not touch", "When the Hulkster comes to heaven, we'll tag up again".

Who's your hero?

My Heroes

2009-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

So, I recently took up painting ACEOs, which are also known as Artist Trading Cards. ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions, and Originals". These cards are 2.5" x 3.5", just like a normal trading card- cute! I decided that since I would be painting in a trading card format, I would paint some of my heroes; like the comic book cards I used to collect. I numbered each card at the bottom in the order that I drew them, rather than order of importance. So, without further ado, here's one of my favorites-

Honest Abe

Who's your hero?

Rat-Drawn Carriage

2009-02-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

This fellow is often referred to as "Hobo Claus" by people who pass by our fridge and see him hanging there. I drew him in class last semester not with the intention of drawing a hobo santa claus, but rather just a hobo commanding a rat-drawn carriage. It makes sense, right? The reason that the rats are in the air is that it was awkward to have them on the ground... Anyway, enjoy-

We have a Winner!

2009-02-12T20:19:00.000-08:00

So, all of your comments were really great. I loved reading all of them. For realsies. You were all winners, but unfortunately, only one of you can be the big winner. And first prize goes to... GRANT OLSEN. Not only did Grant guess the most ingredients for Hobo Stew that matched mine, but he also guessed the two ingredients that keep a happy hobo happy- beer and whiskey. Good job, Grant. Just email me at cedricwilford@gmail.com and let me know which four prints you want. As for those who didn't win- don't despair! For your participation, if you buy a print this next week, you'll get another print of your choosing for free. All you need to do is click on my Etsy shop at the right hand side of the blog, order a print and in "notes to seller" tell me that you participated in Hobo Stew and tell me which other print you would like for free. As for Leo... since your ingredients were so rad, you can get a print for free, buddy. Just email me and let me know which one you want. Thanks everyone for participating and being so cool. Keep it happy.

Here's a picture of Grant Olsen in the present...

Here's Grant in the near future...

Happy Hobo Giveaway- A Game of Hobo Stew

2009-02-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Hobo Giveaway!

Follow the instructions below to win three free Happy Hobo watercolor prints of your choosing. You can visit my online shop to view all the available prints at- www.cedricwilford.etsy.com

Here’s how this giveaway is going to go down: We’re making Hobo Stew!

Every time Hobo Stew is made, the ingredients are different, because we use whatever is lying around. I have 15 different ingredients for Hobo Stew written down in a secret place. What you need to do is 1. Go to the comment section of my blog between today (Monday) and Thursday at 9 pm. and 2. Write as many ingredients as you can think for a delicious Hobo Stew. Whoever writes the most ingredients that match the ones I already have written is the big winner! I will announce the winner on my blog the next day (Friday), so check back to see if you won. When you have found out that you’re the winner, you can write me and tell me which three prints you would like and I will send them to you posthaste. Good Luck! P.S.- if you post this giveaway on your own blog so all your friends, family, relations, and enemies can see it, and you end up winning, I will throw in an extra print to sweeten the deal.

It's True!

Hola and Gracias

2009-02-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

The Happy Hobo

2009-02-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

Hitching a ride

2009-01-31T19:02:00.000-08:00

Giant Wolf at the end of a long work day

2009-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here's another one from my Basic Conducting class. Unfortunately I never got to finish it before class ended. But I thought it was worth posting; look how much fun he's having! LOL!

Today's the Day the Teddy Bears Have Their Picnic

2009-01-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

This Bear Cub is living Phat. I drew him during my Basic Conducting class, while wishing I was a super-rich Bear Cub bouncing on the bed and throwing money in the air.

New Story (so far...)

2009-01-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some details from the new story that I'm painting. I haven't finished all the drawing yet, so I haven't started painting. But I think it will turn out to be 5 or 6 paintings.

Who Wants Sandwich?

2008-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

This is a drawing I did on the whiteboard at work. I don't know why, but I like the cut of that alligators jib. Seems like a nice fellow.

Paintings for "Stanley- the Sloth Who Saved Christmas"

2008-12-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

These are the paintings for the Christmas story I wrote this year. I'll post the whole story at the bottom. I used a scanner in the BYU library this time and the pictures didn't come out as I hoped. I really would like a scanner of my own!

Deep in the Jungle of HoolaHaru
Lived Stanley the Sloth and his family too
They lived at the top of a Boogeyfruit tree
Where the jungle of HoolaHaru could be seen

One day Stanley perched on the uppermost limb
And he clapped eyes on something fantastically grim
From the murky old jungle of Hulahooray,
A wild pack of wolfbears was coming his way

Those wolfbears ate bunnies, they ate little sheep,
They ate little birds who were trying to sleep
And anything moving turned into their food,
Oh, those wolfbears were ugly and stinky and rude
So as fast as they could (which was really quite slow),
Stanley’s poor family decided to go

They came to a cave which was cozy inside
Where the creatures of HoolaHaru came to hide
And there they lived happy, those animal friends
And they danced and they sang, and the fun didn’t end

Until one day, young Sally the Sloth asked her pop,
“Since we’ve moved, how will Santy Claus know where to stop?
Since I can remember, he’s come to our tree
And brought presents for all of my sisters and me”
So Stanley the Sloth and his animal chums
Worked out a way to get Santa to come

The next day they came to the rubber-band tree
Where Stanley divulged what his plan was to be
“From the rubber-band tree I’ll catapult forth
And float my way up to the snows of the north
I’ll find ole St. Nick and I’ll tell him the news
That the creatures of HoolaHaru have all moved”

So Stanley sprang forth from the rubber-band tree,
He flew over the jungle and over the sea,
He flew over houses and stores and saloons
And the view was so nice- he was glad that he flew

He flew over igloos and snow-covered trees
And Stanley turned cold, and soon started to freeze
His eyeballs were frozen, his fingers were froze,
Poor Stanley was froze from his nose to his toes
A big ball of ice, Stanley fell from the sky
And he couldn’t break free, though he tried and he tried

For moments and minutes and hours and days
Stanley was sad he was frozen that way
That poor slothy ice cube was such a sad sight
And there he sat frozen till Christmas Eve night

When all of a sudden, from a mile away,
He saw something coming that looked like a sleigh
And before he believed it, Santa was there
With his big jiggly belly and white beard and hair
He laughed a great laugh, and soon Stanley felt
That all of the ice quickly started to melt

And Stanley was happy, as warm as can be
Then Santa said “come join the reindeer and me!”
“But how did you know I was here,” Stan inquired
“How did you know I was lonely and tired?”
“Your daughter, young Sally, missed having you near
And YOU were the gift that she asked for this year,
So climb on my sleigh, I’ve got plenty to do,
Now back to the jungle of HoolaHaru!”

As quick as a wink, the cave was in sight
What a party they had on that Christmas Eve night
And on Christmas day all the gifts were unwrapped
But the best gift of all was that Stanley was back

© Cedric Anderson 2009

Future Self-Portrait

2008-12-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a twelve painting story that is taking me forever, so I've been getting antsy to post something in the meantime. This paining is a portrait of my future self- a future self-portrait. Notice that I am dressed in clothes that I wish I could justify wearing now. There are certain things I think you have to earn your way into wearing, like a fedora (which you can only wear if you're an old man or Frank Sinatra), or cowboy boots (which you can only wear if you're an old man or a real cowboy). Also notice that I will be carrying a pistol to scare youngsters and shoot raccoons.

First Set of Paintings

2008-12-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

So far with the Frog-snot blog, I have jotted down a lot of ideas for poems and drawings, etc. I recently began to start painting with watercolors and I have enjoyed it so much that I think I'm hooked! I think I am going to filter the good stuff slowly from the Frog-snot blog onto this one and hopefully have a nice painting to go along with my poems. I treated the Frog-snot blog as a kind of archive for all my ideas, but I think this one will be more like a normal blog with comments, thoughts, etc. Cool!