M. SzalPlease click this link if you would like to pre-order your deck of mystical playing cards.
I have opened pre-sale orders to sell my new deck of cards, The American Game. I have changed the cards several times and I am on 4 different redesigns for the entire deck. The deck officially will be released on Thanksgiving, which is when all pre-sale orders will ship. Thank you so much for supporting my artwork and designs, I will have the entire deck on my portfolio soon with watermarks.
In light of Judge William P. “Bill” Brandt’s military service, I have removed the last press release about him in honor of Armistice Day. One of the officers I was close with and who I designed things for in the Department of the Army (with U. of S. Carolina back in 2017-18) emailed me that Judge Brandt served in the United States Air Force for several decades.
During his distinguished military career, including active and reserve service, he has served in numerous flying, staff and command positions all over the globe–including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.judgebillbrandt.com/about
World War One is my favorite conflict to study in history, along with the Napoleonic Wars, the English Civil Wars, plus the civil war between Sulla and Marius in ancient Rome. We get Veterans Day from the original Armistice Day, which is the anniversary of the eleventh month and the eleventh day that the armistice was signed to end the First World War. I would also like to thank my uncle John Szal (Captain in the Marines) and my old roommate Wes Ellett, who went to TCU on the G.I. Bill after serving in Iraq, for their service today.
This is a Flying Dutchess character concept I made based on an English Admiral that uses the Tarrant County District Attorney as a reference – Phil Sorrells.
In other news, I am working on the 4th different version of my “American Game Deck” of cards, which will be available for sale on my website starting Thanksgiving. Each card has a different NFL team, a different zodiac sign, element sign or special major card, which all equal 52 playing cards like a traditional deck for playing poker or spades. The NFL teams only have the city name and team colors since their logos are copyrighted. I have selected +500-year-old emblems mostly from Claude Paradin’s Devises heroïques, first published in 1551. I have redesigned the emblems to coordinate a theme idea and color palette to represent each of the 32 teams. So you could shuffle the deck in strange ways to help you pick your predictions for some sports gambling at West Gate in Las Vegas, then play go-fish with your friends while you watch the games.
I want to elevate American culture to an almost metaphysical place and have this deck hold a space similar to the traditional Rider Waite Tarot Deck. These timeless emblems from centuries ago still have a familiarity yet an elusive quality that makes each one feel eternal. See the “Atlanta Card” for an example. It has the official CMYK red of the team with an emblem featuring a falcon-like bird (Atlanta Falcons). Some teams are doubles, such as New York and Los Angeles. Yet, with color and imagery, I attempted to make each design fairly easy to distinguish. The teams are the number cards and the four elements (32 teams + 4 elements = 36) – Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.
The royal cards are the 12 zodiac signs and four unique cards from special emblems, which I thought would increase the mystique of the deck as a whole composition. Some cards have emblems with related imagery, like Capricorn, which has an actual sea goat on which the sign is based. Other cards are more subtle references, such as Taurus, which features an emblem with a “Dexter Dei” (hand of God) with a sword and a trowel, which makes a shape similar to the horns of a bull.
This is an image of the letter that Capital One sent me after I returned from Europe. I have since started using another bank. They said my account had no activity for more than 60 days, which is not true since there is a charge from Adobe (mentioned in my last post). My number was also switched a few months ago without my permission. I was just sent a text one day with my new number after messaging an old friend about the inheritance fraud situation. I hope that my civil court cases will find some vindication for these strange events.
I was teaching several subjects online for Varsity Tutors, including AP Art History, Java Script, Geography, Animation, Drawing/Painting and even Minecraft Coding Camps. My father, Timothy Szal, wanted to go on an extended trip to Europe for more than two months. So, I took a brief sabbatical from teaching, and we planned to go to Paris for three to four weeks and then walk across Spain on the famous “Camino Trail.”
My father had recently employed me to redesign and renovate a second building on the 1342 Meadow Glen property in Southlake. We had discussed my being able to rent out the place for two years in exchange for payment (I also spent a good deal of my own money on extra design elements like the turtle knobs on the bathroom cabinets).
My father “accidentally” pushed me down a steep cliff while we were passing from the border of France into Spain near the Pyrenees Mountains. The fall hurt my leg, and about halfway through the “Camino Trail”, I was forced to stay back and rest in Burgos while my father continued without me. He returned after several days with 5 Spanish thugs who tried to subdue me. I was able to run off, and they followed me on the trail for a day until I doubled back. I told my father I was going to the American Embassy, and we flew back to Dallas from Madrid.
I had several strange signs that my father did not plan on me returning. The most significant sign was that my Capital One bank account was closed because I had not had any activity in 60 days – yet my Adobe account for Photoshop, After Effects, and other Adobe products had a payment from that account on May 8th. I also had over $600 in Federal Savings Bonds that I mailed to the bank to turn into money, which got returned as a check (possibly so that anyone could cash them).
I can’t help feeling that after some of the events that took place last year, some of Timothy Szal’s behavior seems quite a bit more suspicious. I just pray that someone on the State or Federal level looks into what has happened. I have a small claims court case in the works now, so hopefully, this will all be resolved from these proceedings.
NFL Football season is back once again, so I thought I would share some more information about a project I have worked on for the last couple of years (there are three different deck versions in total).
This video covers much of the physical process behind the making of my “football tarot” cards. I used emblems from the 500-year-old book Devises Heroiques. Each emblem has a conceptual or actual reference to a modern-day NFL team. For example, I used an emblem with a bear for the Chicago Bear’s card.
Below is an example of what the emblems look like in the book version:
view of the backyard with snow
After moving from South Carolina to New Orleans in 2018, back to DFW in 2020, to California in 2022, and briefly back to DFW last year – I have decided to move to Upstate New York for a while to be closer to my mother here and her family.
It is nice to be back in the Empire State. I lived in Brooklyn in 2010-2011 while attending Pratt, the Art and Design school. Although, Upstate is quite different than The City (quite a bit colder).
The move will afford the opportunity to continue my work on The Flying Dutchess and focus on my animation career. I started a part-time job in retail and have met several new friends.
New familiar for the Japanese character, Hoshy! This cute little guy is a white coated snow otter that is super curious and loves getting into things he shouldn’t. I made this rough walking sequence for him and he is named after one of my oldest friends, Alex Dutton – who’s social media name is “Addix”.
I had the pleasure of interviewing famous installation & fiber artist, Susan Lenz, almost a decade ago. This is a YouTube video of the interview which was for her show in 2014 at the Tapp’s Art Center, with its incredible director Caitlin Bright.
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