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blog Personal Press

Capital One Account Closed (but not by me)

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.

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blog Personal Spain/France '22

Mysterious 2022 European Adventure

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.

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Studio The American Game The American Game Deck

The Making of the “American Game” Football Tarot

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:

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blog

Press Release – Aug. 3,2024

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Personal Professional Studio The Flying Dutchess

Mech. Job and new Cromwell

When I moved to Schenectady, the first job I could find was at Harbor Freight. Luckily, after a few months, I found a shop to work as a mechanic called Warren Tire. I have worked at Warren Tire since April and have been very happy there.
I haven’t been able to work on my animated series, The Flying Dutchess, as much as I would prefer. Yet, I have completed the new version of the Oliver Cromwell character.

My representative character, Ace Malagurio, has a new companion animal. His name is Hals, and he is a Dutch Rabbit that rides at the back of Ace’s broom while he flies around.

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blog Personal Professional The Flying Dutchess

The move to Schenectady NY

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.

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blog The Flying Dutchess

Ottix Berry

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”.

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Art Criticism blog

Artist Interview with Susan Lenz

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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blog The Flying Dutchess

Flying Dutchess Update

Howdy everyone, I thought I would give all my blog readers a sneak peak at some of the new The Flying Dutchess (TFD) content in the works.

The idea of having a “broom-craft carrier” is influenced by WW2 style aircraft carrier’s with planes that take-off and land. Instead of having the flying units (mid-ship mages) run off the deck, an opening door in the rear allows magick users to fly in and out as well as hippocampus (Greek: water horse) drawn boats/individual riders.

I have also been working on several aquatic scenes with ocean animals such as this seal, dolphins and turtles to name a few. Every magick user in the series has a naval dirk that they use to cast spells and a flying animal plus a land/water animal that fly on the end of their broom.

The first battle of the Anglo-Dutch war takes place near the Straits of Dover ( also called the Battle of Goodwin Sands). This is Dover Castle which is visible from this area. It has a magickal shield that protects it from attacks in the air and sea.

These images show off the new style of the series (it has gone through several different stylistic variations), which is an 8-bit/16-bit retro Game Boy Advance aesthetic. This image below is of Astrid casting a spell with her naval dirk, in the finalized look for the show.

Visit the www.theflyingdutchess.com for more content and updates along with the instagram account: @theflyingdutchessoffical