Chris Ayers Design

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NEWS

	You can always check my BLOG for the most up-to-date announcements as well.

	5.28.11 New book arrives! The latest news is that MY Daily Zoo is now available through this website (and will soon be available through most bookselling outlets). MY Daily Zoo is a 96-page drawing activity book for all ages that allows YOU to join in the animal drawing fun. It is packed with unfinished scenarios—a circus, rodeo, jungle, and coral reef just to name a few—for you to complete; step-by-step instructions showing how to draw animal characters such as Sammy Sardine and Pepe the Mischievous Monkey; some simple tips for basic character design and plenty of Daily Zoo characters to complete and color. All activities are designed to utilize YOUR imagination and jumpstart YOUR creativity. There is even a spot on the front cover for you to write your name, since afterall, this is YOUR book too! View sample pages from MY Daily Zoo here. Want a signed copy, complete with an animal sketch of your choice? Clicking here will take you to the Daily ZooMart.

	12.12.09 Minneapolis Book Signing To celebrate the recent publication of The Daily Zoo: Year Two, I will be having a book signing in Minneapolis the week before Christmas. All are welcome. When: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 6-10pm Where: The Ayers Residence 4000 18th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55407 I will have both volumes of The Daily Zoo available for purchase, as well as notecards and perhaps a few prints. The perfect event for the procrastinating Holiday Shopper! Hope you can make it!
	11.1.09 The Daily Zoo: Year Two - Still Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day cover revealed! It's official. The follow-up to last year's Daily Zoo - Vol. 1 has gone to press and will hopefully be available in early to mid-December. After completing my initial goal of drawing an animal a day for a year, I kept right on drawing on Day 366. The Daily Zoo: Year Two continues the journey with another year's worth of armadillos, babirusas, and zombie frogs along with further commentary on my artistic process as well as more reflections as I continue to learn what it means to be a cancer survivor. To whet your appetite, here's a look at the cover.

	10.31.09 The Daily Zoo is on exhibit! Forty-five prints from the first two years of The Daily Zoo are on exhibit at the Lillian Davis Hogan Galleries on the Saint Mary's University main campus in Winona, MN. The show runs through November 11, 2009. I will also be on campus on Friday, Nov. 6 to speak to some of the art students and sign books during a gallery reception which is open to the public. More info can be found on the Events page.
	7.23.09 I apologize for the absence of any recent updates on both this site and my blog, as well as the brevity of this update. Things have been extremely busy in both my professional and personal life, but I wanted to let any interested parties know that I will be signing books this Saturday, July 25th, at the San Diego Comic-Con from 2-4 pm at the Design Studio Press booth (#1701). The rest of the news will have to wait. I've been busy promoting The Daily Zoo Vol. I and hard at work on getting Vol. 2 ready to go to press. More on that soon! Thanks for stopping by.
	1.31.09 It has been a while since my last update, but The Daily Zoo has been keeping me quite busy. Here is some of what I have been up to the last couple of months: • I finally got my blog up and running. There are only a couple of posts so far, but I hope to start updating it a little more frequently. In addition to periodically featuring some of my artwork (including some images only shown thumbnail-size in The Daily Zoo) I plan to share other cool books and art that I happen to come across. Check it out here. • There were three Daily Zoo book signings back in my home state of Minnesota in December. I told my story along with a short video and slideshow at St. Olaf Church in downtown Minneapolis and signed books afterward. The following week my parents hosted a signing for friends and family at their house. That was followed by my first "official" signing at a bookstore: Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books in St. Paul. Cold, snow, and ice kept some people away but it was fun nonetheless. • While in Minnesota I had the opportunity to record an interview with Greta Cunningham at Minnesota Public Radio which aired during the local edition of 'All Things Considered' on January 15, 2009. You can listen to the audio, read a transcript, and view a slideshow on MPR's website. • My sister introduced me to her friend Richele who just started an online magazine called The Arc. It is very well-done and contains a wide variety of content themed around the idea of creativity - in all of its many forms. Richele was gracious enough to feature me and The Daily Zoo in the December issue. I encourage you to check out The Arc and subscribe to their mailing list (it's free!). • The Green Bay chapter of The American Cancer Society has invited me to design the invitation for their annual spring fundraising gala. The original artwork, which just so happened to be the Daily Zoo sketch for Day 1,024, will be auctioned off at the gala's auction. I'll also be signing books there. • I've also just been invited to have a signing at the annual party for patients of the Minneapolis and St. Paul's Children's Hospitals. Slowly the word is spreading! • I added a few more artists to my links page. One of the exciting things about having a book published is that it has introduced me to many talented and interesting people such as Aaron Berchild (who after reading The Daily Zoo has been inspired to draw an animal a day!) and Dean Elliott, a fellow cancer survivor and animator from Australia. I also added links to the work of Neil Winn and Akihito Shiniceya, two friends from the special effects biz, and Kirk Bjorndahl (a caricature comrade from days long ago). I encourage you to check out their work. • One final note for today: The Daily Zoo is now available through Bud's Art Books as well. I was first introduced to this mail-order/online book catalog when I moved to Los Angeles years ago and there were a couple of times when I almost couldn't pay rent because I was finding too many cool art books at Bud's. He's got some great finds.
	11.15.08 The Daily Zoo: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with A Drawing A Day is now available online and in stores which are listed here! And I have good news for those of you who are developing an appetite for my artwork. I just learned from Design Studio Press that we have the green light for The Daily Zoo: Volume Two. Expected publication date: November 2009!!! Please check back here periodically for updates and preview images. Also, for those of you who belong to Facebook, I just created a profile. Stop by and say hi. And on The Daily Zoo Press page I have posted the link to a thoughtful article written by a friend of the late Trish Goken (to whom the book is dedicated). As feedback on the book has started to trickle in, I've also added a page of Readers' Comments, accessible via the Press page or by clicking here.
	9.29.08 Finally! www.chrisayersdesign.com goes live! My goal was to get my first website up and running by September - I just made it! Seeing as this the first website I've ever built, I'm sure there will be some bugs. If you come across something that isn't working - or navigation that is just confusing - please let me know.