I was joking with my dad the other day about how I don't have any art in the newspaper anymore, and he probably thinks I don't work at the paper. Well, I'm still here.

I've been keeping myself busy with two niche products, one being Spaces magazine, and the other is called SMART magazine. There kinda like the side dishes to the main course, and I'm eating it all up with a smile.

Don't get me wrong, I love doing illustrations and page designs for the newspaper, but after 7-plus years, things sometimes get uninspiring. The break for me came with being the designer and creative artist behind these two products.

Here's a sampling.

This is my first cover design, I did. Yeah, I admit the background of the closet is a little busy and makes the type a little hard to read. But on that same note I really enjoyed designing the cover. I was along for the photo shoot to help direct and to observe. And I do believe we got a great image for the cover.

This is one of my favorite spreads so far. I had a ton of fun setting this studio shoot up. Another proud moment was when I did the model's hair and makeup. Our models by the way are local women, if you are interested in being a SMART model we would love to hear from you.

This spread was in the SMART Parenting special. I had alot of text and photos to work with.

This spread was also in the SMART parenting issue. The story dealt with children's illnesses that sounded scarier than they really were. I created the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator and then brought them into Indesign.

I create the layout of the magazines in Indesign. And implement Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator when needed. It's alot of fun for me. You can check out more of SMART magazine online at www.smartmagpa.com