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Yesterday the world of ambient music lost one of the most influential people on my life as a musician and visual artist. Dani was one of the most beautiful people that I have ever known and she will be missed greatly. I have been doing artwork with Dani and her husband Will for over a year, and will always treasure the valuable moments that Dani and I shared.

you can find her sounds here:

http://www.myspace.com/chubbywolfsounds

her gorgeous collaboration with Will:

http://www.myspace.com/celersite

Here is a letter from Will, her husband:

Dear friends,

With great sadness I have to announce to you, our friends, that Dani passed away yesterday, July 8. On Tuesday morning I woke to find her unconscious, and not breathing. The medics were called, and she was revived, but fell directly into a coma and didn’t wake up. She passed away yesterday at 3pm, with her family by her. All that is known to say why is that her heart stopped, for no foreseeable reason. The only relation is that her father died in the same way, of a cardiac arrest at the age of 29. She was 26.

Right now I don’t know how to express the loss and sadness I feel, knowing that someone so ultimately close to me, and such an inspiration and friend to so many other people in the world is gone. All I can say is that she won’t be forgotten, or pushed aside only because she’s gone. She’ll always be with me, as my inspiration, my love, my everything. All I can say is I miss her, every second.

Right now I won’t be able to answer many emails, as there’s only so much I can talk about this. Time will heal this, but I know the sadness will never go away. This, I’m ok with, as I never want to forget every way she changed my life, and touched my heart.

I appreciate all your support and love, and even though many of you only knew her through her poetry, or her music, I hope they are good memories. Enclosed is a favorite photo of her, taken at her beach, at home.

Also, here was her favorite quote:

‘The Meaning is in the Wonder”
- Kenneth Patchen

Sincerely,
Will

summer 09 has finally started for me. summer school starting soon, moving into new place, only working nights at the job. new cameras, light meter for all of the arsenal, so expect some medium format and vintage action in full force. Arsenal will be updated soon, gotten some new cameras that I have been playing with. Design-wise, work for Celer, Chubby Wolf, and Archaic Horizon. Real updates coming soon. Audio-wise, 4 releases on the way, finding labels now for them.

Life has been busy indeed. finished off another year of school, one more to go! Right after school went on a backpacking adventure of 42 miles over 7 days in Michigan’s upper peninsula with my roomate and 4 others. Quite a gorgeous adventure. You may see more of the pictures below by clicking on the photo. Not much planned for the summer, a lot of music writing, and hopefully a lot of free lance. I will be sure to keep you all updated on all of that as it comes. I plan to also upload some of my work that I have done over the year that I did not have a chance to post!

Went out to Slaughterama 6. Here are the results. Click the image for the set!

Things have recently been picking up quite a bit for my friend Tanner Menard and his event Sommeil. He recently released a full list of artists who contributed to the concert and I am very pleased to say that I am one of the contributors and the designer for the identity of the project. You may find the full list of contributors here.  For more information on this concert, you can download the press release by clicking on the image below.

Made some business cards because I was tired of tearing out pages in my sketchbook. Collect all 4!

Here is a series of postcards pertaining to “mask” I did for print class. click for a larger view.

The captions on all of them read “the most beauty exists once there is no need for a mask.”

Mask, by its literal definition is a covering worn as a disguise to hide ones face.  They have many cultural references throughout the world, but are all different in some form or fashion.  Mask can have a metaphorical aplication as well.  Many people wear masks everyday to disguise something about themselves or their past.  Whether it be a physical, emotional, or psychological mask, everyone has another side that not many people see.  These masks are usually worn in situations where people are in public or being judged constantly.  But what if all of that was to be removed?  Through my many walks through Richmond, I have always been friendly to the less fortunate and usually say hello or strike up conversations with them.   Hearing their stories, no matter how far fetched they are, with such animation always, is something that has constantly caught my attention.  But the most interesting thing of all is that these people have nothing to lose because they have lost everything.  The entire “mask” situation is removed for their lives.  No shame, no loss, only something to gain.  The total openness of the homeless and less fortunate is such an intriguing aspect, they do not have any shame to ask you for change over and over.  I was really drawn to this and have recently begun to go talk to them and take photos of them just living their life.  Most of the less fortunate usually recognize me due to the the way I dress and my armory of cameras.  They love the attention because usually it is only their own who will give them the time of day.  I find their total loss of shame in their self-image, speech, and actions one of the most wonderful things on earth.  For someone to be so natural is an amazing aspect in life.  People need to learn to lighten up in our society and I feel that anyone can learn from the less fortunate.

This is the new home for all of the stirrings in the world of Johnny Utterback. Links are on the right to friends, my other creations and projects, and ramblings. enjoy!

here are the finals for your enjoyment, used some messed up images for the artwork, pretty happy with final outcome. hope you enjoy! Amazing album, download it now.

Many new things going on, a lot of freelance… expect another photo in the April issue of Richmond Magazine. Once school lets up, and I get these things knocked out, you will be able to see whats up. Chubby Wolf, Orange Crush, and possible Aeron artwork are in the works, and as well as an identity system for a friend that is going to be pretty cool. As always, flickr updates, regular tweets, other random things in the links to keep you occupied. Blog moving will occur soon to wordpress and legit domain name, once I figure out some nifty html for the site to make it look up to par with this one. hope you all are well and all that jazz with spring right around the corner.