Merry Christmas, Happy Kwansa, Happy Chanukah everyone! I've just added these two new designs to Wear My Dive Art!

Check them out!
Give me a hug!
DIVE

Happy Holidays everyone!



Wear My Dive Art!
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I've just added a new cover design for my Diver's Log Book.
Check it out! Finally a log book with a simple, clean design that is easy to fill out! It's compact enough to fit in your dry bag without taking up too much room but there is plenty of space for descriptions or sketches. The top half of each page has spaces for date, dive no., locaton, buddy name, bottom time, max depth, weights worn, suit type, surface and underwater conditions. The bottom half of the page is blank for notes and dive stamps. One dive per page. There is a different fish image ghosted on each page. Here is a sample page:

Do you have a favorite log book entry? Want to wear it on a t-shirt? Here is a t-shirt with blank log book design on it. Grab a permanent marker and log your dive! This design is available on shirts for men, women and kids.
Do you like the simplicity of this log book layout? You can order your log book (with different critters on each page) from my shop as well. It is spiral bound and small enough to fit in any dry bag.

I've just added a new design for my shop. It's a graphic of fins and bubbles and it is available in a couple of versions on t-shirts, sweatshirts, childrens tees and a bunch of other great gift items. Check it out.
iKick

Fins and Bubbles


i blow (bubbles)

I am going to be exhibiting some of my artwork at this event on Thursday night (December 7 from 6-8pm).

One Night Stand for Land art fundraiser to protect farm, field, forest and natural resources in The Hudson Valley. The one night show will take place from 6-8pm at 12 west 29th street, NYC ground. The show consists of fine art as well as arts and crafts for purchase with a % of the proceeds going to the open space fund.

Contributing Artists and agencies include: Slim Aarons, Joan Ades, Behan Associates, BeGallery, Daniel Berlin, Sydney Blum, Jon Campbell, Nancy Campbell, Sheryl Checkman, Tracey Dewart, Barbara Dibeler, Debbie Dillon, Catherine Eckersley, Donald Elder, Bobbi Esmark, Kristen Flynn, Pat Flynn, Deborah Freedman, Lynne Friedman, Jennifer Hicks, Sue Foss, Rob Hite, Steve Jordon, Katherine L'heureux Lynn McCarty, David Nyquist, Mercedes Nugent-Head, Brooke Pickering, Fabio Salvatore, Mark Schwartz, Bullet Shih, Melissa Stern, Sylvia Trever, Joseph Triplo, Susan Trott, Hardie Truesdale, Carole Uehara, Claire Wasser, Val Wells, Nancy Hoffman Gallery and Getty images

Reception: Thursday December 7
6-8 pm
12 West 29th Street (between 5th & Broadway)
New York City

Hope you can make it!
Please forward this to anyone you think would be interested.

View My Artwork

Back in June I was diving in the Turks & Caicos and encountered a 30 ft Whale Shark. It was magnificent! Here are the photos that I managed to snap before it glided away into the deep.

I've just opened two galleries at Imagekind: Dive Art and Nature Photography

This gallery allows you to choose custom mats and frames for prints and you can actually see how each will look with the artwork you select. It's a really terrific, easy to navigate site. Please come and visit my galleries!

Scuba Diving Cat

Do you think he might be interested in one of my dive t-shirts for pets?
Swim Jane swim pet t-shirt
Have You seen my buddy? pet t-shirt
Dive Heart pet t-shirt

It's Black Friday and the shoppers are out in full force. For those of you armchair shoppers come visit my online shop and do all your holiday shopping in minutes. Avoid those long lines and go to the movies with the time you save (that's what I'm doing later). I just put up 2 new lenses on Squidoo! I get my kicks at depth 66
Abstract Groupers
Check them out!
or if you're in the mood to powershop go right to my shop Wear My Dive Art and find t-shirts, jewelry boxes, framed prints, posters, mugs, stickers, magnets and lots more.

I even have a holiday greeting card design geared especially for divers Deck the Walls!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! It's a bit rainy here in NYC and some of divers may be thinking of getting a different kind of wet. As for me, being both a skier as well as a diver I am usually conflicted. If I can't get wet (as in the sea) I'd prefer the white stuff to the wet stuff (makes for a better ski run)!

Anyway being that Thanksgiving seems to be the start of the holiday season I've been busy adding a few more designs to my shop. SO please go and take a look.
Got Sushi?
Show Me Your Tan Lines
The Pool is Open
and a special diver's greeting card Deck the Walls

Well I'm off to eat turkey!

I just discovered a great gallery site to show my work on – imagekind. You can view some of my work and purchase directly on the site (including frames and matting. You can see for yourself how different mats and frames look on different pieces of artwork right on your computer screen -- before you buy! Check it out: Underwater Fine Art Images

I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving. It seems that every year the time between the end of summer and the start of the holiday season keeps getting shorter and shorter. Well I've been busy adding new designs to my shop at CafePress. There are a bunch of new products as well. Dark t-shirts are in for both men and women. Great long sleeved shirts for the upcoming winter season. They will make great gifts too! I've also designed a holiday greeting card that all divers will love as well as some ornaments to hang on your trre! And, right now there is a special sale where all ornaments and cards are 25% off — what a deal!
Come visit my shop and check out these and all the other goodies I've got in stock. Tile coasters and keepsake boxes, framed art prints and photogrpahs and much more.

http://www.cafepress.com/checkmanfineart

With the holidays just around the corner it's not too soon to start shopping for that perfect and original gift. Take a look at my dive art on t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, hats, tile keepsake boxes, fine art prints & poster, kids apparel and much more and you just might find the perfect holiday gift. We've got great dark colored t-shirts for both men and women, including long sleeves!

I've also just added a whole bunch of topside photographs that are framed and ready to hang.

Check it out at http://www.cafepress.com/checkmanfineart

Welcome to my new blog!

I have been diving since the late 80's and have been a designer even longer than that. Last year I bought my first underwater digital camera housing and started to play around with underwater photography. Not really knowing what I was doing, my first shots were lets say, less than perfect! As I took more pictures, my compositions got better (the fish still weren't stopping to pose for me but I stopped chasing them too). I started concentrating on the corals (they don't move) and found so many different and unusual patterns under the water to photograph. Back on the surface, I put them up on my computer and started playing around with the images in Photoshop. I combined several images together into one to make some pretty cool abstractions. Then by adding filters I was able to create images that look more "fine art" than realistic photography.

I started to get excited about what I was creating and couldn't wait to get back into the water to start adding more subject matter for my art. I bought an Epson Archival printer in the hopes that I could start to sell my artwork as prints suitable for framing. You can check out the available prints at: Underwater Fine Art or click the link on my sidebar. I also started to put these images on t-shirts and other great gift items that might appeal to other divers. You can see my available tee, sweats & other unique gifts at my shop Wear My Dive Art or by clicking the link on the sidebar.