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Here's a small section of my piece for the Breaking Bad Art Project group show opening next week at G1988!

Respect the Heisenberg.

CRAZY 4 CULT

CRAZY 4 CULT opens tomorrow night!  Very proud to be a part of this awesome show.  In keeping with their plan of global art domination, this year Gallery 1988 has moved one of their biggest annual exhibitions to NYC.  The gallery space is an impressive two floors and the show boasts some of the best work from over 200 artists.  

Previews of people's work have been popping up all over the place and everything looks incredible so far.  **Check out a sweet write up on the show and some images from Thrillist, including a sneaky appearance from my Eraserhead piece (image #10).  

If you are a New York friend (you know who you are!) please go check out the show and support G1988!  Address and details below:

My painting for the show is admittedly weird, but perhaps not even quite as strange as the movie that inspired it.  After watching David Lynch's 'Eraserhead', I was disturbed and intrigued and knew I wanted to create a piece around it.  The movie has a lot of spermatozoa floating around in it, so I focused on the sperm image as a symbol for life and death and got real weird with it.  Hope you like the painting!

"The Endosperm"

Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper, 16 x 20"

"The Endosperm" (close-up)

FOGELL

Well hello there.  I have been very busy the past few days making and screenprinting some posters for an upcoming show at Kato Gallery in San Diego.  The show is taking place July 14th and 15th at the Firehouse Gallery in San Diego, so if you happen to be in the area for Comic Con, you should definitely go check it out, its only a couple blocks away.  The show is called 'The Apatow Effect' and focuses on the films and television shows produced by Judd Apatow, the man responsible for such classics as '40 Year Old Virgin', 'Pineapple Express', 'Step Brothers', etc, etc.

My piece is based on the best character from 'Superbad', a movie that resonated with me on a very deep level when I saw it back in the day.  It is entitled, "Fogell", and is available in an edition of 20 prints.

This was actually the fastest I've ever turned out a poster as I left myself very little time to do a piece for this show.  I started sketching out the first layer Friday evening, and had the last poster printed by Tuesday night.  With such a tight deadline I tried to keep things very simple and stick to a tight schedule (Saturday: finish pencil drawing and ink first layer, Sunday: draw/ink 2nd and third layers, scan layers and print transparencies, Monday: Gather supplies, coat/expose 3 screens, Tuesday: Cut paper and print posters.) 

For the most part I was able to keep to this, although I inevitably ran into problems with my emulsion and wasted almost a full day trying over and over to get decent exposures on my only 3 screens.  Anyone that has dealt with silkscreening knows how annoying this is.  All these technical issues have made me really appreciate and yearn for the days of my art schooling where I had access to equipment that makes all of these stupid tasks very easy and fast.  Instead I have had to work with the very limited resources I do have to replicate these processes.  The two machines I miss the most are replaced by embarrassingly lower quality solutions:

So all you art school folks out there, just cherish it okay?  CHERISH IT!

Ok I'm done with that.  And the posters came out alright too, I guess:

"FOGELL"

Thanks for reading.

PopCurious

Thanks to the folks over at PopCurious for posting my ATHF piece along with some of the other great pieces from G1988's Adult Swim show last month.

Check it out here.

Working hard on a painting for my next group show, but I'm going to keep it a secret until the show opens.  I will post teaser pics in the near future.  Very excited about this one.

Please Post Bills

Very excited to see Gallery 1988's announcement of their upcoming show 'Please Post Bills' that I will be a part of.  The show is of course a tribute to comedic legend Bill Murray.

Artists were asked to pick one of their favorite Murray films to illustrate, and for me it was between 'Meatballs' and 'Ghostbusters'.  Peter Venkman won out over Tripper Harrison and got the silkscreen treatment.

My first time screenprinting out of art school found me spending a lot of cash on my own supplies, and making due with simpler solutions in place of professional studio equipment.  For example, the vacuum-sealed light exposure unit I had grown so fond of was replaced by a piece of glass and my desk lamp.  The lovely convenience of a power washing station was replaced with a low-pressure garden hose and my thumb.  Perhaps I may have taken a few of these things for granted..

gettin it done ghetto style

5 and half minute studio

1st and 2nd layers drying

Two and three

sexy

The final edition consists of twenty hand-proofed prints of my image.  These 20 will be available for sale at the opening of the show, next Thursday, 11/3.

In addition, I have an Artist Print edition of 6 extras which didn't make it into the final 20 for sale now at my webstore.

Thanks for reading.

-k

very soon

Close up from Untitled screenprint for Gallery 1988's upcoming 'Please Post Bills' show at their Melrose gallery in LA.  4 colors on cream-colored strathmore paper.

-K

Future Teasers

I am working on a screenprint for the next group show at Gallery 1988, still to be announced.  Here are a couple previews of the first layer, if you saw the whole thing it would give the show away, know what i'm sayin?  I ain't tryin to do that!!

GPK: 1988

This Friday is the grand opening of Gallery 1988's Garbage Pail Kids Tribute show.
I am really excited and honored to be in this show as it also features many of my favorite artists-- Alex Pardee, Johnny Bergeron, Dave MacDowell, Munk One, and Travis Louie-- and that's just naming a few, there are 100 artists participating!

The two paintings I have in the show are different from work I have done in the past, and this was partially due to the strange circumstances I completed them under.  I began preliminary sketches and the initial pencil drawings for both pieces while still living under my parents roof in Vermont, but not long after I started, I had to pack up all my stuff in boxes to move to California for a new job.  I made sure to take the partially-underway pieces with me in my suitcase along with all my microns and my watercolor set.  I set up a makeshift studio in the spare room I was staying in upon my arrival in CA and finished both pieces just in time for the submission deadline.  Luckily, my new home is only an hour south of Los Angeles, and I was able to drop off my work in person.  This also means that I will be in attendance at the opening which I am quite stoked on.

Check out my pieces for the show as well as some pictures of my process below.  (Click to enlarge images). Hope to see you there this Friday!

My epic studio set-up

Burnin' the midnight oil

Finished pencil drawings

All inked up and ready for color

First layer color wash

 "Roy Bot"

GPK original series 3, card number 87b

Micron, watercolor, pencil on Arches

12 x 16"

 "Fake Jake"

GPK original series 14, card number 572a

Micron, watercolor, pencil on Arches

12 x 16"

Both pieces for sale during exhibition, contact Gallery 1988 for details.

Next week sneak peek

Here are the characters I have chosen to illustrate for G1988's Garbage Pail Kids Tribute show next Friday, as well as a sneak peek of both finished pieces.  Hope to see you at the show, more info here: http://g1988.blogspot.com/2011/08/gpk1988.html

Teasers from the Future

Hell yes!  The show has officially been announced and my name is on the roster, along with a whole slew of incredible artists whom I greatly admire.

Sections of my two pieces for the show.  Next step, color:

See you in LA on Sept. 2nd.

And finally, an unrelated doodle:

"one less lonely skull"