AMERICAN HERO

"The American Hero" is a group show that opens next Saturday, July 7th at Gallery 27 in Chicago.  The show pays tribute to Americana in film and pop culture.  Artist Adam Devarney tipped me off about this new gallery, having recently moved to Chicago.  I believe this is only the second show they've done, (The first was a Wes Anderson tribute show) but I saw the title and was really inspired to do something for it.  If you are a Chicago friend or happen to be in the windy city next weekend, definitely go check this show out, it looks like its going to be really awesome.  Adam will be in it, and a bunch of other cool people too. Check out the show flyer for Gallery 27's address.

This piece took me a little over a full day to paint in total, but the fact that I left it alone after that is somewhat of a personal accomplishment as I have a tendency to want to overwork everything.  I didn't focus on a specific movie or piece of pop culture for this one either, which was nice.  Instead I thought on the much broader theme of violence, and came up with something I think is pretty cool.  Hope you like it.

"Untitled (usa)"

watercolor on lanaquarelle paper, 11 x 14"

You can't see very well in the picture but the frame has some nice red white and blue splatter on it.

Busy..

..with a couple new projects.  More on that soon, but until then:

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.

killaz

Freestyle spraypaint collab with Lila Ash.

Feelin' good

"Sad Dumpster"

spraypaint on dumpster

Wut up.

AVENGERS ART

Here's my piece for "Assemble", Gallery 1988's tribute art show for Marvels Avenger's movie (in theaters this Friday).

"Assemble" opens tomorrow at G1988's new Melrose location!

"Sad Iron Man"
Watercolor and gouache on Lanaquarelle paper, 8 x 10".

BUY as a PRINT here!  Contact G1988 to purchase original.


Also, "MEMES" opens this Friday, hope to see you at both shows!!

Fish Food

I painted a wall at Venice beach today where my friend Lila Ash works.  It was my first time trying to incorporate a character into a piece, or really paint a character with spraypaint at all... I was actually pretty proud of myself.  The guy next to me wrote 'tuna' which was sort of fitting.. and my piece even got a guest appearance in a terribly lame music video for what sounded like possibly the worst song of all time, so that was pretty neat!

ASSEMBLE

This one is gonna be freakin' epic.  So honored to be included amongst these extremely talented art makers.

 I will post my painting very soon, for now here is a sneak peek:

MEMES

As a celebration of Gallery 1988's eight year anniversary, an incredible show based on Memes (Appropriately titled, "Memes") will take place at their Melrose gallery location on Friday, May 4th!  If you don't know what a meme is, you probably also still have a car phone and think frosted tips are cool, so lets get you up to speed here.

"ADVICE ANIMALS"
watercolor and gouache on Lanaquarelle paper
11 x 14"

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THIS PAINTING AS A PRINT!

If you aren't familiar with the "advice animals" genre of memes, this page explains everything.

I am also very excited to post a second painting that I just finished, but the show is still under wraps, so stay tuned!!

Thanks for reading!

A frog from the future

Hey check out this sweet frog... from the future.

Stoked to reveal the full piece in a couple weeks.