Beggars' Night!

C2 gallery proudly presents Beggars' Night, a halloween themed art show occurring....wait for it.....HALLOWEEN NIGHT. For more information click here.

Blood and Dust 2

This coming saturday is the second annual Blood and Dust bike race in Dayton, Ohio and I did a poster to commemorate the event. It's very bloody and dusty.

Blood and Dust info

Art commentary Part 2

For the next installment here's a couple more pieces and a little bit of insight into their backstory

Alice in Chains - Electric Factory 2006




I was a little apprehensive about doing a poster for Alice in Chains mainly because of the death of their lead singer, Layne Staley of a heroin overdose and the feeling that the band wasnt "complete" anymore. But then I kind of gave myself a little peptalk and tried to imagine my 1992 self and how it would feel to know that I was going to do a poster for one of my favorite bands someday. In an early version I imagined an angel desperately trying to make it's way to the sun (I guess to regain power or something) and saw that as a reference to Icarus and flying to close to the sun i.e. Layne Staley and how his star had burned out....but after being art directed to make it "darker" I remembered an old piece I had done during college which coincidentally had a drug theme to it of an angel slowly sinking in water...




So then I basically changed what at that time was a sun into light above water, added a bunch of ripples, and completely changed my color palette. One cool thing was that after all was said and done I remembered the lyrics to their song Down in a Hole and was struck by the eeriness of their connection to my imagery. Subliminal? Coincidence? Layne Staley posessing my brain? You decide.

Down in a hole, feelin so small
Down in a hole, losin my soul
Id like to fly,
But my wings have been so denied

Ozzy Osbourne shirt - 2005




This piece is pretty self explanatory - Ozzy Osbourne as some sort of creepy religious angel.....the funny part is, those are my hands. HA

Giant Peach - Peach Asteroid ad 2008




There's a couple little stories going on in this particular piece. First off, when I first moved back to Dayton in 2006 I figured out a little walking route so I could clear my head when needed and brainstorm for ideas. Part of it comes to a little dead end and at the time the image of that began to really define how I was feeling at the time. I also had really been thinking of wanting to get a dog and had always pictured myself getting a white lab....eventually that stupid Marley and Me movie came out and seeing that type of dog all over the place caused me to throw that idea out the window...but I digress. As for concept, one day while on my route I got these visions in my head of a huge tentacled peach creature emerging from a bank of clouds and either attacking a large suburb or one of the huge water towers I passed while walking. Then I did a little bit of research into peaches and came across some old japanese folklore about Momotaro aka Peach Boy.

"According to the present form of the tale (dating to the Edo Period), Momotarō came to Earth inside a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been sent by Heaven to be their son. The couple named him Momotarō, from momo (peach) and tarō (eldest son in the family)."

So basically the concept is that you are seeing Peach Boy's arrival on earth, kind of like Superman's spaceship crash landing. Also it should be noted that in the middle of working on this piece I had watched Iron Giant and it's pretty obvious how it influenced the art style and color palette.

Well, that's all for now...more to come.....

Art Commentary part 1

Inspired by some recent podcasts and my love for the commentary tracks on DVDs, here's some back stories behind some of my pieces.

Chris Isaak - Borgata Music Box 2006




The concept for this piece came to me after days of false starts and lots of frustration. My favorite Chris Isaak album is Forever Blue and when I thought of the color blue, the first thing that popped into my head was this painting by Picasso called "The Old Guitarist" that ushered in his "Blue Period"




The Giant Peach Peach Monkey Ad - 2008




This ad was inspired by a picture that was posted on Gigposters.com demonstrating a martial arts move where you grab your opponents testicles and literally rip them off, causing them to bleed to death. The name of the move? MONKEY STEALS THE PEACH as pictured below. YOUCH.




and last but not least

Killers - Borgata Event Center 2006




When I saw promo materials for Sam's Town I noticed a distinctive Atlantic City Boardwalk feel to it and the first thing that popped into my head was the movie Big where Tom Hank's character makes a wish on a Zoltar fortune telling machine and becomes an adult but later becomes a kid again




The kind of weird thing was that when the album came out my favorite song was Read my Mind......cue creepy music.....

Anyway, that's all for now...if anybody wants to know the meaning behind a particular piece drop me a line and maybe I'll have it in a future installment....

Anudder great podcast

Ninja Mountain Scrolls. Go search for it on iTunes.

Been eyeing the huge stack of unfinished paintings laying next to my easel......for some reason with painting, I have this fear of finishing or more specifically, can't visualize how a painting could possibly be finished - seems like there is always something that can be worked on/improved. I remember in an interview with George Lucas, him saying something about paintings never being finished, just ABANDONED - pretty much sums up my train of thought. But I think it's time for me to finally come back from going to get cigarettes and reclaim my kids.