After Diego

"After Diego" 

(Pen & Marker on Bristol Board / 2016 / 4in x 5in miniature)

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist in the early 20th century and is one of my favorite painters. As both a sensual and political artist, he lay some of the footsteps which I aspire to follow on my own artistic journey.  This illustration I created over the weekend was a passion project and reprieve from confines I've felt in my work as of late.  The drawing is based on Rivera's "El Vendedor De Alcatraces" but with my visionary twist of course!  Musing with this painting yesterday morning, I was inspired by the themes of devotion, accomplishment, burden, and strength.

The Fury of Burgess Falls

This weekend Aurora and I are at Fairfield Glade over in East Tennessee for the Frey Family Reunion.  On the way out here, we stopped by Burgess Falls for a quick hike Thursday morning.  The Cumberland Plateau has experienced a bit of rain the past few days so we got more than we bargained for.  The parking area was streaked with mud.  The trails were crossed with streams from the watershed.  The Falls were absolutely roaring amidst the flash floods and we got some neat pics of the fury of Mother Nature!  The mist alone barreling out of the falling water was blowing the treetops like a hurricane!

It's a 50% chance of more rain our entire trip to the plateau and mountains over the next week.  The weather will keep the subtropical death heat at bay and we'll be ducking in and out with the sun!  Hopefully there are more scenic shots to come from our planned adventures.

Preview of this Saturday's Valentine's Masquerade and Art Exhibit!

My new work, "For Richer or Poorer" will be on display at No Egrets Tattoo and Art Gallery for their Valentine's Masquerade which takes place this Saturday night.  The new illustration is a very involved piece I created just for the show.  A cartoon heart and human heart are fused over a landscape which gradates from day to night and attempts to capture the duality of love.  Curated by our good friend Joe Melanson, the party will feature live music and artwork from several local artists.  Of course the killer staff of No Egrets will be on hand creating custom body art for folks!  Wear a mask because there will be door prizes for the best ones!

Here are some process pictures from the drawing process of this new work...

INSTASPRING

Welcome back...

Memorial Day Unchained

Inks on Bristol / May 26-27, 2012

I'll allow this new work of art serve as its own commentary for today's Holiday.  You can Click HERE for the art and prose I posted last year on Memorial Day!  Here are some process pictures from this new illustration...

APRIL FOOLS (Six Feet of Live Acrylic Debauchery with Spit by Case Arnold)

Fools Gold (detail)

Sunday, I scorched the hangover off after my buddy Nathan's birthday party by painting under the Southern Sun with the Wolfman over at his hacienda.  It was April 1st and usually I'd be balls deep in shenanigans scaring the wits out of someone dear to me.  Instead of making fools out of my friends and co-workers, we decided to make fools out of thin air (well some paint and a six foot long panel was required) to celebrate April Fools Day!

Check out the time lapse video of the entire painting process from Sunday afternoon featuring a track by Clarksville's own Case Arnold!  The kid has some serious skills he's showing off on the road and I promised him I'd borrow a track for a video when I got turned onto his flow several weeks back.

Click HERE to ease back and bob your head to Case Arnold's set list on SoundCloud!

A Taste of Spring LIVE Painting

As promised, here is the time lapse of the LIVE Painting I did last Friday at Meet 'n 3 in The Nashville Farmers Market sponsored by Metro Arts!  In the energy of an early Spring, I recorded ANOTHER painting with the Wolfman yesterday so stay tuned for more live debauchery coming later this week!

Click HERE for my VIDEO PAGE to see MANY MORE LIVE Paintings!

Shelbi in Burlesque and Her Lion (with a Third Eye)

Earlier this week I finished up another very unique commission for a guy by the name of Jon who really likes the Third Eye concept in my illustration and wanted a drawing of his wife Shelbi done after picking up one of my books.  Shelbi's a creative-type herself and does really neat retro design work she does with some 8-bit graphics and a Day of the Dead Super Mario and Link which I truly love.  Check her out at Shelbi says hi!  Here's my portrait John and her received this weekend down in Texas...

Inks on Bristol / 9in x 12in / 2012

Here are some process pictures of the portrait's creation...

Click HERE for my PORTRAITS PAGE to See MORE!

Day of the Dead Coffin

Gangster de Muerto mixed media / 2011

Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is a National Holiday in Mexico and celebrated in different forms around the world.  The day of prayer and dedication to the dearly departed is November 1-2 coinciding with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, Catholic holidays.  

Every year about this time, a slew of art shows pop up across the country with themes based around The Day of the Dead.  One in particular stood out to me last year at Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta with their unique concept for an annual group event.  The gallery actually constructs a limited number of wooden coffins to distribute to artists who paint, forge, illustrate, sculpt and otherwise construct their deadicated art.  Painlessly enough, through an inquiry with the gallery, they were all too happy to ship a coffin to me gaining me entry into this intriguing exhibit.  On Halloween Monday, my coffin for this year's exhibit arrived safe and sound in ATL and will be on display starting this Saturday, November 5th for their annual Day of the Dead exhibit.  I'll be rubbing my gorilla glued paws together in anticipation for next year's show and a third coffin but in the mean time, check out these process pictures and what I did this year...

Janis

Janis has been with me a long time.  One of my first memories from any genre of music was my father playing a cassette of Pearl in the car on his drive home from work.  I got off my bus at my father's small-town convenience store so our ride home was bonding time daily when my grandfather would relieve him from his shift.  Dad talked a lot about Janis which was rare for him to do with a musician or artist or any sort for that matter.  He despises celebrity worship to this day; however I think he was truly in love with Janis Joplin.

Janis Joplin (inks on bristol / 2011)

 If the sound of this woman's voice doesn't send chills up your spine exploding a nebula of emotions for you to soak up and bathe about in- well, you just aren't breathing.  Janis's voice carries her through generations... it's epic and immortal, guttural, depraved and devastating.  When you listen to it, take comfort that those notes will never be achieved again... you're hearing something unique and untamed for the first (or thousandth) time.

My illustration of Janis is for a special article coming soon to Rock Star Martyr based around the 27 Club which will also including my recent portrait of Jimi Hendrix.  Rock Star Martyr is an ongoing collaboration with Joebot this year as I draw these musicians for his articles which are published on their death dates.

Click HERE for the Rock Star Martyr Site!

Click HERE for a stream of all my Rock Star Martyr Portraits!