Floating on the Bottom of the Sky

This can be considered a sequel to 'The Sinking Sound'. I found this picture of Syd Barrett lost in his own world, so I wanted to put him someplace that might echo that feeling of isolation. Its almost as if he is building something tangible out of music in the sky.

Harley Davidson

No post yesterday because I was working on painting this, a large Harley Davidson logo for my dad out in our garage. Its painted on two doors which open to reveal the bike, its kind of like the batcave now. It came out pretty cool so I thought it was worth a post. Its getting cold and snowy out, I don't know how I feel about that.

Portfolio (2009)

To celebrate a successful year of art I put together this portfolio showcasing my best work from the year. It features 35 images that include my digital illustration work, oil paintings, pastel figure drawings, various printmaking pieces and my 'Afghaniscrewed' and 'Musica de la Muerte' Series. I printed it through Blurb.com and the final product really surpassed my expectations. I highly recommend using them if you want to have something professionally printed.

The book is available for purchase here for $24.95.

The Led Zeppelin Blondie Christmas Miracle!

Its a Christmas Miracle Charlie Brown! Back in August 2007 I made this video mashing up Blondie's Call Me with video of Led Zeppelin playing. The video was so popular it got 100,000 plays, but then Youtube disabled the video for copyright infringement. I recently decided to dispute the claim, citing that it was a parody (and to stick with the blogs theme) a non commercial artistic statement similar to a collage, that combines two unrelated elements into one work. I haven't heard back from them yet on the final verdict, but it seems my act of disputing has made the video go live again, so in case you we don't get another chance enjoy the video and thank Youtube for this Christmas Miracle!

Blinded by the Sex

I've been busy getting ready for Christmas so I thought I would just do a music post today. This is a track me and my friends recorded for The Jonee Earthquake Tribute Cd. The story goes that me and my friend Phildoh Montenegro had a band together to record but it fell through the morning of the session. In a panic I ran around my dorm looking for anyone who could play instruments. I found my friend Luke Farry who could play bass and he joined our crew. I then left a message for my friend Spencer Worthley who I knew could play drums. Without hearing back from him we decided to depart Manchester and see what we could come up with in the studio since we were running out of time. Two blocks away from his street he calls us back and says hes on board so we quickly pick him up. Apparently theres also a blizzard going on, which we were totally oblivious about, making us slow down to a crawl on the highway with time running out. We learned the song and wrote down all the lyrics on the drive since we hadn't really done our homework. We arrived at the Electric Cave studio in Portsmouth only 15 minutes late and got right to work. Joe Queer of the Queers and Jim Tierney were manning the boards and producing and they could hardly believe we had never played the song before, let alone ever jam with each other. We started recording without even a dry run and did two takes. Both were keepers but there was a glitch on the first track so we went with this one. I flubbed the guitar solo a little but it doesn't really bother me since I was making the whole thing up off the top of my head anyway. With all the obstacles we faced that morning its a miracle the song was recorded at all, but here it is.

If you want to pick up a copy of the Cd its available through Jonee Earthquake or Here. Its a really amazing compilation with exceptional sound quality and alot of awesome local bands.

I Wish We Had Predator Drones

I was recently looking for some new material to cut up and came across some playboys from 1968/1969 where this beauty comes from. Surprisingly this was about the raciest thing in the issue, mostly it was a bunch of ads telling me to dress better and smoke. For the scene I was thinking of something along the lines of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and decided to have two potential suitors flying reconnaissance around her. I was also inspired by the song 'A Woman Can Take You to Another Universe, Sometimes She Just Leaves You There' by John Lurie.

Steve Gray

I'm taking a break from collage for today and going back to some of my work from the summer. This is an oil painting I did of a family friend named Steve Gray. You got to dig his wild and crazy beard. The size is 14x18.

In Love with a Machine

I didn't know what to do with these pieces but when I saw Elmo and his purple muppet friend I knew it was love...or rather love torn asunder by the awe inspiring power of the Internet. The Purple guy was originally Beck, so I let him keep Beck's hair.

Injection

I found this picture of a man being given a drug in a clinical trial so I wanted to explore what might be outside the window hes looking through. Is it a psychadelic thats enhancing his life with color, or a lethal injection? Can we trust the doctor who seems to have it all figured out?

The Sinking Sound

I had a dream about a week ago that I could see sound. It rose in colorful bubbles from a guitar amp in my garage. Later in the dream color exploded out of my car radio, forcing me to pull over to the side of the highway. I was trying to capture that sensation in this piece titled "The Sinking Sound".

California

With all my finals and the stress of school over I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to try making a collage in the style of my friend Matt Sell. It was actually a quite therapeutic exercise since making a collage is primarily a decision making project. You don't have to worry about creating the individual elements, you only have to decide how they fit together. This piece is titled "California" and I feel it captures that california feeling without the hollywood/postcard angle (I've never been to California though, I may be completely wrong). Hopefully they'll be more to come soon.

Severed Heads on the Dance Floor

The 'Musica de la Muerta' series includes two pieces. "Narcocoriddo" featured in my last post, and this piece "Severed Heads on the Dance Floor". I wanted to put this piece up as well so they could be viewed together, but I also felt I should give a little of the backstory, since many people might take this as imagination alone and not realize its based on actual events. On September 6, 2006 Gunmen entered a bar in Uruapan, which is located in the Mexican Province of Michoacán. They tossed five decapitated heads on the dance floor with a note that read...

"The family doesn't kill for money. It doesn't kill women. It doesn't kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die. Everyone knows that. This is divine justice."

The article in Vibe went into detail about the event, but I also found this article which provides more details for those interested.

What originally captivated me about the Vibe article and these events was the strange clash of cultures they displayed. On one side you have the ruthless cartels operating with no regard to human life and remorse, and on the other you have the Mexican entertainment industry with its flashy display of silk shirts and polka beats. I played up the drama in the final piece by portraying the dance floor in full disco flair and having the mysterious gunman wear his finest boots, he is going out on the town after all.

Narcocoriddo

While I've fiddled with Blogs before, this is my latest attempt to make an organized shot at it. On this blog you'll find posts for new artwork and music I've created as well as more in depth musings and more explanation as to why I do what I do. Sometimes my art can be very eccentric and I feel its time I start detailing more of my thought process for everyone. This Blog can be considered an extension of the blog I was running though my website here, but I wanted to move it somewhere where I could hopefully generate more traffic.

Because of my insistence that all posts have content I'll include my final image from the Illustration: Series Class I just finished. Its titled "Narcocoriddo" and is an image inspired by the article "Musica De La Muerte" From the April 2009 Issue of Vibe magazine. The article describes how Mexican musicians are becoming the target of cartel violence in the drug fueled civil war south of the border. This violence also played a part in inspiring musicians to write narcocorrido's, ballads about the drug sumgglers and the cartel life. Similar to Gangster Rap, these songs are often used to detail real life events or boast about ones prowess. Although the article is not available online, heres an article about the article. .

Before I started this project I felt the need to get in the right frame of mind. To do this I spent a few hours recording a sphaghetti western influenced song titled "Mexican Lullaby". There are no lyrics or even lead instruments in the song, but it does capture the slow galloping feel of an old western. The song also translates well in its sense of impending conflict. The calm before the storm.