Here's a sneak peek of a work in progress.
Read More
I'm thrilled to be participating in several holiday art events this coming winter, and in order to reduce last minute stress, I decided to work on printing and packaging inventory extra early. All Labor Day weekend I was busy fighting the forces of evil in preparation. Between creating new artwork, generating digital prints of past work, and packaging everything up for sale, I'm exhausted but happy with the results. I love having such a large stockpile of art on hand - it makes me feel very prepared!
Read More
I just got back from a road trip along Route 66. We drove down the coast from Oakland to L.A. so we could start the route at it's official end point, in Santa Monica. Then we drove Eastward through California and Arizona trying to travel the original route as much as possible, with only minimal side trips for the Cazabon Dinosaurs and the Grand Canyon.
Read More
Upon embarking on a recent Route 66 road trip, we made our first detour in order to visit the Cazabon Dinosaurs. This roadside attraction consists of the largest sculpted dinosaurs in existence. The dinosaurs were the pet project of an artist and cafe-owner named Claude Bell (they are also known as Claude Bell's Dinosaurs), though he only completed 1.5 of the massive sculptures before he died. These dinosaurs became all the rage in 1980's film - you may remember them from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Wizard, or Paris, Texas. My distant memories of these films are what incited this side trip to begin with. Though their heyday is long past, the Cazabon dinosaurs do not disappoint.
Read More
Last Sunday, during a trip to The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I caught their special exhibit entitled The Scandalous Art of James Ensor. Ensor is known as "the painter of masks" and true to that designation, the exhibition focuses on a time in Ensor's career when he pivoted away from naturalistic painting and toward more creative and disturbing imagery. Ensor's "scandalous" work depicts society imagery - parties, religious processions, theater goers, and art studios - with a disturbing twist; the heads of the figures are replaced with skulls or faces are distorted into melting masks.
Read More
Documenting my artwork for over 15 years, I've come to the conclusion that photographing your own work is virtually impossible.
Something always goes wrong when taking photos of two-dimensional art. If the exposure is perfect the focus is off, if the focus is perfect the angle camera isn't perfectly aligned with the canvas. Tripods, remote shutter releases, and professional photo lamps help, but not enough. I went through a phase when I would haul my paintings outside onto the sidewalks of Brooklyn in order to use daytime shade, while all the pedestrians would stare and wonder what idiotic thing I was doing and why I was taking up their sidewalk space. I've even been through the harrowing experience of trying to remove glare in Photoshop - it just doesn't work.
Read More
I’ll be showing new work during the 2014 East Bay Open Studios in Oakland, CA. My plan is to only include new work from my latest series which are complex pieces combining multiple layers of painting and screenprinting. This is a new process for me and each piece is a challenge, so I’ll be working diligently over the next 2 months to get enough pieces done by June!
Read More
