A + FOC = Tacos

Buying frames at thrift stores is a dicey proposition - most have mildly offensive art in them, but this one was a double whammy.  I got a great wood frame for "Unbearable", and this print by SOI Hall of Famer F.O.C. Darley - all for $18.  It's a lithograph on great aged paper and I couldn't resist painting with gouache on top. The best paintings I did in college were on top of old paintings, so I thought I'd give it a whirl again.  I think there still some left to do on this one, but for now, here it is.

SCENE Magazine Starmap

A new map for Dean Quigley and Delphine Barguidjian at SCENE Magazine - going to be used to show what neighborhood celebs are living in.  Had fun tackling Manhattan.  I've been hoping for a reason to do that little isle for a while.  I must say in doing reference (and looking for apartments in NY) that many of those boundaries are in much dispute.

Valentine's Day

A little image of awkward love for the age inappropriate lover.  And for the record - I had headgear (I was surprisingly psyched about it).

Mama's Boy

Mama's Boy - 11" x 14", microns on bristol

New extended doodle.

The Trilogy Maps and Pee Wee with details!

Here they are, with some details not available anywhere else.  I've been working on these for the past few months for the current show at Gallery1988 with the great Bennett Slater (work and prints available to buy here).  It's great to see the buzz on these - people seem to really love them - which is awesome. . . In case you were wondering, they were A LOT of work!  At 130-200 hrs per painting all done by hand, they are the most complicated things I've done (yet), and I'm not one to shy away from complication!  So enjoy, nit pick, relive the Spielbergian/Lucasian genius in all it's glory. 

To the trilogies!!

"Paths of Hope", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Hope" detail

"Paths of Empire", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Empire" detail

"Paths of Return", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Return" detail

"Paths of Raiders", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Raiders" detail

"Paths of Doom", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Doom" detail

"Paths of Crusade", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Crusade" detail

Collaboration with Bennett Slater
"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting", 18" x 24"
Acrylic and oil on wood 

"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting" detail

New American Medical News Piece - All about the Zen!

Here's a new piece I finished for Jennifer Wenger at AMN during the CRAZY week between Christmas and the opening in which I also had do my collaborative piece with  Bennett Slater for the G1988 show.  Happy with how everything came out, and really happy with this piece about doctors using meditation and other zen Buddhist techniques to enhance their ability to be totally present with patients, and prevent themselves from burning out.  Not only was it fun - but a good reminder to take a little time everyday to straighten out your head.  I also had a good time looking at a lot of Japanese woodblocks for inspiration, mostly Hiroshige and Hokusai - and merging it with my current stuff.  Those prints were a HUGE influence on me when i started to move away from strict realism, and I had forgotten how many little tricks I had stolen.  Especially with the maps I've been doing of late, the flat, fixed style of perspective in particular, the deep focus - those guys were amazingly creative manipulators of the picture plane.  I've still got a lot to learn.

Hiroshige

Hiroshige 

Chikanobu

Angelenos

Show pics coming soon, but I thought I'd toss up a little sketchbook while I was bussing around Los Angles before renting a car.  I do love me some public transpo.  Characters abound.  Anyway, for you northeasterners like myself, I'd like you to take notice of the dress - and tell you it was 70 degrees and sunny when these were drawn.  It's a different world out there. 

Map Prints available at G1988!

Print available of the Indiana Jones, and Star Wars maps at G1988!  The prints are full size - and with bleed, 20" x 24".  Here's a larger version of Raiders so you can follow along - watch out for snakes. . .