Map Madness! Jan 5th, G1988 Melrose!

Getting psyched for the January show with Bennett Slater at Gallery1988 Melrose!  Here's a small version of my Empire Strikes Back map.  Each character is represented as a colored line, and follows their progress through the entire film.  The alternating colored lines represent characters traveling together who have a special bond, sometimes for only a short time like Chewie(brown) and 3PO(yellow) when Chewie is repairing him.  Han(navy) and Chewie have a bond, R2(royal blue) when co-piloting for Luke (light blue),   R2 and C3PO . . . 

     All three of the Star Wars movies will be available as full size prints (sorry, no price yet) which are 18.5"x22".  Im also doing all three of the first Indiana Jones movies.

The Fox and the Crow

Here my new piece for sale at a great show at Chicago's Gallery 27, called "Dreaming Child" which opened on Friday, August 31.  The show is all artwork based on children's stories, fables, and fairy tales.  I based mine on the Aesop's fable of the Fox and the Crow.  The crow has a piece of cheese and the fox coaxes it away from him by at first praising the crow's physical appearance, and the inducing him to caw and drop the cheese by saying that the crow must have a beautiful voice to match it's beautiful appearance.  The crow, so flattered and full of pride, opens his beak and caws his caustic caw, dropping the cheese to the waiting fox.  Fox wins.  The painting itself was created by tea staining a background tone, and then gouache on top.

"The Fox and the Crow"
11" x 14", tea staining and gouache on watercolor paper

"North by Northwest Passage" for Alfred Hitchcock Show, "Suspense and Gallows Humor"

"North by Northwest Passage"
22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 I've loved "North by Northwest" since the first time I saw it - the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota.  So - I thought I'd throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie - the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn't find reference for (but for "North by Northwest", I figured I'd take a little liberty).  Also not included are the 1212 Michgan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood.    Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.  Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the '51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the '52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in.  I took color from the footage to get some of that "technicolor" feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass' opening credit arrows to show the action.

Anywho - the show opens at the Gallery1988 Venice location on April 13th!

(detail)

progress - pencils to color blocking, to black line on top

The remnants of my notes.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show Dec 6th!

Im getting ready for my new show at the URBN campus in building 543 next week!  At this point it's half panic, half excitement getting ready for the install.  The show is really based on a lot of childhood images: little league, toys, fights . . . ahh . . . the good times.  So if you're around the city of Brotherly Love on December 6th (or anytime through the first week in January) swing by the amazing URBN campus down in the Navy Yard (pretty amazing in it's own right) and check out the new stuff!

"Ghostrunners" 22" x 22", gouache on BFK

Bill Murray Show!

Just sent my piece out for the Bill Murray show out at Gallery1988 opening November 3rd!

Here's a little of the piece in progress.  Fun to do a big portrait!

"Stevezee" 24" x 24" Gouache on paper mounted on wood panel

 

Wednesday to Friday . . .

Well, the internet works pretty fast. After the "completed heroes" post on Wednesday, which I also posted on WFOF, fellow contributor Jashar posted it on a few comic blogs and a few people picked it up on my blog, and weezoo - on Friday I get a call from Daniel Franzese - the actor who most notably played "Damian" in Mean Girls. Along with being a nice fellow, he also curates shows, and is curating a show based on superhero art which opens on this Friday at Royal/T, owned by Susan Hancock, who is a big contemporary Japanese Pop collector as well as being on the board or patron of major contemporary art museums from the Guggenheim to the New Museum, to MoCA in Miami and seems to run a pretty great space in Culver City.

All in all, in two days, this piece went from a fun little side project to a gallery in LA, thanks to good ol' Mr. Internet, and his miraculous tubes.

Plus it looks like there's going to be some really fun work and costumes for those of you on the sun-drenched side of the country!