History of the World . . . With MORE!!

"A Concept of Four at Two", 22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 This is a portrait of my brother - the former cutest kid on earth title holder, and inspired by the fact that I don't remember myself being two, but I remember thinking of Nate as four.  I think when you're a younger sibling you live vicariously through your older sib until the age of 22.

"Bicentennial", 22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 This piece is a depiction of the Earth on it's two hundredth birthday.   Originally I was going to place more type on it for the full "Bicentennial" poster effect, but decided on just a small little call out.  There Earth was still pretty much a muss back then - a clump of rocks finding it's way.  A little terrestrial toddler.  I thought Legos would suit it nicely.  AND - nice that this guy got into American Illustration. :)

This turned out to be a lot of fun.  We decided to each paint a boat - the "HMS Boatheart" and the "USS Fudgecicle" respectively, and then frame ridiculous little drawings of "cannonballs" - really anything you would throw at someone else - and then left a note for people to tack up their own canonballs.  Let me tell you - it's hilarious.  There's stinky socks, flower bombs (an actual flower with note telling you it's a flower bomb), visual puzzles, an oscillating fan . . . It's everything I could have hoped for and more.

These are Owen's "Primordial Action Figures" which are both pretty and funny.  They totally take on little characters in my head.  He makes these from the scraps of some really beautiful wood from his job, and brings them home for his daughter, Mae.  These ones are special for the show.

"We Are All Descended From Homeless People", 22" x 30", pencil and gouache

Just a little reminder from me to you.:)

The right is a collection of Owen's subway drawings from London.  Top left is this collection of drawing about his mid-life crisis when he buys a sweet car and goes and hangs out at Stewart's all day.  Below that is my beloved "DMV".

"Ghosts of the Reign", Gouache and pen

What a dishonorable fate for the dinosaurs in a way - to end up plastic dinosaurs, that actually machines that transform into plastic people shaped robots.  Even thought most fossil fuel is not really dinosaurs, some of it is, making petroleum based plastic dinosaurs a little disturbing.

"The Lord's Typewriter" 22"x 22" Gouache on paper

 I've been wanting to do a periodic table for a while, and thought it could work with the show theme.  And yes, all the elements are there.

A close up of the canonball battle that got pretty experimental - love the color of those tickets and the craft paper!

This is my homage to the internet - a series of tubes that always ends up at cat videos.

Huckster!

 

I had a blast doing this little piece for Maureen Adamo at Las Vegas CityLife about a skeevy ticket firm out there: multiple instance of fraud perpetrated by a non-lawyer running a law firm (which in itself is illegal.)  Reminded me of some kind of wild-west huckster from "Deadwood". 

The Wright Brothers

Piece for the History of the World show about the Wright brothers as kids, and finally got to use the Guillow's Jetstream Glider I've had tacked to my wall for three years.  These things are the best!  I used to get these instead of candy at our local drug store on our way back from church, and play with my big brother.  Thought it made a nice parallel with Orville and Wilbur who were inspired by a toy helicopter as kids.  As well as amazing - the glider pioneered somewhere around 500 BC,  powered manned flight pioneered in 1903 - a rather large time period of improvement, and yet 50 years after Kittyhawk we were testing the edge of space and traveling at supersonic speeds.

Studies in Orbs and Years for the "History of the World" Show

The year was "1953", suburbia was sprawling, and baseball fields were shrinking to back yards, and balls were slowly evolving "wiffles" . . .

The year was 200 - or rather two hundred years since Earth collided with another planetary body, blowing it to smithereens (which would eventually become the moon), and then began it's re-coagulation into the orb we all call home.  Fireworks were millions of years in the future but I thought it would be nice to commemorate the "Bicentennial" of this collection of rock, molten rock, rock ice, and bits of water.  Why Legos?  Well, it was just a planetary toddler: innocent, but constructive in it's own growth.

Side note: we got our window vinyl!  Designed as a wacky grid by Owen Sherwood and myself, and photographed by Caroline Corrigan, Education + Exhibitions Manager up at the Art Center.  Thanks, Caroline!

History of the World - How to install a *#&@!% in 6 easy steps!

 1. Insall something on your face.  See how you like it.

 2. Get Matt Shropshire to help you (background).  He's super, super helpful.  Optional - do the show with an old buddy (Owen Sherwood, foreground).  Can your old buddy do a pensive look like this?  If not, cut him out of your life.  If he can, have him do half the work.  What a buddy!

 3. Tchotchka.  You need it.  You're not all that creative, so the crap you collect in your studio? Use it.  Again, you're not that creative, and this makes you look smart and sophisticated.  The best places to look are Wal-Mart and the crawlspace under someone else's house.

 4.  Install giant drawings on the wall of the gallery.  This ensures a memorable show: at least by the guy using the 15 gallons of matte white to cover them up when the next show goes up.  He'll go to his grave saying - "It took me eight coats to cover up that guy's painting, and he had no hope whatsoever of selling it.  What an idiot." Zang!  He'll remember you for life!

 5.  Spread crap all over the place while you're doing it.  During the installation, give the space that care-free "there might just be paint rags in this bag, but it could be an unfinished sandwich from Monday" vibe.  This is imperative.  AND - on day five, chicken curry smells like watermelon.  Fantastic.  You're almost there.

6.  Right by the front window, place a hand drawn icon featuring a famous internet cat.  I chose Maru (thanks Courtney).  While most people feign interest in politics, the Arab Spring, health care . . . at their core, they just want cat videos, and preferably of cats who, like Maru, are bad at spacial relationships.  Famous cats are the currency of the new millenium.    Draw those folks in.  This also works if you own a pet store.

In conclusion - feel free to do your own twist!  Play jazz!  Remember, we created the exact history of the world in a gallery.  You may want do something different, and lesser!  Good luck.


PS - I'm super proud of the work Owen and I did - and thanks to Caroline Corrigan, Amy Williams and Matt Shropshire at the Arts Center in Troy.  Even with the long days, and no sleep, it was fanti-billy-tastic, and It'd be great to see as many folks as possible at the reception on April 29th!

The Upcoming Show . . .

Mr. Owen Sherwood and myself will be hanging our show "History of the World" at the Capitol Region ArtCenter in Troy, NY in two weeks!  The work's coming along really well, and it's been great to step outside myself a bit and try some new approaches.    I'm mixing a more personal interpretation of history with a bit of autobiography.  It's sort of a mental cheat sheet of the "History of the World" more than a linear start to finish.    The image above is actually a drawing from a photograph of my great grandfather, Jessie Wood (in orange) and his ball team in the late 1800's.  Threw in a couple more preview images below.  The show opens on April 4th, with a reception on the 29th.

New PCWorld Spot

New spot for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about Firefox creating software to make it's users untraceable to advertisers.  I have a few more to upload - but blogger is being a real pain with not allowing pics up . . .If anyone has a solution for the dreaded "server rejected" thing that pops up, I'd love to know!

The New Deal Pieces!

Had another opportunity over MLK weekend to work with the great Larry Gendron from The Deal.  The magazine uses lots of illustration and great illustrators, so it was really nice to get a cover and interior piece.  The basic angle on the piece was about risk management, and companies changing their financial stances to be more protected.   I got going on this sort of circus theme with the first two sketches and was really happy that Larry wanted to use both.  It made for a long weekend, but a good one.  I even squeezed in a little cross country skiing with the fam, and a gigantic leg of lamb dinner courtesy of my Aunt Grace and Uncle John.

 

Losers

The Times ran a little story about the amazing losing capacity of New York teams, including my beloved Metroploitans along with a nice little photo gallery.  As the snow falls, and the Mets gear up for a "rebuilding" year, I'm taking another long deep breath.  I'm wondering if it's possible to hibernate through summer . . .

Let's go Mets.

Great Job!

Gallery1988 is opening the "Is This Thing On?" show tonight at their Melrose gallery at 7 tonight, and here's my submission: Tim and Eric in a piece called "The Nephews Muscles".  I'd seen a bit of their stuff before, but it was great to watch all the "Tim and Eric: Awesome Show, Great Job" episodes.  Holy hell - funny, crazy - sort of insane anti-funny really.  Check it out if your out in the left coast sunshine!

Popular Mechanics

Got to do some fun little spots for Michael Lawton at Popular Mechanics dealing with navigation systems - something I can identify with.  My girlfriend has one - we call it "Carol" as in the Horatio Sanz character on SNL.  She, for it has a female voice, barks out instructions in her tinny voice in the middle of conversations, recalculates in drive thru's, and is a general nuissance, and yet a source of great amusement since it leads to us talking in that monotone authoritarian voice - "I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN POINT THREE MILES, TURN RIGHT AT THE COWBOY SIGN, WHERE'S MY POINT THREE MILE DOUGHNUTS, . . . . . . . I'M CAROL!!"

"Goonies" print on sale!

My "Goonies" print from the Crazy4Cult show is on sale here from Gallery1988!  The signed numbered edition of 35 is ready to order just in time for Christmas.  A great gift for that age old question: "What do you get the "Goonies" fan who has everything?"!

New PennStater Piece - Hip Displacement

New piece for the super nice Carole Otypka at the PennStater about a hipster who moves to the 'burbs, and finds life fulfillment in TMNT pops, bragging about his cost of his 4$ pants.  Do kids today know the Turtles only in pop form?  Maybe so . . .

Baltimore Magazine Double Spread!

I gotta tell ya - opening a magazine to see an edge to edge double spread is a pretty nice ego boost.  And - a nice one it post before the holiday break (I should photoshop in a turkey).  I even got my photo in for being a contributor!

"Inappropriate New Reality Game Show Ideas"

New PCWorld Piece!

New piece for Beth Kamoroff at PCWorld about how to make Windows smarter.  It's always interesting to work with such abstract topics, and Beth is really great to work with.  It was nice to be able to work with the typographic solution, too, and trying to fit in "inefficiency"!  I've done a lot of more "urban" type solutions with buildings mostly, so working with a more serene, quiet scene was challenge, but a good one.  Another nice bonus if you pick up the magazine was the nice type on the opposing page.  Thought I'd throw in the sketches, too.  I'm happy when I'm happy with all the sketches, and really would have been happy to do any of these. 

History of the World Preview!!

 Here's some poorly photographed previews for the April Capitol Region ArtCenter show I'm doing with Owen Sherwood, "The History of the World", including a detail of my Charles Darwin portrait, "We are all descended from homeless people", and "The Bullet That Shot Abe Lincoln".  Whether any of these make it in the show or not, I'm having a blast working on them.  There's so much fun inspiration . . . from the History of the World . . .  I want to do a bajillion pieces!

Muffintop.

Been a little lax with posting - but I have been doing work with Owen at the This is you, no this is you blog.  Here's the newest addition.:)

A beet ouerverked, I tink . . .

A little in class demo for my Methods&Media I class that I finished this afternoon when I got back home.  I only worked on it for 30 minutes, and managed to totally overwork it from the nice under painting I had going on.  Ah vell.  Pootin veel be so sad at hees poortrit!

Medieval Times - Savior of Sports Entertainment Dining or Harbinger of the End of Human Civilization? . . . yess . . .

Recently wed Wes and Kiersten whisked Michelle and I away to a undisclosed secret location veiled in the shadow of the Pulaski Skyway, beyond the swamps of Hoboken, and past the black gates of the New Jersey Turnpike to the magical fiefdom of Lydenhurst.  There the secret revealed itself in the form of a towering parapet (as large as the local zoning board would allow at least) made of authentic poorly reproduced stone - alas, we gazed upon the castle of the Lyndenhurst franchise of Medieval Times!  Much merriment was had as the local king regaled us with his alternating basso/falsetto voice about the location of fire exits.  The lord chamberlain explained in the best king's english the castle smoking policy. . . It was as if time itself had peeled back the curtain of reality!

OK - enough snark - it was super fun.  If you love cheering for staged sporting events, if you love eating with only your hands in almost complete darkness, if you love regional theater rejects spouting utter nonsense in poorly imitated British accents . . . and I do . . . Get thee to New Jersey!  (Or check their web site for a location near you!)  It was an AWESOME surprise.  Nice one W + K.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Had a fun time doing a little painting down at the Brooklyn Bridge park, and taking some super lame, but still fun Hipstamatic pictures.

Favorite Things

Got to take my favorite train ride up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, and stare at some great rail bridges.  If you've never had the chance to take that ride, find an excuse to do it.  It is beautiful country.

This is you. No, this is you.

My buddy Owen Sherwood and I are going to be doing a two man show curated by Emma Copely (do check out her paintings) up in the Collar City, the Home of Uncle Sam, beautiful Troy, NY.  We both grew up right outside of Troy so it's going to be sweet to have a big space to fill and show all our old high school enemies that we are . . . artists. . .  As part of the show, we're doing a little project: This is you. No this is you. : a series of insults back and forth that we'll eventually be putting together as a sprawling piece for the show.   Fortunately, I had the good sense to make it a blog: Owen has the foresight of drunk garden tool trapped in a cabinet.  We're just getting started and it's a lot of fun,  so keep checking it out from time to time!

Hotel Fire

Summer

"As a Boy I Contemplate the High Dive/Sweet Moves"