the first of some one panel comics.....and of course they'll all be unsuitable for romantics.....

as i approach 500 overtime hours of production art this year (holy shit, it is only august?), i am still looking toward that someday when the dust settles, metaphorically and literally...i am often coated in dust by somebody grinding on fiberglass or cutting steel within a visceral moan of where i am trying to paint. working for the likes of disney, universal and sony sounds cool but can grind one down as well. as mentioned last post, as these deadlines are met i still try to crank out a deli lid or two for my sanity's sake....i'll put them all here eventually. or the best ones, anyway.

as previously mentioned, i spend a grueling amount of time working as a production artist, which really only means i'm a hired gun putting a nice finish on other people's "art" (see: amusement and sometimes educational objects).
the primary downside is such a schedule inhibits me from making my own work with the zeal and energy usually needed. 
however, it has been rewarding in some unexpected ways too.....i'm constantly challenged and further developing my skills through materials and subject matter i would not probably seek on my own. it's just a different beast than my own art. so as i try to square these 2 art worlds of which i orbit, i find myself putting a spin on some of the everyday tools of the trade. me and my crew go through lots of paint, containers, brushes and the like.....i often use deli cup lids as palettes and soon had a pile, that, when viewed from the opposite side are quite pleasingly sealed under plastic. put a little marker on top of that and you get a clean, finished looking piece of trash!

howdy!
why are concert shirts so hard to throw out?
there is a new one-pager up that is unsuitable for romantics, called god save the tees. if you're a fan of live shows or just pimping your favorite bands, you just might relate. like many of you, my fixation has been with "alternative/modern rock" thanks in large part to cincinnati's own 97X (the best station that ever was)... and i've had some of these shirts for 30 years!
​anyway, there are a few visual jokes for those in the know.....
​look for more comics ahead, several in the works of various lengths and commitment!

ALSO, in january i did a small interview with felan, a poetry and visual arts zine with the theme of AMUSEMENT.
featured pieces include SAVIOR,  and the illustration of comrade trump you see below in the previous post.
​you can read the interview here, in which i discuss all sorts of things from scary watercolors and why roadkill isn't funny, to michael graves' funeral. oh,  and buy it here! 
see ya next time.

just finished an illustration for what i understand to be the best of for a better world, the annual publication of cincinnati poets and artists on peace and justice. amazingly, it is in its 13th year. i am no stranger to this book, having done it 5 other times, including a cover in 2005 in its infancy (see below). as it goes, a visual artist is paired with a poet who has provided either one or a few poems. often, said poems address war, poverty, homelessness, human rights and the like, and by now there's a pretty impressive database of cincinnati artists. i'm hoping this archive can soon be cross-referenced by individual names...mostly because i want to navigate them easier and be blown away by the list of talent.

​ traditionally, the book has been in black and white, however "the best of" is in color so i took the opportunity to punch it up (bottom right). really, each year gets better. the examples below, and the poets they are collaborating with, can also be found on the illustration page of this site. sorry, earlier photos aren't the greatest.

my illustration this time combines 2 poems by jeffrey hillard, pertaining to the war in iraq and the notion of a soldier being saved by a book in his breast pocket. i became transfixed with that that idea on top of all of the gear most soldiers are outfitted with.

as i continue to get organized and up and running again, making art in a new studio, i suppose i can take the time to reiterate some of the things that were still in the works before "the big shut down" occurred (long story). as a now former westwoodian and (still) car enthusiast, doing some promotional ideas with westwood works for the first annual community car show was very enjoyable and locally rewarding. here are the 2 designs submitted for this august's coming event. i personally favored the one that wasn't chosen (the 3 cars), but am pleased to contribute in any way. here's hoping for a successful initial show for an area that has been growing, building on the energy of young leadership, and a beautiful neighborhood i've called home for 17 years. stay cool westwood

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​on a totally different note, several of my pieces from the 1990's (personally, an era of colorful hedonism) are being featured in an upcoming up the staircase quarterly 90s issue. curious to see what else might turn up there....probably fairly heavy on the pop culture references, but no doubt examining the grunge aesthetic as well, which i suppose was one ingredient in how i made art back then......so until next time....i'm gonna break, i'm gonna break my, i'm gonna break my rusty cage....and run.

tighter, tourniquet, tighter, oil on canvas, 30" x 22", 1993

​well, spring has had its share of surprises, costing me some valuable time planning and creating new things...but i hope to be up and running again soon in a new studio that promises to be....well, very small in the spacial sense, but big in the inspirational. here's to new beginnings.
in the meantime, storm cellar 5.1 is a literary journal  from milwaukee, with outposts in chicago and minneapolis, and they have decided to use my piece, pickpocket, as a pretty cool wrap-around cover for the latest volume.  i think the nature of the image lends itself  quite nicely to such a format, so kudos to their art director for recognizing that.
​i have only seen it in PDF format so far but anticipate reading a printed copy soon, which i believe you can currently find in a couple of places, including on etsy.

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opening APRIL 29, in just over a week, is the bowie in the basement tribute show at thunder-sky, inc. in northside, cincinnati. based on what little i saw, i think the variety will be pretty cool. pictured (lower) left are mine (again, detail), marie gardeski's gentle portrait of 14 yr old bowie, and a terrific painting called glampire, by old friend jonathan queen. and that's just a sampling! to top the night off, word is bowie karoake will be in full effect as well. should be a really fun night.
AND i also recently found out that mine will be included in a bowie tribute zine called the opening door, via CSArt main. that should be in a couple of months still.

march 4, 2016 at manifest gallery opens the ohio regional showcase, of which i will have a large car piece in. glad to finally make it into a show at manifest- i was contractually unable to do for the last several years. here also is just a glimpse at some poster work i am designing for a local car show later this year.....somewhat atypically graphic for me but fitting for the event. more about that when the time comes.
finally, a bowie tribute show is taking place in april at thunder-sky, inc., which you should read about. a great idea in a gallery dedicated to a fascinating guy, raymond thunder-sky. i'm having to recreate my drawing below, which was half digital, to be cleaned up and hangable. WIP at right. all in all, art i enjoy making for people and places i like as well, as it should be.

   one of the pillars of rock & roll has fallen and picasso has died twice in david bowie. what i mean by that is there are performers and there are artists; those who embody a higher calling and live their art. as far as i can tell, bowie was never just a performer. much has been written about him following his passing, and much has been written about how much has been written.....so i won't belabor the point, but now giving it some thought and sorting through why it seems like his death creates a huge cultural hole, it's because it absolutely does. like picasso, or any number of history changing creators before him, bowie represents an artist in the classic sense, a master spanning decades, bodies of work, each more compelling than the last, and all of it culminates to be nothing short of mythology. the anti-hero with a thousand faces. i can think of few people with the range to sing with bing crosby and trent reznor both while launching so many musicians down their paths. not surprisingly, he was also a champion of the visual artists too. the most obvious being tony oursler. oursler was probably bound for success anyway, but catching bowie's eye and support certainly didn't hurt.

like so many others, i was compelled this week to do a couple pieces regarding bowie. the first (right) was just pushing paint.....a small study depicting him on stage in the 70's. the second (above) more graphic and based on his final album and videos (which are amazingly poetic in confronting his own impending death), occurred some days later when i realized i wasn't quite done thinking about him. still not, really.....i like that, like him, these two pieces are quite different in tone. occasionally an artist will "reinvent" themselves, and that sounds cool and all, but bowie actually did that time and time again, all the while staying true to his art and arc. oh, and what a seemingly great guy........perhaps  a little less self-serving than picasso in that respect.

 
this is usually the only non-art related thing i post here, but i've been keeping track for the last several years and log a lot of listening time in while working, so what the hell. i also usually find a glaring omission or two about 3 months later...that's just the nature of the beast.
i also also keep running playlists of favorite songs on spotify. some of those lists are organized by year and tend get additions after the fact. of course by now most people have their musical sourcing routines set, however, if you're so inclined to follow up, you can find them here.
​

there is a new addition over in the comics section.
savior is just a little one-pager to knock the rust off. these are all true stories....or as true as a pickled memory will allow. not sure if the friends i keep depicting have unfriended me or not yet.
​
for some reason, image quality on the comics page isn't as crisp as the sample here....weebly wasn't much help. 
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​the strange parallels continue......in the sense that another literary journal has picked up another one of my rust belt series paintings. pickpocket will be featured early next year and i will be sure to share it when it happens....but in the meantime...in the strange saga of kid rock's bassist, aaron julison, he has taken the stage wearing a shirt with one my ancient drawings on it. to read the full story, see two entries below. but for now, here is the backstage pic.  i think it's safe to say it was more about honoring my friend's late father than whatever crazy stuff i was drawing in high school.....but i'd be lying if i said i didn't enjoy such weird twists and turns in life.

autumn.
seems like this is the time of year when a lot of things roll out....
to that end, i found out this week that thief in the throng will be featured in the upcoming fall publication of the sheepshead review, a journal of art and literature out of green bay. a perfect fireside read!

a couple weeks ago something remarkable happened. i posted on twitter (yeah, i'm on there) a throwback thursday sort of thing, a pic of a  t-shirt design i made in 1988 for an underground zine in lexington called VOID!. i think maybe 2o of these shirts were printed, the illustration was a funny one, desmond tutu holding the wizard of oz dog, toto, standing next to fantasy island's tattoo and the band U2. toto and tutu with tattoo and U2.
right? anyway, after that tweet went out a guy in denver contacted me asking if there were any of those shirts left because he had had one. um, no, surely you are mistaken. you never had one. well, after talking a bit, he DID have one! as the story goes, he was at a party in louisville in the late 80's (i already believe it) and a drunk girl puked on him. her boyfriend was trying to do damage control and replaced the guy's soiled shirt with one from out of her car, which happened to be said shirt. how she got it, i do not know, but the pukee then had that shirt stolen from him about a year later! ahhhh. circle of life. to my knowledge, i was the only one who EVER had this shirt! i figured the guy who printed them didn't even succeed in actually selling any!
here's the kicker: the pukee said he always wanted that shirt back and has plugged the phrase "toto and tutu with tattoo and U2" every now and then into google for 16 YEARS. ha! my tweet was the first and only time he got a result. so....i hope to print another run and send him one. he deserves it.

then, about 3 days after that whole exchange, an old high school pal named mike emailed me. he asked if it was ok if he could send a (different) shirt that he'd printed up with another one of my old drawings on it to a friend who was currently in a band. apparently, i had done a drawing for mike's high school garage band (around 1986- i had done a shit ton of drawings back then and don't remember most of them) and his present musician friend wanted to wear something on stage to honor mike's dad, who had recently passed away. i said sure, go for it..... and then found out the musician being discussed is the current bass player for.....kid rock. so when that picture emerges i'll be sure to share....even though the drawing kind of sucks, it's a nice gesture for that guy to wear it. what a strange week that was....here is the shirt from the first story......
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yeah...pretty thrilled to have a 2 page spread in the upcoming nix comics quarterly #8 (NCQ8). for this issue i have completed 12 absurd stories that were either too foolish, raunchy, or disturbing to make the cut! nix comics is the baby of ken eppstein, a music geek/ record pusher out of columbus who is more likely to have his books in record stores than comic stores. fine with me. you can check out his website here and his FB page here. NCQ8 is to be released this october, and based on what i've heard about it, it'll be a real humdinger.

i will be a participating artist in this eclectic car themed show coming saturday, september 12. also looking forward to an accompanying car show/cruise-in on the gallery's grounds. i would have driven my '61 lancer to the occasion, but it wouldn't have been too happy going all that way.....

i think this will be more of a non-update, i guess....but still felt the need to touch base, because that's what you do when you have a "news" section. you call stuff news. ok.......so it's been awhile.....not that everything came to a grinding halt, but there have definitely been some frustrating misfires in the past several months and about a half a dozen things on hold for one reason or another.
HOWEVER, there a few things cooking now that, while i don't want to spoil/curse/or otherwise jump the gun on, i can....vaguely allude to? HA! this is really running in circles now innit? suffice it to say that the car paintings are slated to make an appearance in the form of an exhibit and a book (separately, i might add), and then there's this business with some comic book work in the mix right now that is so ridiculo that those freaks pictured above are just the tip of the iceberg. oh, you'll see them again.
"what in the hell just happened?" you are asking yourself. "how am i supposed to remember any of this non-information?". don't you worry, i'll remind you when these things exist in the world. "huh. thanks." you say...with a slight hint of sarcasm....and hot cabbage on your breath.

there is a group show hanging at miller gallery right now that i recently completed this painting for. it's a continuation of the rust belt series (which i thought i was done with, but apparently not). the show opened wednesday (feb 25) and runs a couple of weeks. also being shown are some really cool pieces by ryan flanagan, david michael beck, bruce riley and a slew of other regional artists, all to welcome new ownership of the gallery.

yeah, i'm one of those jerks who makes lists....at least with music. it started at the WOXY forums several years back and carried over with less fanfare to another website, but now i can just post it here. here are my favorite from 2014.

have you read CBGB maybe yet? well now it is has been "enhanced" at the request of  legions of fans (ok, 2 and they weren't fans), but mostly i did it because i have been putting it off, really.
as you may have noticed, i use color sparingly. not sure why.....it taps into some type of indecision....color=mood  and really the infinite combination of colors can change the mood of a scene even by degrees.