Post zombie show reflection

So I had my show at the Space gallery last night, all zombie art. I had fun, but I didn't get to meet as many people as I would have liked to. Thanks to those of you who came out. I met an artist named David Young V who's work was my favorite out of the show, so I was glad to meet him. Also a well inked metal girl who was showing under the name Gorwhor. I only talked to her briefly, but she seemed very nice. When I told her which piece was mine and she gave me a back-handed slug to the chest saying "DUDE!" I thought "This girl should be my new best friend." I also met the artist C3 very briefly, but I thought his painting had some cool stuff going on. That was it unfortunately, it was hard to tell who the other artists were. Next time I'll have to try harder to make acquaintances. I would like to have more gallery shows soon, it would seem that I caught a bit of a gallery bug, so if you know of any galleries looking for submissions, please let me know.

The artwork: Well, Rob Zombie's piece was really more like an autograph, and I have to say that I found that disappointing because I know that he can draw. I think the only thing that wasn't rock star about it was that it was selling for only $6.66. There were some very well painted zombie portraits, some art that wouldn't even be good in a high school art class, and some that I wondered if they were part of the show, or just something that was permanently there because I couldn't see how they fit the theme. Better crowd than I was expecting I have to say, people seemed nice.

Born Anchors Flyer

I understand that the tiny parts that make up cells were all formally small independent organisms that formed symbiotic relationships with each-other. This means that large animals like you and I are made up of an inconceivable amount of small animals. This idea just blows my mind. I've been meaning to make a piece about it for some time, and I thought it would fit well for this project. I thought it would be cool to think of it as larger animals. Here I'm also showing my love of scientific illustration, only I gave it a more edgy style (it's for a rock band after all). I'm CRAZY about illustrations of cells, skin layers, and other microscopic things. I think they're just fantastic so I do things like this from time to time. Acrylic on wood, 8x10

Spectrum 14 came...

All artists published in Spectrum get a hard bound edition of the book, and I have to say that I was impressed with how nice it is. I thumbed through the pages tonight. As I was looking through it, I started to get the feeling that I was really lucky to have gotten in the book. Most of the paintings are true finishes, finely rendered and laboriously painted. Talent by the tons. By the time I got to my page, I have to say I was disappointed with how my painting reproduced, and I'm sure that it's my fault. Not sure what happened, but it looks terrible. I saw my painting for what it is after seeing so many professional fantasy art-works: A school painting I banged out with very little preliminary work, a quick read, and ultimately not even up to my own standards. Gotta get my shit together. I know I can do so much better, I have, I will.

Zombie Painting

This is a painting that I submitted to a zombie show at the Space gallery. I hope that the image is good enough to be accepted into the show. The actual painting looks much better. I think it didn't scan very well because there was no ground. I painted directly on the wood. All the faces are thumb print sized, so i had to really get in there with little details, therefor I used gouache. This also did not scan well. I've had lots of problems with the way it scans and should probably stop using it. In the actual painting you can see the wood grain, little details, and subtle color shifts and it looks really neat. I'm glad that this is for a gallery show because it doesn't look good unless you see it in person. Also, didn't really pull the punch on this one. Zombie Christian hoard, I don't need to spell it out. I'm terrified of zombies and Christians, and I've been listening to the Thermals a lot, so there you go. I got that pink in there without even thinking about it, god damn I've been using a lot of pink lately. Was brown and nasty green, moved to pink. I love the contrast in my work though. Right now it's my only method for balancing out the generally creepy nature of my art. I think in this painting the way the sky is nice and pink, and ground level is a crowd horrible monsters makes for a nice pictorial space. It says escape to me.

P.S. IDW, call me, lol.

Halloween

I made a Halloween costume this year, in spite of being insanely busy. I don't quite remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween, but I think it might have been 7th grade. I had this old sketchbook drawing, and I basically thought it would be a sweet costume. I made the little teeth out of sculpey, baked, and carved them, then used normal costume glue to stick them to my face. They actually moved when I talked and everything, and not one fell off all night. I was fucking stoked when I put them on, but nobody seemed as into it as I was.

Framing!

Man, I hate framing. I've done all the mats my self, assembled many frames, and not had one custom frame made, and still I've spent about $400. Not even close to done either. fuuuuck. From now on no more wacky ass sizes, fuck that. I'm going to paint everything so it can easily be put into a pre-made frame. What a mess. I have to have mats on almost all of my paintings because they're not made to be shown, they're illustrations, and they have loads of unsightly bleed space. Is that his art studio you might be asking? That's my fucking house, the whole thing. I live in a studio apartment, but really it's more like an art studio with a bed in it. Only in this studio, people get pissed if you're stretching paper with a staple gun in the middle of the night. I'm getting things ready for a show at my job (Goodby, Silverstein, and partners). I hate framing things, and I really hate cutting mats. I have to say that they look a lot nicer though, and a bunch of my painting have been getting beaten up so it's better that I frame them. I included a picture of what I look like after a day of framing. On a side note, I've been really miserable lately, so my art is doing great! I guess that's how it works for me, if I'm miserable, I make things.

Oh yes! Also here you can see a little bit about how I work since I'm sure someone I curious about this. You might have noticed my desk. You might also have noticed that it actually ISN'T a desk. I didn't have room for a drafting table in my apartment, partly because of this giant door that covers the storage space under my bathroom (yeah, the ceiling in my bathroom is only a few inches above my head). So I couldn't put any furniture near this door or I wouldn't be able to open it, then one day I realized that the door itself was a perfect desk, perfect size, perfect height. I built some little legs for it and that was it. Some have suggested that I take the door with me if I move.

I need a rep!

Please help! I'm looking for someone who works with music based clients especially. It's hard to sort through all the reps out there. If you have any suggestions please send them to me.