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One of my old friends recently asked if I could paint him a picture for his AV room. After talking with him, I learned that he wanted something atmospheric and realistic (relatively, of course). That is not something I have done in a while, so we compromised and I was going to paint the subject he wanted (Metroid stuff) in the style I wanted (expressionist inks). But as I painted, I was having so much fun painting real light and atmosphere that I went all out. This is the result. I have to thank my college painting instructors for this one.
Note: Composition compiled from various internet reference images, of which I did not dream up.
According to FBI statistics, Saginaw ranked as the number one most violent city in America from 2003 through September of 2008. Cities like this need tough SWAT units, like the one seen here planning their next move.
Recently, 'bandit06' had this to say about Saginaw's downtown district:
"There is no downtown Saginaw. There is only an area and a few remaining buildings that used to be downtown Saginaw. It's been thirty or more years since there was a downtown Saginaw." (2/19/2010)
This is one of those buildings.
The name Saginaw is believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in the Ojibwe (American Indian) language. So now applied to our new term, it is "Where the Sauk were awesome".
I am beginning a mini-series taken from aspects of my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. I know the imagery above isn't necessarily a groundbreaking spin on Saginaw, but when something as powerful as violent crime envelopes a city for so long it is hard to get away from it. I promise to include some more positive and/or funny subject matter as the series progresses.
For those of you who used to subscribe to Neomu and happened to see the little Play-Doh piece I did for Neomu #7 back in 2003 and always wished that I had painted it instead.....this is for you!
Rememember: This is not the greatest painting in the world, this is just the tribute.
Finally, I have posted something unfinished. See if you can follow this story (it's kind of like that Tenacious D song):
This is a sketch of a tribute painting to the greatest painting I have ever worked on (which is M.I.A.). The original work was a large-scale collaboration created for S.P.P.'s Hidden Paradise show/dance event in Saginaw a few years ago. The title: "Two Celebrities Puking into each other's Mouths". It was a stark stroke of perfection...
I hope to work on this and complete it in between baby feeding sessions.
Here is a portrait of a European long drive champion. He looks confident about his golf abilities, whoever he is. As always, click on the picture for INSANE DETAIL.
Apparently, the word on the street is that no one lives in Detroit anymore. For the record, that is false. But I read an article online that explored the recent trend of animals and foliage retaking the worn-down city. This painting is loosely based on that article and was as part of a series for Motor Detroit Magazine, a new publication designed my my friend Mike Leser. Check out the website here.
I'm not really sure where this one came from. I guess I was watching too many Tigers games back in the spring and they seeped into my subconscious. Make sure to click on the image for a large detail. Some of the color and texture change is pretty subtle.
This is one of two artworks I did for NeoMu 7 - a strange little publication - back in 2004. I don't have a digital version of the other one anymore but it was made of Playdough and later scanned in against the glass.
This painting is a little different than what normally comes from me, but I am happy with how it turned out. I must have finished this sometime around May. Becky hates birds, so I had to hide this one from her.
Here we have two paintings I worked on earlier in the spring. Both are based on fuzzy 8mm home video stills from 1982. The upper painting is of my father and the lower painting of my mother.
Well, it has been a year, so I figure I should go ahead and post some more art. It's not like I haven't been painting or anything. I will start with a painting that is years old, but I just recently finished it. (More to come in the next couple of days.)
Newest work - this time looking at houses in the state where I'm from.
A series of eleven small iron-on transfer collages shown at Red Ink Studios in Flint. Designs were completed on sweatshirts, pants, and tablecloths - which were stretched and stapled over square pieces of wood. They were then hung on a painted wall in the rocket configuration below.
None of the photos I took turned out, but this pretty much gets the point across. As always, clicking on the thumbnail will bring up a larger version so you can examine the details. Each square was priced @$20, so they all SOLD OUT!!
My first internationally published piece. Done for Tokion Magazine, it ran with an article about the author Aleksander Hemon. I will always wonder what he thought about this portrait. I hope he liked camping and water-planes. Maybe I should have read something he wrote.
front cover:
back cover:
Last summer I made an album cover.
You can vist the band here.
They make good music.
One of my old friends recently asked if I could paint him a picture for his AV room. After talking with him, I learned that he wanted something atmospheric and realistic (relatively, of course). That is not something I have done in a while, so we compromised and I was going to paint the subject he wanted (Metroid stuff) in the style I wanted (expressionist inks). But as I painted, I was having so much fun painting real light and atmosphere that I went all out. This is the result. I have to thank my college painting instructors for this one.
