Thanks to all the folks who came out to Loakal for Carpe Diem and either watched our 24-hour dance with delirium or came to the opening the following week. Like last year, I managed to once again paint for the full 24 hours. Luckily this time I had company for most of the night to help mute the voices and hallucinations that accompany sleep deprivation.
Video by Sam Grant for Loakal.
Highly detailed 1.5" warm-up sketch. I had planned on filling up this page with ideas the night before, but the first idea looked fun to paint and this event was suppose to be about the spontaneity of creating in the moment right? So here we go...
Getting a little help from my friend.
Photo by Nastia Voynovskaya for Loakal
Finished "Synapsthesia" at 8am the next day! Since my recent work has revolved around collective energies, Carpe Diem communal event was the perfect way to dive back into SF and art life after 7 months away overseas. 'Twas great to be painting with the homies again!
I'm not the best at time management and could easily spend another 6-24 hours on this.
Max Kauffman caught mid-paint dancing.
Zoltron piece and Sam Grant shooting Lisa Pisa.
Mario Navasero with his daughter and Max. Big thanks to both these fine chaps for keeping it going to the wee morning hours and helping to keep me awake.
East Bay Express article with a photo from last year's work in progress.
Brett Amory painting and chatting it up with Jon Wentz.
Absolutely loved John Casey's preliminary sketch.
Finished crop of John Casey's work.
Marcos LaFarga giving us mixed blessings.
Ian Ross detail
Cameron Thompson's totem detail.
John Wentz detail.
Met up with this sausage party before the opening. Thanks John Casey for the photo.
Art Star.
Late nighters getting loose in front of Chris Granillo and Reggie Warlock's pieces.
One more photo thanks to Nastia Voynovskaya for Loakal
Such a great time bonding with this talented crew. Cheers ya'll!
Check out Loakal Gallery's site for good shots of everyone's finished pieces and available work.
I began 2013, as the Greeks would say, "with my left foot forward" by breaking my shoulder. The new year's mishap was followed with surgeries, rehab, a melted hand, personal and family woes, struggle and some difficult times. But all that fades away when I think about others going through much harder days throughout this crazy planet. Then I remember how I also got to marry an amazing gal, watch my daughter grow and become her own little person, celebrate family reunions, continue creating and enjoy the company of those we love. Our families and friends are in good places or pushing through. Our 16 and 14 year old dogs, 10 year old cat and year old chickens made it another happy year.
In August I cashed in on all my favors and karma to take my family on the epic Euro-adventure/honeymoon that we're still living. We've been fortunate enough to explore and experience Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Malta, Italy and Germany together as a family. It's been an extraordinary journey for us so far and although we wouldn't trade it for anything, we certainly miss many folks back home and get homesick at times (especially around the holidays). So, Happy New Years everyone from cold, but festive Berlin.
Thank you all for being a part of our lives! Hats off to your 2014 and hope its filled with big wiener smiles!
This was a difficult to write. Not to remember the amazing stuff we've been fortunate enough to experience this past month, but to remember all the incredible people in our lives that helped make this honeymoon and extended journey possible. We are truly lucky and thankful to have such thoughtful folks in our lives! I definitely cashed in every last one of my karma chips in on this one.
Huge thank yous to my parents and extended family for taking such great care of our daughter and allowing us 12 days to explore Scandinavia as a couple! Thank you for providing constant “proof” that our daughter was alive and very happy. Thank you sister-in-law Eva for flying to Reno to help my parents and take our gal on some grand Tahoe and educationaladventures. Thank you to the 4 adults (Taryn, Jake, Mom and Dad) involved in getting a toddler to the airport by 4am with her own baby-sized pink butterfly neck pillow and a ton of other crap that comes with being a parent!
Huge thank you to sister Taryn, AKA the “Air-Sherpa,” for venturing into the deepest depths of parent hell and flying our 2-year old half-way around the world, saddled with a heavy load for 20+ hours of sleepless nightmare to deliver her safely and happily to us as well as taking the time to explore Athens.
Thank you to our incredible San Francisco landlords for allowing us to sublet and keep our SF (rent-controlled) home we love so much! Such gestures restores my faith in the ever-more-cutthroat housing industry beast that has sunk its teeth deep into what was once an accessible place for most peoples.
Thank you to our neighbors Paige and Zach for taking in and caring for our big vocal and oafy tomcat and allowing him to stay in his hood!
Thank you Kristi Holohan for adding our four gals to her flock of hens and Oakland animal sanctuary!
Thank you to the ER doctor who bandaged up my melted hand and took me out of pain the day we were suppose to leave. Again, thank you Taryn for the continued nursing care follow up in Reno.
Thank you to our friends for their support! Tadashi for handling bidneth whilst we're away. Greg and Mel for the long-term advice and Euro-phone wizardry which keeps us connected to the States for free. Dan for the continued support and host house during emergency times.
Thank you to Rosy's friends from work for offering us their Athens apartment and helping with all we need to get settled, all while planning their own recent wedding in the meantime! Thank you to their friendly family and neighbors here in Athens for all their gracious hospitality and delicious home-made dishes!
Thank you to my supportive and flexible employers for allowing me a month off to explore and encouraging my continued freelance work abroad!
Thank you to Rosy's parents, Eva, Taryn and Jake for making the trek out to SF to see Poppy (and us) before we left! And, Pete, for riding along both ways in a 3 hour rush-hour heated traffic adventure to secure a new chicken coop. Thank you to all our Bay Area friends and family that came by to see us off and celebrate future birthdays!
Thank you to the galleries who put up with my last-minute-art-guy tactics while I attempted to make deadlines in one of the busiest (one-handed) times of my life!
Thank you to all the folks who helped me clear house and raise some travel funds by purchasing original works, prints, drawings and clothing in my temporary online shop just before we left! Especially Courtney for purchasing my “Conjoined Collision Culmination” piece and is patiently awaiting shipment.
Thank you technology for making my 35th birthday in Oslo complete!
Lastly, thanks to the wife for the continued courage, patience, and support from a calm, patient, grounded and positive dreamer. Did I already say patient? Quite the incredible mother, lover and friend. I'm a lucky dood!
Somehow I used to cruise through Europe every other year with $300, a small backpack, a toothbrush and a skateboard for weeks to months and this was the only expense. Now it takes all this! All these people made it possible for us to hop on a plane, enjoy a 12 day honeymoon to then re-unite with our daughter in Athens for what will be our 6 month journey. Thank you all for allowing us to explore and adventure as a couple again. We re-learned how to communicate and simply “be” with just each other during our first break from being “Mommy” and “Daddy” to our amazing daughter Poppy. Now, as a family, we are on a journey we never thought possible because of all the above complications, but we did it...with a lot of help. If I missed anyone, know that my brain is fried and you are definitely in our hearts if not currently in my mind.
More posts on Scandinavia and Greece times to come...
Hey folks! I created this here online store and probably should have done so a long time ago. The thing is it'll only be up for two weeks (July 30-August 13) so I can clean some house before taking off to other lands for a 6 month journey.
There's a slew of new and found older prints, original art and drawings, as well as some clothing and more all to be snatched up on the cheap so I don't have to store anything and to help fund the grand adventure.
Enjoy some goodies to place on your walls, yourselves, or as unique gifts for those around you.
I've know Marcos for some time now and this was a great excuse to bring our work together, hang out and toss some back while we painted a wall. Jaime Molina comes from Denver, which is a town I dig and lived for many years and his interactive sculptural and 2D works were a great fit. Good times all around so I thought I'd share some process and opening night photos. Also, some works and/or prints will be available on LeQuiVive's site soonish.
The gallery had some rather large walls so I was able to hang my 20ft "A Forest" piece made of 20 modular panels as a backdrop in a more dispersed and dissolving way.
"Collective Consciousness Dissection 3"
"Wading"
Some experimental new works. I'm loving this fresh for 2013 path.
Process of "Wading"
"Isolating the Collective Consciousness (Fears of Singularity)"
December 1st was a long fun night of painting for 24 hours straight alongside fellow art folk, talking with those interested in seeing the process, hearing insomnia-induced voices and getting weird till the morning hours. It ended with the trains being shut down due to flooding and sleeping on a comfy West Oakland BART bench.
Struggle to Both Permeate and Preserve Our Collective Consciousness (Fear of Singularity)
When Roman poet Horace penned his famous phrase, "Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero", he meant it as a call to action, a declaration that tomorrow is unforeseen and that it is today which must be celebrated. Two thousand years later, lOAKal takes the phrase literally with our latest exhibition "Carpe Diem," founded on the belief that if you put a varied group of artists in one room for a 24 hour period, you create an environment for transformation.
Artists Zoltron, Eddie Colla, Filth Grime, Nite Owl, DYoungV, Lisa Pisa, Hugh Leeman, Helen Bayly and Daryll Peirce will be given an 8ft x 8ft panel and a 24 hour window to come together and create their works in unison, effectively turning the gallery into an incubator for their inspiration. Creativity feeds off of creativity and at a certain density the whole becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. Without a tremendous amount of time to deliberate, "Carpe Diem" becomes an experiment in gesture, expression and energy.... capturing lighting in a bottle.
Visitors encouraged to tour the gallery all day on December 1st while the works for “Carpe Diem” are being created. Join us Friday, December 7th from 6-10pm (all ages) for the monthly Oakland Art Murmur, when we will be unveiling these spontaneous and inspired works. Loakal is located at 550 2nd Street near Jack London Square, Oakland (510) 842-3474.
Helen Bayly killing it
Brett Amory, one of his two "waiters" and his arm looking like one of his paintings
Zoltron, Eddie Colla and Lisa Pisa
Dave Young V assuring me there was no one else there
Hey folks, I have a run of 5 prints dropping Monday, October 8th at 12:00pm EST from the fine folks of 1xRUN for $75. All color has been hand-painted into the reproductions of my original black and white drawing for "Or the Bad News First." Check out the site for the full in-depth interview and snag one at high noon if you feel so inclined.
Before...
Process...
After...
Original paintings of "Would You Like the Good News" and "Or the Bad News First" also available through 1xRUN.
Again, there's a more in-depth interview on the site, but here's a quick run-down of the piece itself:
I often work in multiple pieces and diptychs to tell a story and emphasize the alternate sides of certain subjects. I had originally created individual pieces, one with a left hand and the other right hand each holding a flowering structure. The right hand holds one colonized flowering micro-environment cluster of living thriving vitality and the other of apathy, negligence, and wilting death. I suppose they're rooted in our inherent connection to our natural and self-made environments and our role as self-aware and bipolar beings with the power to sustain or destroy ourselves consciously. More literally, we are always faced with choices and in one hand you may hold an improved future and in the other our destruction. I've also struggled with personal self-destructive issues as well which is a constant choice we all face to various degrees.
We just finished up our annual week of camping along the Oregon Coast and are now kicking back and catching up with a bunch of amazing folks up here in Portland. It's been a very, very long time since I've enjoyed a true vacation and I'm contemplating moving to the city "where young people move to retire." Coincidentally, this Live Free show is opening up here tomorrow so we'll all be heading out to that and I'm hoping to see some of you northwesterners there.
The show features an impressive array of artists who have appeared on the Live Free Podcast with Mike Maxwell.
Opening reception is September 6th at 6pm. Show closes on September 29. More details on Hellion Gallery's site.
Artists include Ben Grillo, Ben Walker, Brent Sandor, Brett Amory, Carly Ealy, Charles Glaubitz, Daryll Peirce, Dave Persue, Jason Barrr, Jocelyn Duke, Johnny KMNDZ Rodriguez, Joshua Clay, Joshua Krause, Kelsey Brookes, Kevin Earl Taylor, Kevin Ledo, Kevin Peterson, Kirsten McCrea, Mark Dean Veca, Mel Kadel, Michael Hsiung, Mike Giant, Pakayla Biehn, Paul Chatem, Peat Wollaeger, PJ Fidler, Rafa Reyes, Robert Hardgrave, Ryan Jacob Smith, Sergio Hernandez, Skinner, Travis Millard, Freddy Lockhart, Michael Page, Ti Kunkit, Blaine Fontana, Niko Burke, Lisa Romero, and Issac Randonzzi.
