American Youth Series

American Youth is a series of paintings depicting the experience of returning to live in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas after being away for almost 10 years.  I've spent the better part of this year consumed  with it.  Every flat surface of the studio has been covered in Lincoln Logs, cap guns, wind-up robots and dinosaur figurines.  Grocery money was spent on thrift store toys and hours went by as I re-read the diaries I had written as a kid.  I climbed back into my childhood and now it's time to resurface.  I'm done with the series and the series is done with me.  So long cowboy...

  

 Jacks Landscape

oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

Doll Landscape

oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

 Dinos

oil on vintage wallpaper,13"x11", 2012

 Birds

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Guns

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Cowboys & Indians

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

Jacks

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Ode to the Joan Vollmer-William Tell Incident

oil on wood, 46"x34", 2012

Can Phone

oil on wood, 46"x34", 2012

 American Youth Airborne

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 American Youth on Land

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 American Youth at Sea

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 Dino Cowboy Standoff

pastel, 8"x10", 2012

 Robo Wagon

embroidery, 8"x10", 2012

Pink Boot Convo

acrylic and pastel, 8"x10", 2012

Paintin' Like I'm Headed For Prison.

I try really hard to focus on one maybe two paintings at a time.  If not, I'd be up to my eyeballs in unfinished work.  Not only would I have enough material to build a small city from the half-done shite, but it would be a small city built of weird, completely random and poorly thought out ideas.  Wait...that's kinda like what my work is anyway.  So...having said that, I now find myself smack dab in the middle of three largish in-progress paintings.  I super promise to not start anymore.

***JACKS PAINTING PROGRESS****

Booooorrring.........

Awesomer.

***DOLL LANDSCAPE PROGRESS ***

This is the painting that will never end.  At this moment I feel it is very close to completion simply cuz I can't fit any more weird stuff into it.  Or can I?

***SPECIMEN TABLE PROGRESS***

Skrimp in jar -  beginning to make an appearance...check.  Skull...check.  Other stuff...getting there.

Science + Art = Friends

So apparently if I throw in the eye candy from the pics below, begin reading Origin of Species, watch  Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, sprinkle in a skull, an ammonite fossil, some leaves, and include the inspiration of 17th century Dutch still lifes containing dead game...I get the beginning stages of a painting that looks exactly like the one above.

 Bouquet collected with my mom on Thanksgiving day.

 Studies I did from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's collection.

 Jar O Shrimp from Tulane Uni's Biodiversity Research Institute.

 A birthday flower given to me by my friend Carey.

Skunk study from FWMSH.

Doll Landscape Finished...Sike.

11/27/12

TA-DUH!!!!!  Seriously, this is done.  I know I've said that about this painting like 4 times but I super duper mean it this time.

*******************AND AGAIN....******************

11/3/12

Dude...this thing was pulled from the finished pile...again.  I needed to add critters.  A garter snake, earthworm, mouse, monarch butterfly, redfish, and sparrow have now made an appearance.  Pics to follow....

****************UPDATED....AGAIN****************

Sometime in late Oct.

Okay dude, NOW...Doll Landscape.  Is.  Finished.  

Doll Landscape, oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

 cha-ching

 Eames Chair

rotary

****************UPDATED****************

10/15/12

I pulled the Doll Landscape from the finished pile.  I thought it was done but apparently it needed an Eames Chair and a rotary phone.  And you know what?  It's still not complete.  More to come... 

******************************************

9/17/12
Okay so here is the creepy doll baby-landscape painting also know as panel #1 from Fort Art.  I don't find her creepy anymore although you may beg to differ.

Doll Landscape, oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

This is a landscape I've  had behind my eyelids since I was a child (sans doll baby) .  It's fully fabricated because it's not a place I've been before.  Maybe it's a combo of many places but when I first pictured it, I didn't have a lot of landscape experience.  The only other scenes besides Texas I'd witnessed were New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and California - all in the summertime.

New Orleans or Bust

I'm about to embark on a 9 day stay in New Orleans during Halloween to participate in a group show to celebrate the grand opening of a good friend's art gallery with an entourage of party-loving people.  There are a lot of red flags in that last sentence for someone who decided to quit drinking and having fun a couple of months ago.  I'm about to step into a goddamn hornet's nest.  I tell myself that this is a business trip because 1.) it makes me sound as if I should be wearing a pant suit and toting around a briefcase and that makes me giggle but more importantly 2.) it will hopefully help me refrain from going totally apeshit crazy in a spring break sorta way.  I can be a responsible grownup...I can be a responsible grownup...

To curb the allure of debauchery, I have scheduled appointments to sketch from the animal specimen collection and tour the art department of a local university.  I've vowed to visit every structure, be it glorified mansion to ramshackle leanto, that houses art or critters and the rest of the time will be spent painting, sleeping, or eating fried gator tails, varmint gumbo, and whatever else those Cajuns throw on a plate.  I want to be up to my eyeballs in all that is New Orleans.

New Orleans Series

So below is what consumed me for the last 2 1/2  weeks.  I'm calling this group The New Orleans Series.  A simple, direct, and factual title because I made them for an upcoming show in New Orleans.  It all began with a superbly shitty sheet of plywood (as usual).  I enlisted the help of Dad and with skill saw in hand we cut several 11"x13" pieces from said shitty wood.  Next, I turned to one of my most cherished material possessions...my 1960's Alber Van Luit & Co. wallpaper sample book.  I carefully chose several of my favorite designs and glued them to the wood panels - which are no longer looking so shitty.  Then the studio exploded with toys, which in turn led to the work below.  The End.

 Dinos, 11"x13", oil on vintage wallpaper, 2012

 Guns, 11"x13", oil on vintage wallpaper, 2012

 Jacks, 11"x13", oil on vintage wallpaper, 2012

 Birds, 11"x13", oil on vintage wallpaper, 2012

Cowboys & Indians, 11"x13", oil on vintage wallpaper, 2012

Making stuff keeps me off the streets.

The studio currently looks like an interior designer's closet and an office supply store got into a fight.  I thought I'd add a side project into the mix in honor of my upcoming journey to New Orleans.  I'll share the details soon but for now...long story short:

Next month I'm going to be part of a good friend's gallery opening in New Orleans.  I'm going by plane.  I'm poor.  Must fit artwork into suitcase.  Want to make colorful pieces strictly for fun because I want to have a colorful, strictly fun visit.

Kona, my pardner in crime, hung with me while I made a total mess.  I caught her in mid-stretch.

Above is a landscape in progress.  It's in the same series as the creepy Doll Landscape.  So far it's just an acrylic foundation.  Maybe I'll throw some toys in the dirt.  Haven't decided.  Wait, I just did...yes, toys will be in the dirt.

Kona is awesome.  End of story.

Fort Art.

This is in response to Sept. 6th's posting (click here to view) which ends with..."So in conclusion I want my work to have more balls and feel like a fort."

 Fort Art

KEEP OUT!

 What does every fort need?  Duh, a watch dog.  

Although I'm pretending I'm in a castle and my dog is actually a dragon.

I told you to KEEP OUT!

Creepy Baby Painting

Guess who started a creepy baby painting???  I'm pretty sure that at some point everybody has to do one.    I was drawn to her for two reasons:  1) I feel like her hair is matted in the exact same way as a hobo's hair would be after passing out behind a dumpster following a 4-day bender 2) She has a dead eye.  Her left eye is totally greyed out and I can't look her directly in the face because of it.

This One's for you Ron!!

Alright my friend, you asked for a squid/octopus-like sea creature battling a Titanic-esque vessel...

Ron's Titanic, 15"x20", pastel, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, 2012