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when you have an art show displaying 50 artists from the same town, you get a shitload of people at the opening.

outside:

streaming in:

looking in:

looking out:

and when you’re the only artist out of fifty, who’s pieces were at eye level, to hang your piece 8 feet off the ground, nobody thinks to look up and see it.

even my friends, who all came to the gallery specifically looking for my piece, didn’t notice it their first time around and had to ask me where it was.

c’est la vie. i thought it looked great in the spot i chose, and i wouldn’t have changed it even if i knew know one was going to notice it.

here’s what a few others had to say about the show:

Dylan Ousley

Kevin and Richard from Art As Authority – Review #1 and Review #2

Katherine Sweetman from San Diego Visual Arts

and of course Robert Pincus

if you attended, what did you think?

this post is really late, but much thanks and appreciation to Seth Combs at San Diego CityBeat for taking an interest in (and writing about!) my work. it means a lot to me.

here’s the cover of the may 27th issue:

and here on page 16 is the article:

GO HERE to read what seth had to say.

thanks again seth!

it’s really going to be quite an odd experience for me to show a piece of my art in the very gallery i work for. but that’s what’s going to happen on friday the 29th. i’m a little worried people might think i’m being shown favoritism. i assure you that’s not the case. i’ve been working there for almost 2 years and this is the first time they’ve shown any interest in showing my work. in fact, i’m a bit baffled by the whole thing. not enough to question it though, i suppose.

i’m also excited to be in the same show with my friend and former co-worker claudia cano. she makes very well crafted woven photographs, and her piece for the show is very cool.

i’m doing a new piece for the show (i try to always do a new piece for every show i’m in), a sculpture made of steel and acrylic. due to life kicking a few clouds of dirt into my face the last couple weeks, i’ve yet to finish it. however, i think i’ll be able to get it done by thursday…the day before the show opens. i hope. if not, i have a backup piece i can hang – but i’m really hoping this new piece gets finished in time, i’m really excited about it.

this show should be huge. i’m estimating at least 500 – 600 people will show up throughout the night. i’d suggest getting their early so you have a chance to actually see the art before too many people start crowding in.

hope to see you there.

you may remember that i just recently moved into a new studio. in that very space, this saturday, will be the first art show of many to come. this time around will be an open studios/group show in conjunction with device gallery.

in addition to my most recent work on display in my studio, i’ll have 3 new pieces in the show – drawings on mylar on steel.

i hope you can make it!

ps- i didn’t design the invite but i did design those glashaus letters.

there’s a nice little review of the L street gallery show i was in over at Sezio.

there’s not many people taking the time to review art shows in san diego. it’s nice to know there’s at least someone who cares.

and speaking of the lonely few who care to report on the san dieo art scene, you might also want to check out Art as Authority.

artists and fashion designers pair up and create.

and oh yeah, me and trista’s piece is badass.

back in may i was asked to do an interview about Adapta Project for Where Traveler. if you’re unfamiliar (as i was) with Where, they are a travel info publisher who puts out books, magazines, and maps. as i say, i wasn’t really familiar with what they do, so i was expecting the article to be in a magazine…

instead it was in a nice, glossy paged, hardcover book. cool! apparently the article is in one of their “guestbooks” which is published annually(?). the guestbook is basically a travel guide all about touristy stuff to do while in san diego – dining, clubs, museums, and so on – and it’s distributed to hotels and such in the san diego area.

anyway, here’s the cover:

looking inside the book, and towards the middle, we get to the intro spread of the article. that’s a photo of the san diego tijuana border – the article is about how adapta is bringing tijuana and san diego artists together in an effort to gain attention and recognition of the growing art scenes in both these border cities.

turn the page and on the left you see a picture that was taken at adapta’s show Army of icons at the san diego childrens museum, and on the right is a piece by artist and adapta member Jorge Tellaeche

turn the page again and your hit in the face with a full page of arrow deco. man, i wasn’t expecting to be so prominently featured. and on the right is a photo of 2 of my pieces from adapta’s Phantasmagoria show back in august of last year (has it been that long?).

thanks to the adapta trio (jorge, jaime, and kinsee) for being such a supporter of my work, and to Where’s mark hiss for the full page eye candy.

thanks to the lovely guy and dolls of adapta project, my dame and i are participating in the upcoming thread show on august 17th. i’m designing, she’s making. pictures in 2 weeks!

last weekend was really fun. it was comic-con, i was part of a cool group art show, i had friends in from out of town, i had 4 days off from work, i got to meet and be semi-insulted (all in fun) by ashley wood while he signed my poster and gave me a custom sketch, and i got to watch my lady be a star for a day while she walked around comic-con in her ironman costume that she made from scratch! here she is posing with the “real” ironman:

here she is during one of her many “paparazzi moments”:

eventually she hooked up with some fellow avengers – captain america (that girl was tiny. her and trista entered the marvel costume contest together and got into the finals but didn’t win), and nick fury:

speaking of hand made clothing. here’s trista and i the night of the art show – she’s wearing a skirt that she made just 2 days before.

the art show went relatively well. three pieces sold, although unfortunately mine wasn’t one of them. still, it was fun. plus the show will be up for another month, so who knows, maybe it’ll sell.

i was originally told that this was a comic book themed show, although it turned out to be not so comic book related. nevertheless, i adapted my style to the comic book theme. the piece is a diptych titled “Metrotham” – 48″ X 37″, spray paint and paint marker on 18g steel. The word metrotham is a combination of metropolis (as in the city of superman) and gotham city (where batman fights crime). i used relatively the same drawing for both cities with subtle differences. the idea being that metropolis and gotham city are both based on the same city, NYC. the one on the left is metropolis – red, yellow, and blue are to represent superman. that red streak in the clouds is superman taking off from the daily planet building. the right then is obviously gotham city. it’s black and gray, the colors of batman. the design has changed slightly by omitting the daily planet and adding smoke stacks, a bat signal moon, and a W to the top of wayne tower. in both pieces there are subtle differences in gloss, satin and flat colors that are almost impossible to photograph. for instance the background of metrolpolis has 3 different whites of varying textures and gotham’s background has 3 different blacks. you can only really tell in person….so go see it. it’s up til sept 15th.

i had done 2 pieces prior to this on aluminum but this was my first on steel**. i had a 1″ square steel tube frame welded for the back of the steel sheet so that i could hang them without outside frames. i JB Welded the tube-frames to the sheet and painted the back white:

here’s a shot of the back signed, titled, and dated. “metrotham: metropolis” and “metrotham: gotham city”

**i’ll be working on steel from now on. it just fits better into the whole arrowchitectural decograf concept. graffiti was painted on steel trains, skyscrapers are built of steel, and so on.

Group art show including yours truly @ L Street Fine Art Friday July 25th, 6 – 9pm. What’s that you say? you’re sad to miss it but you’ll be at comic-con that day? Well, unless you plan on staying at the con until late you don’t have to worry. The L Street gallery is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the convention center! So as you’re leaving the con on your way to the car, or the trolley, or dinner, or whatever, stop by the gallery and see us. There’ll be live music, refreshments, and of course some great eye candy. Plus, if you’re not going to the con and feel you’re not man enough to brave the downtown comic-con crowd, you’ll have all the way until September 15th to see the show. I do however encourage you to come on opening night. It makes us artists feel special when people actually show up to see what we’ve been working so hard to bring you.

Also, here’s a very small peek at one half of the brand new diptych I did for this show.

Titled “Metrotham”, the piece is times two 4′ X 1.5′ (4′X3′ overall), spray paint on steel. It’s about NYC’s dual super-world disguise – Metropolis and Gotham City. Executed in glorious Arrowchitectural Decograph, of course. As with all art, this is a must see in person to appreciate kind of deal. We all hope to see you there.