mja home

oh my dear blog, how i’ve neglected you. i know you forgive me.

let’s see, what’s happened since august? well, one thing is that i sold this piece!

“Exit Perspective” – 96″ x 18″, spray paint on steel

notice the back color. that violet gave the piece a good color-bounce-shadow that was a good contrast to the green on the front. i talked a little bit about the reason behind painting the reverse side a contrasting color back in october of 08.

closer look at my “signature”:

there are very subtle fades of greens and yellows at the bottom of this piece that are nearly impossible to photograph:

speaking of fades. the black toward the top of the piece is krylon ultra flat black. man, ultra flat black has got to be one of the best colors ever invented. notice how the ultra flatness of the spray paint makes the glossy black of the paint marker lines look almost brown. that’s how black this stuff is. WHY, OH WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DISCONTINUE THIS COLOR KRYLON?! WHY?!!!!

a closer shot of the grainy beauty of ultra flat black. this stuff is like velvet. it’s just a beautiful paint. it almost makes me sick that krylon no longer makes it.*

*well, krylon does still make a paint called ultra flat black, but it’s not the same as the old one. in fact, compared to the old one, the new ultra flat black is complete garbage! krylon should be ashamed.

anyway, thank you to the couple who now owns “exit perspective”, and thank you david at objct gallery for showing my work.

36″ X 12″, spray paint and rapidograph on 3mil double matte mylar

while outside of my art studio waiting for spray paint to dry, i decided to have some fun with my trusty canon750.

20 or so composition type shots like this:

and this:

check them out over at my flickr site.

i’m sure that i was under the subconscious influence of this guys work (a long time good friend of mine). his “street”/”bituminous” shots are absolute genius works of color and composition.

white spray paint on glass.  18″ X 30″

reflection view:

during one art-night awhile back, my friend jan (john) was looking through my sketch book picking out the pages he liked best.  among a couple others he chose this as one of the drawings he liked:

he said it reminded him of joan miro. i suppose i can see the connection.  although that wasn’t the motivation behind the drawing, i do love joan miro.  anyway, he told me that i should make a painting of it. at which point i decided that i would paint it and give it to him as a surprise.

well, it took a couple months to get around to it. mainly because of the circumstances i spoke of in my previous post. i did, however, complete it:

12″ X 9″, spray paint and paint marker on galvanized steel.

it’s a simple painting with a simple porcess. but it was fun:

and i love the look of galvanized steel:

on february 1st i, along with my gal trista, moved into a new art sudio. circumstances had become such that i could no longer work at my old studio of 3 years because of the new medium i’m using (spray paint). it was a little sad to leave my old space. a lot of work got done there and it holds a few memories. i shared it with my good friend j. henry huppert and it was always a good environment when we were both there working. located on the second floor of the bokers building in downtown san diego, it was, unlike some of the other spaces in the building, a nice space to work in. it had 2 north facing windows with a good view and good light, beat up wood floors, and a nice little alcove to store finished work. not to mention a convenient, easy to walk to location. but alas, it was not to be. ol’ j. henry’s still holdin down the fort over there though. so i can still go back and visit the space – but it’s a little weird seeing it without all my things in there.

oh well…*head down. kicks dirt*

…good thing my new space is great!

co-owner of device gallery and sculptor greg botherton, and sculptor matt devine, decided to join forces and procure an entire warehouse in barrio logan for the purpose of building new studio spaces.

here’s the outside:

and the view when you walk in the front door (that sign’s from the old device gallery location.  their new space will be here.  they should be back open by may):

my studio is just up the stairs. the one with the door open and the light on:

and a couple more shots of the inside of the warehouse. looking towards the front:

and around that corner and to the right are the wash sink and bathroom:

and here’s a few shots of the reason i had to move in the first place:

and here’s some books with clamps for bookends:

i’m lookin forward to getting some good work done at that table:

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.

here’s some sketches from my art night book. the last time i posted stuff from this book was back in january . so these have all been done since. i usually try to do one every sunday. they’re all done with a 7b graphite pencil and a white charcoal pencil. i love the look and texture of this paper.

in order of completion:

i just finished this painting today. it’s 12″ X 78″, spray paint and paint marker on aluminum. it’s titled “A.D. – 14″. excuse the horribly blurry photo, the ol’ camera’s on it’s last leg.

so, some new developments since the last post. first, i finished my first spray paint on metal piece. it’s called “who’s afraid of red, yellow, blue, purple, orange, green, black, and white (jacks painting)”. the title is referencing robert irwins huge aluminum panel piece called “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³” ** that was built by master fabricator of the art world jack brogan. while working at the MCASD i was fortunate enough to have been able to be a preparator for bob irwins “Primaries and Secondaries” retrospective. while i got to help install many of the pieces for that show, i (along with my pal joey gold) spent the most time (a week) installing the aforementioned “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³”. while installing that piece under the guidance of the man who built it, jack brogan, joey and i got to be pretty friendly with him. this guy’s got so many stories about so many famous artists he’s worked with. he’s been the go to art fabricator in southern california for decades and has built some of the most famous contemporary art pieces. on top of that he’s an extremely humble, easy going, and generous individual. he’s the one who helped me with some of the issues i had about how to go about painting on metal with acrylic, and even gave me a can of aluminum etching primer of his own volition (which i used on this painting).

it took me 4 attempts to get this painting done! the first 3 attempts i mention in the previous post. on that 3rd attempt i made a mistake that screwed it up again and had to start for the fourth time. i got it right after that. here’s the result:

the colors are slightly off in this photo, and there’s a very subtle fade coming off of all the arrows that you can’t really see here. also, this design is based on one of the first arrow deco drawings i did from about 4 years ago.

second bit of news. *sigh* someone robbed my studio of about 30 cans of spray paint that i just bought. FUCKING BASTARDS! i guess i can be thankful nothing else was taken and none of my art was messed with…but damn! KILL!

and finally, to offset the extreme rage of being robbed…i sold a piece! woohoo! a man from atlanta, who obviously has impeccable taste in art, happened upon my site and fell in love with my “city block” drawing. thanks again dan. here’s what he purchased:

i’ll be kind of sad to see this one go, it’s one of my favorites. however, i’m never sad to get paid.

over and out.

** robert irwins piece “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³”