mja home

some highlights

for larger versions and many more photos from that night, click here to go to my flickr

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:

in late january i made my third trek to the mecca.  my mecca at least.  the holy land of decoscrapers, nyc.  official order of business being the robert irwin opening of “red drawing, white drawing, black painting” at the 22nd street pacewildenstein gallery.  unofficial business for the trip…well, just to be in the city i suppose.  but mainly my big plans were to scour the chelsea streets for any and all galleries.  i wanted to overload myself with as much art as i could find.   and i did get overloaded with art, but it wasn’t in chelsea.  it was in midtown.  at the moma.

the moma. it was my first time being there, and i was definitely overwhelmed to say the least. the almost six hours i spent there over 2 days wasn’t nearly enough time as i would’ve liked to have. i say 2 days because the first time i went i got cut short and had to leave. it just didn’t occur to me that a museum of that size would close at 530. pff. just as i was getting to all the good stuff (i could see a fernand leger off in the next gallery) they announced it was closing time. luckily, we had a few more days left of our trip and we made time to go back on friday night – when it’s free! i could’ve spent all my time on the 4th and 5th floors (where all the real action is. at least for me) but i decided that on this trip i’d just try and get through everything so i could see it all. next time i go back i’ll spend more time studying some of the pieces that blew me away. like this one:

or this one:

or this one:

oh, that’s the other thing. i tried to take pictures of every piece that i liked so i could bring them back and share them with you, or whoever hasn’t been lucky enough to go to the moma. as with all art, the photos don’t do even a shred of justice to the experience of seeing the pieces in person. they are merely a representation of what i saw, so that i could better express to you the pieces i loved. like this one:

man, all that futurism and cubism. i could hardly contain my overwhelming glee! plus the temporary exhibitions they were having. like the one on architectural experiments since the 70’s:

or the one on 20th century industrial design:

sigh.

now, there were a few other cool experiences on this trip. like the bob irwin show at pace, going to dinner with bob and and my good pal j.henry huppert (bobs assistant) on the first night, and getting to hang out with edith and jack brogan (jack “master fabricator” brogan (he made the black paintings for bobs show), and edith, jacks wife and an artist herself, are both fine human beings). speaking of the black paintings, here’s a shot of one. this is one of my favorite shots of the show:

those paintings are amazingly flawless. they have to be seen in person to truly appreciate their craft and presence. and speaking of craft, check out the fancy wool dress my doll trista made specifically for the irwin opening:

read more on that over at her sugardale blog.

on our last day we dicided to check out one more museum. the museum of the city of new york is free sunday mornings. which worked out great for us because we were due to leave that night. the show they were having couldn’t have been more suited to trista and i. it was called “Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture 1925-1940″. it wasn’t a large exhibition but it held a few very choice gems from my favorite time period of design. like this:

or this, an actual sketch by one of my all time favorite industrial designers, donald deskey:

unfortunately it was really hard to take photos of the things in that show due to almost everything being behind glass. plus my camera battery died before i could shoot everything i liked.

but, if you’d like to see more of what i did shoot on the trip – like the 2 fat pastrami on rye sandwiches i ate, or the squirrel that tried to climb me like a tree in madison square park, or more views from the robert irwin show – just click below to go to my flickr site.

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.

as per my september 27th post, on oct. 4th my dame was in a fashion show at the museum of contemporary art san diego.

here’s a video of what happened:

so, MY DAME is gonna have some of her designs in a FASHION SHOW at the museum of contemporary art on oct. 4th. the theme is music and technology. her 3 designs are based on 3 eras of vinyl records – 40’s/78rpm, 50’s/33 1/3rpm, 60’s/45rpm.

here’s the 40’s design to represent the 78rpm record. modeled by GUBBA.

click the thumbs for a bigger picture

the black part of the dress is supposed to be the black vinyl of a record, with the white of the collar being the label of the record.

there will also be hats and handbags made of actual records that match each models dress!

you’ll just have to come to the show to see the rest:

yes, it’s free

when: thursday, october 4, 2007
time: 7pm-10pm (the fashion show will run twice, one at 7:30, and one at 8:30)
where: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 1100 Kettner Blvd, Downtown (attached to the santa fe train depot)