Star Wars, Indy, and PeeWee Show

Here they are, with some details not available anywhere else besides my own blog.  I've been working on these for the past few months for the current show at Gallery1988 with the great Bennett Slater (work and prints available to buy here).  It's great to see the buzz on these - people seem to really love them - which is awesome. . . In case you were wondering, they were A LOT of work!  At 130-200 hrs per painting all done by hand, they are the most complicated things I've done (yet), and I'm not one to shy away from complication!  So enjoy, nit pick, relive the Spielbergian/Lucasian genius in all it's glory. 

To the trilogies!!

"Paths of Hope", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Hope" detail

"Paths of Empire", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Empire" detail

"Paths of Return", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Return" detail

"Paths of Raiders", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Raiders" detail

"Paths of Doom", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Doom" detail

"Paths of Crusade", 18.5" x 22", gouache on paper

"Paths of Crusade" detail

Collaboration with Bennett Slater
"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting", 18" x 24"
Acrylic and oil on wood 

"And Knitting, and Knitting, and Knitting" detail

"North by Northwest Passage" for Alfred Hitchcock Show, "Suspense and Gallows Humor"

"North by Northwest Passage"

22" x 22" Gouache on paper

 I've loved "North by Northwest" for a since the first time I saw it - the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota.  So - I thought I'd throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie - the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn't find reference for (but for "North by Northwest", I figured I'd take a little liberty).  Also not included are the 1212 Michgan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood.    Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.  Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the '51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the '52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in.  I took color from the footage to get some of that "technicolor" feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass' opening credit arrows to show the action.

Anywho - the show opens at the Gallery1988 Venice location on April 13th!

(detail)

progress - pencils to color blocking, to black line on top

The remnants of my notes.

Rumbletoid

My friend and Philadelphia consiglieri Josh Longo is now posting for LostAtEMinor and was very generous in throwing up some of my Freddie Mercury portraits for the New Illustration section.  VIVA FREDDIE!! And thanks, Josh!  But enough about me - let's talk about Josh.  Josh is an industrial designer and teaches at Pratt in the ID studios next door to the Communication Design Dept and sometimes stops by my class on Mondays.  We share bus rides back and forth from Philly to Pratt in Brooklyn - and like schoolgirls on a sleepover, we say we should sleep and then talk the whole time.  

     Josh has a pretty amazing CV based mostly on his 3D work in Longoland, but for the past few years he's been doing what most of us illustrators talk about, but never REALLY do - and that's branch out.  He's been developing his 2D work and is doing some amazing stuff.  Not to say that Josh wasn't already great at drawing - he was - but moving from drawing as a preliminary for 3D work, and doing drawing and painting as a finish in and of itself is a really interesting difference.  It's been fascinating to watch.  We have a lot of similar influences and his stuff has inspired a lot of the more recent painting I've been doing and vice-versa, which is a blast.  The way he attacks pieces and compositions reminds that it's supposed to be fun - that the if a piece doesn't have intuition, that it's probably lacking in inspiration, too.  If you haven't already, check out rumbletoid - and check out his sketchbooks.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show

This weekend I had the pleasure of setting up my "One Hour of TV a Week" Show at Gallery 543 in Building 543, a communal space for the headquarters of URBN Inc (which for the uninitiated encompasses Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People and Terrain) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard .  The space is . . . pretty amazing.  Coi ponds?  Yup.  40 ft tall bamboo indoors?  Yup?  Handy parking for WWII era aircraft carriers?  You better believe it.  You can also get a good cup of coffee and tasty lunch if you want to make a day of it.

I want to extend a big thank yous to: Lauren Addis for her support of the show and allowing me to do an extended setup (and make an extended mess), Josh Longo (of Longoland fame) for helping paint boats and put on the finishing touches, and most of all to Michelle Provencal who not only put up with my turning our apartment into a disaster zone, but who also helped out this past week with all the last minute preparations that I never would have been able to finish on my own (as well as my manic stress-isodes).  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

On to the show!!  So - some of you may recognize a few of the pieces from the "History of the World" show that was up earlier this year created with Owen Sherwood.  Initially, this show was going to be my half of that show, but - I like doing work - and wanted to repurpose some of the more autobiographical pieces from "History" into a different slant. So with a few new pieces and tweaks on old ideas, here's the "One Hour of TV a Week" show.

A little stage setting . . .

Is that . . . ? Yes, you're correct.  That is an aircraft carrier
looming outside of that large glass window.

"I'll Stop If You Stop", Latex Paint (thanks Josh!)

"National Little League" and "Bicentennial"

"I'll Stop if you Stop" detail

"I Hate Brian Smith", 6" x 6" drawings on paper.  

The story is - I got beat up by Brian Smith a lot.  Many bloody
noses - most of them deserved - I was a tag-along crybaby.  And I'm
still trying to get the last word in 23 years later.  Eat it Smith.

"Cancer" and "Magic 2"

"Magic 2" detail

"Cancer" detail

"A Concept of Four at Two" and "Magic" with the model planes I made and painted,
with help from the lovely Michelle Provencal.

p.s. - Do you know how small the landing gear is on a 1/144 scale plane?
About the size of this "I" with two "O"s on either side.  Teensy.

On the left are two new paintings - "Duplex" and "Ghostrunners" (shown in
my previous post)

"Duplex" detail - That's our old duplex featuring our upstairs duplex mate, Mrs. Maynard.
She was a nice old lady who kept to herself - we rarely saw her but well into her seventies she'd be
out shoveling snow at five in the morning if there was snow to shovel.

"Mango's, 1988", Latex Paint.  This is my squad from 1988 when I was ten and my
first team after I left National Little league for Twin Town Little League in the hinterlands
of upstate NY.

My little workstation for people to make cannonballs featuring: gliders as a reward for cannonball making,
my old D&D wallet (thanks Kate Glasheen), a vintage Queen postcard (thanks Colin O'Higgins), an old gas can I love (thanks N.C.), Wiffle Ball boxes (thanks Jen and Jed Heuer) and some childhood favorite books from Mom and Dad.

And to finish, I'll take an aircraft carrier and jet combo.

Make it a double.

"One Hour of TV a Week" Show Dec 6th!

Im getting ready for my new show at the URBN campus in building 543 next week!  At this point it's half panic, half excitement getting ready for the install.  The show is really based on a lot of childhood images: little league, toys, fights . . . ahh . . . the good times.  So if you're around the city of Brotherly Love on December 6th (or anytime through the first week in January) swing by the amazing URBN campus down in the Navy Yard (pretty amazing in it's own right) and check out the new stuff!

"Ghostrunners" 22" x 22", gouache on BFK

Video Gamery

"Forget-me-not", an homage to the blessed konami code, savior of the weekend Contra player.

"Nailbiter on Custom Track 'Hunter'"

As a kid who grew up with NPR, and only one hour of TV a week my only contact with video games was at friends' houses.  It was much treasured.  So here's my two contributions to the genre from the iam8bit show and the video game show at Gallery1988 Venice opening Friday the 16.  God bless Nintendo.

Wet Hot American Summer Show! (and website update)

The Wet Hot American Summer Show opened up at Gallery1988, and my "Camp Firewood" map sold!  Yahoo!  I love doing these maps - they're a little bit of a nightmare, but gratifying when they're done.  My "History of the World" buddy, Dr. Owen Sherwood, contributed these guys (below) which look pretty sweet too - and if you want the Michael Showalter as Alan Shemper, too bad.  It's already gone.  Check out all the piece on the Gallery1988 site.

 

And . . . I have updated my site with some new goodies if you want to see, including some more of the History of the World show, as well as new editorial.

Ronnie + Excitebike - 80's Bonanza!

"Endangerous", 22" x 28", Gouache on BFK

Thought I'd post another piece from the "History of the World" I just got around to tiling together from the scans.  Thank god Pratt has those big scanners and I had Matt Maher helping me out.  On a side note of self horn-tooting, Owen and I got nice write up in the Albany Times Union about the show!

Plus on a side note, here's a preview of part of my submission for the iam8bit Show out in LA.  I chose Excitebike - which for some reason was the most nerve wracking game I've ever played.  I just remember trying to push down on the gas so had my thumbs would be sweating and cramping.  What's more fun than that I ask you?!