Cult 45

First of all, I discovered a fabulous new way to prime my canvases...
plus he's kind of earning his keep this way.
Here's a new piece for an upcoming Robot show "Moe's Moonbar".

Some close ups...


And a little pause to celebrate nature's beauty....

Me and the boys spend our mornings hunting for these guys. It's pretty fun.

Aaaah, morning glories.

And now onto the craziness. We went into L.A. this past Friday for the opening of Gallery 1988's "Crazy for Cult 2". It really was crazy. Nuts to Butts as we say...

Eye Candy overload. Amazing work everywhere!!!

The doorman was a weenie. But that's all I have to say about that.


It was SO hard to manuever around because there were so many people. And yes, it did smell oddly like sausage (thanks Chung for putting yer finger on that one).



Got to hang with my favorite Awesome Asian, the Chung! Big thanks to Dave for waiting for my ass to finally show up!
They were showing old cult movies on the wall in the back alley by projector. That seemed to be where the real party was. Oldskool batman and Colt 45.... now that's an opening! Unfortunately, I was in fear of partaking since there were no public restrooms.

Crazy for Cult

And now, to satisfy my love for both Tim Curry and Drag Queens, I present "Sweet Transvestite Candy". This piece will be at the Gallery 1988 Crazy for Cult show.

It's 15.5" x 24" and will retail for $1500. Mike and I will be in attendance on this one, so hope to see some of you there!

The Good and the Bad

I'll start with the bummer stuff first. So my parents, being the retired, fabulous, drag racing rock stars that they are, leave Thursday night on this four week hiatus to go race at Indy and hit up this awesome car show in Detroit....
and today their house gets broken into. WTF people...My brother is going to stay at the house for the rest of the month, but that just totally blows. AND on top of totally ransacking the house...the douchebags poured bleach all over the carpet. I hope Karma kicks these people in the ass.... bigtime.
Anyway... Mom, Dad... stay up, and have yourselves some fun on the trip... we'll keep an eye on the fort.
Man, there's just such a creepy feeling that comes with this kind of violation.
Anyway, that's my rant. Here are the skate decks. I'll be shipping them off this week. They'll head to Australia... Melbourne & Sydney... then they'll go on to Taipei. Kind of fun.




And on the good tip... lollipop, a couple of weeks back Mike took Dyl by the local firestation to inquire about when they might have an open house for kids to check things out... and Fireman Eric told him, "you can check it out right now". Pretty sweet. So Dylan and I made him a thank you card. I cut out the shape of the truck, and Dyl threw down on the wheels , the window and the ladder. Even did his own cutting. He and Honey dropped it off this past week, and Eric let Dylan see the engine again.

Thank you Fireman Eric! All little boys should have pictures of themselves on a firetruck :)

And, aaah, I do love the summer nights. Nothing beats the boys laughing and running around to the safe, comfortable sound of crickets chirping...

"A cricket's chirp can transend time. You can ride it in your memory back to the summers of youth when the sound blended with the taste of watermelon and the earthly aroma of night. The song of summer usually commences around dusk, sneaking up without fanfare like the dew. One moment there is silence, then the cricket begins his nightly celebration... that sweet, reassuring refrain indicting summer has reached it's zenith"- Mark Sauer


Working on the crazy for cult piece right now. Here's a really big hint...

Damn I love a man in pearls...and drag

Tracing the roots

Finished up one of the skate decks, working on the other one right now. I need to get a proper scan of it.... here's a pic of the top half...
I've been thinking a lot lately about why I chose this profession. It's hard... and it's really hard when you're trying to be a Mom at the same time. But I guess it's always been a part of me, and I really couldn't imagine doing anything else. I thought it might be fun to show a little of my own progression as an artist. I'll start with the first buck I ever earned as an artist. I won a dollar for this contest... I still have it framed today...

Dad bought me my first art book on how to draw Cartoons. I spent hours trying to master them.

Some drawings of my original creations. It's funny to see that my subject matter has remained the same... sexiness & booze.

When I was 15, my parents let me paint my cartoon creations all over the walls of my bedroom. I didn't take art classes in high school... just a lot of ceramics courses. (I had a mad crush on Mr. Bellah the ceramics teacher... he was pretty cool)

After High School I did some time as a camp counselor for fifth and sixth graders. I painted these tree cookies for each of my kids every week. I always wonder if any of them still have their little paintings... jeez, those kids would be in their late twenties now,... probably not.

I started Riverside Community College in the early nineties. Back then, fairies were the subject matter I was drawn to. These are watercolors. Again... naked chicks...

An in-class pastel of a model...

I did a few posters for the NHRA....


Then, in 1998, I started Art Center. Here are a few head studies in charcoal...

Some figure work...

PIRATES!!! From one of my sketchbooks, I thought I'd get into character design at some point.



One of the most sacred pages of my sketchbook.... signed by the man himself :)

I took a summer off during my years at Art Center and for kicks I did these master studies in oils and sold them on Ebay for $300 a pop. They only took a few days to knock out, and it was an excellent way to strengthen my painting skills.... plus I sold 10 of 'em :)
This was a John SInger Sargent "The Sulfur Match"

Rockwell...
A self portrait in oils done that same summer... Man, I need to bust out the oils again....
For a class with Rob Clayton, I painted these stripper portraits onto old cookware. I once had a girl tell me "Oh, I get it... the whole Bitch in the Kitchen thing, right?"

The Marilyn Manson sock monkey.
This is actually the biggest piece I've ever done. I think it's like, 4 feet tall. I was comfortable doing a drawing that size, but painting large really freaks me out.

During school, one of my best friends battled cancer, and lost. I spent a lot of time making art that centered around that experience.

Aah, St. Stoned. My heroes in all their angelic glory.

Well, there was a little walk down my memory lane. It's actually nice to go back and look at some of the things I used to do. Sometimes I'm so busy making art on a deadline, I forget about some of the techniques that I love. Good to refresh my memory :)