The Show with No Name

Saddle Up!

This is an upcoming show at the Catalyst Art Space (where we had the "Prehistoric Show"previously), this time themed around Spaghetti Westerns. In case you didn't see the Community episode "A Fistful of Paintballs", westerns in a contemporary setting still rockin' something fierce!

To get several of the artists acclimated to tone of Westerns steeped in Spaghetti, I put together a DVD that we showed during early planning meetings. They featured clips, trailers, and posters from "The Good the Bad and the Ugly," "A Bullet for the General," "Once Upon a Time in the West," and "Navajo Joe" and others. The Italian directors of the time really established a unique and recognizable aesthetic that we hope to showcase in the show.

Something's strange is afoot. 

Just as a teaser, we will have our resident makeup artist (who did the cavegirl makeup in the last show) apply her magic to make a select group of us all rugged (and possibly shot ;).

There will also be a olde-time photo-op space for folks with some Western themed ephemera to get a fancy photo-graph taken too!

Stay tuned through the invite on Facebook EVENT PAGE here and be ready for a fine roundup, July 9th at 7:00!

[edit: WANTED POSTERS of the Artists!]

"Captured"-- as in art form... get it~?  :le sigh:

I hope Dog the Bounty Hunter (or Boba Fett) don't take these posters too seriously~

The Lawmen will get their metal.

[I'll post up previews of the piece I'll be contributing as updates in this post. It'll feature a mix of Tuco from "Good, Bad, Ugly" and the classic 8-bit game "Wild Gunman"]

[a Preview of artworks on display:]

by Christina Rincon

by Christina Rincon

My old "Old Man and the Mountain"

Chris Houghton's "Reed Gunther"!

[Our increasing collection of Western accouterments:]

[Construction of our hitching post. Oversize pony riders please inform us beforehand ;]

And if you got the kind of pony tends to get lost easy, find the the gallery here:

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The Art of Artifiction

A Brief Prehistory of Time

These are some photos from an art show I was in at Catalyst art space: "Prehistoric Artifictionn" 

Ideally these pics would have been posted much earlier, but I was doing some up-to-the-minute hand building for the construction of a fullsize cave installation in the show.

The cave was constructed inside an adjacent room to the gallery made out of cardboard supported by easels, make-it-stone spray, expanding insulation foam, and live ferns.
The audio aspect of the installation, with help from Abel Stearns, featured a collection of "prehistoric" sounds (drips, echo, growls) provided by a hidden amp in the room. The lighting was partially recessed and angled to cast long shadows and illuminate higher areas of the cave and stalagmites.
Many thanks goes out to Jeremy Parsons and Jackson Root for helping me construct this crazy thing.

The postcard from the past at top was also something I digitally painted for the show. Something time travelers might appreciate~

Pre-set up photos:

Testing the Make-it-Stone Spray

Jeremy takes some process pics 

The small room being prepped for "cave in" 

The show also included live actors dressed as prehistoric people and music:

Make-up artist Tammie Rupe apply prosthetics to our Cavegirl.

 A view after patrons contributed their cave paintings.

 Prehistoric Picasso Tim leaves his mark

This dino's right on the money

 The contemprary Venus of Willendorf is a bit more conservative

 "Sssssimbaaaaa!"

A view facing out from the Cave

Josh Kemble adds a great piece where Deleks wipe out the Dinosaurs

Curator Corazones Christina's Caveman!

I saved this Universal Studios' Jurassic Park ID badge
from when i was 9, just for this purpose.

If you enjoy this type of interactive show, the next theme is going to "Spaghetti Western", so keep your eyes peeled pilgrims!

Night of the Life Zombies

Whoop... got your nose!

Staying in the Halloween-ish theme, here are some sketches from last Thursday's Zombie life drawing session at The Catalyst art space. They did a good job with make-up and got some folks to play victims too. I'm usually not much of a gore fan... but it would be an interesting exercise to employ some anatomy memory and draw exposed muscles and such too. eh.

Wish I knew about this impromptu session earlier-- I know a few aficionados of the zombie craze.

Drawing on toned paper's something I haven't done much of but I'm getting to appreciate it a bit more. White-out helps a bunch to make it kick... or bite.

Great expressions from the model and "victim"

Fun with watercolor travel kit and my new parallel pen. Great way to make thin lines and fill in blacks quick.

The guy w/ dapper 'stache dreaming about r2 wasn't there, just needed to fill sketchbook space~

An All-American Astro Ape

Chimps in the Mist

Now it's time to turn out attention to the good ole' US Space Program after the Soviet inspired stuff. I found an image online of this chimpanzee in the modern orange NASA Launch Entry Suit and wished there was a poster. I couldn't find one after many a Google search so decided to just paint it. It was started a couple years ago and forgotten until I recently dusted it off, gave it a coat of paint, threw it outside, and took a picture.

Seeing the similarities to the previous "Soviet Space Monkey," this just might be the start of another series. Whatever the name, it will likely need to end with

"... in SPACE !"

[A rare image of the Space Monkey in his more natural habitat...]

"American Astro Ape" 2010

22" x 28"Acrylic on Canvas in the Bushes

This will be on display along with many fine works in the theme of Portraits by the talented staff of Art Supply Warehouse this Sunday (9/12) . Their new counterpart creative space CATALYST, recently opened doors and is located in the same plaza. Find more about it and directions here.

I'll post up pics with less foliage from the show. If you're local to town, come check it out! The painting itself will feature a bonus little addendum piece at the gallery... You'll just have to come to see! (or... y'know, just wait for the pics :/).

Some other cool space monkeys:

- Apelad [A. Koford]! (his Twitter feed is more frequent and funnier than most comedians)

- "Space Chimp" video for World Wildlife Fund! (I still think of wrestling if I spell WWF)

- SpaceMonkey.NO ! ("No" for "No.rway"..! Art and Story contributor Kim Holm's chose-your-own-adventure comic strip)

- This old article on BoingBoing features the image which sparked my initial interest in space simians (appearing ever briefly in the Special Features section on the Borat DVD)

'Daily' Sketches and Demo

"Daily" sketches:

I purposely left those quote marks as a sort of disclaimer that I'll do my best to keep up! These inks are a means to practice using some good ole analog tools, namely brushes, nibs, and pens. A great way to warm up the hand before doing more heady illustration, I've taken a cue from the talented GoGoIllustration sketch blog. They sure seem to be upping the ante as a group-- their work getting more polished with backgrounds/color!

In trying to keep these pretty casual and to stay interested, I wanted to pull inspiration from the things I liked most as a kid-- the stuff that reminds you why you wanted to draw all day in the first place... So I decided to start with characters that I've dressed up as during Halloween and other events in my childhood and some *ahem* more recently. Except for Yoda, I've donned some home made fabrication of these characters at one time or another. Maybe on my 900th birthday, I'll give the good old Yoda ears a whirl...

I think I'd like to keep the 'Dalies' in a separate sphere from this blog for now, but if you'd like to see them so far, check out the Flickr photo set. I update when I post a new one on the Twitter as well.

My buddy Ralph who I worked with on the drawing female space cadets has also been inspired enough to start his own blog with daily ink sketches as well (he's been more dedicated, no quotes around the 'daily' in his title or practice~) See his inks here: www.ralphious.blogspot.com

'Creatives Gone Wild' during Arty Gras:

This Saturday I'll be doing a watercolor demonstration for Grumbacher watercolors at a local art store. There's a ton of activities to choose from during Art Supply Warehouse's annual Arty Gras Sale (3/5 - 3/7) in sunny Orange County (err..rain or shine). Check out their schedule of demos and 'make-and-take's on their Facebook page. It's 25% off pretty much everything in the store so if you're in need of any art materials, now is the time to load up :] Learn about some new techniques and tools out there too!

There's also a show opening featuring the local talent from ASW in a gallery in the same plaza. I'll have a piece in there as well which relates to the comic anthology story I mentioned a couple posts ago. It's the first time in a long while to do some 'real' painting so I was glad to have the opportunity. The gallery event has a very fun theme: "Sideshow"-- which interestingly enough, it certainly is, next to the big sale events.

I hope they have a clown.. preferably robot.