Blue Shadow on the Trail

"Arizona moon keep shining
From the desert sky above
You know pretty soon
That big yellow moon
Will light the way back to the one you love.

Blue shadows on the trail
Little cowboy, close your eyes and dream
All of the doggies are in the corral
All of your work is done
Just close your eyes and dream little pal
Dream of someone

Boom boom boom boom...

Blue shadows on the trail
Soft wind blowing through the trees above
All the other little cowboys
Back in the bunkhouse now, so
Close your eyes and dream"

Since I am doing a series of Cult Cinema paintings, "Three Amigos" MUST be a part of it. It's easily one of my favorite movies and I felt this scene sums the whole thing up for me. It's funny, sincere, and completely ridiculous. Remember when these 3 guys were funny? I miss those days. It would be nice to have another painting go with this, maybe a portrait of El Guapo, and of course his sweater. We'll see what gets pumped out in the next couple of weeks. It's been really nice to finish this painting. I started it in September. Work picked up in a big way this Fall and sucked all of my free time for painting. I think this summer was some kind of record for me on how many pieces I cranked out. I am hoping the next few weeks I will be able to pick up the pace a bit with some new art.

Update on Gallery, looks like this March might work out for a show in Long Beach. Stay tuned for that. Also, if anyone is interested in a reproduction of this one ( or any of these paintings ) be sure to let me know. I am testing the desire of making lithos of my work.

Thanks for checking out the site, and being patient for this long awaited update.

"....Good night Ned"

She-Man

"By the power of GaySkull, ...I have the power!!"

Fun times with this one, it's been something I wanted to paint for a few months and finally cranked it out. I just thought it would be cool to see two icons from opposite sides of the little kid toy world spectrum come together. Masters of the Universe meets My Little Pony. Why not?

It was a real trip to really study the He-Man figure features for this painting. I pretty much had the entire collection of MOTU as a kid, total flashback for me. It was crazy how something you haven't seen for 25 years could be so familiar, every detail. I forgot how squished up his ugly face was. As for the Pony, I didn't really follow that show/toys as a kid in the 80's. I wasn't sure if there was a main Character that I should use, but it doesn't matter. I know the young ladies LOVED them for some reason, I think I found a good Pony for our Hero.

If you played with Masters of the Universe as a kid like I did, take a look at this website I found. It totally calls out the makers of reusing molds for the other figures. Pretty funny.

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/2689/

M I C, see ya real soon! K E Y, why so serious?

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Here we have the leader of the club, Mickey Mouse, an agent of chaos. Toontown needs a better class of criminal and he's gonna give it to them. His operation is small, but there's a lot of potential for Disneyland "aggressive" expansion.

ok, ok, I'll stop. I can go on, but I will spare you. This one pretty much is what it is. Taking a world famous corporate icon and mixing it with a instant modern classic of pop culture, and here you go. The idea to paint this came to me completely by accident this weekend while painting a mural in a kids room for a friend. I smeared some red on Mickey's face and thought, "HEY, that looks kinda like the joker." Two days later hear you go.

I've been asked already if I'm going to make this into a T-shirt. Well, no, but I am looking into making reproductions of this for sure. Hit me up if you would be interested, any of these paintings actually. But this will also most likely be on the invite for the upcoming gallery.

Hopefully we will see that soon. Stay tuned.

The Sausage Queen of Chicago

Needless to say, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is one of my favorite movies, I am pretty religious about this flick. When I started this series of Nerd/Cult movie babes, Sloane Peterson was one of the must haves on the top of this list. The basic idea for these paintings is to pick my favorite ladies from my favorite movies and to do a stylized pin up, slutty version of their character. Just like Jennifer from BTTF, I try to capture their character more than doing a portrait of the actress playing her. Once I get that I cram the painting with as many references from the movie I can fit in. And there are plenty of things from this movie. If you catch them, great. If not, that's ok, just enjoy the sluttiness I guess. But I think most of the items in this are pretty basic to anyone who has seen it. It is no doubt a classic.

I had some fun with this one, doing some homework and constantly pausing scenes from the movie on my mac. For example I wanted to know what was the Parade in the middle of the City when they filmed this. Turns out it is a real Parade they do in Chicago called the "Von Steuben Day Parade". Kind of like an Oktoberfest, hence all the German stuff in the scene. I wanted to get some accuracy in there for that one. But in the middle of doing this "research" I found a cool website that answers questions I didn't even think to ask.

If you're into Ferris, you should check this out...
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/09/51/ferris-buellers-day-off.html

It brought up the question "If Ferris took the name Abe Fromen and his party of 3, why didn't the sausage king of Chicago show up?" and "how the hell was he allowed to get on the float and do two rehearsed performances?" The writer reminds us that in the very beginning of the movie we see Ferris in the shower rehearsing for his Danke Shane number. Anyway, if your into that stuff, check out that site.

And if you're in to these paintings stay tuned for "Andy" from the Goonies. She's askin' for it.

Ed Rooney, "Cheese in the Wind"

Right after watching Ferris Bueller this week to get some inspiration for this (and the painting of Sloane) I heard the sad news of the passing of John Hughes. His movies definitely had a real vibe to each of them. You could tell a John Hughes right away when you saw it, they all had a lot of heart. They all just made sense and felt good. Quite the legacy left behind by that guy.

One of those legacies was the character of Ed Rooney. What I think to be one of cinema's greatest villains. Now I know he didn't actually carry a slice of Swiss Cheese in the movie, but it's based off one of his greatest lines. This may not be one of those paintings where you get it right away. But if you do, your mind is random like mine. If you don't get it, here is what I found on Urban Dictionary's website....

"Cheese in the wind' was first uttered by Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's day off.

Someone is 'leaving your cheese in the wind' when they do any of the following:

A. Ruin your fun; be a wet blanket/buzz-kill
B. Flout your dignity/authority
C. Dismiss you/hang you out to dry
D. Deny you sexual satisfaction (whether intentional or not)

"I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind!"

Cereal Killers

I did this one a few years back when I was living in Huntington Beach. It's a play on words that has been spoofed a few times lately, but here is my shady little take on it. This made it into the OC Fair Visual Arts Gallery in 2006. I thought I would get a little more guff from the Irish folk for having some fun with stereotypes and the Lucky Charms guy. But I suspect this would be the gang that hangs out in the back alleys of the Kelloggs plant in the wee hours of the night, up to no good and looking for trouble. And when you think about it, isn't anyone who is THAT coo coo for anything a little cracked out? Except those who are coo coo for cartarsauce, that's ok.

1.21 jigaHOTs

"Oh La La, OH LA LA??"

What we have here is more than a crotch shot in purple Calvin Kleins. It's the start of what I hope to be a series of babes from nerd movies. Starting with Jennifer from Back to the Future, this one also features a handful of visuals from the movie. I modeled it after the actress Claudia Wells from the first movie. Nothing against Elizabeth Shoe, she's great and all but I think all nerds know that the girlfriend from the first movie is way hotter. I wasn't really going for a photo realistic painting of her though, it's not my thing to do portraits of people. But I did want a bit of her likeness. Just enough for when you see it, then notice what's around it, you get it. My goal was to make a modern pin up stylized painting of that character, and surround her in the nerdy world of BTTF. I made sure to put things from all 3 movies in here. This would be my idea of Marty McFly's room, as if Marty just left. It is 10:04pm after all, he has a Clock Tower to race to.

Part of what got me thinking of this series was some inspiration from this year's Comic Con. Ideally it would be great to get twelve different paintings like this and offer a Calender to sell there. Or even just reproductions of each. I think that if there was ever a market for this type of art, that would be the place. So anyway, stay tuned for more of this type of work. My next one like this will most likely be Mia Sara from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Ferris definitely has the iconic room to pull it off.

Here are some other characters I'd like to give this treatment. Can anyone think of any others? ( Leia is too obvious, I left her off )
Phebe Cates from Fast Times
Elizabeth Swan from Pirates
Casandra from Wayne's World
Jessica Alba from Sin City
Veronica Corningstone from Anchorman
Christie Brinkley from Vacation
Elizabeth Berkly from Showgirls or/and Saved by the Bell

Fun Stuff.

Exit Stage Left, Even!

"Heavens to Murgatroyd!" It's a bust at a local highway rest area. This is where we find our friend Snagglepuss, we all knew he had a problem. I just wish that the Hanna Barbera gang had that intervention they had been talking about for years now. It's a real shame.... "even".

This is number two in what I plan to be four paintings based on these guys. The remaining victims will most likely be QuickDraw McGraw and Baba Louie at the local TJ Donkey Show and maybe Auggie Doggie & Daddy Doggie in court for some "sensitive family problems". I don't know if even I have the balls for that one. It might just be a series of three. We shall see. It may depend on the feedback from these guys if i should push it any further. Fun stuff as always, enjoy!

Smarter Than Your Homicidal Maniac

Taking a break from the Cult Cinema paintings but still in the Pop Vein, I felt like doing something to bring out the "Itchy& Scratchy" in me. The thought being what if Yogi actually snapped and made sure he got the picnic basket. I mean seriously, who the hell does the Ranger think he is anyway? He's dealing with a wild bear in the forest for cryin' out loud! I think Yogi's natural bear instincts have kicked in and what you see is what happens when you mess with bears. It's not good. Boo Boo on the other hand is still a little unsure because his murdering instincts haven't kicked in yet. His huge purple bow tie cracks me up for some reason though. So maybe consider this a public service message of sort, if you see a bear in Jellystone National Park, just let him have the Picnic Basket. Time to get off your high horse ranger, should have let him have the f'ing picnic basket. Were you even going to eat it? Jerk.

And for the record can I just say that Hanna Barbera sucks. For some reason I never liked it, I did give it a shot. I think I watched the Flintstones and Jetsons when i was 5 for a bit. But I always felt it was so weak compared to other stuff out there. I felt Mickey, Donald and Goofy owned it, followed closely with Bugs Bunny & Co. I just wish Mickey and them and the awesome violence that Looney Toons had. Anyway, enjoy.

Up next is another portrait of a Hanna Barbera "masterpiece", Snagglepuss. Oh the possibilities, he might be the gayest cartoon character of all time. ( excluding Big Gay Al of course )

Conan Republic

I've been meaning to paint this one ever since I heard Conan O'Brien was moving to LA to do his show. I felt it was appropriate to have some fun with the Masturbating Bear on our CA Flag. It kind of just made sense. My hidden agenda with this one is to somehow get it to him and maybe score some tickets for me and my friends. And if I knew it would actually get to him, I would give him the original. I mean, he is only one of the funniest people on the planet. If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, you have been missing out on some funny stuff. Time to start catching up on some Conan.

There is no Dana, there is only Zuul

This is the 2nd in what might be a Triptic, Or Holy Trinity of Ghostbusters if you will. Not sure if I want to donate that much time to this movie at once. Don't get me wrong, it's in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, but I need to spread it out a little. Maybe someday I will come back and do one of Zuul herself, and one of the Demon Dogs. Lewis would be fun to do to. But anyway, here is Dana Barrett at the top of Spook Central. It would be fun to do a series of babes from movies in this style.

GALLERY UPDATE: talking to some people about having a show in Old Town Orange. At first I was thinking early fall 09. But the space might not be available then, so it may get moved up to August. Which is the main reason for me to be cranking so much work out lately. As long as work stays at a normal level and doesn't get too nuts I can keep up this trend of a painting a week. I've been a real slave to the canvas lately.... so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Who You Gonna Call?

It's been rough trying to find time to get some more canvas painted this year. May has been crazy busy. But I was able to crank this out this week. I actually started it in Feb and did the bottom half, but let it sit for a few months. Having the OC Fair around the corner will always set a fire under my ass. So this will hopefully be showing in the Visual Arts area of this years fair. I need to drop it off on June 19th.

So anyway, Ghostbusters, easily one of my favorite movies. Probably in my top 5 movies of all time. My goal was to give it a pop surrealism feel to it, I'm not sure if it's as strong as I hoped. My other goal was to not make it feel like nerdy fan art. I'm not trying to say that it is not nerdy, it is VERY nerdy, but that's why I wanted to paint it. But there are some dorks out there that crank out some really bad stuff based on their favorite nerd movie. We've all seen it, and I hope this is a couple steps above that type of art. It was fun to paint, I would like to do a series of paintings done in this style. Probably a Caddyshack, Back to the Future, etc. But this painting made me really want to do a 2nd Ghostbusters painting that just has a stylized "Dana" looking all possesed and sexy. Maybe Zule in the back, huh?

Get Back

I knew I always wanted to do a piece based on the Beatles but wasn't sure how to do it. After seeing "Love" in Vegas I was inspired to pump this one out. I wanted something that tried to capture a little bit of each era of this band. It's based on some famous shots of them on the roof of their Apple Records in London performing "Get Back". Which also happens to be the last time they all played together as the Beatles. Lot's of references in this one... there is the black birds flying above, war torn Liverpool in the back, the early days of "help" jumping in front, line art from Yellow Submarine, Ringo's drum has the faint left over art from Sgt. Peppers. Fun stuff. As far as bands go, I'd love to someday do a DMB, Sublime or U2 painting. Someday.

Malice in Wonderland

I painted this one when I lived in Huntington, it is kind of the second in a series. The first one being Dorothy, and the next one is a yet to be painted Sleeping Beauty. I plan on doing that one with our famous princess in silk sheets and a bottle of sleeping pills. That one is on deck. But this piece I am a fan of. The model is Joanna Krupa, one of my favorites if you couldn't tell. Lot's of little things about this one, you have the pervy Mad Hatter whispering nothing but bad ideas in her ear. You have the Tweedles holding hands, they were always a little gay to me. The huka was a must, now that i think about it I wish I painted a catipillar on it. And I think when I show this at a gallery I want to get a real bottle of Jack and recreat this label for it. I just know one of my alcohalic friends will take it. Oh well.

Kamakura Samurai

Ever since my trip to Japan in 05 and o6 I really wanted to paint the Hokusai woodblock print of the great wave. I thought... why WOULDN'T a samurai surf that thing? When I was out there with Sarah and Phil we stumbled upon this surfer town, Kamakura. It's where that huge Buddha is. It was basically the Japanese San Clemente. That city was the main influence in this painting. The Hello Kitty surfboard is a little tribute to my old boss Dave Earick. Plus I wanted to add a modern touch to it so I added the Tokyo Tower next to Fuji. Japan Rocks, I want to go back.

The Usual Suspects

I started this set last year, and needed to take a break from it. Haven't really touched in in months. Each one is 5"x 5". I wanted to have at least 8 more pieces in this set. But I think I will be keeping this as Series One and leave it at that. I have been working on making a character design that it recognizable, but ridiculously simple. It's a challenge for me but this type of art really inspires me. There are some artists out there that are REALLY good at it. Who would have thought how hard it is to make something so simple. If you haven't figured it out, each of these "suspects" are characters from Disneyland based on rides. I am trying not to do the ones that are famous from movies, but famous for not being from movies. Minus Indy and Dumbo, but how can I leave them out?? There are a few more characters that need to be hit up, stay tuned for that. This will definitely be part of my Gallery. I am not sure if it will only be sold as a set, or each one on it's own.

The Fast Supper

This was my first painting that I feel really got a lot of recognition. It won Jurors Choice at the OC Fair in 2004. Even while I was drawing it out, a lot of the old ladies in my Art Class at CSUF were getting nervous because they knew I was doing some sort of spoof to a religious painting. It was about the time I painted the face on Jesus in white, and put clown make up on when they finally had their heart attack. To me this has nothing to do with Christianity, it's more about the Religion of Fast Food. I painted it because I has almost no money and always needed to grab a bite around campus. I felt that these commercial icons were my disciples. Plus I was listening to Jason Mraz Fast Food Nation song a lot while making this one. When people see this, there is usually at least one character they don't recognize, which blows me away because sadly I feel like these bums raised me. There have been about a million spoofs of the Last Supper, but I felt I had to throw mine in the mix. This piece was bid on by a few people, but I ended up hanging onto this one. I have sold quite a few reproductions of this one tho, it's one of my favorites.

Dorothy

This was my first painting that I sold. I painted it while at CSUF, like most of my older pieces. I really miss having those 6 hour studio classes everyday. I was cranking out paintings like crazy. The model was based from a pose in Maxim Magazine, some hotty that stood out to me. The original was sold to an awesome guy who put it up at his store in the Arty area of Long Beach. I don't think they are in business any more. But when I sell a piece I make sure to get a high res picture of it, so I can reproduce it whenever. I'd still like to show it when I have another Gallery, it's one of my favorites.

"Love Thy Neighborino"

First painting of 2009, I painted this with the hopes that I could get it in Gallery 1988 on Melrose in LA. They have the absolute coolest themed shows. First one I saw was the "Crazy For Cult part 2", paintings based on Cult Cinema. Fucking A! Next show I saw there was "Under the Influence: Art of the Beastie Boys". That's when I found out that there was a show coming up in the Spring themed around Guilty Pleasure TV. Not that the Simpsons is a "guilty" pleasure, it's just something that i watch religiously. I think something based on the Office will be good too, I might just be doing a Dwight painting in the near future. So all that led me to do this, why? because Ned Flanders might be the coolest guy of all time, minus all the hardcore Christian extremest bullshit of course, but isn't that part of his charm? I thought something that looks like a Guadalupe religious painting would be good for the little guy, and then Rod & Todd as naked angel babies had to happen too, and capped off with a tribute to his long lost Maude. Anyway, here it is. Fun Stuff.

Let's get it on!

Tryin something a little new here. Thinking about having this blog start to replace the Art website. After talking to Menze today at Jury Duty ( ugh! ) I've come to realize the website was distracting to the Art. I was trying to make the website itself part of the Art and it was just getting in the way. So here we go. Let's give this shit a shot.