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.