John Lennon: Just Imagine

Thirty-one years ago today John Lennon was tragically murdered in New York City after recently returning from a nearly four-year hiatus from music.  I just finished up my portrait of the musician inspired my his music, his politics, his poetry and passion.  The portrait will be featured today at Rock Star Martyr, where there will be an article about Lennon by Joebot as our collaborative series continues today memorializing the dearly departed legends of popular music.  The year is almost over and our series brought to a close so I'll be looking for a gallery setting to display these works next year as we polish things up and prepare to format the entire series into a book format!  

inks on bristol / 2011

Can you tell what imagery is influenced by which songs and facets of John's life?

Click HERE for the Official John Lennon Website!

Click HERE for the Official Rock Star Martyr Website!

Click HERE for a Stream of ALL of my Rock Star Martyr Portraits!

 Here are some process pictures from my initial sketch and a few of my favorite tracks which have touched me from the man himself...

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Illustration Friday: Sun Mantra

Round is the theme for this week from Illustration Friday. The illustration I chose to share today incorporates a few unique concepts and is called "Sun Mantra." This triptych is from 2008 though I've not displayed or framed it as of yet.

Sun Mantra / inks on bristol / 2008

The tiny peace sign in the middle of the sun you may recognize as my branded symbol made out of bones which you see all over my site. The element found its way into a couple of other works the past couple of years and I drew the peace sign again by itself late last year to begin using as sort of a signature for many of my designs and promotional materials. The strongest element of this composition though is the gradation of the eyes around the inside of the sun. These eyes cycle through a spectrum of grey tones and give much life, movement and visual context to the work.

Click HERE for a Stream of ALL of this Year's Illustration Friday entries!

Power to the Peaceful with Gikuyu

This past Sunday, I got to kick it with my long-time friend and fellow author/artist, Gikuyu in a little passing through party at Chad Spann's house as he headed down to The Big Easy.  I employed Chad to get a few shots of G's new ink which our buddy Lance Hale put on him Saturday.  It was a nice surprise for me since the tattoo was of a drawing I did a couple years back with the slogan "Power to the Peaceful."

Click HERE for the photography of Chad Spann!

Click HERE for Gikuyu's published work!

Click HERE to contact Lance Hale about your next tattoo!

PEACE Stickers!

I just got in my brand spankin' new foil stickers this week and have been distributing them accordingly.  I got plenty left and wanted to make them available here through DREGstudios.com!  The stickers are 3in  x 3in and superchromeshiny with my patented Peace Sign you see plastered all over my page.

I'm totally stoked about these bad boys- they pOp!

I'll mail you 2 PEACE STICKERS today for $3 (FREE shipping) They're yours for the taking if you want 'em!

Click on the picture to see the pocket lint!

Ain't got three bucks?  I need stickers too to fill up my trusty filing cabinet.  Email me at dregstudios@gmail.com for my snail mail address and I'll send you a sticker when you send me one!

Room to grow and room to show... add to the collection- I love to trade!

Illustration Friday: We the People

We're doing an Illustration Monday today here at DREGstudios! since I just got back from New Orleans last night from my Southern Pop Surrealism Exhibit!  I'm getting caught up on things, so here we go...

The theme this week at IF is "Gesture."  Instantaneously, this work came to mind from my Sacred Texts series from a few years back which feature imagery drawn on pages from The Holy Bible.  (Click HERE for my artist's statement on this body of work.)

"We the People" inks on pages from The Holy Bible / 2007

The idea behind this piece originally came from a painting I did in 2006 for an exhibit I curated, called We the People at The Icehouse Cafe in Clarksville.  This group exhibit featured a slew of local artists and we held a voter registration drive at which Chris Lugo, a Green Party candidate spoke to the audience.  The painting consisted of three panels as above, but the panels themselves were also chained together.

Al Jaffee: Master of the Fold-In Turns 90!

Fold-In Portrait of Al Jaffee (inks on bristol / 2011)

Today is the 90th birthday of illustrator and MAD magazine staple Al Jaffee..  The magazine made a call for folks to send cards, illustrations, poems, and whatever you like to celebrate this legend today.  Three weeks ago, I framed the portrait you see here and shipped it up to the big guy at the MAD magazine office in New York along with a care package including some of my books and such.

Al Jaffee got his start with MAD 56 years ago, making him their longest running contributor.  To take the cake, there has only been one issue of the magazine published in that time without new content from him.  Al got his career started working under the likes of Stan Lee at Timely and Atlas comics (before Marvel was brought into fruition) before finding his home with MAD in 1955.

In 1964, nearly a decade into his career at MAD, Jaffee created his first Fold-In, a full page illustration which could be folded in over itself to reveal a hidden image.  This feature turned out to be his longest-running contribution to the publication and largely, what he has become famous for.  These works serve as the main inspiration for my portrait (which could be folded in on itself to make the birthday cake, peach (Jaffee was born in Georgia,) and of course, the "90."  The peace sign is a reference to "Hawks and Doves," a Jaffee comic strip ran in MAD during Vietnam where a soldier, Private Doves tags peace signs all over a military base amidst his run-ins with his commanding officer, Major Hawks. 

Never done a Fold-In?  Click here for a New York Times interactive feature where you can drag some of Jaffee's illustrations and fold them with your mouse!