Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The 2011 Rivers and Spires Festival

One of the billboards featuring my winning illustration!
The 2011 Rivers & Spires Festival kicks off Thursday night in Historic Downtown Clarksville with live music beginning at 4PM and rounding out with Mr. Speed (16 year veterans of being "America's Kiss Tribute") on the Public Square Stage at 8PM!

This is just to warm things up!  The streets will really fill up all weekend with more music, vendors and artisans.  I'll be in the Artz Galore section next to City Hall all day Friday and Saturday along with dozens of other photographers, artists and craftspeople.  Come by and see me to talk about art and take advantage of the only time of year you'll be allowed to drink a beer on the street!  I have tons of new framed work and prints to exhibit and will be giving away autographed Rivers & Spires posters featuring my artwork!

You'll also be able to see all that downtown has to offer as local businesses on Strawberry Alley and Franklin Street have their doors open to the public for even more live music and art.  While you're there, make sure to check out "Imagination Unchained," a group art exhibit above the Front Page Deli featuring work from Charles Bennett, Peggy Bonnington, Andi Casali, Patrick Daly, Christy Johnson, Jay Swafford, and Roly Viruez.  All the artists give will give you a wild ride through their pop surrealism, abstract and low-brow art.  This must-see exhibit is open 1-8PM Thursday-Saturday night!

You can also see one of my own personal favorite illustrations, "Octopus's Garden" at the U.S. Bank Open Exhibit in the APSU Downtown Gallery on Strawberry Alley, which will have it's doors open during the festival as well.  This illustration is exhibited with over 100 local artists.  Proceeds from the show go to scholarships for the Austin Peay Art Department to dole out to young artists!
"Topsy-Turvy: Octopus's Garden" (Portrait of The Beatles) at the APSU Downtown Gallery

Festival Manager, Doug Barber and his hard-working committee hustle year-round to bring together three days packed full of entertainment and activities for the public.  There is something for everyone with Jazz music, Rock music, Country music, and Christian music on multiple stages simultaneously.  The streets will be packed full of local and regional artists, craftspersons, food vendors, and activities.  The Rivers & Spires Festival is FREE every year here in downtown Clarksville.  In it's 9th year, this event has won a slew of awards including being in the Top 100 Event In North America.  This year will be even better all the way through Saturday night when headliner, Clint Black takes the stage.



Friday, April 8, 2011

Illustration Friday: Chugger

"Topsy-Turvy: Chugger" Inks on Paper / 2007
"Bottled" is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday, for which I've chosen to share another piece of art with you from my Topsy-Turvy series (where the works can be hung either side up to create a different perspective on the image.)  This particular piece was displayed in my first Topsy-Turvy exhibit in 2007 at The Icehouse Cafe.  I had a contest to see who could stand on their head the longest to win a free work of art! 

Beer has been bottled since the 16th Century, however the modern college student has found many different ways to ingest the jolly juice more and more efficiently including beer bongs, shotgunning devices, and countless drinking games and general excuses to see how much beer they can possibly pickle themselves with in one sitting. 




Monday, April 4, 2011

In Memoriam: Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley

Kurt Cobain (inks on bristol / 2011)
Grunge music will always have a lasting memory and place in my spirit.  I grew up listening to Alice and Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the rest of the Seattle movement of the early 90's which harnessed the angst and deep emotional turmoil of a lost generation.  For a brief five or six years, these bands made records which are timeless to me and a lot of the people I grew up with.  It was a very brief glimmer of a rebellious, anti-corporate movement which dampened with the death of legend Kurt Cobain on today's date in 1994 at the age of 27.  A few years past the end of the grunge fever, downward-spiraling Alice in Chains front man Layne Staley succumbed to his addictions on the same date, April 5th- eight years later in 2002.

Layne Staley (inks on bristol / 2008)

My memories of hearing about the death of both of these icons will always break my heart.  Two musicians who moved and spoke to an entire generation and turned a local sound into a world-wide phenomenon died young and without a friend close enough to stop their demise.  Both bodies were discovered some time after their deaths (Cobain's three days and Staley's two weeks.)  I'll leave the commentary once again today to Joebot over at Rock Star Martyr, who is borrowing my portrait of Layne Staley from my 2009 Cult of Personality series as well as this new portrait finished this week of Kurt Cobain. 



Here's a couple of shots of the process of creating my Kurt Cobain portrait with the shotgun shell halo...


Friday, April 1, 2011

Illustration Friday: Comic and Tragic

Illustration Friday has posted the theme for this week as "Duet."  It takes two to tango (...or sing a duet) and sometimes they are complimentary and sometimes they are contradicting voices.  Opposing forces often factor into my work.  Here is my entry for this week, which was displayed in my solo exhibit in 2008, entitled "Felt and Found."
Comic and Tragic (inks on bristol / 2008)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This Weekend's Rock Star Martyrs...

Joebot has a wild weekend of dead celebrity commentaries in store for you with the anniversaries of the deaths of Marvin Gaye, Rozz Williams, and Rob Pilatus (of Milli Vanilli fame.)  You'll have to check out Rock Star Martyr this Friday to see how I handled drawing Mr. Marvin Gaye but here's the process from linework to finished product of my other two portraits which will be featured with Joe's articles this weekend...
Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli (Who won a Grammy for Best New Artist... and had to give it back)
  (06/08/65 – 04/02/98)
Rozz Williams, the shock-rocking front man of Christian Death (15 years before Marilyn Manson)
 (11/06/63 - 04/01/98)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Straight Outta Compton: Eazy E

Get on by Rock Star Martyr today for a new article from Joebot about Eazy E on the anniversary of his death.  I drew a pop surrealist portrait of the hip hop legend this week just for the article!  


Click HERE for more of my portraits for Joe's macabre and psychosurreal hyperverbal take on the cult of the dead star.
 Inks on Bristol / 2011


Friday, March 25, 2011

Illustration Friday: The Banned Birthday Clown

"The Birthday Clown" inks on bristol / 2010
"Toy" is the theme for Illustration Friday today.  I couldn't resist sharing this illustration from 2010.  I was drawing a series of clowns about this time last year and honestly, they all turned out disturbing and creepy.  Clowns have petrified me since childhood- I can't think of anything scarier.  This clown was the "birthday clown," which would probably make any kid dribble in their shorts.  I chose it in reference to this week's theme because of the hand puppets and the concept of the work.

On social networking sites such as Facebook, I've been in the habit of posting art on my friends' profiles on their birthdays.  The past several months I had been using this particular piece for such a purpose.  Last week, I was suddenly unable to upload this work for posting anymore since it had been flagged as vulgar or obscene.  Apparently somebody got offended by the birthday clown.  Why do ya think?