Happy Birthday Mr. Vonnegut!

"Sweet Dreams Mr. Vonnegut" inks on paper / 2007

One of the most influential authors of the 20th century was Kurt Vonnegut, who was born on today's date in 1922 in Indianapolis and passed away just four short years ago.  Before becoming a world-famous author, Vonnegut like so many Americans, was called to duty to defend The United States in World War II.  He became a prisoner of war when he was captured by German forces in The Battle of the Bulge on December 19, 1944.  Imprisoned in Dresden, Vonnegut saw the city decimated in a firestorm of attack the following year.  The young soldier along with other prisoners sought refuge from bombings in an underground slaughterhouse meat locker dubbed Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five), which became the inspiration and title of one of his most celebrated novels exposing the absurdity and atrocity of war with his flamboyant and unique commentary. Vonnegut was eventually liberated from capture by Soviet forces and returned to the U.S.

I was first introduced to Slaughterhouse Five through my Senior English teacher Mrs. Greenfield in High School.  Taking an interest (as opposed to the disdain of others) in my radical and warped nature, she turned me on to many great authors including Huxley, Camus, Burgess and others.  I found this first novel from the author to be my gateway into his world and to other great works including my favorite, Cat's Cradle.  Upon hearing of Kurt's passing in 2007, I was compelled to illustrate his image which I've shared with you today on what would have been his 89th birthday.  After finishing the portrait, I was compelled to pull out an old typewriter and add to the work, "Sweet Dreams Mr. Vonnegut."

Click HERE for Prints of my Vonnegut Portrait in my Web Store!

"Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end,

And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.

And if, on that sad day, you want to scold our God,

Why go right ahead and scold Him.  He'll just smile and nod."

-Cat's Cradle

Click HERE for some great Kurt Vonnegut Motivational Posters

Click HERE for the Official Kurt Vonnegut Website

The Kurt Vonnegut Society

Vonnegut's 8 Basics of Creative Writing

Cycloctopus (LIVE Painting Installation!)

Live Painting 11/03/2011

Joe Melanson has curated a couple of fantastic exhibits this year at No Egrets Tattoo Studio here in Clarksville.  The venue is great because it's an open warehouse adjacent to the shop and we pretty much have free reign to do whatever with the walls constructed inside.  Joe really put us to work this past week with his new project, The Installation Show.  Upping the ante with local artists, Joe asked us all to paint and decorate a portion of the walls to hang our work on.  This ONE-NIGHT Only Exhibit was held  Saturday, November 5th and featured several local talents!

Last Thursday morning, I got some devastating news about my dear friend Ryan passing away.  Ryan was one of my best friends and it shook me up as to call out of my day job with my boss, who was understanding.  After many phone calls and online communications with friends about what had happened, I realized I was also scheduled to paint my installation at No Egrets that evening.  I channeled my energy and went through with my plans to freestyle a gigantic octopus, who would hold up the panels I had recently mounted with watercolors and illustrations for the show.  It was the right decision seeing as what turned out was off the chain! Check it all out in this brand-spanking new time lapse video!  The installation took about 3 hours but you can ride along here in just 3 minutes...

Here's a slew of pictures of the process AND the ONE-NIGHT EXHIBIT!

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Illustration Friday: Flies

"Stripes" is the theme for Illustration Friday today as I continue in my endeavor to submit to their site EVERY Friday of 2011!  So far, so good and today I've got an illustration from my Scraps & Motives (S&M) Exhibit at Cafe Coco in Nashville back in the summer of 2008.  This drawing is actually a very small work (about 5 inches tall) and is a crowd favorite.  The look on his face was my own response and outlet for being overrun with house flies at the time I drew the piece.  I hate flies, they make me crazy and I'm sure it's a sight to see a grown man jumping up and down in victory every time one feels the wrath of my swatter. I'm not sure why, but folks seem to like my characters the more they look like they should be wearing a helmet.  Why do you think my viewers are drawn to the deranged?

Click HERE for a stream of ALL of my Illustration Friday entries! 

Day of the Dead Coffin

Gangster de Muerto mixed media / 2011

Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is a National Holiday in Mexico and celebrated in different forms around the world.  The day of prayer and dedication to the dearly departed is November 1-2 coinciding with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, Catholic holidays.  

Every year about this time, a slew of art shows pop up across the country with themes based around The Day of the Dead.  One in particular stood out to me last year at Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta with their unique concept for an annual group event.  The gallery actually constructs a limited number of wooden coffins to distribute to artists who paint, forge, illustrate, sculpt and otherwise construct their deadicated art.  Painlessly enough, through an inquiry with the gallery, they were all too happy to ship a coffin to me gaining me entry into this intriguing exhibit.  On Halloween Monday, my coffin for this year's exhibit arrived safe and sound in ATL and will be on display starting this Saturday, November 5th for their annual Day of the Dead exhibit.  I'll be rubbing my gorilla glued paws together in anticipation for next year's show and a third coffin but in the mean time, check out these process pictures and what I did this year...

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-00- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Divas of the Zombie Walk of Fame

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Constant Viewer, I hope you had a freaked out ghoulishly good time this Halloween weekend and I see we kept you entertained enough with the holiday countdown to bring you back for dessert.  Here's your last stops on the Zombie Walk of Fame with a few of the Divas of my zombifications...

Zombie Meryl Streep (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Meryl Streep has more Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations than any other actor in history.  As a matter of fact, this Hollywood starlet has been nominated for about every award under the sun including Cannes, Emmy, SAGA, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, New York Critics... you name them- they all eat Meryl right up.

My personal favorite role of hers however is in Death Becomes Her, where she plays- well, a zombie.  Enjoy this creepy clip from the film along with some process photos I took of my work this week...
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-01- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Samuel L Jackson on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Zombie Samuel L Jackson (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Ohhhhh it's Devil's Night baby!  What a strange and fantastic Sunday!  I'll be removing my exhibit, BUY the NUMBERS with Charles Bennett from The DAC this evening and then getting my Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire on with the Wolfman later.  Aurora is making pumpkin fudge and we're only one day away from Halloween.  If the Mayans are correct, it's our last one so enjoy the horror and goulishness of it all!
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-02- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Chris Farley on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Farley Zombie (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

I'll have what he's having...

Farley Zombie is one of the high points of this series as far as the expressions on my subjects' faces.  Every time I looked at the linework for this while it sat idle for the past year, I got tickled and giggled like a little girl.  Farley man, a true gem of my generation.  I remember classmates imitating line after line of the big guy's SNL acts and later, some of his movies.  He's lumbering along and getting gourged tonight on The Zombie Walk of Fame!

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