Zombie Walk of Fame Sketches

Check out MY TUMBLR today for some previews of my upcoming Zombie Walk of Fame Series with some of the initial sketches of Kermit the Frog, Larry King, Groucho Marx, John Wayne and MORE!

Click HERE for DREGstudios! on Tumblr!

HULK SMASH Music Video

Transformation of the Hulk / Acrylic on Canvas / 2012

If you missed My Hero | My Villain a couple of weeks ago, I presented four new Pop Surrealist paintings of Superheroes Spiderman, Iron Man, Batman and The Incredible Hulk.  Each painting had a special theme music track composed by Dustin TEADS Wright on display and loaded to headphones for the audience to listen to!  I spent the past few days meticulously splicing together a video for the Hulk collaboration so you can experience the mindbending multimedia for yourself with process pictures of my painting as well as a few shots from the show....

Superhero Theme Music from My Hero / My Villain

TEADS

Earlier in the week, I posted some awesome pics my wife Aurora took from My Hero / My Villain which was a one-night only art event at No Egrets Tattoo hosted by Joe Melanson this past weekend.  For the show, I created four original superhero paintings, for which my buddy Dustin TEADS Wright composed some superhero-themed music tracks. This collaboration  created an interactive experience for the audience Saturday night.  Each painting was equipped with a set of headphones with the track loaded on them for the viewers to listen to while they looked at my artwork!  (Click HERE for a closer look at my custom headphones used in the display!)

Artists Mark Griffin and Charles Bennett trying out the headphones during our show setup

Click the links below for each of the songs which went with their respective paintings!  We're also working on some superhero music videos of sorts which will be coming soon for those of you who missed out on the LIVE interactive experience!  Keep an ear out for TEADS' new band, Climbing Giants, who are working on material for their new concept album and show!

Spiderman (1960's Theme Teads REMIX)

HULK mashup (Teads Original SMASH remix)

Batman (Teads Original Bat mobile Breakdown)

Iron Man (TEADS Make God Bleed mix)

Red Dots and Heart-Bending Art!

with Richard at his opening in The Downtown Artists' Co-Op

Tonight was the First Thursday Art Crawl here in town and I dipped down for the last hour or so tonight to see Richard's Hogan's "LOTS OF RED DOTS" and also check out the Roxy Regional Theatre's Valentine's Art Exhibit which I had a collaborative work with curator Miranda Herrick showing.

Richard has been a source of encouragement for me and other local low brow artists.  He has a taste for the imaginative and we've collected one another's work over the past several years.  He's even been nice enough to rope me into local events and warn everyone else about me and my art beforehand!

The paintings Richard exhibited tonight in LOTS OF RED DOTS took tradition from the china his mother painted with a technique where she used one small dot of red paint to draw the viewer in with the most active of all colors.  Richard used this technique over the years and you could walk through his installation and experience the ruddy magnetism of each to your eye.  At times they are subtle and in other paintings, they appeared more like a laser sight on a gun, for which I accused Richard of having a more macabre intention with the work!

Here are some great pictures my wife Aurora got this evening...
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Heroes and Villains SKETCHBOOK PROJECT

Green Lantern / graphite on paper / 2012

It's the last day of January and I succeeded by the skin of my teeth in completing two Superhero Projects to kick off 2012.  My Hero | My Villain was a very successful exhibit this past Saturday night at No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville.  After the riotous bedlam of this one night event, it was right back to the drawing table Sunday and Monday to finish up my Sketchbook Project for Brooklyn Art Library in New York.  The theme assigned to me was Heroes and Villains and the book had to be postmarked today for its inclusion.  I'm happy to say it is on its way in care of the good folks at the USPS.

With this new book of graphite illustrations, I now have three different volumes of my work included in Brooklyn Art Library's permanent collection.  Patrons can sit down and flip through literally thousands of sketchbooks from artists living at all corners of the globe.  My previous submissions were much more lowbrow where I went through and covered the books in a plethora of wild imagery with my trusty markers.  This year, I decided to take a more tradition route and do actual sketches with only pencil.  In my everyday illustration, I generally do preliminary sketches but don't build them up much, only using it as a guide for my inked linework.  Each of the 14 comic characters took about 2-3 hours each to get them where I wanted them using only the medium of a mechanical pencil. 

Thanos / graphite on paper / 2012

Daredevil / graphite on paper / 2012

The Heroes and Villains sketchbook will go on a World Tour before finding a permanent home on the shelves of the Brooklyn Art Library.  Cities hosting the tour include Chicago, Portland (Oregon AND Maine,) Philadelphia, Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The book will travel internationally also to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada, Melbourne in Austalia and London, England.  Click HERE for the official calendar to see where you can catch the tour LIVE and in person!  Can't make it in person?  Check out this video of the entire book!

MY HERO | MY VILLAIN

Photo by Joe Melanson

Joe Melanson harnessed every molecular bit of his superhero art powers this month to build up, hype and create the explosion which was a ONE NIGHT ONLY event last night at No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville.  A steady stream of folk perused the plethora of heroic and villainous scenes created by a dozen or so regional artists and experienced my interactive installation courtesy of four Superhero Theme Music Tracks composed my buddy Dustin TEADS Wright!  I'll be high off the buzz of this show for weeks... what a night!

For the past month, I've been living and breathing comic lore by creating new illustrations as well as four new paintings to go along with the tracks TEADS concocted by fusing clips from the heroes' movies and shows with his own dubstep and metal versions of the TV theme songs for Batman, Spiderman, and The Incredible Hulk while borrowing from Black Sabbath for Iron Man.  The final result was an interactive experience which gave the viewers another dimension in this surreal experience!

All the previews were finally over and the end product was here as last night it all went down.  My Hero | My Villain was a thrilling experience for me to see so many eyes and ears on my new work and collaboration with TEADS.  Thanks to everyone who bared the cold to be our audience!  My Super-Art Wife Aurora took most of these wonderful pics capturing the night...

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She's POISON for My Hero | My Villain THIS Saturday!

Inks on Bristol / 2012

We're down to the wire for My Hero | My Villain Exhibit curated by Joe Melanson at No Egrets Tattoo this Saturday night at 7PM.  I'll be in the flesh, painting live and watching people dance to my interactive exhibit where four NEW paintings will have headphones hooked up to them with dubstep Superhero Theme tracks composed by TEADS!

I want to give you one last preview of the show since we're 48 hours away.  In addition to the interactive paintings, I'll be exhibiting some new illustrations including a Rogues Gallery of some of my own favorite villains in 5in x 7in form including the likes of Bizarro Superman, Carnage, Brainiac and our feature here today, Poison Ivy!

After you check out the process pictures below, drop by The Leaf-Chronicle's website with an insightful and in-depth look into the local art scene written by Karen Parr-Moody by CLICKING HERE!  She gives a great promo for My Hero | My Villain and the story at some of the artists involved.

It's pretty tight and tiny work as I outline the vines in green...

Of course there is a THIRD EYE in my form and fashion!

Completed Line Work

I want to see YOU in a set of my headphones Saturday!  Drop by No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville THIS Saturday night from 7-10PM!