Here is a new portrait of Steely Dan (the core members) Walter Becker and Donald Fagen from the 70's. I have always been a fan of the band since my Dad would play Aja in the living room. It has sentimental value for me. But upon buying a turntable and all it's fixings, (still in the market for better speakers) I started making more of an effort to go into old antique shops and thrift stores to sift through records. I came across a prolific amount of Melissa Manchester, Al Martino, and Barbra Streisand records which didn't really excite me. The fun part is when you discover gems within all the crap you sift through, It's like uncovering a buried treasure. The first record I bought after acquiring my turntable was Allman Bros. 'Eat a Peach' I listened to it probably 15 times in one night. Later that week I ended up in an antique shop off 5th Ave in Park Slope where I found a mint condition 'Royal Scam' for 99 cents. Since then It has spent an unfair amount of time in my record player in comparison to the other 20 or so LPs I've collected so far. It's a spectacular album, and owning a record player really has made me appreciate albums more as an art form. (however, if I absolutely had to pick a favorite single off Royal Scam it would be either Caves of Altamira or Haitian Divorce) Obviously I didn't buy a record player for convenience or portability, that's what I have an Ipod for. However, the experience of listening to an ipod through earbuds feels like an exercise in utility compared to vinyl. Being able to click through my ipod and listen to anything I want, whenever I want almost makes the value of it all depreciate. It feels like a cursory sensory experience.(ok it's not all bad, and I do love my ipod) but I maintain that buying a record player was one of the best purchases I've made in recent memory. It makes me decompress, slow down, and really listen. Anyways, I got really inspired listening to Royal Scam and decided to exercise my painting muscle since it had really been a while. This time, I did half of the painting on canvas, photographed and uploaded it, then used photoshop to paint the rest. Photoshop painting doesn't come naturally to me, but I liked the new experience and It was great to get some practice. Donald Fagen's lips were the most frustrating thing to render. He has such a great face and bone structure, but difficult to capture. I will definitely be using photoshop as a painting medium again soon, hopefully this time with a tablet and stylus :D

Here are a few pictures Worldwide Shelters shared from a recent charity mission to Zimbabwe with an image of my piece, "Souls of Shelter" with some of the children that live in the capital city of Harare... Here is the Worldwide Shelters website, a great cause: http://www.worldwideshelters.org/

On my last post I outlined my Magnolia Lane Mural Project before I began the piece. Five work days later, I am nearly done the project except for a few finishing touches and a protective coat of polyurethane. I had a great time getting back into painting on such a grand scale (compared to what I'm used to) after what felt like a long hiatus. The house I was working on was under construction and must be one of the most spectacular houses I've ever been in. I have never been to Magnolia Lane or Georgia for that matter but after painting the landscape and studying all it's little details, I would love to one day check it out someday. Here are a few pictures from the worksite:

I've just arrived in Maryland  today to paint a 56 sq foot mural of Magnolia Lane in Augusta, GA. I have a week to complete it and this is my reference point. I'll post pictures of the finished wall upon completion!

Hi Everyone! Here's my recent  Elbaradei piece... He could possibly be in the running to be the next president of Egypt and is spearheading the non-party affiliated political movement "National Association for Change." He also won the nobel prize for his work with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Because his political movement is operating as a bastion of change in the current democratic system in Egypt and he is a nobel peace prize recipient, could he loosely be considered the Obama of Egypt?

 P.S. I am planning on doing a few more in a series about the conflict in Egypt. I'm hoping rights are restored for Egyptians and voting is as fair as it is in the U.S.A.....oh wait (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3555094491715905699#)  

You be the judge....

Here's a sketch of Bruce Springsteen (one of my favorites) executed using as an impression of a velvet painting. I used charcoal, pencil, pen, acrylic paint and then scanned in the image and made some edits on photoshop and indesign. No velvet was used in the process of this painting. I wondered what message it would send if my aspirations were to resemble the tackiness and artistically inadequate nature of the velvet painting while trying to glorify one of my favorite artists...

 A lot of art enthusiasts would consider the velvet painting to be the epitome of kitsch. Kitsch is "a German word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value." What happens when you attempt to copy, celebrate, and essentially glorify the style of a velvet painting?  I thought perhaps it made a larger statement about society in trying to imitate a velvet painting, which is generally considered cheap, gaudy, and shallow. 

The style is typified by subpar portrayals of celebrity and pop culture figures, glaringly emotive melodrama and cheesiness. In essence, we value lurid melodrama, sentimentality and unoriginality everyday (i.e. reality television, gossip magazines) which pays little attention to the intrinsic value of genuine aesthetic or attention to detail. It lacks integrity, doesn't challenge us to think outside of the blatantly obvious, and serves virtually no purpose other then second-rate celebrity association. At what cost?  ... and is it necessarily bad?

This is the most recent painting I've done, a self portrait. I was bored of doing classic, conservative style portraits and wanted to try something fun, colorful, distorted and more sexy. I was inspired by Philip Burke (possibly my favorite artist) for this one. 

Here's a sketch I did of the Coen brothers. The trailer alone of  True Grit  juxtaposed with Johnny Cash's "God's gonna cut you down" looked great. Plus, if Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are involved, I'm sure it will be awesome.  What do you think is the Coen brother's best movie?

Kanye West with Phoenix caricature

Here's a portrait of Lil Wayne I did a little while ago.