Two of My Paintings Appear in the New Horror Movie Mid-Century

That’s right, two of my paintings are in the new horror movie Mid-Century , starring Bruce Dern, Stephen Lang and Shane West. The movie is about an unsuspecting couple who rents essentially a haunted Eichler house.

So how did I manage to get my work into a real Hollywood movie? The short answer is that flunked the producer. Back in the 90s, I worked as a TA for a film history course at the University of Michigan (where I was a graduate student for a spell). Producer, writer, and co-star of Mid-Century, Mike Stern was a student in my section. Though a charming presence in class, he was habitually slow to turn in work. I was willing to work with him to get his late work in and graded. The professor of the class, a curmudgeonly Korean-war vet, was less willing to be flexible and demanded that Mike fail the course. To his credit, he never bore ill will towards me and even took my section again the next term.

A decade later, we reconnected over social media and watched my evolution as an artist. Funny how things work out.

You can see Mid-Century in a handful of theaters out there or you can stream it from your favorite internet behemoth.

Blue Van Prints Now Available!

Ever since I started painting in a serious fashion, people have asked me if I sell prints of my work. I've wanted to. Prints are great. They cost much less than original work and they are less imposing than a canvas.

So now, finally, prints of my painting Blue Van are now available in my shop. This is still one of my all time favorites. This is a closed run with less than a dozen prints available. The prints are 20x20" with a two inch border printed on thick paper. Each print will be numbered and signed.

I also still have updated Veeptopus posters, complete with Kamala Harris. Get one before they are gone!

New Painting: Out By the Gourds

My latest painting is of my paternal grandfather and is called Out By the Gourds. He was a quiet man with a stern face and who was literally born in a log cabin in Oklahoma Territory. He died when I was a child. My primary memory of him was of him tending his Eden-like garden, which grew all sorts of delights like boysenberries, carrots, tomatoes and these massive gourds. He would dry the gourds by a tree in the middle of the yard. The one time I remember him angry with me was, in a fit of youthful enthusiasm, I accidentally smashed a long banana-shaped gourd against the tree. The photo that inspired this painting was taken under that same tree. He more or less had the same expression on his face in every picture I’ve seen of him.

I thought that this was going to a quick portrait. I went in, Alice Neel style, without an under drawing. Of course, Alice Neel became Alice Neel after painting for decades. I still have a lot to learn. It took a really long time for the painting to finally gel and tell me what it needed. Fortunately, oil paint takes a long time to dry. You can push it around the canvas until you’re done.

Below is a video I made of this painting’s long torturous process.

SOLD! Solano Ct.

I just sold my painting Solano Ct. This is another one of my favorites. Last year, when I first summoned the courage to submit my work to juried shows, this painting not only got into an exhibit at Marin Society of Artists, it won first prize. That was a nice ego boost. Now this painting is going to a new home.

If you're interested in my paintings – they make great holiday gifts! – then check out the Gallery House website.

Exhibit: Pure Paint @ Art Benicia

This Saturday is the opening of a show called Pure Paint at Art Benicia, up in the north bay. I have two paintings there. The first painting, Men with Guns, I finished earlier this year. I like the painting's muted palette. It's the first time it has been shown outside of Gallery House.

The second is Cul-de-Sac, one of my favorite works. It is my first successful painting and the first work in my "Corpses in Cul-de-Sac" series. It last showed at the DeYoung Open in 2020.

Together, the paintings create an unsettling cause-and-effect narrative that didn't occur to me until they were placed next to each other.

The reception is this Saturday, November 13 from 4-6 pm and the show runs until December 19.

Upcoming Exhibit: Big Show of Big Art @ JCO's Art Haus

As I wrote in August, I love painting in oil but it takes forever.

This summer, I started making quick pictures in charcoal and gouache of power men getting punched in the face. There is something immediate, primal, and cathartic about them.

Since I sent out that email blast, I got a lot of positive responses to the series. It's an ugly time in America. It seems a lot of you like seeing powerful jerks getting punched in the face.

JCO's Art Haus, a gallery up in Los Gatos, reached out to me, asking if I would be interested in making a couple of these "Punching Up" pictures really big. Like four feet tall big. I was intrigued.

You can see the results at the Big Show of Big Art exhibit at JCO's Art Haus with runs from November 11 to December 23. The reception is this Thursday, November 11th, 6-8 pm.

REMINDER: Silicon Valley Open Studios Is This Weekend!

Just a quick reminder: this weekend – September 18 and 19th – I will be exhibiting as a part of Silicon Valley Open Studios up in Gallery House in Palo Alto. I’ll be in the gallery on Saturday from 10am to 2pm and perhaps a bit longer after that. Stop by and say hi!

I wanted to talk a bit about a couple of paintings I’ll be showing. I selected some of my favorite smaller works from the past couple of years. The painting above, for instance – Unidentified Woman – was made late last year after the skies over the Bay Area turned an uncanny orange/red color. I made three paintings in a sort of miniseries about that sky – Blue Van and Unidentified Car were the other two.

Unidentified Woman clearly articulates themes that I usually only hint at in my work. A man sits in a car from the early 1960s looking at his rearview mirror. In the background is the almost spectral figure of a woman. The connection between the two is unclear, but it doesn't look like anything good. The air is thick with a noxious-looking pink fog. The tangible objects in the picture all look like they are from the middle of the 20th Century, the American Century. The intangible conveys a very 21st Century feeling of unease.

The painting below is Tuesday 2 pm. It's small, only 12x12, but it's one of my favorites. I painted it during the depths of the COVID lockdown when everyone was terrified to leave the house and the country ground to a halt. I think this painting nailed the feeling of that time.

Anyway, that's just two of the works that will be showing at SVOS. I have a bunch more. You can see many of them here on the Gallery House website.

Guess Who's Exhibiting at Silicon Valley Open Studios on September 18-19?

It’s one thing to make art. It’s another to show it to the world.

I’ve been painting for three years now, but it wasn’t until last year that I made the jump to show my stuff. Just as everyone was starting to hoard toilet paper last year, I was encouraged to enter some of my paintings into juried shows. And, to my great surprise, I got in to several of them. I even won a couple.

But before that, I planned to make this nerve-wracking jump by exhibiting for Silicon Valley Open Studios, which is probably the biggest annual art event in the South Bay. But then, of course, COVID happened. The event, like countless others, was postponed.

Earlier this year, my artist page at SVOS caught the attention of a couple artists at Gallery House, the oldest artist coop in the South Bay, and I was invited to become a member.

Now SVOS is finally happening and I’m really excited to announce that I will be exhibiting a bunch of paintings as a part of the Open Studio on September 18 and 19 at Gallery House. I’ll be there hanging around to answer questions that Saturday. Please stop by and say hi. I’d love to chat.

And if you can’t, you can see what is available here at the Gallery House website.

Ruby Appearing in the All About Women Show at Marin Society for Artists

Last week, I learned that my 2019 painting Ruby is going to be a part of the All About Women Show at Marin Society for Artists. You can see the whole show, with some amazing work, here.

New Series: Punching Up

I love oil paintings but they take forever to finish. They evolve in their own time and there isn’t much I can do to speed it up. Sometimes, I take weeks painting and repainting a section of a piece, knowing in my gut that something is not quite right. Then suddenly it will occur to me that that bit I’ve been painting needs to be a quarter of an inch to the left or needs a little Mars Orange instead of Mars Red. and Then Pow! the picture just gels. It’s a magical moment but boy does it take a long time to get there sometimes.

So I started thinking about doing work that is quicker, more immediate.

I tend to spend too much time doom scrolling on Twitter, leaving me feeling anxious, frustrated, and powerless. It’s been a rough couple of years. Time-honored ways of dealing with these dark feelings, ranging from pointless internet squabbles to day drinking to yoga, worked for me with varying levels of success. Drawing pictures of powerful rich jerks getting punched in the face, however, is very cathartic.

And thus a new series was born.

The pieces are made with charcoal, white gouache, and sometimes a little ink. And they don’t take five weeks to make. You can see more from this body of work over at my newly revamped website.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Nocturnes

This summer, I’ve found myself working unexpectedly in the genre of nocturnes – paintings set at night. The first painting below started as a work set in the afternoon. After working on it for a month straight in February, I put it aside. It wasn’t gelling. When I started working on it again in June, I repainted it as a nocturne and somehow it worked. I had never painted a nocturne and thus there was something of a learning curve. Nailing values is really tricky. The resulting painting – Gardening at Night – came very slowly, but I’m pleased with the results.

The next Nocturne painting I did is called The Rupture. I finished it earlier this month. Last year, I found this still from a security camera of a guy watching an oil refinery explosion in Texas. Something about the composition, the flag, the half-naked guy spoke to me. So I decided to paint this using the techniques I discovered with the last painting.

Two of my Paintings will be at the 2021 California Open Exhibit at TAG Gallery in Los Angeles

I just learned that two of my more overtly political painting will be a part of the 16th Annual 2021 California Open at TAG Gallery in Los Angeles. The show will run from August 4-21. And there will be a reception on August 7, from 7-10 pm.

Last year, I was accepted in about a dozen juried shows but, thanks to COVID, there wasn’t much of a celebration. This is the first show I’ve been to where there will be a reception. If I can help, I will be there. If you’re in LA, stop by and say hi.

I made both paintings last summer when everything seemed overheated in more ways than one. The first painting is Metaphor (above). This is based on a photo taken in the Central Valley in the mid-'60s. I started painting this in August just before a spate of wildfires turned the skies over the Bay Area a hellish red-orange.

The second painting is Routine Traffic Stop (below), which I started not long after the murder of George Floyd. This is my most controversial and popular painting. The competition is the fourth show it has appeared in.

Now A Member of Gallery House

Earlier this year, I was invited to apply to Gallery House in Palo Alto. Established in 1957, it’s the oldest cooperative art gallery in the area and represents a rich and varied group of artists. I’m really pleased to be a part of it.

I’ve been a full member for only a month and I’ve already sold a painting. (Unidentified Car, one of my favorites.) The buyer is a regular collector from the gallery but who lives in Ohio. If you're interested in my work, check out Gallery House website.

SOLD!

Also, one of my pieces – Routine Traffic Stop – has been selected to represent Gallery House in the Boldbrush competition. Winning will result in art world glory and maybe a little money. Please check it out and vote for it.

Super Boy 2 Just Dropped

Last year, at the beginning of the Pandemic, I started to make a movie with my son as a way to channel his insane energy and my boredom.

This year, still bound at home from the same Pandemic, we decided to make a second movie. Here are the results.

And here’s the first movie:

The Veeptopus Book Now With Kamala Harris Insert

We have a new Vice President.

Back in 2013, having just been laid off from my corporate job, I started drawing portraits of vice presidents with octopuses on their heads. Why? I really still don't know. But somehow, it turned into a thing. I got written up in some very fancy outlets like Boingboing and The New York Times. Just before the 2016 election, I funded a Kickstarter campaign to get all the portraits published as a book.

So now with a new, historic vice president Kamala Harris, I drew a portrait of another cephalopod-bedecked veep. And I am including it as a free insert with the purchase of the Veeptopus book.

Drawing her presented some challenges that weren't problems drawing, say, Hubert Humphrey. Hair, for instance. Most vice presidents within living memory looked a bit like a potato. Hair wasn't an issue because many didn't have hair. Kamala, however, is the most glamourous veep we've had since Al Gore. And unlike Gore, she has luxurious flowing locks. Getting her hair and the tentacles to work together was a pain.

Another issue was skin tone. Harris is, of course, the first woman of color in the executive branch. I couldn't, as I did with every other veep, just use the tube of "flesh" color paint. There were some trial and error. Paint makers really need to get with the times.

Since then, I've evolved away from being the octopus guy but I am still very proud of the book. So now with a new, historic vice president Kamala Harris, I am including a free insert of a cephalopod bedecked Kamala Harris with the purchase of the Veeptopus book. 

And if you want an updated Veeptopus poster with all the veeps including Kamala Harris, put your name on this list. 

Latest Painting (and Last of 2020): Unidentified Woman

Here’s my last painting of 2020. I supposed I’m going through what my wife calls my Pepto Bismo period. The mixture of King’s blue and Mars Red makes for an unsettling combo that I keep coming back to for some reason. Also, in the waning days of the Trump administration I feel that fog and mist resonates. Maybe in 2021 I’ll do some brighter, happier paintings, but I probably won’t.

Happy Holidays and Good Riddance 2020

It’s been a hell of year. And it can now fuck right off. Take COVID and Trump too.

New Painting: Blue Van

Between all the prep required for the film history class I was teaching this past quarter and general anxiety about the election, I haven’t had a lot of time to paint. I started this in early October and I knew that I wanted to take it slow and let the work speak to me.

Routine Traffic Stop at both the JUSTICE Show at Marin MOCA and the PANIC Show at O'Hanlon Center for the Arts

It’s been a busy month here wrapping up the film history course I teach but I want to catch up on some more art developments.

My painting Routine Traffic Stop is currently in two shows at the same time. Fortunately, one is virtual. I was included in O'Hanlon Center for the Arts latest show PANIC curated by the great Chester Arnold. You can see the whole show here. It’s filled with some pretty great art.

If you want to see Routine Traffic Stop in person, you can see it at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art as a part of the Justice exhibition curated by Karen Jenkins-Johnson. This looks like a very strong show and I’m pleased to be a part of it. You can see a gallery walk through here. The show runs through to the end of the year.

By the way, that same painting won first prize at the 202? show at Shockboxx in Hermosa Beach.

My work at the 2021? Juried Show at Shockboxx Gallery in Hermosa Beach

Two of my painting are going to be exhibited down in Hermosa Beach this month. Shockboxx Gallery’s latest juried show 2021? One is Benton St., which is literally a view from my bedroom window (plus the corpse). The second is Routine Traffic Stop.

If you’re in SoCal and have a hankering for art, check it out. The show runs from the 10th to the 24th with a virtual opening on Facebook. Info in the graphic below.