A Fish And A Zeppelin

 

 A while back I talked to a friend about doing a personal project on the back of his building. Which incidentally happens to be on the Rail Trail. Well, after a year of it rolling around in his head it had turned into a major project. He called me and told me he wanted to hire me to paint a mural on the side of the building. Well, this building is on the corner of Union Street and Country Club Road. A major intersection with lots of activity so I was like, "oh yeah, I 'll do it!" He said he wanted something fun and it could be whatever I wanted as long as it encouraged people to get out and live their life. Well I just happened to have the perfect subject for this project. "Professor Alloy", a character I came up with about 12 years ago. So I stuck him into a giant fish and attached a zeppelin to it and Walhalla!, there you have it. A giant fun mural that will attract the attention of even the most distracted driver. Go look at it. If it doesn't inspire you, maybe you need a bicycle? Thanks to Eric and the guys at Bike Worx for the job. I totally enjoyed it!

The Downside of Up

As artists, we get bigger and better. We get more prominent exhibitions and from time to time realize we are in the big league of our conference. We get great press at big venues and that's awesome because we have paid our dues. But every now and again we need to get off our thrones and get back to where we were when we first started. I currently have an exhibit at The Coffee Bar in downtown Spartanburg. It felt great to be able to exhibit my work in the downtown area again. Really, it's like, I remember begging restaurants to hang my work when I first started. I didn't know if I wanted to sell it or just get noticed. Because when you first start you want to keep everything. Mistake. So for those of you that are just getting started, enjoy the humbling of your first days. I envy you. You'll never get to experience that again. Anyway, I have an exhibit of the original Shadowland paintings that have never been exhibited in public at the Coffee Bar for the month of April. A reception will be held April 12th at 7. I will also be having a reception for the original Shadowland colored pencil drawings at The Art Lounge the 18th of April. Shadowland shirts will be available and eventually the Shadowland book. Please come by and check it out. Otherwise, just go check out the work at your convenience. Your comments are always welcome.

In The Valley Of The Shadow Of Omo

 

Several years ago I went to an art trade show. You know, the kind where IBM, CBS, and other giant three letter companies show up to buy art for their 200,000 square foot lobbies. I was impressed at the quality of work I saw there. Not just your typical "artist in a gallery" stuff, I mean "I've seen that artist on 60 Minutes" kind of stuff.  As my friends and I walked around the last corner, I was blown away with a body of sculptural works made from clay. They looked so real that you thought they were going to speak to you. Now coming from an artist who was raised on Bernini and Michelangelo, this is saying a lot. I took pictures, with the artist’s permission of course, and came home completely inspired. My mentor always said, "a good artist doesn't borrow, he steals." So with that in mind, I decided to do my own interpretation based on this artist's work.  This artist was doing his own artistic expression of African tribes as a whole. I, however, needed a higher purpose. So I researched different tribes until I came across the perfect subject matter. The tribal people of the Omo Valley region in Ethiopia. I was so taken by these people. The region, their lifestyle, the challenges that they face and the fact they celebrate life daily by transforming themselves into art. I researched the origins, lifestyles, religion, history, and ornamental style of the jewelry as well as ceremonial headdresses, tribal face paint, scaring and piercing rituals of twelve different tribes. I have made all of the jewelry from purchased and found items, woven mussel shells into hair which I obtained from local restaurant discards (the shells, not the hair) and had a great time experimenting with different methods of executing facial make-up through paint and glaze, mixing the two on several pieces. I have also used five different clays to execute the sculptures to see what effects could be obtained from each one. I do not get to experiment very often. I wandered through several wooded areas regionally looking for the right piece of wood to suit each sculpture, staining and sanding with different techniques to obtain the perfect look for each piece as well as hand picking the marble and stone bases to suit each one. Also, I have included handmade ear gauges, lip plates, and several other artifacts of the region as well as hand built pit-fired pottery created in true “Omo” fashion- staining them with earth pigments and pigs’ blood as the people of the valley do. I have not only grown as an artist but gained a wealth of knowledge I would not have been exposed to all because of another artist.

The exhibit goes up January 7th at The Gallery East at 512 East Main St. with the opening reception on Friday, January 11th from 6-10. The exhibit will run through February 16th. There will be a second reception on "Artwalk" Thursday, January 17th. Please join me for this monumental show that has taken me over two years to complete.

PHOTO BY: IAN CURCIO

The Shadowland Book

So the copy edit has been finalized. This is the third and final edit of the manuscript. I hope it's right  because as I have said before...I am no editor. The layout for the inside of the book has been designed and is waiting on second approval from another editor. We shot the first 3 pictures for the book today at an old theater in Inman, SC and the nicknamed "Hell's Gate" graveyard in Spartanburg, SC. The all- important "Cover Picture" was among these shots. Several of the masks have been made for the models for the next five photo shoots and props are being built as we speak. I will be fitting several models for their masks this weekend and hope to get at least one shot next week. We will have four more on-location shoots for the models as well as a few more scoutings for the final pictures to finish the process. Photography is all that is left in stage one to complete. A book-signing is slated for April at The Hub City Bookshop but no exact date as of now. An exhibit of the original Shadowland paintings (which have never been exhibited) will also be on display at The Coffee Bar adjacent to the Bookshop from April 1st through April 30th. In addition there will also be an exhibit of the original Shadowland Character colored pencil drawings at The Art Lounge during the month of April with a reception on the 18th at 6:00 pm during The Art Walk. Official Shadowland merchandise will be available at all venues. Stay tuned kids. Details as they arrive. :)

A Rock Hard In A Funky Place

Recently Wofford College called me and wanted to talk to me about doing a mural at their school. Well naturally I assumed that they wanted a portrait of a donor or alumni or a painting of one of the buildings on campus. When I arrived, they presented me with the idea that they wanted. I looked twice and thought, I'm on Candid Camera right? I looked around to make sure everybody was serious. Seeing as how I am proficient at reading faces, they all agree and were serious. They hand me a book with, yes, graffiti. Oh Lord! Are they serious? Are they going to lose their jobs over this decision? Well, come to find out the donor of the building wanted the phrase "Dare To Dream" on the wall of the lobby. So they put a plaque on the wall that said "Dare to Dream." The donor came in and was not exactly pleased. He wanted something "hip", something that actually conveyed the idea of Dare to Dream. Thus I experienced the shocking realization that this would really happen. After sending them a sketch (and I don't do sketches) to make sure that this was what they wanted, I produced the mural above as a final product which actually does inspire them to "Dare to Dream" because I would have never dreamed of painting graffiti at Wofford!