dog days

nothing to say, feeling good these days

Big Drawing Stew

lots of drawings posting today, from the past two days, a selection, my wife is rocking out on guitar hero 2 while i do this...pretty funny to listen to since she's not so good.

smoke

www.mixedplatespecial.com

so, i got featured on the above linked website, feel free to check it out. for those of you getting to my blog from the website, feel free to go in internet circles until you fall on the floor bleeding from your eyes. it's a cool, quiet night, pink clouds float over the waianaes that, six hours ago, were up in flames from errant artillery fire. i fail to understand how such a small place can be used as a military playground. but the light streaming through the smoke this evening was beautiful, especially all the refractions creating hundreds of little jagged, broken rainbows, and the reds the color of blood oranges.

staring

more boys, nothing much to say except that blockbuster hollywood movies make the back of my brain ache, we took my son and his friend to see transformers tonight, the best part was watching his enthusiasm and excitement...it sucks, i'm older and these movies are so full of holes and flaws, but if i were ten again a movie like that would have been so tremendous to me, im glad he can enjoy it, but then again, im glad i can see it for what it is...its funny, there was a lot of racism in the film, but its the usual kind of racism in these movies where anything important is being done by white folks

presenting

i wanted to say thank you to all the good folks who came out to see me at my booth at the haleiwa arts festival. the response i get never fails to surprise me. huyen, here is your painting.

mug

so, this is the other magazine that i was getting featured in, or rather on....no artwork inside, just lawyerly articles, not being a lawyer i cannot speak of its merits, but i do know that is one fine painting on the cover. faith's home, and we're all in the warms snugly cave of love.

all god's children ain't god's children

so, some days i wonder how long you have to work at something like this before certain people stop making references to you like "an occasion when newcomers break the surface of visibility". fuck 'em, i say. but then again, many days i fear i will always be a beginner, and always be regarded as such.

flying flights

"toll the bell, pay the private eye, all is well, twentieth century dies" david bowie friggin rocks, listening to the outside album....good news for me and my son! faith is flying in tomorrow for good good goodness! yay, im freakin happy! and for those who wonder, yes she's ok.

party people eat peacocks

some drawings from the magazine party...so i had a weird synchronicity yesterday, i read a news article about a deranged man who killed a peacock believing it to be a vampire. later on during the day i had to go the gallery to drop some things off and as i was walking through china town this homeless guy goes by on a bicycle shouting out "LOVE YOUR PEACOCK!", but in this very deep lowing kind of voice, all full fathom five and full of dark menace. i dont think it was a good week for peacocks around the world.

fancies

more art extras for my straight to video super painter movie, "the saga of junior", as narrated by morgan freeman. coming soon to a headspace near you. cough cough

dust mops

a couple of paintings that just went to the gallery and me having mad scientist hair day...cheers

idolatry

so, the magazine party was very chic, lots of sexy wealthy looking adults slinking around in expensive rags and big erotically engineered shoes, shoes that you would have no choice but to worship if they were placed on pedestals around the room. i didn't talk to too many people, the editor, the writer and his date, a few other folks who found out who i was and snatched my sketchbook out of my hands to ogle over my drawings. i had been drawing people quietly in a corner for a while, plied with sushi and other tasties by the overbearing but friendly wait staff. tomorrow will post some of those drawings. the article looks really good...all shiny, but the layout is nice, the colors are good, a little off but not too much, and although the article has a goofy edge to it, the gallery has already gotten alot of folks in wanting to see more of my work. so good news that is. on friday, i had to rush my butt back down to the honolulu academy of arts because masami teraoka was signing a new book that has been published of his work, a retrospective...MAN! that was so fucking awesome to meet him, hes been a hero painter for me since before i started making art....i was so nervous, i had to write my name on a paper so he could sign the book and my hand was shaking quite badly, he said i had a holy name...the guy was wearing pajamas and a fanny pack, which was so awesome....hes 71 and has an eight month old daiughter. when i was blabbering away about how much i admired him i told him i had a painting in the wing behind him...i did it sheepishly and i dont know if he looked, he made a note though....i was just happy to meet him, i finished five paintings this weekend, all that excitement hasn't waned either.

cuteness overload

i have the cutest kitty ever...enough said.

woes not

so yeah im still working on these every day...havent gotten sick of this subject and find something instructive and revealing every time i paint them...especially the failures, many of which ive done this month...not that anyone looks at these or this blog...have been very busy, lots of stuff coming up that im preparing work for and i feel behind, my wife says i say the same thing every time i have shows and end up doing too much...but i really feel behind, and this whole pace will continue until september....ugh, i hope to get a little break in august. my work is being featured in the magazine modern luxury hawaii, http://www.modernluxury.com/, for their summer issue, and i have to attend their party down in waikiki on thursday....all alone probably. i havent seen the magazine yet, but on the editorial page of the website theres a lovely photo of the actress carrie-anne moss. id buy the magazine just for that.

not so exquisite corpse

so my son picked up this puzzle ball from a vending machine when i was out buying art supplies, he didn't know it was a puzzle just thought it was a little rubber ball...but hes a trooper and broke it apart excited by the challenge...until he tried to put the thing together. as we were driving back he complained about the directions being confusing and i joked that it was probably some weird broken translation of chinese to english. i hadn't looked at them, and later when i did i really had a good laugh. these instructions are really a gem...lets all decompose and have some fun!

clouds

i really love the clouds around where i live, against the mountains, ive been taking pictures of the skies every day for a couple of weeks now, and i dream about ufos made from plant leaves and giant square airplanes....

more good news

so, i havent posted in a bit, again, but have been busy. these are what became of some of my little flower girls...good news for me, the hawaii state foundation on culture and arts is acquiring my cloudeaters painting (the one in the artists of hawaii show) for their art in public places collection. hooray! i should mention that the little woman, Geraldine King Tam, who presented me with the award at the artists of hawaii show is the widow of Rueben Tam, for whom the award is named. she called me a few days later and wanted to send me some old exhibition catalogues of her late husband's work, which tickled me because i had been trying unsuccessfully to find out more about him. he was really a fantastic landscape painter, ive been way impressed with his work, especially the paintings he did when he lived in maine. geraldine king tam is a phenomenal artist too, a botanical illustator, so i feel very lucky with this whole experience.