Work in Progress

Hello! So this is one of the paintings I am working on now. I am going in an entirely different direction. It is something that I had to get out of my system. Afterall, it is hard to not be influenced by the amazing grafitti that is all over
Brooklyn. It is my hope with this piece to capture the texture and vibrancy that makes me love grafitti. I know grafitti is really trendy now, but just so you know, I thought of it first.

Work in Progress

This is a peice that I can barely tear myself away from. I am incorporating collage and oil painting.

As Hackett puts it, "Art is hard". Nobody wants caricatures these days and i am running out of money. i have this idea. I will let you know how it goes. Sometimes in life, you have to begin sentences with "Sometimes in life". Here's a pic of me at my stand. I look happy, but believe me--I am miserable.

New Illos

I just am currently working on an illustration for Barringer's Dead Bug Funeral Kit(see top left). I am glad to be working on this because it gives me a chance to tackling something important--how to draw ghosts. I started off covering the page in powdered graphite, the same stuff you would use for locks. Pure carbon. Then I erased sections and started drawing. I also experimented a lot with my wacom tablet on this one.
Below is a drawing created for my good friend Ramy Ramjet's Hair Salon, "Hair on Broadway". While i was drawing it, she kept saying "Make me prettier! Make me prettier!" I have a strong inclination to draw people ugly. Not sure why. Eventually, i did get the drawing to look just like her--prettiness and all.

Gig at Senior Center

Yesterday, I had a gig at Classic Hyatt Residence, a fairly upscale assisted living facility in Yonkers. Doing caricatures of elderly people can go one way or another, as they tend to not be all that excited about their looks. This group, however, was extremely enthusiastic about participating, and they all lined up with their canes and walkers. I was smitten by them, and at the end of the gig, several of them came up to me and said thank you. It is a fortunate thing to gain insight into the variety of ways that one can age. Some people get a vacant look and their eyes glaze over. Others take a renewed interest in color and friends, and find every excuse to laugh at themselves. The attached is a caricature that i reworked from the senior gig. I am trying to learn how to color using photoshop.

Inaugural Comic

Hi Readers. Today, I finished my first two ever comic book pages. These are a long time coming. Thanks to Matt Madden, my fine teacher at School of Visual Arts, I now know how to lay out a page, ink it, and letter it. The road to successful lettering, as it turns out, will be arduous. I never guessed. That is always the detail i paid the least amount of attention to, when in fact, it among the most important facets. Then there is the narrative. Comics are formal to a point, this extended by the content of the story. This little comic, which you may not be able to read so well, is about a neighbor of mine.  According to Stanley, some people "hook you up"  and others....

Back in NYC

I have been back in NYC for four days. This is my life? This is my apartment? These are my people? Whattayaknow!

I went out for the first time since being back two nights ago with Raya. Disorient/Kostume Kult party. I dressed in *the* silver dress from Oakland, and *the* silver shoes that i bought in south beach, miami.  I hugged the speakers the way someone had showed me,
and listenned to the dj's spin bumpin grooves, and thought hard about Oakland, which i miss. It was different. It was free. It was full of metal workers doing amazing things, unhampered by lack of space.

The above is a pic of the finished product from Coachella.

See pics from project here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97881715@N00/

More later.