Steak Head 

The Strawberry!!! 

Moon Man 

022: Commercial art vs. Art for Art's sake...

It occurs that most of the collages and art work that I have done that I REALLY enjoy are of a commercial nature: advertising shows, eye candy for sales lists, flyers for this or that... I can't say that this pleases me completely, because I like to think that I am an ARE-TEEST, not just a commercial artist... Maybe Warhol understood the relationship better than I do, because he didn't mind reveling in the connections between his commercial and self motivated art, often blurring the two...

The self-conscious attitude that I have towards my own art work may dissipate over time... I'm already comfortable enough to honestly consider some of the works I've displayed below ART (whether anyone else does or not) despite their advertising or profit oriented origins... If it looks good, I'm happy...

My friend Fletcher and I worked on this tv show for over a year... This is one of the many cool flyers we put together to advertise the show... (Unfortunately, the local public access station through which we were planning on doing the show proved unbelievably difficult to work with... Maybe this summer we can finally finish a couple episodes and get those Meatjack, Faint, Nina Hagen, Postal Service, and Shudder to Think videos on the air instead of just taking up space in Fletcher's garage... Damn...) 

Bug... 

Perhaps... this is the best flyer I ever did... It's so chaotic and absurd... And yes, that is a picture of me from when I was seven (What do you think of my shirt!!!)... When I showed this collage to my wife she immediately said something like, "How could you ruin that picture like that!?" Of course, in my eyes, it hasn't been ruined at all, but has instead been put to use perfectly! (Honestly, my wife is much more understanding and supportive than I sometimes make her seem... and I'm not just saying that so I don't have to sleep on the sofa! LOVE YOU SWEETY!!!) 

This is sooooo sick... But I love it... The "Boom Boom Boom..." is borrowed from the song "Janitor" by the Suburban Lawns who I absolutely fell in love with when I saw them on an old NEW WAVE THEATRE video. Now I make everyone that I can watch that video so they can see just how wonderful, quirky, and entertaining music and musicians can be!!! 

A great, fun flyer from my DJ days at The South Pacific in Longview... 

FrEaKy... 

Crazy collage flyer... 

Old flyer from the SATCHMO BASTICH days... I still love this one... 

021: The Just Music Sales Lists...

While working at Just Music (a job I had, off and on, for about seven years) there were numerous opportunities for me to entertain myself and be creative in a manner that also did some service to the store. Chief amongst my entertainment avenues was the "weekly sales list." Every Monday, the owner of the store would print up a list of the items that were going to be on sale that week then he would hand the list over to me so that I could "fancy it up" and make the list as eye-catching as possible...

Below I have posted a few of my favorite "sales list" creations. Now consider when viewing these that I usually only had a few minutes to come up with a concept (if you scan through the actual lists of titles on the various pages you will see where I snagged an idea or two) and then draw it, usually while also helping customers and doing the daily work needed to keep Just Music afloat... Subsequently, not every picture was a success, some were down right terrible, but each one would only be up for a week before being removed, so even a bad one wouldn't be around long enough to upset anyone...(Accept me...) And, sometimes, I would hit on an idea that everyone seemed to really enjoy. If I get a chance, I may dig through my files and put some more of these little pictures up for display, but for now here are just a few...

This little cartoon is taken from a photo of a shoplifter that came into the store and tried to rip us off. In retaliation, we lampooned the HELL out of the guy. I did the drawing and I think everyone that worked at the store at the time wrote some nasty comment about the guy on this page. We posted the cartoon next to the photo of the guy and right next to the registers so that everyone could get a good look... I'm also really proud of the "now on sale" logo and the guy with the long tongue covering up the retail prices on the right of the page... 

I did a LOT of monster pictures on the sales lists... This one is accompanied by a super fun, bloody sales announcement.  

Not sure what inspired this one... No monsters, no space ships, just mountains in the sunset... (This might have been around the time I was reading a lot of Jack Kerouac in the break room durning my lunch breaks... Not sure...) 

One of my all time favorite adverts... Notice that the "on sale now" is in hand-drawn 3-D!!! 

A fun little lynching joke here... (But notice, the victim's hands are white...) I mostly like the gallows humor and the long tree roots in this one... 

Probably the most disgusting advert I did while working at Just Music. I called this my "abortion protest." Notice the little bloody sperm crossing out the retail prices on the right side of the page... I was sure that I was going to get in trouble for this one, but the owner, apparently, didn't pay much attention to what I drew on the sales lists... 

Very bizarre, very abstract... I was probably trying to be clever. 

This one is pretty silly, but I like the joke... 

This is a really old drawing from my sketchbook from my "angry" days... 

020: The M.A.R.S. Project

I've come up with what seems to me like an interesting idea: A MOBILE art gallery... I'm sure this isn't the only time this has ever been done, but I don't recall ever encountering anything of the sort in my area. So, to check out what's up with the project, click over to the official M.A.R.S. blog:

http://themarsproject.blogspot.com

And, if you have any good ideas that might help make this project POP! let me know!

Thanks,

FAAAAYYYDOOOOO EEEEENN!!!!
(If you've never seen the old Shogun Warriors show "Brave Raideen" you probably have no idea what that bits all about... I suggest you find out:

A brief "just the facts" type site... But at least it has a picture!

When I looked at the other images I'd posted for tonight, I thought that I needed just one more FUN picture before I went to bed... (Maybe I'll even WRITE something tomorrow instead of just dumping images all over the place...) But, this classic picture is based on those goofy "THUMB" films that Steve Oedekerk was doing for awhile (you remember BAT THUMB and THUMB WARS and the ever popular THUMBTANIC... No? Well, I think they're funny...). This is a promo poster for a picture that was never produced, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENTHUMB, although maybe it will be someday... James Wale's ghost would be SOOOO thrilled... (I'm rambling, aren't I... Sorry...) 

This was the first digital collage I worked on today. I call it "Work Station" because all of the images come from my work station... (How does the old joke go??? "When you look up the word 'redundant' in the dictionary it says, 'See "redundant."'") (Sometimes I hate myself... but not very often...) 

"Conjunction Junction" 

The final stage of today's digital collage work. I call this one (if it isn't obvious) "Liminal Phase." 

This is a four part series of flyers I did for the freaky Wednesday night DJ spot I used to do with my friend Fletcher at the South Pacific in Longview, WA. I taped up all of these flyers on one sheet of typing paper, photocopied the sheet in black and white, cut the individual designs apart, and handed them out at Just Music, hoping to interest people in coming to the next show... Although I think the designs are interesting, they weren't very effective in drumming up business... (The DJ nights were sparsely attended, but the regulars were VERY enthusiastic!) This is flyer #1.