"Tea and Jam" Greg Simkins

Being able to look at the world and not only re-imagine it, but also re-cast it, is a talent few of us are able to maintain once the pragmatism of age bears down on the magic of youth. Allie  Sheedy in “The Breakfast Club” said “When you grow up, your soul dies”, and sadly, so does the ability to see monsters in the dark. Greg “Craola” Simkins still sees not only his monsters, but their lives, and the worlds in which they live.  Having a strong resonance of Dali, Bosch, Hannah, and Barbera, his work is able to fuse the surreal and the cartoon; the unreal stretched illogically over the logical like some magically delicious tapestry.

Starting his creative life as a notable graffiti artist, his sensibilities quickly overfilled the limited milieu of the walls, and his work made a successful transition to the canvas. Quickly evolving from the limited trappings of relying on cartoon and comic iconography into creating worlds independent of culturally based imagery, his work was able to flourish wonderfully. With his expansive vistas filled with hybrid characters telling as of yet unheard mythological narratives to the contained portraits of these creatures recalling the lush still-lifes of the 17^th century Dutch painters-his vision is staggering.  The success he quickly garnered allowed him to embolden his paintings with his extensive imagination. Goethe once said “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it”, and Simkin’s work contains all three on a level that allows us to immerse ourselves in the work, identify with and still be in awe of it.  It’s a rare gift to be able to share the world as you see it with an unfiltered eye,  paint spectrums of color and form collisions that defy your cynicism as an adult, but still acutely bewilder the beauty of being a child. Recently I sat down with Greg and talked about his past, his present and his future.

"The Embrace" Greg Simkins

"The Wilderbeast" Greg Simkins

Q: How’d you get started? Before graffiti, what created your 1st impulse to make images?

A: My first memories of making art and images occur when I was quite young. I remember going to my first day of pre-school and throwing such a fit that my mom decided to keep me home those early years. I think I was around 3 or 4. Trying to figure out what she was going to do with me everyday, she set out a roll of butcher paper which I in turn attacked with crayons, and markers and those little watercolor sets for kids. It was exciting and always entertaining, and yes I do realize that every kid colors and draws and that this is no unique experience for me. I think the validation from my parents at the time and moving forward that I was actually creating something interesting to look at kept me going. It moved on from there, designing my own G.I. Joe characters  in my notebooks, following the t.v. hosts teaching me how to draw Popeye and Woody Woodpecker, and designing my own pairs of Nikes. I was always drawing. In grade school my friends and I would set up a store at recess where we would sell overpriced candy and mazes that my friend Jack Huang and I would draw. He actually drew the best Robotech Veritech fighter and I began trying to copy a bit of what he was doing. In fourth grade there was a contest to draw the cover for the program for the school talent show and I won that with a drawing of a bear skiing for some reason. I think it was these kinds of things that pushed me, along as well as the cartoons and comics I was exposed to at the time. It was graffiti that just pushed me out of my comfort zone and kicked the crap out of the shy/introverted part of me.

Craola, Dabs, Myla, and Rimne

Q: What are your newest influences, and do you still come across them the same way? When we’re younger, our influences come from our voyeuristic side and are influenced by visual mediums  - do you think you’re still the same way, or more influenced by experience, now as an adult?

A: I think experience does play a part. Stories that I read growing up become jumbled up into a surrealistic background and almost forgotten history to my own life. Those memories of reading intertwine with my real memories and the emotions experienced work there way into my paintings.  Rediscovering the Renaissance painters I viewed in museums as a kid has been a fun trip as I shape my own style. Twisting the animals I studied as a kid has also been a way of keeping my youthful side awake. My newest influences are harder to describe, song lyrics have inspired whole paintings. But my single largest influence in my past few solo shows and bodies of work have been in creating a back story. It started with a character named RALF who becomes the White Knight and enters a world called The Outside. In this world every element of what I paint makes sense. The Outside is every land that you have entered be it through a rabbit hole, a wardrobe, a tollbooth, a mirror or fairy dust. Your darkest nightmares and happiest dreams take shape there. Getting there is what keeps these paintings exciting to me. Knowing that world is what I am painting for makes all the difference in my 50 to 60 hour work weeks.

Q: The most interesting thing about your work to me is the malleability and liquidity of your subjects, the morphing feels so organic. Do you view the world and art as being that interconnected? Is graffiti as important as a Bosch painting? Is all life intrinsically interrelated?

A: The flow of the subject matter I believe developed when I was doing graffiti. Letter form and balancing my composition into something interesting on a wall switched over to canvas nicely and in most ways much better.  I believe that we were made creative people so yes I think the world and art is definitely interconnected. Bosch was important for many reasons, be it his subject matter and approach to a canvas. Graffiti in itself isn’t the same. It is the individual writers, much like Bosch was an individual painter, that makes graffiti an important movement. There is a list of graffiti artists who I would just call artists because to classify them under a heading would be an unnecessary pigeon holing. Their work is going to be looked back upon like the works of Rembrandt and Van Gogh many years from now. I would hope that there was a thread that spun through all life to relate everything, or else what are we doing here?

"Label Me" Greg Simkins

Q: I totally agree, art is art, I hate the ordained hierarchy of it all. You merge seamlessly so many styles. That being said, do you have a problem with the “lowbrow” label, and do you even consider yourself a “lowbrow” artist?

A: Honestly, I do not like the term lowbrow and have a problem with categories and labels in general. I understand them and why people use them, but calling something “lowbrow” seems an easy way to dismiss it sometimes. “Pop surrealism” has a better ring to it, but I prefer to drop the pop altogether and just call it surrealism, or how about fine art, or maybe just “hey check out this painting”. I am only concerned with attempting to make paintings that you can’t take your eyes off of. Still trying to get there, but that is half the fun of it.

Q: There is an exuberant childlike feel to your work, like a kid in a sandbox playing; an unaware boldness that dissipates with age. How do you maintain that sensibility without it being contrived?

A: I really don’t know. I am not purposely doing it. I am just painting the way that feels right and comes natural. Also, the addition of my little boy who is now 3 sure brings back a lot of those feelings of being a kid that I thought I had lost.

"Story to Tell" Greg Simkins

"Never Alone" Greg Simkins

Q: Who are some of your favorite artists? Do you have a different set of standards for the idiom they work in?

A: That’s a tough question, I do enjoy so many artists work both living and passed. You of course have been someone whose work I admire for sometime, I think dangerous and luscious come to mind when looking at your paintings, they are incredible. Mars-1 is always on the top of my list as are Joe Sorren, Oliver Vernon, Tony Curanaj, Alex Pardee, Mike Giant, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Albrecht Durer, John James Audubon, Frederich Church, Scott Gustafson, Frazetta, Dr. Seuss, and so many more.

"Stormy Knight" Greg Simkins

Q: You do so many things, paint, curate, your clothing company, graffiti… is there anything left that you have left to put the “Craola” or “Greg Simkins” signature on?

A: I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to make a visual masterpiece of my world “The Outside” and the story of the White Knight into some kind of motion picture. I have been slowly writing the story out and enjoy that process as much as painting.  Hopefully one day it could be worthy of an audience in its written form and movie form.

"Scared Friends" Greg Simkins & Alex Pardee

Q: What’s on the horizon for you?

A: I am about to release my very first book called “Drawn From the Well” by Presto art publishing (http://craola1.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-look-at-my-book.html) this September with the initial release at Dragon Con in Atlanta. Following that in November, will be my last solo show in the states for a while called Story Teller and will be held at Gallery 1988.  There are some other fun things in the works as well but don’t want to unload too much right now.

Greg Simkins and "The Puppet Pathos"

Q:Thanks for taking the time to talk Greg, anything in closing?”

A: I really feel lucky and blessed to be able to do this work for a living. It really does feel like a dream sometimes even in the midst of long hours and pulled backs. If you are reading this and managed to get to the end of the article then I assume that you are someone who enjoys these paintings. I specifically want to thank you. All the emails and encouragement you have all sent me through the years has really made this all worth it.

Excelsior! MB

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Tex Avery

"Explaining Christians to Dinosaurs" The Chapman brothers

Tex Avery once said: “In a cartoon, you can do anything.” That overlying idea has thankfully permeated creators and artists in multiple mediums, and allowed surrealism, Dadaism, conceptualism, and the WWE to flourish and bloom. Pushing the boundaries with your imagination, and taking away the filter of rationality and linear thought can sometimes clear the lens through which we view the world around us, and give more clarity to our vision. The absurd can be a powerful tool in art if used intelligently, while giving the appearance of being completely irresponsible. Like an amusement park caricature, when reality is engorged and distorted, we are able to let the viewer distill the essence of the point or piece by releasing the burden of anchoring it to an objective realism. Holding up their carnival mirror to history, science, and culture has allowed Jake and Dinos Chapman to reflect their grotesque, humorous, and often, accurate worldview to the masses.

"Zygotic Acceleration Biogenetic Desubliminated Libidi" The Chapman brothers

"Altered Hogarth Print" The Chapman brothers

The brothers Chapman quickly gained notoriety with a few other of the English gallerist Charles Saatchi curated young British artists, most notably Damien Hirst of  ye olde bisected cow fame. Tackling the effects of violence, war, and the perception of flesh and sexuality, their work had to be executed with a certain amount of humor and abandon so as not to become too dark on a superficial level. Their over the top small-scale sculptures of re-appropriated plastic figurines   were an inane re-imagining of Francisco Goya’s etchings “The Disasters of War” that later were blown up to life size proportions for the landmark NY show “Sensation”. The thing about their work is, as they deal with scale, working both on a life-size and miniature, it loses no intensity or wit. The work’s ability to play around with how we view sexuality and the grotesque and transform it to an almost farcical play on images based on the conventions of art and childhood is their driving force.

"Great Deeds Against the Dead" The Chapman brothers

"Tragic Anatomies" The Chapman brothers

Their work crosses the spectrum, with graphic design, drawings, etchings, sculpture, and installations all being part of the brother’s oeuvre; but they’re most ambitious piece was the room-spanning “F*&cking Hell”. With over 50,000 2-inch figurines depicting the torturous death and maiming done in the name of god, state, and country, it almost literally sucks you into the piece as you get lost in the myriad of scenarios on display. Crucified, eaten by birds, speared, shredded, shot, raped, you name it, it’s depicted here. The attention to detail is staggering, as is what’s depicted by the small toys. The horrors of Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler are here, and the bleakness is never ending, but by using the conventions of childhood toy dioramas, the absurdity of the levels of violence is quelled by it’s childlike naivete. The piece is a triumph, and I would give my first born to Rumplestilskin to actually see the piece in person… so if you’re listening, the offer is on the table.

"F*&cking Hell" The Chapman brothers

"F*&cking Hell" The Chapman brothers

"F*&cking Hell" The Chapman brothers

"F*&cking Hell" The Chapman brothers

"F*&cking Hell" The Chapman brothers

The Chapman brothers’ work continues to evolve, always with its thumb at acceptable culture, and always with a clever eye showing  how violence and sex are the predisposed avenues we are drawn into as a society. Their last show, entitled “If Hitler Had Been a Hippy, How Happy Would We Be?” contained a number of verified paintings completed by Adolf Hitler and defaced with 70’s hippy motifs. Art, and the history of art are nothing but a cartoon to Jake and Dinos, which gives them the confidence and the freedom to do what they in do in any manner they choose. The fact that they are cognitively aware that taste and art are subjective and malleable, lets them do anything.  Their fearlessness would make Tex Avery happy, and hopefully, Hitler wince.

Excelsior! MB

Tweet me @matthewebone

"Can't You Take a Joke?" Damian Loeb

I don’t know if it’s the inertia of pop culture or the degradation of the general population’s interest in traditional culture, but somewhere along the way they both became one in the same. TV, tabloid, film, art, literature, and journalism have all become these subatomic particles bouncing around, colliding endlessly and feeding one another. Though the idea of lower brow idioms influencing what can be considered by many as high brow territory can be shunned by some, these cross-cultural bleeds can often lead to interesting and fantastic results. One of these junctions is where we find the wonderful, cinema fueled paintings of New York based painter Damian Loeb.

"Good Afternoon Mr. Amer" Damian Loeb

Loeb is a self-taught photorealist painter, and the arc of his career is littered with the re-appropriations of found images, both photographic and cinematic. His life was fundamentally changed like many of ours with his introduction to a galaxy far, far away. Of the film, Loeb says “ I spent my early years drawing pictures from Star Wars and even drawing myself into the film. So I froze these particular moments, but also wanted to be a part of the action.” This idea of stealing “paused” moments from film, and the borrowing of photographed elements from advertising and magazines has permeated much of his work. He has taken many parts of the cultural lexicon, and restated them in a way that now speaks to us about sorrow, loneliness, and anxiety, all the meanwhile using the visual language we are familiar with. Though heralded by many as a true craftsman and a genius, you would find as many detractors labeling his work plagiarism, and him a crook.

"Scream" Damian Loeb

"The Vanishing" Damian Loeb

The artist’s work landed him in much trouble, taken to court various times for copyright infringement, his early paintings in particular were troublemakers for him. Large oil paintings composed of various found elements, collaged in, and recast into an almost surrealistic setting that were melancholy and haunting at the same time. These early set-backs only fueled Loeb into the upping the ante and creating a more breath taking, daring body of work, one based in the world of sci-fi and horror. Digitally compositing sometimes hundreds of stills he is able to recreate scenes that never were, or just never seen to large proportions, with some of his pieces topping out at 14 ft. long.  Omitting any cliché icons, the painter is able to distill the “scene” to its most spartan, most elemental essence and use that to tell a story. Through his reinterpretation we are able to read the sentence sans proper names and nouns, and in turn are able to apply the atmosphere and feeling to ourselves; just hearing the faintest whisper of the film maker and Loeb, and left with our own thoughts echoing against the walls of room 237.

"Room 237" Damian Loeb

Now utilizing the language of cinematography and film to inform his vision, Damian Loeb has moved onto another chapter of his career, one where he’s finally creating images from his mind’s eye, and utilizing his photography as the basis. Still creating half remembered scenes from a story or memory long forgotten, his work maintains its ethereal atmosphere and its sense of alienation. Loeb’s work can be seen online at www.damianloeb.com, and is represented by Acquavelva Gallery in NYC.

Excelsior! MB

"The Lady Vanishes" Damian Loeb

Will Cotton: Katy Perry "Teenage Dream"

D*Face:Christina Aguilera "Bionic"

I don’t think it would be a real large leap of faith to guess that the new Katy Perry album will be an artless heap of bubble gum, nor will any limbs be gone out on to guess the new Christina Aguilera album sounds vaguely like the last one… I assure you I am aware that these are blind assumptions, and I’m not even hinting at that fact that I probably have a “friend” who wouldn’t casually enjoy a song or two by either of the girls. The one thing both these albums usher in though, that is more important than a formulaic pop record, is a return of awesome album cover art by acclaimed artists. Ms. Perry’s new album “California Dream” is graced with an incredible painting by noted NY painter Will Cotton who is known for his saccharine landscapes that would resemble the set design for “Candyland: the Revenge of Gloppy the Molasses Monster” if there ever were to be such a movie. D*Face, the British street artist and Banksy contemporary lends his considerable hand to the cover of noted art collector Aguilera’s latest record to less spectacular effect. The composition seems an uneven mix of graphic and photographic work that serves no purpose other than to draw the disparate demographics that either of them skews towards together, and broaden their respective fan bases.

The Velvet Underground:Andy Warhol "The Velvet Underground

Andy Warhol: The Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers"

There is quite a history of art luminaries marrying their sensibilities with musicians, sometimes creating a perfect symmetry of sound and vision, other times creating a package that, let’s just say, won’t hold up to the test of time nearly as heartily. Andy Warhol was one of the first fine artists to dip his toes in rock ‘n roll waters, first managing the Velvet Underground, and providing the album with its iconic banana cover; later conspiring with The Rolling Stones on their “Sticky Fingers”, which was capable of making most men feel less than adequate, and at the same time making a perfect visual companion for the Stones, and arguably their most memorable cover.  It was perfect, Warhol’s brand of pop art’s willingness to embrace the fact that art could not only be a commentary on consumerism and commercialism , but in fact could become a precious item that exceeded its crass placement in a store bin simply by being art and commerce, was just what was needed to join the two worlds.

Patti Smith: Robert Mapplethorpe "Horses"

Duran Duran: Robert Nagel "Rio"

Guns 'n Roses: Robert Williams "Appetite for Destruction"

Once the bridge was gapped, and both types of artists realized it behooved them to open themselves up to a different audience and maybe the work could be seen in another light if it were re-contextualized or if it were spoken in a different part of the cultural lexicon. Robert Nagel’s cover to Duran Duran’s “Rio” not only became a visual icon for them, but in some ways a symbol of the 80’s. (Not to mention about a billion nail salons) Together they were able to supercede simply being a band, or simply being a painter, and able to attain a temporal greatness. Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith achieved it with her “Horses” album, Robert Williams and Guns n’ Roses were able to tell the world they were outlaws without opening their mouths, but by simply getting the original artwork banned almost immediately. In both cases not only was the feeling of the album conveyed, but so was the world-view of both artists. Jenny Seville, Alex Ross, Mike Kelley, Yoshitomo Nara are among a legion of artists who have leant their cred to, or gotten mass exposure from working with musicians in an array of genres. It’s a mutual respect that benefits everyone involved, and enriches the product and makes it more than just a record. I can’t tell you how impactful some of these covers were to me; not only opening my eyes to certain artists, but also spurned on my own interest in art as a communicative tool, and hinted at its power.

Sonic Youth: Mike Kelley "Dirty"

Scorpions: Gottfried Hellenwein "Blackout"

Manic Street Preachers: Jenny Seville "Journal for Plague Lovers"

Kanye West: Takashi Murakami "Graduation"

Anthrax: Alex Ross "We've come for you all"

Rob Zombie: Basil Gogos "Hellbilly Deluxe"

Alright, history lesson over, here’s my top 10 and why:

Honorable mention Mayhem: “Dawn of the Blackhearts”

Norwegian Black Metal band Mayhem clock in as a runner up just for the sheer audacity of photographing the scene of the lead singer Dead’s suicide and using it as a cover to the record. Youthful hi-jinx would later ensue and land a number of these kids in jail or a grave, so we can chalk this up to brilliant foreshadowing and tactless marketing.

Mayhem "Dawn of the Blackhearts"

10. Radiohead: “OK Computer”

A stark, barren landscape that still seems to hum with a life of its own. The art consists of a collage of images and words by British designer Stanley Donwood. Tom Yorke says of the cover “ Someone’s being sold something they don’t really want, and someone’s being friendly because they are trying to sell something…” well, I was sold, and it is a hauntingly good piece of work.

Radiohead "OK Computer"

9. Kiss: “Love Gun”

It seems anathema to my generation of comic loving boys to hate KISS, but I really do. Whatever they lacked in musical stylings, they made up for in unadulterated ass-kicking covers. I don’t think anything needs to be said about this one that a bunch of half naked ladies covered in face paint can’t say for themselves.

KISS "Love Gun"

8. New Order: “Power, Corruption, and Lies”

This is New Order’s 2^nd album, and my favorite cover of theirs. Peter Saville designed the piece, and he is quite prominent on my list… the man is genius. The cover is just a reproduction of a Henry Fantin Latour painting, and the lush, almost Baroque feel of the flowers contrasts beautifully with the starkness of the graphic color bar and typography, which in essence sums up the album and its sound of organic and synthetic.

New Order "Power, Lies, and Corruption"

7. Jane’s Addiction: “Nothing’s Shocking”

This cover was emblematic as Nirvana’s “Nevermind” cover was to the early 90’s alt scene, but less literal, which is what makes it a superior piece of art. The conjoined girl sculpture was made by the lead singer Perry Farrell and his girlfriend, then set on fire and photographed. The inexplicable art was as much as a shot in the jaw as Jane’s music, and I was floored. Thankfully subtlety was never one of the band’s virtues, and all the artwork associated with them was as perfectly avant-garde as the band itself and all of it was ahead of its time.

Jane's Addiction "Nothing's Shocking"

6. Iron Maiden: “The Number of the Beast”

When I was 8 years old, this cover depicted what pure evil looked like. The painting is as awesome as it is iconic, and it scared the pants off of me, until I heard Bruce Dickinson’s almost operatic vocals, which kinda pulled them back on. I still will always love Maiden, some of their mystique was gone though, and I realized that the forbidden apple tasted vaguely like canned fruit. That day I realized a fundamental truth… image is everything.

Iron Maiden "Number of the Beast"

5. Pulp: “This is Hardcore”

Peter Saville’s 2^nd entry on this illustrious list finds him working with Brit-pop band Pulp and American painter of ladies John Currin. Just as Maiden’s cover was pure evil to me, this cover is pure sex. The pallor of the model works so well with the reds and blacks, that it’s almost a Pavlovian reaction to the image. Needless to say, the public cried foul on this one, saying it was sexist and demeaning-really?!

Pulp "This is Hardcore"

4. Beastie Boys: “Licensed to Ill”

The first album from the trio depicted perfectly the impact that these white boys would have on white America, all the while utilizing the space of an LP perfectly. The design is simple and the painting is perfectly executed, much like the album itself. I remember staring out this cover for hours, reproducing it, and just completely enjoying it. Such an amazing piece.

The Beastie Boys "License to Ill"

3. The Clash: “London Calling”

Could a more perfect pairing of sound and design be planned? With the color, font, and layout resembling Elvis Presley’s eponymous album, and Paul Simmonen smashing his bass almost  symbolically through the letters, you can feel the birth of something new and vital.

The Clash "London Calling"

2. Joy Division: “Unknown Pleasures”

The most succinct of all the art on my list, however in that minimalism is all of its power. Peter Saville yet again is responsible for the cover, and it is as legendary as the band. Though their career was short lived due to Ian Curtis’s suicide, this motif and image has been repropogated and reused so many times, that it makes you feel that there isn’t an original thought left in the world anymore. (sigh)

Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures"

1. Andrew WK: “I Get Wet”

It must be something from my childhood, as I realized this is almost the same as the Pulp cover, just with a vertical composition… I’m nothing if not consistent. Sorry for the digression, WK’s first album was graced with this awesome photo that you can believe either had the singer bloodied with a cinder block to the face, or alternately, the illusion was completed with boring ol’ stage magic. Whatever got the nose bleeding doesn’t matter, just that it is. The image was a hint of the happy pummeling that you would receive upon listening, and has always stayed with me

Andrew WK "I Get Wet"

So that’s my list, which in no way is comprehensive and is completely subjective. I would love to throw the ball to you guys now, and hear what everyone’s vote would be for their favorite album art.

Excelsior!

MB

"Gai'a" Colin Christian

If you were able to teleport yourself and materialize in an intersection that happened to be where “2001”, “Barbarella”, and “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” met, you would be immediately confronted with a larger than life woman made entirely of silicone. Don’t fret, and don’t pull out your phaser; she means you no harm… you simply have arrived in the magical world of Colin Christian’s creations.

It was a balmy, sticky night in Miami the first time I was to make the acquaintance of one of Colin’s magnificent ladies. If you asked me now, I wouldn’t for the life of me be able to tell you her name, but I was bowled over by her sumptuous curves and her exaggerated proportions and immediately smitten to say the least. In town showing at Art Basel, the largest art fair in North America, I was on foreign ground, and behind these good women was a humble, gracious man who made me feel right at home. Needless to say, Colin and I have been friends since day 1.

Colin is a British transplant who grew up in the shadows of Stanley Kubrick and the smooth, spartan details of retro-futurism. His work is saturated with pop culture and drenched in sexuality. Straddling the line of fine art and design, Colin’s work is a commentary on all of the above. Whether they are adorning the stage of Kanye West’s last tour or occupying a spot in Nike CEO Mark Parker’s vaunted collection, they are right at home. His sculptures are rooted in the conventions of anime, and are akin to Murakami’s “Superflat” art movement which refers to the “flattening” of various forms of Japanese graphic art, pop culture, and fine art, for which he indeed does have an affinity. “The lines and shapes really make sense to me” Colin says, and they lend themselves in a greater way to marrying the form with function, as in the “furniture” of Allen Jones whose work is most notable for being the influence of the tables and chairs inside of the Korova Milkbar from “Clockwork Orange”. Incidentally, Christian will be introducing a line of furniture based on pollen and undersea life soon, which will bring an added dimension of functionality to his work.

A hopeful idealist, the women of Colin’s armada are the amalgams of the many beautiful icons that he grew up worshiping, sanded and painted to a shiny perfection to match the streamlined clothing and provocative space gear that adorn his ladies. Though one could dismiss the work as being too sexy or kitschy, these sculptures embody what it’s like to be a child, to see the world as a beautiful shiny egg to crack, one where sexuality, cooperation, and advancement are not hindered by closed mindedness or cynicism; basking in the embryonic glow of cinema and television has allowed Colin to create a 3-dimensional manifestation of how he sees, or hopes to see where technology, art, and science can take us. “As a species we must embrace technology in the right way, and leave this planet… When we leave our genitals will come with us, eventually spacesuits will get sexier.”

"Capsule (group)" Colin Christian

Colin’s self described “Futuristic Sexy Optimistic” art finds him embracing the evolution of his work and letting it grow and flourish in many ways, exploring his world beyond just his lovely ladies and allowing us to peek further inside his brain with every new piece. He is currently at work on a new show for the Opera Gallery in NY opening February ‘11 with his wife Sas, a gifted painter in her own right, you can see more of his (inter) stellarwork at:  www.colinchristian.com.

Excelsior! MB

Tweet me: @matthewebone

Brett Dickins’ kinectic wall art will own your cuckoo clock.

via Engadget

"...if a painting can't be as interesting as good pop music, then it should give up."-Glenn Brown

Maelstroms of colors whipping together like a Hubble shot of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Incongruous hues flowing harmoniously; magentas licking veridians, azures flush with chartreueses working together and the heady collision of classical forms with artificial colors give the paintings an instantaneously carnivalesque appeal. Provocative, derivative, genius, plagiarisms- English artist Glenn Brown’s paintings have been called many thing, but never boring. I like to always think of him as akin to the Rolling Stones who took American blues, sexualized, amplified, and distorted the music until it was this awesome Frankenstein’s monster that was all their own. Brown on the other hand takes the work of the abstractists, the impressionists, and the surrealists fetishizes the act of painting, remixes and re-imagines them, creating something uniquely new all his own.

"Heart and Soul" Glenn Brown

"DarkStar" Glenn Brown

As your eyes skim the surface of one of Brown’s paintings, they can’t help but get lost in the labyrinth of heavy impasto strokes, or get caught at an impasse of brilliant cyan paint. That’s the 1st allure of his pieces, the rich movement and history of the painting as evidenced by the movement of the brush and the artist’s hand  is at the same time its best joke. The truth is… there is no spoon (pardon the heavy handed Matrix reference), there is no texture, there is no brushstroke. The surface is in fact impossibly smooth, although not engineered by self aware AI who are using humanity to feed its bio-electric needs. The artist has pain-stakingly rendered where the brush would (should) have gone, the inadvertent collision of color is in fact not a brilliant accident… nothing is impulsive in the tightly painted canvases that are the step children of the kinetic abstract painters he so admired. Brown’s first glimpses at art were very similar to most people’s, through the pages of books; his young misinterpitation of how a 2-D photo captured a 3 dimensional object  slowly led him to a career-long interest in capturing the process, and “to treat brushmarks like objects to be gazed at in awe”. The trompe l’oeil that he achieves through his mastery of the brush creates a surface as delectable as a mint chocolate chip swirl that literally leaves the viewer wanting to eat his paintings.

"Anaesthesia" Glenn Brown

"Led Zeppelin" Glenn Brown

The second great stroke of genius in his work again stems from the same lionizing of his artist forefathers.There’s a profound sense in his work of having been there before….like you’ve seen this painting already – guess what, you haven’t. Ok, maybe a sliver of a part here or there; Picasso, Rembrandt, Dali… or more accurately pieces of their work are lifted straight from their original home and adopted by Brown. By  reappropriating and recontextualizing these images and then inverting, bloating and/or painting them to look like putrid corpses, he’s able to tie your eye to something familiar without making you realize it. Brown’s propensity for reusing imagery has run afoul of the art world once or twice, and even has landed him in the courtroom regarding plagiarizing the work of the sci-fi artist Chris Foss. (psst,  it was settled out of court) However, in his defense the technique is used to great effect in creating a sense of timelessness that definitely works better than any colorized version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” can.

"Nausea" Glenn Brown

Using found imagery as a jumping off point to his work has allowed Glenn Brown to connect the classical era of painting with the mid-century abandon of the more gestural abstract impressionists to the sterility of the age of reproductions and the internet… a neon boullaibaisse if you will. More importantly though it has allowed him to challenge the viewer, which is what great art does; yes, those thick ribbons of lavender brushed heavily are real, or are they? Brown’s ability to play with the viewer by making them question what is or isn’t real is paramount to his work… is it art? is it original? is it real? His decision has already been made, or is he just messing around with you? His challenging  on a visual and intellectual level does make his work as engaging to me as any music, and I can find myself staring at his work for hours, like listening to a song on repeat over and over again. So I ask you readers, is there an artist who you see as a rockstar, someone who really moves you? Is art even a viable form of interactive engagement anymore, or is it just a bull market for the rich?

Excelsior, MB

Art by Joseph Remnant.

Renowned comic writer and beloved curmudgeon Harvey Pekar passed away earlier this week.  His insight into the human condition touched thousands of readers and inspired brilliant artists, including Robert Crumb, Frank Stack and Gary Dumm.

Even in death, Pekar continues to inspire pieces like the one above, a collaboration between The Daily Cross Hatch editor Brian Heater and Pekar Project artist Joseph Remnant.  Heater explained,

I gave [Remnant] the words (borrowed, naturally, from the master), and he came back with an image this afternoon that far exceeded what I had haphazardly sketched out in my mind.

Pekar left us with a the magnificent American Splendor series (along with several unfinished works that may or may not be released) and a throng of bleary-eyed fans including myself, coming to terms with a great loss.

So, see you Harvey.  You don’t seem like one for long goodbyes, but here’s hoping you know how important you were as the unimportant everyman.

[more remembrances]

I have a sneaking suspicion that TRUE BLOOD is about to introduce yet another type of creature. The other night, did anyone else notice this creepy dude staggering through the foreground?

Let’s just ZOOM IN and ENHANCE…

*SPOILER ALERT:
Due to atmospheric moisture, contents should be eaten within 7-10 days of opening.

Phind more Phirm HERE!

I am an unabashed art nerd, art geek, or whatever you choose to call me, it’s true whichever way you look at it. Art is the one all consuming passion I’ve managed to sustain and feed my entire life without waver. I’ve had a fiery relationship with it as long as I can remember, both as a working artist and an avid enthusiast of art in all her forms. In short, it has permeated my childhood and engulfed my adult life.

Ron Bartlett’s illustrations for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” were the first pieces that knocked me on my four year old ass, and it was complete love at first sight. My best friends growing up were Frank Frazetta, John Byrne, Bernie Wrightson, Basil Gogos, Curt Swan, Neal Adams, and so many more comic book artists that created the worlds that I wanted to live in as a kid, and gave me inspiration. As much as I loved reading comics, I enjoyed drawing them even more-first mimicking what was in front of me, and then branching out and creating my own voice. The inertia of those formative years was too strong though, and comic books could no longer sustain my appetite.

"The Four Continents" Peter Paul Rubens, 1614

"Marbles VII" Charles Bell, 1982

As I grew up, my hunger for discovering art was paralleled by my own growth as both an artist and a person. I became so familiar with their visions, they were now a part of my family. The effortless power of Jackson Pollock, the malignant shadows of Caravaggio, the lush flesh of Peter Paul Rubens, the harsh abstractions of Willem de Kooning; these became my vocabulary and the hallmarks of the idealized world I built out of the fragmented bits of their work incorporated through my eyes. Art has informed and defined my history. The first time I saw the unbelievable photorealism of Chuck Close and Charles Bell was as important to me as the night I nervously lost my virginity. I can still remember where I was when I first saw Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring his Son”, or how I was starving for inspiration the day I stumbled upon the sugary landscapes of Will Cotton. Some people will have the Beatles or Neil Armstrong, I will always have Ralph McQuarrie.

"Mark" Chuck Close, 1978-1979

"Saturn Devouring his Son" Francisco Goya, 1819-1823

That’s the beauty of art, it reflects history and progress indiscriminately, and at the same time feeds off them. It has a lineage older than Christ, religion, or philosophy; and what your’e looking at today is all a part of history. A Tex Avery cartoon was influenced by the unapologetic absurdity of Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaism. Takashi Murikami’s Louis Vuitton bags were birthed from Andy Warhol, who in turn created his brand of Pop art in reaction to the exclusionary attitudes of the American abstract artists of the 50′s and 60′s. Frank Miller’s black and white illustration style was bled from the same vein as Albrecht Durer’s 16th century woodblock prints. The macro can influence the micro, or vice versa, and it all creates so many delicious varieties of work…how could you not want to try them all?

"White Center" Mark Rothko, 1950

"Hello Kitty" Colin Christian, 2009

I hope that my passion for art will be in the slightest bit infectious, and that my contributions to this wonderful site will be seen as nothing more than an open love letter to a harsh, but wonderful mistress. There will be no snobbery here, and I will do my best to spotlight as vast an array of work as possible; from the amazingly rendered tattoos of Nikko Hurtado, to the sublime paintings of Damien Loeb. Tim Hawkinson’s garage tinkering installations, Colin Christian’s retro-futuristic bombshells, the perverse sculptural work of the brothers Chapman, they all have a place here. I look forward to discussions with all of the nerdists readers, and hope for some recommendations.
Excelsior!
Matthew Bone