Fort Worth Community Art Center

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I had the honor of being selected to be part of a juried show out in Fort Worth, Texas. The theme was “Courage” and was part of a fundraiser for the Choose Courage Foundation that helps victims of domestic violence. So here’s the pic of my painting during the opening reception.  

While You

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While you were exchanging political barbs on social media and marching past my old cracker box apartment in Capitol Hill with home made signs - I was toiling away documenting the events of the time with paint and trowel. Sacrificing what little I had left. Not for some inflated sense of ego or critical acclaim, not for the chance to ship my work into the middle of conservative America on my own dime. And while I’ll most likely never have thousands of Instagram followers or make 60k a year from selling art, maybe just maybe, some little kid that finishes tests early so they can draw on the back of the paper will get dragged to an art exhibit by their mom or dad, see one of my paintings and be inspired to actually creating something. Do something other than napping and walking the dog, working a cubical job that doesn’t really mean anything just like everyone else. Maybe they’ll spend all their free time creating something beautiful.

New Series!

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In what could very well be my last exhibition with Core New Art Space at the Santa Fe Dr location, I’m starting work on my 2018 showing with a series of Colorado centric paintings before Denver completely cannibalizes what’s left of everything that makes this city interesting.    

Free-Market Capitalism

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Well the upside of gloomy days is you can take great photos of your art. The downside is realizing the hypocrisy of free market capitalism. Yeah in the industrial revolution, you could create something and actually compete - but now with the consolidation and mergers of companies it’s nearly impossible. Take for example this 36 inch by 48 inch painting, there’s only two shipping companies I can use. If I were to ship this in a box that’s literally the same size of the painting the cost of shipping is roughly $36 USD one way. Let’s add 1/2 inch of bubble wrap and 1 and 1/2 inch spacer. That’s a box roughly 40 inches by 50 inches by 6 inches that weighs less than 20 lbs. shipping cost increase to $150 USD for ground shipping. Let’s say you’re shipping that to a juried show where you have to pay return shipping. That’s $300 USD for shipping that you’re eating. There’s no way to recoup those costs and some instance you could buy a plane ticket and fly with the painting or take a day few days off work to drive the painting and still come out ahead. It’s ridiculous and super disheartening, I can’t roll the shipping costs into the cost of the painting to recoup my expenses. What are the odds of actually selling the painting? Will being in a new market increase those odds? Is exposure worth the costs? Those are all subjective answers I suppose, for me it’s just a bummer that there’s only two options for shipping. It’s pretty hard to compete with a gallery or artist that can eat $300 for a one painting in a one month show - just saying. 

Drawing Denver

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Had a chance to do some drawing downtown yesterday , trying to work out some 2018 exhibition ideas. Playing around with the idea of old Denver mixed with contemporary subjects. The first one incorporates the Terminal Annex, 15th St. Viaduct, and local graffiti over the years. the Second is a mixture of a white buffalo, the old Elitch Gardens sign, and the cross street where Elitch gardens used to be. That neighborhood has gone through such a transformation I hardly recognize it anymore.

The crazy thing about Denver, all the places where artists called home have become so desirable that for the most part we've all been forced out. Rino, Navajo, and soon the Santa Fe Arts district. The city doesn't seem to care, and for the most part neither does the public until its too late. Westword recently ran an article about artists leaving mementos on the RiNO Arts District signage in memory of the arts district. The sad thing is little do they know that the Santa Fe Arts District is the one they should be worried about. It's the only cohesive, walkable Arts District in Denver that has a mix of Commercial Galleries and Co-Ops. When Spark and CORE's leases are up in the next two years and we end up disbanded or moving it will be a huge hit to the district and spell the begining of the end of what makes that part of Denver interesting. You'll still have hippy hat stores and whatever Artwork Network is, but you won't have the high quality, thought provoking work that comes out of an anchor gallery and co-op with 36 years of continual operation. 

Divided

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I've been trying to wrap my head around WTF happened in Charlottesville Virginia and all I can come up with is thanks America for still being awful and making my work even more relevant. Torches and chanting, armed militia wandering the streets, a clear lack of police force, it was a recipe for complete chaos and tragedy. Unfortunately that's how things eventually unfolded. I'd like to think someday people will look back at my work (hopefully in a museum) documenting the last eleven months - the social and political maelstrom that's been 2016/ 17, and they'll say something like "man this guy was ahead of his time, and had his finger to the pulse of what was really going on." But trying to compete with meaningless art in the digital age is freaking exhausting and demoralizing. 

2018 Ideas

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Start with the Mobil Gas Pegasus, flesh it out some so it looks like a actual horse - then get to work on the details of making a painting.