'NIGHTLIFE' MY ARTISTIC TRIBUTE TO THE VIDEO STORE

This year marks the seventh time I've happily been a part of Gallery 1988's Crazy 4 Cult. It's the art show that started a well-worn trend, and is said to have "launched a thousand shows" just like it.

This time, rather than celebrating a particular film, I focused on the now romanticized video store. It's a look back to a time when home viewing stakes were higher considering pitfalls like uninformed movie selections, potentially damaged tapes, late fees, and the investment of time and gas money. But those things were outweighed by the social interactions, the free popcorn, the looping previews, and the ritual that could turn a Friday night into an event. All the legwork and logistics gave weight and value to the movies, even the awful ones. Although one can't truly understand their value until you've had to spend eighty bucks to replace a tape that melted in your car window.

The piece is also a tribute to one of my favorite artists, Edward Hopper. He often used American storefronts as a stage for lonely, isolated individuals. In this case, loneliness emerges in the wait for your long-overdue ride. So long that the option to go back inside vanished when the door was locked and the lights went dark. In a broader sense, we're all locked out of the video store.
(Sheesh, of all the things to get poignant about, I pick movie rental.)

Process wise, I assembled a photomontage first and then painted digitally on top of it. I'd say I was 'cheating' if it hadn't taken so many dozens of hours to complete.

This evening, as I was in the middle of writing this entry, I was reminded of the downside of physical media by making a dark, rainy, thirty-plus minute round trip to use a stupid Redbox promo code on the only copy of Ant-Man in a sixty mile radius. I got to the kiosk to discover that the touch screen was out of commission. I returned to my family empty handed, and spent another twenty minutes on customer chat to null the transaction. ("Krista" the service rep promptly disconnected once I started in on my sob story.) And here I am commemorating the dying industry that I helped kill off in favor of a disc dropping robot that chose to ignore me tonight.

Anyway, if my hypocrisy doesn't disgust you, and you want one, then signed and numbered prints are available for $20 through Gallery 1988's site.

(Also, here it is as 1900x1200 desktop wallpaper.)

MY ART: CARNIVAL PRIZE MIRRORS INSPIRED BY 1980s HORROR

Once again I have the joy of participating in Gallery 1988's Crazy 4 Cult art show (opening December 12th) in which nearly a hundred artists pay tribute to cult films. This year I tried a new format, and created a set of decorative mirrors like the ones that were offered as carnival game prizes throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s that featured the cultural icons of the moment.

Before we take a closer look at my stuff, let us review the enthralling history of prize mirrors. The concept seems to have emerged in the '70s, and the mirrors were quickly rumored to double as a handy surface to cut n' sniff cocaine. When they first showed up in the carnys' trailers most were nearly as large as record album covers, and contained in semi-sturdy wooden frames, with the images screen-printed onto the glass...




Over the years their quality devolved dramatically.

Some of the earlier mirrors were marbled with decorative colored veins, but this feature was soon discontinued for the most part...

(photos came from ebay)

Multiple sizes were available to accommodate the "Small" and "Large" prize categories, but as the '80s progressed the big ones were mostly phased out in favor of the six by six universal standard...



The wooden (and sometimes metallic plastic) frames were downgraded to cardboard.


The next degradation was replacing the mirrors with regular clear glass, and printing the image on back.

 

In their chintziest form the prizes consisted of a piece of glass slipped in front of a cardstock printout in a cardstock frame.

 


However, in recent years the spirit of the carnival prize mirror lives on in its descendent, the framed poster.

All that said, my mirror creations are meant to emulate those middle years when real mirrors were still in use, but the frames were low-end.

One wonders if any of the imagery was ever officially authorized, but bootlegging was certainly rampant, and some fascinating "off-guide" artwork could be found...


While the format changed dramatically, the visual themes remained constant. The subjects revolved around the sex, drugs, & rock formula, and in my neck of the woods there was also an (un)healthy dose of pro-gun and confederate pride propaganda.

This was the inspiration for my tribute to John Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing...

Naturally, Kurt Russell's character is all-American, but as you may recall, the Thing is first unleashed in a Norwegian research camp in the Arctic, thus the Norwegian flag that gives the design its confederate flavor. Since carnival mirrors are rife with misguided typography I happily took the opportunity to use the font Hobo. It's a typeface I try to work into as many projects as possible, yet sadly my efforts are almost always shot down.

(In case you can't tell, the images are placed on real mirrors. They just look a bit weird because I blurred the reflections in Photoshop. )

I've always enjoyed the way that traveling fairs embraced '80s Heavy Metal music and then refused to let go long after its heyday. Just last year I heard a Gravitron proudly blaring Poison and Cinderella. Since the majority of prize mirrors are rock related I aimed high by mashing up Evil Dead 2 (1987), a quintessential horror flick, with Iron Maiden, the embodiment of carnival life.

Occupying the airbrushed tropical beach babe slot is this homage to Predator (1987). It's not so far-fetched once you reflect on how purely sexy that helmet is.

Lastly, representing the common theme of substance abuse, I chose to pay tribute to another John Carpenter joint, They Live (1988).  It seemed fitting since the aliens in the film use media as an opiate. Of course the Zig Zag man would be one of them.


My mirrors will be for sale as a set once Crazy 4 Cult begins on December 12th. (EDIT: They sold!!) Here's the link to all the art.

PAINT BY NUMBER PEE-WEE

Gallery 1988's 7th annual Crazy 4 Cult art show is going on right now, and once again I had the honor of participating in it! This year I chose to celebrate one of my all-time favorite movies, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, with this paint-by-numbers style acrylic piece.
(It's for sale HERE.) UPDATE: SOLD!

Applying this look to Pee-wee's world made perfect sense to me. Not only does the fun, colorful, scenery translate to the format nicely, but both his movie home and his television playhouse are decorated with paint-by-number art.

I have a couple old paint-by-number pieces hanging in my bathroom too, which probably explains why this idea was inevitable.

This is actually the second artistic tribute I've made to the film. The first was my wallet-size portrait of the Buxtons which came with Pee-wee's wallet.


See below for more information about the show. You can view all the art HERE.

CRAZY 4 CULT 5

None More Black Light Poster
Florescent acrylic on art board

UPDATE: You can get original art from Crazy 4 Cult 5 here, and prints are here.

Once again I'm ever so thankful to get to take part in the annual Crazy 4 Cult art show at L.A.'s Gallery 1988: Melrose. It's my fourth year to participate, but it's the first time that I've deviated from my series of film family portraits to cover a new, equally gimmicky format—the black light poster (as seen above). It's a concept I've had in mind for a very long time and I figured Spinal Tap, the fictitious heavy metal act as well as the stars of one of my very favorite films, has long-deserved this treatment. (This isn't the first time they've inspired my work.)

The image you saw earlier shows it under normal lighting, and this...

... is the way it looks under a black light (which is included with the piece).

In an effort to make it seem even more authentic, and to give it "that extra push over the cliff" I applied black flocking (fuzzy stuff) to some areas...


The show will be on display at the Gallery 1988: Melrose from Friday, July 8th through July 30th.


Speaking of C4C (as I smugly call it) they just released a big, beautiful book filled with selections from the first four years of the show...


Whoops, mine keeps opening to this page for some reason...


The book is available on Amazon and all over the place.