HEY YOOOOOU GUYS!!!

The good, good people at Altered Esthetics (yes, that is spelt correctly) have accepted a new series of mine called "3G" for their FANBOI themed show in March. The FANBOI show will include art inspired by fandom and devotion to characters, stories, or icons in film, music, or gaming culture.

I have a series of three pieces themed around three movies from the 80's starting with the letter G, done in the same sort of style I did the Kiss My mASScot series in. The first one above is probably the most recognizable....if not then I may have to re-think the other two.


Opening Reception
Friday, March 4, 2011 - 7pm-10pm at the AE gallery in NE Minnesota inside the Qarma building.

New Work at Altered Esthetics gallery

NEW WORK! My "Kiss my mASScot" series is now on show at the Altered Esthetics gallery in NE Minneapolis as part of their "Adverti$ing" exhibition throughout the month of December.

The opening was last night and almost snowed out. I'll update a little later!

The show was also featured in the City Pages A-list Events: Read here!

Headin' on down to Saint Paul

Just a quick note to say that I will once again be peddling my stuff at the Saint Paul Art Crawl. The good people at the Rossmor building have saved a little nook for me again for the three days its on. Those dates are October 8th, 9th and 10th. Got that in your diary? good. It had better be in ink and not pencil.....I'll know.


I'll be getting more information tomorrow in regards to where EXACTLY you can find me so I'll get back to you.

17 days later....

Hey, what were you doing 17 and a bit days ago? At Altered Esthetics at their sixth anniversary Iron and Candy show were you? YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

AE put on another great show, music, food...although not that much candy actually...a raffle in which you could choose what prizes you would be entered for so didn't come home with some lame leftover dreg of a prize like normal raffles. Not that there were any dregs to be won here mind. I didn't win anything dreggy or otherwise....sort it out AE!! Stick on mustaches, Steam punk themed photos, silent auction and more.
Both of my pieces went in the silent auction. The Candy Dragon which I pictured in my last post and this piece...Iron Giant and the Chocolate factory. Mixing two classic children's stories. I also helped out with the Cartoonist Conspiracy's bad caricatures or "Cankeratures" which was a lot of fun. Despite the warning that they may be "bad", this was really just to protect all those artists that didn't usually do caricatures. These guys at the Cartoonist Conspiracy really know how to draw. Due to my poor blog keeping skills I haven't really mentioned them individually but I will be changing that soon.


All the money raised from the caricatures goes toward the August Lutefisk Sushi D comic book show.

Art by mail and another CBIG big up!

Ah, another late update...sorry about that. I was out rescuing puppies and orphans from burning buildings.....or something.

Anyway, The illustration news portal Little Chimp Society e-mailed me this morning to tell me that the Mail Me Art 2 exhibition has been announced. Mail Me Art 2 is the second collection of art done entirely on envelopes sent through the mail. I did a quick ink sketch for it:

Dates:
Friday 30th July – Thursday 5th August 2010
Opening reception Friday July 30th 6-11pm

Location:
Red Gate Gallery
209a Coldharbour Lane
London SW9 8RU
United Kingdom
www.redgategallerylondon.co.uk

Meanwhile in Minnesota.....

The Children's book illustration show is still on at the Minnesota Center of Book Arts!
Here are my pieces there. I was aiming for B-Movie style posters of Children's classics. The Big Bad wolf one is one of about three or four Godzilla references I was working on at the time. What? Stuck on a single thought like a broken record forever producing the same thing over and over, y'say? Oh shut up.


Including Artists of the
CHILDREN BOOK
ILLUSTRATIONS GUILD

Minnesota Book Arts Show
April 8th - June 20th
http://www.mnbookarts.org/

THIS FRIDAY - ALTERED ESTHETICS IRON AND CANDY SHOW!

What are you doing this Friday? "What should you be doing?" more like it!
The answer: Going to the Altered Esthetics gallery in Northeast Minneapolis!


Iron and Candy

6 year anniversary celebration and fundraiser at Ae

Altered Esthetics celebrates six years of serving artists with a party at their home in the Q'arma building in Northeast Minneapolis. The party will occur in conjunction with their annual spring fundraiser... this year's theme - Iron and Candy!

I'll have two pieces on show there but they also have a whole line up of awesomeness -

- An Iron and Candy themed exhibit and silent auction
- A raffle with awesome prizes and goods from local businesses
- Live music
- Refreshments
- Steampunk themed games and activities
- Bad Caricatures courtesy of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy
- Awesome company
- And more!

Schedule of Awesomeness
(Doors at 5)
7:00pm Refreshments, DJ, flurry of games and activity
9:00pm Silent auction and raffle end
9:00pm Live auction begins
9:30pm Raffle winners announced
10:00pm Music from Apartment 12J
11:00pm Music from Bad September



How can you NOT go? Just in case you are still not convinced then here is a segment of the framed sketch I have there. You'll have to go to see what the Umpa Lumpa is fleeing from. Incentive!

St Paul Art Crawl - THE INFORMATION!

JAMES POWELL? - YOU'LL BE WANTING THE 2ND FLOOR THEN!



*WHERE:
Rossmor Building
500 Robert Street
St. Paul, MN

*WHEN:
APRIL
23rd (Friday) :6-10pm
24th (Saturday):12-8pm
25th (Sunday) :12-5pm

I am on the best floor, thats the 2nd one. Just go through the main entrance (pictured) and up the stairs and I'll be to the left. I'll work on some signage to guide you.

If you want to see everything in the building then there is an elevator to the 7th floor so you can work your way down using the stairs to avoid congestion. Building artists will advertise in the elevator to make it easy to find your favorite artists!
- Maps and Parking:


*Parking Bargain: $3/all day Block 19 Parking Ramp
-enter from Jackson and 7th
-street parking around the Rossmor is
free after 430pm
on Friday and Saturday
and all day Sunday
EASY parking makes this the
PERFECT PLACE TO START YOUR DAY!

Additional Rossmor Events:

Musical group - "Tortuga" - performing in studio #508 on Friday night at 8:00
Musical group "St. Thomas African Music Ensemble" performing in studio #517 Saturday late afternoon some time - more details to come.

Patrick Clancy Photography will be offering a Free Photo Booth in Studio #508 on Saturday and Sunday. Come have a free portrait taken.

Lobby Musicians!
Niki Beker will play Friday at 6 pm and Saturday at 1 pm
Nathan Eliot Rowan will play Saturday at 4 pm
Nick Strusz will play Saturday at 12 pm
We are still working on hosting a number of solo musicians at various common areas of the building - more to come on that. Anyone interested in performing can drop us a line.

Remember $3 all day parking in the Block 19 parking ramp!

Oh, and just in case that wasn't enough for you then here is a copy of the whole crawl map.

Come by and say hello and steal some candy!*

(*I may or may not have candy)

ST Paul Art Crawl

I now have a venue for the Spring Saint Paul Art Crawl - The Rosmor

I'm not sure what I am going to hang there yet but will put updates up (priobably a day or two late....naturally) but here is a little bit about it:

Event Information
Date(s): 4/23/2010 through 4/25/2010

Location: Rossmor Building
Address: 500 Robert Street North
St. Paul, 55101 United States

http://www.mnartists.org/event.do?rid=257073&associate=user

Rat heads and dead frogs and me, oh my.

The more astute of you will notice that I neglected to post anything for the last week of February in Illustration Friday. Colour me failed!!! I then went on to not post anything at all. Anyway, here is a little update.


MIA - FOOT IN THE DOOR. I found my piece in the first room under 84-08. Some hard worker with fingers now worn to the bone has put the whole thing on line. Check it out....and find me here:

http://www.artsmia.org/foot-in-the-door-4/artworks.php


I mentioned in my previous post about MIA's Foot in the Door show. A show held every 10 years at the Arts institute where ANYONE can submit a piece as long as it fits in a 12" by 12" box. Sadly....or not....depending on how you were looking at it....I didn't see any squirrels duct taped to bricks. I did notice a rat head glued to a plastic Micky Mouse body. Art is fun....just not for rodents.
......or frogs. Despite being held by monkeys.

FOOT IN THE DOOR 4

Don't know what FOOT IN THE DOOR 4 is? Been living under a rock have you? Ashamed of yourself? You should be.

Foot in the Door 4 is an open exhibition for all Minnesota artists, which takes place every ten years at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Since 1980, Foot in the Door has celebrated the diversity and enthusiasm of Minnesota's visual arts community. Its the state's largest art exhibition that's all!

While some optimistic artist I have spoken to see this as a chance to get their "foot in the door" of the art world - No, No and no - the title actually refers to the fact that all art entered has to be able to fit into the 12 by 12 inch box called "the curator". Anyone living in Minnesota can submit something so yes, there is a chance that the work you lovingly spent hours on to depict a little part of your soul will be hung next to a squirrel duct-taped to a brick (as long as the squirrel tail is tucked into the 12" area...or tail-less in which case you may as well have just used a gopher or something. Think it through is all I'm saying)

I submitted a piece called "The Skeptical working men's club". I am working on a few projects involving myths and legends and such at the moment so it was good practice for that. The actual piece has been made to look a little more 3- dimension by layering the same image over and over again and is framed behind glass in a shadow box.

Apparently almost 5000 artists submitted stuff this year so its a bit of a "Where's Waldo" ("Where's Wally" for all the British out there) situation as mine gets swallowed up in the ocean of 12 by 12.

The opening reception is this Thursday the 18th. Its going to be packed.....I am both looking forward to it and dreading it in equal measures.

(This blog does not support the attachment of squirrels, gophers or any woodland creature to bricks using duct-tape (or preferred adhesive) with the exception of maybe ground hogs. Smug)

FivetoSix charity show or what you should be doing tomorrow night.

There comes a time when you really should be somewhere. A time when anyone who is anyone is at one particular place. That time is now....well, more specifically...that time is tomorrow! So what are you doing tomorrow? That? No you need to do THAT...you sicko. You need to be at FIVETWOSIX. Yes, as always your bidder of last minute art news is here to tell you about something I should have mentioned a long time ago.
FIVETWOSIX is proud to announce Go LIVE Go RED in conjunction with Go Red for Women http://www.goredforwomen.org/ American Heart Association, MCTC and U of M Design Department, many local artists, neighbors and friends.

February 12 from 7-10 PM

Enjoy seeing the winning designs and meeting the designers of the Red Dress from Heart of Fashion, the MOA show Feb 6th at MOA Macy's court.

Watch hair and makeup stylists create a look for each model wearing the winning designs.

View a very special art show centered around the heart submitted by local artists. All for sale, all from the heart with 25% going to American Heart Association.

Food tasting from Cheeky Monkey and Crave restaurants.
Sip wine from Solo Vino.

MUSIC: DJ Mike Swoop

10.00 DONATION

ART * FASHION * MODELING * MUSIC * MINGLING

I have a piece there which I will post later as its also linked to something else I am working on. Go along if you have time...or if you don't have time. Its charity damn it! Also food from Cheeky Monkey! How can you not go? How?!

Self promotion...big up the CBIG massive!

The whole point of this blog is to keep me organized to keep people up to date with whats going on art wise. To ensure that things are going on I need to get myself :out there". This means self promotion and I think I have cracked the code.
Basically you just have to exaggerate…..is that the right word? Probably, I have seen damn right lies actually but I think the basic equation is something like:

Studied art in Japan, UK, America and throughout Europe
* visited Japan, UK, America and Belgium on a Stag weekend . May or may
not have seen some art. Countries also may not have actually been
visited. Possibly could find them on a map though.
10 years + arts experience
* Scribbling on walls in crayon since the age of three.
Successful artist
* my mum thinks I’m cool.
Exhibition now touring
* I left one of my sketch books on the bus today.
Coming soon
* Bored at current office job, wished for better things.

Despite this I do actually have something showing at the moment.....


“Minnesota Made” Art Show Announced
CBIG Show: This is actually a little late but the Children's Illustrators Guild of Minnesota (represent!) launched a show, "Minnesota Made: Through the Eyes of the Children’s Book Illustrators Guild of Minnesota". It features works features by 20 of the artists and will be held at the University of St. Thomas. I have three pieces there so go take a look. Yep, something for the kids there!

Show Dates: Jan. 22 – Feb. 28, 2010
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 24th from 2-4 p.m.
Location: University of St. Thomas, O'Shaugnessy Educational Center Lobby Gallery, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105

Download a copy of the postcard for a full list of participating artists. For more information and directions, call (651) 962-5560 or view the University of St. Thomas St. Paul campus maps.

Also I have a touring exhibition on at the moment.....if anyone finds it please let me know.