The Century Plant Process and Opening Reception Pictures

Above are some photos from the install/opening reception of The Century Plant, all taken within the last week or so. For the show I built my own 9.5 foot version of The Century Plant, complete with watering can in the top to dispense my "Honey Water" Tequila mixture. For readers that might be unaware, The Century Plant is an agave plant common to the South West United States and Mexico that can grow up to 30 feet high. At the top of the plant is a large flower bud which produces a nectar that is rich in vitamins and nutrients, this nectar is also one of the main ingredients in Mezcal (a kind of Mexican tequila). My reasoning behind basing the installation on this plant was two-fold: 1) The Century Plant takes as much time for its flower to bloom, as it took me to grow up into the person that I am today, and create this body of work (25 years). 2) The most interesting aspect of the space at Gallery is the 10.5 foot ceilings, so I figured I would build something tall to utilize that.

Pictures from top to bottom:

1 - the final east wall of the gallery

2 - the final west wall of the gallery

3 - the trusty watering can, suspended within the plant structure

4 - the century plant on the first day of installation

5 - my friends kate and andrew helping me paint underneath the plant (thanks guys! and also thanks to my friend Brian for painting as well)

6 - the gutters just after they were mounted

7 - the painting on the west wall begins

8 - east wall painting in progress

9 - some friends checking out the work at the beginning of the opening

** also, there are two more receptions that will feature a new set of hand-painted cups available for purchase as well as live music, and a raffle. those dates are:

Friday October 8th 5-10 pm

and

Friday October 22nd 5-10 pm

New Work for the Century Plant

wanted to share a new piece I made for The Century Plant:

"Some Things"

2' x 2' x 2"

Mixed Media on Wood

2010

THE CENTURY PLANT

I am pleased to finally announce my next solo-show/installation at Philadelphia's own Paradigm Gallery located on 2020 South Street. This will be my second solo show, and my first installation effort in a gallery space. The opening reception is on Saturday September 25th, 2010. Please check back here for more news/info/pics of the install as it happens. Thanks!

How the West was Fun

I spent the beginning of this month in the beautiful state of Montana with my family visiting both Glacier National and Yellowstone National Parks respectively. My Dad asked me to make a shirt for the family, and of course I complied (when he says jump ...) above is the drawing that I did for the shirt, as well as some pictures of the shirt and our trip. I worked on this shirt ahead of time with my Dad, the goal was to make something that everyone liked from the kids to the adults, and also include some of the sights that we would be seeing along the way. Some of these that I put into the drawing are: the Roosevelt Arch, Going to the Sun Road, Granite Peak Mtn. of Glacier National, and also some geysers.

Pictures from top to bottom:

1. line drawing

2. the shirt

3. shirt detail

4. my younger sister Theo demonstrating her uncanny ability to sleep soundly in any position

5. St. Mary Lake at Glacier National

6. Buffalo in Hayden Valley at Yellowstone

7. The Grand Canyon at Yellowstone

Dirty issue 1

My friend Pat told me about this project that he was curating a few months ago in conjunction with the rad folks over at Fireball Printing and Pterodactyl Philadelphia (they have studio spaces, teach art classes, etc.) That project we spoke about is the first issue of the magazine above called "Dirty." Basically Pat let me do whatever I wanted, so I took the opportunity to do some new work on the computer. The first image(s) is the cover, Pat gave me a few phrases to visually react to, and in the end I chose to respond to "all art, no ads" I thought it would be a appropriate to make a composition-less piece that is all "art" like a consistent motion or stream of color and lines. The second image is entitled "Midnight in the Garden" and the third is entitled "Family." I really like how these turned out, and hope you enjoy them as well. Thanks.

You can check out the whole issue on-line here

All Hands on Deck

I was invited to participate in the "All Hands on Deck" show at the Chapter House by my friend Anthony Pedro. The opening reception is this Friday, July 9th at 7 pm. My piece is shown above and is titled "The Severed Hand of Davy Jones" (and it is literally a hand on a deck) it measures 9" x 13" x 2" and is mixed media. Below is the artist list and official press release/verbiage (written by the talented Matt Cavenaugh):

One of the great relationships of human existence has been the timeless waltz of mankind and the sea. This relationship and dance was no doubt born out of man's need for exploration and adventure with our planet earth's largest arena. Man has traveled it in search of foreign lands, hunted it for resources and gotten lost in its vast unknowns. Regardless of the time period or situation the sea has provided and has continued to fascinate its seekers. Throughout these interactions the artist has been close at hand. Acting as witness, documenter, megaphone and author to these timeless endeavors.

In July 2010, in America's birthplace of Philadelphia, 30 emerging young artist of diverse skill sets have enlisted their services in riding the waves of discovery in effort to provide new additions of pictures to provide visual dialogs of mankind's fascination with the sea.

artists:

Julianna Lose
Peter Wonsowski
Joseph Game
Anthony Pedro
Kate Collins
Paul Palcko
April Milburn
Danielle Rizzolo
Alex Eckman-Lawn
Eric Braddock
Maryann Held
Pedro Delgado
Karen Hagen
Raymond Chase
Mike Wohlberg
Sam Heimer
Eamon Dougherty
Matt Cavanaugh
James Heimer
Tim Durning
Jeff Kilpatrick
Adrienne Langer
Brad Haubrich
Jeff DeSantis
Craig Parrillo
Reau
Thomas Lynch III

Recent Promotional Mailer

Above are some pictures of the envelope that I sent my most recent wave of promotional mailers in. I sent out the remaining copies of my book Paper Blog, which I had printed in conjunction with my solo show, which shared the same name.

Belated Pictures of Work from Made In America

Above are some pictures of the work that I made specifically for the short-lived Made In America show. The top pieces are "Shrine to the Three Eagle Feathers" (mixed media, 10" x 14" x 2") and "Square 1" (mixed media, 5" x 5" x 2"). The next pieces are titled "Purple, Magic, Mountain" (mixed media, 14.5" x 12.5" x 3.5"). I would also like to give a big, all-encompassing, internet thank you to all of the folks who made the show possible and also to my co-curators Yis Goodwin and Leah Kauffman. Thanks again.

Made In America : A Native Exhibition

Over the past couple of months I have had the pleasure of working with my friends Yis and Leah to put together easily the largest group show that I have ever been a part of. "Made In America: A Native Exhibition" features over forty artists/friends all contributing work loosely based on this interesting country of ours. We chose this theme because we wanted something culturally relevant, yet broad enough for folks to have varied reactions and through their respective media. The opening reception will take place on June 4th at the TRUST Gallery (formerly the F.U.E.L. Collection, and the Real World Philadelphia house before that) and will go from 6 -10 pm. There will be live performances by: Dragonzord, Tigersapien, and Univox!

You can rsvp on Facebook here

Special thanks to the talented Matt Gribben for designing the identity/poster for the show

Below is the list of artists that will be participating:

Scott Albrecht
Kelsey Allen
Joe Boruchow
Eric Braddock
Courtney Brown
Jude Buffum
Christian Cantiello
Jason Chen
Justin Crosby
Alaina Cunningham
Mark Dilks
Daniel Fishel
Kyle Fisher
Joseph Game
Nose Go
Matthew Gribben
Bradford Haubrich
Dan Hughes
Phil Jackson
Maxine Kramer
Adrienne Langer
Amy Li
Sarah McCorriston
Dietrich Meyer
Jesse Nicholl
Alex Passapera
Greg Pizzoli
Mark Price
Frances Quinlan
Leon Rainbow
Mark Raymond
Danielle Rizzolo
Dewey Saunders
Greg Simmons
MomTried Myles
Steven Speir
Inna Spivakova
Steve Streisguth
Stephanie Struse
Tamara Suber
Chris Terrell
Thom Venier
Emily Wallace
Dave Weeks
Hilary White
Tiffany Yoon

Hope to see you there!

Usha Veda Yoga

Pictured above is a logo and poster that I completed for Usha Veda Yoga, a yoga studio in Brooklyn, New York (Green Point to be exact). The client came to me with a pretty fleshed out idea of how they wanted their logo to look, and then they let me do my thing with the poster (yesssss). The poster was for a mother's day event celebrating the opening of Usha Veda Yoga as well as a new coffee shop in the neighborhood called Milk and Roses. The new aforementioned cafe has a really cool baby grand piano, which is where the inspiration came from for the piano in the poster. Below are some links about each of the stores/event:

Here is an article about Milk and Roses

and another on the event

both covered by newyorkshitty.com