Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Above are two recent things I drew for two Philadelphia-based websites. The top is a t-shirt graphic, which will unfortunately not be printed, for Philly.com to commemorate the most epic pitching rotation in the history of baseball. The second drawing is a "Top 5" list I put together for my friend Leah at Phrequency. I went to the Barbary once this past year for my friend Yis' birthday, it was really crazy, and I saw many crazy people (or at least I thought I saw people with hair cuts similar to this, though I do have an over-active imagination, extremely poor vision, and that night is a total blur, tough call).

Also, thanks to Dustin over at Fasthetic for giving me an internet nod of approval

"The Century Plant" short film!!

Above is a short film about "The Century Plant" my most recent installation at The Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. It was filmed and edited by my extremely talented and dedicated friend Ian Mosley-Duffy. My friend/budding local journalist Kaitlyn Arillo also interviewed for the film, and the result is an amazing dialogue that is what makes this piece so special to me. I basically discuss some of my mental process, and how I came up with the concept. Please enjoy.

I would like to thank:

My Mom, Lee, and Dad, Gerard, as well as the rest of my extremely supportive family

Ian Mosley Duffy

Kaity Arillo

Jason Chen of Paradigm Gallery

Sara McCorriston of Paradigm Gallery

Phil Jackson for above photo/dope installation photos (philjacksonphoto.com !!)

Cherice Smithers for the inspiration

and my friends

and my cat Grayson

Backwords Poster for their residency at the Cake Shop and Bruar Falls

I was recently commissioned to make a poster for my buddies Backwords up in Brooklyn. This time around it is for their month-long Thursday night residency at The Cake Shop and Bruar Falls, in both Manhattan and Brooklyn respectively (I assume they're owned by the same people). The poster itself is based off of various textile designs from Peru and Mexico. I scanned my favorite sweater and used it as a subtle texture in the poster, as you can see in the detail shot above, to switch things up a bit.

Phrequency.com sticker/interview

I recently designed a limited edition sticker for my friends over at Phrequency.com for their second year anniversary. The stickers will be given out at their 2 year birthday bash at the Vincent Michael Gallery on December 9th. The top image is of the sticker that I made for them, and the bottom image is a poster that my main man Matt Gribben designed for the event.

They also interviewed me about art and stuff

Space 1026 Art Auction Donation

I recently donated one of my favorite pieces from "The Century Plant" to the Space 1026 Art Auction. For those that don't know, the art auction is a live event that occurs every year at Space, in which all the money goes to benefit this Philadelphia institution. I am extremely proud to donate "The Eagle King" to this year's auction, and look forward to the preview tomorrow night December 3rd from 7 pm - 10 pm. The auction will take place on December 10th doors open at 6, and the auction also begins at 7. Bidding starts at just $5!!

top promotional image for the auction by o.g. space 1026'er ben woodward

piece info:

"The Eagle King"

21" x 19" x 2"

Mixed Media on Board

2010

New Collaborative work for "Public School" at the Mast Head Print Studio

Whoa! It has been a pretty crazy month. Above is more new work, this time in the form of two collaborative pieces with my friend Dietrich Meyer. The pieces are for a group show called "Public School: a lesson in collaboration" at the Mast Head Print Studio in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. This is how the collaboration went: I hand-built both wood boxes, and coated/sealed them with an initial coat of paint. Then Dietrich came in and added some meticulously painted areas with acrylic paint, and I finished off the pieces with more paint and cut paper sections with layered media on it. I had alot of fun, and enjoyed the creative challenge of producing artwork with two distinct voices, definitely look out for more collaborations in the near future ...

Piece info is below:

"Double Dragons"

9.5" x 11.25" x 2.75"

Acrylic and mixed media on board

$150

"Solomon's Key"

9.5" x 9.5" x 2.75"

Acrylic and mixed media on board

$100

There is also going to be a collaborative screen print from us available at the show, we just don't have any pictures of it yet(/haven't actually printed it yet)

Thanks to Shawn and JP for including us in the show!

New Work for "Small Jawns" group show at Part Time Studios

I am proud to contribute to "Small Jawns" a group show hosted by Part Time Studios to celebrate their one year anniversary this First Friday December 3rd. The show also has a few sponsors once of which is of course Mcjawn.com. The crew over at Part Time are all awesome people and great artists, so I jumped at the chance to contribute some new work and be a part of the show. Below is the information for both pieces:

"The Bowels of the North Star"

21.5" x 22" x 2"

Mixed Media on board

$149

"A Dogwood Born Out of Confusion"

7.5" x 11.5"

Mixed Media on Board

$100

I'll also be in a few other event this First Friday that I will be blogging about in the next few days, so check back soon.

The Century Plant Closing Reception ...

Ablutions online 'zine for The Century Plant

Open publication - Free publishing - More zine

I compiled some notes and sketches from The Century Plant, along with some recent drawings and doodles to put together the digital 'zine that you see above. Enjoy.

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