It's so nigh, that its done...and clowns

Here is the finished piece for the Artwhino G40 show (opens Friday 9/13)

"NIGH" 18"x48" Acrylic on Recycled Luan Scenery.

Also, today I started on my annual fall art project, making "prizes" for the games of the Spooktacular. This year's Spooktacular theme is closely related to creepy clowns. So, for the next month and a half, I will be making one creepy clown painting a day. Hopefully I will have 30 made by the event date. I am going to do my best to post each painting daily on Facebook (and a weekly roundup on this blog) so that people can get the opportunity to purchase the clowns before the event. You see, some folks want to purchase the prizes before the event because they A) don't think that they will be very good at the game. B) Find that Halloween art speaks to them and don't want to take chances that others will win their favorite C) Want to personally destroy a creepy clown painting so that it cannot continue to scare others.

If you are interested in one of the paintings, please contact me (Personal message or email please) and I will mark yours as "sold" during the party. I will be posting them (in bursts) on my website, so you can start to get an idea of which have sold (because you can also purchase them there), and what they will look like altogether. (You can also purchase some of the remaining Necronomicon pages from last year, HERE)

Here is today's clown:

Clown #1, 8"x11" (with vintage bamboo frame)

Just a Tiny Bit Closer to Nigh

Just wanted to post a quick update on the progress I made this morning on the painting I am creating for ArtWhino's G40 exhibit. The painting is tentatively called "NIGH". I hope to be finished with it by Tuesday.

Studio Cleanout is Nigh

There have not been very many groups building in the scene shop this summer, consequentially, I have seized the opportunity to start/finish a number of projects that have been on the "to-do" list. Many of these projects involve simple cleanup (we installed new pneumatics, added more hooks, organized the prop loft, etc) and it has been very satisfying to see a clean shop now that groups are starting to trickle back in. This past week I have extended the cleaning spree to the home studio. I cleaned out, and re-organized everything (so, not much art was actually made), I even went through the bookshelf and found a stack of books to sell back. I had about 10-15 big books to take to the used bookstore. They gave me $10 store credit, and refused to take half of them! Anyway, in the end, it means that I have a cleaner home studio, and that I am ready to get back to business.

(Oh, BTW, I got my annual strep throat infection this past week also...caught it at the first sign of a sore throat...so I dont even have illness as a valid excuse for not painting!)

Last Friday's ArtRomp went every well. (thanks for asking) BYT did a photo essay on the event HERE

Anyway, I started a piece this morning. It's for ArtWhino's new space's opening event. The theme is "transformation" which seemed to be more about finding odd substrates than anything truly thematic...so, I found an old piece of scenery to paint on, and went to town. I realize that the photo is not great (camera-phone) but that is partially due to the fact that I have painted the small luan flat as if it were an old piece of metal....so some of the problems in the photograph are due to the glare of the silver paint. I am hoping to get it finished by Saturday's deadline...

NIGH (tentative title) 18"x48" Acrylic on Luan (in progress)

Art Romp Anacostia Tomorrow!

You should come out to Art Romp Anacostia tomorrow night. Really. It's been a long time (6 years!) since the last time Molly Ruppert decided to call up all of her favorite artist-types and hang one of the most anarchic and surprising art shows DC has seen. Think of it as an Artomatic, but smaller and more...pointed...that is, a sharp pointy stick that jabs at you imploring you to get off of your duff and go see the art that the people all around you are making!

Anyway, below is my submission:

Man In The Moon, Mixed Media on Paper, 11"x15"

This guy is a bit of a departure for me (i.e. no monkeys) but I have really been grooving on making more "dreamlike" work lately...I am going to have to take a brief break from this type of work very soon because the siren song of the Spooktacular can now be heard faintly in the distance...(the song sounds a bit like it has a calliope in it...)

Summer Roundup (All of July, and Half of August)

Its been a weird summer, and we still have two weeks left! Below is a round up of the summer's adventures and artwork.

So, first, we had the appearance of the "Concession Stand Kids" on the Arch Campbell Show. Below are the best stills I could find, but really, you should watch the show (HERE) because it is, well, a real...um...well...you kinda had to be there...

 Most of the actual appearances of the Concession Stand Kids have been lost to the mists of time...however, we did get a few good shots on the last night of the Union Market DC Drive In (Photos by Tom Kochel. (C)2013 Jon Gann/ReelPlan)

SNOW-CAPS, COLONEL KERNEL, BUBBLES and HOT DAWG

FemCee KITTIE GLITTER hosted most nights

Four Sold-Out Nights in July/August!

It might be burying the lead a bit by putting the artwork last, but it has been an unusual summer for me artistically. I started out the summer making some small "quickies" (small 5"x7" paintings that I don't spend more than an hour on) in order to start exploring new ideas. below is an example:

 

Vaudeville "Quickie" 5"x7" Acrylic on Masonite.

 I started to think that perhaps it was painting that was getting me down...so I decided to start working on some drawings on paper to loosen me up...

The first piece (below) is called "Man In The Moon". It is a departure from my normal mode of painting monkeys...I like the results, and it am looking forward to making more work like it...This piece will be exhibited at the Artromp Anacostia (which opens next Friday August 23rd)

Man In The Moon, Mixed Media on Paper, 11"x15"

After Man in the Moon I started to get that monkey itch again. So, I started work on a small series of work that centered on monkeys ineptly trying to fake different hoaxes. I am calling the series "Faking It"

Faking it: Nessie, Mixed Media on Paper, 15"x11"

Faking It: Bigfoot, Mixed Media on Paper, 11"x15"

Faking it: UFO, Mixed Media on Paper, 11"x15"

Faking it: Painted Rocks, Mixed Media on Paper, 11"x15"

 The last in the series (Painted Rocks) is going to be exhibited at the Annmarie Sculptural Garden and Arts Center during their "Humor Me" exhibit (Opens October 18th)

I will leave you with something cryptic...as a harbinger of things to come....

Spring staggers into Summer

It's been a busy month since the last post, although it doesn't look like it judging from the photos (that's cuz I make this sh!t look easy...)...believe me, its actually quite painful...

Anyway, the big news is the opening of Richard Campbell's FRANKENSTEIN, by Landless Theatre Company. This is the biggest production to date for LTC, which is producing the show at the Gala Hispanic Theater in the Tivoli (Columbia Heights)...you can get Tickets HERE. I designed, built and painted this sucker almost single handed! The show has been a challenge all around, but its been particularly frustrating for me because the lighting designer left the production with only a couple of weeks to go, and I had centered my design around the idea that this was going to be a "rock concert" sorta show (i.e. scenery takes a back seat to lighting)...so, its been a bit of a nail biter in the end, but I think that the new LD did a fine job making the show look appropriately rock-opera/creepy...

The Frankenstein Set as it was being painted in Late May.

Frankenstein Set mere moments after install...production photos coming soon.

 Aside from LTC's Frank, I have been busy trying to catch up with some Art By Jared housekeeping...which mainly entails trying to form a new entity (legally, as well as, er, spiritually) that we are calling Astro Pop Events. One of the first things on the agenda, we need a logo. Below are some of the initial sketches that I have sent along to our Design guru, Jason Pasch, who is collaborating on making us a kick butt logo that everyone will want a T-Shirt of....

The idea is that we are playing on the acronym created by Astro Pop Events...or APE

I really liked the directness of this pencil sketch because it seemed to incorporate all of the elements we were looking for

Here's the same logo in a less rough form...also helping to work our color schemes...

 So, what is on the horizon for APE? Well, this summer we actually have a gig lined up...I cant really discuss it at this point in detail, but it has something to do with the cryptic photo below:

Children's Ball Photos and Frankenstein.

Honestly, I strive to update this blog once a week, but there are parts of the year where it becomes very difficult to do because there is so much that is happening (and much of it is not photo worthy, or too mundane to bother the general public with...) So, this past month has been one of those times...lets play catch-up, shall we?

The unphotographed events worth mentioning are: The closing reception of Voltron's Corpse, Packing up from the C2YN aftermath, Hogo de-installing skullvis, Improving the Shop's painting "easel" and the C2YN thank you BBQ, 

Imagination Stage holds a "Children's Ball" once a year, and they kindly asked me to design it again. Each room has a different theme:

Empire State Building with Peach in the lobby (over 22' tall!)

Georgetown Cupcake Room...I built them this cart (I bet it looks better with the cupcakes on it!)

Game Show Room. This room had blinky lights and a gauge of progress for the contestants

Garden (flower pot decorating) Room with a 8'x12' backdrop of a section of a garden

 The other major focus of my attention these past few weeks has been the design of Richard Campbell's Frankenstein, which will be produced by Landless Theatre Company at Gala Hispanic. Its a "Prog-Rock" retelling of the classic Mary Shelly masterpiece. Below is one of the first sketches:

COUNTDOWN TO YURI'S NIGHT PHOTO ROUNDUP PART I

What a fantastic night! Thanks to everyone who came out last Saturday night for Countdown To Yuri's Night: Year of the Robot! We had record breaking attendance, and a fantastic time! Please send us your photos! Below, submitted without comment are some of the first photos that have been rolling in...

 All photos in this post are by Jared Rodriquez or Chuck Divine...Thanks!