new drawing & teasers

"petalcoat," a drawing i started months ago that i just reworked today. unfortunately the scanner doesn't pick up fluorescent ink or you would be blown away by the fluorescent pink that's all over it. but pretty soon you will be able to see it in person, which leads me to my SOLO SHOW.

my show is at eclipse salon and gallery on wall street in asheville, nc. march 18, 7 pm reception: there will be wine/beer and i'm also making special cockatils. me and mama are making food, too, so come hungry.

(about a third of the pieces, framed.)

my friend and fellow artist court mccracken shot a video interview last week in which i talk about art, inspiration, and logging hours in the studio. it's for her website art nurture, which is a resource for people--artists and non-artists alike--to help foster creativity in their daily life. look for that in the upcoming weeks....

i'm doing the album artwork for a band made up of two of my favorite brothers, matt and kevin rumley. their band, her marigold, is releasing its first album, "we learn it to forget it," and they chose this super bright, graphic piece of mine for the cover. they shot some footage for their kickstarter video in the studio today, and they even played some tunes which made me wish they were in here all the time. i'll post video soon!

i also just started working with the asheville mural project, which is an organization that does exactly what the name suggests. they just installed a really nice piece on the corner of eagle and market street downtown in honor of black history month.

and to wrap things up, asheville mural project, along with arts2people, riverlink and asheville ballet, are serving as the structural support for a project that I have had in the works for months and months and months that is finally coming to fruition: a performance installation that combines a temporary mural (by me), a contemporary dance piece choreographed by garth grimball, and an original score composed by michael libramento. beginning april 10, we're installing 50 feet of free standing panels in a gorgeous outdoor space right on the french broad in the river arts district. over the course of a month i'll be painting a big, abstract, pattern-centric mural on site to act as a backdrop to garth's dance piece. michael's score will be played live during the performance.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we filmed our proposal video last week and it's in the editing room this very second, and when it's finished we will post it to kickstarter and get the fundraising in motion.

did i mention the performance is going to be totally FREE and open to the public?

mark your calendars: may 21, riverlink sculpture and performance plaza.

more news soon!!

asheville to miami mural project: home at last!

home sweet home! murals painted: 2. miles logged: 1600+. temperature change: 58 degrees.

just got back from art basel: miami beach! i went down with a group to paint a mural in the wynwood district alongside some of the most talented and innovative street artists from around the world. this neighborhood is a hotspot of creative energy, and it really sparked something in me. i mean it was like a who's who of street artists that had done walls and buildings within a three block radius of where we were painting: barry mcgee, os gemeos, ryan mcginness, ron english, shepard fairey, swoon, futura, the list goes on (for pages.) in addition to the murals that were already there, nearly every empty space left was transformed during the weekend of art basel. i met artists from germany, hawaii, new zealand, east coast, west coast, and all with their own style, their own flavor. it was such a privilege not just to be there, but to be contributing to that kind of artistic landscape.

our group was dustin spagnola, ishmael (folly beach, sc), court mccracken, avery duncan, scott myers, and luke broussard (our documentarian/ambassador). we didn't know each other as a group really until we went down there, but it couldn't have turned out better. our final mural, on the backside of cafeina, was a collaboration in the truest and best sense of the word. it combined dustin's image of a topless frida kahlo braiding her hair (one of the most prone and stripped down pictures of the artist); ishmael's iconic trio of gas nozzles with their gun-shot-glass-shatter surface; and an organic, amorphous pattern i used to tie the two elements together. ishmael has a more in-depth summary of our process and concept here.

final mural at cafeina

me and ave

ish

bill thompson from satellite gallery and scott debus from charleston

scott (myers)

luke

max and rick

max

dustin, avery, court

ave

local brew!

ave again: so photogenic

me, court, scott, ish

cisco

msg and katherine from primary flight

ish, mark of the beast!

dustin

the crew!

i don't normally write a lot of personal things here but it's snowing now in asheville and something about the snow and being home and reflecting on this trip is making me aware of how thankful i am. so here's a thank you:

to everyone from asheville and elsewhere who supported this project (emotionally, creatively, financially), to art basel, to the wynwood district, to rebecca at cafeina, to the msg crew (rick, javi, max, and all the rest), to la boricua for the best chicken i've ever had, to dewey's, to the gyllenhaals, to corinne, to sara and rupert, to scott and troy, to tracy and josh, to morgan, to dustin's pops, and most of all to dustin, ishmael, court, avery, luke, and scott for being such an incredible group of people to work with, spend time with, and learn from. this was one of the most fulfilling projects i've ever done, and i couldn't have done it without these amazing people, amazing artists.

a video about the project is in the works, and i can't wait to relive the glory.