Mural: Bloomin' Days Windows

I volunteered to paint a storefront in downtown Kenosha for Bloomin' Days; got assigned the future Bob Chinn's on 7th Avenue. My friend Andy helped.

We weren't trying to outshine any of the other windows but I got tired of painting flowers and decided to paint Boticelli's Birth of Venus. Andy realized I was upstaging his giant cartoon bee, so from there we just painted a bunch of famous masterpieces (yes, Andy Warhol counts).

Here is what we learned:

1. Painting tiny detail with window paint markers is difficult but doable.

2. Kenoshans want Bob Chinn's to open, BAD. To everyone who shouted from their cars: Yes, we are the owners and yes, the restaurant is already open. We are serving delicious crab out of the basement in secret; all you have to do to gain entry is go around to the back, knock 76 times, wait 10 minutes and then sing "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis in perfect pitch.

3. I probably shouldn't have given my phone number to the weirdly intense older man on the motorscooter who stopped to ask if I would design a painting for the side of his van. Hopefully this won't lead to my abduction.

Bloomin' Days is June 6th and 7th... for more info visit: http://bloomindays.exposekenosha.com/

I Take Pictures With Bands

I do the news on an AM radio station and sometimes the FM rock station next door has bands come in. Sometimes I haven't heard of them, most times I've at LEAST heard their name and can recognize their popular song. Most of the band members don't say much and they wear their sunglasses indoors.

Still, I take pictures with all of them for the same reason that people eat peanuts: there's no GREAT reason to do it but they're right here in front of you so you might as well.

So far, none of my friends have been very impressed by any of my pictures with somewhat-famous bands. Hopefully someday I will meet someone who thinks Tantric and Theory of a Deadman and Alterbridge are gods and they will think I'm really cool for having met them.

That's all. As you can see, this post is not art related but I just needed to put these photos to some good use. I hope you're impressed. More to come.

UNFINISHED ART:: Watercolors

These are two watercolors that have been in the works for a LONG time now:

:::LITTLE ISAAC
I don't know if that's his real name but he seems like an "Issac". He is a real boy who lives in Kenosha and attends a KUSD school. I took his photo when I worked as a school portrait photographer last year. He just stood there listening to the photographer (chin up, chin down JUST a little bit....) and seemed so chill. He had the demeanor of a wise old man.
He was so goddamn adorable; I took out my own camera and snapped a picture.

This next one is Patti...(Patty? Pattie? It doesn't matter):
She's one of the famous muses, Patti Boyd, the lady who was married to George Harrison and then married his best friend Eric Clapton. She inspired "Layla" and "Something"...which are two of the greatest rock songs.

:::PATTI
I started reading her autobiography ('Wonderful Tonight') back in December and I got all revved up to paint the cover because:

1) Her story is so interesting, not that I aspire to marry a famous musician (I don't) BUT if I were to, I would've wanted to marry a Beatle (not Paul) OR Eric Clapton (because he was really foxy back in the day, minus the heroin addiction)

.....AND....

2) because the cover photo was so great. It was taken in the 60s when she worked as a model in England. I think this was taken outside her and George's estate.

Anyway -- I slowly became disinterested in her book after the exciting stuff happened (when she left George for Eric); that's about the same time I stopped painting this.

I've grown attached to the way they look now so I really don't know when/if I'll finish them.

PAINTING:: Scarlett (almost finished)

It isn't done yet, but I got impatient.
I painted this from a photo of Scarlett Johansson on the cover of New York Magazine.

I'm not a superfan, but I think she's pretty.

I picked this photo because she looks like a classic pin-up.
Don't mind the dried spaghetti sauce on the stove.

SKETCHES: Pin-ups

I finally borrowed a scanner, so here's some pin-up girls from my sketchbook.
I did these after I bought The Great American Pin-Up which is the greatest book ever for anyone interested in the history of pin-up art. It also has tons of huge, full-page color photos of most of the paintings.

I did most of these from looking at paintings in the book:

SHOWS: Dorian Grey 2008, Kenosha

April 12, 2008:
Dorian Grey Art Show at the Rhode in Kenosha

Me with a half-finished Scarlett (bottom) and my bald Britney painting.
Free wine. I got a little saucey.


My cousin Kyle and his girlfriend (left) and giants were welcome too!

Talking to Dr. Destruction!

I was pretty saucey by this point so you may see me on his show at some point this month doing a whole lot of giggling.

He asked me to give a word of advice to aspiring painters and radio personalities and I said "Just do it...like Nike....I love you all!"

MURAL:: The Florentine Room -- in Progress

Here's the mural nearly finished:

Me and the Dans painting...

I painted the horses and the scruffy dog.....

Mural:: Congress Plaza, Chicago - Florentine Room

Here are some photos from the day we went to hang the mural.

When we were there, a janitor popped in to tell us that 100 ghosts live in this room.

His explanation was that Al Capone used to live here and that the ghosts are people who he had killed. He said that some of his co-workers won't even step foot in the room.

We are pretty sure that the janitor who told us this was himself a ghost so we didn't know whether to believe him or not...BUT -- I looked it up -- and Al Capone did live here a while.

I took some pictures and got some creepy ghost orbs too:



(I don't know why these pictures are so fuzzy)

MURAL:: Florentine Ballroom

February 2008 - Chicago, IL ---> The Congress Plaza Hotel


Its located on Michigan Avenue (right near Grant Park and the Art Institute).

I worked on the Florentine Ballroom mural installation.

Pictures are a-comin.

CARICATURES::

Angelina, Brad Pitt, and Shiloh

This is my first real caricature, I spent a good hour on this one. I figured they'd be easy to start with because they are technically the most attractive people on earth.

Little Jimmy
A close-up of little Jimmy from The
Grand Geneva Resort.

Hannah Montana

I did this one as a sample, to hang up on my display at the Grand Geneva because I figured little girls would love it. BUT they didn't. I'd say a good 7 or 8 girls did this when they walked by on their way to the indoor Waterpark:

Dad: Look at that one Skylar-- it's your favorite, Hannah Montana.

Daughter: Ugh, that doesn't even look like her.

What can I say, 8-year old girls can be mean. I got my retribution though; when their parents weren't looking I gave them the finger and mouthed "You're Fat."

**Note: If you are interested in hiring me for your child's birthday party, please disregard that last sentence. All children are precious.

CARICATURES:: The Grand Geneva Resort

The first week of January 2008.

Caricatures at Grand Geneva's Timber Ridge Lodge in Lake Geneva, WI.