Sleeping is overrated

Sometimes I paint in public, often times poorly because i crack under pressure. And sometimes, my friend Z-man from Gurp City raps, often times incredibly, because he is awesome. Every once in a while, because of brand new technology called Final Cut Pro, we can perform TOGETHER. And i painted so fast this time, I managed to finish before his song was done, AND i changed my clothes in the middle of that shit.
Enjoy.

Here is me painting at the OWLEX show @ Upper PLayground PDX in Portland, OR.

OWLEX in Port-o-potty Land

It's about that time again.
Yes, in addition to it being time for me to switch to Sanka (if they still even make that), its art show time.
Tomorrow, December 6th, at 6pm, I will be debuting 30 new art pieces at Upper Playground in Portland, OR.
What is so special about these 30 pieces, other than they are some of the most expensive pieces of toilet paper you can buy?
Well, I have had months to get ready for this show. However, because of my workload, i ended up not having ANY time to get any paintings done. So i decided to use that to my advantage, and try to be all science-experimenty, and I made a decision that would almost cost me my life, and most certainly my health.
I decided that for the entire month of November, I would work on my commercial work stuff during the day, and then at night, when i am supposed to be sleeping, i will instead stay up and paint and draw for the UP show. That way, i'll see how i perform under pressure and natural hallucinegins.
It went ok for a while, but after a couple of weeks, i wasn't doing very well. I was nauseated, shaky, my heart felt like it was shivering and screaming at me like some horrible American Idol audition. My thighs burned and my hands felt frozen. I didn't NOT sleep, i think that would be impossible, or at least it would mean I'm feeling guilty from a hit n run (see The Machinist). But i limited myself to about 2-3 hours at the most per night.
I thought it might make my work shittier, but in fact, the experiment seemed to work pretty well, because for the first time almost ever, i am pretty happy with what i produced. And the lack of sleep just made me not care if i was painting something shitty. I simply found myself almost sleepwalking through paintings, snapping awake to find out that I painted a pair of square-shaped bank robbers riding on the hood of a tentacle-faced eskimo. Ok, I can deal with that.
So yah, thats how it went. And, with the help of Adam Peterson, I was able to realize my new favorite made-up-in-the-third-trimester-of-my-sleep-deprivation character, Owlex, in tres dimesiones, just in time for the show. In case you are wondering who the Owlex character is, its my superhero alter-ego, who is a skinny, savage half-naked superhero who wears a homemade owl mask and protects animals from the rough and grimy streets of NY. And he can do magic. yahhhhhh.
Anyway, if you are in or around Portland, OR, come down to Upper Playground and check it out.
Oh, and i painted some stuff on the walls, too.
Happy Hannukah and Early Christmas, yo.
I love you.







ANd here is me painting one of the pieces while CocoRosie sings to you about werewolves and her schizofranic father.

Chocolate Rain X Upper Playground

Check out this great moment in photo-op history.
The YouTube Execs (Product Marketing Manager Jeben Berg, Chief Information Architect Paul, and YOUTUBE founder Chad Hurley with TAY ZONDAY, aka MR CHOCOLATE RAIN, the tiny crooning phenomenon!! And to make things even better, Jeben Berg is sporting the "False Hope" Upper PLayground Shirt I designed!
Word, nerds!


And just in case you dont understand how importantly awesome this moment truly is...

7 days later

For my first trip out of the U.S., I present to you...Barcelona in a nutshell.
I'm retardedly tired.

Bar-sh-alona

IM OFF TO SPAIN, BITCH!

Fingering San Jose

Continuing the 3-man-Voltron, Saber, Dave Choe and I hit up Workman's in the Eastridge Mall in San Jose as part of the Upper Playground / Sparks Ignite What's Next Tour. We only had an hour to paint and mall security was in full mounty gear and segways, but we pulled it off and had time to hang out with everyone who came by to say whattup. So thanks to everyone who helped out and came by and supported.
I wish i could be on the whole tour, but because so much shit and work is going on with me i couldnt make it, but hopefully i will be out there with them again soon.
Dave and Saber are killin it with guest artists like Retna and N8 Van Dyke. Go find them in your city.

Dave Choe bending over to vomit because he is pregnant.





THE FINISHED COLLAB.


VOLTRON



TIME LAPSE BY ZEROFRIENDS:

Painting The Krate

As part of the Upper Playground / Spark's "Ignite What's Next Tour", I joined forces with my good friends Dave Choe and Saber like a version of Voltron that is so bad ass that we dont need FIVE cat-robots to make a giant unstoppable force, we only need us 3. Unfortunately, i'm the messy one. The one that needs artistic supervison, and the one who is still scared to talk to a lot of people. But I was in good hands in Santa Cruz, murder capital of the world (according to The Lost Boys), thanks to Dave, Saber, and the crew in charge of The Krate.
Go check it out if you are ever there visiting the place where Keifer Sutherland uttered my favorite line in movie history, "Maggots, Michael. You are eating maggots."
Indeed.

My neck was feeling unusually unruly that day and decided to expand its mass as I began painting:




Saber and I becoming one with the mess:


One of my favorite pictures of Dave ever. Photo by Jon Dragonette:





My finished piece:


Dave Choe's finished addition:


SABER's insane city scape where i wish i lived:


I decided that the door at the neighboring toy store needed a no-armed-bunk-dark-crystal-knock-off-thing-with-a-riding-friend" since it seemed to be lacking one.


And the photo that sums up everything pretty well (photo by CW Mihlberger):

My captor, the Bug.

A few people actually get mad at me and think i'm joking when i tell them that I am not in control of what i draw or create. They think i just dont want to spend my time talking to them. A few years ago, they would be right, but now...its all good, i like to talk. Im not very good at it, but if i have something to talk to you about, i love it. Unfortunately, I can never talk about what I paint or draw because I simply have nothing to do with it. I'm serious. And here is why...
A few years ago, I was suffering from artist block, and i just sat in a tub of tears, sobbing as usual. And she came. A perfectly ladybug-sized ladybug landed on my wrist, and bit me.
But the bite didnt hurt me, or make me sick. It made me LOVE her, and obey her every command. Fortunately, she always had a passion to draw random, weird-shape-headed people and extra appendages, but due to her insect limitations, she never could. So she uses me. And uses, and uses, and i'm trying my hardest to get better, but i dont understand what im doing and her tastes are changing and if i fail to please her....I dont know what will happen.
So yah, none of this is my fault.
I promise.

Water Taco

I thought about photoshopping the stain to make it even bigger, but...its already pretty rad.

COVER YOUR FEET IN BONES

SNEAK PREVIEW OF SOME NEW SHOES I DESIGNED FOR UPPER PLAYGROUND / 5024SF.
Get on it.

STAND BY ME:

The Scorpion King

I've been addicted to Survivorman, which is a THOUSAND times better than that Bear hack from Man Vs. Wild, who got called out by his crew for being too dramatic and ridiculous.
I would try to write something witty and disrespectful about Man Vs Wild, but the guys over at Something Awful already did it HERE.

But for some reason, i can't help starving myself and hunting for grubs. It builds character.

Atlanta Skate Park Charity Auction

Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, T.I., Outkast, Young Jeezy, Bonecrusher, and Cee-lo are all getting together to have a huge art auction to build a skate park in Atlanta! Oh, wait, my mistake, no they aren't, it turns out that there are COOLER people in Atlanta that care more about skateboarding and kids than ANY of the hip hop giants.
Zak Cochran and the Kennesaw Crew have been raising funds to build a skatepark in Atlanta. There will be an auction for a ton of skate decks painted by a hojillion rad artists including David Carson, Faile, Tim Biskup, Shepard Fairey, Don Pendleton, Sam Flores, Guy Burwell, Sage Vaughn, Duncan Jago, Mike Giant, Johnny Mojo, Emek, BAST and more.
Here is my contribution to the auction.
Im not sure when and where it will be, but i'll let you know when i find out.
for more info, go HERE

THE ORIGINAL SKETCH:


In Progress:


El Finishio:

Mean Street Cover Illustration

I was asked to illustrate the guys from THE USED for the cover of MEAN STREET magazine, a free mag distributed all thoughout LA. It should be out now, so grab a couple if you see em. I guess this is the first time they have run an illustration on the cover, which is pretty dope. Unless this is their first issue, then that argument would be pointless.



AND THE ART WITHOUT THE TEXT:

Union Massacre

I did some live painting on stage as part of a UM art/music festival at the famous Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA. I was on stage alongside One in the Chamber, Steel Trap, Real Talk, Sorrow, Jeb, and the one and only Hugely-average TOP-R.
Zerofriends was in full effect and a ton of people came out to support the charity event. It was to raise money for Petaluma to build a legal art wall behind the Phoenix. Hopefully we'll get to do it again. And hopefully i wont paint something that takes me too long to finish and end up breaking the piece in half as a performance art. And i may or may not wear a scarf next time. It got mixed reactions....FROM GOD!





AND THE FULL FINISHED (BUT UNFINISHED AND DESTROYED) PIECE